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Stanford senior Theo Baker, already the youngest George Polk Award winner, is turning his investigative chops toward Silicon Valley’s venture‑capital machine. His forthcoming book, How to Rule the World, draws on more than 250 interviews to expose how VCs treat Stanford students as commodities, offering slush funds, shell companies and yacht parties before ideas exist. Warner Bros. and producer Amy Pascal have secured film rights to his earlier expose on a university president’s resignation. The book arrives as journalism programs shrink, positioning Baker as a rare advocate for accountability reporting in tech.
The median age of founders raising venture capital is climbing about six months each year, a shift driven by three forces: the surge in AI‑focused funding, the growing dominance of B2B models, and a media narrative that over‑highlights youthful, consumer‑centric...
what a silly oped on so many levels “But the resource-intensive AI platform bubble in which the US dominates cannot last. A market correction will shift attention to alternative models. This will in turn create new opportunities for Europe, which has...
Venture capitalists are acknowledging a shift in fundraising dynamics, with founders now wielding greater leverage after the 2022‑23 bear market. Leslie Feinzaig of Graham & Walker and Ross Fubini of XYZ Venture describe how they had to market themselves to...
We frequently get asked how a founder can tell when it's the best time to think about raising capital or making an exit. The truth is, it depends on a handful of factors. In this video, I walk through some...
The phrase captures something teams feel long before they can describe it. Early stage work depends on a level of shared pressure that only forms when people experience the same uncertainty at the same time. The speed of communication inside...
Stic, a Los Angeles‑based OOH advertising platform, secured a $10 million bridge round led by Accretion Capital and several tech entrepreneurs, bringing its cumulative capital to $200 million. The funding will fuel expansion into more than thirty U.S. states and Canada, deepen...
Lolli, the Bitcoin rewards app acquired by venture studio Thesis* earlier this year, announced a partnership with Lightspark’s Spark platform. The integration enables Lightning Network withdrawals, allowing users to instantly move earned Bitcoin to self‑custodial wallets via Spark’s SDK. Spark’s...
You can argue timelines, risks, or regulation. Existing AI capabilities are already sufficient to drive long-term change. What people miss is how disruption actually unfolds. It takes time for systems, incentives, and habits to reorganize around what already exists.
If you're a founder trying to make a term sheet decision before year's end, give Boardy a call to check in!
Every week I meet three new LPs. Even when I am not fundraising. And... I never ever sell 20VC to them. The single biggest reason VCs struggle fundraising: they do not build relationships in between funds. This is wrong. You...
Enterprises are adopting two distinct context databases—operational and analytical—to serve as the new system of record for AI agents. Operational databases capture procedural knowledge and trade secrets, while analytical databases encode metric definitions and reasoning logic. The article emphasizes that...
The episode explores SpaceX’s $800 billion valuation and its implications, followed by forward‑looking IPO market forecasts for 2026, including potential listings for Anthropic, Stripe, Databricks, and SpaceX. It examines Netflix’s strategic acquisition of Warner Brothers, highlights major fundraising rounds such as Harvey’s...
Venture capitalists Ross Fubini of XYZ Ventures and Leslie Feinzaig of Graham & Walker Ventures reveal how VCs craft their own go‑to‑market strategies, not just evaluating startups but also courting limited partners and founders. In a TechCrunch Build Mode interview...
So I’m starting to get emails from sales reps I’ve interacted with over the past months trying to get a deal done by year end. The problem? They added zero value. There’s really no reason to sign a contract for...
Startup Snapshot’s second report reveals that 80% of startup employees say their mental health has suffered, with half experiencing burnout and 52% reporting anxiety. Founder stress is visible to 57% of staff, yet only 10% of founders discuss it openly....
The episode explains why long‑term government bond yields are rising again in late 2025 despite central‑bank rate cuts, focusing on the 10‑year Treasury as a key benchmark. Higher yields increase the discount rate, pressuring valuations of long‑duration assets such as...
We deployed 20+ AI agents & replaced our entire SDR team. 60K hyper-personalized emails. 70% open rates on ghosted leads. 15% of London ticket revenue from AI alone. The 5 things that actually work: 1⃣AI crushes the work humans refuse to do...
Invictus Growth Partners announced that Erik Nierenberg has joined the firm as a Partner, bringing more than 20 years of B2B software leadership. Nierenberg most recently served as CEO of Litmus, scaling direct sales at a 55% compound annual growth...
The best risk takers I know took lots of small, calculated risks when they were younger before concentrating. It’s a skill that requires repetition for the patterns to emerge.
Congrats to @AaronLCannon, Michael, and @OutsetAI on their $30M Series B! Outset is building an AI-powered insights platform across the full customer experience. They're redefining customer research with AI-moderated interviews that deliver speed and depth — no more painful tradeoffs. Since raising...
In this episode, Sergey Jakimov, co‑founder of LongeVC, explains the firm’s $1.6 trillion longevity market thesis, its AI‑enhanced deal sourcing, and the strong track record of Fund I (over 3x MOIC with zero write‑offs). He walks through three flagship investments—Insilico Medicine, Turn...
It is midnight and I am working on the final edit for the show tomorrow with @jasonlk @rodriscoll. Holy s***. By far the best show we have done. - SpaceX valued at $800BN - The BFD: Netflix Buys Warner Brothers - Harvey...
SaaS companies serving the SMB space are often overlooked as potential investment opportunities because, when compared to enterprise SaaS providers, these companies tend to have higher churn and less well-known (or even unknown) customers. Despite these relative weaknesses, if positioned...
Founding B Capital partner Kabir Narang has left the firm to create a new investment platform slated for 2026 that will target AI‑driven technology and global capital flows. Narang, who joined B Capital in 2017 and helped back Indian unicorns such as...
This does happen, but it’s almost unheard of for founders still running a company to make nothing in a material exit The acquirer wants the most consideration to go to the team, the least to the VCs A liquidation preference is hardly...
In just a few years, James Hawkins (@james406) took PostHog from an idea hacked together right before YC's W20 deadline to a unicorn powering product analytics for thousands of teams. He joins YC's @bradflora to talk about surviving six months of...
check out this chart -- the majority of seed rounds go to startups in SF and NY (and really, mostly SF) (we'll be dropping a report on "the state of seed" from Carta tomorrow on our official substack) But it's data like...
I think pitch meetings should be a two way street. Most of the time, I find that few founders I speak with have any questions for me or about Hustle Fund. Here are some questions that may be helpful for...
I had CEOs at 2 @saastrfund portfolio companies turn down M&A offers this year that would have made them nine figures. I would have been equally proud of them either way. In fact, I told both to seriously consider the deals....
🚨 New 2026 Andreessen Horowitz prediction. A turning point is coming to financial services & insurance 👇 By 2026, the risk of *not* replacing legacy systems will exceed the risk of change. Major institutions will let long-standing contracts expire and...
it was a blast to back Nir Zicherman a second time, and we're not surprised to see another round get done so quickly. Thanks for including Homebrew https://lnkd.in/gEgWQAXE
Important work from @SwordHealth and @VSwordH on how we evaluate AI for mental health. MindEval is a new multi turn benchmark that tests how models behave across full therapy like conversations, not just single replies. Much needed, rigorous, and open...
So many founders would be happier if they just slowed down fundraising toward the end ... a little
Great profile of great investor Bruce Booth @LifeSciVC https://t.co/VCOHBQIriN
We just helped a founder get acquired for $1,650,000 on @acquiredotcom. Business was a bootstrapped SaaS. Multiple 4.8x profit. Took about 85 days from listing to close. 100% cash at closing. This was a life changing outcome for an amazing entrepreneur. https://t.co/zI8Ght5LNS
As an investor today, you should question pattern matching assumptions more than ever. Consumer behavior is changing. Business models are changing. The tools to build are changing. Org charts and roles are changing.
If you want proof of what a good deal YC is for founders, I just told a UK startup I've invested several million pounds in that I'd be happy if they wanted to do YC. I'd get diluted alongside them,...
.@Veriff is the identity layer for the internet: matching people to government-issued IDs with a selfie so companies can verify users instantly and stop fraud at global scale. What began in Estonia has grown into one of the world’s leading identity...
What people think is core - the biggest asset - to their business is often not what they think it is. For example: for Uber, is the core the app? Not really. The core is their supply and demand sides.
We’ve worked with some really great “no-code engineers” at Hustle Fund. Although many people think that agents will eat everyone’s jobs, agents are not good enough to implement themselves. Ironically we find ourselves looking for even more people-help to build...
Questom (https://t.co/Q2E0SQDDAz) builds AI agents that answer inbound B2B calls, emails, chat, and SMS, collect order details, and generate quotes and updates, so customers get faster answers and teams close more deals. https://t.co/oR2FjXphN5 https://t.co/Ik1N9LLYOo
Unpopular opinion: You cannot sell AI to large enterprises and expect usage and retention without an FDE model managing implementation and customisation. They will not buy and apply. The art is in implementation.
I get 10+ LPs per day email me stating they listen and love our weekly show with @jasonlk and @rodriscoll. Continues to amaze me how few truly see the strategic value of targeted content.
Here’s how Zapier managed an entirely-remote workforce YEARS before COVID lockdowns made them mandatory. On our latest TWiST Flashback, Lon Harris and Alex Wilhelm check out a 2016 chat between me and Zapier mastermind Wade Foster. Back then, the automation...
People don’t want to buy software or platforms or even products They want to buy outcomes
What's your start-up worth? And what are the odds you'll get funded? Find out in seconds with SaaStr AI Valuation Calculator -> https://t.co/jvgsU2zIKA https://t.co/jUHBqpNXte
Nothing beats a one on one catch up but damn it's cool to hear a portfolio founder update via a live earnings call. $334M annual run rate. 117% YoY Q3 revenue growth. 70% gross margins. GAAP profitable company-wide. What a company. https://t.co/2SlwkNCLz0
Strong agree + And an Iron stomach when you are wrong which happens a lot. Venture capitalists live in low probability-high impact equations that are filled with uncertainty. Hence you need courage.
Is Harvey cheap or expensive at $8B? If it triples again in 2026, may be "cheap" We'll see https://t.co/Hx5bmcTbeU
