🎯Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 38m agoWhat's happening: AI fuels record $119.5B venture fundraising despite fewer rounds
Venture capital fundraising jumped 16.9% to $119.5 billion in 2025, the strongest recovery since the 2022 market reset. The total number of rounds fell 41% to 4,859, concentrating capital in larger AI‑focused financings, with AI startups capturing 58% of Series D cash and median valuations rising across all stages.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OpenAI raises $110B in corporate funding
Blog•Nov 7, 2025
The only AI Prompt Guide You Need for Idea Validation & Competitor Research. | Why VCs Pull Back From China...
The episode breaks down three major trends: AI deal activity is slowing in volume but concentrating in massive mega‑rounds, while VC and PE bonuses stay flat and secondaries see double‑digit bonus growth; venture capital is sharply retreating from China’s AI sector due to tighter geopolitics, reduced fundraising and a shift to government‑backed funding despite strong research output; and Sahil shares concrete ChatGPT prompts that let founders conduct rapid competitor research, from SWOT to marketing mix analyses. Key takeaways highlight a top‑heavy funding landscape, the strategic advantage of focusing on less‑hot markets, and practical AI‑driven tools for market intelligence. The host’s expertise in venture finance frames these insights for founders and investors alike.
By Sahil S
Blog•Nov 7, 2025
If You Ever Think "Should I Fire This Person?" Even Once ... Well, Then It's Time
In this episode, Jason Lemkin argues that the moment a leader questions whether to fire an employee, the answer should be an immediate, compassionate termination. He explains how gut instincts synthesize performance data, and why retaining "pretty good" or mediocre...
By Jason Lemkin
Podcast•Nov 7, 2025•1h 9m
20Sales: Why You Need a CRO Pre-Product | Why Remote Sales Teams Do Not Work | How Snowflake Built a...
In this episode, host Harry Stebbings and sales veteran Chad Peets explore why SaaS startups should appoint a Chief Revenue Officer before product launch, argue that fully remote sales teams often fail without strong structure, and dissect how Snowflake engineered...
By The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)
Social•Nov 7, 2025
AI Capex Distinguishes Valuation of Hardware vs Digital Firms
I get asked a lot if we are in an AI bubble. My answer generally is it does not matter to my investment strategy. But here is one place that the AI CAPEX buildout matters: valuation. You cannot value companies that...
By Michael Eisenberg
Social•Nov 7, 2025
YC-Backed Startup Reinvents $6.5T US Trust Administration
Sava (@savatrust) is building an Agentic Trust Company to modernize how $6.5T in U.S. trusts are administered. Driven by how painful it was to set up trusts for his family after selling his S12 company, @nimit is back at YC to...
By YCombinator
Podcast•Nov 6, 2025•45 min
Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan: How AI Will Cure All Disease
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan explain how the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is creating AI‑driven computational tools—like the open‑source Cell Atlas and virtual cell models—to accelerate discovery, test high‑risk hypotheses in silico, and ultimately cure, prevent, and manage all disease by...
By a16z Podcast
Social•Nov 7, 2025
Brutal Honesty Beats Politeness
So true. I get dinged for the latter all the time. Since 2004 the @khoslaventures website has proclaimed “we prefer brutal honesty to hypocritical politeness”. Proud to be a big investor in @PimDeWitte’s two ventures: general intuition and highlight.
By Vinod Khosla
Social•Nov 7, 2025
Hummingbird's First Biotech Deal Nets $800M Stake
Let me just get this straight: Hummingbird owned 16% of BillionToOne at IPO. That is an $800M stake. This was their first ever biotech deal. These guys just play another game!!
By Harry Stebbings
Podcast•Nov 6, 2025•6 min
VC10X Micro - The Reason Behind 100,000 Layoffs in 2025 - VC10X Micro
In this micro‑episode, Prashant Choubey explains why even profit‑rich giants like Meta and Amazon are cutting thousands of jobs in 2025, attributing the wave to three forces: the "Great AI Re‑allocation" that shifts talent to automation, a newly permanent "Year...
By VC10X
Social•Nov 7, 2025
AI‑Powered Open‑Source Tool Simulates Customers in Minutes
🦜@ExpectedParrot is an open-source framework for simulating your customers with AI agents. Test pricing, refine messaging, and explore product feedback and decisions in minutes, not weeks. https://t.co/f6JKZvUd8l Congrats on the launch, @johnjhorton and Robin! https://t.co/BI2C8HF9FO
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 7, 2025
Jaw‑dropping Founder Demos Spark My Curiosity
Occasionally I meet a founder with a demo that makes my jaw drop. Wish I could share what I just saw. Side note: If you're a founder with a truly jaw-dropping demo, DM me. :)
By Ryan Hoover
Podcast•Nov 6, 2025•35 min
From Billion-Dollar Brand to Blank Slate: Bobbi Brown’s Comeback
In this episode, Bobbi Brown recounts how she grew Bobbi Brown Cosmetics into a billion‑dollar powerhouse and the fraught split with Estée Lauder that forced her to choose between retirement and reinvention. She shares hard‑won lessons on scaling a brand, navigating...
By Masters of Scale
Social•Nov 7, 2025
Breadth Beats “Spray and Pray” At Seed Stage
Breadth matters at seed. “Spray and pray” is a lazy pejorative and LPs who insist on spreading that toxic meme will destroy the firms they invest in and and their own returns.
By Garry Tan
Social•Nov 7, 2025
Success Lies in Building Ecosystems, Not Dominating Markets
"Venture capital, the success of Silicon Valley, and much of today’s technological progress, was built on an infinite game: Recognising the opportunity to develop an ecosystem, rather than simply dominating what little existed."
By Shripriya Mahesh
News•Nov 6, 2025
E647 | Kristaps Ronis, ION Pacific: The Rise of Structured Secondaries in Venture
In this EUVC Podcast episode, Kristaps Ronis of ION Pacific explains how structured secondaries are reshaping venture liquidity by offering DPI‑focused deals that provide cash without forcing founders or GPs to sell shares or signal weakness. He highlights the market’s...
By The European VC (EUVC)
Social•Nov 7, 2025
Founder Growth Accelerates Through YC Community Collaboration
For @priyak_9 and her company @withnixo, the key to growing fast was being part of a community of founders solving tough problems together. She found that sense of momentum and shared purpose at YC. And so can you. https://t.co/gNl84El3BS https://t.co/FeQisg32Pu
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 7, 2025
AvallonAI Secures $4.6M to Automate Insurance Claims
Congrats to @AvallonAI on their $4.6M seed! They're building AI agents that automate insurance claims operations—handling intake calls, document processing, and case tracking. Helping TPAs and carriers tackle the industry's critical staffing shortage. https://t.co/wyH8WQDRLY https://t.co/UomzYV8uI3
By YCombinator
News•Nov 6, 2025
Rebuilt From Rejection Into a Billion-Dollar Model W/ Michael Loeb
The episode chronicles Michael Loeb’s journey from being fired at 36 to creating billion‑dollar ventures like Synapse, Priceline.com, and the healthcare discount platform ScriptRelief, now operating under his venture collective Loeb.nyc. He argues that entrepreneurial instincts appear early—often evident in...
By Billion Dollar Moves
Social•Nov 7, 2025
AI Associates Turn Weeks of PE Work Into Minutes
Zarna (@zarna_ai) is building private equity’s first AI associate class. These agents turn weeks of investment work into minutes, so firms close better deals faster. https://t.co/IaIx9jB1N4
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Skip Finishing Schools, Build Real Value and Relationships
Someone at the SF Standard is going to write a story about how I told people not to go to Slow Ventures Finishing School. FWIW I really like a bunch of the people who work there, and I have no...
By Garry Tan
Blog•Nov 6, 2025
Are We Being Railroaded by AI?
The post compares AI infrastructure spending to historic U.S. investment projects, showing AI at 1.6% of GDP in 2024—far below World War II, the New Deal, and the railroad boom. It highlights current corporate outlays (Microsoft, Google, Meta) and projects OpenAI’s...
By Tomasz Tunguz
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Product Hunt Celebrates 12 Years Empowering Indie Makers
Today is Product Hunt's 12-year anniversary. It started with a tweet and has become a global launchpad for founders and makers. Pretty cool to see so many now-household names—Notion, Deel, Loom, Ramp, Figma—launch their v1s on the platform. But we've always tried to...
By Ryan Hoover
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Export Restrictions Threaten US AI Leadership and Global Innovation
Everyone in Silicon Valley understands that the way to win a technology race is to get the most users and developers on your platform. Yet the anti-export lobby in Washington keeps inventing reasons why America’s friends and allies shouldn’t be...
By David Sacks
Blog•Nov 5, 2025
Harsh Truth About European Startups Ft. Joe Seager
In this interview, Joe Seager—partner at the consumer‑focused VC True and former Virgin executive—explains how True’s vertically integrated, multi‑stage model gives founders a distinct advantage and why Europe’s fragmented venture landscape is beginning to outpace the U.S., especially in the...
By The Consumer VC
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Mission‑First Biotech Thrives on Science and Execution
10 out of 10. Would recommend. BillionToOne is a wonderful example of what's possible when you take on the most important, hardest problem you can. Oguzhan and David didn’t set out to “start a startup.” They wanted to solve a globally important...
By Seth Bannon
Social•Nov 6, 2025
AI-Powered Platform &AI Goes Public, Boosting Patent Litigation
&AI (@tryandai) is a collaborative workspace for patent invalidity and infringement work — litigation, portfolio monetization, business development, and more. Over the past year, they've been working closely with the best patent litigators and in-house teams in the world, supporting them...
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
A16z Launches New Media Fellowship for Online Talent
I'm excited to announce the a16z New Media Fellowship. Or as many people are saying, the Thiel Fellowship for the terminally online. Finding highly functional people who are also very online is hard, so we are creating a fellowship to gather and...
By Erik Torenberg
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Benchmark’s Portfolio Outshines All Other Funds
Of every fund of this vintage, I would rather have Benchmark’s portfolio than any other: Sierra ($10BN) Mercor ($10BN) Firework ($4BN) Legora ($2BN) Langchain ($1.3BN) Manus (one of most insane teams in AI) HeyGen ($80M ARR) Today it gets...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Emotionally Intelligent AI Support Scales Enterprise Customer Service
Giga (@gigaml) is building the next generation of customer support — real-time AI agents that can understand emotion, resolve issues instantly, and scale across the world’s largest enterprises. The team recently raised $61M to power emotionally intelligent, human-quality conversations at enterprise...
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
OpenAI May Turn on Partners, Threatening Founders
Just a fair warning to founders: like Facebook and microsoft, I predict OpenAI will study their platform partners and compete with many of them in the coming years. This isn't abnormal, mind you… Microsoft built windows, then destroyed their top...
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Migrate only for Concrete Needs, Not Trendy Buzzwords
Ouch. If this is your list of reasons for doing something, don't do it. "Why we migrated: - New investor wanted 'cloud-native' - Engineers wanted K8s experience - Competitors were using it - Seemed like the future"
By Paul Graham
Social•Nov 6, 2025
AI Agents Automate Market Due Diligence for Top PE Funds
DiligenceSquared (@DiligenceSqrd) is automating market due diligence for investment decisions, deploying AI agents that conduct expert interviews and synthesize insights. They're already working with some of the world's largest PE funds. https://t.co/J4rb0mdmqV
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Biotech Nasdaq IPO Promises Massive Early‑investor Returns
juicy biotech nasdaq ipo today! huge returns for early investors https://t.co/EppHjO3egc
By Nathan Benaich
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Introducing Cerebral Valley’s Heavyweights with Index Ventures
Meet the Cerebral Valley Heavy Weights with @IndexVentures https://t.co/MfyhKCjKam
By Eric Newcomer
Social•Nov 6, 2025
AI Associates Automate Legal Workflow, Freeing Lawyers' Focus
Lexi (@getlexi_io) is building AI Associates for law firms and legal teams—handling the full spectrum of legal work from intake to delivery so lawyers can focus on what really matters. https://t.co/6rM6Vh0ycO
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Investing to Accelerate Technology's Deflationary Impact
Technology is deflationary in a good way and @usv we are investing in driving down cost!
By Albert Wenger
Social•Nov 6, 2025
AI Cuts Referral Time 82% and Boosts Appointments
Saffron Health (@saffronhealthco) uses AI agents to automate specialist referrals for primary care, cutting referral time by 82%, finding appointments 55% sooner, and reducing kickbacks by 44%. https://t.co/oFQ6BDBwO0 Congrats on the launch, @moonriseTK & @MichaelMotorcy9! https://t.co/xjxkZ3JlDT
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Planbase Secures $2.1M to Automate Clinic Scheduling with AI
Planbase raised $2.1M to build the AI platform for healthcare ops—where admins can just type “build next week’s schedule” and it happens. Real-time, generative operations for clinics. https://t.co/6pDmxoGuwr
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
AI Agents Already Outpace Average Humans—Start Monetizing Now
New!! @rodriscoll @HarryStebbings + me on 20VC: 1/ "AI Agents really are already better than mediocre humans. So you better be tapping into that revenue as a startup. You better be getting some of that revenue by now, by late...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Cash Burn: No Escape for Founders
New on SaaStr!! "You Can Hide From a Lot of Things as a Founder. Cash Burn Isn’t One of Them." https://t.co/GzWBxOnn2k https://t.co/KFM0DeUeuo
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Amera Cuts Claims Admin Costs 20‑30% via Automation
Amera automates claims processing workflows for health insurance payers. It cuts admin costs by 20-30%, turns hours of manual work into minutes, and helps members access more affordable, transparent care. https://t.co/xhDCotk94Z Congrats on the launch, @deepkkapur & @LouiseTanski!
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
AI Hype: Bubble or Superintelligence? Both Unlikely.
The two biggest narratives about AI right now are that (1) it’s a massive bubble (i.e. totally fake) and (2) about to give rise to superintelligence (i.e. totally real). Both narratives can be fake (which is what I believe) but...
By David Sacks
Social•Nov 6, 2025
No U.S. AI Bailout; Competition Will Fill Gaps
There will be no federal bailout for AI. The U.S. has at least 5 major frontier model companies. If one fails, others will take its place.
By David Sacks
Social•Nov 6, 2025
AI Revolutionizing Finance, Fueling Our VC-Backed Startup
I had a great time with my friends at Corient yesterday keynoting their annual summit. AI is undoubtedly changing all the things that we do in finance (and every industry!) and it's never felt better to be building a tech...
By Alexis Ohanian
Social•Nov 6, 2025
New Media Redefined: Insights From Alex Danco and A16z
interesting piece on what new media is from @Alex_Danco and @a16z crew https://t.co/aEXT20msl4
By Eric Newcomer
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Investors Underestimate AI-Native Insurer Lemonade's Compounding Edge
“Many insurance CEO want to sprinkle AI pixie dust on themselves” - @daschreiber CEO of $LMND on CEO of @AIGinsurance Investors still do not fully understand the power of an AI native company like @Lemonade_Inc and how it compounds advantage. https://t.co/LOPcEf4U1f @CNBC
By Michael Eisenberg
Social•Nov 6, 2025
AI Agents Accelerate Sensor Analysis 100x, Ending Engineer Bottleneck
Engineers became the bottleneck when analyzing sensor data. MOVEdot (@movedot_) built AI agents that fix that, working hand in hand to analyze telemetry, video & documentation 100x faster. Starting with race cars, expanding to manufacturing, robotics, and more. https://t.co/L912mZilya Congrats on the...
By YCombinator
Social•Nov 6, 2025
Free AI Calculator Scores 600K Startup Valuations, Predicts Funding Odds
Woo-hoo!! Just crossed 600,000 start-up valuations on new, FREE SaaStr AI valuation calculator here -> https://t.co/jvgsU2zIKA The 2.0 version not only tells you what you’re worth, but now also tells you the odds you’ll get funded! Try it! -> https://t.co/jvgsU2zIKA https://t.co/T2LLQpqSkK
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Nov 6, 2025
T3D2 Deals Are Attractive but Could Cost
New!! “The Problem(s) With T3D2 Venture Deals. They’re Still Great. But They Might Get You Fired.” https://t.co/lXKYxMt3Lo
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Nov 6, 2025
YC Community Accelerates Founder From AI Student to Enterprise Platform
A year ago, @thepablohansen was finishing his master's in AI. Today, he's building @withkeystone, a modern bug-triage platform for enterprises. Through YC, he found a community of founders that helped him move faster and think bigger. And you can too. https://t.co/gNl84El3BS https://t.co/ZYZEY5oYle
By YCombinator