At Slush, we originally launched our startup media Soaked by Slush at the end of 2019, since we witnessed a dire need for a European voice and outlet for startup content. Since then, we’ve seen an explosion of quality content by new startup media, and many VC and individual contributors.

As it happens, there’s been a lot more to talk about as well. Funding into European startups was up 2.5x year-over-year in 2021 and our continent’s unicorn count has doubled in two years. While the European startup ecosystem has advanced by leaps and bounds, the road is still long to reaching our full potential. Nevertheless, for the first time ever Europe has a cohort of seasoned founders, investors, and operators that have built, worked in, and worked with, successful startups. We haven’t sufficiently tapped into this newly accumulated knowledge and expertise, thus far.

We know that the vast majority of startups that fail do so before reaching product-market fit.

Yet what we’ve noticed is that most of the content for startup founders out there is directed towards post-P/M fit and building the machine that builds the machine. But how do you assemble the cogs and get them in the right places to begin with? 

While building Soaked we’ve also observed that there is a clear demand for this type of content, focusing on the 101 of company-building. And in fact, our most popular pieces have been those shining a light on the ABCs. This has brought us to a rather logical conclusion.

We want to bridge this gap by building a startup media tailored for early-stage founders. 

This means we’ve recentered our vision around the very first steps of building a company: the days of “what the hell should I be doing” and “should I even become a founder”; the first paid hire, the “can we afford the better wifi.” 

In short, our revised vision can be encapsulated in the following: 

Soaked by Slush is a shamelessly founder-focused startup media that delivers timeless company-building lessons, hands-on operational advice, and intriguing stories from the startup ecosystem to the people who build and operate high-growth companies.

How do we serve this purpose?

Our media consists of two concepts: our long-form written content and our podcast. 

In our written content we focus on curating detailed playbooks on different aspects of company-building. Our flagship concept in this regard is our new article series 365, focusing on the first year of building a company. This translates into topics like what you should expect as an early-stage founder, how to find your co-founders, and what to include in your pre-seed pitch deck. In the pipeline we have topics like marketing on a budget, building your MVP, and how to acquire your first customers.

On our podcast, we bring you conversations with iconic founders, operators and investors about the first principles behind their success. This spring, we have had the founders of Deel and Intercom, partners from Lux Capital and First Round, and many more share timeless perspectives on company-building.

To be the first to know about this new content, you can subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. We’re always happy to hear your wishes and pitches – if you want to get in touch with us, don’t hesitate to shoot us an email at [email protected].

Ultimately Soaked’s mission is the same as Slush’s: to create and help founders who change the world.

Faced with problems of somewhat gargantuan proportions, we need courageous founders more than ever. We want to make sure founders and founder-hopefuls are doing the right things from the get-go, and that the access to the best early-stage advice is equitable – so that we can actually make the most of the diverse set of human potential.

– Susan Hyttinen, Editor-in-Chief