Daniel Lev

A solo founder just sold his AI startup to Wix for $80 million.  It's a 6 months old startup! 🤯 This is so far the wildest acquisition of this year imo. Maor Shlomo, a 31-year-old Israeli founder, launched Base44 as 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 after finishing reserve duty. He built an AI-powered app builder where anyone could create full-stack apps just by describing them in plain English — making software creation as easy as chatting with ChatGPT. And in just 6 months, Base44 hit: • 300,000+ users • $3.5M ARR • $189K monthly profit • Partnerships with eToro & Similarweb • Acquired by Wix for ~$80M And here’s the kicker: → Fully bootstrapped → $0 VC funding → A team you could count on 2 hands. How did a tiny, bootstrapped side project pull off such a dramatic sprint? There’s a buzz about the rise of “𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗻𝘀” — one-person startups supercharged by AI. While Base44 didn’t reach unicorn status, its story is a compelling real-world example of how far a solo founder can go with AI prowess, the right product, and relentless execution. Maor didn’t build hype. He built something people 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥  And talked about it 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘺. 👇 I broke down his full journey + behind-the-scene strategies + lessons for founders in my newsletter: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g-QaXB42

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This is the plan to scale past $25M ARR at Rivo, fully bootstrapped. 1. Ship quality product 10x faster than our competition by using agentic workflows. (Major emphasis on quality) 2. Charge fair prices and attempt to provide exceptional support that scales. 3. Continue to hire the best people from our industry. 4. Go as big and as fast as we possibly can. Currently re-investing every penny of our $5M ARR to make this happen.

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Carta released some incredible insight on VC Performance. Felt compelled to release another Cheatsheet on it. Another YOLO sheet with very detailed information. This is the one you’ve been waiting for: A full breakdown of the 2025 SaaS VC Power Rankings — visualized, simplified, and focused on what actually matters. Carta released one of the best datasets I’ve seen on venture capital performance. It didn't look like fluff around “top VCs” but actual numbers on: → Exit velocity → Investment volume → Deal sizes by stage → Industry and stage preferences → Fund performance (IRR & TVPI) → Graduation rates from Seed to Series A And how VCs are actually following on in future rounds love Dashboards & Data. So I built a YOLO Sheet to cut through the noise and help you actually use this information to make smarter decisions. This report answered a lot of questions about where is the money going for SaaS Businesses. Few notes on it: → Sequoia Capital — The heavyweight 507 exits · $45B AUM · 12.8% unicorn creation rate → Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) — The machine 1,647 investments · 72% follow-on rate · massive coverage across stages → General Catalyst — Playing the long game 1,100 investments · $32B AUM · +7% YoY Power Score growth → Tiger Global — Growth-stage sniper Focused on late-stage · Series C+ avg deal size: $112M · $6B in 2025 deal volume → New Enterprise Associates (NEA) — Quiet but precise $39B AUM · Early & growth-stage heavy · 65% follow-on rate → Bessemer Venture Partners — Quietly dominant $18B AUM · 11% YoY growth · Enterprise SaaS focus → Accel — High-efficiency operator Here's what else I found to be interesting in the report: ☑︎ Which VCs are still backing Seed with conviction? ☑︎ Which firms are all-in on AI/ML vs FinTech vs Healthcare? ☑︎ Who actually follows on in Series A (vs just waving term sheets around)? ☑︎ Where is the most real liquidity coming from exits, acquisitions, or IPOs? ☑︎ And which firms are trending up vs just coasting on legacy wins? Thanks for putting this out there Carta. Molly O'Shea breaks the entire Carta VC Fund Performance Report down very well in her Newsletter called Sorcery. It's a high quality read. Do you want the link where you can give Carta your email and get the full report? Comment "REPORT" and I'll send it to you.

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Product-market fit genuinely feels different...and it'll show up in the data Demo to close rates are the easiest thing to look at for product-market fit right now. Vertical AI startups in our portfolio are seeing 50%+ demo to close rates, even with brand new account executives selling the product. It's happening in every market from AI takeoffs to AI CSR/Voice software to AI procurement solutions. When you see a demo to close rate over 50% chances are you have a jaw dropping customer experience and you should put your foot on the gas. If you're seeing something dramatically lower in mid-market or SMB ACV categories, it's worth revisiting your product and/or your pitch.

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If you target VC-backed companies, this is for you. We’ve partnered with Crunchbase to power funding signals in Keyplay. 3 ways you can use this right now: 1.) ICP Scoring with Funding Signals – Now you can access reliable, fresh funding data (along with hundreds of other signals) as part of a comprehensive ICP model in Keyplay. – Use this to score and prioritize every account in your market. 2.) Account Discovery – Find new accounts based on funding amount or recent funding. – Instantly sync these accounts from Keyplay to your CRM 3.) Segmentation with Funding Data – Create detailed segments with funding data + other Keyplay signals. – Enrich total funding and last funding date into your CRM. As a specialized ICP solution, we’ll keep looking to bring the best “ingredients” to our users. Crunchbase's private company intelligence is a great way to find and prioritize the right accounts. Now, we're partnering with them to power funding signals in Keyplay. I’m excited to see this live for all Keyplay customers today! #marketing #sales

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YC has quietly built a parallel tech ecosystem. Not just a network - an entire operating system for startups. Think about it: A YC founder can build their entire stack using only YC companies. Infrastructure, analytics, payment processing, marketing tools - it's all there. At friend-and-family prices. When you launch a product to the YC network, you get something priceless: A group of technical founders who actually understand what you're building. They become your first users, your debuggers, your evangelists. This is why PostHog is now used by 65% of new YC companies. This is why Brex dominated fintech... and why each YC batch makes the next one stronger. A true compounding advantage.

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