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David Cummings on Startups
3,000+ posts on entrepreneurship and startups
- Posts
- 3,474 from 31 Jan 2007 to 24 Oct 2026
- Posting
- weekly (51 in the last year)
- Kind
- personal blog
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- https://davidcummings.org/feed/
Latest
October 2026
- When the Anecdotes Don’t Match the Metrics
- Regularly Revisit the Ideal Customer Profile
- Recurring AI Research Bots
- From Two-Week Sprints to Daily Sprints
September 2026
- Three Lessons from the Startup Journey
- Idea Generation Machine
- 2026 Atlanta Inc. 5000 Companies
- The AI-Native System of Record
August 2026
- Building My First AI Team
- Voice Is the New Keyboard
- Stop Writing Prompts. Start Talking.
- Agency and Soft Skills in the AI Era
- Using AI to Find Your Best Prospects
July 2026
- Fall in Love With the Problem, Not the Solution
- The Personal AI Brain
- Why Great Founders Keep Selling
- The Real Return Standard for Most Venture Investors
June 2026
- Right to Win Competitive Positioning
- Combine a National VC with a Regional VC
- Non-Horror Story Lessons from Pitching VCs
- The Backend-Loaded Nature of Startup Value Creation
May 2026
- The Send and Delete Employee Test
- Founders Green in South Downtown Atlanta
- The Hypomanic Edge in Entrepreneurship
- The Entrepreneur’s Shift From Yes to No
- The Multi-Startup Founder Conundrum
April 2026
- The Shift to AI-Enhanced Employees
- Self-Driving Cars and Changing Human Behavior
- The First Five Questions to Ask After a Startup Pitch
March 2026
- The Second Time Around: Why Founders Come Back
- 8 Moats for Sustainable Software Companies
- Product Value vs Product Distribution in the Early Days
- Every Bit of Effort Helps
February 2026
- 15 Angel Investments and All Failures
- O Startup, Where Are Thou VC?
- AI Is a Super Power—Start Treating It Like One
- Seven Reasons SaaS Valuations Are Crumbling in the Age of AI
January 2026
- Pick a North Star Metric (Not Revenue)
- The Real Threat to SaaS Valuations Isn’t AI—It’s a Million New Startups
- 90/10 or 10/90 Entrepreneur
- Intentional Story Teller
- #1 Advice for an Entrepreneur in the New Year
December 2025
- The Power of Writing Before You Speak
- Ideas to Professional Slides in 15 Minutes with ChatGPT + Nano Banana
- Use Adjacent Markets to Shape Better Products
- Uncomfortable as an Entrepreneur
November 2025
- Value-First Reimagining of a Market
- Tech Trends at Local Startup Hubs
- Where to Start Evaluating an Angel Investment
- Align Ambition with Startup Idea
- The Power of an Annual User Conference
October 2025
- From Grow, Grow, Grow to Grow, Margin, Burn
- Conversation Questions for Growth Stage Entrepreneurs
- Focus on Building a Great Business, Not an Exit
- Control Your Controllables
September 2025
- When Potential Investors Don’t Like the Market
- Plugging into the Local Startup Community
- Raise Institutional Capital or Make Do Without
- What to Look for in an Entrepreneur
August 2025
- When Competitors Raise Large Rounds
- Customer Value Financing Part 2
- 2025 Inc. 5000 Atlanta
- The Power of Being Around Founders Who Believe
- Entrepreneurship as Permissionless
July 2025
June 2025
- Use Advanced Prompts for More AI Value
- Investor Responsiveness as #1 Value
- Starting Over as an Entrepreneur
- Ask for the Startup Office Tour
May 2025
- Three Quick Questions After Hearing a Founder’s Story
- The Preemptive Funding Offer
- Matching Funding with Entrepreneur Ambitions
- Find the Community Super Connector
- The Power of Transferring Belief
April 2025
- Everything Compounds
- The Rise of AI-Powered Vertical SaaS
- Entrepreneurs Selling Equity in a Financing Round
- Market A or B for a Startup
March 2025
- From Speed Alone to Speed + Quality
- Entrepreneur Updates as Leading Indicator of Success
- Three Personal Use Cases for ChatGPT and Grok
- Unforgettable Tech Magic Moments
- Recruiting on Non-Recruiting Work Trips
February 2025
- Double Revenue With No Additional Employees
- Round-Two Entrepreneurs
- The Entrepreneur’s Passion
- Incredibly Narrow to Start
January 2025
- 45 Pre-Interview Questions from Brad Jacobs
- The Perlant Grand Opening
- ATV Sylvan Downtown Grand Opening
- Entrepreneurs Should Look for the ‘Yes’ Face
December 2024
- 5 Best Practices for Effective Entrepreneur Updates
- When It’s Time to Move on From a Successful Startup
- Daily Check-in Amongst Entrepreneurs
- The Unknown Entrepreneur Arc
November 2024
- Beware of Throwaway Comments as a Founder
- The Quality of Entrepreneur Interactions
- Thiel’s Seven Questions Every Business Must Answer
- In Appreciation of Technological Progress
- Why Atlanta for Startup Investing
October 2024
- Event Attendance Yields and Quality Product Feedback
- Highlight an Employee Failure at the Town Hall
- The Vision is Clear, but the Journey is Unknown
- Conference Connections Via Personalized Post-It Notes
September 2024
- Align Interview Questions with Core Values
- Think Big and Launch Small
- The Gift of Believing in Someone
- The New Conductor Capital
August 2024
- Negative Roadmaps for Startups
- Intown Golf Club’s Origin Story
- Atlanta in the 2024 Inc. 5000
- From Historic Neighborhood to Startup District in Downtown Atlanta
- Why Downtown for the Next Atlanta Tech Village
July 2024
- New Atlanta Tech Village in Downtown Atlanta
- Weekly/Monthly Exec Team Dinners
- Contemplating a Major Business Change
- Think Process First, Goals Second
June 2024
- 5 Favorite General Tips for Founders
- “I” vs “We” When Speaking as a Founder
- Rule of 50 and Venture Funding
- Rule of 50 Weighted 2x for Growth
- Software Consulting to Software Product
May 2024
- Developing a Nascent Segment of the Startup Ecosystem
- Software Recession Continues
- Plug into the Local Startup Community
- 0 to 10 Unaffiliated Customers as 1st Major Milestone
April 2024
- Find a Mentor Who Believes in You
- From Founder-led Sales to a Sales Team
- Investors Focused on Upside or Minimizing Downside
- Startup Founder Survival Guide and SaaS Growth Playbook
March 2024
- Chips on Shoulders Equals Chips in Pockets
- What’s the Big Unlock for a New Venture
- Only One Round of Financing
- When a Competitor Goes Big, Don’t Automatically Go Bigger
- Rise of the Forever Lean Startup
February 2024
- The Startup that Only Hires People that Keep their Full-Time Job
- The Role of Timing in Recruiting Talent
- Investor Reserves Didn’t Go to the Expected Companies
- I Have All the Problems I Want to Have
January 2024
- Unrealistic Goals Can Hurt Startup Morale
- Simple Financial Distillation as a Mental Model
- In the Playbook of the Future Acquirer
- Question the Repeated Advice from Experts
December 2023
- The First Serious Acquisition Conversation
- Pleased but not Satisfied
- Relief Valve During Stressful Periods
- Expertise is Plentiful Outside Venture Firms
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