Edu Portet

We @MoraHQ are hosting a webinar w/ our friends @mastra / @calcsam next week if you're curious how we build our analytics agent to scale! We'll show how we inject authoritative context so the agent consistently get things right. Doing it w/ @eportet! Tue Aug 11, 9am PT. Link to register is in the comments 👇

I am increasingly convinced there are only 2 ways to reliably make money in this AI cycle: 1. Be a great investor who can spread risk across many bets. 2. Work at OpenAI or Anthropic. Anyone else that makes real $$$ (including startup founders) are the exception that proves the rule and should feel blessed their lottery ticket hit 🎰 I think we're deluding ourselves if we pretend anything else is true. I am not saying don't build. I'm building. I think we should just be honest with ourselves. No amount of hard work or luck will save you. So what should we do? I think you have 2 options whether you are a startup founder, work at a startup or even a larger company. I would ask myself: 1. Am I in a winner? 2. Do I have a very clear edge to win? If the answer to either of those is no, I would drop everything and try to align myself with one of the points above.

Most "successful" startups are FAR from a sure bet... Since college I've kept a list of startups I found genuinely impressive the moment they hit unicorn status. I just went back through ~40 of them that crossed a billion between 2020 and 2022. More than half have shown little to no external progress, or got quietly "acquired" for what looks like a fraction of their last valuation (transaction value not disclosed, of course). The tempting cope is "well, maybe they're killing it in silence." I highly doubt it. People who are killing it brag about it. That's how you raise more and hire the best. What I take from this: 1. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝘆𝗽𝗲. You rarely know how a valuation was built or what's holding it up. 2. 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹. Companies that looked invincible turned out to be very mortal. 3. 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴. Keep your eyes on the prize, whatever it is for you. A big outcome, a technical breakthrough, a logo you're proud of. 4. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲. It's a long road, and it's just people inside these companies doing their best. Learn what you can, help where you can.

Most of my founder friends would rather be working at OpenAI or Anthropic than running their own startup. They keep going because they raised the money, or inertia, or some mix of both. Everyone is "crushing it." But the second people drop their guard, they bring up a friend at one of the labs and how much greener the grass looks over there. Why? A few things I think is driving this feeling: 𝟭. 𝗪𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. It feels like everyone ships the same product, and the winner today is whoever markets it slightly better than the next person. That makes the whole thing feel like it's built on sand. 2. 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. Every OpenAI and Anthropic release feels like bringing a knife to a gunfight (and the other guy is really good with guns!). 3. 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆. Dozens of new startups in every vertical, a lot of them doing well, and it's impossible to tell what's actually happening. Is everyone hitting $100M overnight? Will they all exit? What is going on? So what do you do? I can only speak for myself: - 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀. Tune out the noise. Find the one thing that matters and lock onto it. - 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘆. Do fewer things. Reduce the number of things that have to go right for you to win. - 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲. Don't marry a rigid plan. Run the short term strategy that looks most promising, learn fast, and iterate your way to something that works. Mostly I think this is just a sign the bar for success went up. That's the new reality. Time to buckle up and push. If you read this far - Godspeed.

Most founders should be thinking about selling their company today. Nobody wants to say this out loud because you're supposed to "go big or go home". But as a founder, I'll say it → Start thinking about selling 𝘯𝘰𝘸. Just like fundraising and applying to YC make your company stronger because they force you back to fundamentals and sharpen your execution. The process of selling does the exact same thing. Every founder and investor I know who has been through it repeats the same line: 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗱. Getting your company "bought" is a skill. Like any skill, it takes reps. And since the vast majority of good outcomes end in an acquisition anyway, you might as well start getting those reps in today.

Mora has been out for a week now! Here are some thing I wished 1. Ship! Ship! Ship! → there are so many things to ship and you might not be sure exactly how everything will be received. 2. Don't plan more than 14 days out → so much changes that it's hard to adapt at the pace you need if you plan so much in advance. 3. Ship again! → most people don't see everything you ship so you got to keep sharing! (it's very humbling 😂) And I think it's working! We added more customers on a Sunday a than what we added in all of the first month of the year !! 🤯

Today we're introduce Mora Data Agent Your Data Agent should give you the right answer every time! Not a guess. We built Mora Data Agent around 4 pillars: → Business context: learns your definitions and goals → Schema awareness: dynamically maps your data model at query time → Output validation: every answer checked against verified metrics → Analytic harness: trained on data analytics, improves with every query This way Mora stays aligned with how your company actually operates. Ask for Revenue? Mora pulls your definition first, then runs the query. Challenge it with "no, revenue excludes one-time services" and it updates the rule! Then the next answer reflects it!! Generic models guess. Mora gets grounded in the vocabulary your team actually uses. Go try it out 👇

48 hours since we launched Mora! Honestly didn't know what to expect but the response has been incredible. Sleep has tanked but worth it. Quick retro while everything is fresh: → 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 → we could make the hook more relatable / impactful. I suspect if we included a big fundraise announcement it would've done even better (hmm 👀) → 𝗩𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 → format worked better than expected (it's a goood playbook) BUT a more unique concept can perform even better. → 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼 → this portion converted way better than abstract positioning. Just show the thing working! → 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 → from recognizable people in the space drove real engagement. Need more of these lined up earlier. → 𝗦𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 → One person owns social content, another owns direct network activation. Don't overlap! We went crazy during launch day. Also someone on your team can take over your account to help with this. → 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 → these matter but we left too much on the table. I would ask follow-up questions, don't just thank/reply to people. Already planning adjustments for the next big launch 🚀🚀🚀 Onwards!!

Took @patrickc idea for unsolved problems to the next level at the YC hackathon! Houston is now a site and people can start submitting interesting problems(:

If building startups was an Olympic sport it would probably be curling