Investing in ambitious founders.
Austin, NYC, SF
Joined March 2009
- Tweets24.4K
- Following1.2K
- Followers65.7K
- Likes16.3K
Pinned Tweet
Today we raised $145m to fund bootstrappers here on Twitter!
Get up to $3m in non-dilutive capital overnight from @FounderpathHQ
Figured I'd prove it by wiring a bunch of you today.
Tag the bootstrapped SaaS founder you admire most below...
❤️My favorites:
🧵A thread 👇
they work
aim for 47%+ conversion from RSVP to live attendee
data from my recent ones:
Oct 29, 2026 (luma.com/fp24): 699 registered, 301 attended (43%)
Sep 3, 2026 (luma.com/fp23): 524 registered, 300 attended (57%)
Aug 12, 2026 (luma.com/fp22): 517 registered, 237 attended (46%)
Jul 16, 2026 (luma.com/fp21): 443 registered, 226 attended (51%)
Jun 30, 2026 (luma.com/fp20): 480 registered, 216 attended (45%)
May 14, 2026 (luma.com/fp19): 410 registered, 168 attended (41%)
Apr 13, 2026 (luma.com/fp18): 998 registered, 513 attended (51%)
Mar 5, 2026 (luma.com/fp17): 596 registered, 318 attended (53%)
Jan 8, 2026 (luma.com/fp16): 253 registered, 124 attended (49%)
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Nathan Latka retweeted
founder in austin?
poker/game night was a hit!
Join next one Dec 7th (limited seats)
luma.com/sgn1
(If link doesn't work, means we filled up)
founder in austin?
poker/game night was a hit!
Join next one Dec 7th (limited seats)
luma.com/sgn1
(If link doesn't work, means we filled up)
Nathan Latka retweeted
In my 20’s, I used to work on Wall Street.
People my age now (45) said they were working 70, 80, 90 hours a week for their families…but all their families actually wanted was their presence.
They didn’t understand why their families resented how much they worked when they lived in a nice house, and their kids went to private schools.
It was just the world we all lived in. We knew nothing else.
I decided early in my startup journey that wasn’t going to be me.
My co-founders and I have always had a policy of quitting at 5 or 5:30.
By that, I mean:
> Shut off my laptop
> No more work talk
> Go home to my family
Frequently I’m out even earlier - 3-5, depending on whether I want to do something with the kids.
I rarely travel for work and don’t entertain for work.
My family life gives me energy for my work.
My work gives me energy for my family life.
I'm trying to stay not burnt out and excited about this for several decades.
Can every founder choose this?
Maybe not everybody, but more people have the choice than realize they do.
There is great reward that comes from designing a business around the life you want.
Nathan Latka retweeted
We lost one of the greats of the bootstrapped software world.
Adam Robinson was so inspiring to follow in his journey to build Retention, RB2B, and MoltSets in public. There aren't many people who bootstrap a company to $10M+ like he did, let alone to do it in public.
Last time we were together in Miami he teased me that my Web App Challenge was so inspirational to him, but that he wished I posted more. So he'd ask himself, "What do I wish Nathan shared?" Then write that.
I loved his public posts, lessons learned, and the way he ran the podcast. He was also so generous with his data and legal knowledge as we launched Subscriber Signals at Kit.
Adam, thank you for the generosity in every interaction. You inspired me and thousands of other founders. You'll be dearly missed.
Rest in peace.
Revenue doesn't lie
He made $60k in rent last night.
This is the new AirBNB.
Avg stay 9 months.
Longer than AirBnB
Shorter than typical lease.
New market: Mid term lease
On the Top Founders Podcast, @padsplit CEO @atticusleblanc shares:
It’s great for renters:
(03:05) 34k rooms available
(04:18) Under $30/night avg
(03:46) Furnished, utilities incl
It’s great for real estate owners:
(07:11) Very low vacancy
(06:25) 74% fill rate
...and it’s great for PadSplit:
(08:43) $250M in rent annually
(07:49) $20M PadSplit revenue
(02:25) No balance sheet risk
Available today wherever you get your podcasts.
2
997
He made $60k in rent last night.
This is the new AirBNB.
Avg stay 9 months.
Longer than AirBnB
Shorter than typical lease.
New market: Mid term lease
On the Top Founders Podcast, @padsplit CEO @atticusleblanc shares:
It’s great for renters:
(03:05) 34k rooms available
(04:18) Under $30/night avg
(03:46) Furnished, utilities incl
It’s great for real estate owners:
(07:11) Very low vacancy
(06:25) 74% fill rate
...and it’s great for PadSplit:
(08:43) $250M in rent annually
(07:49) $20M PadSplit revenue
(02:25) No balance sheet risk
Available today wherever you get your podcasts.
Insane.
“ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit," $200m ARR CEO of @airSlate
In Vadim's first ever public interview on Top Founders podcast, he shares:
Financial data
(03:40) DocHub $22M, pdfFiller $106M, signNow $35M
(03:52) “This page does $106M of revenue”
(03:57) 866,000 paying customers on one product
(04:35) 85,000 forms hand-built by lawyers
(07:16) 2x ARR but Valuation down $1b to $800m
(07:35) $100M revenue at last round. Now $200M
(08:19) 2015: GC money, bought signNow, hit $50M
(08:42) $18M revenue in 2013–2014
(09:10) “pdfFiller was a cash machine”
(10:51) 1.1M paying customers, 866,000 on pdfFiller
(11:04) 1.1M customers ÷ $200M = $180/year each
(18:30) $200M ARR on <$200M equity raised
Growth tactics
(01:23) No “AI” branding
(01:53) Why acquired brands keep their own names
(04:58) Unannounced AI product
(05:35) 85,000 lawyer-built forms. Why he’s not Harvey
(07:55) “Customers build their own software? Baloney.”
(08:54) Bought signNow at $3M. Now $35M
(11:26) 4.8 billion keywords managed
(11:30) 35 million SEO pages built
(12:33) Contextual relevance vs programmatic SEO
(12:50) 4.8B keywords. “Very few are productive.”
(13:07) Search influence drops from 80% to 30%
(13:30) Keyword-volume SEO dead in 9–12 months
(14:27) “ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit.”
(14:55) “Our competition was not sophisticated”
(15:05) Superior PPC bidding math. Now everyone has it
(16:31) Vertical vs horizontal: the NDR fight
Fundraising, M&A
(06:43) $150M raised total, GE Capital, Morgan Stanley
(07:03) June 2022: $52M at a $1.25B valuation
(07:45) “My VC friends don’t understand”
(08:35) Raised first money at $8.5M revenue
(09:21) The no-board, no-VC golden years
(09:37) “Get money as late as you possibly can”
(17:26) Running the Bending Spoons playbook
(17:37) M&A rule: $1M products “not interesting.”
(17:56) How he handles a real board
(18:40) “Some raised $20 for every $1 of ARR. Not us.”
(18:46) “VC objectives and mine are slightly different”
Available today wherever you get your podcasts.
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