Nobody Cares

"Nobody cares." This harsh reality should free you, not discourage you.

If you're anything like me, you care a lot about what people think of you. What have you done (or not done) out of fear for what people might think?

The reality is that no one is thinking about you like you are. They don't scrutinize your every move like you do. They don't dwell on your mistakes like you do.

What would you give yourself permission to do if you thought no one was watching?

Welcome back to the Founder Roundup! A big welcome to our new subscribers. If you haven't introduced yourself yet, respond to this email. I'd love to get to know you.

We had the pleasure of featuring three great founders last week. Check out their profiles below.

First, a little housekeeping note: We're taking a break from featuring founders this week and focusing on some big-picture tasks. Stay tuned!

Weekly Wisdom

Startup School

A common misconception is that the market price of a startup (by way of raising capital) is equivalent to the fair market value (FMV). In this article, I break down what a 409A valuation is, when it is necessary, and how it affects your startup equity.

You can also check out the Twitter thread here.

I spent several months putting together a handbook on all things startup equity. I've made it available for free to the Startup Founder Daily community. Grab a copy here.

How to deal with investors interrupting you

We had Sam Loui of Techstars on for episode 5 of the Backseat Startup. A reddit user voiced her frustrations over being interrupted by an investor. Sam and I break down how to navigate pitch etiquette and the changes we'd like to see.

Give the show a watch on YouTube and subscribe on Apple or Spotify here.

Founder Roundup

Sergio Kurakou and Nick Newman, Co-Founders of Sizze

Meet the Founders building the no-code platform to power your app. CEO and Co-Founder, Nick Newman, is a UI&UX designer with 7 years of experience in building business processes.

He is joined by fellow Co-Founder and CTO, Sergio Kurakou, a talented programmer with 6 years of experience in frontend development.

Sizze is a tool to build and publish apps with exported code, enabling users to launch full-fledged apps within a week.

The Sizze editor is aimed at two audiences: beginners and developers. For the first audience, the platform provides a visual builder with multiple ready-made presets.

For more advanced front-end engineers and designers, there is the ability to import projects from Figma and copy/download React Native code generated by the editor in real time.

Join over 15,000 freelancers and designers building their applications with Sizze.

Head over to their website to learn more.

Christopher Payne, Founder of myReach

The average employee spends 23% of their time searching for information. Christopher Payne is fixing this with a personal Google for all your things.

Can’t find an article you read last week? Tired of having 50 tabs open at once? Planning a project and things are all over the place?

myReach is the all-in-one productivity tool that centralizes your information in one place. Everything from websites and articles to notes, documents, and contacts find a home within the app.

With both a mobile app and browser extension, myReach functions as your content co-pilot. Save websites, import your bookmarks, and search through your personal database.

The idea is that you never lose anything, ever again. And when you’re looking for something, you find it in seconds. Join the thousands of users creating their second brain with myReach.

Head over to their website to learn more.

Agustin Cortes, Carlos Miranda, and Luis Angel Fausto of Lirn

Is it time to topple traditional education? Lirn is building the protocol to verify online learning on the blockchain.

Co-Founders Agustin, Carlos, and Luis don’t have college degrees. They say this with pride and honor.

They took the alternative pathway of educating themselves: Using the internet and its resources to develop new knowledge and skills.

Still, they ran into some pain points as they entered the workforce, from career progression to social signal. They knew that a new educational system was necessary.

The internet lets anyone learn everything about anything. But, there is no good way to quantify and verify this education.

Lirn is here to provide proof of education, knowledge, and skills. All verified by blockchain technology.

Lirn aims to build a new, trustworthy system of what it means to be educated. More specifically, they want to create the educational system for the internet.

Head over to their website to learn more.

In Partnership with beehiiv

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There's a reason why The Founder Roundup is growing over 70% month over month.

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SFDeal of the Week

Have you checked out our marketplace of deals yet? We have deals on 80+ tools startup founders use everyday (including the sweet deal above). Completely free for the SFD community! Our goal is to help our community save $1 million over the next year. Access the marketplace through the button below.

If you have any trouble accessing the deals, PLEASE let me know. Happy to hop on a call and walk you through the process. We'd also love any feedback on the experience. We want the marketplace to be as frictionless as possible.

Community Corner

Seeking an SEO expert: We are looking for an SEO expert/blog content manager. If that sounds like you or someone you know, respond to this email!

Who are we and what do we do? Read about our mission and check out our marketing portfolio here.

Calling all book nerds. We think every founder should read these 17 books.