Today's Entrepreneurship Pulse
LoopFeedback launches to close AI feedback gap with $12M seed round
Former Google and Apple researchers Dr. Maya Patel and Dr. Alex Liu have founded LoopFeedback, a startup building a real‑time human‑in‑the‑loop feedback system for large language models. The company announced a $12 million seed round led by Andrees, aiming to improve model alignment and safety.
Also developing:
By the numbers: abcoffee raises $7.35M in pre‑Series B
He Skipped College to Intern with an Ex-Sequoia Director. Three Years Later, He's a Cofounder.
Raghav Saraf left high school in 2022 to intern at Zamp after meeting ex‑Sequoia director Amit Jain at a hackathon. He chose to skip college, rapidly took on product responsibilities, and three years later was elevated to cofounder. Under their joint leadership, Zamp has expanded to roughly 80 employees and now serves major banks with its agentic AI platform. The story highlights a non‑traditional path to senior startup roles in the fast‑moving AI sector.
Majority of Aussie Startups Have Less than 12 Months of Cash in the Bank
Australian startups are facing tighter cash constraints, with 65.4% reporting less than 12 months of runway, according to Carta’s survey of 500 founders. Only 2.8% have enough capital to last 18‑24 months, and no company can sustain operations beyond two...
After Unbundling, Nigerian Fintechs Are Building Full-Stack Financial Services
Nigerian fintechs that began by unbundling single services are now rebundling into full‑stack platforms offering payments, savings, credit and business tools. Companies such as Moniepoint, Kuda, FairMoney and Paystack have expanded product suites after securing licences and capital. The shift...
Grow Revenue First; Let VCs Chase You
Entrepreneurs: NEVER beg a VC for a check. Focus on growing your REVENUE. Then, VCs will beg you to take their check…trust me 🙏🏾
Data‑Driven Agents Power Accurate Automated File Search
You can build an agent but it is blind without data. The founders of @RunCaptainRAG applied their NLP research in their startup to create automated file search. Really accurate results within Garry's List. Here they are at the YC MV...
Knox Systems Secures $25M Series A to Accelerate AI-Managed FedRAMP Cloud
On March 18, 2026, Knox Systems announced a $25 million Series A financing to scale its AI‑managed cloud platform. The funding will enable the company to deliver FedRAMP‑ready services in 90 days while cutting compliance costs by roughly 90%, targeting government‑focused SaaS...
Visa‑Processing Startup Atlys Secures $36 Million Series C Led by Susquehanna Asia
On March 17, 2026, visa‑processing platform Atlys announced a $36 million Series C round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital, with existing backers Elevation Capital, Long Journey Ventures and Peak XV Partners and new investor MakeMyTrip. Founded in 2021 by Mohak Nahta,...
Halogen Ventures Hits $15 B Milestone with 100+ Female‑Founded Investments
On March 18, 2026, venture capital firm Halogen Ventures, led by founder Jesse Draper, announced that its portfolio now includes more than 100 investments in female‑founded companies and is collectively valued at over $15 billion. The milestone was disclosed in a...
EU Launches 'EU Inc' To Give Startups a 28th State for Faster Cross‑Border Scaling
On Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled "EU Inc," a voluntary EU‑wide legal regime that lets founders register a company in any member state within 48 hours and with a minimum...
How Gymshark Took on the Sportswear Giants - Carly Natalizia
In this episode of Uncensored CMO, Chief Commercial Officer Carly Natalizia breaks down how Gymshark has scaled its commercial engine to challenge industry giants like Nike and Adidas. Drawing on her 25‑year career—from finance at MBNA and Virgin Money to...
New SBA Citizenship Mandates Auger a Major Shift for U.S. Small Businesses
Effective March 1, 2026, the Small Business Administration tightened its 7(a) and 504 loan eligibility, requiring 100% U.S. citizenship and domestic residence for all owners. The rule eliminates the brief 5% foreign‑ownership exception and bars legal permanent residents from any...
Perspicacity in Innovative Organization
Perspicacious teams use disciplined insight to detect weak signals, uncover hidden constraints, and frame problems that drive higher‑value opportunities. By combining ethnographic research, fine‑grained telemetry, and counterfactual thinking, they accelerate hypothesis testing and reduce wasted development cycles. The article outlines...
![[FounderCoHo @Stanford Event] Scaling Apps to Millions: The Growth Playbook You Need](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iful!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc3164121-9754-4921-823a-0b0a9778bac6_1000x1000.png)
[FounderCoHo @Stanford Event] Scaling Apps to Millions: The Growth Playbook You Need
FounderCoHo is hosting a Stanford fireside chat focused on scaling apps to millions through community‑driven growth rather than paid acquisition. Panelists include Marco Polo CEO Vlada Bortnik, Virality Playbook author Aditya Bhatia, and an AI‑wearable founder, each sharing frameworks that turned...
Customer Ready to Buy Fuels Entrepreneurial Vision
Had a customer in my inbox today “Please send me the link to sign up, I’m sold already. and I hope if you’re offering any add ons, I will also be privy to those.” Literally what dreams are made of as...
Mistral AI Launches Forge to Help Companies Build Proprietary AI Models, Challenging Cloud Giants
Mistral AI unveiled Forge, an enterprise‑grade model training platform that lets organizations build, fine‑tune, and continuously improve AI models using their own proprietary data. The service covers the full training lifecycle—from pre‑training on large internal datasets to reinforcement‑learning alignment—running on...
Advanced Navigation Raises $158 Million Series C Round with NRFC Backing
Australian deep‑tech firm Advanced Navigation secured $158 million Series C led by Airtree Ventures, with $50 million from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation. The funding supports expansion of its AI‑enhanced inertial navigation systems that operate without GPS, addressing rising jamming and spoofing threats....
Young Cattle Producers Face Historic Barriers to Entry, but Opportunities Still Exist
Jackie Moore, owner of Joplin Regional Stockyards, warns that entering the cattle industry is tougher than ever for young producers. He highlights steep land costs, high cattle purchase prices, and the need for sophisticated financing to succeed. Moore advises newcomers...
Sequen Lands $16M to Transform Customer Experiences
Sequen, an enterprise AI infrastructure startup, announced a $16 million Series A round, bringing its total funding to $22 million. The round was co‑led by White Star Capital and Threshold Ventures, with Greycroft participating again. Sequen will use the capital to accelerate product...
Why Trusting Your Imagination Is the Boldest Move You Can Make as an Entrepreneur
The article argues that trusting imagination is a strategic advantage for entrepreneurs, especially as AI handles optimization. It describes mental traps like the “River of Thinking” and offers five shifts—recognizing stagnation, creating idea greenhouses, cultivating 12 Sparks, separating imagination from...
From Coffee Shops to Culture Building — 5 Tips for Founders Creating Their First Workplace
Founders moving from coffee‑shop setups to a dedicated office must treat the space as a strategic asset. Five key lessons emerge: design for hybrid collaboration, prioritize feel and comfort, ensure reliable tech infrastructure, locate near other innovators, and balance cost...
Founders Must Cut B‑Players to Kill Mediocrity
Your most important job as a founder: eliminate mediocrity. And here's my favorite quote on this from Frank Slootman: -- "Mediocrity is the silent killer. Organizations are not getting killed by their C players. Everybody knows who they are, and performance eventually is...
Pinterest Alternative Cosmos Is Looking to Redefine Visual Inspiration for Creatives
Cosmos, a visual inspiration platform founded by Andy McCune and Luca Marra, launched publicly in 2024 and quickly rose to prominence, earning a spot on Apple’s 2025 top‑25 apps and topping the design category in 28 countries. In January 2026...
Surf Raises $57M to Automate Security With AI Agents
Surf, a New York‑based cybersecurity startup, announced a $57 million Series A round led by Accel to develop AI‑driven security agents. The funding underscores growing investor confidence in “agentic AI” that can autonomously detect and remediate threats. Surf’s platform continuously monitors cloud...
Founders Must Own Storytelling; Strategy Can't Be Delegated
The story has to come from the founder. This frustrates people. Founders want to delegate storytelling the same way they delegate other functions. Hire a head of marketing and let them own it. Bring in a communications expert and hand...
ISPTech Raises €5.5M Seed Round to Redefine How Spacecraft Manoeuvre in Orbit
ISPTech, a German spin‑off from the DLR, announced a €5.5 million seed round led by Join Capital and backed by several European venture funds. The capital will fund expanded manufacturing, critical‑infrastructure testing, and the commercial rollout of its non‑toxic propulsion suites,...
Audit Your Day: Stop Firefighting, Build Scalable Engines
There's a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from being busy on the wrong things. Being stuck in tasks that don't compound is one of the worst things that can happen to a founder/CEO. Before I stepped down as CEO, I tracked...
"We're Not Going to Be a Niche Insurer", Says CEO of UK's Newest Life Underwriter
Certua Life has entered the UK market as the first protection‑focused life insurer launched in nearly two decades. CEO Tom Williams announced that the company will pursue a mass‑market strategy rather than remain a niche player. The firm plans to...
Tord Olav Dønnum
Norwegian serial entrepreneur Tord Olav Dønnum, now CBO of OLHSO, leads the world’s first fully autonomous Korean BBQ kitchen. Earlier, he built a capital‑raising platform that linked over 20,000 startups with hundreds of funds, processing more than $10 billion in transactions...
Twin Brothers Bootstrapped Apparel to $110M in Six Years
There’s a guy in Hampton who bootstrapped a lifestyle apparel company to 9-figures with his twin brother. Alec Todd and his bro started with just $3k. Started Cove Apparel in Jan 2020. 2025: $38M in revenue, 22% EBITDA 2026: on track to...
Operational Chaos Is Fueling Founder Anxiety
Most founders would never admit this, but they've had panic attacks or anxiety episodes because they're stuck to the business. How much is the ops chaos costing you?
Agent Debugging Startup Laminar Raises $3M Seed to Tackle the Observability Gap in AI Agents
Laminar, a startup focused on debugging AI agents, announced a $3 million seed round led by Atlantic.vc with participation from Y‑Combinator and notable angels. The company’s platform provides end‑to‑end observability for agents that run for hours, capturing every LLM call, tool...
First Concepts Secures £750k to Boost Its AI-Native Workspace
First Concepts, an AI‑native workspace for early‑stage creative work, announced a £750,000 pre‑seed round led by Arāya Ventures and Antler. The platform unifies a taste engine, contextual interface, and tool‑agnostic infrastructure to reduce the 40% time loss agencies face when...
Visionary Energy Trading Pioneered Before Cleantech Existed
Before there was a "cleantech" industry, there was Tim Healy. Tim figured out that he could route electricity through digital switches and create an energy marketplace. Companies could trade and share their energy when they weren't using it, then back it...
Young "Bug Bounty Hunter" Bags $6M Pre-Seed Round for Security Startup
French cybersecurity startup Lupin & Holmes, founded by 23‑year‑old former bug bounty hunter Roni Carta, closed a $5.9 million pre‑seed round led by 20VC and Seedcamp. Carta, who earned nearly $800,000 hunting vulnerabilities for FAANG firms, built Depi, an upstream security...
Sell When You're Thriving, Not When Growth Slows
Many founders wait until growth slows before thinking about selling or raising capital, but the irony is: buyers and investors are often most interested when a business is performing at its best. In this episode of Vista Point Advisors The...
Stop Second-Guessing. Start Applying to the Right Grants
Creative professionals can now enroll in a live, interactive workshop that teaches how to pinpoint the most suitable grants for their projects. The session, scheduled for March 25 at 7 p.m. EST, will be opened to the newsletter’s 19,000‑plus subscriber base tomorrow,...
African Agtech Funding Drops to $170M in 2025 as Debt Overtakes Equity for First Time
The 2025 State of Agtech Investment in Africa report reveals total sector funding fell to $170 million, a near‑20 % year‑on‑year decline, while equity’s share dropped below half for the first time. Debt, grants and blended‑finance structures now dominate capital deployment, reflecting...
Britain’s Growth Strategy Must Start with Backing First-Time Founders
Britain aims to be the world’s top startup hub, but its growth strategy hinges on supporting first‑time founders. Small businesses constitute 99.8% of UK firms and drive jobs, innovation, and local economies. Virgin StartUp, partnering with the British Business Bank,...
Podcast: Sleep, Science & Invisible Care
In this episode, host Neil Bloom chats with Suzy Harbuth, founder of the Inspira Fund and its first portfolio company, Sensi, which focuses on sleep wellness. Suzy shares her entrepreneurial journey—from a refugee background and early venture‑capital exposure in the...
British Business Bank Promises £50m for SuperSeed’s Physical AI Fund
The British Business Bank has pledged up to £50 million as a cornerstone commitment to SuperSeed Fund III, a seed‑stage vehicle focused on B2B AI and SaaS firms building physical AI for manufacturing, energy, construction and autonomous systems. The investment, made...
Earn Six Figures Solo: Brand, Proof, Overdeliver, Content
A few years ago... I made $270K in a year as a solo freelancer. No investors. No big city network. No team. Here’s the playbook I ran: 1) Own your name online. 2) Publish proof, not promises. 3) Deliver more than you’re paid for. 4)...
DIY Custom Investor Portals Signal New Software Era
just received my first vibe coded "investor update and ask portal" from an early stage startup. the long-tail of DIY highly-tailored software is upon us...
Choose Speed when Mistakes Are Cheap, Slow when Risky
If a fast decision is wrong, that’s more OK, because you find out fast, and change it fast. Slow decisions, the opposite. If “slow” dramatically decreases risk of it being wrong, make it slow. Else, make it fast. More fast/slow tips: https://t.co/KbLhQOhKZH
Persistence Beats IQ: 99 Rejections Built Eight Sleep
99 rejections building @eightsleep IQ gets you in the room, but pain tolerance keeps you there
GStack Automates Role‑specific Review Tracking for Startups
New innovation: Just as at a well-run startup, there are CEO, engineering manager and design reviews, GStack now helps you keep track of what reviews are run, figures out what is appropriate (e.g. CEO doesn't have to look at infra...
Earn a VC’s Yes by Protecting Their Reputation
A VC’s job is to say yes. The ones who say yes are betting their reputation on you. Make it easy for them to believe.
Financial Loss Can Become a Gift of Peace
Imagine losing $100,000/month… @mbrown_co lost a total of $1.5 million in just 18 months. But he said the worst part was losing his peace. Yet when he looks back on it now, he sees it as a gift. Search "Nathan Barry Show" to...
Launch Everywhere at Once, Beat Incumbents Globally
"It's really hard to enter a market if there's an existing incumbent." So Zhong Xu launched Deliverect in every country at the same time. 7 years later: #1 or #2 in all of them. https://t.co/fbRQrowVSQ
Founders Prefer Employee Roles Over Bankruptcy Risks
"it's because we are attracting founders that actually want to be employees. They don't think and say 'if I don't pull this off, I'm going to become bankrupt. My life is over.'" incredibly based take
Spotting Winners: Hacker Mindset Meets Wall‑Running
Sometimes you meet a founder and instantly know they'll be successful. A pattern I look for: a hacker mindset + ability to run through walls. Thanks for including us (x3), @mohaknahta.