Totango and Catalyst merge to build a customer success powerhouse, WhatsApp now lets users search conversations by date on Android

Top News

Customer success companies, Totango and Catalyst, announce that they are merging in an effort to take on the market leader, Gainsight. - Link

WhatsApp announces its “search by date” function for individual and group chats on Android devices. - Link

Sweanty’s wearable patch for athletes tracks salt loss to help them hydrate. - Link

Klarna reports 2023 revenue up 22% YoY to ~$2.28B, net loss down 76% YoY to $241M, credit losses down 32% YoY to $369M, and its workforce down 23% YoY to 4,201. - Link

Fintech giant Stripe’s valuation spikes to $65B in employee stock-sale deal. - Link

Ketone-IQ is a high-performance energy shot without sugar or caffeine that was developed through a contract with DARPA to make American soldiers sharper. Go get 30% off your first subscription order of Ketone-IQ at http://www.hvmn.com/TWIST.  Ad

Advice of the Day

'Product-First' Approach

Marc Andreessen emphasizes the importance of starting with a strong product before forming a company. He cites several successful examples, including Netscape, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. This "product first" approach is effective because it demonstrates an existing market need and genuine demand for the product without economic motivations. He contrasts this with scenarios where entrepreneurs start a company and then search for a product idea, which often leads to self-deception about market demand. While there are exceptions like Hewlett Packard, Andreessen advises caution in such cases. - Link

Startup Demo of the Day:

Breakcold is a sales CRM where users can engage prospects via email and LinkedIn, all from one place. Users can add and manage B2B contacts from 7+ platforms, track sales opportunities, and collaborate with a unified email inbox.

Founder University is a 12-week pre-accelerator program run by Jason/LAUNCH for builder founders. We're investing $25k in 20-30 companies from Cohort 7. Apply at founder.university/letsbuild.

This Week in Startups

E1905: In this "Ask Jason" episode, questions range from the relevance of a fintech degree for joining startups to strategies for pre-VC survival and the timing of fundraising. Other questions include the pitfalls of incorrect pivoting, whether to focus on deep relationships with a few customers or to target a broader base, and common mistakes by first-time founders. - Watch

1904: Sunny Madra joins Jason to discuss the challenges faced by Google's AI, exploring how Google can learn from Meta's solutions. Google's Gemini model, Apple's gradual integration of AI features, and an analysis of OpenAI's Sora are also discussed. - Watch

E1903: Jason, along with guests Bryan Rosenblatt, Michael Downing, and David Weisburd delve into the potential of Reddit as an advertising platform in light of its upcoming IPO. The integration of AI in traditional businesses and a comparison between consumer-focused and enterprise AI are also discussed. - Watch

E1902: Jason hosts LAUNCH’s Accelerator Demo Day, featuring pitches from Melengo, PodcastAI, Tolt, River, TaxGPT, and Fanfare. - Watch

E1901: Jordan Stein from Cresset Partners discusses their venture capital investment strategies and evaluation methods for VC managers and aims to democratize wealth management and VC access with Jason. - Watch

This Week in Startups Paid Partnerships

Lemon.io connects businesses with top-tier developers for projects of any scale. Enhance your development team with skilled professionals and get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://www.lemon.io/twist/.

Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at http://www.vanta.com/twist.

Over 78% of B2B marketers rate LinkedIn as the most effective social media platform for reaching objectives. Get $100 off your first advertising campaign at https://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups.