Essential YC Advice

South Park creators gave the greatest lesson on storytelling ever:

are software developers going the way of the dodo? I don't think so, but I'd love to hear your thoughts: linkedin.com/posts/maxcr_ho…

LinkedIn steals your personal data and content then limit exposure to a post calling them out on it. What do you think? linkedin.com/posts/maxcr_li…

From Outsmarting Casinos to Empowering Immigrant Entrepreneurs! The latest episode of Max F features a rebellious immigrant who made millions counting cards but decided to shift his focus to building startups and creating a lasting impact. youtube.com/watch?v=UBF0Qc…

I truly enjoyed recording this episode of the Founderlicious podcast with my friends Max Faingezicht and Adam Blake. The candid conversation covered a few pivotal moments in my life, from playing with the MIT blackjack team 30 years ago to investing in immigrant founders today, and included

Is it time to short Google? For the first time, Google's US market share in search has dipped below 50%. linkedin.com/posts/maxcr_is…

"That's the deal. That's open source. I give you a gift of code, you accept the terms of the license. There cannot be a second set of shadow obligations that might suddenly apply, if you strike it rich using the software. Then the license is meaningless." world.hey.com/dhh/automattic…

I am often asked by LPs who is the greatest seed investor of our time. The answer is simple: David Frankel Founder Collective – Seed Stage Venture Capital —------------------------ Uber: $177BN market cap The Trade Desk: $58BN market cap Coupang: $46BN market cap AirTable: $11.7BN valuation Whoop: $3.6BN valuation

Are the tech layoffs really over or is there more to come? Meta sugarcoated the news, saying they were moving some teams to different locations, but the reality is becoming clear as employees announce their layoffs. How big is this reduction? linkedin.com/posts/maxcr_ar…

It's done! I read 3,000 startup pitch decks. I wanted to find what the incredible pitches had in common. Was there a "secret ingredient" unifying them? YES. The 4 best (that VCs wanted intros to) had the same talking point:

How a Trump administration could impact high-skilled immigration in the US 🇺🇸 (a detailed post): — H-1B (non-immigrant work visa) denials may go up: In 2016-2020, denial rate was ~18% on average and after that it's been ~3.2% — H-1B RFEs may go up: Last administration, avg RFE

This could be big, because we haven't quite figured out how to do auth in an agentic world -- yet. Not surprised that my friends at auth0/Okta have been working on it.

Writing software, especially prototypes, is becoming cheaper. This will lead to increased demand for people who can decide what to build. AI Product Management has a bright future! Software is often written by teams that comprise Product Managers (PMs), who decide what to build

Wholeheartedly endorse this message. Can’t say this loudly enough.

Don’t fall for speculation like this. Software developer job postings are back to where they were in ~2019, following the COVID boom (and zero interest rates!). You know what else has the same pattern? Banking jobs. Marketing jobs. Heck, HR jobs:

"Whenever SoftBank buys, you sell" - sam lessin 🏴‍☠️ "They are the worst investors in the history of the world. I watched them crush so many companies. It's a complete house of cards." "Masa is nuts. Every once in a while he nuts his way into something amazing that saves him."

🚨 Website Visitor ID Tools Are a SCAM 🚨 1/ Tools like Retention, Opensend, and Revenue Roll claim to reveal your anonymous website visitors. But their data is WRONG 70-95% of the time. And using bad data kills your email deliverability. Here’s why 👇

Fall 2025 VC Fundraising Playbook ✅ Say Agent → you’re hot ✅ Say Taste → you’re Jobs ✅ Say Context → you’re genius ✅ Say Finetune → you’re oversubscribed It's no longer about traction. It’s a buzzword test. Fail it, and you’re a LinkedIn influencer instead of a CEO