Tech & Startups
Technology and startups: funding rounds and exits, product launches, AI companies, growth and SaaS, European startups, founder stories and technology trends.
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What Happens When AI Agents Can Spend Your Money?
What happens when AI agents start spending your money? VGS' Terry Angelos argues that agentic commerce will need new payment infrastructure that gives AI the ability to transact without sacrificing the protections consumers expect. Terry joins a16z General Partner Alex Rampell to discuss the emerging wallet wars, how agentic tokens could enable secure purchases, and what happens when an AI buys the wrong thing. They also explore why merchants may resist agentic commerce, how AI could change credit card rewards and subscriptions, and who controls the customer relationship when agents make purchasing decisions on our behalf. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:56 What a payment credential actually is 09:48 When agentic commerce changed the game 13:43 The wallet wars 19:42 Stripe as the AOL of agentic commerce 23:51 The new agentic token standard 29:45 The three checks behind every transaction 35:43 Why Amazon blocked Muse 39:47 Over-hyped vs under-hyped 47:09 Where VGS goes next Resources: Follow Terry Angelos on X: https://x.com/terryangelos Follow Alex Rampell on X: https://x.com/arampell Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.
20VC: The Pro-Rata Battle: Valar Atomics Sues Day One Ventures | Meta Returns to the AI Frontier With Muse Wonder | NVIDIA Eyes $30B Reflection Deal & Jev Raises $870M at a $7.5B Valuation
AGENDA: 04:00 Valar Atomics Sues Seed Investor Day One Ventures Over Pro Rata 17:00 Meta Returns to the AI Frontier With Muse Wonder 20:00 NVIDIA Eyes $30B Reflection Deal as Amazon Circles Decart 26:00 Jev Raises $870M at a $7.5B Valuation—Weeks After Launch 31:00 42 New Decacorns: The AI Boom Overtakes 2021’s Record 36:00 Isomorphic Labs Eyes $50B Valuation in New Funding Talks 46:00 Anthropic Slashes Haiku Prices by 90% as AI Price War Intensifies 52:00 Bending Spoons Slashes Airtable’s Team: What Do Founders Owe Employees?
Bro built an app that won't let you fake your workouts
Bro built an app that won’t let you fake your workouts 🤯 It’s an alarm clock. To turn it off, you have to do push-ups and the app uses AI to actually verify you did them. No cheating. Jake (24) launched Early at the end of 2025. Four months later it’s doing $50K/month with 200K+ downloads.
I built this app for my dad. Now it makes $18K/month
Kourosh built an app in a very crowded market... and yet still managed to grow it to over $18K/month. His secret is insanely simple: everyone else is chasing tech-savvy power users, but Kourosh built this app for a type of custer everyone is ignoring (his dad). This video is the story of how to build a successful product in a "saturated" market. *50+ AI app ideas making millions:* https://clickhubspot.com/q8ij Say hi to Kourash: https://x.com/BuildingWaves Check out Voicy: https://usevoicy.com/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs Chapters: 0:00 - He built this for his dad! 1:09 - What's your story? 1:59 - What's the app? 3:24 - Founder background 4:14 - More AI app ideas 4:56 - Finding the idea for Voicy 5:50 - Build process 7:28 - Tech stack 8:21 - Growth story 9:51 - Unique customers 11:22 - Building in a crowded market 13:06 - Final advice 14:28 - Reflections 15:17 - FREE app ideas This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
Meta’s new ‘Muse Wonder’ model: good for AI agents, bad for design
Watch now (24 mins) | 🎙️Meta launched Muse Wonder with claims of frontier agentic performance, so I ran it headlessly through Claude Code against nearly 20 tasks to find out if any of it is true
AlphaGo Took 2 Years. AlphaZero Beat It in Hours | David Silver, Ineffable Intelligence
David Silver on what happened when his team gave up human data, and why he says LLM labs are "human-in-the-loop learning algorithms with thousands of people in the loop." #AlphaZero #AlphaGo #AI #ReinforcementLearning
Struggling to connect with AI Technology
Helping business leaders bridge the gap between AI technology and business strategy Title: We're offering free AI adoption guidance to 3 small businesses each month Hi everyone, I'm part of FORTY FIVE 6, and we're expanding our pro bono AI support initiative from one business to three businesses per month. We're particularly interested in helping business owners and non-technical leadership teams who are hearing a lot about AI but aren't sure where to start. We can help you understand: What AI actually means for your business
I have no idea how to think of and approve ideas (I will not promote)
I'm relatively new to the scene, making only 1 startup that I'm still maintaining that is focused on a more freemium track. Looking to go a bit beyond, I tried checking for any avenues that have already paid products that are either too expensive or have their user base looking for an alternative. And, from what I've largely seen, these avenues are close to none.
Interviewing 10 founders on - Must have MRR over $500/mo
Hey all - I'm looking to interview founders on how they gained their first users. I'd hope for any publicity from said interviews will spur both attention for your site and useful tips for me If interested, please comment your SaaS and how much MRR you currently produce. I'd love to see it! Thank you! PSA\ this is NOT soliciting or designed for lead gen, and is not meant to be market research / funneling. THIS IS PURLEY FOR MY OWN INTEREST* submitted by /u/EdwardKost7 [link] [comments]
My boss ghosted me and all of our still paying subscribers, I will not promote
I’ve worked for this children’s clothing subscription as the only employee for 2 and a half years. The company crowd funded and then I think the founder got funds from his other ventures. The founder lives abroad in Morocco/london and I’ve never met him IRL, problems started with getting paid up to a month late or my insurance getting cancelled because he didn’t pay the employer premiums. But my boss, I haven’t heard from him since August 12th, and it is now October 12th.
[I will not promote] Where to find GPU compute rentals program for early-stage startups?
Hi, so I am developing this product, and it needs bigger GPU than the one I have. It also needs a bigger vram than the one I have. The product has a landing page, and I am interested to know of any programs I can apply to either for reduction in price or for providing some limited GPU compute for such early-stage startups's needs. Thank you submitted by /u/Guitar1367 [link] [comments]
How to tell if a startup has a moat
A framework for assessing whether the company you’re considering joining is built to last
Initial Sole Director only recommended after incorporation ?
I am reading that it is recommended to have a sole director among the two founders in the initial phase upon admission to YC and formation. Does it happen widely enough or it remains just a recommendation ? I get the reasoning behind it, which is to overcome deadlock scenarios. submitted by /u/Guitar1367 [link] [comments]
Startup Infra
Hey people, Curious what everyone here is using. Are you going with Vercel, Supabase, Render, AWS, your own VPS or something else? Has managing the infrastructure been a headache at all or has it been pretty straightforward? How much are you paying for your setup, and do you think it's worth the cost? Also curious if you'd choose the same setup again.. submitted by /u/taitran00 [link] [comments]
Episode 854 | How to Find Startup Ideas (Sneak Peek Chapter from My New Book)
Where do the best SaaS ideas actually come from? In this episode, Rob reads a chapter from his new book, Idea to Traction: Stop Building SaaS Nobody Wants in the Age of AI. He walks through the five places problems tend to show up, eight strategic approaches for finding and shaping a product idea (with real examples), and when it makes sense to replicate an existing idea.
Five Luxembourg companies turning traction into growth
The five companies featured in this article showcase high potential scaleups that are expanding internationally as part of Fit 4 Scale.
Stop Looking for a Unicorn, Hire 3 People Instead
Reminder to founders: To remove yourself from the business, sometimes you need more then one person. Sometimes, more like five. (And that’s okay)
Inside SF’s growing ecosystem for European founders
I spent four days surrounded by Europeans — and an increasingly sophisticated ecosystem dedicated to helping more of them cross the pond.
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