Founder Fraud in the Venture-Backed Founder Ecosystem and AI Training Data Paywalls
Stretch Four Volume 57
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Happy Monday,
I spent this weekend juggling the NBA playoffs, alone time with Cain, and trying to stay caught up on work as things are picking up on several fronts.
We got amazing weather in San Francisco this weekend and it was one of those weekends where the costs, the city life, and California, in general, make so much sense. You can taste spring in the air.
This week I wanted to highlight two articles that drastically impact two things happening right now in the venture-backed founder ecosystem one relating to fraud and the other relating to AI.
Also, check out our startup to watch, the upcoming events I will be presenting at, the community plugs, and more.
Let’s dive in.
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Quote of the week
We cannot be what we do not see. — Michael K. Williams, Scenes from My Life: A Memoir
Chart of the week
Tweet of the Week:
Articles
The End of Faking It in Silicon Valley (New York Times)
Stack Overflow Will Charge AI Giants for Training Data (Wired)
Final Thoughts
Startup to watch — Bento — I interviewed the founder of Bento Salim on my podcast — and I wanted to highlight the company with the new news of Facebook launching their own link-in-bio type product. The use of tools like Bento will become more and more mainstream as more creators look to push their followers off social media to their own links.
Founders need to get their books in order.
Keeping up with your books is a priority for founders.
Unfortunately, many companies are struggling right now, and raising money without clean books is becoming increasingly difficult now that money is not freely available.
My advice is to start keeping your books from day 0 as a company. Yes, this means you will be paying at least $400+ per month when you have no revenue, but I believe it pays off.
Upcoming Events
I have been invited to demo our ModernTax 2.0 product for seven minutes at the Finnovate Spring Conference in San Francisco in May.