Craft Insights

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Building the Talent Engine: Hiring Your First Recruiter

Craft VP of Talent shares framework for hiring first recruiter: invest in-house when hiring 1+ person monthly, saving $500K-$750K annually versus agencies while building scalable processes.

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Inside Supabase’s Breakout Growth: Lessons Scaling to 4.5M+ Devs, Powering AI Coding & Vibe Coding

Supabase scales to 4.5M+ developers with community-first growth, achieving $5B Series E by focusing on database initialization as key activation event and serving two distinct developer segments.

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Inside Replit’s Breakout Growth: Lessons from $2.8M to $150M ARR

We're excited to share insights from Replit's incredible journey, growing from $2.8M to $150M ARR in under a year through product-led marketing systems that turned their AI coding agent launch into compounding growth.

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The AI Simple Stack

A framework for how companies are starting to build their AI stacks to supercharge their employees and their products.

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Buy and Build a New Playbook for AI Entrepreneurs

LLMs offer a chance to transform labor-intensive services. AI-forward operators can lead in legacy industries.

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Announcing $1.3 Billion for Craft Ventures IV and Growth II

With our fourth early-stage fund & second growth fund, we continue to focus on B2B software in the era of generative AI.

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What is Bottom Up SaaS?

We asked ChatGPT-4 “what is bottom up SaaS?” The answer was good enough that we wanted to share.

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Figma’s Early Days: Product-Led Sales Lessons

Sean Whitney & Kyle Parrish, Figma’s first sales leader, on building and scaling a sales team.

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Figma’s Early Days: Growth Marketing Lessons

A conversation with Growth Marketer Toni Gemayel on how he scaled growth marketing at Figma.

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Section 230: Mend It, Don’t End It

Once again, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, and Google found themselves in the hot seat on Capitol Hill last week...

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Surviving and Thriving in Tough Sales Conditions

Insights into how difficult SaaS selling conditions will prompt adaptation & evolution.

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50 Shades of Marketplaces

A deep dive into marketplace models by Stubhub founder & Craft investor Jeff Fluhr

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The Difficulty Ratio

A fundamental principle in SaaS sales is that the size of a deal must be large enough to justify the effort required to close it.

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Figma’s Early Days — How Patience & Discipline Fostered a Killer Product

Conversation Series with Figma’s early leaders, hosted by Sean Whitney.

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J Zac Stein and Georg Ell Join Craft as Venture Partners

It is rare to find investors and operators who have unique insight into SaaS and/or marketplace businesses.

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The COVID-19 Whipsaw

Over the last several months, we've seen dramatic swings in the demand for healthcare across the country.

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BlitzFail: How Not to Go Off the Rails

A look into the recurring patterns behind the dramatic downfalls of once-promising tech startups.

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Happy Talk versus Hard Talk

On Friday President Trump declared a national emergency. The market shot up 10% in a relief rally.

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Real-World Virality

Viral loops have long been one of the most explosive ways for online products to grow. Now a new generation of...

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The Gross Margin Problem: Lessons for Tech-Enabled Startups

The topic du jour in tech right now is the sudden reappraisal of some high-flying startups based on unit economics...

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Be Like Mike: What Founders Can Learn from The Last Dance

ESPN's new series The Last Dance is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at Michael Jordan's sixth and final...

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Announcing Craft II: $500 Million for Founders Backing Founders

We’re excited to announce the closing of Craft Ventures’ $500 million second fund.

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The Original Apocalypse

A once-in-a-generation stock market crash ushers in a period of economic turbulence and angst for founders.

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Failure is NOT an option — and other thoughts from Twenty Minute VC

Harry Stebbings was kind enough to have me on his podcast The Twenty Minute VC.

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VC vs PE: What's the right framework for thinking about your startup?

David Sacks on how startups in today's economy should think about operating efficiently & raising their next round.

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RIP Section 230

The internet freedom we have long enjoyed owes a tremendous debt to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

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Announcing Craft III: $1.1 Billion for SaaS and Marketplaces

Announcing the close of Craft Ventures III ($612M) and Growth I ($510M), totaling $1.12B.

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Applying the Burn Multiple to Marketplace Business Models

How to apply the Burn Multiple formula to marketplaces to measure capital efficiency.

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LinkedIn is the New Craigslist

Many people have written about the slew of unicorns created over the past decade by savvy entrepreneurs who picked...

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The Other Electric Vehicle Revolution: Myths and Realities in the E-Scooter Business

Almost two years ago, Bird launched the first e-scooter service in Santa Monica, California, and Craft Ventures led...

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The Sharp Startup: When PayPal Found Product-Market Fit

Twenty years ago this month, PayPal found product-market fit. I remember the moment vividly.

Insights from our team on building and scaling successful SaaS businesses.

Building the Talent Engine: Hiring Your First Recruiter

Inside Supabase’s Breakout Growth: Lessons Scaling to 4.5M+ Devs, Powering AI Coding & Vibe Coding

Inside Replit’s Breakout Growth: Lessons from $2.8M to $150M ARR

The AI Simple Stack

Buy and Build a New Playbook for AI Entrepreneurs

Announcing $1.3 Billion for Craft Ventures IV and Growth II

What is Bottom Up SaaS?

Figma’s Early Days: Product-Led Sales Lessons

Figma’s Early Days: Growth Marketing Lessons

Section 230: Mend It, Don’t End It

Surviving and Thriving in Tough Sales Conditions

50 Shades of Marketplaces

The Difficulty Ratio

Figma’s Early Days — How Patience & Discipline Fostered a Killer Product

J Zac Stein and Georg Ell Join Craft as Venture Partners

The COVID-19 Whipsaw

BlitzFail: How Not to Go Off the Rails

Happy Talk versus Hard Talk

Real-World Virality

The Gross Margin Problem: Lessons for Tech-Enabled Startups

Be Like Mike: What Founders Can Learn from The Last Dance

Announcing Craft II: $500 Million for Founders Backing Founders

The Original Apocalypse

Failure is NOT an option — and other thoughts from Twenty Minute VC

VC vs PE: What's the right framework for thinking about your startup?

RIP Section 230

Announcing Craft III: $1.1 Billion for SaaS and Marketplaces

Applying the Burn Multiple to Marketplace Business Models

LinkedIn is the New Craigslist

The Other Electric Vehicle Revolution: Myths and Realities in the E-Scooter Business

The Sharp Startup: When PayPal Found Product-Market Fit