Everything42
Life, the Universe, and Fusion42 #004
Hello Hello,
I hope you all had a fantastic week and are making great moves. It was a pretty crazy week here at Fusion-42. Here’s the 😇 Good, 😈 Bad and 🤢 Ugly so we can all learn together.
😇 The Good
➡️ The masterclass calls this week were fire 🔥 (recaps below). Through each of these there is a common thread emerging, spending more time on the hard stuff, the little 1% changes and consistency, is what leads to the big breakthroughs. Being a founder is not glamorous, in fact it is about being uber disciplined (boring) and by in large, very process and efficiency driven.
➡️ DTEC Live Networking on Thursday was a blast.
It was great to bring two of our partners together. DTEC and Dubai Chamber of Digital economy. We were given a full overview of all the exciting initiatives the government are bringing to the startup ecosystem and making it accessible to local and international founders.
🥷🏽 Once again we brought the Danger Room to life in a fantastic live Pitch Kung Fu session where, on the spot, 4 founders took to the stage to pitch.
All culminating in a fantastic networking session with close to 100 people, the power that is generated with founders interacting is inspiring.
➡️ Our basic website got a little face lift and over the coming weeks and months we will have a significant amount of updates with the platform build taking full shape.
😈 The Bad
It was a bit of a slow week in our Telegram community, (still a lot of messages exchanged but only 22 new faces. We would love to get some feedback to the below.
1️⃣ What holds you back from jumping into discussions more often?
2️⃣ If you were to invite someone, what’s the one reason you’d tell them to join?
3️⃣ What’s missing? What would make this the founder space you can’t afford to ignore?
Please answer in the survey or the comments section below.
🤢 The Ugly
We will tell you next week when we see the results of the above 👆🏼😀
Cheers,
Enjoy and hope to see you soon.
What’s inside »
📱 The F42 Telegram channel highlight.
🌟 Masterclass Recaps.
🤝 Meet the Channel Champ
📅 Online Webinars
AI for Startups
Fundraising Fluency
📱 The F42 Telegram channel highlight
11 🤖 AI
AI Code Generation: The Good, The Bad, and The Workaround
🔥 20% failure rate on AI-generated code? That’s the reality Scott pointed out in our recent chat—where even top LLMs often generate outdated or buggy code. But does that mean AI-assisted coding is a dead-end? Not quite.
💡 The Real Takeaway:
Raw AI chat tools struggle—code from OpenAI or Claude often needs debugging.
LLMs in IDEs (like Cursor, Copilot, Continue) perform better because they integrate with existing codebases, providing better context.
Customized RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems improve accuracy, making LLM-powered IDEs a much stronger tool for coders.
👨💻 Bottom line: AI tools alone won’t write flawless production-ready code (yet), but when embedded in your dev workflow, they become powerful accelerators. The next generation of coders will have it much easier—but only if they learn how to use AI as an assistive tool, not a crutch.
🚀 What’s your experience with AI-powered code generation? Join the discussion in the Fusion42 community and let’s talk real-world results.
🌟 Masterclass Recaps.
Startup Resilience
Numbers are your best friend
Tuesday’s Startup Resilience Masterclass: Mastering Finance or Failing Fast
Last Tuesday’s Startup Resilience Masterclass was all about finance fundamentals, co-hosted by Antoine Bruna, co-founder and CEO of CapQuest. We cut through the noise and tackled what really matters when it comes to startup financials—because, let’s be honest, most founders ignore this until it’s too late.
We started with why financial resilience matters just as much as vision—because no matter how brilliant your product is, if you run out of cash, you’re done. Antoine broke down financial models and how they shape the story founders tell investors. He emphasized the brutal importance of cash flow management, the real difference between profit & loss vs. cash flow statements, and why your financial projections must be rooted in reality, tying back to key metrics like Lifetime Value (LTV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).
💡 Key Takeaways from the Session:
✅ Storytelling without numbers is fiction. Investors will see straight through your pitch if the financials don’t back it up.
✅ Cash flow is king. More startups fail because of poor cash flow management than for any other reason.
✅ Your LTV-to-CAC ratio isn’t just a vanity metric—it defines whether your business is viable or burning cash.
✅ Break-even matters more than you think. Investors are no longer just betting on potential; they want to know when you’ll hit sustainability.
✅ "Why do you even need funding?"—one of the most uncomfortable but essential investor questions you must be ready to answer.
And here’s one that caught a few founders off guard:
💥 "Investors don’t care if your projections show 100x growth—they care if they actually make sense."
Founders love hockey stick graphs and optimistic projections, but most don’t factor in real-world constraints like churn, hiring ramp-ups, and operational overheads. If your model assumes every sales hire performs at 100% from day one and that no one ever quits—you’re delusional. Reality-based projections win deals. Hype doesn’t.
A huge shoutout to Antoine for his deep expertise and straight-talking advice. As always, the Fusion42 community came ready to challenge assumptions and push each other forward.
Missed it? The recording will be up in the MasterClass Insights section for F42+ members soon. Until then, get into the Fusion42 Telegram and start refining your financial game—because cash flow problems don’t wait for you to figure them out.
🔥 Get your numbers right, or get left behind.
Go to Market for Startups
I GOT a DOT AI in 2025
Wednesday’s GTM for Startups Masterclass: No GTM, No Startup
This week’s GTM session, co-hosted by Basil and myself, was a no-nonsense deep dive into what actually works when taking a product to market. No fluff, no theory—just hard-earned lessons, brutal truths, and strategies that separate those who launch from those who last.
We kicked off with why early validation is non-negotiable. If you’re not testing, verifying, and pre-selling, you’re flying blind—and chances are, you’re building something no one actually wants. The rule? Sell before you build. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be building.
💡 Key takeaways from the session:
✅ MVE (Minimum Viable Experiment) over MVP—test problem fit before product fit.
✅ The “Frankenstein Model”—don’t waste time perfecting your first product, bolt together existing solutions to validate first.
✅ AI isn’t a GTM strategy—it’s becoming expected, not a differentiator.
✅ Founders need to sell first—if you can’t sell, you won’t hire the right people who can.
✅ The Mom Test—stop asking for compliments, start getting real feedback.
✅ No skipping steps—as one of the best reminders in the session put it: "Do not pass Go, do not collect $200."
And here’s one that ruffled some feathers:
❌ "If you can’t sell, should you even be building a startup?"
This one hit hard. Too many founders spend years refining their idea instead of proving they can get anyone to buy. If you’re building without knowing how to sell, you’re just burning time and money on a fantasy.
A huge shoutout to Basil for co-hosting and bringing the fire. The Fusion42 community showed up strong, with solid contributions and real talk about what works (and what doesn’t) in GTM.
Missed it? The recording will be up in the MasterClass Insights section for F42+ members soon. Until then, keep the momentum going—jump into the Fusion42 Telegram and start executing.
🔥 No GTM, no startup. Let’s build.
Meet the Channel Champ
Avishay (AJ) Segal 11 🤖 AI
Hi, I'm AJ,
As a millennial growing up in a merchant family I became a natural facilitator.
After a successful stint as VP of Marketing for a gaming app and mentoring startups at two innovation centres I founded Appenue in 2015, now, Appenue AI after recognising the impact of AI on business. I've since dedicated myself to learning how to effectively integrate AI into business processes, focusing on ethical deployment and seamless integration to help companies scale and stay competitive.
With 17 years of experience across sales, marketing, and management consulting I look forward to sharing how AI's integration in the workplace can power your business.
If you have not joined the Fusion42 Community on Telegram —
it is probably time to do so.
For the ❤️ of Startups
📅 Online Webinars. Get the calendar here.
AI for Startups
Can we all really have our own AI model?
Tuesday 4 Feb 2025
0800 PST | 17:00 CET | 20:00 GST
What we'll cover :
➡️ Can we all have our own Deepseek model (or any one) now?
The good, the bad and the ugly
➡️ Live Demo of something you need to use
➡️ What is happening short term, where are we going?
➡️ Q&A
Fundraising Fluency
Bootstrap to Exit
Wednesday, 5 Feb 2025
0800 PST | 17:00 CET | 20:00 GST
We’re teaming up with the savvy Steve Rosenbeck who has bootstrapped to exit, is an expert in 0 to 1 and who just raised for his next venture.
What's on the agenda:
1. Sell First – If you can’t sell it, don’t build it. Test, refine, and learn what customers will actually buy.
2. Fail Fast, Fail Cheap – Embrace failure as the best teacher. Iterate quickly on sales, messaging, and pitching.
3. Leverage AI – Use AI to accelerate everything. It’s a game-changer for entrepreneurs.
4. Find Meaning – Passion sustains you when challenges arise. Desire for money won’t get you to the finish line.
For the ❤️ of startups
✌🏼 & 💙
Derek
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