🎯Today's Entrepreneurship Pulse
Updated 3h agoWhat's happening: Neo launches low‑dilution accelerator with $750K uncapped SAFE
Ali Partovi's Neo Residency offers startups $750,000 via an uncapped SAFE, letting dilution depend on future valuations. If a company later raises at a $100 million valuation, dilution could be as low as 0.75%, far below the 7‑10% equity taken by typical accelerators like Y Combinator or Andreessen Horowitz.
Also developing:
- •Founder migrates startup to European cloud, cuts costs and gains data‑residency
- •General Catalyst pledges $5B to back Indian startups over five years
- •Nvidia expands early‑stage investments in India's AI startup ecosystem
News•Feb 20, 2026
Can Berlin Become Europe’s Most Builder-Friendly Tech City in 24 Months?
The Berlin auf die Eins (BAD1) campaign launched this week aims to transform Berlin into Europe’s most builder‑friendly tech city within 12‑24 months. Backed by founders, The Delta, UNITE and Dentsu Creative, the grassroots effort highlights Berlin’s existing strengths—10‑12% of the city’s GDP, €2.2 bn VC funding in 2024 and 283 AI startups. It also pinpoints structural frictions such as slow bureaucracy, housing scarcity and weak university‑startup pipelines. By focusing on a handful of high‑impact reforms, BAD1 seeks to accelerate growth and reshape Berlin’s global reputation.
By Tech.eu
News•Feb 20, 2026
“If You Can Work Together on a Boat, You Can Build a Startup”
Yasido, founded by two sailors, has turned a private yacht‑booking tool into a Europe‑focused marketplace likened to "Booking.com for yachts." The platform automates the complex legal, logistical and trust‑building steps of chartering, cutting dozens of emails to a single click....
By The Recursive
News•Feb 20, 2026
Minions – Stripe's Coding Agents Part 2
Stripe’s minions are unattended LLM‑driven coding agents that now generate over 1,300 pull requests each week, all created without human‑written code. The system runs on Stripe’s pre‑warmed devboxes—standardized EC2 instances that spin up in about ten seconds—providing isolated, parallel environments...
By Hacker News
News•Feb 20, 2026
Pontiro Secures £357,500 to Expand Healthcare AI Infrastructure
Pontiro, a health‑tech firm that streamlines medical‑image data for AI, secured £357,500 in a round led by SFC Capital with participation from Plug and Play Ventures and the British Business Bank. The company’s platform has already processed more than two...
By Tech.eu
News•Feb 20, 2026
Lithuania Leads Baltic Startup Resurgence with Record €238M Funding and Surge in Exits
Lithuania has emerged as the Baltic leader in startup activity, with startups raising a record €238 million in 2024 and achieving the highest number of exits in the country’s history. Early‑stage financing was especially strong, delivering €77 million across pre‑seed and seed...
By Tech.eu
News•Feb 20, 2026
I Tried Building My Startup Entirely on European Infrastructure
A founder rebuilt his startup using only European cloud and SaaS providers, swapping AWS for Hetzner, Scaleway, Bunny.net, Nebius, and Hanko while self‑hosting core services on Rancher‑managed Kubernetes. The migration revealed lower infrastructure costs and clear data‑residency benefits, but also...
By Hacker News
News•Feb 20, 2026
Ali Partovi’s Neo Looks to Upend the Accelerator Model with Low-Dilution Terms
Ali Partovi's Neo launches Neo Residency, an accelerator that provides $750k via an uncapped SAFE, letting dilution vary with future valuation instead of a fixed equity stake. For the summer cohort of 12‑15 startups, the equity could be as low...
By TechCrunch Venture Feed
Social•Feb 20, 2026
2026: Indie Hackers’ Prime Moment—Focus, Build, Succeed
2026 is an inflection point. It’s the best time in history to be an indiehacker, and also maybe the last. I’m removing all distractions and building way more this year. Lock in, ladies and gents.
By Jon Yongfook
Video•Feb 19, 2026
Are Focused Restaurant Menus Over? Why This Poke Chain Shook Things Up to Win New Guests
In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Seth Cohen, cofounder of Sweetfin, a Los Angeles based fast casual that launched a decade ago as one of the first players in the poke category. Sweetfin has grown...
By Nation’s Restaurant News
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Coopetition: Partner with Rivals to Grow the Pie
Helping competitors sounds wrong. Many businesses guard every move, yet rivals who share leads, split costs, and collaborate often win more deals. Coopetition drives shared R&D, opens new markets, and creates referrals when demand spikes. You keep your edge while growing the pie. Who...
By Ask Dr. Brown
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Claude Code's Rise Shows Coding Is Nearly Solved
Claude Code launched just one year ago. Today it writes 4% of all GitHub commits, and DAU 2x'd last month alone. In my conversation with @bcherny, creator and head of Claude Code, we dig into: 🔸 Why he considers coding "largely solved" 🔸...
By Lenny Rachitsky
Video•Feb 19, 2026
Can an AI PMS Run Your Short-Term Rental Portfolio?, With Boom Co-Founder & CEO Shahar Goldboim...
The episode of Tangent PropTech features Shahar Goldboim, co‑founder and CEO of Boom, discussing how an AI‑powered property‑management system can run a fragmented short‑term‑rental portfolio. Goldboim explains that vacation‑rental assets are scattered across different locations, sizes and furnishings, making consistency and...
By Tangent – Proptech
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Legalmiga Library Becomes Trusted Partner for Women Founders
Proud to share that The Legalmiga Library® is officially an Entreprenista Approved Partner. ✨ @entreprenistas supports ambitious women founders, and this recognition means our legal templates and resources are trusted to help real businesses protect what they’re building. The Library was created...
By Taylor M. Tieman (Legalmiga)
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Monaco Secures Six‑Figure Deal on Day One
Monaco booked a 6 figure opportunity on day 1. Incredible testimonial from @MonacoGTM customer @jasonlk from @saastr . https://t.co/eRZTT2l49e
By Sam Blond
Podcast•Feb 19, 2026•0 min
Head of Claude Code: What Happens After Coding Is Solved | Boris Cherny
In this episode, Boris Cherny, creator and head of Claude Code at Anthropic, explains how the AI‑powered coding assistant grew from a quick prototype to contributing to 4% of public GitHub commits, with daily active users doubling recently. He shares...
By Lenny’s Podcast
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Founders Mistake Product Flaws for Growth Issues
lesson from 20+ years working in startups: most founders don’t have a growth problem. they have a product problem disguised as a growth problem
By Andrew Chen
Social•Feb 19, 2026
AI Agents Personalize Customers, Flag Churn and Upsell
.@pollen_cx is building AI agents that make every customer feel like they’re your first. They surface churn risk and upsell signals, then prepare what to do next — no more scaling headcount just to keep relationships alive. Congrats on the launch...
By YCombinator
Deals•Feb 17, 2026
GDA Luma Invests $30M in Pat McGrath Labs, Securing Controlling Stake
US‑based financial firm GDA Luma announced a $30 million investment in makeup‑artistry label Pat McGrath Labs, comprising $10 million debtor‑in‑possession financing and $20 million post‑emergence working capital. The deal gives GDA Luma a controlling interest, while founder Pat McGrath retains a significant stake and moves to chief creative...
The Business of Fashion (BoF)
Video•Feb 17, 2026
I Make $35k/Month with Other People's Content (Legally)
The video profiles Evan, a 20‑year‑old college student who founded Clipping Culture, a "clipping agency" that repurposes long‑form brand content into thousands of short‑form clips posted by an army of freelancers. By charging either 30% of the client’s ad spend...
By The Brett Way (Brett Malinowski)
Video•Feb 17, 2026
Fundraising, AI Plugins, and Startup Valuations: The Latest Tech Buzz! #shorts
The clip stitches together two hot trends—massive venture fundraising at sky‑high valuations and the rapid rollout of AI‑powered plugins that threaten incumbent software vendors. In December a cloud‑native AI startup secured $200 million, valuing it at $11 billion, while secondary‑market deals are pushing...
By SaaStr
Deals•Feb 17, 2026
Alt-Coffee Startup Koppie Raises Undisclosed Follow-On Funding From DOEN Ventures
Belgian alt-coffee startup Koppie announced it has secured an undisclosed follow-on investment from DOEN Ventures, bringing its total funding to over €2 million. The capital will be used to scale production capacity to 1,000 tons by 2026 for launch partners.
AgFunderNews
Deals•Feb 17, 2026
Major Craft Brewer Explores Sale, Potentially Impacting 220,000 Investors
A leading craft brewer is reportedly exploring a sale, which could result in the loss of investments for approximately 220,000 shareholders. The potential transaction is still in early stages, with no acquirer identified and deal terms undisclosed.
Inc.
Deals•Feb 16, 2026
Saudi Fintech CASHIN Raises $16M Series A Led by Impact46
Saudi Arabia-based fintech CASHIN announced the closing of a $16 million Series A round, led by Impact46. The funding will support the expansion of its AI-enabled platform for fuel station operators across the Kingdom and deepen integrations with regulators and...
Wamda
Deals•Feb 16, 2026
Madfu Raises $25.5M in Pre-Series A Round Led by Afaq Capital
Saudi fintech startup Madfu announced a $25.5 million (SAR 95 million) pre‑Series A funding round led by Afaq Capital, with participation from angel investors. The capital will be used to expand its merchant network, upgrade technology, and develop new Sharia‑compliant...
Wamda
Video•Feb 16, 2026
Meet 2025 President’s Innovation Challenge Finalist: Vocadian
Vocadian’s founder introduced a predictive voice‑AI platform aimed at preventing workplace fatigue‑related incidents. The solution leverages a brief pre‑shift speech task, analyzing voice markers and circadian signals to forecast performance risk without additional hardware. The pitch highlighted that fatigue costs the...
By Harvard Innovation Labs (Harvard i-lab)
Video•Feb 16, 2026
Product-Led Growth Explained: The 4 Pillars That Drive Real SaaS Growth
The talk dissects product‑led growth (PLG) by breaking it into four actionable pillars: activation, retention, monetization, and data‑driven insight. The speaker argues that while many SaaS firms claim PLG, true growth hinges on optimizing the product experience itself rather than...
By MicroConf
Deals•Feb 16, 2026
Jollibee Foods to Acquire South Korean Hot Pot Chain All Day Fresh
Philippine restaurant giant Jollibee Foods announced on Monday that it will acquire South Korean hot‑pot chain All Day Fresh, its latest overseas expansion ahead of a planned U.S. IPO of its international operations in 2027. The financial terms of the...
Nikkei Asia — Economy/Markets
Deals•Feb 16, 2026
Singapore's Ascentium Acquires Clara to Expand Footprint in UAE
Singapore-based business services platform Ascentium announced the acquisition of UAE-based regtech and corporate service provider Clara for an undisclosed amount. The deal gives Ascentium a foothold in the Abu Dhabi Global Market and Dubai International Financial Centre, while Clara gains...
Wamda
Deals•Feb 16, 2026
XSquare Secures Undisclosed Investment From AngelSpark to Accelerate B2B Finance Platform
UAE‑based fintech XSquare announced it has raised a new round of funding from AngelSpark, with the amount undisclosed. The capital will be used to expand product development, scale infrastructure, and enhance its unified B2B financial operations platform. The announcement was...
Wamda
Deals•Feb 16, 2026
Saudi Cybersecurity Startup Solidrange Raises $2.4M in Seed Round
Saudi Arabia-based cybersecurity startup Solidrange announced a $2.4 million seed round led by Sharaka Capital, with participation from Sadu Capital, SEEDRA Ventures and Tali Ventures. The funding will support regional expansion, product development and AI integration across its GRC automation...
Wamda
Deals•Feb 16, 2026
The Fourth Law Raises Funding From Axon to Boost Drone AI for Ukraine
Kyiv-based defence tech firm The Fourth Law announced a new funding round backed by US public safety technology group Axon. The undisclosed investment will support R&D of AI-driven autonomy solutions for drones to protect Ukrainian cities from Shahed attacks. The...
Tech.eu
Deals•Feb 16, 2026
UK Healthtech Startup Nul Secures $1M Seed Round Led by Dmg Ventures and BYVP
Nul, a UK‑based healthtech startup focused on alcohol reduction, announced a $1 million seed funding round. The round was led by dmg ventures and BYVP, with participation from a group of angel investors, and will fund the company’s UK commercial launch...
Tech.eu
Video•Feb 15, 2026
Polymarket Is Back In The U.S. — What To Know About Prediction Markets
PolyMarket, a prediction‑market platform, has returned to the United States, launching a high‑visibility free‑grocery event in New York after acquiring a licensed options‑trading firm. The move follows a 2022 CFTC fine that forced the company off‑shore, and a subsequent policy...
By CNBC Make It
Deals•Feb 13, 2026
Quantum Systems Secures €150M Financing Package From EIB and Major European Banks
Munich‑based Quantum Systems announced a €150 million financing package to fund its growth and industrial scaling in Europe. The package includes a €70 million loan from the European Investment Bank and additional funding from Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank and KfW, combining debt and...
EU-Startups
Video•Feb 13, 2026
Bootstrap Success: Leaner, Faster, and Smarter! #shorts
The video argues that a growing number of founders are choosing bootstrapping over the traditional venture‑capital route, especially as market conditions have softened since 2022. It frames lean, profitable growth as the new benchmark for early‑stage companies, urging entrepreneurs to...
By SaaStr
Deals•Feb 13, 2026
German Synthetic Data Startup simmetry.ai Secures €330k Financing From NBank
Osnabrück‑based simmetry.ai announced it has secured €330k from NBank, the investment and development bank of Lower Saxony, as part of the High‑Tech Incubator accelerator programme. The funding will be used to develop a scalable synthetic data platform for AI applications...
EU-Startups
Deals•Feb 13, 2026
German AI ConTech Startup Conmeet Raises €1.3M Pre-Seed Round Led by May Ventures
German AI ConTech startup conmeet announced the closing of a €1.3 million pre‑Seed financing round as it exits stealth mode. The round was led by May Ventures, with the founders also contributing equity. The capital will be used to scale the...
EU-Startups
Deals•Feb 11, 2026
German Mining Startup Hades Raises €15M in Seed Round
German mining startup Hades announced a €15 million seed round, valuing the company at €67.5 million. The round was co‑led by HV Capital and Headline, with participation from existing investors Project A and Visionaries Tomorrow. The funding will be used to expand...
Sifted
Video•Feb 11, 2026
Turning Your Hobby Into a Career
The video “Turning Your Hobby Into a Career” argues that treating a passion as a legitimate professional identity is the first step toward sustainable entrepreneurship. Drawing on personal anecdotes—from buying a failing salsa studio in Canada to pivoting a lucrative web‑content...
By Evan Carmichael
Video•Feb 11, 2026
Leadership Is a Choice: Challenging How We Think About Power and Leadership
The Stanford GSB event, "Leadership is a Choice," brought together social‑psychology scholars Linda Gonzalez and Dean Deborah Grunfeld to challenge conventional leadership education. Rather than teaching students to emulate famous executives, the speakers argued that true leadership emerges from deep...
By Stanford Graduate School of Business