
PopSockets turned phone backs into a $169 million business
From a garage prototype in 2011, PopSockets built a global brand that generated $169 million in revenue by 2017. The company’s growth stemmed from embedding a simple grip into daily phone use, driving word‑of‑mouth buzz and celebrity endorsements.
Skosh has launched a global dating and friendship app that centers culture, identity, and language in its matching algorithm. The platform lets users find romantic or platonic connections based on shared home country, cultural layers, and cross‑cultural curiosity, targeting immigrants, expats, travelers, and globally minded locals. Unlike traditional apps that prioritize proximity or appearance, Skosh emphasizes cultural context to foster authentic relationships. It is available worldwide on iOS and Android, with plans to expand culture‑first features.

e-TRNL Energy, a battery‑tech startup founded in 2021, secured ₹27.4 cr ($3 mn) in a seed round led by IAN Alpha Fund. The capital will fund completion of its chemistry‑agnostic lithium‑ion and future sodium‑ion cell technology and demonstrate large‑scale manufacturing in India....
Most founders talk about innovation. Few know there are 4 types: product, process, business model, and organizational. Cook Medical built new devices, GE Aviation improved manufacturing with automation, fintech startups redesigned digital banking, and Purdue accelerators reshaped how startups grow. Then move through...

Nigeria’s largest electricity distributor, Ikeja Electric, announced that all business customers must provide a Tax Identification Number, National Identification Number, or CAC registration details to receive valid bills. The company set a seven‑day deadline, requiring submissions by February 20, 2026, after which...

Bulgarian companies are increasingly choosing between real equity and virtual (phantom) shares to motivate staff, each offering distinct governance and tax outcomes. Real equity provides statutory ownership and voting rights but can create minority vetoes and exit‑execution risk. Virtual shares...
Alex bought a $10,000 Mac to run @openclaw with powerful local models. He isn’t alone. Know a guy with several NVIDIA H200’s in his house. Now that I am building I get it. Having your own local AI changes your whole approach...

Six Sense Mobility secured $4.8 million (₹44 cr) in a Pre‑Series A round led by Ashish Kacholia, with Piper Serica Angel Fund participating. The capital will finance a new electronics manufacturing facility in Noida, designed for an initial output of one million units...

My biggest takeaways from Sherwin Wu : 1. AI is writing virtually all code at OpenAI. 95% of the engineers use Codex, and engineers who embrace these tools open 70% more pull requests than their peers, and that gap is...
What is the most important thing to do next? The answers lie with the customers -- what they want, why they will buy, or stay. Not inside Visual Studio, not in ChatGPT, not on social media. The customer, and you facing the truth.

Apple has agreed to acquire Canadian startup Kuzu, a developer of lightweight embedded graph database technology, as disclosed to the EU under the Digital Markets Act. The acquisition, finalized on Oct. 9, 2025, includes all Kuzu shares and select employee...
The headline of this piece should be "Is Stanford for Cowards?" https://t.co/IkzzYak0M8 Favorite line: "People misunderstand what built Silicon Valley. It wasn’t just intelligence. It was the stamina to endure embarrassment, the courage to diverge from the 'ideal path,' and...

LinkedIn unveiled Premium All‑in‑One, a $99.99‑per‑month subscription that bundles sales, marketing and hiring tools into a single dashboard. The service includes unlimited searches, InMail credits, AI‑driven messaging assistance and auto‑invite functionality. New users receive $100 in trial credits for job...
Building AI tools for business acquisition and franchise analysis. Always down to chat with others innovating in this space. DM me

In the Predictable Revenue Podcast, Nick Mason, co‑founder of Turtl, argues that product‑market fit (PMF) is a moving spectrum rather than a finish line. He warns founders that early traction can be deceptive if driven by a single loud customer...
The most interesting thing about Seedance 2.0 is that clips can be just long enough (15 seconds) to have something interesting happen, and the LLM behind it is good enough to actually make a little narrative arc, rather than cut...

Kainova Therapeutics announced a CAD 32 million first close of its Series B financing, led by Investissement Québec and supported by existing backers. The funding brings total venture capital to about $90 million USD and will accelerate development of its GPCR‑focused drug candidates. Lead...

The article uses Steven Spielberg’s filmmaking approach as a blueprint for business innovation, emphasizing the fleeting nature of novelty and the need to continuously deliver a "wow" experience. It argues that success hinges on surprising audiences with memorable, valuable solutions...

Franchise growth hinges on a repeatable sales blueprint that starts with a profitable offering and ends with a closed deal. The article stresses a disciplined process—clear steps, defined roles, and consistent execution—across lead generation, website education, and trade‑show engagement. Real‑world...
Announcing two new Reforge courses: AI Prototyping w/ Ravi Mehta and AI Evals w/ Justin Bauer and Sandhya Hegde 🙌 AI Prototyping Ravi is a former product leader from Tinder, Meta, and Tripadvisor. He has been deep in the weeds,...

Running a business never ends. I learned to shut it down with 7 rules: brain dump each night, auto-reply after hours, block time for bills, set reply rules, schedule fun, rank tasks by day week quarter, guard sleep food and workouts. Your...

Argentine proptech Lebane announced a $4 million seed round led by Atlántico and Zacua Ventures, with participation from ADN.vc, Fen Ventures, Kuiper VC, and Galicia Ventures. The AI‑native platform offers real‑estate developers tools for accounting, contract, stock management, and project oversight,...

Leaders often blame slow execution on accountability, but the real blocker is unclear decision authority and vague expectations. When judgment rights, ownership boundaries, and the definition of “done” are fuzzy, teams stall, meetings multiply, and handoffs break. The article argues...
.@tryprana is an AI primary doctor in your pocket that monitors you 24/7. Connect your wearables to your medical records to monitor for clinical drift. At any moment, you can instantly bring a Board-Certified MD into the chat to review your...
Hi, so Claude code is crazy. I’m on calls all day so I prepped Claude with all the things I need it to do. It’s literally building for me while I do CEO work. The prep time took about an...

Intuition Robotics’ ElliQ, a voice‑activated AI companion, is forging genuine relationships with seniors living alone, delivering up to 30 daily conversations. In New York, users who kept the robot for a month reported a 95% drop in loneliness, with many describing...

This Sunday I’m dropping my 2026 FREE Dropshipping Course on YouTube. 7 hours. Step-by-step. Beginner to advanced. This is the biggest video I release every year. Most people pay $1,000+ for this information in paid courses… I give it away for free. If you’re serious about starting...
Alva Energy, a Massachusetts‑based nuclear startup, closed a $33 million Series A round led by Playground Global to fund retrofits of existing U.S. reactors. The company will replace steam generators and add a second turbine, boosting each plant’s output by 200‑300 MWe and...

Swedish HealthTech startup Loovi has secured €1 million to scale its digital platform for data‑driven longevity and preventive health. The funding round, led by investors such as Susanne Najafi and Emad Zand, will be used to enhance medical and technical capabilities...

In this episode, Ben Currin, CEO of Vantaca, explains how the company bootstrapped a vertical SaaS platform for HOA management from under $1M ARR to $50M ARR, first reaching $5–10M without external funding and then scaling tenfold after a minority...
Reading this essay made me ask myself a question: am I using this to „do the thing“ or just to „do a thing?“ Interesting nuance here. I personally use AI very much as a deliberate tool, both in building & running a...

Electric Twin, a UK‑based AI platform that creates synthetic audiences, announced a €12 million funding round led by Atomico, with participation from LocalGlobe, Mercuri, Samos Investments and high‑profile angels such as Marc Andreessen and Cal Henderson. The capital will accelerate global...

Subba Rao Bhairavabhatla joins Vertex Group as co‑founder and chief growth officer after four years at Teleperformance. He brings two decades of process excellence, quality, and digital transformation experience from Asian Paints, HSBC, Wipro, Capita, WNS and Teleperformance. At Vertex,...

In this episode, Dr. Tiffany Yeh, MD, co‑founder and CEO of climate‑tech startup Eztia Materials, discusses the urgent heat challenge facing construction workers and how human‑centric cooling technologies can protect them. She explains the science behind Eztia’s HydroVolt material, its...
In episode 500 of the Relentless Health Value podcast, host Stacey Richter celebrates the community of healthcare entrepreneurs, executives, and change‑makers she calls the "tribe," highlighting how the show has moved listeners from theory to real‑world transformation. Listener clips illustrate...

Neurent Medical announced an oversubscribed €62.5 million Series C round, led by MVM Partners and Sofinnova Partners, to accelerate the commercial rollout of its NEUROMARK system for chronic rhinitis. The funding will expand European market presence, deepen clinical evidence, and support a...

Chinese premium EV brand Aito has signed a cooperation agreement with Abu Dhabi Motors to launch its high‑end models in the United Arab Emirates. The partnership gives ADM responsibility for sales, delivery, after‑sales service and brand‑experience centers, while Aito brings...

Warsaw‑based Demoboost announced a €2.8 million funding round led by Digital Ocean Ventures and Rafał Brzoska’s family office. The capital will accelerate AI‑driven product demo creation and expand the platform internationally. Demoboost’s solution lets B2B software firms standardise, personalise and share...

Swedish pet insurer Lassie secured $75 million in a Series C round led by Balderton Capital and other investors, fueling AI‑driven claims automation and European expansion. The startup’s app blends insurance with preventive care, rewarding healthy pet behavior and processing 60% of...

Kevin Hart built a tequila brand in a declining market and grew it 85% in one year. Gran Coramino sold 300,000 cases, passed $200M in retail sales, and became a top 25 tequila worldwide. He joins weekly sales calls, meets distributors, and...
Large companies have distribution; startups have innovation, and maybe even a product people love. When each party's weakness maps onto the other's strength, that feels like the kernel of a deal. But typically it isn’t. Here’s how to make it work: https://t.co/tWykmze29I

Mora Group, launched in July 2024, now operates six hotels across Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Banjarbaru while developing six additional projects in Indonesia. The company will open new properties in Ciwidey (April) and Palu (November) and has pipeline projects in Jakarta,...
Sourcing is the single hardest part about venture. Equally followed by actually getting on the cap table of the best companies.
There are reasons to argue about financial bubbles in the funding of data centers, but it is increasingly clear from the numbers that the frontier AI companies are showing that AI is, indeed, a very massive business with high demand...

In this episode, Maor Greenberg, CEO and co‑founder of Spacial, explains how AI is reshaping SaaS tools for residential construction, recounting his journey from early proptech ventures in Israel to multiple U.S. building businesses. He highlights the challenges of conflicting...
Gilles Bertaux built Livestorm for a university final exam in 2016. Nearly $20M ARR. 3,500 customers. $35M raised. Last round was 2020. https://t.co/DXieBIwtcs
I spent $30k on a course teaching 'proven systems.' Applied everything. Made $0. I spent $500 testing products with no system. Made $40k in 90 days. Education doesn't matter. Execution does. Test everything.

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) is expanding beyond battery manufacturing into a nationwide battery‑swap network called Choco‑Swap, targeting 30,000 stations across China. Its subsidiary Era Electric has already built 1,000 stations by end‑2025 and plans to add 2,000 more in 2026,...

Founder Friends is coming to LA on Feb 26! Join us and @Rivian for an evening of networking, learning, and connection with fellow founders and investors. More >> https://t.co/1bltGWHwcQ
I was at a founders + CTOs event for 10-500 person startups. Founders and CTOs at these companies burn some of the most tokens and increasingly ship a bunch of code to production (when they did ~zero 6 months ago)

I’m hosting an exclusive investor mixer at this private hangar in Vegas on Thurs 2/26 👀 DM if interested. https://t.co/65LxbH2BJO