🎯Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 1h agoWhat's happening: Machina Labs raises $124M Series C to build AI-driven intelligent factory
Machina Labs closed a $124 million Series C round led by Woven Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures and the Strategic Development Fund. The capital will fund a 200,000‑square‑foot Intelligent Factory in the United States, featuring up to 50 RoboCraftsman cells that produce complex metal assemblies for defense, aerospace and automotive customers.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OpenAI secures $110B corporate funding round
Podcast•Oct 30, 2025•49 min
E643 | Sebastian Peck, KOMPAS VC: Europe’s Industrial Tech Moment: Decarbonisation, AI & the Risk Appetite Gap
In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm talks with Sebastian Peck, a partner at KOMPAS VC, about why industrial tech—focused on decarbonisation, productivity and resilience—is finally gaining traction in European venture capital. Peck highlights the divergent energy strategies across regions, the realistic role of AI and robotics in manufacturing, and the regulatory landscape shaped by the EU AI Act. He explains how deep‑domain VCs like KOMPAS bridge the gap between corporate pilots and full‑scale production, and why Europe’s risk‑averse pension capital and policy reforms are critical bottlenecks. The discussion concludes that a coordinated ecosystem of specialists, corporates, regulators and investors is essential for Europe to lead the industrial tech transition.
By The European VC (EUVC)
Podcast•Oct 30, 2025•1h 24m
20VC: A16z Raises $10BN in New Funds | Mercor Raises $350M at a $10BN Valuation | OpenAI Restructuring: Who Wins...
The episode breaks down four major topics: OpenAI's restructuring and its impact on stakeholders; Andreessen Horowitz's $10 billion fundraise; Mercor's $350 million raise at a $10 billion valuation; and a critique of IRR as a VC metric, followed by three actionable strategies to...
By The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)
Social•Oct 30, 2025
SaaStr AI VC: Massive Startup Data & VC Connections
SaaStr AI VC. Try it free -> https://t.co/XzJ5d0OqGr 🧮548,709 start-up valuations 🖥️1,657+ VC pitch decks graded 🧖♀️1,200+ active founders now 🫂503 VC connections made It's pretty darn cool https://t.co/nXGlRNz6mC
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Founders Can Keep Seed Money, Leaving SAFE Investors Empty
So far I've watched 3 VC seed deals this year where the founders just decided to keep the money for themselves and not build the product. All were on SAFEs, and they took the position they owed investors nothing and that...
By Jason Lemkin
Podcast•Oct 29, 2025•32 min
Building the Real-World Infrastructure for AI, with Google, Cisco & A16z
In this episode, a16z’s Raghu Raghuram talks with Google’s Amin Vahdat and Cisco’s Jeetu Patel about the massive physical build‑out required for AI, covering everything from custom chips and power grids to global data‑center networks. They frame this as an...
By a16z Podcast
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Hire AI Generalists: Young Talent Beats Experience
" Companies underestimate 23 and 24 year-olds. The new playbook for these AI startups is actually gonna be much more about hire the AI generalist, this 23, 24, 25-year-old who's really native in AI." @DavidCahn6 Do you agree and how do...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Leverage Competitors' AGMs to Meet LPs Fast
The single best way to meet a lot of high quality LPs fast. Find out when your competitors AGMs are. Reach out to their LPs knowing they will be in town on those dates. They always want to fill their...
By Harry Stebbings
Podcast•Oct 29, 2025•43 min
#172 My Town AI: ChatGPT Meets SimCity
In this episode, founder and mayor‑pro‑tem Nichole Sterling pitches My Town AI, an AI‑driven civic‑intelligence platform that gives small towns access to data, workflow automation and low‑cost digital twins to solve grant‑writing bottlenecks and operational blind spots. She illustrates how...
By The Pitch
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Software Will Define Medicine's Next Decade, Says Commure CEO
Tanay Tandon (@tanay_tandon) is the co-founder and CEO of Athelas/Commure, the AI operating system for healthcare. Commure powers 20M+ appointments annually and processes $25B+ in claims volume, helping clinicians and health systems work faster, smarter, and spend more time on...
By YCombinator
Podcast•Oct 29, 2025•31 min
How Anastasia Soare Built a Beauty Brand Worth Billions
In this episode, Anastasia Soare recounts her journey from a Romanian immigrant running a one‑room Beverly Hills salon to creating a global beauty empire valued at roughly $3 billion, highlighting the power of relentless focus on a niche—eyebrows. She shares key...
By Masters of Scale
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Ship First, Storytelling Improves with Each Iteration
So many on X say founders need to be “great storytellers.” Hogwash. And it leads to founders selling bulls**t. Look, you gotta tell the story. But no matter what, if you are successful, you’ll get good at the story by...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Oct 29, 2025
First‑time Founders Ship the Impossible; Veterans Over‑analyze
First time founders ship the impossible while experienced ones often are still explaining why it won't ever work!
By Niko Bonatsos
Blog•Oct 28, 2025
From Zero to Eight Figures in 18 Months: Decagon CEO’s Playbook for AI-Native SaaS Growth. And Why They Partnered With...
Decagon, founded in late 2023, scaled to eight‑figure ARR in roughly 18 months by selling AI customer‑service agents to major enterprises including Hertz and Chime, claiming roughly $800K in annual savings for every $250K spent. Backed by Accel at Series...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Oct 29, 2025
AI Turns Photo Into Instant Marketplace Listings
SellRaze (@SellRaze) uses AI to sell your stuff from just a pic. It identifies it, prices it, and lists it across marketplaces automatically. What used to take 30+ minutes now takes seconds. https://t.co/WQVEySzxV9 Congrats on the launch, @JeffMao_ & @TylerMa_! https://t.co/Kc21QX1mCu
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Fixpoint Streamlines Hiring Vetted Experts for AI Training
Fixpoint (@gofixpoint) automates hiring vetted experts—doctors, lawyers, PhDs, coders, etc—for AI training data and evals. They handle sourcing and vetting so customers can focus on creating quality data and benchmarking AI. https://t.co/Wg6Ilo4W8V Congrats on the launch, @dbmikus and @jakubonchain!
By YCombinator
Podcast•Oct 28, 2025•34 min
Founder10x - Can AI Beat The Top Investors? - Jan Szilagyi, Co-Founder, Reflexivity
In this episode, Jan Szilagyi, co‑founder of Reflexivity, explains how his AI‑driven market research platform transforms raw market data into an analytical partner for top hedge funds, embedding principles from legends like Stanley Druckenmiller. He details the platform’s differentiation, its...
By VC10X
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Lockheed Invests $50M in SAILDRONE Autonomous Missile Platform
Next-gen autonomous maritime defense leader SAILDRONE accepts $50M investment from legacy prime Lockheed partner for weaponized missile launchers 🤖+⛵️+🚀 = 🇺🇸 https://t.co/E9NrWbePNv
By Josh Wolfe
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Partnering to Build Globally Competitive LFP Production
Excited to work with @ChEMcShane Evan and the team @ElectroflowTech on building globally competitive LFP production as part of our overall storage gap thesis
By Albert Wenger
Blog•Oct 28, 2025
40+ Investor Databases for Easier VC Outreach (Free Access) | How to Execute Your Own Offline Outbound.
A curated collection of 40+ free investor databases has been published to simplify startup fundraising and offline outbound outreach, pooling lists vetted by The Venture Curator team. The compilation includes large, searchable rolls such as 2,000 US VCs, 900 climate...
By Sahil S
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Deep Dive Into AI Valuations and Infrastructure Costs
Trying to address all the questions on AI valuations, margins to AI vendors and infrastructure, huge investments in data centers, chips, circular economics, robotics, energy and more with @akshay of @theinformation: https://t.co/0qKruLwEvv
By Vinod Khosla
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Nvidia Hits $5 Trillion, Ushering Airstreet’s New Era
a day to remember: a new @airstreet epoch begins as @nvidia becomes the first 5t company fortuitous timing? i think not!
By Nathan Benaich
News•Oct 28, 2025
UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts on Pushing His University Into the AI Age
UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts outlined an ambitious strategy to make artificial intelligence the university’s guiding focus, merging the School of Data Science and Society with the School of Information and Library Science to dismantle academic silos. He acknowledged the loss...
By TechCrunch Venture Feed
Social•Oct 29, 2025
Buy Anthropic and OpenAI to Enforce AI Governance
Regarding Public Benefit Corporations: shareholders can insist on upholding the public benefit (cf my speech from 12 years ago after it was signed into law in Delaware). So if you care about AI governance and can afford to, you should...
By Albert Wenger
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Collectibles‑First Strategy Propelled Whatnot to $11.5B
Congrats to the @Whatnot team on raising at $11.5B A few unknown facts about this amazing cofounder duo @GrantLaFontaine and @loganhead13 1/ They launched in 2020 right before COVID hit. 2/ in the early days, they even funded payroll for some of the...
By Anu Hariharan
Blog•Oct 28, 2025
Mazama Energy Unveils the World’s Hottest Enhanced Geothermal System: A 629 °F (331 °C)…
Mazama Energy announced it has created the world’s hottest enhanced geothermal system at its Newberry, Oregon pilot, achieving a bottomhole temperature of 629°F (331°C) and targeting 750°F (400°C) by 2026. The company says the superhot EGS can yield up to...
By Vinod Khosla
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Margins Reveal Product Depth on Foundation AI Models
" I do think margins matter in a world of AI. They're a directional indicator of how much product you've built on top of the foundation models." @DavidCahn6 Do you agree and how do you think about margin in the...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 28, 2025
OpenAI Targets $1 Trillion Annual Compute Spend
OpenAI clarifies it has about 30GW of infra committed now. And aspires to a run-rate of one new GW/week at $20bn/GW, meaning (say) $1tr/year
By Benedict Evans
Podcast•Oct 28, 2025•27 min
Chobani & Patagonia CEOs Break Down Where Values Meet Profit
In the episode, Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert and Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya discuss how they align values with profit, navigating activist government pressure and anticipatory compliance while scaling their businesses. They share strategies for integrating environmental stewardship and immigration support...
By Masters of Scale
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Celebrating Chris Ovitz: The Unsung Second Believer
We don't praise angels enough. I'd like to take a moment to really shine a light on @ChrisOvitz. He was the true second believer in @substrate. He had so much conviction in them and @jamesproud. He deserves every minute today...
By Cyan Banister
Social•Oct 28, 2025
First‑Principles Investing: Sarah Tavel’s Blueprint for GPs
From 1st female GP at @Benchmark to now fully devoting herself to AI, @SarahTavel’s career has been defined by deep intellectual rigor and first-principles thinking. In this minisode, @nchirls & I reflect on how Sarah’s approach offers something every GP &...
By Beezer Clarkson
News•Oct 28, 2025
Venture Capital Is Not an Asset Class, Says Sequoia’s Roelof Botha
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Sequoia managing partner Roelof Botha argued that venture capital should not be treated as an asset class, noting that VC returns are essentially uncorrelated and represent a “return‑free risk.” He pointed out that the number of...
By TechCrunch Venture Feed
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Founders Drive Success; VCs Can only Assist
"The lesson that punches you in the stomach in venture is you can't make companies succeed as a venture capitalist. The company succeeds because of the founder and maybe you helped a little bit." Love to hear your thoughts on this...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Series B Deals Rarely Deliver 10x Returns—Pick Wisely
The latest data from @cartainc is brutal. Of 547 Series B deals in 2018: - Figma did 100x ... but - 39% are worth 1x or less - Only 34% are worth 2x or more after 7 years But - 11.7% do achieve...
By Jason Lemkin
News•Oct 28, 2025
CEO of Alphabet’s X, Astro Teller, on What Makes a Moonshot
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Astro Teller, CEO of Alphabet’s X, explained that a moonshot must tackle a huge world problem, propose a product that could eliminate it, and rely on a breakthrough technology, noting X’s 2% hit rate and "fail...
By TechCrunch Venture Feed
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Unsexy Contractor SaaS Generates $26K Profit, 84% Margins
SaaS + large unsexy market = gold Live on @acquiredotcom: Referral SaaS helping contractors (plumbing, HVAC, roofing etc) share & track jobs. > $32K TTM revenue > $26K TTM profit > 84% margins Turning WOM into recurring income. Full listing: https://t.co/NqMh8TRUsA https://t.co/hiQW7jDrXJ
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Support Young Founders: Stay the Course When Wrong
Often it turns out that when backing very young founders it isn't as much about being right early, it's more about staying in the room when you're wrong…
By Niko Bonatsos
Social•Oct 28, 2025
PARIMA Becomes First European Approved Cultivated Meat Brand
today, @airstreet portfolio co PARIMA (fka Gourmey) has become the first european company to be granted regulatory approval to market a cultivated meat product! the first approval within PARIMA’s global regulatory pipeline was granted in singapore for its cultivated chicken. https://t.co/yCJcg3rH9d
By Nathan Benaich
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Rebooting US Semiconductor Supply Chains for National Resilience
Rebooting semiconductor supply chains is a moonshot silicon valley needed to take on for US resilience. GC backed Substrate 3+ years ago. Stoked to see this unveiled today. America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
By Hemant Taneja
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Parrot's TikTok‑style App Disrupts Duolingo, $715K ARR
🦜Parrot (https://t.co/Vp7Z5oZ6Zj) is taking down Duolingo. Parrot is the TikTok for language learning - $715K ARR, doubling every two months. They're turning scrolling into learning. https://t.co/KR8mBvZS29 Congrats on the launch, @byAmirHanna, @TheErikDahl, and @JuliAndreeaH!
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Whatnot Doubles Valuation, Secures $225M Funding
Congrats to @Whatnot on raising $225M at an $11.5B valuation—doubling their valuation in less than a year. Whatnot has built the leading US livestream shopping platform, with $6B+ in goods sold (2x 2024's total). Users now spend 80+ min daily on...
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 28, 2025
AI Procurement Platform Secures $5M Seed, Boosts Quote Speed
Congrats to @NelsonRay18966, @benrk100, @szymczyk06, and @salespatriot_ on their $5M seed! SalesPatriot is building the next-generation procurement platform for defense and aerospace – replacing decades-old systems with an AI-native platform that helps suppliers quote 7x faster. https://t.co/w4SUzjaqRh
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Celebrating Our Fund-Defining Milestone and Future Freedom
Today is the day. https://t.co/pemXFmUb3A May our flag and our freedom forever wave. Thank you @jamesproud, the whole team @substrate, @ChrisOvitz and the whole team at @LongJourneyVC! Another fund defining moment for us. https://t.co/ND8TXNRbL2
By Cyan Banister
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Kaizen Secures $4M Seed to Accelerate Browser Automation
Congrats to @aquariusacquah, @michaelssilver, and the @joinkaizen team on their $4M seed! Kaizen allows companies to deploy complex browser automation in minutes instead of weeks. Kaizen powers critical automation in healthcare, finance, and logistics.
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Seeking SF Early-Stage Investors to Beta Test Platform
I'm building a Product Hunt for investors. Looking for a few SF-based, early-stage investors to beta test. DM me if interested. :) (will delete this tweet shortly)
By Ryan Hoover
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Vesence AI Secures $9M Seed to Power Office Law Tools
Congrats to @HenrikTaro, @LudvigSwanstrom, and @VesenceAI on their $9M seed! Vesence brings AI agents to Microsoft Office for law firms. Built for accuracy and quality control, Vesence helps lawyers avoid costly mistakes across Word & Outlook, already seeing 90% weekly...
By YCombinator
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Start at $1M ARR, Let Customers Map Growth
If you aren’t sure how to get to $100m ARR, just get to $1m ARR Then just ask your customers They will basically tell you
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Power Law Still Dominates Across All Domains
The Power Law remains undefeated https://t.co/9EEvSYDfxl
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Oct 28, 2025
OpenAI Shifts to Public Benefit Corporation Status
OpenAI conversion to PBC https://t.co/3tdPRWR4DU
By Elad Gil
Social•Oct 28, 2025
Founders Build Alone, Ignoring Doubt and Exhaustion
Founders don’t wait for perfect days. They work tired. They work late. They work when everyone doubts them. No one’s coming to save you. It’s on you to build it.
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Oct 28, 2025
I’m Unable to View the Linked Content, so I Can’t Create a Headline.
https://t.co/G2n0dQg1PW
By Alexis Ohanian