Podcasts about YC

Explore the rise and fall of CodeParrot, a YC-backed AI startup. Learn a cautionary take of navigating PMF, funding & pivot hell, with key takeaways for AI founders!

Dan Hobbs, CEO & Co-Founder of Protex AI, joins SaaStock's Alex Theuma to break down how his startup is transforming factory safety using AI and how they scaled to triple-digit growth with an enterprise-first GTM motion. In this episode, you'll learn: - How Protex AI went from YC to 300% YoY growth - Why they moved fast into the U.S. (and why you should too) - The AI tools Dan actually uses to drive team efficiency - How to close enterprise clients - Dan's biggest founder lessons and what he'd do differently - Top tier advice from Pitbull aka Mr. Worldwide…. Yes, really. Guest links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-hobbs-258998ab/ Website: https://www.protex.ai/      Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 

Y Combinator is the tech incubator that has launched many of today's largest companies–Airbnb, DropBox, Door Dash, Open AI and many, many others. Jonathan Levy, Managing Director and former GC of YC had a role in many of them. On this episode of The Legal Department, Jonathan shares how legal can support start-up companies and help shape the future. He talks about adopting a CEO's mindset, keeping your opinions (and attitude) in check and not letter fears of what might go wrong prevent you from seeing what might go right. YC is also seeding several legal tech companies–Jonathan shares his thoughts about some of these and why they might disrupt the current market leaders. Join us for another episode on how lawyers support innovation.

Sherwood Callaway, tech lead at 11X, joins us to talk about building digital workers—specifically Alice (an AI sales rep) and Julian (a voice agent)—that are shaking up sales outreach by automating complex, messy tasks.He looks back on his YC days at OpKit, where he first got his hands dirty with voice AI, and compares the wild ride of building voice vs. text agents. We get into the use of Langgraph Cloud, integrating observability tools like Langsmith and Arize, and keeping hallucinations in check with regular Evals.Sherwood and Demetrios wrap up with a look ahead: will today's sprawling AI agent stacks eventually simplify? // BioSherwood Callaway is an emerging leader in the world of AI startups and AI product development. He currently serves as the first engineering manager at 11x, a series B AI startup backed by Benchmark and Andreessen Horowitz, where he oversees technical work on "Alice", an AI sales rep that outperforms top human SDRs.Alice is an advanced agentic AI working in production and at scale. Under Sherwood's leadership, the system grew from initial prototype to handling over 1 million prospect interactions per month across 300+ customers, leveraging partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, and LangChain while maintaining consistent performance and reliability. Alice is now generating eight figures in ARR.Sherwood joined 11x in 2024 through the acquisition of his YC-backed startup, Opkit, where he built and commercialized one of the first-ever AI phone calling solutions for a specific industry vertical (healthcare). Prior to Opkit, he was the second infrastructure engineer at Brex, where he designed, built, and scaled the production infrastructure that supported Brex's application and engineering org through hypergrowth. He currently lives in San Francisco, CA.// Related Links~~~~~~~~ ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ~~~~~~~Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://go.mlops.community/TYExploreMLOps Swag/Merch: [https://shop.mlops.community/]Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: /dpbrinkmConnect with Sherwood on LinkedIn: /sherwoodcallaway/ #aiengineering Timestamps:[00:00] AI Takes Over Health Calls[05:05] What Can Agents Really Do?[08:25] Who's in Charge—User or Agent?[11:20] Why Graphs Matter in Agents[15:03] How Complex Should Agents Be?[18:33] The Hidden Cost of Model Upgrades[21:57] Inside the LLM Agent Loop[25:08] Turning Agents into APIs[29:06] Scaling Agents Without Meltdowns[30:04] The Monorepo Tangle, Explained[34:01] Building Agents the Open Source Way[38:49] What Production-Ready Agents Look Like[41:23] AI That Fixes Code on Its Own[43:26] Tracking Agent Behavior with OpenTelemetry[46:43] Running Agents Locally with Phoenix[52:55] LangGraph Meets Arise for Agent Control[53:29] Hunting Hallucinations in Agent Traces[56:45] Off-Script Insights Worth Hearing

Este podcast es posible gracias a Santander:https://online.bancosantander.es/landings/cuentas/cuenta-autonomos/En este episodio hablamos con Arnau y Pablo, cofundadores de Throxy, una startup de prospección B2B que ha salido de Y Combinator con una misión clara: agendar reuniones reales para empresas que venden a negocios tradicionales sin presencia digital. Con un enfoque radicalmente diferente al de las agencias tradicionales, Throxy construye sus propios agentes de inteligencia artificial para scrapear la web, estructurar datos vírgenes y generar leads hipersegmentados que no están en LinkedIn ni en bases de datos típicas.Nos cuentan cómo trabajan con empresas de software industrial, logística o manufactura—algunas con más de 1.000M€ de facturación sin una sola persona en LinkedIn—y cómo logran encontrar contactos y cualificarlos usando solo IA, Google Maps y web scraping. Su propuesta: pagar solo si la reunión se agenda y el cliente aparece.Hablamos de su modelo "done-for-you", el uso intensivo de agentes pequeños especializados, cómo escalan la operación sin sacrificar calidad, y por qué han dicho que no a muchas startups del batch de YC por no tener product-market fit. Arnau y Pablo también desgranan su go-to-market, cómo alcanzaron un MRR de más de 180.000 € con solo 35 clientes, y los retos regulatorios de escalar fuera de plataformas como LinkedIn.También exploramos su historia personal: cómo se conocieron en el colegio, empezaron revendiendo monedas en el FIFA con bots propios, y acabaron fundando en Londres, con becas poco convencionales incluidas. Una conversación sincera, técnica y cargada de aprendizajes sobre ventas, automatización, IA aplicada, y cómo construir una startup desde la calle hasta Y Combinator sin depender de humo ni atajos.

Imagine being a fly on the wall, hearing what people really say about your business when you're not in the room. That's the promise of AI-driven SEO today. I sat down with Michael Buckbee, a marketing and tech veteran, to talk about how tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are reshaping brand visibility. This isn't your standard SEO conversation, it's a peek behind the digital curtain to discover what AI thinks about your business. Trust me, it's more revealing than you might expect. Whether you're refining your brand, trying to figure out your target audience, or stalking your competitors (in the most professional way, of course), AI can offer surprisingly honest and useful feedback. If you know what to ask. Key Takeaways: AI tools reflect public perception: AI platforms synthesize massive amounts of data and offer a “consensus view” of your brand. This feedback can be shockingly accurate, or totally misaligned with your goals, but either way, it's insight you shouldn't ignore. Your content influences AI responses: AI can hallucinate when it lacks clear information, often making up details to fill in gaps. You can reduce misinformation by creating targeted, well-written content that clarifies key facts about your business. Use AI for brand audits and competitive research: You can (and should) ask ChatGPT and similar tools what they think of your competitors. Discover what they're doing well and where they're falling short. Low-volume search content now matters more: Traditional SEO focused on high-volume keywords. Today, many questions are answered directly in AI tools, making long-tail, intent-driven content more valuable than ever. Empathy and intent are your SEO secret weapons: Instead of chasing trends, focus on what your ideal customer is trying to accomplish. Answer their real questions with real solutions, and both humans and AI will reward you. What can you do today?  Type your business name into ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini and ask: “What do you know about [your company name]?” and “Who is their target audience?” Ask ChatGPT to perform a SWOT analysis of your business — you might be surprised by what it sees as strengths or weaknesses. Look up a competitor in the same way to uncover gaps or areas where your brand could shine brighter. Review your content library. Are you answering the right questions? If not, prioritize content that clarifies your expertise and speaks directly to your audience's needs. Don't just write for Google anymore. Make sure your website is accessible to AI bots, and focus on content that solves problems clearly and helpfully. AI doesn't have to be a mystery. it can be your mirror, your marketing consultant, and your competitive edge. You just have to ask the right questions.   About Michael Buckbee   Michael has worked at the intersection of marketing and technology for nearly two decades. Past clients include the US Navy, Fortune 100 companies, YC startups, presidential candidates, federal agencies, rock bands, and foreign governments. Today, he's the co-founder of Knowatoa, a service that tracks brand visibility, rankings, and sentiment within AI search services like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini. LEARN MORE

David Hsu from Retool joins Adam to discuss how he built Retool. From the pivot in YC, to building the most widely used internal tools platform, to now being the platform for AI agents in the enterprise—on this episode we cover David journey from YC to building agents for the enterprise.

David Hsu from Retool joins Adam to discuss how he built Retool. From the pivot in YC, to building the most widely used internal tools platform, to now being the platform for AI agents in the enterprise—on this episode we cover David journey from YC to building agents for the enterprise.

In this episode, we sit down with Wale Akanbi, one of the co-founders of Aella. Aella became the first African lending fintech admitted to Y Combinator in 2017 and has since served over 2 million users across Nigeria and the Philippines. Wale's journey, from teaching himself programming in Nigerian cyber cafes to building AI-powered financial inclusion tools, is a masterclass in persistence, vision, and purpose-driven entrepreneurship.He's currently building solutions at the intersection of AI and blockchain to solve cross-border trust challenges.What we cover:The pressure and lessons from being one of YC's first African lending fintechWhy every engineer doubled as customer service for their first 500K usersThe evolution from rule-based credit scoring to AI models predicting "willingness to pay"Building cross-functional teams in the age of AIHis current work at the intersection of AI and blockchain for cross-border trustWhy helping people matters more than power, fame, or money

Today, we're excited to get to know Adam Stansell, CEO and Founder of Axle Health, the operating system for Home Health.Before founding Axle, Adam spearheaded the launch of new markets at UberEats and built a high-growth business line at Motive, a leader in fleet logistics. With deep expertise at the intersection of operations, technology, and scale, he's now bringing world class logistics to one of healthcare's most overlooked frontiers: home health.Founded in 2020, Axle is tackling the $150B+ home health industry in the US growing at 9% every year, of which most of home health still runs on old legacy software or spreadsheets. Recently announced, Axle has raised $10M in Series A led by Carl Byers and Julia McDowell at F-Prime Capital, joined by Lightbank and previous investors YC and us at Pear VC! We at Pear, especially my GP Mar Hershenson and I have been super grateful to be part of his journey.

This week on The AI Report, Liam Lawson is joined by Quinn Favret, co-founder and COO of Tavus, to explore how digital humans are reshaping communication across industries.Quinn shares how Tavus is building AI agents that can engage in real-time, emotionally intelligent conversations—complete with facial expressions, dynamic tone, and personalized responses. The goal isn't just automation. Its presence. And Quinn believes AI might actually help humans connect more deeply, not less.They dig into how Tavus trains its models, where conversational AI is already creating real impact, and what it takes to design an experience that feels human, without trying to be one.Also in this episode: • Why the uncanny valley is a storytelling challenge • What it means to create “brand as soul” • How Tavus enables sales, HR, education, and therapy • Why cultural nuance and context matter more than realism • The role of AI in making communication more accessibleThis is a forward-looking episode for anyone building or using AI to solve problems that rely on trust, attention, and human connection.Subscribe to The AI Report:https://theaireport.beehiiv.com/subscribeJoin the community:https://www.skool.com/the-ai-report-community/aboutChapters:(00:00) Intro and Quinn's Background(01:03) Engineering, Startups, and YC(03:20) From ML Forecasting to AI Video(05:08) How Tavus Got Started(06:21) Launching During COVID(07:28) What Tavus Actually Does Today(09:05) Real Use Cases in Sales, Healthcare, and Media(11:35) Developer Tools and Agentic Systems(12:31) Building Machines That Adjust to Us(14:39) What Makes a Conversation Feel Real(16:46) Cultural and Contextual Communication(17:52) How AI Understands People Over Time(20:45) Could AI Be Better at Talking Than We Are?(23:03) Why AI Therapy Isn't as Crazy as It Sounds(24:40) The Art of Listening and Speaking(28:33) How Quinn Practices Communication in Life and Work(30:41) The Meaning Behind the Tavus Brand(33:29) Tech, Storytelling, and Soul(35:27) UX Gaps and Human Expectations(36:43) Tavus in Context: Not Just Avatars(38:23) What an AI-Powered Future Might Look Like(40:04) Balancing Tech and Humanity(41:19) Quinn's “Why”(44:54) Where to Connect

In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I'm joined by Sid Sijbrandij, co-founder and Executive Chair of GitLab—one of the world's most radically transparent and values-driven software companies.Sid shares how GitLab evolved from an open-source side project into a publicly traded DevOps platform, all while remaining deeply aligned with its values. From turning down a $10 million offer to maintaining control through dual-class shares, Sid walks us through the principles and systems that have shaped GitLab from the start.We also delve into GitLab's renowned, live, and public 2,000-page handbook—how it functions not only as documentation but also as a recruiting tool, cultural backbone, and governance mechanism.In our conversation today, we talk about the following topics:• Why Sid once cold-pitched a submarine inventor—and got hired• What led GitLab to turn down a $10M buyout and pursue an IPO• Why GitLab favors “boring solutions” by default—and avoids reinventing the wheel• The role of GitLab's live, public handbook in building transparency and trust• Why every change at GitLab must be made in the handbook first• How the handbook supports hiring, alignment, and radical transparency• GitLab's approach to decentralized decision-making• Why “customer results” sits at the top of GitLab's values hierarchy• Sid's case for open core as the future of software•How GitLab encourages informal connection in a remote-first culture—and the role of in-person meetups• And much more—Brought to you by:• Ahrefs – Get instant website traffic insights, without the noise. ⁠⁠Learn more⁠⁠. —Where to find Sid Sijbrandij:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sijbrandij/• X: https://x.com/sytses—Where to find Eric:• Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ericries.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Podcast:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ericriesshow.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • YouTube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ —In This Episode We Cover:(00:00) Intro(02:52) The origins of GitLab(04:15) The MVP of GitLab and how it has evolved to a DevOps platform (05:09) Sid's internships and why he chose to work with submarines after(08:57) How Sid became a submarine engineer (11:10) How Ruby sparked Sid's interest in programming (12:28) Why GitLab said no to $10M and chose YC and decided to go IPO(17:45) How GitLab kept control including granting 10x voting shares before going public(22:25) GitLab's extreme commitment to their values (28:29) GitLab's Handbook and how changes are made (33:11) How GitLab handles pushback and how the handbook builds trust (37:38) An explanation of buyer-based open core at GitLab (38:35) The challenges implementing a lean startup approach (45:26) Keeping the organization aligned: How GitLab reinforces their values (53:51) Why GitLab updates values (55:57) Why senior engineers have an easier time securing budget(57:21) Putting customers first: GitLab's value hierarchy explained(59:08) The case for decentralized decision-making—and how GitLab makes it work(1:03:24) The handbook's role in recruiting and building alignment(1:06:25) Maintaining transparency after IPO(1:10:55) The three phases of GitLab's all-remote operating policy (1:17:04) How GitLab developed its open core business model (1:20:19) The trust-building power of open source and Sid's case for open core(1:25:20) Protective governance measures GitLab helps companies take (1:29:28) How Sid has been doing on his cancer journey, and his work to help others —You can find episode references at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.ericriesshow.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠—Production and marketing by ⁠⁠Pen Name⁠⁠.Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Tim He checks many boxes as a guest on the Founders Sandbox- a 3x founder, now advisor, professor, creator, writer and coffee snob. Tim's newsletter, "Cherrytree", allowed him to keep teaching entrepreneurship while the pandemic closed the classroom. By providing a newsletter, Cherrytree now offers consulting and coaching to cofounders. In Tim's own words; "I want to actually change how people become cofounders. And then how they stay cofounders." It is a tough decision to “divorce a co founder” and we find on this episode with Tim He sound advice on getting the pre nuptials in place for just in case scenarios and preventatively preserving the co founding team dynamics.   Listen to this month's episode “Choosing the right Cofounder” on The Founder's Sandbox with Tim He. You can find out more about Tim at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhe2000/ https://www.dumbfoundcoffee.com/.       Transcript: 00:04 Good morning. Welcome back to the Founder's Sandbox. I am Brenda McCabe, your host on this monthly podcast now in its third season. The Founder's Sandbox is a podcast where  my guests are 00:33 business owners, founders, professional service providers and corporate directors. And we all share a mission  and we find ourselves speaking here on the Founder Sandbox. This mission  is really to work through the power of the private enterprise, be it small, medium or large, to create change for a better world. And each of my guests  tells a story, right? The origin story. 01:03 that touches on the topics that I'm so passionate about resilience, scalable, purpose-driven enterprise, all with good corporate governance. And we do this in a fun sandbox environment here  in the Founder Sandbox.  I am absolutely delighted to have as my guest today,  Tim He. He is joining  us from  Dallas, Texas today. And Tim. 01:33 is  he's going to be speaking to us. He checks a lot of boxes, but today he's going to be speaking from his experience as an advisor to pre-seed and seed companies.  And we share a common kind of subject matter expertise. We  work with a lot of founders that are seeking to find a co-founder or we're working with them to how to divorce a co-founder, which 02:01 Nobody likes to talk about this, but it happens more frequently than not. Matter of fact, Tim has chosen for this episode, the title of Scaling Your  Co-Founder Relationship. So Tim, welcome to the Founder Sandbox and thank you for joining me today. Thanks for having me. This is gonna be a lot of fun because the thing with co-founder relationships is that  when it's bad, 02:28 It's bad. You you think of divorce, arguments, sometimes even litigation, but when it's good, it's pretty magical. You build very valuable companies that change not just your lives, but the world.  And  it creates a type of team and culture and company that people want to root for. And when I get to see that,  that's the best part of my job. And it's  actually pretty magical. It's very fulfilling, isn't it? It is. 02:55 So you check a lot of boxes, but we're going to focus on that. You are a founder yourself, prior founder, advisor, creator, writer, and coffee snob. So we'll get to your love of coffee  later in the podcast.  When you reached out to me,  it did kind of make me giggle because  nobody likes to talk about divorce, right? Let alone your co-founder. 03:24 And you specifically reached out to me because  the work you do and your platform  at Cherry Tree  is around co-founder,  choosing the right co-founder and the like.  I have  experiences with my clients  on making that tough decision to divorce a co-founder. And I  read some of your blogs. 03:52 And you do provide sound advice on getting what I call the prenuptials in place. So kudos to you.  And  more in the podcast today. So  I  love what I do, right?  And my consulting firm where I advise kind of scaling companies  to work with  them on purpose and resiliency. 04:21 advice to founders when working at Cherry Tree and finding the right co-founders, scaling it that, it doesn't crack under startup pressure. It's probably rot with your own origin story as founding a company. Can you share that with us here, Tim today? Of course. Yeah. I'd say almost 10 years ago now, I started a company with five other co-founders. So six of us in total. 04:51 which is pretty unconventional  in the sort of software startup ecosystem,  but it wasn't intentional on my part. I was in college at the time and I was thinking, you know, I want something to do other than homework. So I found a bunch of my friends and asked them if they wanted to start a company with me.  And I didn't expect them all to say yes, but they all did.  And so we were like, sure, let's just do something together. And that was sort of the beginning. 05:21 And you were six co founders.  Yeah.  And  let's carry on. That's good. That's unconventional.  It was a lot, but it was a lot of fun. You know, I was best friends with some of them. And then some of them were mutual friends or classmates that I met in school. And so they also had different relationships with each other. Not all of them knew each other in the beginning. All of them knew me. 05:49 but to varying degrees as well. And so I kind of got to see the entire spectrum of what a co-founder relationship can be.  And at the same time, I was teaching entrepreneurship in Seattle and a lot of my students would ask me the same  questions about co-founders.  You know, the basics like how do you split equity? How do you  choose titles and roles and responsibilities? How do you fight with each other productively? 06:18 All those things that me and my co-founders were going through at the same time. And so  we made a decision to be very open and transparent about it. I shared with my class how I split equity with my team and the reasons behind it.  And I shared with them what we debated about on the product side or the marketing side and how we came to a resolution. And so the students had a very  behind the scenes look  at what goes on with co-founders. 06:47 And then COVID hit. And so I started writing online for my students quite a bit. And then over time that became a book about co-founders. And then when I published the book, you know, more people started reaching out to me, but it wasn't just college students anymore. was people with venture backed companies, companies going through YC and all sorts of industries all over the world.  And then somebody was like, Hey, I don't want to read a 200 page book. I want something quick. 07:16 something easy and actionable. And so that's how I got started with the Cherry Tree newsletter, which comes out every Monday and Friday. And it's nice and easy. It's very relatable  and  actionable. And then people started replying to the email asking for personalized advice because they said that, you know, 500 words is not enough to solve  a tricky situation. And that's how I got started with co-founder coaching. And so now 07:46 the Cherry Tree Company as an umbrella,  comprises of the newsletter, which is free. And for people who are maybe just starting out and want to build good habits, and then also the coaching component as well, for people who are either going through some high growth stage, like raising a fund  or  going through a major pivot,  or they just want to  talk about some concerns or curiosities they have about co-founder relationships. Let's go back to your 08:16 co-founder, your six co-founders.  that company still exists today? What was the, so what was the outcome? Yeah.  It was a software company in the real estate space. And so COVID kind of took us out, but it didn't take out the friendships. We are all still best friends and visit each other over the holidays.  In fact, when I, when I move in a couple months,  I'm moving to a city where two of them already live right now  and 08:43 One of the things I looked for was an apartment that was close to them so we could all hang out together. COVID took out the company, but not the co-foundership. All right. You did speak about the newsletter. why did you choose that medium? And again, I think you said there are typically 500 words. I've read a few of them. I blog myself. And we shared a couple of our blogs back and forth. 09:12 reached out to me, said, oh, I've written about that, and  how to split equity and the like. So  what made you choose the medium of a newsletter? 09:25 Yeah, I mean, I've always liked writing. think it makes me, it forces me to think very hard and clearly about what I wanna articulate. Back when I was teaching, I found that I would have a topic or a concept in my head, but when I went to explain it to somebody, I couldn't quite articulate it the way that I felt, especially when they started asking very thought-provoking questions. I felt I was stumbling. I felt that I... 09:52 had an answer in my head, but I couldn't quite deliver it to them. But, you know, because we all went remote, I was writing for them and that was a forcing function to get everything crystal clear.  And that became a really good habit for me. Plus I've always liked reading.  I follow  several other newsletters as a reader, as a customer of theirs. And so I've always been intrigued by it. 10:16 And then one of my friends who is at a private equity firm specifically focused on newsletters was telling me a little bit about the backend of newsletter businesses and the unit economics for it. And I realized it was a very viable and very scalable business opportunity. And so I thought I would do this practice because it's good for my own just thinking process. 10:42 And I get to update it every every week, twice a week with new information that I find.  And so a newsletter kind of just made a lot of sense. Excellent. And then the show notes later, we'll  put the the  URL is it cherry tree dot v hi.com, right?  We had to access your newsletter. So teaching 11:09 you're teaching  in a university  in  Seattle,  entrepreneurship, you're so young, it's amazing. How did you get into the teaching position?  I got very lucky.  on  my first,  sorry, on my second quarter of college, I was working retail  in the mall selling glasses.  And it was 11:38 at about 9 p.m. right before we were closing and a customer walks in and you know how it is. Nobody wants to deal with a customer two minutes before closing. I'm a new kid so the manager is like, you go talk to them, get your practice. So I go and I talk to the customer and we just make small talk. I'd tell him that I wanna get into business school. want to... 12:04 be a part of startups and all this exciting stuff. I was 18 or 19 at the time.  And he was like, hey, you should talk to this professor.  He teaches at the business school  as an entrepreneurship professor.  And I think you guys will really get along. So he wrote down this professor's phone number. that was it. He didn't buy any glasses. We closed the shop and I walked home.  I didn't think much of it. I was trying to make a sale. 12:34 I had that note in my pocket  and when I got home, this was maybe around 10 PM,  I was changing out of my work clothes and I had that note and I thought, hey, maybe I should give this professor a call  and his name is Alan. And so  maybe I was naive or impulsive, but I called him at 10 PM  with no forethought. I didn't think, hey, maybe I should email him or call him tomorrow morning. I just had the note in my hand and I was like, let me just call him and he picks up. 13:04 And we talked for about an hour and a half. Oh my goodness. About the, yeah, about the classes he's teaching, about how he became a professor  and his alumni.  And it was very clear to me that he loved teaching.  He was in his late fifties, early sixties  and independently wealthy from  running his own companies. He had retired for a number of years and then come back to teach because he just loved teaching.  And so. 13:34 I was like, hey, can I take your class? It sounds really cool. But the administration was not happy with that because I was a freshman and he only taught senior classes. And I was not only not in the business school, I had not taken any of the prerequisites and the class was already overbooked. Oh my gosh. So. We were all stacked against you. Exactly. But he said, just come to the classroom at this time and sit in the corner. 14:01 Like  you might not get credits for the class, but just sit in the corner  and pay attention. And so I did that and I started answering questions in class.  Questions that  some of the upperclassmen  may not necessarily have been able to answer, which was very surprising to me because I had never done well in school. Throughout high school, I barely got into college. My parents were on me all the time, but this was the one class where I felt like I knew what I was talking about. 14:31 And so I went to all of his classes and eventually became his assistant.  And  that slowly changed.  And I,  was an assistant for about 30 courses and then later become a  co-instructor at  both campuses. And so I got really lucky. It was unconventional, but this, this mentor,  Alan sort of gave me that opportunity. And I finally felt like I, I was doing something that I was good at. 14:59 Amazing. That's an amazing story, very unconventional,  but I love that. You heard it here on the founder's sandbox.  My guest, Tim He, got into teaching, and then  eventually COVID hit. You started continuing to teach virtually and started providing your content through a newsletter and your regular postings  two times a week. So bravo. 15:30 You also have time to run another business. I introduced you with many titles, but you are a coffee son of so what is it with the coffee, Tim? Yeah. All right. You taught up in Seattle, right? And we all know he's from Seattle. But what is it about the coffee and it's called dumbfound coffees? Yes, yes. It's a fun story. It's quirky. I 15:59 A couple of years ago,  I  helped this coffee  founder  a little bit with his business. was my friend and I helping this one man show. He was bagging the beans by himself, sealing it, weighing it, driving it in his truck to the post office,  handwriting notes for everybody. And he also had a day job. So he was doing this on top of that. And he had a wife and four kids. And so he really needed some more  extra hands. And so 16:29 We started with helping him literally just bag beans. And then  we got to understand the coffee business  and how to market coffee,  how to optimize shipping and logistics to save on costs  and sort of everything in between. It was really fun. And my friend and I always joked that we would start our own coffee company. And then right after working there, I went to work at a very large coffee chain, global chain,  strategy team. 16:58 And that was very different because there are thousands of people at this company with billions of dollars in budget. And so I saw this  industry from a completely different lens. Right.  And it was very interesting because there are so many similarities between this, you know, global corporation  and a one person coffee shop.  And of course I love coffee. I've been drinking it for 17:25 as long as I can remember drinking a little bit, a little sip of my mom's coffee when I was a kid. I'm Canadian. So I grew up drinking Tim Hortons for those of you Canadians out there, know what it is. so I love Tim Hortons. It's so good. Tim Hortons. Yeah. And of course, you know, Tim and Tim, so I have to get it from them. 17:51 Uh, but yeah, fast forward, uh, three or four years now, my friend and I got in touch again and we said, Hey, let's start a coffee company.  Uh, we've been wanting to do this for years. We've, we finally have the circumstances and sort of the, the, the personal financial, uh, privilege to do this now.  Um, let's, let's get something up and running. And so we're thinking, how do we differentiate? There's a billion coffee companies out there.  Um, there's coffee for, for veterans, for teachers, for 18:21 hippies for everybody, except for founders.  And founders drink a lot of coffee.  I'm a three time founder. My friend was also with founder and we drink a lot of coffee. My friends drink a lot of coffee.  And there's something satisfying about having a cup of coffee  and sitting down at your desk, getting ready to lock in and get a ton of work done. It's just a very satisfying feeling. And so I wanted to capture that feeling plus 18:51 just the fact that founders drink a lot of coffee, but also this idea that the best founders I've talked to take their work very, very seriously, but they don't take themselves seriously at all. And I think that's the one commonality between all the best founders that I've come across. And so the name dumbfound, you know, it starts with dumb, but it actually means amazed or in awe.  And it's the founders journey. 19:21 Right? You start off dumb because you don't know what you're doing. Maybe you're taking a huge risk. are, you know, you're starting a company, you feel dumb a lot. And if you've been a founder, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But you keep grinding and you keep working at it.  And little by little,  it starts to become a really amazing journey. People looking on the outside, they're like, wow, how did you, like, how did you start a company? That's, that's amazing. That's crazy.  And even more than that, you look at your progress. 19:50 Even though some days it feels like you're going backwards, it's really awe-inspiring. And so that's why I wanted to capture with Dumpfound. In the name of the company.  Bravo. I will have to order some from you.  You know,  I  use the term pre-naps. Tell me in your  consulting practice now, because you are working full-time.  This is your gig and the coffee. 20:19 What is it that you found the secret sauce to scaling a co founder relationship? Right? What is it?  What's your secret sauce? Or what have you observed in high performing co founding teams? Yeah. Everybody asks me  what they can do for their co-foundership  so that it improves their company. That's the wrong question. That's backwards. 20:49 the best co-founderships I've seen all use the company as a means to improve their co-foundership. Tell me about that. that one more time. This is important for my listeners. Yeah. Instead of using your relationship as a means to improve your company, use your company as a means to improving your relationship. Okay. And I'll give you some examples.  Back when I was teaching, I would, you know, make 21:18 groups  of students and teams randomly. would  draw stuff out of a hat randomly.  And that didn't guarantee friendships. In fact, a lot of them ended up fighting with each other. And so I thought, okay, maybe they should pick their own teams.  And that didn't guarantee friendships either. In fact, some of them ended up fighting even harder  than randomly assigned teams. And then I thought, 21:47 Why is that? How can we create teams where everybody gets a pretty good experience out of the class? Because we all know group projects,  our group projects, and there's always somebody who  either pulls the team forward or drags it behind.  And so I was looking at the best performing teams, the ones that blow my mind. And I found that all of them, regardless of whether they were friends before the class or they had met for the first time during the class, 22:18 they all saw the class, the course  as an opportunity to hang out and have fun, joke around with each other, but also do something very interesting like building a company. And so that was always in the back of my head. And then when I talked to co-founders, I've talked to over, I believe like 300 co-founders already this year. The best ones, doesn't matter if they were friends before they started a company, but they use the company  as a means. 22:46 to improve their friendship. So what does that look like? Well, it's easy for co-founders to silo and say, okay, you do the engineering, I do the marketing, and we come together and share progress. That works for clarity, but not so much for compatibility. The best co-founders kind of do everything together. Even if they're, you know, one person is not technical, they're still very involved in the product with... 23:13 talking to users or creating documentation or making  wireframes or mock-ups. And for the non-technical co-founder, they're also very involved in the marketing and the sales and the pitching because a lot of people think, oh, it's not my strength. So I'm not gonna be involved in it. You're the expert on it. I'll let you handle it. But if you think about friendships, that's not really how we operate, is it?  You don't divide responsibility so rigidly with your friends. 23:42 You do everything together because it's fun.  Share responsibilities. Maybe somebody is better at it. Sure. But that's, that's part of the fun. And so when I realized that, and I, I communicated it to people  who were asking me how to do the opposite, do it the wrong way. When I told them what I thought was the right way, all of them had a light bulb moment go off in their head. 24:10 And I would ask you how does friendship scale? If I'm going to pressure test your your your the, the,  guess the empirical data, right?  You've taught  many, many  classes, you've worked with co founders, you've worked with co founding teams, let's say.  How do you scale that? 24:40 If you can imagine like a staircase  model at each step of a co-foundership, there are different levels of sacrifices that you have to make. So for example, when you choose co-founders, you sacrifice the ability to become co-founders with anybody else. And then you start working on your product and you sacrifice maybe some nights and weekends. Maybe you're sacrificing some Netflix time. 25:09 And then you go up a step, maybe your company has some traction and you've got some users and you sacrifice  having a day job or having a stable income, or maybe you sacrifice some sleep some nights. And so the sacrifices become more demanding. And if you translate that to a friendship, it's kind of the same. you become friends with someone, you're not necessarily  eliminating all other friendships. 25:36 but you are eliminating some options for how you spend your time. Now let's say you  have families or you  move to different cities depending on your stage of life. The sacrifice is the effort that you need to stay in touch. Now, how many friends have we had in high school that we don't talk to anymore  because we just never stayed in touch because we didn't make that sacrifice.  And so back to the co-foundership, a lot of times the company might be progressing. 26:05 You have your product and then some users and then some funding and then some more users.  one co-founder decides that the next level of sacrifice is not worth it. Maybe they cannot quit their day job. Maybe they have kids that they have to spend time with and want to spend time with. they have, you know, whatever the situation is,  it might not be malicious. It might just be circumstantial,  but for one reason or another. 26:32 they decide that the sacrifice to move to the next level is not worth it anymore. But that usually doesn't mean that they quit. That usually means that they stay at their current level of sacrifice and they keep doing that. And so the other co-founder or the other people are  continuing to do that. And that's a case where it doesn't scale. And so  to be able to scale, I'm not saying you have to sell your house and  free a personal runway or never spend time with their kids. 27:01 The important thing is to understand where each co-founder is on which step and where the company is  at which step and to recognize what are the milestones  and the sort of achievements and the effort needed to unlock the next step. And so when you're very clear about that, it becomes very  simple  and apparent what you need to scale the co-founder show. Excellent. 27:30 And I'm certain that not not all  relationships have happy endings. And that's when we get to  splitting the equity, right.  And hopefully, with your advice,  there were there's been, you know, a stakeholder agreement, a priori, and there's cordial negotiations.  And that's for another episode. So Tim, how 27:58 Can my listeners contact you? I'm pretty active on LinkedIn.  You can find me  by searching my name, Tim He. Yes.  I also have the newsletter, the Cherry Tree newsletter.  I read every reply to that myself.  And it's really fun to see what people are saying. So if you want to email me or reach out on LinkedIn, I'm available on both.  So that's Cherry Tree.  And the coffee. 28:27 coffee company? What is it again? It's dumbfoundcoffee.com. Excellent. Excellent. Is it dark roast or you do that? Do you have several roasts? It's a so it's a medium roast from Costa Rica. Costa Rica. It's delicious.  I've tested over a dozen different coffees for this. My girlfriend and I we were way over caffeinated  many days to find perfect bean and I think we did. 28:55 All right. I'm more of Guatemala and  darkerist than we have, but willing to try. Thank you. Thank you. You know,  I do like to  bring all my guests back to the sandbox  to touch on  the three cornerstones of the work that I do,  which is around resilience, purpose driven,  and scalable growth, and ask each of you to  describe 29:25 what does the meaning  what is the meaning of that word for you?  And  here's to you, Tim, what does resilience mean to you? That's a good question. I've been thinking about that a lot lately.  And by default, you know, we all think of the  get knocked down seven times, give back up eight,  or  keep going when it's hard. And those are really inspirational when you feel like being inspired. 29:54 but on the days that you don't feel like you're being inspired, on the days that you're knocked down and everything sucks, I think it can be frustrating to hear stuff like that, you know, because you're like, just go away, give me a minute and  just leave me alone.  And I think that's also  a sign of resilience, just taking the time and the space you need. You don't need to be motivated every day. You don't need to grind every day, despite what startup culture tells you. 30:22 sometimes being resilient is just recharging.  And I've been doing a lot of that lately myself, and it's been helping me stay on this path. 30:32 I'm an entrepreneur and working with entrepreneurs. I like it recharging. How about purpose driven enterprise? Yeah, very purposeful. I'm a bit unconventional, but purpose. I, I like this company, my company, because you're right, I am purposeful. There's, there's a magic that happens when I do my job, right? And co-founders have the relationship that they want. 31:02 and the company that they want to build. And I think if you do your job right, and you're genuinely happy because of a magical feeling, and I use the word magic because there's really no way to describe it. It's  not the pay, it's not the hours, it's not the freedom, it's not any of that. It's a magical feeling. And if you have that, I think the purpose is good.  And  no other... 31:31 purpose-driven company that I've talked to  denies the magic that happens when they do their work, right?  I often,  you describe it as magic, right?  It's the flow, you're working with your clients and just seeing that  your inputs valued, right?  I call that  joy, right? So when you discover  or feel joyful, 31:59 in what you're doing with your clients that  is resonated and  purpose. Thank you. That's an amazing description of magic. What about scalable?  The  title of this episode that we chose together once I understood your practice is scaling your co-founder relationship. So what does scaling mean to you? 32:30 I mean, change is inevitable and scaling is just adapting to those changes.  And in the startup world, we think of scale as growth, as more users, more money, more funding, more profit.  And that is a type of scale when  you're getting out more than you put in and it's leveraged and that's all great  as a technical term. But I think scale doesn't have to be confined to that. It can be if that's the context in which 32:59 We want to look at it,  but scale is just adapting to changes and hopefully that change is good because you can also  scale down depending on your priorities.  know a lot of founders who'd rather build a million dollar company than a billion dollar company. They're much happier that way.  And so everybody is obsessed with growth for the sake of growth  and scale gets a bad rep because of that. But if it's just changing and creating the circumstances that gives you purpose, then 33:28 It's, yeah, it's all good. Fantastic. Very refreshing perspective, Tim. Thank you. Last question. Did you have fun in the sandbox today?  Yes, I did. Thank you for asking. And that's just where I find joy.  Thank you for spending time here in the Founder's Sandbox. To my listeners, if you liked this episode with Tim Heat, sign up for the monthly release. 33:58 of the Founder's Sandbox, where business owners, corporate directors, professional service providers provide their stories so that you learn how to build your company with strong governance as a resilient, scalable, and purpose-driven company to make profits for good. Signing off for today, thank you for joining us. Thanks, Tim.  

I was joined this week by Murtaza Ali, CEO & Co-Founder of Symphony (YC F24), for a conversation about how he's tackling some of the biggest challenges in the insurance industry with cutting-edge voice AI — without losing sight of the human touch.A bit of context: Murtaza's journey insurtech journey started at McKinsey before joining Tractable to build out their platform. He's seen firsthand how AI can transform industries — but also where it can fall short without humanity in the loop. That insight became the driving force behind Symphony AI.What we covered in this episode:

Bonus track avec un super VC cette semaine !Martin Mignot, Partner chez Index Ventures, le fonds qui a accompagné dès leurs débuts certains des plus beaux succès de la tech comme Facebook, Revolut ou Slack. Ils viennent de publier un guide de 123 pages pour aider les fondateurs européens à conquérir l'Amérique – en s'appuyant sur l'analyse de plus de 500 startups, des enquêtes terrain, et des interviews de fondateurs. Fait marquant : ¾ d'entre eux citent les clients – pas le capital – comme moteur principal de leur expansion. Martin est au cœur de cette transformation, alors on va parler de cette nouvelle géographie de l'ambition tech, du rôle des VCs, et de sa vision pour l'écosystème européen. Épisodes cités :

Welcome back to Giant Ideas! Today we are joined by Trip Adler, the Co-founder of Scribd - a company he co-founded with Jared Friedman, now Partner at Y Combinator. Scribd is a digital document library that hosts over 195 million documents, with billions of views a year.Today we talk about Trip's next act: Created By Humans, where he is Co-Founder and CEO, on a huge mission to champion AI rights for authors. Giant proudly led the seed round of Created by Humans, and we invited Trip on to talk about this giant idea that affects so many people: how can creativity thrive in the AI era?In this episode, we talk about: what happens if we live in a world where only machines create art? Is AI the next IP frontier? We also talk about his early days pivoting at YC, why persistence matters, and the unusual way he earnt his first revenue…Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

We're leaning into the paranormal this week with the fabulous Dolly from Kyneton Paranormal. Dolly runs paranormal investigations and has her own podcast and was previous YC guest a few years ago. She returns this week to share with us a remarkable story that delves into the tragic case of the missing Beaumont children. Many of you will have heard of their story, but for those who haven't, the three Beaumont children, Jane, Arna and Grant, vanished from an Adelaide beach on 26th Jan 1966. The police investigation into their disappearance is ongoing, the people responsible have never been formally identified or charged, and what happened to them is a mystery – well, it was until now. During one of Dolly's recent investigations, the spirit of Arna came through and when Dolly realised who it was and what she wanted – and she was asking for help - she started working with Arna, and then Arna's siblings, to piece together what happened, and to help their spirits cross over and find peace. Arna told Dolly and her team what happened to them, why their bodies haven't been found and who did it. The success Dolly and her team had with this case started an inundation of spirits wanting Dolly and her team's help to find peace both for themselves and their living family members. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the longest time, getting accepted to Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley startup accelerator was like getting a golden ticket for your startup. It was suddenly on the map not just in India but in Silicon Valley, too. For Indian founders who made it, the story of success began with a journey west. Set up in Delaware, impress YC, and get some of that Silicon Valley shine. But what happens when that dream starts looking more like a detour than a destination?Earlier this week, the online market place Meesho, once a poster child from the YC pipeline, announced it will pay nearly 300 million $ million in taxes just to bring its business back to India. Why? Because that's where the real opportunity is now. With an IPO in the works, Meesho is doing what many Indian startups are now considering: the reverse flip. And Meesho isnt the only one. Fintech unicorn Razorpay, another Y combinator baby, wants an Indian IPO in the next two years. Its expected to pay as much as $150 million to redomicile its business to India. But if the endgame is an Indian IPO, why take the expensive U.S. route in the first place? Is the YC badge still worth it? Tune in. Want to attend The Ken's next event on health, fitness and wellness? Buy tickets here. Here's your chance to help us shape the conversation: https://theken.typeform.com/to/bZhqWl2g

This week's guest is Taranjeet Singh, Founder and CEO of Mem0, a company building the self-improving memory layer for AI agents and LLMs.The conversation covers his path to founding Mem0, from applying to YC 7x and learning to "think bigger," to identifying a core pain point after launching a viral app in India. Taranjeet breaks down why memory is essential for agents, how Mem0 works across any LLM, and why solving one core problem deeply is a competitive advantage.He also discusses how to stay lean and ship fast by hiring high-agency contributors.Episode Chapters:Building startups since 2012 - 1:56Finding PMF in India - 3:59X growth hacks - 7:25Applying to YC - 12:25Why memory? - 15:05Primary use case - 17:21Relevant verticals for memory - 21:57Partnerships - 25:41Lean team & shipping fast - 27:44Future of agent infra - 32:28Quick fire round - 34:07As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.Fresh out of Y Combinator's Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

What if you could get into Y Combinator without a full product? In this episode, Varsha Ramesh Walsh, Founder of Offstream (useoffstream.com), shares exactly how she did just that — with a little traction, screenshots, and relentless customer focus. She breaks down the precise steps she took to validate her idea, iterate fast, and win early customers, even before building a functional platform. Whether you're applying to YC or searching for product-market fit, this conversation is packed with tactical advice — from how to pitch without a product to embedding customer feedback into your culture. Perfect for early-stage founders navigating the messy zero-to-one phase.

This week's episode is a first of its kind because we're doing the ultimate deep dive into one of my favorite products: RaycastWe'll here from the founders, design team, and even the hype team and go deep into all kinds of topics:The hilarious story of Raycast's YC application3 weekly rituals that are perfect for remote teamsWhat they've learned about designing AI experiencesWhat we can learn from how their hype team operatesHow the design team has changed the way they collab with engineersa lot moreThis is easily the most in-depth episode I've ever made so I hope you enjoy it :)Thomas and Petr (Raycast founders)Roy can Rooijen (Designing AI)Jordan Amblin (Designing mobile)Alexander Antonov (Designing windows + DS)Pedro Duarte (Hype lead)Inga Hampton (Designer + Illustrator)

Encuentra la fragancia perfecta para ti: https://www.dossier.mx/collections/all¡Gracias a Dossier por colaborar conmigo en este video! #dossier #dossierperfumes  @dossierperfumes  #ad #sponsored #patrocinado ¿Porque fue que me paralicé? ¿Porque no perseguí eso que tanto soñaba? Y ¿Cómo podemos hacer para salir del “freeze mode”? En este video vamos a contestar esas preguntas y además te quiero compartir 2 formas de pensar que te ayudarán en tu propio camino hacia tus metas. Esto es algo que me costó aprender y hubiera deseado yo misma haber visto este video años atrás.

OverviewThis newsletter issue commemorates 20 years of TechCrunch, reflecting on its landmark influence in shaping the startup ecosystem and tech journalism since its launch in 2005. Beyond nostalgia, the content reveals key ongoing shifts in technology, venture capital, AI innovation, and market dynamics that continue to define the industry's present and future.Listeners will gain perspective on how TechCrunch grew from a simple Web 2.0 weblog to a foundational startup network hub, alongside insights into current critical trends such as AI's evolving role in venture capital and software development, Apple's design and AI strategy, evolving IPO markets, and debates around AI ethics. The combination of historical context and forward-looking analysis makes this a compelling episode for anyone interested in the tech industry's trajectory.Key Trend 1: The Enduring Influence and Evolution of TechCrunch as a Startup NetworkTechCrunch's founding vision was not only to report new Web 2.0 companies but to serve as a connective platform for entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators globally.It emerged as the definitive startup network akin to how Facebook shaped social networks, fundamentally influencing tech culture, funding, and ecosystem formation.Today, TechCrunch remains a vital resource, expanding its global footprint with strategic partnerships and deeper engagement in key startup hubs like Europe.Key Trend 2: AI's Growing Impact on Venture Capital, Software Development, and Industry StructureAI continues to reshape venture capital with strong focus on B2B operational tooling, platform/API-first startups, and developer-centric innovation.Large models and AI coding tools (e.g., vibe coding, integration in Xcode) signal a shift towards AI-assisted software creation workflows.However, challenges remain in reasoning capabilities of AI models, skeptical internal debates on AI safety, and ethical implications within leading tech firms.Strategic investments and valuation surges of AI companies, such as Anysphere's rapid growth and Meta's big bet on Scale AI, highlight intense competition for AI supremacy.Key Trend 3: The Resurgence of Public Markets and Shifting Investment Dynamics2025 has marked a reopening of the IPO window, especially favoring growth-stage B2B SaaS companies and innovative tech firms with strong fundamentals.High-profile IPOs like Circle and CoreWeave demonstrate renewed investor appetite, with smaller deals sometimes outperforming large ones.Secondary markets in venture capital are becoming primary liquidity sources, with record transaction volumes and large funds specializing in venture secondaries addressing liquidity constraints.AI and defense tech sectors continue attracting major funding rounds and valuations, underpinning strategic industry shifts.Apple's new “Liquid Glass” design language and UI changes blur lines between iPad and Mac, signaling acknowledgment of evolving user expectations.AI-driven interfaces are moving beyond traditional input methods to embrace natural language, voice commands, and conversational experience.Voice AI technologies, such as “Voice in a Box” and true speech-to-speech models that incorporate prosody and emotion, are poised to revolutionize both consumer and enterprise interfaces.The future of devices will increasingly be defined by AI assistance quality rather than hardware aesthetics, with “legacy” hardware becoming less relevant.Key Trend 5: Ethical, Social, and Political Implications of AI and Tech PlatformsMajor tech companies wrestle internally with AI safety, privacy risks, and ethical governance amid fierce innovation pressures.AI's societal impact carries dual potentials for utopia or dystopia, prompting calls for governance frameworks balancing innovation with responsibility.Social media platform changes, such as X's transformation and decentralized alternatives like Bluesky, reveal ongoing tensions in moderation, community cohesion, and political discourse.Criticism of Big Tech growth focus and user experience degradation shows persistent cultural dissatisfaction despite transformative potential.Discussion QuestionsHow has TechCrunch's role as a startup network reshaped the venture capital ecosystem compared to traditional tech media? What lessons does this hold for emerging platforms today?Given the dominance of B2B and automation-focused AI startups in YC's recent accelerator cohorts, what does this suggest about the future directions of AI entrepreneurship versus consumer applications?Apple is pushing hard on design and controlled AI integration, while Meta invests heavily in superintelligence labs—how do these divergent strategies reflect different visions of AI's role in society and technology?What are the implications of the IPO resurgence and growing secondary markets for startup founders, investors, and public market investors in the current economic cycle? Does this signal a sustainable tech market rebound or potential volatility?With ethical concerns rising within companies like Apple and voices like Vinod Khosla warning of AI's societal risks, what governance or regulatory frameworks should be prioritized to ensure safe and equitable AI development?How do changes in social media dynamics—such as the rise of decentralized platforms like Bluesky and the transformation of X under Musk—impact political communication and community building in the digital age?What does the evolution of voice AI and UI convergence (e.g., iPadOS blending with macOS, ‘vibe coding' tools) mean for how individuals will interact with technology in the near future? Could these trends reduce technical barriers or introduce new challenges?Closing SegmentTechCrunch's 20-year journey exemplifies the power of dedicated media to build ecosystems and influence innovation rhythms. As we stand on the threshold of AI-driven transformation, the themes resonate: human connection remains central even as machines advance; technology for good requires intention amid rapid change; and markets and devices evolve to meet new realities while grappling with legacy and complexity.Our final thought: The future will not be defined solely by the most advanced algorithms or sleekest designs, but by how well the industry balances innovation, ethics, human values, and global inclusion to craft a truly transformative technology landscape. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thatwastheweek.com/subscribe

Los alcaldes de El Campo de Gibraltar se reúnen hoy con el ministro de Exteriores para conocer los detalles del acuerdo sobre Gibraltar.Satisfacción en la hostelería gaditana por el acuerdo en el convenio colectivo, que incluye, por primera vez, la medición de las cargas de trabajo.Y Cádiz contará con una escuela de Carnaval para potenciar la cantera. Empezará en octubre.Y en Se ha escrito un libro, el espacio que los viernes dedicamos a nuestra literatura, el libro es hoy Las formas del agua, de Fran Camacho, con quien habla nuestro compañero Miguel Albandoz.Escuchar audio

Today's show: Alex moderates a TWIST VC Roundtable with Jason, Paige Doherty (Behind Genius), and Altimeter's Megan Reynolds about the state of early-stage venture capital. They break down the rise of secondary markets as a key liquidity path for VCs, analyze the resurgence in M&A activity from major players like Meta, Databricks, and OpenAI, and question whether inflated ARR figures from YC startups are distorting valuations. Jason shares his year-zero investment thesis and offers tactical advice on secondary structuring and identifying high-quality revenue. Whether you're raising, investing, or building, this episode delivers essential insights into the evolving early-stage landscape.Timestamps:(0:00) Episode Teaser(1:28) Meet our panelists!(2:37) Will secondaries replace traditional M&A?(10:10) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups(14:28) Has M&A actually bounced back?(20:06) Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.(25:35) Secondary market advice, just for founders(30:10) Retool - Visit https://www.retool.com/twist and try it out today.(32:49) Why is it so hard for emerging managers to raise funds?(38:28) Seed funds: the math is not mathing(52:07) Why early investors become “collateral damage”(56:31) The importance of revenue quality in early-stage startups(1:06:43) Quick Fire Question Round!Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpLinks from episode:Altimeter: https://www.altimeter.com/homeBehind Genius: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/Follow Meghan:X: https://x.com/MeghanKReynoldsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghankreynolds/Follow Paige:X: https://x.com/paigefinnnLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigedoherty/Follow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partners:(10:10) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups(20:06) Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.(30:10) Retool - Visit https://www.retool.com/twist and try it out today.Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.comSubscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

(Estudio del evangelio de Lucas, lección 23) Jesús dijo: bienaventurados los pobres en espíritu. Pero ¿Qué significa eso realmente? Y ¿Cómo ser “pobre en espíritu” puede ser una bendición? Esta lección da inicio a una serie de estudios a través del famoso “sermón del monte”. Jesús ya ha sorprendido a todos con su poder para sanar enfermedades y liberar a los oprimidos por demonios, y ahora está a punto de sorprender a todos con el poder de sus palabras. Exploremos juntos este inolvidable sermón predicado por el mismo Señor Jesús y descubramos así algunos principios fundamentales del Reino de Dios. Pasaje Bíblico: Lucas 6:17-20

Anamitra Banerji is the Co-founder of Afore Capital, an SF-based VC firm that specializes in investing in pre-seed stage companies.Our conversation gets into the evolution of Pre-Seed as a category, why Pre-Seed is more than option checks, what Afore looks for when backing founders before they even have a product, how to skip your Seed and go straight to a Series A, and how to run a fundraise process.We also get into Afore's Founder in Residence program, why every VC started an accelerator, how AI is changing venture, joining Twitter as the first PM, and how Oprah helped create the legendary verified checkmark.Thanks to Gaurav Jain and Derrick Li at Afore for their help brainstorming topics for Anamitra.And special thanks to Bolt and Warp for supporting this episode.Bolt: Help them break a world record for the largest hackathon - up to $1m in prizes. Sign-up.Warp: Automates payroll, handles multi-state tax compliance, and streamlines international contractor payments, so founders can focus on building, not busywork. Try it here.Timestamps:(4:00) Afore: Starting in 2016 to build the pre-seed category(8:11) The unstructured data Afore underwrites at pre-seed(11:21) Pre-seed is determining bronze from gold(16:03) Why pre-seed is more than option checks(20:33) The secret to raising a Series A(23:20) Running a tight fundraise process(32:05) Skipping your Seed round(34:01) How to measure obsession in a founder(39:20) Knowing when to follow-on(40:54) Figuring out what really matters in a business(42:36) Afore's Founder in Residence program(49:44) Pros / Cons of more access to capital for founders(52:27) Two reasons YC made every VC launch an accelerator(1:01:05) Why AI is forcing VCs to invest earlier(1:06:55) Will AI commoditize software?(1:08:29) Growing up in India, starting his first company(1:10:39) Coming to the US for school, joining Overture + Yahoo(1:14:05) Joining Twitter as first PM, creating the Verified check for Oprah(1:18:55) Building Twitter's first ad product(1:20:28) Why non-founders can't take foundational risks(1:23:02) Starting Afore for the Pre-Seed opportunity(1:27:47) Raising Afore Fund 1(1:31:14) How to raise your first fund(1:33:33) Was Turner the best Afore intern ever?ReferencedAfore CapitalK9 CapitalAfore's Founder in Residence Program: SpeedrunPearXNeo AcceleratorGammaDevelop HealthFollow AnamitraTwitterLinkedInFollow TurnerTwitterLinkedInSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week.

Geoff Ralston, founder of SAIF (Safe Artificial Intelligence Fund), and former President of Y Combinator, shares his vision for building a safer AI future. Geoff discusses the risks and promise of AI as a force beyond traditional tools, posing AI as a set of entities that will reshape the way we work, live, and relate to each other. He talks about biosafety, interpretability, and misinformation as key focus areas for innovation. Geoff also shares advice for founders navigating this fast-evolving landscape and reflects on how thoughtful investment today can shape the future of humanity.In this episode, you'll learn:[02:05] Why Geoff believes AI is not ‘just' a tool but a cognitive force reshaping humanity[06:29] The subtle but profound difference between tools and intelligent agents[13:56] Who wins and who loses in an AI-driven future, and what roles must investors play?[20:36] Can we still design a utopian future with AI?[24:06] The types of founders Geoff wants to back through SAIF[26:30] Why mission-aligned safety startups still need product-market fit[28:46] What happens when AI does everything—and what humans will still choose to doThe nonprofit organization Geoff is passionate about: AI Venture LabAbout Geoff RalstonGeoff Ralston is the founder of SAIF (Safe Artificial Intelligence Fund) and former President of Y Combinator. A longtime startup investor, entrepreneur, and thought leader, Geoff previously founded Imagine K12, an edtech accelerator later merged with YC. With decades of experience launching and scaling category-defining startups, Geoff now focuses on funding companies that ensure AI becomes a force for good, addressing challenges around safety, security, and the future of human work.About SAIFSAIF (Safe Artificial Intelligence Fund) is a venture capital firm dedicated to building a safer future with AI. Founded by Geoff Ralston, SAIF invests in startups focused on AI safety, biosafety, interpretability, and information integrity. The firm supports mission-driven founders creating scalable solutions to counteract risks and ensure that AI technologies empower rather than endanger society.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.

What if you hit $3 million in revenue—with no sales or marketing team? In this episode of The Root of All Success, host Jason Duncan sits down with Frank Sondors, founder of Salesforge.ai, to unpack how he bootstrapped his AI-powered sales platform to multi-million dollar ARR in just one year. No sales reps. No marketers. Just bold execution, a co-founder match on YC's platform, and an AI agent named “Frank.” Frank shares how his background in politics, Google, and SaaS leadership collided into a startup built to do sales smarter. They talk about what's broken in traditional selling, why most AI companies miss the point, and how founder-led growth can scale when paired with smart tech. Whether you're a startup founder, tech builder, or sales leader, this one is packed with real talk and smart strategy.

The guys open the pod talking about their weekends, then it's on to the nights beers. They announce that next weeks podcast will be recorded at Pryes Brewing in Minneapolis. Dave briefly talks about the Loons draw versus Vancouver, then they get to the main topic of the night, a historic victory in Seattle. They discuss the lineups, the weird formation, a good first half with some YC's, a crazy 7 minute stretch which included a Tani brace, a Lod PK goal, and a comeback goal for Seattle. They talk about the Markanich YC's, and how one was pretty weak. A late own goal by the Loons put some major pressure on the defense, but the Loons held on for the victory. They discuss the standings, then it's on to a story about some hikers who thought their buddy was dead because they were high on shrooms. They end the pod talking about the new Pee Wee Herman documentary.

If you're halfway through the year and still “kinda trying”… this one's for you. In this quick-fire mini, we break down why your goals aren't landing—spoiler: it's not about the plan, it's about the follow-through.From the compound effect of daily effort, to the mindset shift that gets you out of your own way, this episode is your no-fluff reminder that small steps done consistently will beat perfection every time.If you're waiting to feel ready, motivated, or certain—stop. Shut up, do the work, and let this be your mid-year reset.Listen to the full episode here -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0R2VqtgGtUFfUManOj2bhL?si=f924748db09f488b Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/raw-reality/id1681027631?i=1000691613604 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5R9Xb5-BuqE?si=yC-k-umg8IMY2NRs Thank you for listening. Don't forget to share with your besties & tag us in your stories.Love Tori & Lily xRaw Reality https://rawreality.com.au/2025 Notion template: https://rawreality.com.au/products/your-year-notion-templateFind us below:@rawreallity https://www.instagram.com/rawreallity?igsh=cjZlMzZsM2lva3hw@ttorisstory https://www.instagram.com/ttorisstory/@fitwithlilyy https://www.instagram.com/fitwithlilyy/Community Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/share/v3sbEonnywyvp1h7/Recording Studio @zonegym_ https://www.instagram.com/zonegym_/

Getting AI Apps Past the Demo // MLOps Podcast #319 with Vaibhav Gupta, CEO of BoundaryML.Join the Community: https://go.mlops.community/YTJoinIn Get the newsletter: https://go.mlops.community/YTNewsletter // AbstractIt's been two years, and we still seem to see AI disproportionately more in demos than production features. Why? And how can we apply engineering practices we've all learned in the past decades to our advantage here?// BioVaibhav is one of the creators of BAML and a YC alum. He spent 10 years in AI performance optimization at places like Google, Microsoft, and D.E. Shaw. He loves diving deep and chatting about anything related to Gen AI and Computer Vision!// Related LinksWebsite: https://www.boundaryml.com/~~~~~~~~ ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ~~~~~~~Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://go.mlops.community/TYExploreJoin our Slack community [https://go.mlops.community/slack]Follow us on X/Twitter [@mlopscommunity](https://x.com/mlopscommunity) or [LinkedIn](https://go.mlops.community/linkedin)] Sign up for the next meetup: [https://go.mlops.community/register]MLOps Swag/Merch: [https://shop.mlops.community/]Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: /dpbrinkmConnect with Vaibhav on LinkedIn: /vaigupTimestamps:[00:00] Vaibhav's preferred coffee[00:38] What is BAML[03:07] LangChain Overengineering Issues[06:46] Verifiable English Explained[11:45] Python AI Integration Challenges[15:16] Strings as First-Class Code[21:45] Platform Gap in Development[30:06] Workflow Efficiency Tools[33:10] Surprising BAML Insights[40:43] BAML Cool Projects[45:54] BAML Developer Conversations[48:39] Wrap up

YC alum Tamar Blue joins us to unpack how her HIPAA-compliant platform, MentalHappy, is turning virtual support groups into a lifeline for 1,500+ providers and the communities they serve. Topics discussed include the stigmas behind metal health, the toll of therapist burnout, and the power behind group therapy.

Fredrik Thomassen, co-founder and CEO of Superside, joins the show to unpack how startups can scale creative work without slowing down or burning out their teams. Superside is a subscription-based design company that helps fast-growing teams get high-quality creative at scale. In this conversation, Fredrik shares how he built a globally distributed team, why async collaboration beats real-time meetings, and what most startups get wrong when managing creative work. We also get into: Hiring in overlooked markets Building customer trust and employee cohesion across time zones Structuring creative operations like a product team Why treating designers as partners — not vendors — drives better outcomes If you're juggling growth and messaging or just trying to build creative capacity without the chaos, listen in. RUNTIME 44:58 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:30) “ You start out and think, ‘I can do this for four or five years,' and all of a sudden, a decade has passed.” (4:32) Superside's beta was popular, but “ it was a total mess behind the scenes.” (7:36) Why “ it felt like an obvious move to go to YC.” (11:15) “ We found product-market fit, and then kind of COVID hit at the same time.” (14:17) The biggest mistake Fredrik made while adding headcount in the early days (18:59) Working with a founder coach has been “scary, but also in a sense, very motivating.” (21:39) Fredrik lists his preferred Norwegian authors (25:29) Inside Superside's pivot from freelancer marketplace to enterprise creative services (29:40) “ What's growing at the moment is AI-powered creative services for our enterprise customers.” (32:08) Quantifying the efficiency gai”s from using AI-enabled services (37:53) How Superside collaborates with clients to provide strategic services and production work (40:31) “ It's quite hard to build a lifestyle business.” (42:40) The one question he'd have to ask the CEO before accepting a job offer with an early-stage startup LINKS Fredrik Thomassen Haakon Heir Jing Venås Kjeldsen Superside Y Combinator Paul Graham essays Hunger, Knut Hamsun Jon Fosse Karl Ove Knausgård SUBSCRIBE

En este episodio de Indie vs Unicornio, Lucas y Cristóbal analizan la posibilidad de que surja la primera empresa valuada en mil millones de dólares gestionada por un solo founder y sin empleados. Este concepto, que hasta hace pocos años parecía imposible, ahora parece más cercano gracias al avance de las compañías basadas en inteligencia artificial. A partir de esto, exploran cómo algunos founders están escalando sus empresas de manera minimalista, usando tecnología para maximizar ganancias sin aumentar el equipo .Además, discuten el enfrentamiento entre Y Combinator y Google, donde YC acusa a Google de prácticas monopolísticas que han congelado la innovación en sectores clave como la búsqueda web y la inteligencia artificial. Lucas comparte detalles sobre cómo YC sugiere abrir el índice de búsqueda de Google para fomentar la competencia, y cómo estas acciones podrían cambiar el panorama para startups emergentes en AI ..0:00 – Introducción y contexto del episodio5:15 – Un unicornio sin empleados? La teoría detrás del próximo gran éxito12:30 – Google vs. Y Combinator: Prácticas anticompetitivas o estrategia de mercado?20:10 – AI y la nueva era de las startups minimalistas32:00 – Empresas que prosperan sin grandes equipos42:00 – Reflexiones finales y cierre del episodioLinks del episodio:Open AI: https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-remain-under-non-profit-control-change-restructuring-plans-2025-05-05/Founder Billionaire: https://palle.substack.com/p/the-1b-dollar-single-person-companyPalle Broe: https://substack.com/@palle/note/c-96583285Delivering Happiness: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6828896-delivering-happinessZappos:https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/surprise-will-of-late-zappos-ceo-adds-new-twist-for-his-fortune-66b2c5aa?st=qJfSB1&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalinkRecomendación de Lucas: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54659324-dungeon-crawler-carl__Muchas gracias a nuestro Sponsor, Analytics Town por apoyar este episodio!¿Quieres crear un producto basado en inteligencia artificial pero no sabes por dónde empezar?En Analytics Town te ayudamos a diseñar tu nuevo producto y modelo de negocio, desde la estrategia hasta la ejecución del software con módulos de IA.Descubrimos oportunidades para tu empresa y validamos tu idea.Armamos el diseño funcional y el modelo de negocio.Diseñamos y desarrollamos tu producto potenciado con Inteligencia Artificial.Te acompañamos en todo el proceso, desde la idea hasta convertirlo en negocio rentable...Si mencionas que vienes de Indie vs Unicornio, te damos un 25% de descuento en el desarrollo de tu primer MVP.

Venture capital is much fancied today.Is this job which looks like cutting cheques for products and founders you like, for everyone?As for any work, there are traits you should have and some which won't help you on the job.We have with us Kushal Bhagia (All In Capital), Karthik Prabhakar (Peer Capital), and Rajan (Upekkha).Three people who interestingly all began as engineers and took different career paths to today become Fund managers of leading VC firms.All In Capital's $24M pre-seed fund backing early-stage founders,Peer Capital's $75M early-stage fund investing in tech-first Indian startups from seed to Series A,Upekkha's $40M Capital's accelerator-style fund supporting B2B SaaS startups.Tune in!01:53 – Why builders shouldn't become VCs?03:12 – Why best VCs sell well & stay curious05:12 – How the VC job is like Flying a plane07:48 – How parental instincts enable VCs?10:42 – Is fundraising harder than ever?14:12 – What makes people write VC cheques?18:03 – Where do India's rich family offices invest?20:30 – Why India still doesn't have its own YC?22:55 – The OG YC when startups weren't cool28:00 – Can YC's numbers ever be replicated?33:03 – David v/s Goliath of Small vs large funds39:02 – Zepto's first $50k cheque40:22 – Sectors VCs won't touch41:35 – Story-driven v/s numbers-driven Fundraising44:36 – How we missed Swiggy, Postman & Zepto?46:18 – The best VCs48:24 – What needs to change in Indian VC?49:47 – Founders we'd invest In (But not work for)51:25 – Unlearnings as an Investor-------------​​India's talent has built the world's tech—now it's time to lead it.This mission goes beyond startups. It's about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.What is Neon Fund?We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that's done it before.Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we're doing it all at Neon.-------------Check us out on:Website: https://neon.fund/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShowwConnect with Siddhartha on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7-------------This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.Send us a text

What happens when Apple hints that Google's search dominance may be cracking, triggering a $155 billion wipeout in Alphabet's value?Many still think Google search is untouchable, but a shift in user behavior and a few lines in DOJ testimony may signal otherwise.In this episode, Chris Saad, Yaniv Bernstein, and Amir Shevat explore how Apple's revelation about declining Safari search traffic could mark a turning point for Google, what's really behind Trump's Middle East ‘AI investment tour,' and how YC's latest startup wishlist shows where the next wave of disruption will come from.In this episode, you will:Understand why Apple's testimony may be a warning shot for Google SearchLearn how AI is reshaping the definition—and monetization—of ‘search'Analyze Trump's Saudi tech tour and its real impact on US innovationEvaluate the shift from ad-driven to subscription-based AI business modelsExplore why Y Combinator wants startups to go ‘full stack' instead of selling to incumbentsUnpack the risks of shiny-object AI ideas vs. defensible startup modelsDiscover which overlooked AI sectors still have white space for new foundersFrom Google's search slowdown to Trump's headline-grabbing AI deals and YC's startup roadmap, this episode gives you the strategic insight founders need to navigate tech's shifting landscape.The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please:Follow, rate, and review us in your listening appSubscribe to the TSP Mailing List to gain access to exclusive newsletter-only content and early access to information on upcoming episodes: https://thestartuppodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media followingKey linksThe Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks.With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited-time offer of US$1,000 off, go to www.vanta.com/tsp .Get your question in for our next Q&A episode: https://forms.gle/NZzgNWVLiFmwvFA2A The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/Learn more about Chris and YanivWork 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthurIntro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

In this episode of The SaaS CFO Podcast, I'm joined by Anna Berger, founder and CEO of Trayd—a game-changing construction payroll and compliance software. Anna shares how her career in marketing and personal roots in the construction industry inspired her to tackle the toughest back-office challenges specialty contractors face, from HR and scheduling to payroll and compliance. We dive into Anna's journey from working at top ad agencies and Marriott International to becoming a two-time founder and YC alum. She opens up about the challenges and wins of building Trayd, raising $4.5 million in seed funding, and the importance of customer retention and consistent branding in SaaS growth. If you're passionate about SaaS, vertical solutions, or just love a good founder story, you won't want to miss this conversation. Tune in to learn how Anna and her team are streamlining complex operations for contractors and driving rapid growth in an industry that's overdue for innovation! Show Notes: 00:00 Diverse Founder Background Advantage 03:31 Unified Construction Software Solution 06:38 Family-Driven Construction Insight 10:56 Startup Fundraising Journey 14:39 CEO Focus: Retention and Growth Metrics 16:37 "Dogfooding to Improve Customer Experience" Links: SaaS Fundraising Stories: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/trayd-raises-4-5-million-in-seed-round Anna Berger's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annajberger/ Trayd's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/traydinc/ Trayd's Website: https://www.buildtrayd.com/ To learn more about Ben check out the links below: Subscribe to Ben's daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben's SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben's SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

Despite courtroom chaos, Rippling is still going full steam ahead. The HR tech startup at the center of an increasingly dramatic legal battle with rival Deel just raised a fresh $450 million in funding at a $16.8 billion valuation, and launched a new “Startup Stack” to woo early-stage companies—winning over Y Combinator as both an investor and a client. The funding lands amid the company's high-profile legal fight with Deel, which Rippling accuses of movie-worthy corporate espionage, complete with secret crypto payments and decoy Slack channels. Deel has denied the claims and fired back with its own lawsuit, calling Rippling's accusations a “distraction.” Today on Equity, Mary Ann Azevedo and Charles Rollet are digging into the HR tech showdown from legal drama to IPO implications and global intrigue. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: The alleged spy, Rippling's evidence, and Deel's denials YC's involvement in Rippling's latest project, and why the move is raising eyebrows The potential impact on IPOs for both companies  Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday.  Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We'd also like to thank TechCrunch's audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode overview: In this conversation, Verto co-founder and CEO Ola Oyetayo shares the journey of building a cross-border payments platform that tackles the unique challenges African businesses face when making international transactions. Since graduating from Y Combinator in 2019, Verto has established itself as what Oyetayo describes as a profitable and cashflow positive fintech serving multiple African markets. Incidentally, the company recently made headlines after winning the prestigious $1 million Milken-Motsepe Prize in FinTech. He discusses his team's pragmatic approach to addressing payment barriers in emerging markets, why traditional financial institutions have failed to serve these regions effectively, and how technology can disrupt traditional banking networks that have historically excluded certain markets. Andile Masuku engages Oyetayo on the evolution of fintech in Africa, the role of privilege and networks in business success, and the future potential of stablecoins to revolutionise cross-border payments in ways that might prove more transformative for emerging markets than developed ones. Key topics: - Verto's position in the cross-border payments landscape - The strategic decision to focus on B2B rather than consumer payments - The untapped $286 billion trade flow between Africa and China - Why 96-97% of business cross-border payments still go through traditional banks - The innovator's dilemma Verto faces with the rise of stablecoins Notable points: 1. In 2018, Oyetayo launched Verto's business model alongside his co-founder Anthony Oduu after spotting a solutions gap for African businesses making international payments outside of traditional banks 2. Verto has been profitable and cash flow positive for approximately 18 months 3. How a chance meeting with legendary VC Vinod Khosla at YC in 2019 first turned him on to the stablecoin investment opportunity—years before they became mainstream 4. The company operates in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and the Francophone region 5. Despite previous experience in institutional finance, Oyetayo admits "ignorance is bliss" helped him tackle a problem others saw as too risky 6. The potential of stablecoins to solve liquidity, volatility and capital control challenges in emerging markets Listen out for Oyetayo's take on Paystack's B2C play Zap, the fintech ecosystem implications of Moniepoint's "unicornification," and his contrarian insight that stablecoins will revolutionise emerging markets while having minimal impact in developed economies: "This is not a popular opinion... There's just no case for stablecoins in developed markets. People talk about, oh, it's going to disrupt Visa and MasterCard... I don't see that coming anytime soon." Image credit: Verto

Episode 704: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Blake Scholl ( https://x.com/bscholl ) about he went from high school dropout to Groupon to the founder of a supersonic jet startup.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Find your red line (4:29) Problems hidden in plain sight (13:00) The making of Boom Supersonic (23:00) No rules of thumb (29:13) Blake's favorite interview question (34:22) Demo Day at YC (38:13) Selling Richard Branson (47:46) Being a dark matter founder (52:14) What does the most ambition of yourself look like? (55:51) Progressively overturning of the skeptics (1:01:06) Working with Jeff Bezos at Amazon — Links: • Steal Shaan's $20M Pitch Deck: https://clickhubspot.com/wem • Boom - https://boomsupersonic.com/  — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it's called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com • Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth • Sam's List - http://samslist.co/ My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

Knowledge Project: Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- Most accelerators fund ideas. Y Combinator funds founders—and transforms them. With a 1% acceptance rate and alumni behind 60% of the past decade's unicorns, YC knows what separates the founders who break through from those who burn out. It's not the flashiest résumé or the boldest pitch but something President Garry Tan says is far rarer: earnestness. In this conversation, Garry reveals why this is the key to success, and how it can make or break a startup. We also dive into how AI is reshaping the whole landscape of venture capital and what the future might look like when everyone has intelligence on tap.  If you care about innovation, agency, or the future of work, don't miss this episode.  Approximate timestamps: Subject to variation due to dynamically inserted ads. (00:02:39) The Success of Y Combinator (00:04:25) The Y Combinator Program (00:08:25) The Application Process (00:09:58) The Interview Process (00:16:16) The Challenge of Early Stage Investment (00:22:53) The Role of San Francisco in Innovation (00:28:32) The Ideal Founder (00:36:27) The Importance of Earnestness (00:42:17) The Changing Landscape of AI Companies (00:45:26) The Impact of Cloud Computing (00:50:11) Dysfunction with Silicon Valley (00:52:24) Forecast for the Tech Market (00:54:40) The Regulation of AI (00:55:56) The Need for Agency in Education (01:01:40) AI in Biotech and Manufacturing (01:07:24) The Issue of Data Access and The Legal Aspects of AI Outputs (01:13:34) The Role of Meta in AI Development (01:28:07) The Potential of AI in Decision Making (01:40:33) Defining AGI (01:42:03) The Use of AI and Prompting (01:47:09) AI Model Reasoning (01:49:48) The Competitive Advantage in AI (01:52:42) Investing in Big Tech Companies (01:55:47) The Role of Microsoft and Meta in AI (01:57:00) Learning from MrBeast: YouTube Channel Optimization (02:05:58) The Perception of Founders (02:08:23) The Reality of Startup Success Rates (02:09:34) The Impact of OpenAI (02:11:46) The Golden Age of Building Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it's completely free. Learn more and sign up at fs.blog/newsletter Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/membership⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Watch on YouTube: @tkppodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steal Jess' Billion-Dollar Startup Playbook [for free]: https://clickhubspot.com/jhm Episode 702: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) boards the private jet of Jess Mah ( https://x.com/jessicamah ) to brainstorm business ideas and talk about her process for vetting which ideas to jump on.  — Show Notes:  (0:00) Buying a jet (5:37) Barn full of horses (8:44) Business ideas matrix (11:06) Idea: DOGE as a service (13:30) Idea: Vertical agents (16:52) Idea: Cargo ship coating (21:26) Idea: Holy Health (25:07) Building a team with digital twins (28:46) Jess's 0 - 1 framework (31:09) Worst advice from Silicon Valley (35:44) Find a starving crowd (37:55) Idea: Divorce.fund (38:36) Failures: Credboost (46:08) Ignorant of past, realistic of present, delulu of the future (49:58) Engineering serendipity (56:12) AI for medicine — Links: • Mahway - https://mahway.com/  • YC's Request for Startups - https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs  — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it's called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com • Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth • Sam's List - http://samslist.co/ My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

Most accelerators fund ideas. Y Combinator funds founders—and transforms them. With a 1% acceptance rate and alumni behind 60% of the past decade's unicorns, YC knows what separates the founders who break through from those who burn out. It's not the flashiest résumé or the boldest pitch but something President Garry Tan says is far rarer: earnestness. In this conversation, Garry reveals why this is the key to success, and how it can make or break a startup. We also dive into how AI is reshaping the whole landscape of venture capital and what the future might look like when everyone has intelligence on tap.  If you care about innovation, agency, or the future of work, don't miss this episode.  Approximate timestamps: Subject to variation due to dynamically inserted ads. (00:02:39) The Success of Y Combinator (00:04:25) The Y Combinator Program (00:08:25) The Application Process (00:09:58) The Interview Process (00:16:16) The Challenge of Early Stage Investment (00:22:53) The Role of San Francisco in Innovation (00:28:32) The Ideal Founder (00:36:27) The Importance of Earnestness (00:42:17) The Changing Landscape of AI Companies (00:45:26) The Impact of Cloud Computing (00:50:11) Dysfunction with Silicon Valley (00:52:24) Forecast for the Tech Market (00:54:40) The Regulation of AI (00:55:56) The Need for Agency in Education (01:01:40) AI in Biotech and Manufacturing (01:07:24) The Issue of Data Access and The Legal Aspects of AI Outputs (01:13:34) The Role of Meta in AI Development (01:28:07) The Potential of AI in Decision Making (01:40:33) Defining AGI (01:42:03) The Use of AI and Prompting (01:47:09) AI Model Reasoning (01:49:48) The Competitive Advantage in AI (01:52:42) Investing in Big Tech Companies (01:55:47) The Role of Microsoft and Meta in AI (01:57:00) Learning from MrBeast: YouTube Channel Optimization (02:05:58) The Perception of Founders (02:08:23) The Reality of Startup Success Rates (02:09:34) The Impact of OpenAI (02:11:46) The Golden Age of Building Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it's completely free. Learn more and sign up at fs.blog/newsletter Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/membership⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Watch on YouTube: @tkppodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adit Abraham is the co-founder and CEO of Reducto, which helps leading AI teams extract and structure data from complex documents and spreadsheets in their pipeline. Within 6 months of launching, Reducto went from 0→7 figures in ARR. Reducto has grown to process tens of millions of pages monthly for companies ranging from startups to Fortune 10 enterprises. They just announced a $24M Series A. Before Reducto, Adit was a Product Manager at Google, working on Ads and Search, and conducted machine learning research at MIT's Media Lab. --- In today's episode, we discuss: How listening to customers revealed an opportunity to pivot The weekend project that became Reducto's breakthrough Landing a Fortune 10 customer A technical founder's guide to sales Key insights from Reducto's fundraising journey Advice for founders: “You're going to fail” Much more --- Referenced: Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/ Chetan Puttagunta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetanputtagunta/ Diana Hu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sdianahu/ Liz Wessel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethwessel/ Raunak Chowdhuri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sauhaarda/ Reducto: https://reducto.ai/ Scale AI: https://scale.com/ Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Textract: https://aws.amazon.com/textract/ Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/ --- Where to find Adit: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditabraham/ --- Where to find Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson --- Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast --- Timestamps: (00:00) Hackathons, YC, and an unexpected pivot (05:23) The weekend project that became Reducto's breakthrough (09:11) How customer signal led to PDF processing (14:46) Landing a Fortune 10 customer (22:42) Building “transferable features” (25:58) How caring beats sales skills in startup growth (30:28) The strategy behind Reducto's horizontal expansion (36:18) Hire slow, go-to-market fast (41:45) A technical founder's guide to sales (43:45) “You're going to fail” (46:27) Why startups win (48:30) Key insights from Reducto's fundraising journey (51:43) Less structure, more impact (55:00) How frustrations shaped Reducto's culture (57:35) The question you should always ask in meetings

This Week in Startups is brought to you by…Kyte - TWIST Listeners: Go to https://kyte.com/ and download the Kyte app today. Use code JASON to save 10% on your first rental.Atlassian - Head to https://www.atlassian.com/startups/twist to see if you qualify for 50 free seats for 12 months.Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twistToday's show: Jason and Alex go deep into the shocking new details about the Rippling vs. Deel corporate espionage scandal—where a self-admitted spy fed confidential product roadmaps and sales data to a rival CEO for €5K/month. Plus, they interview Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu about their bold comeback with their new “Intern” AI agent that builds entire apps from a single prompt - Jason calls it a breakthrough. And we kick off Pitch Madness with fierce Founder Friday pitch battles featuring AI podcast tools and women's sports communities. Spy drama, next-gen tech, and raw founder energy—don't miss it.Timestamps:(0:00) Teaser: Rippling vs. Deel Espionage Case(1:46) Podcast updates and listener engagement(2:31) Job openings at Launch and This Week in Startups(4:19) Rippling and Deel lawsuit details and espionage activities(9:58) Kyte - TWIST Listeners: Go to https://kyte.com/ and download the Kyte app today. Use code JASON to save 10% on your first rental.(11:31) Stolen information and the aftermath of the espionage case(16:21) Corporate espionage vs. corporate intelligence debate(19:38) Atlassian - Head to https://www.atlassian.com/startups/twist to see if you qualify for 50 free seats for 12 months.(23:07) Board independence, whistleblower protections, and CEO behavior(25:10) Y Combinator's culture of rule bending(28:41) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist(30:02) Jesse Lu's YC experience and launch of Rabbit(34:48) Navigating the hype cycle as a founder and RabbitOS demo(45:02) Estate management and technology with Rabbit(48:39) Conclusion of interview with Jesse Lu(48:51) Launching Founder Friday pitch offs(50:43) Pitch: Snipd - AI-powered podcast app(53:29) Pitch: MedSimple - Medical education platform(57:10) Pitch: Trova - Workplace connection platform(58:45) Pitch: Osprey - Community for women in sports and entertainment(1:05:30) Analysis and decision: MedSimple vs Snipped and Osprey vs Trova(1:09:23) Discussion on Osprey's business model(1:10:33) Tips for improving pitch presentations(1:11:02) Announcement of Twist 500 competition(1:11:46) Closing remarks and social media call to actionSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpLinks from the show:Rabbit website: https://www.rabbit.tech/?srsltid=AfmBOorumixyS_kXbNPL2tDqLBsI08B4Hs3xUSZkOLS2nlKsatop5VG2Follow Jesse:X: https://x.com/jessechenglyuLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesselyu/Follow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partners:(9:58) Kyte - TWIST Listeners: Go to https://kyte.com/ and download the Kyte app today. Use code JASON to save 10% on your first rental.(19:38) Atlassian - Head to https://www.atlassian.com/startups/twist to see if you qualify for 50 free seats for 12 months.(28:41) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twistCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.comSubscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Techdirt has finally accepted the inevitable and gone full democracy blog—because let's face it, politics and tech are now the same dumpster fire. Google rolled out AI Mode for Search, proving once again that the internet is just Clippy with better branding. Meanwhile, Billy McFarland insists Fyre Festival 2 is totally happening, despite Mexican officials pointing out that his coordinates literally lead to the ocean. Speaking of fraud, Tesla sales are in freefall thanks to Elon's alt-right cosplay, and people are setting Teslas on fire in protest. And in rich-guy disconnect news, Google's Sergey Brin thinks engineers should work 60-hour weeks to build the AI that will replace them. That's some late-stage capitalism poetry right there.Elsewhere, Trump Media paid Don Jr. nearly a quarter of its revenue to show up twice, while indie musicians can't afford to tour, proving once again that grifting is more profitable than making art. Technicolor shut down overnight, stranding 10,000 workers because Hollywood's financial planning is apparently as stable as a Starship rocket launch. Oh yeah, SpaceX exploded another one.Meanwhile, Netflix's attempt to upscale A Different World turned it into a Lovecraftian horror show. A quarter of Y Combinator startups now run on “vibe coding,” meaning their software is basically a Ouija board with extra steps. The AI takeover continues as OpenAI plans to charge $20,000 monthly for specialized AI "agents," proving once again that the revolution will be monetized. Meanwhile, Moscow's Pravda network has been poisoning Western AI chatbots with Russian propaganda, because if you can't convince humans, just brainwash the robots that humans increasingly trust.On the bright side, hackers brought the Humane AI Pin back to life after it was bricked, transforming an overpriced paperweight into... a slightly less useless overpriced paperweight. ChatGPT can now directly edit code in macOS development tools, making it easier for AI to introduce bugs you never would have thought of yourself. Over At the Library, check out "The Tempest" by Peter Cawdron for your first contact fix, and if you're worried about where society is heading (and who isn't?), Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny" offers a survival guide for our slow-motion constitutional collapse. Finally, in "everything is fine" news, 82% of indie artists can't afford to tour anymore.Enjoy the dystopia, kids – at least we still have our sense of humor.Sponsors:DeleteMe - Head over to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use the code "GOG" for 20% off.Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/687FOLLOW UPWhy Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)Google announces ‘AI Mode' as a new way to use Search, testing starts todayGovernment Officials for Announced Fyre Festival 2 Location Say Event “Does Not Exist”‘I'm selling the Nazi mobile': Tesla owners offload cars after Musk's fascist-style salutesTesla Just Got Even More Bad NewsTesla Just Got News About Its Sales in Germany, and It Shows That Elon Musk Has Seriously Messed UpArsonists Set Fire to a Dozen Teslas, Charging Stations Amid "Anti-Capitalist Coordination to Target Tesla"Google's Sergey Brin Says Engineers Should Work 60-Hour Weeks in Office to Build AI That Could Replace ThemEx-Amazon VP explains why rich a-holes with helicopters and personal assistants don't get why you hate your commuteTrump Media Paid Donald Trump Jr. Nearly A Quarter Of Its Annual Revenue. He Attended Just Two Board MeetingsIN THE NEWSCinema Giant Technicolor's Abrupt Shutdown Affects 10,000 Workers WorldwideUS employers cut more jobs last month than any February since 2009No part of Amazon is 'unaffected' by AI, says its head of AGIChatGPT doubled its weekly active users in under 6 months, thanks to new releasesHugging Face's chief science officer worries AI is becoming 'yes-men on servers'A well-funded Moscow-based global ‘news' network has infected Western artificial intelligence tools worldwide with Russian propagandaOnlyFans Model Amouranth Held at Gunpoint for Her Crypto in Home InvasionCrypto Soars Then Plunges Following Trump's Post About a Strategic ReserveFact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset StockpileTrump creates a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve one day ahead of White House crypto summitCFPB drops Zelle lawsuit in latest reversal under Trump administrationCanadian Municpalities and the Canadian Supreme Court to stop using twitter.Ontario once again promises to nix $100 million Starlink deal over Trump tariffsOpenAI reportedly plans to charge up to $20,000 a month for specialized AI 'agents'Kevin Rose, Alexis Ohanian acquire DiggDoes the World Even Want Digg in 2025?Scrolling Through Social Media Has a Unique Effect on Your BodySpaceX's latest Starship test flight ends with another explosionA second Intuitive Machines spacecraft just landed on the moon — and probably tipped overTouch down on the moon with private Blue Ghost lander in this amazing videoMEDIA CANDYHow Many Episodes Should You Watch Before Quitting a TV Show? A Statistical AnalysisNetflix Is Using AI to Upscale a 1980s Sitcom and the Results Are Borderline HorrificDaredevil: Born AgainDavid Duchovny to Explore Real-Life X-Files for History ChannelBeyond Belief: Fact or FictionAncient MysteriesIn Search Of...82% of indie artists can't afford to tour anymoreAPPS & DOODADSThe Humane Ai Pin Has Already Been Brought Back to LifeChatGPT on macOS can now directly edit codeA quarter of startups in YC's current cohort have codebases that are almost entirely AI-generatedThe Vanishing Middle Class of TechWill the future of software development run on vibes?Hallucinations in code are the least dangerous form of LLM mistakesAT THE LIBRARYThe Tempest (First Contact) by Peter CawdronOn Tyranny by Timothy SnyderWarning - DomesticIs Trump preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act? Signs are pointing that waySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.