OpenAI vs Anthropic⚔️, Free AI Hiring Kit🎁, How Investors Price You💰
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 👇
🎁 Free AI Hiring Kit (Actually Free)
Before we dive in, we built something with Notion for early-stage founders hiring their first team.
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AI Agent trained on a16z, Sequoia & YC frameworks
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If you’re hiring engineers, operators, or GTM roles this year, this actually helps.
In-Depth Insights 🔍
How Investors Actually Price Venture Rounds 💰
Valuations are calculated backward from exits, timelines, and required returns, not from storytelling. If the math does not clear thresholds, no narrative can force a deal. [Chris Tottman]
Warm-Path Sales That Actually Convert 🎯
Most outbound fails because it ignores timing, context, and existing trust already sitting in your network. This framework shows how to surface relationship signals and reach prospects when replies are statistically more likely.
Why Second-Time Founders Win More Often 💡
Repeat founders move faster because experience sharpens judgment across hiring, fundraising, and distribution. Their edge comes from knowing what to ignore as much as knowing what to execute.
Why Most VC Funds Were Doomed at Formation ⚠️
Many funds fail before the first check due to broken ownership math and unrealistic return targets. The top performers win by concentrating capital into rare breakouts instead of spreading bets thin.
How Founders Must Change as Companies Grow 👑
The leadership style that creates early traction becomes a bottleneck once teams and systems expand. Investors look for founders who can evolve their role as fast as the company scales. [Chris Tottman]
When Venture Capital Hurts More Than It Helps 🚫
Venture funding only works for businesses that can produce extreme outcomes within tight timeframes. Many founders lose years chasing it instead of building profitable companies on their own terms. [Brett Calhoun]
The Financial Models Every Founder Needs 📊
Clear financial visibility separates disciplined builders from hopeful storytellers. These models expose burn, dilution, and unit economics the same way investors evaluate risk.
Trending News ⚡
Viral AI Social Network Moltbook Hacked in Minutes 🔓
Researchers accessed emails, private messages, and API tokens through basic backend gaps in under three minutes. The breach shows how shipping products without understanding infrastructure leaves users exposed at scale. [Business Insider]
Small Teams With AI Now Rival Large Organizations 🤖
Reid Hoffman argues tight context and fast feedback let lean groups move with surprising output. Custom internal tools turn once-expensive initiatives into experiments that ship in days instead of quarters. [Business Insider]
Intel Steps Into the GPU Race Against Nvidia 🎮
Intel confirmed plans to build GPUs aimed at AI workloads and gaming markets.
New leadership is betting on customer-driven design to break into an entrenched hardware ecosystem. [TechCrunch]Jensen Huang Pushes Back on Software Replacement Fears 🤖
Nvidia’s CEO said recent market selloffs misread how AI actually works inside companies. He emphasized that existing tools remain essential because they encode rules machines still depend on. [Reuters]
Sam Altman Responds to Anthropic’s Super Bowl Ads 😂
Altman called the campaign amusing but misleading about future monetization plans. He framed access and scale as priorities while pushing back on the portrayal of product direction. [Business Insider]
Indian IT Stocks Slide on Automation Anxiety 📉
Markets reacted sharply as analysts warned margins could compress under faster delivery cycles. Concerns center on whether service-heavy models can adapt before revenue erosion accelerates. [Reuters]
Amazon Unveils $200B AI Investment Plan 💰
The company outlined spending far above expectations, spooking investors despite growth signals. Leadership defended the move as demand-driven while shares fell on near-term profit concerns. [Business Insider]OpenAI and Anthropic Release Rival Models Same Day ⚔️
Both labs launched new systems within hours, highlighting an increasingly aggressive cadence. The timing underscored diverging philosophies around speed, scope, and product positioning. [Business Insider]
Elon Musk Advances Orbital Data Center Vision 🛰️
Plans tie space-based infrastructure to energy efficiency and launch scale.
Skeptics question maintenance economics as filings move forward with regulatory backing. [TechCrunch]OpenAI Launches Enterprise Agent Management Platform 🤖
The new system lets companies deploy and govern agents like internal operators.
Early customers signal demand for centralized control as AI workflows spread across teams. [TechCrunch]
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 💎
Anthropic Targets OpenAI With Super Bowl Ads 🎯
The campaign portrays assistants derailing conversations with product pitches to argue ads undermine trust. Anthropic positions paid, private tools as the alternative to ad-funded AI at consumer scale.Startup Equity Reality Hits Before Employees Can Sell 💔
Many employees wait years for liquidity only to see valuations collapse before lockups end. The gap between paper wealth and realized outcomes often comes down to timing, not company quality.
From Twitter to SpaceX Through Elon Musk’s Corporate Shuffle 💰
Former employees watched their equity morph through a chain of mergers across Musk’s companies. What started as social media stock now traces an improbable path into space infrastructure ownership.
New Funds 💰
2048 Ventures closed its third fund at $82M to double down on early-stage investments across emerging tech sectors.
Metavallon VC launched a €5M “Brain Gain” fund aimed at backing founders and talent returning to build in the region.
Zoho VC secured a €7M first close for its inaugural fund, focused on supporting early-stage technology startups.
Seedspeed Ventures closed its third fund at €90M to scale investments in high-growth startups across Europe.
Snak Venture Partners raised $50M for its inaugural fund, targeting early-stage opportunities in consumer and technology sectors.
That’s a wrap for this week.
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