Archive
Everything we've published.
The full catalogue — filter by topic, or read from oldest to newest.
11 pieces
May 27, 2026 Growth The state of cold email in 2026: response rates by industry Cold email response rates have dropped from 8-10% in 2019 to 1-3% in 2024-2025. Here is where they stand by industry, and what the best operators do differently. 6 min May 27, 2026 Operations The first regrettable hire: a pattern study Founders' first regrettable hire follows a predictable shape. A pattern study drawn from startup literature and founder interviews. 7 min May 26, 2026 Product The hidden cost of "small" tech choices three years in How Auth0, Algolia, and Stripe pricing changes and technical lock-in can cost startups months of engineering time and 15x price hikes. 11 min May 26, 2026 Product The vendor you chose in week one is the migration you will run in year three How small vendor choices made in week one compound into expensive migrations by year three, and a pre-commitment checklist to avoid the trap. 12 min May 23, 2026 Operations How to hire your first ten people without a recruiter A practical guide to making your first ten hires as a founder — no recruiter, no HR department, no budget for either. Includes MENA-specific notes on pay and sourcing. 12 min May 20, 2026 Product We built our own internal CRM. Six months later, here's what we wish we knew. A practical account of building an internal CRM at a small team. What worked, what we would throw away, and the math that actually decided it. 8 min May 18, 2026 Growth How modern founders structure their first six months A practical, month-by-month structure for founders in their first 180 days, drawn from patterns across dozens of real founder conversations. 8 min May 15, 2026 Money Why MENA founders are quietly choosing US LLCs Why a growing number of MENA tech founders register in Wyoming or Delaware while operating from Beirut, Cairo, or Dubai, and when the model does not work. 10 min May 12, 2026 Product The case for building internal tools instead of buying After two years running a small team across a stack of subscriptions, the math on building internal tools has shifted. Here is the framework we use now. 11 min May 8, 2026 Operations What a ten-person team's tech stack actually looks like in 2026 What software a ten-person product team actually runs on in 2026, with monthly costs, and the parts nobody usually admits to. 10 min May 5, 2026 Mindset Finding focus when your team is split across four time zones Practical advice for founders running teams across several time zones, past the surface-level instruction to simply go async. 9 min