The True Cost of Churn💥, Venture Capital 3.0 🤖, How Founders Should Think About Runway💸
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—no fluff, 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 🔍
How “Venture Capital 3.0” Impacts Founders in the AI Age 🤖
AI is reshaping VC. 32,000+ investors, faster decisions, tougher competition. Founders win on speed, clarity, and outlier ideas. [James Currier]
The Unsung Ingredient in Stripe, Square and Linear’s Success: Taste 🪄
Craft isn’t a luxury - it’s a system. First Round breaks down how top teams operationalize taste to build standout products at speed.
The Unbundling of Venture Capital 🧱
VC power is shifting from firm brands to individual renegades. The gatekeepers are losing ground - and founders are in control. [Kyle Harrison]
Mastering the Human Side of Engineering: Lessons from Apple, Palantir and Slack 🔧
Apple’s Michael Lopp breaks down how great engineering orgs run on trust, debates, and human-centric leadership - not just code.How Founders Should Think About Runway: A Guide from Sequoia Capital 💸
Sequoia shares a tactical runway framework: align cash, milestones, and burn - most founders underestimate where they stand. [Sahil S]
Churn isn’t just lost ARR - it’s millions in lost profit and second-order revenue; early churn compounds like debt. [OnlyCFO]
Trending News
Fidji Simo Joins OpenAI as Head of Applications 📲
Instacart CEO Fidji Simo is stepping in to lead OpenAI’s applications team, freeing up Sam Altman to double down on research and safety. [Jacob Robbins]9 VC Firms Took Half of All U.S. VC Dollars in 2024 🏦
A16z and eight others grabbed $35B of the year’s VC haul - everyone else fought for scraps. [Rosie Bradbury]
Figma Drops 4 New AI Tools to Take on Adobe and Canva 🖌️
Figma Sites, Make, Buzz, and Draw aim to keep users from ever needing WordPress, Copilot, or Illustrator again. [Jess Weatherbed]
YC’s Summer 2025 “Requests for Startups” Goes All-In on AI 🤖
YC wants founders to tackle full-stack AI companies, internal agent builders, voice assistants, and more. [Jared Friedman]Apple Tries to Delay Court Ruling on App Store Fees ⚖️
Apple moves to block a court order letting apps use outside payment links -Epic calls it a “last-ditch” defense of junk fees. [Ivan Mehta, Ram Iyer]Most-Active Startup Investors Spent Big in Q1 2025 📊
YC, SoftBank, and Lightspeed topped the charts as AI hype pushed deal volume and check sizes to multi-year highs. [Joanna Glasner]
Global Venture Funding Slowed in April Despite AI Surge 🌍📉🤖💼
April VC totals fell hard after March’s OpenAI boost, with AI still leading but investor caution growing. [Gené Teare]
Rippling Raises $450M at $16.8B Valuation, Adds YC as a Customer 💼
Rippling adds fuel for global expansion while spotlighting YC as a new customer-and Deel as a legal rival. [Mary Ann Azevedo]Google Adds Automatic Caching to Cut Gemini API Costs 🧠
Google rolls out “implicit caching” to save devs up to 75% on Gemini API calls- no manual setup required. [Kyle Wiggers]
Social Media Gems 💎
Enterprise AI agents & copilots are already a $5B+ market 🤖
Enterprise copilots are scaling faster than the AI industry average - $13B projected by EOY 2025.
This deck just helped Hopper raise $175M in Series G ✈️
Fintech meets travel - Hopper locks in $585M total with AI, price-prediction tools, and plans to hire 500+. [Shilpi Kumari]AI + Healthcare might soon make “vibe doctoring” a real thing 🩺
In a few years, not using AI in medicine could be considered malpractice - wild but probable. [Linas Beliūnas]
$12B in value spun out from one open-source editor 💻
Cursor and Windsurf turned Microsoft’s VS Code into a $12B ecosystem - all before writing a line of original code. [Ruben Dominguez Ibar]
Voice AI isn’t a UI upgrade - it’s a business model shift 📞
STS voice agents are replacing reps with 300ms latency, emotion-aware calls, and zero marginal cost service. [Ivan Landabaso]
New Funds 💰
Robert Bosch Venture Capital €250M fund targeting deep tech and AI across Europe, North America, Israel, and China.
Crowd Power Ventures $20M debut fund focused on energy transition and community-driven climate tech startups.
Actimed Investment closed new fund to back biopharma ventures with a focus on unmet medical needs.
VentureIsrael second fund launched to fuel Israeli deep tech startups in AI, robotics, and more.
Mainsail Partners raised $1.535B for Fund VII to scale bootstrapped B2B software companies.
Active Impact Investments climatetech Fund III hits $110M to back North American early-stage climate solutions.
Verb Ventures €25M second fund to support early-stage B2B software startups in the UK and Europe.
AI Fund closed $190M Fund II to incubate and scale AI-first startups globally.
That’s a wrap for this week.
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