Canva acquires MagicBrief, a Sydney-based ad tech startup.

Every founder in consumer today wants to be the next big brand. But most don’t even survive 3 years. Why? Because they confuse a launch with a business. The game has changed. Earlier it was enough to win shelf space in kiranas. Now it’s Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto. Quick commerce is the new battleground and it’s brutal. If you’re not moving volume fast, you’re dead. The truth? Most consumer startups fail because: - They don’t have a product people need repeatedly. - They think Instagram likes = customer loyalty. - They underestimate how much cash it takes to win distribution. (most deadly is this) It’s not the cool ads that decide survival. It’s whether your product is worth a reorder on Blinkit at 11pm on a Tuesday night. And honestly, this is just an observation. I’m not an expert but from where I sit, the consumer game today isn’t about just making a brand look premium. It’s about making it stick, and making it available everywhere. Otherwise, you’re just another SKU lost in the scroll. #startups #consumer #investing

Diraj Goel, CEO of GetFresh Ventures, has launched a new series called Captivated! The first article is already a masterclass, drawing lessons from Uber in Paris, Canva, and Figma. These are real stories with frameworks you can apply immediately to identify mission-critical problems, design solutions, and scale successfully. If you are a founder, investor, or operator looking for actionable insights that go beyond theory, this series is essential reading. #StartupGrowth #FounderTips #ProductMarketFit https://lnkd.in/gB3kRg4j

In the early days of building your startup, it’s easy to focus entirely on your product, your team, and your pitch deck. However, one of the most overlooked growth levers is you and your personal brand 🌟 For founders, a personal brand is about building trust at scale, creating opportunities, and becoming a magnet for the people, capital, and conversations that can accelerate your startup. Ashley (Mason) DiBiase, Founder of Tech Startup Network & Dash of Social, shares more in this blog post! https://lnkd.in/e475zPyi

🚨 The costly fallacy destroying startups: "People think if I build it, they will come, magically that clients will just show up at the door once we release this app." Reality check: ❌ Launch day ≠ Customer day ✅ Marketing must start BEFORE building "You need to have started building that marketing funnel very early and building it often for it to really reach true levels of attention." Even OpenAI and today's giants? Not overnight successes. They built audiences while building products. When did you start marketing your last product? #ProductStrategy #StartupLessons #MarketingFirst #ProductManagement #GrowthMindset #BuildInPublic #StartupReality #BusinessDevelopment

Monday Startup Profile Here's a novel startup that's optimizing YouTube engagement 🎥 ThumbnailTest enables A/B testing for YouTube thumbnails and titles 🧪 Founded by Rox, who streams startup builds live on Twitch 🎮 Launched in June 2022, now achieving $16K in monthly revenue 💰 Started with an initial investment of just $99 💵 Empowering creators to maximise their content's performance 🚀

The only two startup moats that actually matter in 2025: 🚀 Speed of execution 🐙 Content distribution That’s it. Not Brand. Not product. Not company mission (lol). Move faster than everyone else. Tell the story louder than everyone else. Everything else is a luxury for later. For example, AIApply garnered 21 million organic views on Instagram in the last 30 days. That's distribution. No VC money. Pure elbow grease.

Most startups don't fail because their ideas are bad — they fail because their marketing isn't structured right. From weak identity to inconsistent content, these mistakes can cost brands everything. Here's how you can build smarter, not louder. #StartupMarketing #DigitalStrategy #BrandBuilding #ContentMarketing #VOKPartners #GrowthStrategy #MarketingTips #StartupIndia #BusinessGrowth

"When I started Clear, there was always this question that I had that investors had, and that was why is there no market leading skincare app?" Ahana Banerjee on building Clear "It meant that it was a very painstaking, not sexy or glamorous process of product development of interviewing users, brainstorming ideas, UX designing them, actually building them, AV testing them, constantly iterating." Building a great product isn't sexy. "Since we've hit those retention targets and now entered kind of a more new stage of more intentional growth, still cheap, but intentional, & focusing more on the B2B side, opening up more revenue streams." Some founders optimise for investor headlines. Ahana optimised for user retention. And now its paying off. VENTURES 🚀

Behind every strong startup, there’s a founder whose voice defined the first steps. The next challenge is turning that personal tone into something the whole company can use, without losing what made it real. We wrote about how a founder’s voice can grow into a brand language that aligns teams, builds trust, and keeps the story coherent. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/d3WWBJ_B

A startup that almost died… then quietly built a $10B empire In 2015, a small San Francisco startup was running out of time. Their product was buggy, their users were leaving, and funding had dried up. Most teams would’ve called it quits. But this one didn’t. The founders packed their bags and moved to Japan - not for inspiration, but survival. No distractions. No noise. Just a laptop and a mission: Rebuild everything. They scrapped their old product and started fresh - one block at a time. What emerged wasn’t just another productivity app, but something entirely new: A workspace you could shape like Lego - write, plan, build, and organize your way. Then something magical happened. People didn’t just use the product - they started teaching it. YouTubers made tutorials. Designers shared templates. Communities formed organically. No ad budget. No influencer campaigns. Just pure product love. By 2024, that “failed” startup became a $10B company used by teams at Figma, Netflix, and Google. The name? Notion Conclusion: Sometimes, the best growth strategy isn’t paid acquisition or virality hacks - it’s building something so flexible and empowering that users become your distribution engine. #ProductManagement #StartupStories #ProductDesign #CommunityLedGrowth #Notion #UXDesign #ProductThinking #StartupJourney