Munger's book recommendations, assessing culture at your startup, SaaS pricing in the AI era
by Matthew Roberts, Founder & Investor of Nodes Ventures and Author of Nodes. | Originally published on Nodes.
Guest post by Matthew Roberts, Founder & Investor of Nodes Ventures and Author of Nodes. | Originally published on Nodes.
We (humans) read hundreds of articles on company building, angel investing, and self-management and curate the best ones into a weekly summary—helping founders and operators stay on the top of their game.
Better thinking
Munger’s Recommended Books (4 minute read)
A condensed list of Charlie Munger's top 20 books–from understanding money, to human behaviors, and developing mental models for life.
The Law of Reversed Effort (1 minute read)
The quicker you want something, the easier you are to manipulate, and the more likely you are to make rash decisions. The Law of Reversed Effort suggests that attempting tasks with too much conscious effort leads to poorer outcomes. By adopting an 85% intensity approach—balancing effort and maintaining a relaxed, fluid mindset—success, creativity, and achievement in goals are more attainable.
The Paradox of Lessons (1 minute read)
Often those that openly seek out improvement are the ones already in a fairly good spot. Those who truly need to improve often don’t like facing reality. They bury it, hide it, ignore it. Having the mindfulness to know what you’re burying, and the strength to address it, are powerful tools in life.
The Best Way to Learn From Other People's Experiences (17 minute read)
History isn’t just a record of the past, it’s a playbook for the future. It’s therefore critical for a person who desires to be wise to learn from others. The plural here is important, you can’t learn from one person alone. You need to gather experiences from multiple different sources, each with their own perspective, and assemble them together in a way that seems true for your situation. Cognitive Flexibility Theory (CFT) is what this piece dives into–the art of building expertise in dynamic environments by reassembling knowledge fragments from different sources into novel solutions.
Operational tactics
10 Questions Every SaaS Founder Needs to Ask Their Customers (9 minute read)
Success in SaaS hinges on deep customer understanding. Rebecca Lynn and Jake Heller highlight asking critical questions about user needs, problems solved, and product value. It's about linking your solution to real benefits, confirming product-market fit, and leveraging direct feedback for effective marketing and sales.
The Evolution of SaaS Pricing in the AI Era (8 minute read)
As AI transforms SaaS, reducing the need for traditional seat-based pricing, consider innovative models like work/usage-based or outcomes-based pricing. These adjust to the AI's productivity, offering a competitive edge over traditional models and aligning costs with actual value delivered, potentially leading to win-win scenarios for both providers and users.
How To Win As Second Mover (3 minute read)
Late to the party? Crash it with these strategies offered by Elad Gil. Build vastly superior products or offer unbeatable prices. Go global while competitors stay local. Play to your strengths, exploiting market gaps. Overwhelm distribution channels to secure your position. Stay flexible - selling during peak hype or outlasting competitors through consolidation can be winning moves. In startups, it's not the early bird, but the adaptable one that thrives.
Angel investing
Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands (3 minute read)
Hack VC career progression: Start angel investing now. It's your fast track to building a track record and direct founder relationships. Navigate employer sensitivities carefully, but don't let them stifle your growth. Your personal portfolio isn't just an investment—it's your future leverage in the VC world.
What Are We Seeing As VCs (6 minute read)
As AI hype stabilizes, VC trends highlight a divide: massive funding rounds for leading GenAI firms contrast with challenges for non-AI early-stage startups. The focus shifts towards startups with genuine innovation, market fit, and sustainable business models amidst the evolving AI landscape.
The Founder Whisperer & Traits of Greatness (4 minute read)
with another excellent read. Michael writes about David Senra, who through his Founders Podcast, demonstrates the defining trait of impactful entrepreneurs: obsession. This fervent dedication fuels relentless learning, innovation, and extraordinary effort, as seen in figures from Enzo Ferrari to Estée Lauder. However, such single-minded focus warns of potential personal sacrifices. As an investor, you need to spot the obsessive founders that have a good handle on their addiction.
Managing your career
Culture Checks (6 minute read)
Assess your work environment's health through green flags like leadership accessibility, opportunities for promotion, and the average tenure of high-performing peers, versus red flags like high turnover and lack of direct feedback from managers. This piece covers tactics on how to improve your situation if you find yourself spotting some cultural red flags at your workplace.
Hiring (and managing) Cracked Engineers (5 minute read)
Cracked engineers are people who take extreme ownership of ideas, make people feel excited, and most importantly, apply themselves to their craft. The reality is that a lot of traditional management behavior doesn’t apply. In fact, it can actively slow down or demotivate them. Charles Cook, VP Ops and Marketing, lays out 6 essential principles to managing cracked engineers. Don’t worry - the same criteria applies to cracked people in non-engineering roles as well.
Stress, Dumping, and Exceptional Leadership (6 minute read)
As a leader, you might find yourself in moments of extreme pressure - economic downturns, layoffs, acquisitions, employee issues, etc. The list goes on and on. Even though some of these problems aren’t life threatening, they are emotionally taxing. So much so that you might find yourself guilty of dumping, sharing too much of the stress with your team, friends, or family. And too much dumping can result in frustration build-up and relationship friction. In this piece, Carilu Dietrich, former CMO and advisor to several technology executives, reflects on the components of her best boss ever and some of her own learnings to help readers avoid dumping.
