Adam J. Graham's Recent LinkedIn Posts

When your CTO has nailed the frontend, but backend is still work in progress. ******* Repost this your network & follow me Adam J. Graham for more content like this.

King sold to Activision for $5.9B - a mobile exit nobody predicted. Riccardo Zacconi mastered casual game economics. Engagement, not graphics, drove the valuation. Sometimes the simple things scale the hardest. Don’t underestimate “simple but sticky.” ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information

Adyen scaled past a €50B valuation by saying no to custom work. Founders Pieter van der Does and Arnout Schuijff enforced one global platform. Clients adapted to Adyen - not the reverse. Uniformity enabled reliability at scale. Discipline can outperform flexibility. ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information

The fear of being left behind A calmer take on this week’s AI panic came from Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks and former columnist at The Guardian. In his newsletter The Imperfectionist, he argues that the scramble to be “ready” for what’s next rests on a false premise. The discomfort isn’t proof we’re falling behind. It’s a reminder that uncertainty never goes away. AI has intensified that feeling. There’s always a new warning about shrinking adaptation windows or expiring skills. The subtext: act now - or be left behind. In business, that belief is expensive. Markets may swing on speculation. Infrastructure politics may slow adoption. But decisions made from anxiety rarely improve outcomes. 🧠 Urgency culture ⏳ Permanent uncertainty ⚖️ Calm beats panic Steady adjustment tends to outperform strategic panic. 👇 Are you adapting thoughtfully - or reacting to the fear of falling behind? 🔗 Read the Burkeman piece here: https://lnkd.in/edbqpTbW ******* Repost this to help your network & follow me Adam Graham for more content like this.

What seven years inside Airbnb taught one product leader A product leader who spent seven years inside Airbnb during its hypergrowth phase just shared what actually made the difference. A few things stood out. Culture wasn't a side project. It was the operating system - reinforced through rituals, hiring and every major decision. Goals were deliberately uncomfortable. Brian Chesky would 10X a target that teams already thought was ambitious. Then there was Snow White. Before building anything, the founders storyboarded the perfect guest and host experience like a film. Imagine the ideal first. Work backwards until it's possible. 🎯 Culture as strategic asset 🚀 Targets set to stretch, not comfort 🎬 Vision before build - always Great companies obsess over culture, clarity and focus. Not one of the three. All three, at the same time. 👇 Which of the three do you think most companies get wrong? 🔗 Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/eRrqqcA7 ******* Repost to help your network & follow Adam J. Graham for more like this.

The credibility shortcut most founders miss This week’s Growth Mindset looks at one of the hardest early challenges in building: credibility, and why the fastest way to earn it may be to elevate others rather than yourself. It also explores what Travis Kalanick has been building since leaving Uber, and why his focus on physical infrastructure could be the bigger long-term bet. We also cover why “boring” businesses keep outperforming, how Brian Niccol is resetting Starbucks through faster decisions, and the next AI shift that Jensen Huang sees coming as tools move from answering to acting. If you're building, scaling or backing a business, this one's for you. You can read the full edition here on LinkedIn and subscribe so it lands in your feed each week. #GrowthMindset #Newsletter #AI #TechTrends #BusinessStrategy #Mergers

ASML became Europe’s most valuable tech firm at c.$300B. Former CEO Arthur del Prado bet everything on extreme ultraviolet lithography. The project ran over budget and nearly failed for years. Today, no advanced chips are made without ASML machines. Patience can turn impossibility into monopoly. ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter for useful M&A insights.

Apple founder Steve Jobs explains the difficult reality of building a company ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information

ServiceNow crossed $150B in market cap by fixing internal friction. Founder Fred Luddy built the product after frustration as a CTO. He targeted mundane workflows others ignored. Boring efficiency spread quietly across enterprises. Unsexy problems often hide the deepest moats. ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information

The sale was won before the shopping started New research from WPP Media and Oxford's Saïd Business School tracked 1.2 million purchase journeys across 200+ categories. 84% of purchases involve a brand the buyer was already predisposed to choose - before they started actively shopping. Most buyers consider fewer than three brands. They usually pick the one they already favour. By the time someone opens a comparison tab, the decision is largely made. The real competition isn't at the point of purchase. It's in the quiet accumulation of everyday brand experiences - long before anyone is in the market. 🧠 Mental availability 📊 84% pre-decided ⏳ Preference forms early If you're only showing up when someone is ready to buy, you're probably too late. 👇 Are you investing enough in brand before the purchase window opens? 🔗 Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/erjke3yS ******* Repost to help your network & follow Adam J. Graham for more like this.

The strange economics of the "boomcession" A new term is emerging to describe the current economic mood - and it explains why the numbers and the feeling don't match. GDP is growing. Markets have surged. Consumer spending is resilient. Yet large numbers of people say their finances feel worse. Inflation has hit essentials hardest - housing, food, the things you can't opt out of. Asset gains flow mainly to wealthier households. Spending growth is increasingly driven by the top. The result is an economy that looks healthy on paper while many individuals experience something closer to stagnation. 📊 Strong headline numbers 🏠 Essentials hit hardest 💸 Gains concentrated at the top One economy. Very different experiences depending on where you sit in it. 👇 Does the "boomcession" match what you're seeing in your own world? 🔗 CNBC has the full story here: https://lnkd.in/eVryGvei ******* Repost this to help your network & follow me Adam Graham for more content like this.

Me getting escorted out of Y Combinator after refusing to leave without funding. ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information

The fastest way to build startup credibility One of the hardest problems for any new company is simple. No one knows if you’re worth paying attention to. The best hires, customers and partners tend to move toward what already looks high-signal. Which makes early traction feel like pushing uphill. A recent idea from Andreessen Horowitz flips the usual approach. Instead of trying to amplify your own brand… amplify the people around you who already have credibility. That could be a respected customer. A well-known advisor. An unusually strong early hire. If the right people trust them, that trust transfers faster and with more credibility than anything you could claim yourself. It’s not about borrowing credibility. It’s about making it visible. 👥 Credibility travels through people 📣 Signal beats self-promotion 🤝 Trust compounds through association Early-stage companies don’t win by being loud. They win by being vouched for. 👇 Who around your business already has the credibility you’re not using enough? 🔗 Get the story here: https://lnkd.in/ewRtKgs8 ******* Repost to help your network & follow me Adam J. Graham for more content like this.

The sci-fi post that moved markets A speculative Substack essay outlining a 2028 AI-driven economic collapse jolted US equities. The S&P 500 fell more than 1%, while shares in Uber Technologies, Mastercard and American Express slipped after being cited in the scenario. Days later, Citadel Securities responded with a data-led rebuttal: stable unemployment, rising software job postings and the historically slow diffusion of new technologies. The data hadn’t materially changed. The story had. In previous cycles, markets moved on earnings or policy. In the AI era, they’re reacting to narratives - sometimes ones that read like science fiction. 📉 Narrative shock 📊 Data steady 🧠 Imagination reshapes risk Markets don’t just discount cash flows. They discount futures. 👇 Are markets becoming more sensitive to AI narratives than underlying data? 🔗 How the market shook: https://lnkd.in/eUZwZrxz  🔗 Read the Citadels rebuttal: https://lnkd.in/eR_jESne ******* Repost to help your network & follow Adam J. Graham for more like this.

Databricks reached a c.$43B valuation by refusing premature monetisation. CEO Ali Ghodsi focused on adoption before pricing pressure. Open-source trust pulled enterprises in organically. Revenue followed usage, not the other way round. Earn belief first - pricing power comes later. ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information"

The Sphere finally has a business model Las Vegas's $2.3bn Sphere was always a spectacular bet. The question was whether the economics would ever catch up. They are starting to. The venue combines concerts, proprietary film experiences, premium concessions and one of the most valuable exterior ad screens on the planet. Millions of tickets sold.  Daily programming.  A calendar that runs like a theme park, not a tour stop. The concept is hardening into something real - a hybrid of cinema, arena and attraction that didn't exist before. The longer play is bigger: license smaller "mini-Spheres" globally and turn a one-off venue into a replicable entertainment format. 🏟️ Hybrid venue model 🎬 Proprietary content  🌍 Global licensing ambition One venue is interesting. A format is a business. 👇 Do you think the Sphere model translates outside Las Vegas? 🔗 Trung Phan's Substack breaks down the full business model here: https://lnkd.in/eEZuAqk2 ******* Repost to help your network & follow Adam J. Graham for more like this.

Uber’s founder disappeared for eight years. This is what he built… After being forced out of Uber, Travis Kalanick stepped out of the spotlight. For eight years, he quietly built CloudKitchens - delivery-only kitchens in dense urban areas. The model is simple: own the real estate, concentrate production and optimise for delivery. Multiple food brands run from one site, with no dining rooms - just a system built for output. Each location does far more than a traditional restaurant, because it’s designed for efficiency, not experience. But the real idea isn’t food. It’s infrastructure. Control property, logistics and production - and you shape the system everything else depends on. While others build software, he’s investing beneath it. 🏗️ Infrastructure over apps 📦 Density drives efficiency 🧠 Control the system, not just the product The most interesting founders aren’t building what’s visible. They’re building what everything else relies on. 👇 If you were starting today, would you build software - or the infrastructure beneath it? 🔗 Get the story here: https://lnkd.in/eEkikrCM ******* Repost to help your network & follow me Adam J. Graham for more content like this.

Do people really want AI? Beyond job-loss fears, another question is emerging: does AI have a popularity problem? US polling shows a public that is more wary than enthusiastic. Meanwhile, more than 3,000 data centre projects are reportedly underway, with growing local resistance in several states. For many communities, AI infrastructure looks like heavy capital investment without clear local benefit. That introduces a missing variable in many market forecasts: social licence. If approvals slow, costs rise or policy shifts, adoption may be shaped as much by voters as by engineers. Cars, the steam engine and the internet all faced early scepticism. 🏗️ Infrastructure buildout 🗳️ Voter influence ⚖️ Social licence matters Technology scales when markets allow it. It sticks when society accepts it. 👇 Is AI facing a temporary trust gap - or a deeper popularity problem? 🔗 There’s an interesting Substack post that explores this further: https://lnkd.in/eCbzbC-t ******* Repost to help your network and follow Adam J. Graham for more like this.

ARM reached a c.$65B IPO valuation by staying invisible on purpose. Founder Hermann Hauser resisted the temptation to build chips himself. Instead, ARM licensed its architecture while others chased manufacturing glory. That restraint put ARM inside billions of devices worldwide. Sometimes the greatest leverage comes from not touching the product at all. ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information

What gets you on (or off) the AI search shortlist This week's Growth Mindset looks at why credibility is replacing visibility as the thing that actually gets you on the shortlist and a shift that is quietly reshaping how B2B buyers make decisions. It also covers why discovery is becoming more social and more trust-led, as buyers turn to LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube long before they reach a website. We look at what a New Balance marketing lead thinks agencies consistently get wrong when they reach out, why AI is making startups cheaper to launch but harder to defend, and what 81,000 Claude users say they actually want from AI - which turns out to be far less futuristic than the hype suggests. If you're building, scaling or backing a business, this one's for you. You can read the full edition here on LinkedIn and subscribe so it lands in your feed each week. #GrowthMindset #Newsletter #AI #TechTrends #BusinessStrategy #Mergers

Intuitive Surgical grew into a $100B+ healthcare giant without chasing hype. Founder Frederic Moll focused narrowly on surgical precision. Hospitals adopted slowly, cautiously, deliberately. Trust compounded procedure by procedure. In regulated markets, patience is the growth strategy. ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information

JustFix is raising its next round. We’ve opened a £3m funding round at a £12m pre-money valuation as we move into the next stage of growth and scale the platform further. This week’s Growth Mindset also looks at what seven years inside Airbnb taught one product leader about culture and focus, the strange economics of the “boomcession”, why some companies are offering returnless refunds, how discovery is replacing search online, and the idea of “adventure work” as a way to unlock better thinking. If you're building, scaling or backing a business, this one's for you. You can read the full edition here on LinkedIn and subscribe so it lands in your feed each week. #GrowthMindset #Newsletter #AI #TechTrends #BusinessStrategy #Mergers #Exits

YouTube’s $1.65B exit reshaped the internet. Chad Hurley built a platform around creation, not curation. Creators became the growth engine. Platforms win when they empower expression at scale. Build the stage, not the script. ******* Check out my free weekly newsletter that contains useful M&A information

The best deals can still be the wrong ones Entrepreneur Shelly Sun Berkowitz walked away from a life-changing acquisition ten days before closing. The buyer had started changing terms, bypassing advisers and negotiating directly with her team. She said No. It's a common trap in M&A. Founders fixate on the headline number while the real risk sits elsewhere - in governance, rollover equity and how the buyer behaves under pressure. Small shifts in terms compound. By the time you close, you can be in a very different partnership to the one you agreed. The behaviour during negotiations is the preview. 💰 Headline valuation misleads ⚠️ Terms compound post-close 🤝 Buyer behaviour is the signal The strongest negotiating position is having alternatives - and being willing to use them. 👇 Have you ever walked away from a deal that looked right on paper? 🔗 Read Shelly's full story here: https://lnkd.in/e4svHtkp ******* Repost this to help your network & follow me Adam Graham for more content like this.

Home repair is broken and everyone knows it. JustFix is raising its next round. Now is the time to get involved. Here’s why… Finding a reliable tradesperson today is still: 🐢 Slow 🌫️ Opaque 😤 Frustrating Even worse - it often doesn’t work when you actually need it most. Urgent jobs get lost in outdated systems. Here’s what’s changing. JustFix is building a new operating system for home repair - combining AI with real human service. Not marketplaces. Not directories. An entirely new way to get things fixed. ⚡ Rapid booking in minutes 🤖 Real-time matching + AI-powered estimation 📱 Instant connection to real humans via video triage From the boots on the ground to the tech in the cloud - this is what modern home repair should look like. They’re raising £3m at a £12m pre-money valuation, with two options: EIS equity or a convertible bond paying 12% per year. 🚀 A broken category 🧠 A new system ⏱ Built for speed, urgency, and trust The best opportunities come when industries are overdue for change. 👇 Are you ready to be part of it? ******* Repost this to your network and contact me for more details