Dave Kellogg, EIR at Balderton Capital, wrote an explosive piece on the reality of modern startups in 2025. Dave walks us through the winners and losers in the AI era. Read Dave's Article Here: https://topline.beehiiv.com/p/the-era-of-haves-and-have-nots

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Chapters: 00:47 Introduction & editorial setup

03:03 Defining winning: market share as goal

07:09 Marathon vs sprint; growth tradeoffs

12:02 Switching costs, returns, and herd dynamics

21:42 Disruption resets order; capital to #1

25:06 Easy-come growth vs durable ARR

28:18 Creative destruction and incentives

33:31 Winning by ownership type

36:39 Strategy over grind; #2 playbook

40:33 Labor leverage, RTO, and 9-9-6 culture

53:31 Stalled SaaS: valuations, NRR, and growth

1:01:00 Consolidation, moats, domain expertise

1:04:45 Outro & where to follow