The Flowlie Times #37
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The Flowlie Times #37
SaaS startup advice, labor market shortage, text-to-voice model, Fizz, and more.
Welcome to The Flowlie Times,
This edition is brought to you by The Smithee Letter.
The Fundraising Debrief just released it’s newest episode featuring Phil Odelfelt discussing his latest $4.2M Seed Round for Datavations. This episode is packed with tactical advice for founders and investors alike.
Articles we enjoyed:
1️⃣ Planning to Do a SaaS Startup? Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule:
Two similar SaaS startups reached $1 million ARR. One was better positioned for future success due to knowing its target customers from the beginning. The better-positioned startup had a more appropriate team, better market presence, and visibility.
The key difference was architecture, not just software. The "20 Interview Rule" is recommended before starting development: Interview 20 potential customers, not friends or acquaintances.
The first 5 interviews help understand the white space and opportunity.
The next 5 interviews confirm patterns and understanding.
Interviews 11-20 refine the pitch and strategy, incorporating critical feedback.
In SaaS, advice is to prioritize customer interviews over immediately building the product for successful SaaS startups.
2️⃣ Assessing and addressing the labor market gap facing the U.S. semiconductor industry
The semiconductor industry is crucial for economic growth and national security in the United States, and demand for semiconductors is expected to rise significantly by 2030. While AI may replace some jobs it is certainly creating many more across software and hardware.
The industry's workforce is projected to grow by around 115,000 jobs by 2030, but about 58% of these new jobs, including technical roles, are at risk of going unfilled at current degree completion rates.
This 2nd-generation model incorporates the concept of emotions, enabling users to control speech generation with specific emotions. It's available in closed beta and will be accessible through the API and Studio.
The new version utilizes a Large Language Model and extensive training data, offering capabilities such as generating human-like conversations, instant voice cloning, cross-language, accent cloning, and directing emotions in speech generation.
Creeped out yet? The implications are significant as artificial voices become virtually indistinguishable from human ones.
Venture announcements that caught our eye:
1️⃣ Fizz, a social network started by Stanford dropouts, gained attention for its unique approach to anonymity and engagement, initially targeting Stanford University students.
Users with a Stanford email address can post and comment anonymously, with content's popularity determined by upvotes and downvotes, contributing to users' "fizzfluence."
While Fizz has expanded beyond Stanford to over 80 campuses and secured $25 million in Series B funding, challenges including content moderation and privacy concerns have emerged.
Despite comparisons to YikYak, Fizz continues to grow and explore features like an online marketplace and potential job listings.
This edition’s sponsor:
🆕 The Smithee Letter
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2️⃣ Social media startup Braid has secured $6.8 million in seed funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Initialized Capital.
Braid offers users the ability to craft personalized landing pages showcasing their online content such as blogs, videos, podcasts, and commerce links.
This funding will support team expansion and platform enhancements, positioning Braid as a creator-focused alternative to conventional platforms like Substack, allowing direct audience engagement, and offering link tracking and analytics.
Cheers,
Mike from Flowlie