Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Digital Asset secures $355M in fintech financing round
Digital Asset announced a $355 million funding round, placing it among this week’s largest fintech raises. The capital will be used to accelerate product development and broaden market reach.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Sygaldry Technologies raises $139M in seed and Series A round
VC10X - Gamification of Consumer Apps - Phylicia Koh, GP, Play Ventures
Phylicia Koh, GP at Play Ventures, explains how gaming mechanics are becoming the operating system for consumer apps, with in‑app purchases in non‑gaming sectors now outpacing traditional gaming spend. She outlines Play Ventures' $142 M thesis focused on "playable apps" that combine controllable outcomes, intrinsic motivators, social features, and live‑ops economics, highlighting portfolio examples like Alinea and Bible Chat. The discussion contrasts free‑to‑play monetization with subscription models, examines AI’s role in user acquisition, and predicts the next five years of metaverse‑like platforms and product discovery shifting away from search.
AI Accelerates Design: 3‑D Renders in 30 Seconds
💥 Now that we’ve packed up the holidays and turned the corner into 2026, it’s a good time to take stock of the spaces we live in. This The New York Times piece highlights how Havenly Brands (Havenly, Interior Define,...
Show AI Benefits and Address Fears to Win Race
A good reminder that outside of the tech bubble, we must expand our efforts to (1) show tangible AI superpowers to many people, and (2) address the concerns and fears they have about AI growth, both environmentally and economically. Failing...
Insight Partners Sued by Former Vice President Kate Lowry
Kate Lowry, a former vice president at Insight Partners, filed a lawsuit in San Mateo County alleging disability discrimination, gender discrimination, and wrongful termination. She says her supervisor demanded constant online availability, subjected her to harassment, assigned redundant tasks, and...
Engage Multiple Buyers to Maximize Synergies and Outcomes
Different buyers value companies differently. Only by talking to a broad spectrum of buyers will you ensure that you: * Uncover all potential synergies * Make the process hyper-competitive * Unlock the best outcome #founders #pathtoexit
LLMs Poised to Become Tomorrow’s Hidden Infrastructure Layer
Will today's leading foundational LLMs be the DEC,Cray, Wang, Radio Shack, Sun, Data General, Compaq, etc of tomorrow ? GenAI LLMs want to be the operating systems of today and tomorrow. It's possible they will be the CP/M, DOS,...
Azimuth AI Raises Funding
Azimuth AI, a semiconductor firm operating out of Sacramento and Hyderabad, closed an undisclosed‑amount funding round led by Jetha Global, with participation from Moneta Ventures, AUM Ventures, and new investors. The company specializes in custom edge‑AI system‑on‑chips targeting smart utilities,...
AI Erodes Speed Advantage, Judgment Now Matters Most
AI removed the natural friction that used to separate thinking from output. Writing, design, analysis, code, and planning now move fast enough that effort is no longer a credible signal. When anyone can produce something quickly, speed stops being impressive. What...
Top Operators Guard Conviction Like Capital Preserves Cash
The best operators conserve conviction the way capital allocators conserve cash.
20VC: $0-$260M in Revenue in Three Years: How We Did It | You Need to Work Weekends to Win —...
Alan Chang, co‑founder and CEO of Fuse Energy, shares how he scaled the company from $2M to $400M in three years by applying the same high‑speed, extreme‑ownership culture he helped build at Revolut. He emphasizes that building a generational business...
Winning Obsession: Why Founders Must Sacrifice Work-Life Balance
I have interviewed 1,000 of the best founders over the last 10 years. The top three: 1. Nik Storonsky (Revolut) 2. @awxjack (Airwallex) 3. @alanchanguk (Fuse Energy) All three share one trait. Unwavering obsession to win. We BS so many founders today because people hate what...
Strong Fundamentals, Not Subscription Model, Drive SaaS Sales
One of the biggest myths in SaaS is that if a business isn’t pure subscription, it’s not sellable. That’s wrong. A recent $4.5M cloud computing acquisition on @acquiredotcom proved it. This company didn’t have textbook recurring revenue, but it did have...
The Longevity Startup That Already Has the Data Altos Labs Is Seeking: Hidden in Plain Sight
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...
Even Passed Deals Can Become Lasting Favorites
If you’ve been investing long enough, you’ve passed on a few companies that still stick with you. @tryramp is one of mine. I saw the seed round and could’ve led it, but passed because we’d already backed a company that MIGHT...
70+ and Thriving: Backing Innovators, Learning Fast
At 70+ I feel like I'm thirty backing exciting innovators/innovations making the impossible possible and from improbable ideas to world-changing socially impactful companies. Never had such a fast learning rate in my life or felt I could have so much impact, which is exciting. https://t.co/3BTsDx4Gr7
Envisioning 2050: Past Predictions Shape Our Future
Here are my predictions for 2050 (the world we can create) two years ago at TED and at our CEO conference:
Niche Micro‑SaaS: $120K Revenue, $106K Profit
Love when founders go ALL IN on a niche problem. High-margin SEO micro-SaaS dropped on @acquiredotcom. Proven demand with low operating costs and recurring revenue: > $120K TTM revenue > $106K TTM profit > $185K asking price Full listing: https://t.co/wEmZSNHIYp https://t.co/H2P0UFshLo
When Execution Is Cheap, Judgment Becomes the Bottleneck
Execution is no longer the constraint. As building gets cheaper, judgment becomes the scarce resource. Models can generate options endlessly. What they don’t accumulate is lived consequence. They don’t carry the memory of failed bets, abandoned paths, or tradeoffs that only made...
Every App Becomes a Self‑Coding, Shareable Platform
prior gen software products often added scripting languages/macros so that people can extend functionality (Excel being the most famous, but also modding in games, etc) what if every app becomes a vibe coding app? That is, in any app that you use...
AI & Space IPOs Set to Shatter Fee Benchmarks
Wow, here's an estimate of what investment banks made from IPO fees in 2025 2026 will blow these (already large) numbers away if OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic hit the public markets (Someone tell the manager at Porsche of Greenwich to...
Ask VCs Their Investment Odds to Save Time
It's totally OK to ask a VC at the end of a pitch meeting, "Based on what you know now, what are the odds you'd invest?" In fact, it can save a lot of time
Clean P&L: Your Ticket to Premium M&A Exit
Founders often focus on the product and the growth, but in the world of M&A, a premium exit starts with your books. For sophisticated buyers, clean financials are virtually mandatory. If a founder can't produce a clean P&L on demand, it...
Billionaire Tax Would Push Founders Out Early
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...
Embrace Risk: The Key to Bigger Opportunities
More risk is something most people are afraid of, and it's where the larger opportunity lies
Beta Tool Accelerates Startup Fundraising – Seeking Founder Feedback
Building a tool to help startups fundraise faster. If you're a founder planning to raise soon, DM me. Would love your feedback on the early beta. :) (I may delete this if I receive too many DMs)
VC Returns Collapse: Only 7% of Deals Hit 3x
Yes, M&A is back. More deals are getting done. But per @SiliconVlyBank, VCs make 3x or more their money on just 7% of them That’s way, way down from 22% in 2021, and even 15% in 2019 https://t.co/5oeZOGTpNr
Wealth Isn’t Exclusive to Entrepreneurs—Founders Just Have More Leverage
Saying that only entrepreneurs generate wealth is as mistaken as saying that only workers do. In fact founders, managers, employees, and individual craftsmen can all generate wealth. Founders do have the most leverage though.
Hospitality SaaS Drives 20% Revenue Boost for Hotels
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
Even Experts Misjudge Tech Adoption Speed
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...
What One Data Point Could Reveal Startup Realities?
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?
Delay Sale, Build Predictable SaaS for Higher Valuation
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...
Join Quanta: Well‑Funded Series A Startup Opportunity
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
US Investors: Back Iran’s Emerging Tech Talent
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 👇
Rethinking 2026 Input/Output: Glasses, Smart Pens, BCI
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...
Scale AI by Embedding Feedback Loops, Not Flashy Demos
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....
Banks Ditch Legacy Contracts for AI‑Native Systems
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? *...
Setbacks Shape Founders by Their Meaning, Not Reality
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...
Tech Predictions Nearing Reality: Progress Accelerates Yearly
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:
Successful Startups Act, Others Stay Stuck in Denial
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...
AI-Powered Restaurant SaaS Hits 3x YoY Growth
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...
YC Should Open Austin to Diversify Beyond Silicon Valley
.@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...
Document Your SOPs Now, Or Lose Premium Sale
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...
Billionaire Tax Drives $500B Out, Burdens Californians
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...
Jared Friedman: The Hacker‑Builder Rock of YC
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.
SpaceX IPO Could Top $1 Trillion, Biggest Ever
"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
Join Batter Up X H‑On Dream: Korean Startups Pitch Jan 8
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
Cash at Close Beats Inflated Valuation Every Time
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 >...
AI-Native B2B Firms Command Premium, Others Face Discount
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....
Bernie Right About
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...
2026 H2 Set for Massive IPO Wave: SpaceX, Databricks, More
"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