The Founder Library

• Bio
• Web3
• Gaming
• Proptech
• LatAm
• Space
• Fintech
• Marketplaces
• Video
• Podcast
• Essay
• Investment Memos

• See New Marketplaces Where Others See Crowds: The Inside Story of A.Team

  Marketplaces ,

• 39 Moves to Survive (& Thrive) in a Downturn: 2022 Edition

• Why NFX Invested in Yo! Egg: The Food-Tech Startup Reinventing Plant-Based Eggs

  Investment Memos ,

• NFX Playbook for Naming Your Company - Part 1

• Web3 Gaming Is An Evolution, Not A Revolution

  Web3 , Gaming ,

• Why NFX Invested in Termscout: The LegalTech Contracts Network

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested in Lev: The Startup Rebuilding Commercial Real Estate Financing

  Investment Memos ,

• Why Web3 Hiring Is Unique

  Web3 ,

• Why NFX Invested in Floki: The Food Service Automation Platform for LatAm

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested in Seso: The Workforce Management Platform for Agriculture

  Investment Memos ,

• Why LatAm Is On The Rise

  LatAm ,

• Why NFX Invested in Pangea Biomed, the Startup Matching Cancer Patients with the Right Therapies

  Investment Memos ,

• 2 Changes to Virtual Goods in Web3 Gaming

  Web3 , Gaming ,

• Why NFX Invested in Latitud: The Platform Automating Startup Formation and Growth in Latin America

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested in Captain: The Fintech Startup Helping Families Rebuild After Natural Disasters

  Fintech ,

• The NFX Pitch Deck Library

  Video ,

• The 5 New Leadership Skills of Great Web3 Founders

  Video , Web3 ,

• 5 Core Startup Metrics

• The Durability Formula – How It Will Determine Your Startup’s Future Value

  Marketplaces ,

• Why NFX Invested in Melonn: The Company Automating E-Commerce for SMBs in Latin America

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested in withco: The First Commercial Property Ownership Platform for Small Businesses

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested in The.com: The Low-Code Website Building Platform

  Investment Memos ,

• The New Operating Manual for Fintech-Enabled Marketplaces

  Marketplaces , Fintech ,

• Anna Piñol Joins Our Investment Team at NFX

• Investment Memos ,

• The Network Effects Of Bitcoin [An NFX Video]

• The Economics of Creativity: Who Gets Paid and Why

• Network Bonding Theory: Understanding Your Startup & The Web3 Ownership Economy

• “Crazy Until It’s Not”: New Story Charity’s Bitcoin-Based Mortgages, NFTs and 3D-Printed Homes

  Marketplaces ,

• How To Run An Early-Stage Board Meeting

• The NFX Founder Toolkit

• Why NFX Invested in Pepper Bio: The ‘Waze for Drug Discovery’ Will Treat the Untreatable

  Investment Memos ,

• Building Confidence Networks In Latin America

  Podcast ,

• Why NFX Invested in Moov: The Platform for Buying and Selling Used Manufacturing Equipment

  Investment Memos ,

• 7 Mental Shifts For Hiring Now

• Building A “Community-First” Company

• Bitcoin Killed The King & Now Network Effects Will Determine Its Future

• 6 New NFX FASTs: Pre-Seed & Seed Funding In 9 Days

• NFX’s New $450M Fund For Pre-Seed & Seed

• Why NFX Invested In Eternal: The Leading Marketplace for Gaming NFTs

  Investment Memos ,

• Why Google, Facebook, & Microsoft Were Born On College Campuses

• Demand Shocks Open A New Marketplace Era

  Marketplaces ,

• Why NFX Invested In Aucto: The Startup Building a Marketplace for Used Industrial Equipment

  Investment Memos ,

• A Mammoth Becomes A Unicorn: Inside a Scientist-Founder’s Journey from Pre-Seed to Series D

  Bio ,

• A Founder’s Exponential Toolset: Wright’s Law, Moore’s Law, & More

• Keep Them Coming Back: 23 Habit-Making Insights for Product-Minded Founders

• 9 Ideation Frameworks of Top Founders

• Why NFX Invested In Ramp: The Startup Democratizing Access to Crypto Payments

  Investment Memos ,

• Unlocking “Disruptive Power” For Your Marketplace

  Marketplaces , Podcast ,

• Choosing The Final Frontier: Launching a Rocket Company with Andy Lapsa of Stoke Space

  Podcast , Space ,

• Decentralizing Entertainment with NFTs: The Insider Story of Stoner Cats

  Podcast ,

• Trillion-Dollar Leadership: An Inside Look at Jeff Bezos & Eric Schmidt

  Podcast ,

• Meet the Team Behind ‘Stoner Cats’ (an NFT Animated Series from Mila Kunis & Friends)

  Podcast ,

• Making Markets with Prof. Scott Duke Kominers (HBS) & James Currier

  Podcast ,

• Status, Wealth, & Power: Network Effects Demand A New Social Contract

• Why NFX Invested In Collective: The Benefits Platform for Independent Workers

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested In Frontier: The Automated Hiring Platform Built for the Post-COVID Economy

  Investment Memos ,

• Seeing Growth in a Downturn with Eran Ben-Shushan & Gigi Levy-Weiss

  Podcast ,

• The 23 Rules of Storytelling For Fundraising

• BriefLink: Like DocSend, But For Fundraising

• Why NFX Invested In Tomo: The Fintech Startup Improving the Mortgage and Home Buying Process

  Investment Memos ,

• The Founders’ List: 7 Principles of Game Design from Design Gym

• Why NFX Invested In Forum Brands: A Platform Building Better E-Commerce Brands

  Investment Memos ,

• How a Top Investor Sees the World with Saar Gur

  Podcast ,

• 6 Product Frameworks From the Inventor of the iPod, iPhone & Nest

• Startups Are The Ultimate “Mental Game” – Part II

• Startups Are The Ultimate “Mental Game” — Part I

• The Founders’ List: An Inside Look at How YouTube Scaled (Rituals for Hypergrowth)

• ‘Super Founders’ with Ali Tamaseb & James Currier

  Podcast ,

• Why NFX Invested In Komodor: The Missing Piece in the DevOps Toolchain

  Investment Memos ,

• Major Opportunities for Young Founders with Jon Levin, Dean of Stanford GSB

  Podcast ,

• “Traction Tactics” Behind Square, PayPal, Waze, Twilio & More

• The Insider Story of Waze

• Growth Frameworks For Your Marketplace

  Marketplaces ,

• Startup Speed As A Public Good

• The Rise of “Reality Entrepreneurs”

• The Passion Economy and Its Hidden Currency

• The 6 Patterns Of Uncommonly Successful Teams

• The New World Of “Going Public” — Pros & Cons of IPO v. SPAC v. Direct Listing

  Podcast ,

• From Outsider to $5B SPAC in 6 Years

  Podcast ,

• The 9 Habits of Ultra-Fast Iterations

  #Growth Insurtech , Podcast Proptech ,

• The 7 Powers Known to Tesla, Pixar, Netflix, Apple & Twilio

• The Founders’ List: Mind the Moat: a 7 Powers Review (written by Hamilton Helmer) from Flo Crivello (Founder & CEO Teamflow)

• The Goldilocks Zone of Startups: Why “Just Right” Is Not In The Middle

• The Founders’ List: Nir Eyal on “Hooks: An Intro on How to Manufacture Desire”

• Hippo: From Idea to IPO with CEO Assaf Wand & Pete Flint

  Podcast ,

• The New American Dream

  Podcast ,

• The Founders’ List: 1997 & 2020 Letter to Amazon Shareholders

• The CEO That Jeff Bezos Called “His Teacher”

  Podcast ,

• Why NFX Invested In Candex: The Startup Simplifying Payments Between the Fortune 500 and Vendors

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested In C2i Genomics: The Cancer Surveillance Platform

  Investment Memos ,

• The CEOs We Need Now

  Podcast ,

• The Founders’ List: Gigi Levy-Weiss on “How VCs Think: The Psychology That Drives Investing Decisions”

• The Pyramid of Co-Founder Success

• Q&A with Sean Ellis (GrowthHackers)

• The Founders’ List: Valve’s New Employee Handbook

• The 4 Types Of Defensibility

• The Infinite Conflict of Hiring

• Q&A with Gagan Biyani (Sprig, Udemy)

• Good vs. Great Leaders

  Life ,

• The Insider Story of Twilio

• The Founders’ List: Nokia’s CEO ‘Burning Platform’ Memo

• Gaming Superpowers for Non-Game Founders with Gabi Shalel (Plarium) & Gigi Levy-Weiss

  Podcast , Gaming ,

• The Paradox of Genius: Why Long-Term Thinking Wins

• The Founders’ List: The Ethereum Whitepaper

• Enterprise Gateway Marketplaces Will Turn Large Organizations Inside-Out

  Marketplaces ,

• The Founders’ List: Pete Flint on “How to Manage Hypercompetitive Markets”

• BJ Fogg on Tiny Habits for Startup Founders with James Currier

  Podcast ,

• Reinventing Existing vs. Creating New Markets

• The Founders’ List: The DoorDash Investment Memo from 2014

• Stanford’s “Touchy Feely” Course (For Startup Founders), with Carole Robin & James Currier

  Podcast ,

• From Idea To $200M Acquisition In Just 2 Years: 4 Lessons from Bridgecrew

  Investment Memos ,

• Vitalik Buterin on Space, Longevity, Mars & More (The “B-Side”)

  Podcast ,

• Vitalik Buterin on The Revolt of the Public (The “A-Side”)

  Podcast ,

• Why People Share: The Psychology Behind “Going Viral”

• Why NFX Invested in Latitude: The AI-Powered Gaming Platform

  Investment Memos ,

• Anti-Patterns of 10x Thinking

  Podcast ,

• Launching NFX Bio and The Rise of the Scientist Founder

  Bio ,

• The Founders’ List: James Currier (General Partner at NFX) on “The Psychology of Startup Growth”

• The Hidden World of Pricing: Uber, Trulia, Etsy, Superhuman & More

  Podcast ,

• The Founders’ List: The Bitcoin White Paper by Satoshi Nakamoto

• The Non-Obvious Guide to Fundraising

• The Founders’ List: ‘The HP Way’ Speech by Dave Packard to Management (1960)

• Jeff Lawson on Ask Your Developer, with Pete Flint

  Podcast ,

• Your Startup Life, Post-Pandemic

  Podcast ,

• The Founders’ List: Email Exchange on Instagram Acquisition by Facebook (Kevin Systrom & Mark Zuckerberg)

• Survey Results: 14 VC & Founder Predictions for 2021

• Top 11 Questions We Asked Tech Leaders in 2020

  Podcast ,

• Erik Torenberg & James Currier on being Citizens of the Internet

  Podcast ,

• Fiverr’s Road to 797% Growth: The Decision Frameworks Behind Their Success

• Where To Build Your Startup

• High Leverage Time Management

• The Winning Psychology of Top Founders in Fundraising Meetings

• The 10x Advantage of Starting a Company Right Now

• Announcing The Founders’ List

• Media Marketplaces and the Future of Digital Media

  Marketplaces ,

• How VCs Judge Your Startup (on Zoom): 15+ Tactics Behind Successful Fundraises

• Why Your Work Matters: Darwin, Machines, & the Future We’re Building

• The NFX Frameworks Collection for Founders

• How CEOs Think: 5 Mental Models to Shift from Founder to CEO

• The Product Thinking That Built Slack & Twitter, with April Underwood

• Frameworks for Using Diversity to Win

• 34 Questions to Recruit World-Class Talent in the Remote Era

• How Contrarians Think: The Early Days of Square, Yelp & PayPal with Keith Rabois

• 24 Ways B2B Marketplaces Win

  Marketplaces ,

• Calling Bio Startups Who Want To Raise Capital (Final Deadline July 17)

  Investment Memos , Bio ,

• The Product Frameworks Behind Superhuman

• Why NFX Invested in Jupiter: The Company Putting Grocery Shopping on Autopilot

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Is Investing In La Haus: The End-to-End Residential Real Estate Platform for Latin America

  Investment Memos ,

• How Second Time Founders Can Win and Avoid Common Mistakes

• The Second Time Founders Manual

• Results from the VC & Founder COVID-19 Sentiment Survey, Part II

• The New Generation of Labor Marketplaces and the Future of Work

  Marketplaces ,

• The Insider Story of Houseparty

  Investment Memos ,

• The Next Social Era is Here: Why Now Is the Time for Social Products Again

• Whiteboard Breakdown: A Founder’s Guide to Taking Advice

• It’s Time to Start Playing Offense

• Why Startups that Survive are “Learning Organizations”

• Whiteboard Breakdown: What Makes A Strong Startup CEO

• Whiteboard Breakdown: What Are Network Effects?

• The New Rules of Growth vs. Profitability

• Four Reasons Why NFX Invested in Nuvocargo

  Investment Memos ,

• The Great Reset: How Reid Hoffman & James Currier See the Path Ahead for Founders

• NFX FAST Seed Funding: 9 Days to Decision

• Shayma Sharif Promoted to Principal at NFX

  Investment Memos ,

• How PayPal & Trulia Navigated Downturns: David Sacks, Craft Ventures + Co-Founder of PayPal

• The Psychology of Founders Who Win in Downturns

• Results from the VC & Founder COVID-19 Sentiment Survey, Part I

• 28 Moves to Survive (& Thrive) in a Downturn

• Leading Startups Through Uncertainty: Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO of TaskRabbit

  Marketplaces ,

• A Founder’s Guide To Taking Advice

• What Makes Data Valuable: The Truth About Data Network Effects

• How I Raised VC From Top-Tier Funds

• Mammoth Expands Bio-Platform Network Effects to Gene-Editing

  Investment Memos , Bio ,

• Why Founders Should Take More Risk

• Your Life is Driven by Network Effects

• The 4 Signs of Founder-Market Fit

  Investment Memos ,

• The 14th Network Effect: Expertise

• How Billion Dollar Marketplaces Are Built with Marco Zappacosta, Co-Founder & CEO of Thumbtack

  Marketplaces ,

• Why NFX Is Investing In Modus: The Company Automating the Home-Closing Process

  Investment Memos ,

• The Founders’ List: 10 Pieces of Manufacturing Advice from Tesla CEO, Elon Musk

• 16 Non-Obvious Fundraising Lessons On Pitching

• “Don’t Just Be the Best, Be the Only” with Kevin Kelly & James Currier

  Podcast ,

• What VCs Don’t See: Why We’re Bullish on Gaming Startups

  Investment Memos ,

• 4 Signs You’re Building A World-Class Team

• NFX Podcast: Why Top Founders Understand Network Effects with Scott Cook, Founder of Intuit

• The Founders’ List: “How To Make The Most Out Of Your Time And Your Life” by Nir Eyal (Author + Former Stanford Professor)

• The One Reason We Invested in Incredible Health

  Investment Memos ,

• The Irrational Truths of User Behavior, with Dan Ariely

• 10 Places to Find Product-Market Fit

• The Founders’ List: Steve Job’s Famous ‘Thoughts on Flash’ (Famous Memos)

• Why NFX Invested In Let’s Do This: The World’s Largest Online Marketplace for Endurance Events

  Investment Memos ,

• The Unusual Signs of a Billion Dollar Company, with Elad Gil

• How to Manage Hypercompetitive Markets

• The Hidden Patterns of Startup Failure

• How VCs Decide to Take a First Meeting – 12 Reasons

• The Founders’ List: Steve Yegge’s Famous Rant on ‘Google vs Amazon’ (Famous Memos)

• Why NFX Is Investing In Constru: The Startup Using Machine Vision for Construction Management

  Investment Memos ,

• The New Growth Mindset with Sean Ellis & James Currier

  Podcast ,

• The Hidden Patterns of Great Startup Ideas

• Status Games: Engineering Scarcity in a World of Abundance

  Podcast ,

• What Makes a Strong Startup CEO

• The Founders’ List: “Why Figma Wins” by Kevin Kwok (Former Investor at Greylock)

• The Fundraising Checklist: 13 Proof Points for Series A

• The Future of Digital Advertising with Mikael Cho & Luke Chesser, Co-Founders of Unsplash (NFX Podcast)

  Podcast ,

• What It Takes to Build an Iconic Marketplace: The Poshmark Story

  Marketplaces ,

• Our Top 10 Essays of All Time

• Join the World Class Team at NFX: Investment, Engineering/Product, Marketing

• The Founders’ List: Bill Gates’s internal Microsoft Memo “The Internet Tidal Wave” (Famous Memos)

• How VCs Think: The Psychology That Drives Investing Decisions

• The Psychology of Focus: How Great Teams Find Traction Amid Distraction

• The Founder Mindset: Announcing NFX Fund II, $275 Million

  Investment Memos ,

• The Founders’ List: “The 3 Types of Platform Companies” by Elad Gil (Color Genomics & Twitter)

• Inside Top SMB Startups

  Marketplaces ,

• The Competition For Your Attention with Sarah Frier (Bloomberg) & James Currier (NFX Podcast)

  Podcast ,

• The Next Frontier for 2-Sided Marketplaces: How Fintech Will Unlock Enormous Value

  Marketplaces , Fintech ,

• 10X Your Career: First Principles For Outsized Success

  Life ,

• NFX Podcast: Lyft vs. Uber and the Battle for Ridesharing Dominance

• Why NFX Invested in Codi: The Platform for Flexible Workspaces

  Investment Memos ,

• NFX Founder Room Ep. 1: Growing a Marketplace into a Market Network

  Marketplaces ,

• The Founders’ List: “Don’t Believe Your Own B.S.” by Pete Flint (General Partner at NFX)

• The Psychology of Startup Growth

• The Tribal Network Effect (nfx #15)

• NFX Podcast: Why Growth Hacking Is Broken

• The Golden Age of Simulation with Chris Anderson & James Currier

  Podcast ,

• How VCs Negotiate: 8 Skills Top Founders Master for Startup Fundraising

• The Founders’ List: “Social Capital in Silicon Valley” by Alex Danco (Shopify & Social Capital)

• The Next Industrial Revolution: Computational Biology & Bioplatforms

  Investment Memos , Bio ,

• Announcing Scouts & Angels – The Investing Network (Signal 4.0)

• The NFX Company Culture Scorecard and Playbook

• The Founders’ List: Slack’s Internal Memo ‘We Don’t Sell Saddles Here’ (Famous Memos)

• The NFX Archives: Foundations for Mastering Network Effects

• Viral Effects Are Not Network Effects

• 9 Habits of World Class Startups

  Investment Memos ,

• The Founders’ List: “The Guide to Unbundling Reddit” by Greg Isenberg (Late Checkout, Indicator Fund, TikTok Advisor, Previously WeWork/Islands/5by)

• Why NFX Is Investing In Firefly: The Company Enabling Street-Level Digital Advertising

  Investment Memos ,

• The New Mindset for Product-Market Fit

• Building Strong Companies: The “No Politics Rule”

  Investment Memos ,

• The Founders’ List: “Status as a Service (StaaS)” by Eugene Wei (Former Product Leader at Amazon, Hulu, Flipboard, Oculus)

• Is Blockchain Really Over?

  Investment Memos ,

• Announcing our new General Partner, Morgan Beller

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested In Setter: The Home Management Platform

  Investment Memos ,

• Good vs. Great Companies: The Unseen Truths of Breakout Success

• Why NFX Invested In Court Buddy: The B2C Marketplace for Legal Services

  Investment Memos ,

• The Founders’ List: James Currier (Managing Partner at NFX) on “The Psychology of Founders Who Win in Downturns”

• See Your Score: The NFX Marketplace Scorecard

  Marketplaces ,

• The Founders’ List: Nir Eyal (Author, Professor, & Investor) on “Hooks: An Intro on How to Manufacture Desire”

• PropTech: A Massive Opportunity We’re Seeing

  Investment Memos ,

• Reid Hoffman’s Playbook for Growth and Network Effects

• Reinforcement: The Hidden Key to Building Iconic Tech Companies

• The Future of Fundraising? What We Need to Fix About Token Investing

• Announcing “The Brief” — The Best Way to Get the VC Meeting

  Investment Memos ,

• Why NFX Invested in Radius: The Tech-Enabled Real Estate Brokerage

  Investment Memos ,

• How VCs See Your KPIs

• Don’t Believe Your Own B.S.

  Investment Memos ,

• 19 Tactics to Solve the Chicken-or-Egg Problem and Grow Your Marketplace

  Marketplaces ,

• Announcing VC Match: The Obvious Fundraising Tool No One Built – Until Now

  Investment Memos ,

• Why Startup Timing is Everything

  Investment Memos , Featured ,

• The Ladder of Proof: Uncovering How VC’s See Your Startup

• NFX Invests in Ribbon to Transform The Home Buying Experience

  Investment Memos ,

• The Network Effects Bible

• We’re hiring – Engineer-in-Residence

• Network Effects in Biotechnology: Introducing Mammoth Biosciences

  Bio ,

• Network Effects Predict the Future of Facebook

• How It’s Built: NEA + NFX on the $15.5 Million Series A in Lyric

  Investment Memos ,

• Entropy: The Unseen Threat to Startups

  Investment Memos ,

• Does Real Identity Matter for Networks?

  Marketplaces ,

• The Physics of Startups: Using Slingshots to Defy Gravity

  Investment Memos ,

• Behind the Houzz Acquisition of IvyMark: 6 Lessons for Founders

  Investment Memos ,

• The NFX of Trulia: Building a $3.5 Billion Marketplace

• The Network Effects Manual: 13 Different Network Effects (and counting)

• We’re Hiring – Head of Network at NFX

• The Intentional Network Effects of Uber

• NFX Launches $150 Million Fund to Transform How True Innovators Are Funded

  Investment Memos ,

• 70 Percent of Value in Tech is Driven by Network Effects

• An Epiphany about Network Effects

• The Next 10 Years Will Be About “Market Networks”

• Defensibility Adds the Most Value for Founders

• Where to Invest in Network Effects

• Signal – The Fundraising CRM for Startup Founders

• Your Company Name Matters…a Lot

  Investment Memos ,

• Pete Flint, Trulia Founder & CEO, Joins NFX Guild

  Investment Memos ,

• Network Effects Are Not Dead, They Are Alive and Thriving