Know What's Happening in Venture Capital
Know What's Happening in Venture Capital
Venture Capital Pulse
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Tuesday recap
EMAIL DIGESTS
Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
Mistral secures $830M debt raise to build Europe’s first AI data centre
Mistral obtained an $830 million debt financing, the largest single funding round for a European generative‑AI firm. The capital will be used to construct its inaugural AI data centre. The round underscores growing investor appetite for AI infrastructure in Europe.
Also developing:
In this episode, growth veteran Sandy Diao shares the biggest lessons she learned scaling products at Pinterest, Meta, and Descript, emphasizing how to craft strong growth hypotheses and avoid common strategic pitfalls. She breaks down the fundamentals of Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), explains when a channel is a good fit, and dives into the rise of user‑generated content and the realities of TikTok advertising. Diao also offers practical guidance on hiring for growth, outlining the right timing and roles to bring on board. Throughout, she blends data‑driven frameworks with real‑world examples, giving listeners a playbook for building a sustainable paid‑marketing machine.
Selling your business or closing a capital raise transaction isn't just about valuation, it's also about overall fit. When talking with buyers, make sure you understand what their strategic objectives will be moving forward. Verify that they share your values...
When @Keller pivoted his robotic toy company to delivering blood with autonomous drones, he had no experience with aviation or healthcare. ~10 years later, @Zipline has made millions of life-saving deliveries, and is now reinventing global logistics with their Platform 2. Keller...
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...
Pixley (@PixleyAI) turns kids’ drawings into personalized animated cartoons that teach and entertain. Hundreds of families have brought their stories to life on Pixley, making it the go-to platform for edutainment. Congrats on the launch, @PranitAgrawal4 & @Krish5Iyengar! https://t.co/V5PEvD4UnH
Always be close to your customers. Don't build a product nobody wants. Too many startups fail from this. The market has the feedback you need to hear.
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...
As you scale, you likely will experience: - co-founders that let you down - investors that throw you under a bus - partners that let you down - much better funded competitors - key team members that need to move on Hard not to use an...
📣 KEY ROLE at 776CO: JUMP is looking for a strategic and execution-focused operator to be growth & biz ops lead (tell 'em I sent you!) https://t.co/Zp4yXl6Pks
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,...
Thanks @ABCSharkTank for having me in the tank last night 🦈 Had to shoutout @stoke_space, a 776co building reusable rockets that go toe-to-toe w/ SpaceX. We were their 1st investor b/c we saw a vision for humanity’s future Entrepreneurship at its best...
There’s this notion that product market fit is this binary condition that once you pass the gate, you’re done. And that’s no longer the case. Product market fit is like United Miles. You continue to fly to maintain 1K. And...
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...
8th time back at Yale with Jorge M. for his VC class!
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...
"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...
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...
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...
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...
High performing ecommerce drop on @acquiredotcom. Space lamps brand with a super loyal customer base. > $250K TTM revenue > $52K TTM profit > 100% YoY growth > 5,000+ customers Lean & turnkey ops. Full listing: https://t.co/xUs5QdzRaI https://t.co/9eBGbszAn1
Redapto (https://t.co/oB9ElDblBa) builds self-improving systems for Customer Support teams. It audits 100% of customer conversations, identifies quality gaps, and auto-updates knowledge bases, boosting CSAT and unlocking millions in retained revenue. Congrats on the launch, @CherilShah2 & @AnirudhPupneja!
Don't go into that next VC pitch blind SaaStr AI VC will tell you -> https://t.co/XzJ5d0OYvZ 1⃣ How strong your pitch is 2⃣ Odds you get funded 3⃣ Exactly where to improve And ... introduce you to up to 800 VCs! https://t.co/O5f4MNuPgB
Congrats to Newton on their $3.8M seed! Newton is a digital front-desk assistant for dental practices—handling calls, texts, insurance verification, and filling cancellations. Dental groups using Newton are already seeing a 7% lift in collections and 10x ROI from higher utilization and...
Imagine AI (@imagineagi) builds your B2B content pipeline. They clone you → your expertise, your voice, your insights → into high-fidelity personas. 10M driven across clients. $5M deal landed from a single optimized post. Congrats on the launch, @skygodkingdom & @neo_lky! https://t.co/f0bGPPd9SC
The best $3m rounds aren't "pre-seed" or "seed"—they are proof a serious builder already started without permission.
https://t.co/y3WWGY5pkP
"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
👀 @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
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...
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. 🧵
From the regulatory state to the acceleratory state. https://t.co/m0yKXRSf0u
Even a terrible startup idea can turn into a great one with the right team.
New!! "Who Will Buy The SaaS Companies?" https://t.co/m1tppdUsFM
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...
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...
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 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:...
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 >...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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". 🤔
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
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
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 (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 (@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
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.”
