a16z and YC Wishlist💰, AGI Needs “Taste”🎨, Military AI Use⚖️
If you're building, investing, or just trying to stay ahead of the curve, you're in the right place. Every week, we break down the latest insights, funding news, and founder-friendly gems. Just what matters. Plus, we track the freshest VC funds deploying capital so you know where the money’s moving.
Let’s get into it 👇
In-Depth Insights 🔍
Anthropic’s Leaked 2022 Pitch Deck 💰
10 slides, no product, and FTX funding helped Anthropic raise $580M and scale to $380B in under 4 years. AI founders raising without revenue can study this as a hidden blueprint.
The Lean Revenue Model Every Startup Needs 📊
Track five key metrics in 15 minutes a month with a 3-tab Excel model. From churn to NRR to CAC payback, instantly see if your startup is growing or quietly dying.
Alex Karp: 12 Lessons From Palantir’s $500B Run 🦅
The CEO ignored Silicon Valley norms for 20 years and built a $500B company. Conviction and timing beat consensus, with retail investors seeing venture-level returns.The One Fundraising Mistake Every Founder Makes ⚠️
SAFEs seem simple but can silently give away more equity than intended. Understand caps, discounts, and conversions to avoid a nasty surprise at your priced round. [Chris Tottman]
OpenClaw Mega Cheatsheet: Ultimate Reference 🦾
Everything in one page. CLI commands, workspace, memory models, hooks, skills, and automation tools. OpenClaw users get one go-to guide for all shortcuts and commands. [OpenClaw]
Is SaaS Dead? No. But Stability Is Gone 💀
B2B products can’t rely on 7-10 year lifecycles anymore. AI is changing the landscape so quickly that slow growth can make a product outdated in just a few months. [SaaStr]Hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer 🤝
Palantir’s FDE model embeds engineers with customers to deliver the last mile. Only pursue this if your enterprise deals are large, your product flexible, and problems technically complex. [Review]AI-Enabled Startups Are Rewriting VC Playbooks 🎯
Small AI teams reach millions in revenue without venture funding, forcing investors to compete earlier. Series A bars rise and slower-growing companies get squeezed out. [Andy Budd]
Trending News ⚡
Perplexity Computer Runs 19 AI Models 🤖
Perplexity Computer orchestrates 19 AI models for research, coding, design, deployment, and project management. Persistent memory and parallel agents let it handle hundreds of projects, with guides comparing Claude Cowork and OpenAI Operator.
Anthropic Claims Chinese Labs Misused Claude 🔐
Anthropic alleges DeepSeek, MiniMax, and Moonshot AI trained rival models using Claude outputs at scale, creating tens of thousands of fake accounts. The move raises debates on model security, safeguards, and US export controls for advanced chips. [Business Insider]
MatX Raises $500M to Challenge Nvidia 💻
AI chip startup MatX secured $500M Series B to build processors 10x faster than Nvidia GPUs for LLM tasks. Founded by former Google TPU leaders, it plans TSMC manufacturing and 2027 shipments. [TechCrunch]
Trump Wants Tech Giants to Self Fund AI Power ⚡
Trump urged major tech companies to generate their own electricity for AI data centers to protect communities from higher utility costs. Discussions include ratepayer protections and possible on-site power plants amid surging AI energy demands. [Business Insider]
OpenAI COO Highlights Slow Enterprise AI Adoption 🏢
OpenAI Frontier aims to help enterprises deploy AI agents, but COO Brad Lightcap says adoption in complex workflows remains limited. Partnerships with BCG, McKinsey, Accenture, and Capgemini, plus India expansion, support broader AI use. [TechCrunch]
Nvidia Pushes CPU Comeback Amid AI Agents ⚡
Jensen Huang highlights a shift from GPU-heavy training to CPU-driven AI agent tasks. Nvidia’s Grace and Vera CPUs will rival Intel and AMD, with Meta deploying large volumes to expand AI infrastructure. [Reuters]
Sam Altman Says AGI Needs “Taste” 🎨
Non-technical talent can contribute to AGI by exercising judgment on which projects matter. OpenAI seeks exceptional recruiters and founders with contextual insight, emphasizing discernment as a core AI skill. [Business Insider]
Nvidia Earnings Beat Estimates as AI Demand Surges 📈
Nvidia posted $68.13B in Q4 revenue, exceeding forecasts thanks to booming AI compute adoption. CEO Jensen Huang highlighted agentic AI growth, upcoming Blackwell and Rubin chips, and strong ties with OpenAI and global partners. [Business Insider]
Howard Marks on Why AI Can’t Beat Top Investors 🤖
Howard Marks says AI can process data but lacks judgment, instinct, and skin in the game. Elite investors use human insight to navigate new situations, assess qualitative factors, and manage concentrated risks, staying ahead of algorithms. [Business Insider]
Anthropic Draws the Line on Military AI Use ⚖️
CEO Dario Amodei rejected Pentagon terms for Claude, citing strict limits on surveillance and autonomous weapons. The standoff underscores tensions between national security needs and corporate AI ethics while Anthropic plans for safe collaboration or potential offboarding. [Business Insider]
Fundraising?
If you’re raising a round, Luis Llorens and The Founders Corner can help. We gather startup fundraising data and share it with our audience of 300k+ investors and startup operators. Fill out this form and we’ll will do our best to connect you with the right investors! 🚀
Social Media Gems 💎
The New Career Playbook for Modern Winners 💡
The fastest careers now come from intentional jumps across roles, industries, and networks. Linear ladders are fading as credibility and relationships compound faster than tenure.
Anthropic Emerges as a $380B Enterprise AI Powerhouse 🚀
Anthropic scaled from an OpenAI spinoff into a trusted enterprise platform serving 8 of the Fortune 10. Its focus on safety and reliability is building durable margins while others chase consumer scale.
Dario Amodei Left OpenAI to Steer AI’s Future ⚠️
Dario Amodei helped build GPT-3 before founding Anthropic to prioritize long-term safety. The divide between Claude and ChatGPT reflects philosophy and restraint more than technical gaps.
a16z and YC Map the AI Startup Goldmine for 2026 💰
Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator outlined where the next billion-dollar AI companies will emerge. Founders building outside these categories may be misaligned with where capital and demand are heading.
Replit Turns Video Creation Into Prompt Writing 🎬✨
Replit launched animation tools that collapse the gap between coding and content creation. The ability to generate videos directly from prompts signals a new creative baseline. [Replit]Silicon Valley’s Wildest Era Feels Unreal 😂
From crypto cycles to AI explosions and Twitter becoming X, reality outpaced satire. The past six years rewrote tech culture faster than fiction ever could. [Marcelo Prado]The Workforce Reset Accelerates Past 600,000 Jobs ⚠️
Layoffs across government and giants like Amazon and Microsoft signal structural change. The challenge now is whether retraining systems can move as fast as automation itself. [Milk Road AI]
New Funds 💰
Pegasus Tech Ventures & Aisin extended their corporate venture capital fund to $100M, scaling a strategic CVC vehicle focused on mobility, deep tech, and startup collaboration.
Quantonation closed its second fund at €220M, launching a newly raised vehicle dedicated to quantum technologies and deep physics startups.
DBA raised $62M for its second venture fund, deploying fresh capital into early-stage, data-driven companies.
FutureFirst launched its inaugural $50M fund, marking its official entry into the VC ecosystem with a first institutional vehicle.
Seraphim closed a new spacetech-focused venture fund at over $100M to back startups across the growing space economy.
Peak XV Partners raised $1.3B across three newly announced funds, expanding its multi-vehicle investment strategy across Asia-Pacific.
That’s a wrap for this week.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, make sure you're subscribed. No fluff, just real startup insights delivered straight to your inbox.
See you next time 🚀
i think Anthropic turning down Pentagon terms while OpenAI takes the deal contrast alone tells you everything about where the AI industry is splitting
I appreciate you weaving judgment and skills into this thread! 🤗