Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Qorelo secures $3.5M seed round to accelerate AI‑driven SAP migrations
AI‑focused startup Qorelo announced a $3.5 million seed round led by HPI Ventures and Caesar Ventures. The funding will be used to develop its AI‑powered layer that automates functional workstreams in SAP S/4HANA migrations, which the company says can cut project timelines by up to 45 percent ahead of the 2027 SAP migration deadline.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Sygaldry Technologies raises $139M in seed and Series A round
20VC: Why VC Today Is Worse Than 2021 | Why Vertical SaaS Is a Bad Investment Today | Why We...
The episode critiques the current venture‑capital climate, arguing it’s as over‑hyped as the 2021 COVID boom and warning that vertical SaaS and legal‑SaaS investments are now unattractive. Host Harry Stebbings and guests discuss Revolut’s $3 bn raise at a $75 bn valuation as a sign of public‑market strain, and Benchmark’s new partner Everett Randall’s perspective on tightening capital. They stress that founders must target larger customers with higher minimum spend and that unrealistic growth expectations are misleading founders and investors alike. Overall, the conversation paints a bleak outlook for VC funding and urges a shift toward sustainable, high‑value business models.
Back at Yale for 8th VC Class with Jorge
8th time back at Yale with Jorge M. for his VC class!
Crustdata Secures $6M Seed to Power Real-Time AI Data
Congrats to @chrispisarski, @thechowdhary, @manmohitg, and @crustdata on their $6M seed! Crustdata is building real-time B2B data APIs to power AI sales, recruiting, and investment agents. While traditional databases provide outdated data and aren’t built for signal-driven workflows, Crustdata’s real-time enrichment...
Marc Andreessen and Amjad Masad: English As the New Programming Language
In this episode Marc Andreessen, Erik Torenberg, and Replit CEO Amjad Masad explore how AI agents are reshaping programming, arguing that English‑based prompts are becoming the new coding language. Masad explains how reinforcement learning unlocked reasoning in large models, how...
Venture as a Product: Building a Dedicated Organization
"When we started a16z, we decided we wanted to treat venture as not only a craft, but also a product, and staff an organization set up for that goal" - @pmarca David is the best "venture as a product" builder I...
Visible, Honest Leadership Accelerates Startup Growth
What I see CEOs at struggling start-ups do: - Go dark - Hide - Lash out - Tweet about lots of things non-work - Invest time on tiny expenses - Argue internally What should do: - Be Present - Be Honest - Be the Rock - Be Realistic/Optimistic You just plain grow...
Product-Market Fit Is No Longer Static
Venture investor Tomasz Tunguz argues product-market fit (PMF) is no longer a one-time milestone but a continuous condition because rapid advances in AI are constantly reshaping customer needs and technical possibilities. He points to firms that lost PMF between 2021–2024,...
Tel Aviv's Golden Age Fuels 30‑40% Venture Portfolio
1. Excluding SpaceX - We have 30%-40% of our venture portfolio here. 2. Tel Aviv feels like the MOST exciting city in the world right now. There is an electricity...and it is inspiring! 3. Golden Age for the region. 4. Israel is defending...
Transparency in AI Builds Trust Through Visible Thinking
When people trust humans, they trust intent. When they trust AI, they trust transparency. The best AI agent interfaces will reveal complexity with clarity. A good experience helps people see how an agent thinks, not just what it does. That’s how confidence...
The Last-Minute Pass Savings Are On! Only 5 Days Until TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 Ignites the Startup World
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 kicks off in San Francisco October 27–29, with last‑minute ticket discounts offering up to $444 off and 60% off a +1 pass ahead of price increases at the door. The conference expects 10,000+ founders, VCs and operators...
I’m Unable to View the Linked Content, so I Can’t Generate a Headline.
https://t.co/y3WWGY5pkP
Old Rules Gone, New Unwritten: Brace for Turbulence
"The old rules do not apply any more, but the new ones have not been written. And we must brace ourselves for more turbulence ahead." https://t.co/8duOq5QZUz
Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code
In this episode, a16z partner Anish Acharya and host Kevin Rose discuss how AI is sparking a new consumer technology renaissance, emphasizing that the next wave of products will blend emotion, utility, and creativity rather than just code. They explore...
CrusoeAI Secures $1.4B to Power Infrastructure Boom
👀 @ChaseLochmiller and team @CrusoeAI are an unstoppable force that’s enabling the greatest infrastructure buildout of our lifetime. And it’s still early innings! $1.4b in fresh capital, let’s go! https://t.co/p8Hp8XVdGA
Smart Money Doubles Down on Winners, Not New Startups
We're back! @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll + me: 🧵 1⃣The Great VC Shuffle: Benchmark's big hire 2⃣Why billion-dollar ARR companies that are "still early" 3⃣Why the smartest money might be doubling down on winners instead of hunting for the next big...
#171 Doctours: VC Funded Hair Transplants?!
Doctours founder Girum shares his personal experience with medical tourism that saved his brother, launching a marketplace that matches U.S. patients to vetted overseas clinics, starting with elective hair‑transplant procedures in Turkey. The platform handles patient intake, clinic verification, reviews,...
Seed Investing: Hear Future Voices, Not Predict Outcomes
Just did a deep dive with @mariogabriele for The Generalist. The core idea: great seed investing isn’t prediction: It’s noticing the faint whispers from those already living in the future. 7 takeaways from that conversation. 🧵
Governments Shift From Regulation to Acceleration
From the regulatory state to the acceleratory state. https://t.co/m0yKXRSf0u
E638 | Matti Rönkkö, Kiilto Ventures: Family Capital, Industrial Know-How & Sustainable Built World
The post is a EUVC roundup that first features Matti Rönkkö of Kiilto Ventures arguing that family capital, deep industrial expertise and a sustainability focus can reshape the built world. It then shifts to Kristaps Ronis of ION Pacific, who...
Great Teams Transform Bad Ideas Into Success
Even a terrible startup idea can turn into a great one with the right team.
Identifying Future Buyers of SaaS Companies
New!! "Who Will Buy The SaaS Companies?" https://t.co/m1tppdUsFM
Temperate: The Tech Beaming Heat Into Space to Disrupt the Trillion-Dollar Cooling Market | Angel Insights
The episode spotlights several deep‑tech and angel‑investment stories, beginning with Charlie of Temperate who converts heat to light and beams it into space, offering a refrigerant‑free cooling system up to 20× more efficient for data‑centers and HVAC markets. It then...
The Moment Has Arrived: Take Action Now
It’s time. It’s time to get ahead of the pack in AI + B2B. Not next quarter. Not next year. Right now. Because the companies that figured out AI in GTM over the past 12 months are now scaling those...
AI Slashes Advisory Costs, Democratizes Financial Advice
Congrats to @Saturn__OS on their $15M Series A! Saturn uses AI to automate compliance and admin work in UK financial advisory—cutting tasks that once took paraplanners 4 hours down to 20 minutes of review. This drops the cost to serve from £2,000...
Founder10x - Are AI Agents The Future of Doctor's Office? - Ganesh Padmanabhan, Founder, Autonomize AI
In this episode, host Prashant Choubey talks with Ganesh Padmanabhan, founder of Autonomize AI, about the emerging role of AI agents in medical practices. They explore how autonomous AI assistants can handle patient triage, appointment scheduling, and routine follow‑ups, potentially...
Thomas Laffont on Navigating AI, Investments,
I had a blast having Thomas Laffont on Uncapped. He's the cofounder of Coatue, a $70B AUM firm investing from inception through IPO. We discussed how he makes sense of the current AI cycle, what he thinks will happen to software...
BoxGroup Launches Two $275M Funds for Early-Stage Founders
BoxGroup is excited to continue to be in the business of funding early stage ambitious founders building products they dream about - we've raised two new funds, each $275m, to give to founders as early as possible BoxGroup More here:...
The Bear Roars: Dan and Brad
On The Bear Roars podcast, Dan Caruso and guest explored how advances in AI, quantum computing and robotics are reshaping not just technology but learning, leadership and collaboration, with a central claim that equitable access — broadband, curiosity and freedom...
AI Video Creator: Profitable, Ready for Acquisition
AI + video = huge market. This tool on @acquiredotcom helps creators generate and schedule short-form videos automatically. You can spin up YouTube Shorts, TikToks, and AI-style clips (even Pixar-like animations). Zero editing skills needed. > $107K TTM revenue > $79K profit > 100+ customers >...
Tiny Check, Massive Return: Don't Underestimate Winners
My single best investment from 20VC Fund I broke advice everyone gave me. Don’t write small checks. If it is less than 1% of the fund, it won’t move the needle. Wrong. I wrote a $50K check. Today it is...
Feature Bloat Dilutes Focus, Turns Users Into Habit
Somewhere along the way, growth stopped meaning progress and started meaning more. More features. More dashboards. More categories to chase. Every successful product faces this moment. You build something people love. It works. Then comes the temptation to widen the story....
Accrual Accounting Essential for SaaS Founder Valuations
Many of the private SaaS founders we work with don't realize that recognizing revenue in accordance with principles of GAAP and accrual accounting is not just a practice for publicly traded companies. We've found that SaaS founders, for convenience and...
Winning Startups Choose Either Full Office or Full Remote
One of the best CEOs I know said to me the other day, "I wish we'd never allowed work from home I know this is a complex issue even today, and for many, a triggering one. What I can tell you in...
Overstock Turned Into Environmental and Financial Gains
Proud to support entrepreneurs like @amritakbhasin via my Foundation who are tackling massive, overlooked problems in the supply chain and climate space. Amrita's journey building Sotira was just profiled in Forbes for turning overstock and short-dated inventory into both environmental and...
Deep AI Immersion: The New Must‑Do for Founders
Every major platform shift rewrites the playbook for founders and investors. Sarah Tavel saw it during the rise of mobile — and now knows that to truly excel in a new era, you can’t just observe from the sidelines. You...
Condensing 6,000‑Word LP Update for Podcast Listeners
Finalizing our next LP update with @vedikaja_in. It's nearly 6,000 words. Maybe we should ask Chat to generate a shorter version for "2x podcast people". 🤔
Future AI Breakthroughs Will Rely on Adaptive Learning, Not Size
If Adaption Labs is right, the next leap forward in AI won’t come from trillion parameter models, it’ll come from systems that learn on the fly. https://t.co/t4EXiWHf8Z
Clarifying: Our Firm Is 776, Not 777
Just to be SUPER clear, my firm is 776 (Seven Seven SIX) and has nothing to do with these apparent clowns at 777. https://t.co/tzeJO7yZ6P
AI Agent Ruth Cuts SaaS Costs with Data‑Driven Negotiations
Ruth from @VendrHQ is the AI negotiation agent for SaaS. Trained on data billions in spend data, she helps you benchmark prices, plan negotiations, and save money. https://t.co/7Y962NhyWR https://t.co/7mYfR4sVsy
Mulligan Launches AI Platform Automating Commercial Insurance Brokerage
Mulligan (https://t.co/KlkcVLe0fK) is an end-to-end AI automation platform for commercial insurance brokerages. It can quote, generate submissions and proposals, compare policies, and more. https://t.co/JgQmbPdU3T Congrats on the launch, @araghuvanshi2! https://t.co/onyFYz8ylh
Tempo Secures $5M to Revolutionize React Design Tools
Tempo (@Tempo_Labs) has raised $5M to build the best design tool for design engineers. Unlike other vibecoding tools, Tempo integrates with any React codebase and allows designers to control every pixel by hand. Congrats to the team! https://t.co/GmPMka8o0H https://t.co/27HsMZBzkd
Choose Location that Multiplies Luck, Not Stifles Momentum
well put (on eu vs us) “When you build something ambitious, you realize geography isn’t neutral. It either multiplies your luck or quietly kills your momentum. I chose to go where luck compounds.”
AI Agents Turn CRM Into Passive Data Warehouse
AI is a pretty big threat to CRM. Not the need for CRM, but to its value proposition. I didn’t totally get it until we deployed 11+ AI Agents. But what they do is push your CRM to the background....
AI's Next Phase: Specialized Intelligence Over General Hype
What comes next for AI? Perhaps physically specific intelligence, more than artificial general intelligence. Here’s a draft thesis. (1) First, AI is now entering the trough of the hype cycle. Every tech, no matter how amazing, goes through this. It’s actually one...
Early Traction Hinges on Story, Not Metrics
Early on traction is a story problem, not a metrics problem. The best founders know which narrative unlocks the next stage.
VCs Preach Agility, Yet Respond at a Glacial Pace
VC irony: We preach agility, yet often take forever to respond…
Simple Slack Email Tool Generates $22K Profit Autopilot
I love simple tools like this on @acquiredotcom. Manage team emails directly inside Slack. > $22K TTM revenue > $20K profit > 200+ customers > Runs on autopilot > Lean, profitable, dead simple Full listing: https://t.co/b3BlAnxTAb https://t.co/1DDfmVFl2z
Benchmark Your Pitch Deck Against 4,000 Startups
Wondering how you stack up? Try the new https://t.co/iXj7ZJdxfx VC Pitch Deck Analyzer -> https://t.co/S5UFYzoN7a We’ll share how you stack up against 4,000+ other start-ups. And we’ll provide you honest and confidential feedback on how to do better. https://t.co/YtZxaYnamq
AI Agents Streamline Trade Compliance for Suppliers and Brokers
MarkIt is building AI agents for trade compliance—helping suppliers, importers, and customs brokers classify products, manage documents, and navigate government requirements. https://t.co/tTaCTxaPR9 Congrats on the launch, @ch6nkim and @supadupacoda! https://t.co/cxhpOAGgFV
SubImage Raises $4.2M for AI-Driven Vulnerability Mapping
Congrats to @alexchantavy, @kunaalsikka, and @SubImageSec on their $4.2M seed! From the creators of Cartography at @Lyft, SubImage is an open-core alternative to Wiz, using AI to show how vulnerabilities and access paths lead to compromise. https://t.co/HpMp0e8sfN https://t.co/KMyFtUYNkC