40-cent AI workflows replacing $200 editors
Good morning. Micro-transactions are quietly replacing SaaS subscriptions in automated creative workflows.
An agency just acquired 120 customers by abandoning the standard SaaS subscription model for video editing. Instead, they built an automated n8n workflow that removes silences, adds zooms, and inserts B-roll for 40 cents per video, undercutting human editors who charge $200 for the exact same raw social media cuts.
Build it tonight
An agency acquired 120 customers by replacing human editors with a 40-cent n8n AI workflow that cuts silences and adds B-roll. Highly buildable.
service productization
Pay-per-use AI video editing workflow
An agency acquired 120 customers by replacing $200 human video editors with a 40-cent automated n8n workflow that removes silences, adds zooms, and inserts B-roll.
Why now: Workflow automation tools like n8n combined with AI agents allow complex, multi-step creative tasks to be executed for pennies.
Discussing: Social media creators and marketing agencies needing fast, raw short-form video edits.
“we have almost around 120 plus customers and we are not charging any subscription... you literally pay sort of 10 cents to each editing of the part of the video. So basically this flow I've shown you, you have, I don't know, 40 cents, fully edited video”
OpportunityProductizing AI workflows into micro-transaction services undercuts traditional human freelancers while maintaining the raw quality needed for social media virality.
The Mobile App That Changed a $100M Business · Sep 8, 2026
Sanity check: What would have to be true: social media creators prioritize raw speed and micro-transaction pricing over the nuanced timing of a human video editor.
Build it without code
A masterclass in price anchoring. Let legacy brands quote $8,000 for water filtration, then run Facebook ads offering the exact same system for $2,699.
service productization
Discount water filtration installation agency
Let legacy brands do expensive in-home water tests to anchor prices at $8,000, then run static Facebook ads offering the exact same system for $2,699.
Why now: Legacy brands have artificially inflated the market rate for home services, creating a massive price umbrella for lean operators.
Discussing: Homeowners in cities with hard water or high chlorine who recently received high-priced quotes from legacy brands.
“The entire angle, the entire thing we try to do is pick up the scraps left behind by the billion dollar companies... The price point is six, seven, $8,000 for honestly a very comparable system. And we just kind of, we're like following in their wake.”
OpportunityWithhold information in ads to filter for educated buyers. By only showing the product and a $2,699 price, you attract leads who just got an $8,000 quote.
From DoorDash to $81K/M With This Overlooked Business - Ep. #332 · Sep 4, 2026
Sanity check: What would have to be true: homeowners trust a lean, discount operator found on Facebook to install critical plumbing infrastructure in their homes.
Today's Startup Ideas
Specific plays distilled from this week's founder/operator podcasts.
service productization
Pay-per-use AI video editing workflow
An agency acquired 120 customers by replacing $200 human video editors with a 40-cent automated n8n workflow that removes silences, adds zooms, and inserts B-roll.
Why now: Workflow automation tools like n8n combined with AI agents allow complex, multi-step creative tasks to be executed for pennies.
service productization
Discount water filtration installation agency
Let legacy brands do expensive in-home water tests to anchor prices at $8,000, then run static Facebook ads offering the exact same system for $2,699.
Why now: Legacy brands have artificially inflated the market rate for home services, creating a massive price umbrella for lean operators.
service productization
AI voice agent optimization for trades businesses
Audit and fix poorly implemented AI call center systems for home service companies to restore booking rates from 50% back to 80%.
Why now: First-generation AI voice agents are being deployed rapidly by SMBs, but lack of proper configuration is causing massive lead leakage.
physical-world infra
Solar-powered orbital AI data centers
Launching GPUs on satellites powered by solar energy to run AI data centers in space and beam the signal back to Earth.
Why now: Launch costs have plummeted from $10k/kg to $4k/kg, making heavy orbital infrastructure financially viable.
physical-world infra
Modular Edge AI Data Centers
Deploying 2-10 megawatt AI data centers in shipping containers to locations with stranded renewable power or remote areas needing real-time drone data processing.
Why now: The explosion of AI inference demands requires massive power, making stranded renewable energy highly valuable if compute can be brought directly to the source.
physical-world infra
Grid-Scale Iron-Air Batteries
Develop grid-scale iron-air batteries to store renewable energy and provide continuous power for AI data centers when solar and wind are inactive.
Why now: The AI data center build-out is constrained by power availability over the next 24 months, creating massive demand for grid-scale energy storage.
B2B SaaS
Flooring project management software
Sell project management software to residential home builders using a 90-day paid pilot that credits the upfront cost toward an annual enterprise contract.
B2B SaaS
Niche Equestrian Service Roll-Up
A media company reached $85M in revenue and sold for $300M by acquiring niche equestrian businesses like roadside assistance for horse trailers.
Why now: Niche hobbyist markets are often fragmented and overlooked by traditional private equity.
Consumer Packaged Goods
High-velocity format CPG snack brands
Launch snack brands exclusively in high-velocity formats like bagged chips rather than occasional-use items like crackers to avoid slow inventory turns.
Why now: Retail shelf space is highly competitive; slow-moving products get delisted quickly.
B2B SaaS
AI skill telemetry and lifecycle management
Observability tool for internal AI skills that tracks tool call failures, auto-evaluates performance, and automatically deprecates unused skills after 30 days.
Why now: Companies are moving from single chatbots to platforms where employees author thousands of custom skills, creating a massive maintenance and context-clutter problem.
B2B SaaS
AI Context Engine for Sales
Two-time unicorn founder Mohit Aron raised $44M to build an AI tool that automatically gathers go-to-market context and provides real-time coaching for sales teams.
Why now: AI models can now accurately summarize unstructured data across multiple tools and provide real-time coaching without hallucinating.
Vertical AI tooling
AI account manager for long-tail upsells
Deploy AI agents to drive upsells in neglected SMB accounts, paying the resulting commissions to human account owners to eliminate internal adoption friction.
Why now: LLMs can handle routine account check-ins, but human sales teams actively resist AI tools that threaten their compensation.
AI infrastructure
Agentic identity and load shedding infrastructure
Infrastructure layer that assigns identities to AI agents to manage query priorities and load shedding, preventing rogue agents from taking down core systems.
Why now: Internal agents are being deployed widely and are inadvertently taking down core systems by brute-forcing high-volume queries.
B2B SaaS
Project-based AI governance and routing layer
Governance platform that lets enterprises set model routing, token spend limits, and tool permissions at the project level rather than per-user.
Why now: Enterprises are rolling out internal AI but struggling with token costs and data security, needing granular but manageable governance.
service productization
Premium Unconventional Museum Tours
A founder hit $3M in revenue by charging $200 for highly enthusiastic, non-traditional museum tours led by actors and comedians.
Why now: Standard tours are boring; consumers will pay a premium for high-energy, insider entertainment.
B2B Fintech
Key man insurance for debt-funded LLCs
Embed or sell key man insurance directly alongside venture debt and equipment loans to prevent immediate default if a founding member dies.
Why now: Debt financing is increasingly common for startups, but founders often overlook standard LLC default clauses.
vertical AI tooling
AI API proxy data mining
Chinese proxy services are funding open-weight model distillation by silently swapping user requests for expensive frontier models to cheaper ones and mining the logs.
Why now: High API costs and geographic restrictions create a gray market where proxies can capture both margin and highly valuable training data.
physical-world infra
Dedicated AI Hardware for Field Workers
Pocket sold 300,000 wearable recording devices to field workers and doctors by offering a dedicated $129 hardware button that bypasses smartphone recording friction.
Why now: Open-source transcription models can be fine-tuned for noisy offline environments, enabling 70% software margins on a $20/month subscription.
B2B SaaS
Consultant-led distribution for local SMB SaaS
Acquire local business customers for $250/month SaaS by distributing pre-recorded webinars through niche consultants who manage 20+ clients, offering a 20% revenue share.
Why now: Direct outbound to local SMBs is increasingly saturated and expensive; routing through trusted industry consultants bypasses the gatekeeper and borrows established trust.
Movements to Watch
Patterns surfacing across multiple shows. Track these before consensus.
physical-world infra
AI Compute Chases Stranded Power
The massive energy requirements of AI inference are forcing infrastructure builders to bypass traditional grids. Operators are now deploying modular data centers at remote renewable sources or even launching hardware into orbit to secure unconstrained power.
B2B SaaS
Taming the Internal Agent Swarm
As enterprises deploy thousands of custom AI skills, internal networks are being overwhelmed by brute-force queries. This creates a new category of infrastructure dedicated entirely to agent load shedding, telemetry, and lifecycle management.
Founder Signal
How operators are thinking — frameworks, anti-patterns, sharp moves.
Paid pilots de-risk enterprise sales.
Charging full freight for a 90-day pilot and crediting it toward an annual contract minimizes buyer risk while ensuring the startup gets paid for early feedback.
Optimize for consumption velocity, not just category preference.
Retail shelf space is fiercely competitive. Launching in occasional-use categories like crackers instead of high-velocity formats like chips can lead to fatal cash flow issues.
Capital Flow
Where money's moving today — funding rounds, M&A, valuation signals.
Equine Network acquired for $300M.
A media company reached $85M in revenue and sold for $300M by rolling up highly specific, unsexy service businesses for high-net-worth hobbyists.
Mohit Aron raises $44M for AI sales coaching.
The two-time unicorn founder secured massive funding to build an AI tool that passively aggregates go-to-market context and provides real-time coaching.
From the Conversations
Agentic identity and load shedding infrastructure
Build your own company brain: the enterprise AI playbook from Stripe’s engineering team | Sharadh Krishnamurthy
Sep 7, 2026 · 50m · 3 quotes pulled
▶ Listen“thinking about how do we say that, you know, this is an agent and this is what it's trying to do... and using that as a way to think about priorities and load shedding and all of that good stuff.”
“Internal agents are being deployed widely and are inadvertently taking down core systems by brute-forcing high-volume queries.”
Niche Equestrian Service Roll-Up
How to naturally monetize what you love
Sep 4, 2026 · 58m · 2 quotes pulled
▶ Listen“they own a fly control business that has 45,000 people spending like $300 a year... they do $85 million a year in revenue with high twenties profit margins... they just got bought for $300 million.”
“Niche hobbyist markets are often fragmented and overlooked by traditional private equity.”
Key man insurance for debt-funded LLCs
Late July Snacks: Nicole Bernard Dawes. Crackers and Cookies were Failing… Tortilla Chips Saved Them
Aug 31, 2026 · 1h 27m · 2 quotes pulled
▶ Listen“we had a death of a member clause in our loan agreement and we were an LLC and my dad was a member. So they used his death to put our loan in default.”
“Debt financing is increasingly common for startups, but founders often overlook standard LLC default clauses.”
Sources
▶ ListenFounders Podcast
The Mobile App That Changed a $100M Business<p>The Mobile App That Changed a $100M Business</p>
▶ ListenThe Koerner Office - Business Ideas and Deep Dives with Chris Koerner
From DoorDash to $81K/M With This Overlooked Business - Ep. #332<p>Check out my newsletter at <a href="https://tkopod.com/">https://TKOPOD.com</a> and join my community at <a href="https://tkowners.com/">https://TKOwners.com</a></p><p>━</p><p></p><p>I sat down with <strong>Parker J. Smith</strong>, a 25-year-old entrepreneur who went from driving <strong>DoorDash</strong> to generating <strong>$81,000 in monthly revenue</strong> from a water filtration business he launched just 85 days earlier. We break down how he started with around <strong>$500</strong>, uses licensed plumbers to handle the installations, and finds customers through simple <strong>Facebook ads</strong> that show the price upfront. Parker also shares his costs, margins, tech stack, follow-up strategy, and why overlooked <strong>home service businesses</strong> may offer more opportunity than crowded online businesses.</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Parker:</p><p>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/parkerjaysmith/">https://www.instagram.com/parkerjaysmith/</a></p><p>TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@parkerjaysmith">https://www.tiktok.com/@parkerjaysmith</a></p><p>X: <a href="https://x.com/parkerjaysmith">https://x.com/parkerjaysmith</a></p><p>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkerjaysmith">https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkerjaysmith</a></p><p>YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@parkerhomeservices">https://www.youtube.com/@parkerhomeservices</a></p><p></p><p>Enjoy!</p><p>---</p><p>Watch this on <strong>YouTube</strong> instead here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thekoerneroffice?sub_confirmation=1">tkopod.co/p-yt</a></p><p><strong>Ask me a question</strong> on or off the show here: <a href="http://tkopod.co/p-ask">http://tkopod.co/p-ask</a></p><p>Learn more about <strong>me:</strong> <a href="http://tkopod.co/p-cjk">http://tkopod.co/p-cjk</a></p><p>Learn about <strong>my company: </strong><a href="http://tkopod.co/p-cof">http://tkopod.co/p-cof</a></p><p>Follow me on <strong>Twitter</strong> here: <a href="http://tkopod.co/p-x">http://tkopod.co/p-x</a></p><p><a href="http://tkopod.co/p-x"></a>Free weekly <strong>business ideas newsletter:</strong> <a href="http://tkopod.co/p-nl">http://tkopod.co/p-nl</a></p><p><strong>Share this podcast:</strong> <a href="http://tkopod.co/p-all">http://tkopod.co/p-all</a></p><p><strong>Scrape</strong> small <strong>business data:</strong> <a href="http://tkopod.co/p-os">http://tkopod.co/p-os</a></p><p><a href="http://tkopod.co/p-os"></a>---</p>
▶ ListenAcquiring Minds
First-Timer Buys a $15m Business in Distress<p>Mike Bourgeois bought an HVAC company bleeding $3m a year, all cash and no SBA, then cut $1.4m of costs in 2 weeks.</p><p>Register for the webinar: </p><ul><li><a href="https://bit.ly/4zKAGTN">The Deal I Almost Bought (And Why I Passed)</a> - Thu, Sep 10 - https://bit.ly/4zKAGTN</li></ul><p>Topics in Mike’s interview:</p><ul><li>Led major Air Force medical practice</li><li>Found a search partner with complementary skill sets</li><li>Bet on distressed businesses with liquidation value</li><li>Found a deal through veteran ETA Slack</li><li>Speed beat the highest bid</li><li>Immediately cut $1.4M in annualized expenses</li><li>Raised gross margins from 7% to 49%</li><li>Shifted from silos to teamwork</li><li>Emphasis on ongoing staff training</li><li>His goal of being a capital allocator/investor</li></ul><p>References and how to contact Mike:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bourgeois/">LinkedIn</a></li><li><a href="https://cardinalheating.com/">Cardinal Heating & Air</a></li><li>Book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Compounders-Small-Acquisitions-Shareholder-Returns/dp/1917943032">The Compounders: From Small Acquisitions to Giant Shareholder Returns</a></li></ul><p>The ecosystem for serious acquisition entrepreneurs—education, capital, community, and post-close support to buy and grow a business:</p><ul><li><a href="https://bit.ly/3JPAYQI">The Acquisition Lab</a></li></ul><p>Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:</p><ul><li><a href="https://bit.ly/3W6QqNx">Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team</a></li></ul><p>Get a free review of your books & financial ops from System Six (a $500 value):</p><ul><li><a href="https://landing.systemsix.com/acquire">Book a call with Tim</a> or <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> and mention Acquiring Minds</li></ul><p>Connect with Acquiring Minds:</p><ul><li>See past + future interviews on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/AcquiringMinds">YouTube channel</a></li><li>Connect with host <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/willsmithsf/">Will Smith on LinkedIn</a></li><li>Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/whentheresawill">Will on Twitter</a></li></ul><p>Edited by Anton Rohozov and produced by Pam Cameron</p>
▶ ListenThis Week in Startups
VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333<p dir="ltr">VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333</p> <p dir="ltr">This Week In Startups is made possible by:</p> <p dir="ltr">partner 1 - link</p> <p dir="ltr">partner 2 - link</p> <p dir="ltr">partner 3 - link</p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Today's show:</p> <p dir="ltr">Are we one step closer to data centers in space? Katelin Holloway of Seven Seven Six and Paige Doherty of Behind Genius Ventures break it down what it would take.</p> <p dir="ltr">Plus investor interest is surging in Physical AI companies. Paige explains why she backs applications of physical AI over general-purpose robotics, and how her thesis on multimodal AI led to the largest check she's ever written.</p> <p dir="ltr">We then dive into the Pentagon's rollout of ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government. And Katelin gives us her insight into how VCs are investing in Europe and the regulations behind the scenes.</p> <p dir="ltr">Guests:</p> <p dir="ltr">Katelin Holloway on X: <a href= "https://x.com/katelin_cruse">https://x.com/katelin_cruse</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Seven Seven Six: <a href= "https://sevensevensix.com/">https://sevensevensix.com/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Paige Doherty on X: <a href= "https://x.com/paigefinnn">https://x.com/paigefinnn</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Behind Genius Ventures: <a href= "https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/">https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Full Transcript and Summary, powered by Plaud</p> <p dir="ltr"><a href= "https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_772dbc9f-cd78-4de7-911e-8d3ee2883fbb::AF3ncHtIZkSyKKL-K-XUZBAUBEdoQQBEGCQSsja3gXsll8Dm6-Xbrrlhk7g8U-xwIW9kHyYwaB0dBuoC"> https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_772dbc9f-cd78-4de7-911e-8d3ee2883fbb::AF3ncHtIZkSyKKL-K-XUZBAUBEdoQQBEGCQSsja3gXsll8Dm6-Xbrrlhk7g8U-xwIW9kHyYwaB0dBuoC</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Related Links:</p> <p dir="ltr">Department of War adds ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government: <a href= "https://fortune.com/2026/09/01/pentagon-chatgpt-grok-government-military-ai-members-pete-hegseth-defense-department/"> https://fortune.com/2026/09/01/pentagon-chatgpt-grok-government-military-ai-members-pete-hegseth-defense-department/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">OpenAI for Government: <a href= "https://openai.com/global-affairs/introducing-openai-for-government/"> https://openai.com/global-affairs/introducing-openai-for-government/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Starshield — SpaceX's government/defense arm: <a href= "https://www.spacex.com/starshield/">https://www.spacex.com/starshield/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">UN work on LAWS (Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems): <a href= "https://disarmament.unoda.org/the-convention-on-certain-conventional-weapons/background-on-laws-in-the-ccw/"> https://disarmament.unoda.org/the-convention-on-certain-conventional-weapons/background-on-laws-in-the-ccw/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">European Commission designates ChatGPT a VLOSE: <a href= "https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-designates-chatgpt-reddit-roblox-under-digital-services-act"> https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-designates-chatgpt-reddit-roblox-under-digital-services-act</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Commission press release: <a href= "https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1772">https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1772</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Euronews on why a chatbot that searches the live web counts as a search engine: <a href= "https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/08/31/eu-places-chatgpt-reddit-and-roblox-under-strictest-digital-safety-rules"> https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/08/31/eu-places-chatgpt-reddit-and-roblox-under-strictest-digital-safety-rules</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Entrepreneur First: <a href= "https://www.joinef.com/posts/introducing-the-bridge/">https://www.joinef.com/posts/introducing-the-bridge/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Henrick Johansson, the European VC persona: <a href= "https://x.com/compliantvc">https://x.com/compliantvc</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Starcloud — orbital data centers: <a href= "https://www.starcloud.com/">https://www.starcloud.com/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B: <a href= "https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260821884035/en/Starcloud-Raises-$250-Million-at-$2.3-Billion-Valuation-to-Scale-AI-with-Orbital-Data-Centers"> https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260821884035/en/Starcloud-Raises-$250-Million-at-$2.3-Billion-Valuation-to-Scale-AI-with-Orbital-Data-Centers</a></p> <p dir="ltr">"From Sputnik to Starship: Estimating the experience curve of space launch technology" <a href= "https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/7/pgag217/8732400">https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/7/pgag217/8732400</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Cambridge Bennett Schoo: <a href= "https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/is-space-trade-the-next-global-transport-revolution/"> https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/is-space-trade-the-next-global-transport-revolution/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Crunchbase News: physical AI startups raised $47.4B across 521 deals in H1 2026: <a href= "https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/physical-ai-funding-startups-robotics-aerospace-h1-2026/"> https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/physical-ai-funding-startups-robotics-aerospace-h1-2026/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Crunchbase News on record defense-tech funding: <a href= "https://news.crunchbase.com/defense-tech/startup-venture-funding-all-time-record-ai-anduril/"> https://news.crunchbase.com/defense-tech/startup-venture-funding-all-time-record-ai-anduril/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Jensen Huang's prediction: <a href= "https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/executive-insights/">https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/executive-insights/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Zipline: <a href= "https://www.flyzipline.com/">https://www.flyzipline.com/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Nox Metals: <a href= "https://www.noxmetals.com/">https://www.noxmetals.com/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">CNBC: Anthropic changes its data retention policy: <a href= "https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/anthropic-data-retention.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/anthropic-data-retention.html</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Bloomberg on the plan to let enterprises hold the 30-day window: <a href= "https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-20/anthropic-plans-to-change-data-retention-policy-for-advanced-ai"> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-20/anthropic-plans-to-change-data-retention-policy-for-advanced-ai</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Plaud — sponsor; the wearable AI note-taker → <a href= "https://plaud.ai/twist">**</a><a href= "https://plaud.ai/twist**">https://plaud.ai/twist**</a> (code TWIST for 10% off)</p> <p dir="ltr">Harmonic: <a href= "https://harmonic.ai/">https://harmonic.ai/</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Timestamps:</p> <p dir="ltr">0:00 Why making it to Fund IV is when it gets real</p> <p dir="ltr">9:24 Pentagon rolls out ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government</p> <p dir="ltr">10:49 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST</p> <p dir="ltr">11:53 Paige on defense tech and three years at Northrop Grumman</p> <p dir="ltr">13:40 Katelin: The bottleneck used to be winning the contract, now it's surviving one</p> <p dir="ltr">16:13 Autonomous weapons, robot dogs, and the Boston Dynamics conversation in Paris</p> <p dir="ltr">19:07 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app</p> <p dir="ltr">22:03 EU designates ChatGPT a "very large online search engine" under the DSA</p> <p dir="ltr">24:54 Katelin's contrarian take: Europe is undercapitalized</p> <p dir="ltr">29:56 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist</p> <p dir="ltr">31:07 Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B valuation</p> <p dir="ltr">53:06 Competing with Elon: the single point of failure for the whole space economy</p> <p dir="ltr">57:49 Physical AI raised ~$47B in the first half of 2026</p> <p dir="ltr">1:03:42 Jason's Zipline regret and the death of "hardware is hard"</p> <p dir="ltr">1:07:07 Is "unc" a compliment? A Gen X / millennial / Gen Z / Gen Alpha</p> <p dir="ltr">1:09:39 Anthropic reverses its data retention policy after enterprise pushback</p> <p dir="ltr">1:12:18 Katelin on data custody: "That's not a procurement question"</p> <p dir="ltr">1:15:31 Back to on-prem: Go.AI, the Go1, and vertical LLMs</p> <p><strong><br /> <br /></strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: <a href= "https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com">https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Check out the TWIST500: <a href= "https://www.twist500.com">https://www.twist500.com</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: <a href= "https://rb.gy/v19fcp">https://rb.gy/v19fcp</a></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Follow Lon:</p> <p dir="ltr">X: <a href= "https://x.com/lons">https://x.com/lons</a></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Follow Jason:</p> <p dir="ltr">X: <a href= "https://twitter.com/Jason">https://twitter.com/Jason</a></p> <p dir="ltr">LinkedIn: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis">https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis</a></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Check out all our partner offers: <a href= "https://partners.launch.co/">https://partners.launch.co/</a></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Great TWIST interviews: <a href= "https://youtu.be/pvJa2pzuXWQ">Will Guidara,</a> <a href= "https://youtu.be/9dHN4YFkgv4">Eoghan McCabe</a>, <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-on-mod-revolt-building-a/id315114957?i=1000617333424"> Steve Huffman</a>, <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-on-early-rejection-customer/id315114957?i=1000611761112"> Brian Chesky</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/y2UMzSqX94Q">Bob Moesta,</a> <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/box-ceo-aaron-levie-breaks-down-box-ai-and-generative/id315114957?i=1000612384545"> Aaron Levie</a>, <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sophia-amoruso-on-branding-raising-a-fund-portfolio/id315114957?i=1000601352978"> Sophia Amoruso</a>, <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/reid-hoffman-on-ais-crescendo-moment-regulation-and/id315114957?i=1000612548498"> Reid Hoffman</a>, <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/snowflake-ceo-frank-slootman-on-moving-the-needle-win/id315114957?i=1000602560622"> Frank Slootman</a>, <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/billy-mcfarland-on-fyre-fest-fraud-failure-hacking/id315114957?i=1000610922577"> Billy McFarland</a></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: <a href= "https://substack.com/@calacanis">https://substack.com/@calacanis</a></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Follow TWiST:</p> <p dir="ltr">Twitter: <a href= "https://twitter.com/TWiStartups">https://twitter.com/TWiStartups</a></p> <p dir="ltr">YouTube: <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin">https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Instagram: <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups">https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups</a></p> <p dir="ltr">TikTok: <a href= "https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups">https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Substack: <a href= "https://twistartups.substack.com">https://twistartups.substack.com</a></p>
▶ ListenTBPN
Math Wars, GG Navier Stokes, Greg Brockman Joins | Dan Wright, Eric Seufert, Scott Wu, Sahir Jaggi, Andrew Borovsky, Harry Mellsop<p></p><ul><li>(00:57) - Math Wars </li> <li>(14:38) - Astra Reactions </li> <li>(26:47) - Trailer Zone </li> <li>(39:19) - AI Job Boom Beats the Doom </li> <li>(52:57) - 𝕏 Timeline Reactions </li> <li>(01:02:27) - Dan Wright discusses Armada’s mission to bring modular AI infrastructure to underserved regions as the “hyperscaler for the edge.” He highlights the company’s rapid growth, scalable Galleon data centers, use of stranded renewable energy, and focus on speed, scale, data sovereignty, and real-time edge computing. </li> <li>(01:12:07) - Eric Seufert, founder of Mobile Dev Memo and an expert on mobile advertising and digital platforms, discusses the convergence of Netflix and YouTube, Apple’s expanding advertising ambitions, and Meta’s AI strategy. He argues that advertising—particularly conversion-optimized auctions—will remain the most scalable way to monetize streaming, AI agents, and digital commerce. </li> <li>(01:48:28) - 𝕏 Timeline Reactions </li> <li>(01:49:49) - Scott Wu discusses Cognition’s fundraising, the rapid advancement of AI agents, and Devin’s growing role in enterprise software development and cybersecurity. He explains that effective orchestration depends on combining models, tools, and context, while emphasizing AI’s remarkable progress in mathematics and real-world applications. </li> <li>(02:10:49) - Greg Brockman discusses OpenAI’s advances in mathematical reasoning, computer use, image generation, healthcare, and agentic AI. The OpenAI co-founder and president emphasizes how increasingly capable, unified AI tools could generate new knowledge, solve everyday problems, transform healthcare, and empower people while being developed safely. </li> <li>(02:35:42) - Sahir Jaggi discusses Forest, the AI Network for Medicine he founded and leads, and its rapid growth to a $3 billion valuation while serving patients, physicians, and major biopharma companies nationwide. He explains how Forest uses AI and healthcare data to streamline clinical trials, drug launches, distribution, and patient access, ultimately making medicine development faster, cheaper, and more predictable. </li> <li>(02:43:57) - Andrew Borovsky discusses Split, a fintech company that gives consumers flexibility to schedule major bill payments around their income. He explains its cash-flow underwriting model, ACH-based payment technology, rapid growth to nearly $80 million in annualized originations, and recent Series A and B fundraising rounds led by Khosla Ventures. </li> <li>(02:52:14) - Harry Mellsop discusses his work as co-founder and CEO of Antioch, a startup developing simulation technology for physical AI and autonomous systems. He explains Antioch’s hybrid approach to narrowing the simulation-to-reality gap, accelerating robotics development through data flywheels, and serving markets ranging from humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles to Amazon Ring devices.</li> </ul><p><br></p><p>TBPN is made possible by:</p><p>Ramp - https://ramp.com</p><p>Public - https://public.com</p><p>Cisco - https://www.cisco.com</p><p>Console - https://www.console.com</p><p>CrowdStrike - https://www.crowdstrike.com</p><p>Figma - https://www.figma.com</p><p>MongoDB - https://www.mongodb.com</p><p>NYSE - https://www.nyse.com</p><p>Railway - https://railway.com</p><p>Shopify - https://www.shopify.com</p><p>Codex - http://openAI.com/codex</p><p><br></p><p>Follow TBPN: </p><p>https://TBPN.com</p><p>https://x.com/tbpn</p><p>https://open.spotify.com/show/2L6WMqY3GUPCGBD0dX6p00?si=674252d53acf4231</p><p>https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tbpn/id1772360235</p><p>https://www.youtube.com/@TBPNLive</p>
- ▶ Listen
TBPN
Apple Unveils iPhone Duo, Muse AI Agent, Keith Rabois Joins | David Cahn, Mikey Shulman, David Perell, Jim Reilly, Fletcher Richman<p></p><ul><li>(01:44) - Apple Unveils iPhone Duo </li> <li>(13:08) - Steve Jobs Predicts ChatGPT </li> <li>(21:38) - Apple Kicks off Ternus Era </li> <li>(30:03) - Meta Launches Muse AI Agent </li> <li>(45:41) - Anthropic Researcher Quits Over AI </li> <li>(54:08) - David Cahn discusses how AI is reshaping venture capital through concentrated investment in leading private companies, an approaching wave of IPOs, and massive data-center infrastructure needs. The Sequoia Capital investor also highlights opportunities in energy, hardware, robotics, and industrialization, emphasizing defensible intellectual property, strong founders, and aligning investment timelines with market demand. </li> <li>(01:10:39) - Mikey Shulman, co-founder and CEO of Suno, discusses the launch of its faster, more expressive V6 music-generation model and partnerships designed to share revenue with artists and rights holders. He also explores how accessible AI tools can inspire everyday creativity, enhance professional music workflows, and become commonplace throughout music production. </li> <li>(01:35:25) - Keith Rabois discusses the durability and valuations of AI companies, emphasizing talent density, sustainable advantages, and the risks posed by disappointing IPOs or regulation. The venture capitalist and managing director at Khosla Ventures also shares his optimism about technology, skepticism toward AI doomsday predictions, and belief that investors should back companies aligned with their values. </li> <li>(02:01:26) - David Perell is a writer, educator, and host of the interview series *How I Write*. David Perell discusses his approach to interviewing, ambitions to create enduring media, the success of his Cultural Tutor project, and how architecture and design reflect society’s values. </li> <li>(02:41:32) - Jim Reilly discusses his entrepreneurial background and Charleston AI, a storefront consultancy that helps individuals and businesses understand, implement, and benefit from artificial intelligence. He explains how AI improves productivity, addresses common fears and misconceptions, and shares plans to establish a strong foundation before expanding the business. </li> <li>(02:52:49) - Fletcher Richman discusses Type, a shared AI workspace that helps nontechnical teams collaboratively build and deploy AI-powered tools. He explains the company’s focus on midsize businesses, particularly direct-to-consumer e-commerce teams, and its recent $4 million funding round.</li> </ul><p><br></p><p>TBPN is made possible by:</p><p>Ramp - https://ramp.com</p><p>Public - https://public.com</p><p>Cisco - https://www.cisco.com</p><p>Console - https://www.console.com</p><p>CrowdStrike - https://www.crowdstrike.com</p><p>Figma - https://www.figma.com</p><p>MongoDB - https://www.mongodb.com</p><p>NYSE - https://www.nyse.com</p><p>Railway - https://railway.com</p><p>Shopify - https://www.shopify.com</p><p>Codex - http://openAI.com/codex</p><p><br></p><p>Follow TBPN: </p><p>https://TBPN.com</p><p>https://x.com/tbpn</p><p>https://open.spotify.com/show/2L6WMqY3GUPCGBD0dX6p00?si=674252d53acf4231</p><p>https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tbpn/id1772360235</p><p>https://www.youtube.com/@TBPNLive</p>
▶ ListenStartups For the Rest of Us
Episode 849 | Legal Threats, AI as Platform Risk, Building Confidence, and More Listener Questions (Rob Solo)Ever gotten a vague cease and desist from a competitor and wondered if you actually did something wrong? This week I tackle four listener questions: how seriously to take competitor terms of service threats, whether AI is really a platform risk (or just a feature risk), how to build confidence and get past the fear of reaching out to prospects, and when a non-founder employee should walk away from a company that's missing founder activation energy. Want to get your question answered? Submit your question for an upcoming episode. Episode Sponsor: You've found traction and product-market fit. But do you have a repeatable way to find your next 100 or 1,000 customers? If you hire a typical growth agency, you'll get a retainer and a calendar. Designli does growth engineering: they build the system that finds the channels that pay you back. Every campaign is a hypothesis with a number on it, and a point where they stop. Beat your CAC ceiling and the channel gets more budget. Miss it and they shut it off that week and move the money. A GTM engineer works inside your business half- or full-time, not split across ten accounts. You pay for their time and nothing else, no percentage of your ad spend. It starts with an Impact Week. They audit everything you're running and test one thing: can you trace a single click to a paying customer? Most companies can't, so their growth is luck they can't repeat. You leave with a findings report and a 90-day go-to-market plan built around your buyers and your numbers. Go from spending to compounding: designli.co/Growth Topics we cover: (01:05) – Are terms of service threats legitimate? (04:25) – No attorney-client privilege with LLMs (06:39) – AI as platform risk explained (08:21) – Will AI subsume your features? (10:55) – Will AI costs drop over time? (14:22) – Mitigating LLM downtime risk (16:06) – Structuring an enterprise pilot program (17:56) – Building confidence despite social anxiety (23:05) – When to quit as a non-founder Links from the show: Idea to Traction: Stop Building SaaS Nobody Wants (book wait list) Rob Walling Newsletter TinySeed Portfolio TinySeed Accelerator Rob Walling YouTube Channel MicroConf The SaaS Playbook If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you'd like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We'd love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify
▶ ListenMy First Million
How to naturally monetize what you love140+ real business ideas database: https://clickhubspot.com/lrgo Episode 858: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about the weird ways people go all in on strange hobbies and make millions doing it. — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (0:24) scent social club (1:54) Museum hacks (16:34) Mafia tours (21:39) Dolly Parton--Honorary Billy of The Week (45:04) LeBron James's brilliant business move — Links: • Scent Social Club - https://www.scentsocialclub.com/ • We Don’t Sell Saddles Here - https://medium.com/@stewart/we-dont-sell-saddles-here-4c59524d650d • Equine Network - https://equinenetwork.com/ • Museum Hack - https://museumhack.com/ — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/ Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /
▶ ListenHow I Built This with Guy Raz
Late July Snacks: Nicole Bernard Dawes. Crackers and Cookies were Failing… Tortilla Chips Saved ThemNicole Bernard Dawes spent much of her childhood hanging out in her dad’s potato chip factory on Cape Cod. She liked his kettle-cooked chips a lot more than the flavorless snacks in her mom’s health food store. But when she started her own business, she wanted the best of both worlds: a snack made with natural, organic ingredients…that still tasted good. Nicole launched Late July Snacks in 2003, when most consumers barely knew what “organic” meant. For years, sales limped along. Then, in a moment of crisis, she made a company-saving pivot by launching a brand new product – organic tortilla chips. Within just a few years, Late July grew to over $100M in sales, and Nicole decided to launch a new brand in an even more challenging category: soda. You Will Learn:How growing up in a family business can help–and hurt–when you launch your ownThe pros and cons of financial vs. strategic investorsWhen to cut a product that isn’t workingWhy the fine print in a contract is so importantHow the hardest decision might be the best one for your family and the businessTimestamps:07:22 - The car crash that launched a potato chip company21:00 - Pregnant and craving crackers: The birth of Late July Snacks36:54 - The organic cookies that tasted great but nearly sunk the business40:49 - Tragedy and crisis: a father’s death and a $3 million loan in default50:31 - A tortilla chip Hail Mary57:29 - Nicole’s first big sales call… and her last chance to save the company1:08:49 - “The big fish eats the small fish.” A food giant acquisition1:13:36 - Nicole launches a new brand, moving from a hard category–to an even harder one This episode was researched and produced by Chris Maccini with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant. Our engineer was Robert Rodriguez. Follow How I Built This:Instagram → @howibuiltthisX → @HowIBuiltThisFacebook → How I Built ThisFollow Guy Raz:Instagram → @guy.razYoutube → guy_razX → @guyrazSubstack → guyraz.substack.comWebsite → guyraz.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
▶ ListenHow I AI
Build your own company brain: the enterprise AI playbook from Stripe’s engineering team | Sharadh Krishnamurthy<p><strong>Sharadh Krishnamurthy</strong> is an engineering manager at Stripe, where he helped build Kai, the company’s internal AI agent used by more than 10,000 employees every week. He’s worked across several of Stripe’s core infrastructure teams, including data and developer experience, which gives him a grounded, systems-level perspective on what it actually takes to make AI work at enterprise scale. He’s currently focused on the governance, skills, and infrastructure layers that let every Stripe employee use AI safely and effectively, regardless of their technical background.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>What you’ll learn:</strong></p><ol><li>Why Stripe built Kai from scratch instead of buying, and what tipped the decision</li><li>What Kai knows about you by default and what you actually control</li><li>Why “projects” at Stripe are a governance mechanism, not just a folder</li><li>How Stripe structured its data layer so agents can query safely at scale</li><li>Why the infrastructure Stripe built for human developers turned out to be exactly what agents needed</li><li>How Kai’s skills platform lets any employee package a workflow, and what happens when you have 2,000 of them</li><li>What Sharadh learned the hard way when agents nearly took down production systems</li></ol><p>—</p><p><strong>Brought to you by:</strong></p><p><a href="https://getdx.com/howiai"><strong>DX</strong></a>—Engineering intelligence for the AI era</p><p><a href="https://hyperagent.com/howiai"><strong>Hyperagent</strong></a>—Deploy fleets of agents that handle real work</p><p>—</p><p><strong>In this episode, we cover:</strong></p><p>(00:00) Introducing Sharadh</p><p>(02:46) Why Stripe built an AI agent (Kai) instead of buying tools</p><p>(05:18) What Kai knows about you (and what you can turn off)</p><p>(06:51) Projects as a governance layer</p><p>(10:04) Live demo: Kai builds a dashboard</p><p>(12:18) Tools, skills, and the secure sandbox</p><p>(17:22) Why Stripe has benefited so much from AI</p><p>(19:20) Agentic identity, load shedding, and rogue agents</p><p>(20:41) Iterating on the dashboard</p><p>(25:01) How they rolled out Kai across the team</p><p>(29:07) How projects work</p><p>(34:18) Bespoke agents for bespoke use cases</p><p>(35:58) The skill builder workflow</p><p>(40:40) Skill quality, evals, and telemetry</p><p>(43:01) Recap</p><p>(45:13) Lightning round</p><p>—</p><p><strong>Tools referenced:</strong></p><p>• Trino: <a href="https://trino.io/">https://trino.io/</a></p><p>• Anthropic: <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/">https://www.anthropic.com/</a></p><p>• Gemini: <a href="https://gemini.google.com/">https://gemini.google.com/</a></p><p>• Cursor: <a href="https://www.cursor.com/">https://www.cursor.com/</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Where to find Sharadh Krishnamurthy:</strong></p><p>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharadhk">https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharadhk</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Where to find Claire Vo:</strong></p><p>ChatPRD: <a href="https://www.chatprd.ai/">https://www.chatprd.ai/</a></p><p>Website: <a href="https://clairevo.com/">https://clairevo.com/</a></p><p>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/</a></p><p>X: <a href="https://x.com/clairevo">https://x.com/clairevo</a></p><p>—</p><p>Production and marketing by <a href="https://penname.co/">https://penname.co/</a>. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].</p>
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TBPN
Model Mayhem, NVIDIA x Hugging Face Deal, GPT-6 Astra | Pablo Torre, Mohit Aron, Akshay Narisetti, Hari Ravichandran, Matt Caldwell & Jordy Leiser, Jeff Thornburg, Charlie O’Neill, Sridhar Ramaswamy<p></p><ul><li>(00:19) - Model Mayhem </li> <li>(13:12) - Why NVIDIA Bought Hugging Face </li> <li>(23:55) - 𝕏 Timeline Reactions </li> <li>(31:25) - Pablo Torre discusses his investigation into an alleged salary-cap circumvention scheme involving Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard. The investigative journalist and host of Pablo Torre Finds Out explains the evidence, the NBA’s punishment, and why Ballmer’s threatened legal battle could further damage the team. </li> <li>(55:06) - Mohit Aron is the founder of SaiFin and previously founded enterprise technology companies Cohesity and Nutanix. Aron discusses SaiFin’s mission to use AI to unify fragmented go-to-market context, support real-time decision-making, and serve companies of all sizes while keeping humans involved to ensure accuracy. </li> <li>(01:01:09) - Akshay Narisetti, founder of Pocket, discusses building an AI-powered recording device that has sold 300,000 units by making professional note-taking more convenient and reliable than phone apps. He explains Pocket’s hardware, subscription model, privacy safeguards, specialized transcription technology, and plans for agents that turn conversations into reports, presentations, and other work products. </li> <li>(01:18:12) - Hari Ravichandran, founder and CEO of consumer security company Aura, discusses the growing threat of AI-enabled scams, identity theft, and data breaches affecting families and businesses. He explains Aura’s personalized, family-centered approach to digital protection, its focus on streamlined onboarding, and its growth to approximately $340 million in annual recurring revenue. </li> <li>(01:26:39) - GPT-6 Astra </li> <li>(01:31:23) - Matt Caldwell, CEO of the Minnesota Timberwolves, discusses how the team is using Jump’s direct-to-consumer ticketing platform to simplify purchases, own fan data, and deepen engagement. He also highlights AI-driven ticket pricing and broader distribution across marketplaces to increase attendance and revenue. Jordy Leiser is the co-founder and CEO of Jump, a sports technology company building an all-in-one platform for teams to manage ticketing, commerce, and the fan experience. He previously co-founded StellaService/Stella Connect, which was acquired by Medallia, and began his career in investment banking at JPMorgan. Jump now works with teams across the NBA, WNBA, MLS, and NWSL. </li> <li>(01:45:50) - Jeff Thornburg, a space-industry veteran and former SpaceX executive, discusses founding Portal Space Systems to build highly maneuverable spacecraft for defense and civil exploration. He highlights the company’s orbital testing progress, growing team, evolving government-industry partnerships, and the importance of tenacity and calm leadership in solving difficult engineering challenges. </li> <li>(01:54:15) - Charlie O, head of AI model training, discusses the future of personalized open-source models, continual learning, and Base Labs’ mission to make AI more useful through open research. He argues that task-specific models can outperform general frontier models economically and emphasizes aggregating real-world data, developing open RL environments, and exploring new ways for models to continuously acquire knowledge and values. </li> <li>(02:08:54) - Sridhar Ramaswamy discusses Snowflake’s strong growth, widespread adoption of its AI products, and strategy for competing in the rapidly evolving enterprise AI market. The Snowflake CEO highlights AI-driven productivity, small-team innovation, efficient token spending, internal communication, customer value, and acquisitions that strengthen the company’s data and AI platform. </li> <li>(02:22:41) - 𝕏 Timeline Reactions</li> </ul><p><br></p><p>TBPN is made possible by:</p><p>Ramp - https://ramp.com</p><p>Public - https://public.com</p><p>Cisco - https://www.cisco.com</p><p>Console - https://www.console.com</p><p>CrowdStrike - https://www.crowdstrike.com</p><p>Figma - https://www.figma.com</p><p>MongoDB - https://www.mongodb.com</p><p>NYSE - https://www.nyse.com</p><p>Railway - https://railway.com</p><p>Shopify - https://www.shopify.com</p><p>Codex - http://openAI.com/codex</p><p><br></p><p>Follow TBPN: </p><p>https://TBPN.com</p><p>https://x.com/tbpn</p><p>https://open.spotify.com/show/2L6WMqY3GUPCGBD0dX6p00?si=674252d53acf4231</p><p>https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tbpn/id1772360235</p><p>https://www.youtube.com/@TBPNLive</p>
▶ ListenThe Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
SaaStr 877 CRO Confidential: 0 to $600M in Under 4 Years. The ElevenLabs GTM Playbook with Carles Reina<p>CRO Confidential: 0 to $600M in Under 4 Years. The ElevenLabs GTM Playbook with Carles Reina (Partner @ Baobab Ventures and Former VP of Revenue at ElevenLabs). Hosted by Sam Blond, CEO and Co-Founder of Monaco<br /> <br /></p> <p dir="ltr">Carles Reina was the fourth employee and first GTM hire at ElevenLabs. Four years later, the company hit $600M ARR and an $11B valuation. In this episode of CRO Confidential, Carles breaks down exactly how they built it.</p> <p dir="ltr">He covers the distribution-first strategy that drove 0 to $100M in 20 months, the grants program that pulled demand away from every competitor in the market, and the 20X quota model that had reps hitting 300-600% attainment. He also gets into what he'd do differently — why sales enablement and senior sellers should come earlier than most founders think — and how ElevenLabs wired AI into their GTM motion before most companies were even asking the question.</p> <p dir="ltr">If you're building go-to-market from scratch or trying to figure out what "AI-native" revenue looks like in practice, this one is required listening.</p>
▶ ListenSoftware Engineering Daily
SED News: The NVIDIA-Hugging Face Deal, China’s Proxy Economy, the Open Weight Surge<p class="wp-block-paragraph">SED News is a monthly podcast from Software Engineering Daily where hosts Gregor Vand and Sean Falconer break down the biggest stories shaping software engineering, Silicon Valley, and the broader tech industry.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In this end-of-summer episode, Gregor and Sean turn to a busy season of mergers and acquisitions, including <a href="https://www.nvidia.com/">NVIDIA</a>‘s reported $12.9 billion acquisition of <a href="https://huggingface.co/">Hugging Face</a>, <a href="https://www.dynatrace.com/">Dynatrace</a>‘s near-billion-dollar deal for AI observability platform <a href="https://arize.com/">Arize</a>, and <a href="https://temporal.io/">Temporal</a>‘s rumored raise at a $12 billion valuation. They also cover a run of large funding rounds, from AI security startup <a href="https://www.hiddenlayer.com/">HiddenLayer</a> to AI personal assistant Instinct and restaurant software platform <a href="https://www.owner.com/">Owner.com</a>, all against the backdrop of a deluge of new model releases.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The main topic digs into China’s “transfer station” economy, the sprawling proxy market that gives developers cheap access to frontier models officially banned in the country. Drawing on a China Talk report, they walk through the tactics at play, from “one fish, three meals” credit farming to silent model swapping, and unpack how this pipeline of captured outputs and human traces may be fueling the recent surge in high-quality open weight models. Gregor and Sean also examine where Meta now sits in the landscape after shelving Llama and pivoting toward its Muse family.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As always, the episode wraps up with a few standout Hacker News threads, including a critique of how log-scale charts obscure the real cost gap between open weight and frontier models, and a look at “invisible companies” as an under-the-radar investment strategy.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Sponsorship inquiries:<br><a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></p> <p>The post <a href="https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/podcasts/sed-news-the-nvidia-hugging-face-deal-chinas-proxy-economy-the-open-weight-surge/">SED News: The NVIDIA-Hugging Face Deal, China’s Proxy Economy, the Open Weight Surge</a> appeared first on <a href="https://softwareengineeringdaily.com">Software Engineering Daily</a>.</p>
▶ ListenBuilt to Sell Radio
Ep 562 Selling 20 Companies at 4x ARR, With Stuart Faught<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW35512052 BCX0"> <p class="Paragraph SCXW35512052 BCX0"><span class= "TextRun SCXW35512052 BCX0" lang="EN-CA" xml:lang="EN-CA" data-contrast="auto"><span class= "NormalTextRun SCXW35512052 BCX0">Broadly speaking, there</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW35512052 BCX0"> are two ways to build a company. Some entrepreneurs swing for the fences, spending decades building one big business. Others play for singles, building a series of smaller companies they can sell and repeat.</span></span><span class="EOP Selected SCXW35512052 BCX0" data-ccp-props= "{"134233117":true,"134233118":true,"201341983":0,"335559740":240}"> </span></p> </div> <div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW35512052 BCX0"> <p class="Paragraph SCXW35512052 BCX0"><span class= "NormalTextRun SCXW35512052 BCX0">Stuart Faught has made a career of the second approach.</span><span class= "EOP Selected SCXW35512052 BCX0" data-ccp-props= "{"134233117":true,"134233118":true,"201341983":0,"335559740":240}"> </span></p> </div> <div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW35512052 BCX0"> <p class="Paragraph SCXW35512052 BCX0"><span class= "TextRun SCXW35512052 BCX0" lang="EN-CA" xml:lang="EN-CA" data-contrast="auto"><span class= "NormalTextRun SCXW35512052 BCX0">He has started and sold 20 software businesses, making him the </span><span class= "NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW35512052 BCX0">number-one</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW35512052 BCX0"> seller on Acquire.com. His model is deliberately small: build a simple tool for a niche of local businesses, grow it to $50K to $100K in annual recurring revenue, sell it for four to five times that, and move on to the next one.</span></span><span class= "EOP Selected SCXW35512052 BCX0" data-ccp-props= "{"134233117":true,"134233118":true,"201341983":0,"335559740":240}"> </span></p> </div>
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