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How Outlook was Born

How Outlook was Born

and what triggered the biggest tech war of the century 👀

John Apolinar
February 05, 2025

Words of wisdom we’ve found from Founders, VC’s and Investors.

Here’s this weeks top 5:

#1

At 22, Marc Andreessen created the first user-friendly web browser.
By 24, he was worth over $100M.
Then, Bill Gates and Microsoft crushed Andreessen's company.
What happened next triggered the biggest tech war of the century.
Here's the full story🧵
— Fernando Cao (@thefernandocz)
10:26 AM • Dec 8, 2024

This was so entertaining I had to include it!

Moral of the story: transparency and authenticity win in the long run

#2

Everything they teach at YC in one page:
— Ben Lang (@benln)
8:23 PM • Jan 23, 2025

Everything they teach you in YC in one condensed post. The bold bullet points bring it home. “If you don’t need money, people love to give it to you.”

#3

Uncomfortable truth (math) about early stage Venture Investing
If you invest at $5M valuation and the company becomes a Unicorn with 50% further dilution, you have 100X
If you invest at a $20M valuation and the company becomes a Unicorn with 50% further dilution, you have 25X.… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Martin Tobias (Pre-Seed VC) (@MartinGTobias)
8:13 PM • Nov 26, 2024

We all need a good math lesson. This does a great job at highlighting the importance of realistic exit expectations and valuation strategies for investors. Entry point makes a huge difference!

#4

In 2013, we built an email app with a small team.
18 months later, Microsoft bought it for $200M.
But after we signed the deal, they made one simple request that changed everything.
Here's the untold story of how we built (and sold) our startup:
— Kevin Henrikson (@KevinHenrikson)
2:30 PM • Jan 10, 2025

Great story on how Outlook was born! I had no idea it was from an acquisition - I thought Microsoft built it internally 🤯

#5

If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to memorize this response:
“That’s an amazing idea. It’s not a priority right now. But I will add it to our big ideas list. Thank you for sharing it.”
Businesses rarely die from a lack of good ideas. They die from a lack of good execution.
— Alex Hormozi (@AlexHormozi)
4:13 PM • Sep 2, 2024

It was only a matter of time before Hormozi made it here. This is a great reminder to not get shiny object syndrome. Focus on executing before adding another feature.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this issue! If there’s any topics you’d like to know about as a Founder let us know and we’ll get to work to cover it.