“When I first opened Attio, I instantly got the feeling this was the next generation of CRM.”
— Margaret Shen, Head of GTM at Modal

Attio is the AI-native CRM for modern teams. With automatic enrichment, call intelligence, AI agents, flexible workflows and more, Attio works for any business and only takes minutes to set up.

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Here is a preview of our upcoming book. We will deliver chapter previews and more every Monday. Stay tuned.

You may have something real by now. It might still feel fragile, but it exists, like a flame cupped in your hands. You built it from nothing, keeping it lit through the mess and uncertainty.

After 29 days of building, testing, and launching, you’re standing at the edge of something bigger. This is the final chapter, and it’s intended to plant a line in the ground:

What will you never trade, even for growth?

Because once your product enters the world, it stops being just yours. It touches people, persuades them, learns from them, and begins to shape lives, sometimes in ways you never intended. That’s the moment your shadow starts to stretch.

The shape of your shadow—your ethical footprint—will ultimately determine your legacy. Every product, service, and business decision create ripples that extend far beyond our immediate vision.

Take social media platforms, born from the desire to connect people. The founders genuinely believed they were bringing the world closer together. They were right, in part. But they also created unprecedented systems for surveillance, manipulation, and social fragmentation. The algorithms designed to keep users engaged discovered that anger and outrage were the most engaging emotions of all. Democracy itself began to fracture along the fault lines these platforms inadvertently carved.

These weren't malicious companies run by evil people. They were startups like yours, built by founders who thought they were making the world better. The shadows they cast weren't intentional, at least until they grew so large they could no longer be ignored.

Or consider the seemingly innocent recommendation algorithm. On the surface, it shows users content they might enjoy, products they might want, or people they might like to meet. But these recommendation systems go beyond just predicting preferences to tell us what to want.

This is why ethics should be the architecture behind your growth, one that decides whether you’re building something that respects people or quietly erodes them. To do this, you have to define, in advance, what you will and won’t do when growth is on the line.

Founders spend too much time drafting the same kinds of messages. Wispr Flow turns spoken thinking into final-draft writing so you can record investor updates, product briefs, and run-of-the-mill status notes by voice. Use saved snippets for recurring intros, insert calendar links by voice, and keep comms consistent across the team. It preserves your tone, fixes punctuation, and formats lists so you send confident messages fast. Works on Mac, Windows, and iPhone. Try Wispr Flow for founders.

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_{^{Disclaimer: The startup ideas shared in this forum are non-rigorously curated and offered for general consideration and discussion only. Individuals utilizing these concepts are encouraged to exercise independent judgment and undertake due diligence per legal and regulatory requirements. It is recommended to consult with legal, financial, and other relevant professionals before proceeding with any business ventures or decisions.}}

_{^{Sponsored content in this newsletter contains investment opportunity brought to you by our partner ad network. Even though our due-diligence revealed no concerns to us to promote it, we are in no way recommending the investment opportunity to anyone. We are not responsible for any financial losses or damages that may result from the use of the information provided in this newsletter. Readers are solely responsible for their own investment decisions and any consequences that may arise from those decisions. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost data, or other intangible losses, arising out of or in connection with the use of the information provided in this newsletter.}}