Mark Munro

Building a healthier future for kids. Formerly @firstround @coursera @clever @teachforamerica

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

A few months ago, I moved into a new role as @firstround Angel Track’s General Manager.

I started my career teaching 7th grade. This move feels like I’m coming full circle from one classroom to another.

Humbled to build this incredible community.🙏
https://t.co/XdyCDNK68w

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@bosmeny @garrytan @ycombinator Congrats!!! 🎉

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@almostcmb Best news. So happy for you and the fam!

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@TaraViswanathan Huge congrats to you and your incredible team @RosaHamalainen @LindsayGo1dman

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@bencmejla @thegp Congrats, Ben!

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@BrettHagler Thanks! Appreciate it.

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

Early childhood education is one of the highest impact investments for governments and families.

My conversations with owners, investors, and policymakers about opportunities and constraints underscored the role of real estate.

Excited to share those learnings in Thesis Driven.

[Brad Hargreaves @bhargreaves]

Solving the childcare shortage will require more real estate dedicated to child care.

Today's Thesis Driven (from @markmunro) explores early childhood education spaces as a real estate investment category. Here's why they're interesting...

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@nikunj @shriyanevatia Thanks @nikunj! I’ll DM you, @shriyanevatia. The pandemic accelerated demand. I’m excited about this new renaissance, but remain skeptical around go-to-market.

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

Pumped to see this program from @tjack and the @firstround team out in the wild.

If you're in the early innings of building a B2B business, check out the first session and apply below!

[Todd Jackson @tjack]

Big @firstround news today!

We’re launching Product-Market Fit Method (a free intensive 14-week experience for early founders building epic B2B SaaS companies) and publishing the first session on our internal framework for all to read (with benchmarks, Looker's real data, and tactical advice from iconic enterprise founders).

Even though finding product-market fit is the single most important thing for a startup, it’s still underexplored and seen as more art than science. We wanted to change that.

I’ve personally talked to hundreds of founders about this topic, digging into what they did in the first 6-9 months of company building. (We’ve published dozens of those interviews on The Review in our “Paths to PMF” series.) This video previews some of what we learned — thanks to @christinacaci, @zachperret, @lloydtabb, @jboehmig, & @jaltma for sharing their lessons!

In addition to that research, we’ve also drawn from our own 20 years of data and 500+ pre-PMF investments. What emerged was a very consistent set of patterns for sales-led B2B companies — the basis for our new framework and PMF Method’s 8 tactical sessions.

In the program, we help early founders discover what customers really want, build the right v1 product, and close their first enterprise sales. We ran a beta version late last year with a tight-knit group of founders (ex Stripe, Plaid, Airbnb, Twitter, Greenhouse, Grammarly) and the feedback was great — my personal favorite was: "I feel like I shaved 12 months off the time it would take us to get to PMF.”

Here are a few key dates and details:

- The Summer 2024 session of PMF Method runs 5/29 - 8/28.
- Application deadline is 11:59 PDT May 7th.
- Any early founder working on a new B2B SaaS company is welcome to apply. Bonus points if you’re technical, have a clear product idea but haven’t raised yet and are <12 months into working full time on your idea.
- PMF Method is 100% free. It costs you $0 and we own 0% of your company.

Like with The First Round Review and Angel Track, our mindset is to openly share knowledge that we’ve put hundreds of hours of work into curating with the broader startup community, and give it away for free. That’s why we’ve also published our framework, so every builder can use this resource, even if they don’t do the program (it’s linked in the next post).

Check out the links below for more details. Can’t wait to read applications!

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@AndreaCoravos @GoHumanFirst @ICONplc Congrats! 💛

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@wwshaef @ev Very happy to see this!!! 🙌

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@lafillemouen @lee94josh @abigailjanvier @joshm @browsercompany Impeccable 👏👏👏

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

Incredible way to educate users at scale. 🔥

@doptcom is paving the way to speed up app-based product adoption with their new AI assist.

[Phil Vander Broek @philvb]

What if you could point at anything in-app and get AI-powered help and actions?

We’re building it! And we’re calling it 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁

It uses AI vision, page context, user details, and docs for remarkably relevant assistance

Not another support chatbot! AI built for in-app

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@CharleyMa @MahdiRazaMR @ExponentCap Congrats @CharleyMa @MahdiRazaMR!

[Alon @alon]

I've met over 1000 PLG SaaS companies since starting Dopt

Everyone wants one thing: an amazing user journey with relevant experiences that help people succeed without spamming them or getting in their way

But it's hard, and everyone runs into the same (often unforeseen) issues

[Bruno Werneck de Almeida (AFK) @brunoswerneck]

1/ Who are the up-and-coming fintech angels in New York City? 🗽

Especially female and minority backgrounds

It's time to get the next generation of investors involved but still not seeing enough representation in the angel community

Please share names and let’s do more 👇

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

The @firstround Review has always stood for depth captured in the details.

It's incredible to see the work of @camillericketts @shaunyou @jessicraige @emannstan @sarahhallam_ compound over the last decade.

Here are some of the top tips they've recorded:
https://t.co/2Zj8r00RMf

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

@cjc @nikunj @firstround Thanks, @cjc and @nikunj! The best part has been working with exceptional leaders like you two. 🙏

[Tim Schwartz @timjschwartz]

This was a special group of humans @brettberson @markmunro @firstround put together. How they run the program and the firm, and the level of support they provide (and how much they care) for founders was incredible to see. Should be any founders first call.

Thank you ❤️

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

I'm in awe of our most recent Angel Track cohort.

With folks like @saradu, @TonyDong3, @vxanand, and @Max, it's hard to find a group that could do more to shape a company's early trajectory .

Meet the rest of the crew below!👇

[Brett Berson @brettberson]

Excited to officially announce our newest cohort of Angel Track graduates! It’s somehow been 5 years since we first launched the program, and I’m still blown away by the megawatt talent that joins the ranks of our community, now over 400 strong.

In our 12th cohort earlier this year, we welcomed exceptionally talented folks, from founders like @instacart’s @max and @alloyautomation’s @saradu to incredible leaders at standout companies like @jenny_wen of @figma, @jamiecuffe of @retool, @dyett of @openai, @tonydong3 of @rippling, and dozens more.

To mark 5 years of Angel Track, we gave our website a revamp, sharing a bunch more details about what we think makes this a one-of-a-kind program, and a sample of the remarkable alumni.

We also gave a new coat of paint to Angel Directory, where founders can connect with standout angel investors both in and outside of the Angel Track network.

[Mark Munro @markmunro]

This is such a good resource from @lightspark's @jevering on going from big to small.

Tons in here on the mindset adjustments to make, the mistakes to look out for, and the simple tools you can lean on to introduce just the right amount of process. https://t.co/CuHukzTKWg