Product-market fit (PMF) occurs when a product successfully satisfies a specific market's needs, leading to strong customer adoption and retention. More than any single milestone, it is a fundamental shift where your product satisfies a real, validated need. Key indicators include high retention, meaningful usage, and customers finding the product indispensable.

At very early stage, investors are betting on you, not your metrics. Learn how to earn and communicate founder-market fit with clarity and conviction, using our DEEP framework as your guide.

In June 2025, Meta acquired 49% of Scale AI, turning a neutral infrastructure provider into a strategic asset. OpenAI and Google cut ties in response. By installing Scale’s founder to lead its new Superintelligence unit, Meta is accelerating its push to close the AI innovation gap.

For first-time founders, the right VC does more than write a check. The best bring hands-on support across hiring, go-to-market, and fundraising. Here's how to spot real value-add, regardless of firm size or brand.

We were skeptical when CoreWeave IPO’d: high debt, heavy reliance on Microsoft, and a fragile business model. But since then, the stock has surged 250%, they’ve closed a $2B unsecured debt deal, and rapidly integrated Weights & Biases to build a full-stack AI platform. Key risks remain, but the strategic pivot is real—and the market is starting to believe it.

Disclosure: Not investment advice. Do your own due diligence.

Salesforce’s $8B acquisition of Informatica marks a bold step to own the enterprise data stack in the AI era. By adding best-in-class data integration, governance, and MDM tools, Salesforce fills a critical gap in its platform and strengthens its AI infrastructure. The move positions Salesforce to unify CRM data with broader enterprise data, enabling cleaner, more trusted insights and AI-driven actions across its ecosystem.

Corporate venture capital (CVC) lets companies invest in startups using their own balance sheet to gain strategic insights and financial returns. It offers a cost-effective way to access new tech, explore markets, and build M&A pipelines without heavy R&D. Firms with CVC arms often outperform peers by staying closer to innovation, turning idle capital into a growth engine.

Limited partners (LPs) are often seen as passive capital providers, but the most effective ones contribute more. From strategic insight and customer introductions to operational support and long-term alignment, value-add LPs are becoming essential partners to both venture funds and the startups they back.

Google is at a strategic crossroads as AI-native tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity begin to erode its long-standing dominance in search. With declining Safari search traffic and a $100B market cap swing, Google next move is uncertain. Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma is playing out in real time, forcing Google to choose between protecting its high-margin core business or pivot and leverage it’s massive $75B capex into AI infrastructure.

Unit economics are core to startup viability, revealing whether each customer brings the business towards profitability or burns cash. Metrics like CAC, LTV, gross margin, and payback period offer a clear view into business health and scalability. This piece breaks down how investors assess unit economics from pre-seed to growth, and why expectations differ between SaaS and other verticals.

In today’s market, growth alone isn’t enough. Investors want to understand how efficiently that growth is achieved and whether the business can scale without burning through runway too quickly. Metrics like Rule of 40, Burn Multiple, and CAC Payback help founders tell that story, showing not just how fast they’re growing but how disciplined and sustainable that growth really is. Capital efficiency has become one of the strongest signals that a startup is built to endure.

Retention is a critical signal of product-market fit and long-term growth potential. Metrics like net dollar retention, gross dollar retention, LTV/CAC, CAC payback, and DAU/MAU help quantify how well a startup holds and grows its customer base. Cohort analysis adds depth by showing how user behaviour changes over time and across segments. Together, these tools help founders and investors understand the true durability of a business.