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Celljevity, a low‑profile biotech, has treated over 1,000 patients for seven years, amassing Phase‑3‑level safety and efficacy data at a fraction of the cost of its high‑profile rivals. The company’s small‑molecule epigenetic reprogramming avoids the tumor‑formation risks associated with Yamanaka‑factor approaches and has shown significant improvements in autoimmune, osteoarthritis, and Alzheimer’s indications. With IND approval in China and pending FDA/EU submissions, Celljevity stands poised for regulatory validation that could dramatically reshape its valuation. Its data‑first strategy contrasts sharply with Altos Labs and Retro Biosciences, which have yet to treat patients.
In the future, should the UESF-UHW Billionaire Tax pass, startup founders like these would leave well before the valuation reaches $3B. (If founders have special founder class voting shares, that number is much lower — if you read the fine...
Vertical SaaS is crushing it! Live on @acquiredotcom: Hospitality SaaS helping hotels grow revenue by 20%+ through dynamic pricing and channel optimization. > $650K ARR > $675K TTM revenue > 250+ hotels using it Full listing: https://t.co/X1PgOV91Xs https://t.co/sz6jjMyyPV
Europe’s deep‑tech and life‑science university spinouts have coalesced into a $398 billion pipeline, with 76 companies reaching either $1 billion valuations or $100 million in revenue, according to Dealroom’s 2025 Spinout Report. New funds PSV Hafnium and U2V each aim to raise €60 million...
Not all of my predictions have been right. In late 2000’s, I believed cellulosic biofuels could replace gasoline and oil at scale. That didn’t happen. I underestimated electric vehicles, assuming a critical mass of charging stations was hard. I underestimated how...
When Samuel Abebe built @SpeakerSplit, it was just a side project to solve his own audio editing headaches. He had early offers to sell, but he did a counterintuitive thing: He said no. By waiting, he transformed a "utility tool" into...
In this episode, Rajeev Ranka of Japan's Incubate Fund explains their 100‑year investment horizon and how it shapes decisions like backing Captain Fresh during COVID and pivoting it from a domestic brand to a global seafood exporter. He argues that...
Hey Peter Walker , if there was one piece of elusive data you could get your hands on to help you tell the story of startups RN, what would it be?
In 2025, a lot of teams treated AI like a feature multiplier. Bolt it on, ship a demo, call it progress. The hard work of designing systems that learn, degrade gracefully, and hold up under real usage was quietly discounted....
Meta announced a $2 billion acquisition of Singapore‑based AI agent firm Manus, which reported $100 million annual recurring revenue and 147 trillion tokens processed since its March 2025 launch. The deal underscores the relevance of gross profit per token as a valuation lens,...
If YOU are American🇺🇸 (need not be Iranian or Persian) investor, family office, asset manager and interested in funding technologists, engineers, entrepreneurs when Iran is free and talented is and opportunity is unleashed…. Leave a comment below 👇
Most first-time founders believe the hardest part is the situation they’re in. A missed deadline. An investor who passed. A launch that didn’t move numbers. A hire that didn’t work out. In the early days, progress gets interrupted in small, unglamorous ways...
Pet‑emotional‑intelligence startup Traini announced a $7.5 million financing round. The round was led by Banyan Tree, Silver Capital, ZhaoTai Group and NYX Ventures, with participation from NVIDIA VPs, Anthropic staff and other high‑profile investors. Existing backers such as Xiaomi co‑founder Feng...
New Job 2026 no, not for me, for *you* - just received the latest update on Quanta from Helen Hastings and it's a great time to join a well-funded Series A startup. https://lnkd.in/gBg2JV7z
When the buyer asks for the SOPs and the founder realizes the "manual" is just their brain. Every founder reaches a point where they feel ready to exit. The growth is there, the product is solid, and they’re already eyeing the next...
Time to reinvent input/output in 2026 beyond the phone: (1) eye glasses that see and hear everything you see and hear? Meta may have done the right thing for the wrong (AR) reason (2) better pens that digitize the...
For years I’ve shared predictions about how technology would reshape our world. We’re still early in that journey, but we’re getting closer every year. Here’s a look back at some of my predictions and the recent progress moving toward them:
Navan IPO’d in October and hit $800m ARR growing 29%. And it still is trading at 5x ARR. If you aren’t truly AI Native, the world doesn’t love you today in B2B. Even with those numbers....
Nothing like epic investor updates on 1/1/26. First up is @owner: 👩🍳 One of the best companies I've ever invested in is @owner — AI for restaurants. A great example of AI Vertical B2B. They dramatically accelerated in 2025: • Growing almost...
.@garrytan I would urge you to reconsider this decision and open YC Austin. First, the data is looking in the rear view mirror. “Past performance does not guarantee future results,” as the saying goes. The Austin startup ecosystem is off...
Meta is acquiring Manus for $2 billion. Manus disclosed $100 million in ARR achieved in eight months, 147 trillion tokens processed since launch. Can we use those figures to explain the acquisition price?
People I know, with a collective net worth of $500B, scrambled and left California for good yesterday. They took no risk because of the proposed asset seizure tax - introduced as a “Billionaire Tax”. Without these people, the California budget deficit...
YC Managing Partner Jared Friedman is a rock. He's a hacker, builder, and true founder. It's one of my favorite things about returning to YC the last 3 years, getting to work with him.
M&A pricing can be a weird thing Meta buys Manus for $2B+ at $125m ARR Then likely … abandons all that revenue. It is a distraction, and in the end, immaterial to Meta’s revenues. Whatever Meta does with it, it...
SF investors, join us at Batter Up x H-On Dream SF on January 8th! We're bringing Korean founders onstage to pitch their startups, get feedback from a panel of investors, and eat some za🍕. RSVP here: https://t.co/FH4yBleMSg https://t.co/SVGvNz6HXh
You get an LOI with a $10M valuation. Your heart jumps. You’re already thinking about the "I made it" moment. Then you read the fine print: > $2M is Cash at Close > $3M is an "Earn-out" based on crazy growth targets >...
Simple app ideas are crushing it! Look at this AI text humanizer on @acquiredotcom: > $550K TTM revenue > $392K TTM profit > 269% YoY growth Check full listing: https://t.co/J9L0LHJ8o1 https://t.co/dssv07wJMb
A couple of important thoughts and clarifications: Where is Bernie right? He is right that a handful of the Tech Billionaire class are completely and totally loathsome. Monopolists who’ve flouted privacy, dampened free speech, enabled debanking and sewed societal chaos with...
Enterprises will not adopt AI without forward-deployed engineers? Are revenue numbers posted from data-labelling companies real revenue or GMV? There are 8+ players in the data-labelling market with $100M in ARR, who wins? Who loses? Are AI talent marketplaces dead? Do you have...
A product roadmap is a hypothesis about user behavior. Shipping is how you interrogate it.
It's 2026. The best financial institutions are quietly doing something that would’ve been unthinkable 5 years ago. They’re letting 20–30 year legacy contracts expire — and replacing them with AI-native systems of record. This time is different. Really. Why? *...
On the TWISTYs, we celebrate our favorite moments from the past year of “TWiST.” In this highlight, Guest of the Year winner Doug Leone (of Sequoia fame) tells us why he thinks venture capital is a scam and a sham,...
https://t.co/5gjWmKLRrD is back. MAY 12-14 2026. The Secrets to Scaling in the Age of AI 10,000 of the best sharing how it's done https://t.co/f9I8gHsF4U
"What happens once SpaceX goes public at $1T+? It will be likely the biggest IPO of all time." with @rodriscoll @HarryStebbings + me https://t.co/jJPfjo7ShA
When a buyer calls your codebase "messy" during due diligence. Selling your startup is emotional. No way around it. You’ve spent years bleeding for the business with late nights, zero salary, the works. Then a buyer comes in and looks at your "baby"...
Niche SaaS plays like this are game changers. Real-time news API for global coverage live on @acquiredotcom > $800K TTM revenue > $600K TTM profit > 70% YoY growth Full listing: https://t.co/qAPFWjNXCv https://t.co/3T3Kq6mdfG
Few startups have a smooth ascent. Many if not most have some setbacks initially. The good ones react by focusing on specific steps they can take. The bad ones are vaguely hopeful, or depressed, or in denial — and change...
Here’s why I say founders need to always maintain “ball control”. It can be a nerve-wracking moment for a founder whose company is just starting to get traction… a VC reaches out cold and wants to take a meeting. It...
Are we in an AI Bubble? Technology Bubble -> NO Investment Bubble -> Likely YES Valuation Bubble -> Absolutely YES, in the private markets. Revenue Bubble -> NO. https://lnkd.in/g2ea7pFK
If your business can’t survive without you, it isn’t an asset. It’s a job. I talk to founders every day who are proud of being "in the weeds." They close every lead, ship the critical code, and manage every fire. In...
Motive, the AI-powered fleet management company formerly known as KeepTruckin, filed their S-1 this week. The company has grown tremendously & in this post, we compare it to Samsara at IPO :
"Who Is The VC Fund of the Year? @benchmark vs @a16z vs @HummingbirdVC vs @creandum" with @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll + me https://t.co/9aw20r6YHL
"2026 will be a year of MASSIVE IPOs in back half of the year: SpaceX first, Cavna, Databricks, and Anthropic. And that's just a start." with @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll + me https://t.co/DiFPYJGaET
If/when I run, I’m going to focus on solving the big 3: 1. Healthcare 2. Housing 3. Education These are the most regulated, calcified, inefficient & corrupt verticals in America. We’ve funded companies in each & it’s been brutal. So hard,...
VCs score their own annual predictions like "We'll achieve AGI in 2025" Grade: .9
"I actually didn't know being CEO was this hard" -- every top VP that starts their own startup
Most founder advice fails because it ignores what the founder must emotionally carry.
California already taxes founders far, far more than any other state. Far more. 5 worst states for startup exits (tax rate + QSBS combo): California - 13.3% + NO QSBS exclusion 💀 Hawaii - 7.25% + only 50% QSBS Alabama - 5% +...
Founder-led companies are often more creative, capable of thinking long term, and mission-driven. $FDRS is an ETF of the top 50 U.S.-listed companies that are still founder-led. How do you think it will do? I am into it. Smart move...
Here’s why I think there will STILL be room for great SaaS companies, even in the age of the AI Agent. We’ve all heard the fear-mongering… AI is coming for every other category of software, particularly companies relying on recurring...
