Dave Kellogg, EIR at Balderton Capital, wrote an explosive piece on the reality of modern startups in 2025. Dave walks us through the winners and losers in the AI era. Read Dave's Article Here: https://topline.beehiiv.com/p/the-era-of-haves-and-have-nots
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Chapters:
00:47 Introduction & editorial setup
03:03 Defining winning: market share as goal
07:09 Marathon vs sprint; growth tradeoffs
12:02 Switching costs, returns, and herd dynamics
21:42 Disruption resets order; capital to #1
25:06 Easy-come growth vs durable ARR
28:18 Creative destruction and incentives
33:31 Winning by ownership type
36:39 Strategy over grind; #2 playbook
40:33 Labor leverage, RTO, and 9-9-6 culture
53:31 Stalled SaaS: valuations, NRR, and growth
1:01:00 Consolidation, moats, domain expertise
1:04:45 Outro & where to follow
