Inside SatEnlight’s Spiral Staircase of Lasers: Interview with Startup Space Winner Matteo Vismara
SatEnlight, an Italian optical‑communications startup, unveiled a laser terminal that stacks multiple beams in a multi‑layered spiral‑staircase configuration. Co‑founder Matteo Vismara, a former CERN researcher, left a secure academic path to commercialize the technology. The company captured the top prize at SATShow’s 10th Annual Startup Space pitch contest, highlighting a pivotal slide‑deck tip that helped seal the win. Vismara believes the terminal could redefine standards for space‑based optical data transmission.
EU to Widen Iran Sanctions to Those Who Block Hormuz
The European Union announced it will broaden its Iran sanctions regime to target individuals and entities that block the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s self‑imposed closure of the strait has cut roughly one‑fifth of global oil and LNG supplies, disrupting markets....
India, South Korea Working to Double Bilateral Trade by 2030: Piyush Goyal
India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal announced a dedicated South Korean industrial township and a $6 billion steel plant in Odisha as part of 16 new MoUs, aiming to double bilateral trade with South Korea to $54 billion by 2030. The two governments...
How Advertisers Are Thinking About Meta’s Affiliate Tool Rollout
Meta unveiled a suite of creator‑focused affiliate and checkout tools at Shoptalk, extending shoppable Reels on Instagram and product‑tagging on Facebook. The affiliate program, backed by partners such as Amazon, eBay, Temu, Shopee and Mercado Libre, lets creators earn commissions...
Placeholder Partners and Frictionmaxxing Fatigue
The After School Monday Edition outlines a wave of cultural and marketing shifts, from Coachella brand activations now topping tens of millions of dollars to AI‑generated influencers flooding festival feeds. It flags the rise of “frictionmaxxing,” a luxury‑focused experience model,...
CuspAI Raising $200m at Unicorn Valuation, Reports Say
CuspAI, a 2024‑founded AI startup that speeds material design, is in talks to raise at least $200 million, which would lift its valuation above the $1 billion unicorn threshold. The platform functions as a search engine for materials, generating chemical compositions from...
Inference Budgets Are Overrunning by "Orders of Magnitude" - What Now?
Goldman Sachs’ latest research shows AI inference costs are exploding, often exceeding original budgets by orders of magnitude. In a survey of 30 private and 10 public software firms, one company reported inference spend approaching 10% of its engineering headcount...
How Data Analytics and Data Mining Strengthen Brand Identity Services
Brand identity services are increasingly powered by data analytics and mining, shifting from intuition to measurable insight. A Nucleus Research report shows firms earn $13.01 for every dollar spent on analytics, a 1,200% ROI, spurring deeper investment. Real‑time dashboards and...
Plata Raises $405M Series C at $5B Valuation
Mexican fintech Plata closed a $405 million Series C round, pushing its valuation to $5 billion. The round was led by Bicycle Capital with participation from Kora, Qatar Investment Authority and BTG Pactual. Plata, now a fully licensed digital bank, plans to expand lending,...
AI Video Now Creates Full‑length Stories without Editing
Say goodbye to short-clip hell. AI video just made its biggest jump yet. Seedance 2.0 on Medeo can now generate 5–10 minute videos with a full narrative arc setup, build, payoff. No editor. No timeline. No technical skills. Just describe the story, and Medeo...
Christine Lagarde: The Energy Shock: Where We Stand and What We Need to Know
ECB President Christine Lagarde warned that the ongoing conflict in the Strait of Hormuz has created the largest oil‑supply disruption in history, cutting roughly 13 million barrels per day—about 13% of global consumption. She highlighted the uncertainty over the shock’s duration...
Personalized PageRank Reveals High-Impact Nodes in 9M-Edge Graph
So... "ai, explain what I just did": we ingested 9M+ directed edges from X into a weighted influence graph, then ran a personalized PageRank variant — tuned for human accounts — to surface eigenvector centrality at scale. once you know the...
Jambaar Capital Invests in Trashcoin
Jambaar Capital announced an investment in Trashcoin, a Nigerian digital waste‑management platform that rewards users with credits for recyclable material. The credits are stored in a digital wallet and can be exchanged for cash or used to pay utilities, health...
Apply Now: A16z Speedrun Offers $1M Funding & $5M Credits
ok - dropping big dates/news for a16z speedrun: - starting TODAY, founders can apply for the 2026 program that runs July 27 to Oct 11 in SF here's the link: https://t.co/opkX4cIaCF - we will be investing up to $1M and funding 70+ companies...
Set Standards, Not Goals
In this episode the host contrasts goals with standards, arguing that lasting success comes from the habits and performance levels you tolerate rather than the lofty outcomes you set. Drawing on personal experience building an eight‑figure company and completing multiple...
3 Years with French Business Leaders, 5 Lessons in Leadership
After three years at the British Embassy in Paris, the author reflects on leadership insights gained from France’s top executives. He identifies five core lessons—vision, ambition, risk‑taking, networking, and geopolitical awareness—that shape how French leaders drive growth at home and...
Dan Loeb Dumps CSGP, Citing Reckless CEO Spending
Dan Loeb sells out of $CSGP "CEO Andy Florance has continued what can only be seen as a reckless drain on a majority of the company's operating income into Homes,com and related acquisitions even as the share price has continued to...
CFPB Gets Pushback over ‘Artificial Deadline’ on Job Cuts
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) faced criticism from the National Treasury Employees’ Union for requesting a 45‑day deadline to approve its latest workforce‑reduction plan, a plan that was disclosed more than a year after a district court injunction blocked...
People Buy for Their Reasons, Not Yours (Money Monday)
The Money Monday episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast argues that buyers decide primarily on emotion, then rationalize with logic. Experiments with wine price tags and store music illustrate how subconscious cues shape preferences. Salespeople who open with features and...
Lee Hardware and Building Supply Preserves Legacy Through Open Succession Planning and Humble Leadership
Lee Hardware & Building Supply, a third‑generation family business in Georgia, has expanded its footprint with a 7,500‑sq ft Lakeland store and a new Douglas location. Under third‑generation owner Heather Lee Bruner, the company introduced a profit‑sharing program, expanded PTO, and...
India's Core Sector Contracts 0.4% in March, Hurt by West Asia Conflict
India’s core infrastructure sector slipped 0.4% year‑on‑year in March, its weakest performance in nearly two years, as the West Asia war disrupted supply chains. Output fell sharply in energy‑intensive industries, with crude oil down 5.7%, coal 4% and fertiliser plunging...
Why Storytelling Is Now the Most Valuable Skill in Tech
In this episode, the host argues that storytelling has become the most valuable skill in tech, surpassing even technical expertise. They discuss how the ability to evoke emotion around a product or idea can outweigh coding or engineering prowess, and...
Dodgers Move Freddie Freeman to Paternity List, Sparking Debate on MLB Fathers' Rights
The Los Angeles Dodgers placed All‑Star first baseman Freddie Freeman on the paternity list, giving rookie Ryan Ward a brief major‑league debut. The move has reignited conversation about how Major League Baseball handles paternity leave and the broader challenges fathers...
The Progress Paradox: Does Standardized Work Stifle Creativity in Continuous Improvement?
Standard work is presented as a baseline, not a prison, in the latest "Behind the Curtain" podcast hosted by Dr. Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer. The hosts argue that standardized processes enable repeatability, visibility of problems, and serve as a...
CMDI Legislation Published in the OJ
On 20 April 2026 the EU published Regulation 2026/808 and Directives 2026/806 and 2026/804 in the Official Journal, amending the bloc’s bank crisis‑management and deposit‑insurance framework. The measures introduce new early‑intervention powers, clearer funding rules for resolution actions and broaden the scope of deposit guarantees,...
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Starbucks and Dutch Bros Take Different Paths to Growth – Placer.ai Blog
Starbucks’ "Back to Starbucks" turnaround is delivering a 4.9%‑5.9% lift in traffic over the last two quarters, signaling early momentum for the legacy coffee chain. Dutch Bros is generating double‑digit same‑store visit growth—12.3% to 17.9% YoY—through aggressive footprint expansion and a...
Zambia’s Major Copper Smelters Face Extended Shutdowns, Raising Supply Concerns
Zambia’s two largest copper smelters, Mopani and Chambishi, will undergo unusually long maintenance periods later this year, with Mopani slated for a 40‑45‑day shutdown and Chambishi for roughly two months. The extended outages will sharply curtail domestic sulphuric acid production,...
Convoso Rolls Out AI‑Driven Outbound Call Center Suite at LeadsCon 2026
Convoso announced a slate of AI-powered outbound call center features at LeadsCon 2026, including a Salesforce‑integrated campaign manager, Agentic AI for automated outreach, and real‑time analytics. The rollout, timed with the company’s 20th anniversary, targets higher answer rates and conversion...
Forbes Prediction Market Gamifies Story About Mass Shooting of 8 Children
Forbes rolled out ForbesPredict in January 2026, a token‑based prediction platform built with Axiom to keep readers on its site longer. The tool embeds interactive boxes in articles, letting users wager non‑cash tokens on outcomes such as whether Congress will...
UWM CEO Mat Ishbia Sells 2 M Shares for $7.5 M, Signaling Insider Liquidity Move
UWM Holdings' President and CEO Mat Ishbia sold 2,001,148 Class A shares for about $7.5 million via a 10b5‑1 plan. The transaction, disclosed on April 15, 2026, leaves him with roughly 13 million shares and 1.27 billion derivative units, keeping his economic stake sizable while...
Pentagon AI Contracts Fuel Private‑Equity Surge in Defense Sector
The Pentagon’s accelerated AI procurement is awarding multiyear contracts to Palantir, Anduril and Lockheed Martin, prompting private‑equity firms to chase stakes in the burgeoning defense‑AI market. The shift signals a new wave of capital flowing into companies that embed artificial...
Delta Air Lines Chooses Amazon Leo Over Starlink for In‑Flight Wi‑Fi
Delta Air Lines announced it will replace Starlink with Amazon's Leo satellite platform for its inflight Wi‑Fi, signaling a strategic shift toward tighter cloud integration and higher bandwidth. The move positions Delta at the forefront of a new era of...
SoFi Shares Plunge in 2026 After 70% Rally in 2025
SoFi Technologies' stock, which surged 70% in 2025, has slumped sharply in early 2026 amid a Muddy Waters short‑seller report alleging $312 million of unrecorded debt and inflated earnings. The fintech's Q1 earnings on April 29 could determine whether the decline is...
AI Mode's Side‑by‑side View Could Boost Publisher Traffic
Good to know that AI Mode's new display (opens the page side-by-side with AI Mode) includes Scroll-to-Text highlighting (which is better for analysis in GA4, rank tracking tools, etc.) ALSO this is likely a hot take but I don't think this...
Map Risk Allocation to Portfolio to Avoid Surprises
High level suitcoining here. This is how you talk to Boomers. Mapping risk allocation to port allocation is smart/ prudent, limits nasty surprise potential and helps behavior.
Netflix Targets $3 Billion in Ad Revenue by 2026, Accelerating Shift to Streaming Ads
Netflix announced that its ad-supported tier is on track to generate $3 billion in advertising revenue by 2026, roughly twice the 2025 figure. The projection follows a Q1 where total revenue rose 16.2% YoY to $12.25 billion and the platform added 70%...
ECB Holds Off April Rate Hike Amid Uncertainty
🇪🇺ECB unlikely to hike in April. @Lagarde: « This double uncertainty about the duration of the shock and the breadth of pass-through argues for gathering more information before drawing firm conclusions for our monetary policy. » https://t.co/nkISsCK5gz
Fastest 5G Hype Fades; Reliability Now Wins
Telecom is still selling “fastest 5G.” That era is over. When every network “just works,” speed bragging becomes expensive marketing, not a moat. 🚨🧵 #Telecom #5G
Airlines Slash U.S. Routes as Jet Fuel Spikes to $200 per Barrel
Major carriers are trimming U.S. schedules and raising fees after jet fuel prices jumped from $85‑$90 to $150‑$200 a barrel, a move that could reshape route management and cost structures across the industry.
Snapchat's Growth Hacking Sparks DAU and Engagement Concerns
⚡️ Snapchat Growth Hacking Raises Concerns on DAUs/Engagement ⚡️ $SNAP Ever since becoming a public company, Evan Spiegel, Snap’s Co-Founder, has been critical of growth hacking... https://t.co/cUVqO01ZFu
Warsh: Fed Independence Rests with Itself, Inflation Its Duty
Kevin Warsh is set to tell the Senate at his hearing Tuesday that "Fed independence is largely up to the Fed" and that inflation is the Fed's responsibility "without excuse or equivocation" https://t.co/tzi2zEeXj8
Tax Attorneys Warn Credit‑card Cash‑back Rewards May Be Taxable Income
Tax attorney Jasmine DiLucci says cash‑back credit‑card rewards are not automatically tax‑free and can increase taxable income for business users. The IRS treats cash‑back as a purchase‑price reduction, which reduces deductions and creates a back‑door tax bite. Consumers could face...
NCAA Budgets Hide Individual Coach Salaries; We Archive Contracts
An NCAA MFRS Report budget document will say how much a school spent on coaching salaries in a given FY, but won't always break that down by coach. We have (most) head coach contracts in PDF form in the Library,...
Ford Announces Budget EV to Compete with Tesla
Ford CEO confirms affordable EV to rival Tesla Model Y and Model 3 Read on EVwire: https://t.co/FugjL3OJuU https://t.co/ygQgcEpz2T
JSW Steel and POSCO Launch $61 M Joint Venture for 6 MTPA Steel Plant in Odisha
JSW Steel Limited and South Korea’s POSCO Group have signed a 50:50 joint venture to build a greenfield integrated steel plant in Odisha with 6 MTPA capacity. POSCO will invest roughly Rs 508.8 crore (about $61 million) and the deal is slated to close...
Iraq’s SOMO Secures Modest Oil Trucking Contracts
Iraq trucking oil to market. "SOMO awarded contracts to supply about 650,000 metric tons of fuel oil per month from April to June to be trucked overland via Syria." Still modest flows, though—that's only ~150-160 kbpd vs ~3,600 kbpd of pre-war Gulf...
Gymnastics Expenses Surpass Revenues, According to Data
I do, but it's not easy to spit those out in newsletter format. But those tables are easy to produce in the Extra Points Library: https://t.co/abtb281rM5 I will say: reported expenses outpace revenues in gymnastics.
Tigerless Health to Go Public via $280 Million SPAC Deal with Piermont Valley
Tigerless Health, the New York‑based insurtech, signed a business combination agreement with Piermont Valley Acquisition Corp. that values the company at roughly $280 million. The deal will roll all existing Tigerless equity into the combined entity and is slated to close...
LLY's Second in Vivo CAR‑T Deal via Kelonia Buyout
Kelonia turns #ASH25 late-breaker into buyout, with $LLY's second move into in vivo Car-T. Via @ApexOnco -> https://t.co/NPhdnuhPu3 $AZN $GILD
Amazon Prime Video to Stream All Six NBA Playoff Games Thursday‑Friday
Amazon Prime Video is scheduled to have all six NBA playoff games this Thursday & Friday. https://t.co/OQK3tw5f0L