Hey friends 👋
313 new founders, operators, and investors joined us this week — welcome!
As this newsletter has grown, we’ve realised it’s not only about empowering the brains (aka the maths 🧮) but also the hearts (aka the community 💛).
So from now on, we’ll alternate between:
🧮 Startup GTO essays → optimal maths of startups & investing
🌍 Community editions → the network, the wins, the IRL
The goal of the community editions is simple: empower you with the network.
Together, we celebrate your wins, we give you intros, we hang out IRL.
Brains + hearts = That’s how we all win! 👾
🥳 Wins & Celebrations
Join us in sending a “gg” message for those of us who reached an important milestone this week! 💪🏼
Congrats to our own Alex Christie, poker/catan player & CTO @ Attio for raising their $52M series B 👏
Tom Charman, Catan player & CEO @ blok, for his company making it into Techcrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200! 🎉🎉🎉
Happy 1 year anniversary to fruitful by Henry Moulton, poker player & CEO @ fruitful, for a year full of emotions! 🎂🎉
Kudos to Aaron Jones, Catan/poker player & CEO @ yepic, for winning the Project Lovable hackathon organised by Harry Stebbings’ 20VC & Lovable! 🥳👏🏽
👉 Got a win or launch? Share it in 10 seconds and let us celebrate with you!
🤝 Asks & intros
We win if you win. You win if we win.
Eito Miyamura (CEO/Founder @ Edison.watch) is looking for introductions to CISO / CCO / CRO in a fast sales cycle (<6 months) enterprise adopting AI and terrified of data exfiltration.
Yves Zumbuehl (CEO @ Papercheck) is looking for intros to people with strong university connections - he’s looking to talk with students (preferably the ones who are about to hand in a paper, thesis, or big assignment)
👉 What’s your bottleneck? Take 30 seconds to help the 5000+ of us help you win!
👾 Incoming Games
Where we’re playing & recharging IRL.
Sep 4 | 🐑 Tech Catan Tournament #4 (SF 🇺🇸)
Settle, trade, and outwit at the world’s largest curated Catan gathering for extraordinary tech builders, change-makers, and leaders.
Sept 11 | 🐑 Tech Catan Tournament #2 (Berlin 🇩🇪)
Europe’s sharpest tech minds meet over roads, cities, and sheep—the most curated Catan room in Berlin.
Sept 19 | ♦️ The SF Tech Poker #3 (SF 🇺🇸)
Elite founders, operators, and investors face off in an evening of cards, reads, and calculated risk — poker as a founder’s sport
By popular demand, we’re taking TechGames online. First up: Among Us - the ultimate test of persuasion, strategy, and reading people. Relax, scheme, and laugh with fellow sharp founders, investors, and operators from SF, London, NYC, and beyond. As always, curated crowd only.
Oct 17 | ♟️ Tech Chess Tournament #3 (London 🇬🇧)
Precision, patience, and bold plays. Battle London’s top tech talent in a room where every move counts.
👉 Want to host a tech game for the community or add a game in the network? Fill the form below.
🎭 Behind the Scenes
To be honest, I’ve never run a newsletter - I’ve always been a technical/math/AI guy who mainly builds products.
But hey! There is a start to everything! 🔥 I’ve spent hundreds of hours so far analysing successful (and unsuccessful ones) to be sure this one is the highest ROI possible.
One thing that’s happening on ALL FRONT: Khalid, me, and the team are not sleeping much right now but just living & breathing maths, community infra, and startups! 🔥 💪🏼
We feel blessed to be surrounded by so many incredible people & be working on this - it’s such a fascinating project!
Also, it’s been very fun to read your answers + improve/iterate on it all with your feedback/comments along the way.
Out of many things, a few of you said the previous website & branding was a bit weak, which pushed us to upgrade it (let us know what you think! 👇🏼)
Improved newsletter website - www.gtostartup.com
💌 See you Next Week!
If you want to chat or discuss about anything, hit reply - we read everything.
Feedback, comments, questions - help us iterate & help you win! 🙏🏼
Also, if you know brilliant individuals who think like us here, please…