Archive - Kiko's Musings

Founder Mode or Manager Mode? Yes

It's neither founder mode all the way nor manager mode all the way. The right way to manage a company is being both at different times, in different…

Jun 17 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

April 2025

From Wages to Compute

The Shifting Landscape of Work, Wealth (and Public Finances) in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Apr 4 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

March 2025

The venture capital equation

The math that undergirds the startup game

Mar 8 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

On the game of startups (AI edition)

What game are you playing really?

Mar 8 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

February 2025

Why startups fail? For more top-down thinking

Why do startups fail outright, or fail to reach the skies? I argue that a lot has to do with too *little* top down thinking in picking a good…

Feb 24 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

December 2024

Thoughts on Vertical x Functional Agents

Startups will eventually have to choose between being vertical-first or being functional-first

Dec 6, 2024 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

December 2023

On enterprise sales and performance: applying Total Quality Management concepts to the world of B2B SaaS

A reflection about the sales ladder and what each of the main levels entails.

Dec 8, 2023 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

July 2023

Meta's Threads x Twitter: Lessons on Competitive Strategy and the Commoditization of "Competitors"

Kevin Systrom + Matt Cohler's texts show how worried about Twitter Mark Zuckerberg has historically been. Cohler, a former Facebook executive, says "he…

Jul 6, 2023 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

June 2023

AI, enterprise software, and disruptive innovation

A AI-motivated follow-up to The Never-Ending Cycle of Disruptive Innovation in Enterprise Software

Jun 16, 2023 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

May 2023

Highlights from Foreign Affairs interview with General Mark Milley

Amazingly interesting stuff about military strategy, the Ukraine war and China/Russia/US relations

May 2, 2023 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

April 2023

Towards a Taxonomy of Moats and a Genealogy of Network Effects

Hey! Many of you guys asked me for a podcast or audio file to listen to instead of a video, so thankfully Substack offers this podcast feature to which…

Apr 25, 2023 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

34:40

March 2023

Depositor's Dilemma

Or, thoughts on The Great Silicon Valley Bank Run

Mar 13, 2023 •

Francisco Souza Homem de Mello

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