22 Essential Newsletters for Startup Founders in 2023

Jonathan Lee
February 4, 2022
#
Fundraising
Best Newsletters for Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs

It seems like everyone and their third cousin four times removed has a newsletter these days. With so many options vying for attention, how does a busy founder select which sources are worthy enough to welcome into an already overflowing inbox?

After a full year of supporting startup founders with Adamant Ventures, the Funded podcast, and the Fundraise with Confidence cohort fellowship, as well as making my first significant venture investments in tech companies, I’ve become fully immersed in the dynamic world of startup fundraising. Along the way, I’ve picked up priceless guidance and insider tips to empower founders and supercharge their fundraising efforts. But I’ve also encountered countless self-proclaimed gurus hawking their latest eBooks and to unsuspecting targets (possibly the subject of our next post/ “AV Investigates” exposé? 😆). 

So, I sifted through the riff-raff (and a mountain of unsubscribes!) to bring you the 22 Essential Newsletters for Startup Founders in 2023

I aimed to highlight newsletters that contain actionable advice, compelling insights, and as little fluff as possible. Here’s the list!

Venture Capital & Fundraising Newsletters

StrictlyVC

StrictlyVC

Their pitch: StrictlyVC’s free daily newsletter provides you with all the info you need to know about the VC scene in Silicon Valley and beyond. Our events bring together VCs, entrepreneurs, and corporate development execs, among others. Sign up for our newsletter today and see what you’ve been missing!

Why we subscribed: Stay up-to-date on new funds, notable funding rounds, & acquisitions/exits in a conveniently bite-sized format. If you’re ready to fundraise, new funds with capital to deploy should definitely be on your target list.

Frequency: Daily

Fundraising Fieldnotes Newsletter

Fundraising Fieldnotes

Their pitch: After spending years as a venture capitalist and two tours of duty as a startup operator, I’ve now shifted to spending all my time making startup fundraising easier and more accessible to as many founders as possible. Part of that goal requires me to speak to founders daily and to react to the challenges they face in their fundraises. Those interactions are fantastic stories and illustrative teaching moments that I’m excited to share in a weekly newsletter.

Why we subscribed: VC-backed founder & former VC Jason Yeh’s weekly newsletter shares fantastic stories and illustrative teaching moments from his daily conversations with founders. Founders will find rare guidance that sets the stage for an efficient and effective fundraising process.

3 of our favorite articles: 

Frequency: Weekly

Femstreet

Femstreet

Their pitch: ​​A weekly newsletter featuring must-read content by female CEOs, operators, and investors. Where women in tech lead, shape and fund the future.

Why we subscribed: Sarah Nöckel’s curation of indispensable guidance from female voices in tech is especially critical at a time when despite record levels of funding available and widespread commitments to achieving parity, women-led startups received just 2% of VC funding in 2021

3 of our favorite articles/editions:

Frequency: Weekly

First Round Capital

First Round Review

Their pitch: We believe that there is powerful, untapped knowledge out there that can transform the way people build technology. There's just one problem: It's trapped in other people's heads — people who are at the top of their fields, who rarely have time to share what they've learned (even when they want to). The Review is about liberating this knowledge to inspire and accelerate action.

Why we subscribed: First Round Capital is a highly-respected seed-stage firm with early investments in companies like Uber, Warby Parker, Blue Apron, Notion, Roblox, and many more. The Review draws upon first-hand experience from portfolio companies and offers uncanny insight on topics like leadership and management, community, growth, and others that are especially relevant to first-time founders.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Weekly


Andrew Chen VC

Andrew Chen

Their pitch: Featur[ing] long-form essays on startups, growth, metrics, and network effects. I’ve written 650+ essays which have been featured and quoted in The New York Times, Fortune, Wired, and WSJ.

Why we subscribed: Current general partner at Andreessen Horowitz Former & Head of Growth at Uber Andrew Chen provides in-depth, valuable insider advice on tech startups as well as more general growth and product strategy.

3 of our favorite articles: 

Frequency: Weekly

Benedict Evans

Their pitch: What happened in tech that actually mattered, and what did it mean? Once a week, I send an email newsletter to 170,000 people – I pick out the changes and ideas you don’t want to miss in all the noise, and give them context and analysis.

Why we subscribed: True to his word, we found that Benedict Evans’ weekly newsletter does indeed do an excellent job of covering “What matters in tech?” The current independent analyst and former a16z partner has distilled insightful analyses of technology trends and their impacts since 2013. For founders, these analyses also serve the dual function of providing a valuable inside look at how investors at top VCs approach the most consequential issues in tech.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Weekly

Product Newsletters

Growth.Design

Their pitch: Level up your product skills. Get product tips in a comic book format you’ll love to read.

Why we subscribed: We wish more informational content was presented like this! Growth.Design’s monthly case studies explain practical product tips in an easily-digestible and dare I say entertaining format. It’s sure to be oodles more fun than studying for your PMP exam.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Monthly


hacker newsletter

Hacker Newsletter

Their pitch: “Since 2010, we've put out a weekly newsletter of the best articles on startups, technology, programming, and more. All links are curated by hand from Hacker News. Join 60,000+ other subscribers and don't miss another week.”

Why we subscribed: Hacker News has long been a trusted destination for developers & tech discussion, but it’s not the most intuitive to navigate for unseasoned readers. The Hacker Newsletter has curated the best articles found on the site since 2010.

Frequency: Weekly

lenny rachitsky newsletter

Lenny's Newsletter (Lenny Rachitsky)

Their pitch: Every week, I humbly tackle reader questions about product, growth, people management, and anything else that’s stressing you out at the office.

Why we subscribed: Former Airbnb PM Lenny Rachitsky draws upon his considerable experience to instruct over 95k readers on practical growth and product strategies. His newsletter’s expansion over the past year is also a masterclass in scaling, so anyone seeking to grow their personal brand would be wise to check out a few of his interviews on the topic.  

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency:  Weekly for paid subscribers; One free monthly issue

first 1000 newsletter

First 1000

Their pitch: How do top startups find their early customers? Find out on First 1000. We share a case study every week about how companies like Zapier, Doordash and Tinder got their very first customers.

Why we subscribed: In our conversations with founders, the challenge of acquiring early customers is among the most frequent sources of both excitement and distress. Ali Abouelatta’s analysis covers the early product decisions and marketing strategies of some of the most fascinating companies in tech.

3 of our favorite articles:

  • ~ Stripe- Everything you *didn't* know about how Stripe got started + a deep deep dive into how their acquisition + GTM strategy in the early days 
  • ~ Notion- Launching a product in a crowded space, growing through Word of Mouth and positioning a product that is hard to explain!
  • ~ Airbnb- How Airbnb got their first 1000 customers

Frequency: Weekly

Product Thoughts

Their pitch: Get better at building Products that make a Difference. Every Week. My weekly Product Thoughts newsletter delivers actionable advice for your daily work, as well as the most practical articles on Product Strategy, Product Goals, and Product Discovery from across the web.

Why we subscribed: Much like PMs, early-stage founders often wear multiple hats while being responsible for prioritization and pattern identification. This newsletter covers both beginning and advanced topics in product management.

3 of our favorite articles: 

Frequency: Weekly

SaaS Newsletters

saas weekly

SaaS Weekly

Their pitch: Get the best SaaS articles the web has to offer every Friday in your inbox. Free & no spam ever.

Why we subscribed: Written by 3x SaaS founder Hiten Shah, this newsletter cuts through endless piles of SaaS content to bring you actionable guidance from experts in SaaS marketing, product development, sales, & more.

Frequency: Weekly

tomaz tunguz

Tomasz Tunguz

Their pitch: Tomasz Tunguz is a partner with Redpoint Ventures. He was previously the product manager for Google's social media monetization team, including the Google-MySpace partnership, and managed the launches of AdSense into six new markets in Europe and Asia.

Why we subscribed: When it comes to insights into the SaaS market and tech, Tomasz Tunguz’ data-driven perspectives communicate one of the most compelling and forward-thinking viewpoints around. Plus, he has a really sweet name.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Weekly

saas playbook

 The SaaS Playbook

Their pitch: A bi-weekly rundown of the top articles, tactics, and thought leadership in B2B SaaS.

Why We Subscribed: In our experience, many SaaS newsletters are often steeped in confounding metrics that are too indecipherable to be useful. The SaaS Playbook confers a welcome change with helpful community-driven content that cuts through the noise.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Bi-Weekly

People & Culture Newsletters

black tech pipeline

Black Tech Pipeline

Their pitch: A publication dedicated to bringing exposure, resources, and opportunity to Black technologists, and our allies. #BlackTechTwitter ✊🏾

Why we subscribed: Founded by Pariss Athena, Black Tech Pipeline partners with companies that commit to supportive DEI practices, sharing promising job opportunities in tech. Following the newsletter will not only connect founders with top talent but also help inform how to build DEI into company culture from the beginning.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Weekly

employer brand headlines

Employer Brand Headlines

Their pitch: In a sea of content, how do you stay up to date on employer branding news? How do you know what's worth reading and what's just a waste of time? So glad you asked! Here's a weekly digest of the best content to make you smarter about employer branding, curated by James Ellis. You will get smarter about employer branding. Whether you “own” your employer brand or are just interested in the topic, this email is here to help you level up.

Why we subscribed: With competition for top talent continually intensifying, it’s becoming even more necessary for employers to strengthen their brand & attract candidates. This is especially important for early-stage startups, who are often unable to dangle extravagant compensation and benefits packages.

3 of our favorite articles: 

Frequency: Weekly

recruiting brainfood hung lee

Recruiting Brainfood

Their pitch: The best manually curated recruiting content delivered to your inbox, once a week. Recruiting Brainfood is the industry newsletter for the talent business.

Why we subscribed: Hung Lee’s newsletter helps recruiters and HR professionals (functions which founders often take on) stay up-to-date on a continuously-evolving industry, including best practices on building company culture. Especially relevant considering the cutthroat competition in tech recruiting & how companies need differentiation to attract the best talent.

Frequency: Weekly

Marketing / Growth Newsletters

VeryGoodCopy

Their pitch: VeryGoodCopy is read and recommended by world-class copywriters, marketers, authors, and entrepreneurs. 

Why we subscribed: As a founder, you’ll be spending a ton of time writing outreach emails to potential connectors, forming partnerships, etc. Those lacking dedicated marketing teams are also most likely writing copy for customers. Eddie Schleyner shares guidance on how to write punchy, persuasive, powerful copy for your company and personal brand.

Frequency: Weekly

MarketingProfs Today

Their pitch: Practical marketing insights, lessons, perspectives, and know-how brought right to your inbox.

Why we subscribed: Daily tips covering topics like content marketing, social media engagement, lead generation, and much more provide sources of inspiration for founders at all stages of their startup’s journey.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Daily


Single Grain / Eric Siu

Their pitch: You’ll receive our weekly ‘Single Grain Digest Newsletter’ packed with: 

- 3 bite-sized summaries of our latest & greatest content (including interviews with founders and CEOs)

- 2 curated resources from the world’s greatest experts on copywriting, content marketing, pay-per-click advertising, branding, and...

- 1 secret growth hack that’s working for us right now at Single Grain

Why we subscribed: Single-Grain’s newsletter delivers a one-stop shop for exceptionally actionable advice from multiple areas of digital marketing. We especially appreciate how the authors draw upon multiple real-world examples / case studies to support their positions.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Weekly


Community Newsletters

CMX Weekly

CMX Weekly

Their pitch: Join over 12,000 readers who get the top community strategy resources in their inbox every week.

Why we subscribed: Growing and nurturing a passionate community are top unlocks for startups competing with multinational corporations. By now, most founders are probably aware that a rabid community just a couple hundred fanatics strong is much preferable to a disengaged list of a thousand followers. The CMX Weekly offers a wealth of resources for founders looking to build their community initiatives and leverage their base to help grow their companies.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Weekly

community club

Community.Club Newsletter

Their pitch: Get the latest interesting thoughts, resources and tips in the community building world straight to your inbox each week, curated by the Community Club team.

Why we subscribed: Built by and for community managers, the Community.Club Newsletter supplies founders with ample community development advice from people who have done it at the highest levels of companies like Google, Pateron, Twilio, & more. Subscribers will also stay notified of helpful Ask Me Anything sessions from top community builders and Demo Days to help navigate community software platforms. 

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Weekly

Bonus

DocSend

The Weekly Index by DocSend

Their pitch: Exclusive insights for early-stage founders and VCs, read by 26,000 of your peers.

Why we subscribed: Our partners at DocSend share original research, contributions from accomplished startup founders, & updates to the incredibly useful Pitch Deck Interest report. This newsletter is especially helpful for early-stage founders.

3 of our favorite articles:

Frequency: Weekly

And there you have it- our list of the 22 Essential Newsletters for Startup Founders in 2023. Busy startup founders obviously don’t have the time to read through each and every one, but pick out the areas you want to level up in and we’re sure you’ll discover a ton of consistently actionable guidance & inspiration.

*Think another newsletter should be included? Drop a line to jon@adamantventures.com & let me know why! We’ll be updating our list and dropping newsletters that stop publishing regularly. 

** If you’re concerned about flooding your inbox with newsletters, consider using helpful task-specific email addresses from your gmail account.

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