VCs play a game of statistics. Founders play a game of survival. Those two games rarely align. Once you understand that, fundraising becomes less emotional. A rejection isn’t a verdict - it’s just a reflection of a fund’s return curve. You’re not a “no.” You’re just not a “100x” to them - because they have to look for those few 100x bets to make up for the 80% of their portfolio that goes to zero. So don’t fear them. You’re building something real, not something that fits inside their spreadsheet.

saw a project this week that started building before they knew the pain it solved. the plan? launch on product hunt, find the marketing high, and backsolve the product later. that’s not iteration - that’s gambling with validation. distribution can’t fix confusion. you can’t A/B test your way to clarity.

Made my day!!! This is indeed Bay Area 😂

🚀 Daily Startup Funding & IPO Recap {Nov 5, 2025} 🌟Big Rounds Ripple: $500M (Strategic) | Crypto payments infra Turning cross-border liquidity into enterprise SaaS. Armis: $435M (Pre-IPO) | Cybersecurity / Asset mgmt Goldman Sachs leads; CapitalG joins. Wabi: $20M (Pre-seed) | “App Store for AI apps” From Replika’s founder Eugenia Kuyda. 🌟Early-Stage Portal26: $9M | GenAI governance for enterprises Fintary: $10M A | Insurtech automation SaaS LambdaVision: $7M | Space-made retinal protein film Hearvana: $6M | AI hearing enhancement Rilevera: $3M | Automated security testing 📈IPO Watch Exzeo Group (NYSE:XZO): $21 pricing | Insurance SaaS Elauwit (Nasdaq:ELWT): $9 pricing | PropTech infra 🔥VC heat today: cybersecurity, GenAI infra, and fintech #startups #funding #VC #IPO #AI #fintech

To pay it forward ... I’ve curated a list of hiring managers actively hiring on Linkedin - Software Engineer, Data Scientist, Growth…and more. Most of them are intern and junior roles. - Jackson Davison, MBA lnkd.in/gmFxCz6d - Ford Coleman lnkd.in/g9kRNuDb - Nikhil Reddy Depa lnkd.in/g_53w_tm - Sampei Omichi lnkd.in/gzvNJbgV - Sajid Shaikh lnkd.in/gvNjTytH - Shauna Browne lnkd.in/giecCYjf - Martin Townend lnkd.in/gEYrn5bB - Manoj Kumar lnkd.in/gfNib5KB - Vishnu Vardhan Reddy I. lnkd.in/gb8DCaR2 - Pritak Patel lnkd.in/gHDAipp8 - Joel Mercurio lnkd.in/gJDv_meN - Aayushi Jain lnkd.in/gumpfQmq - Vivek Kumar lnkd.in/gAAy3kiw Please comment "jobs" to get the full list for the past 1 week.

the reason big companies move slow isn’t because people are dumb - it’s because the system rewards safety. in startups, you get fired for not trying. in corporates, you get fired for trying the wrong thing. and that tiny difference kills innovation faster than any bureaucracy ever could.

wild fact i learned today: jensen huang (nvidia) and lisa su (amd) are actually cousins. the #1 and #2 gpu companies. sometimes talent really does run in the dna. imagine that family dinner table😂.

HOW TO GROW YOUR STARTUP with AI/SaaS/organic social

In 1994, the first online banner ad on HotWired had a 78% CTR. By 2011, Facebook ads averaged 0.05%. That’s a 1,500× drop in 17 years. That number is more than a marketing stat. It’s a sign that the half-life of attention keeps shrinking. AI is accelerating this curve. What decayed in 20 years now decays in 6 months, and soon, in 6 days. So what should companies do? 1. Stop competing for attention. Every company optimizing for reach becomes noise. Every algorithm that maximizes engagement destroys trust. The only brands that will survive are the ones that build meaning density, not content volume. 2. Redesign for slowness. Add friction. Add context. Add rest. The next UX innovation isn’t infinite scroll - it’s intentional pause. Users crave signal in a world that runs too fast for their nervous system. 3. Build human compounding loops. Instead of algorithmic virality, build relationship virality: networks, rituals, co-creation, community. That’s how you turn attention into retention of emotion. AI is not the problem. It’s the amplifier. It speeds up whatever pattern you build - chaos or clarity. The future advantage won’t come from who scales faster, but from who designs systems that age well in an accelerating world.

after interviewing people for years, I’ve realized something shifted in the AI era. we used to care about skill sets, shiny resumes, perfect frameworks. now I mostly care about “agency“: - can you figure things out when no one tells you what to do? - can you move fast without waiting for permission? - can you make something happen when everything’s blurry? AI made “knowing things” cheap. what’s rare now is the instinct to act. most people want direction. a few create it.

came to the valley two years ago. watched countless founders go from “stealth mode & posture” to “get your hands dirty & ship fast.” the first year, everyone’s too shy to build in public. the second year, everyone realizes: doesn’t matter if it’s black or red - attention is oxygen. you stop optimizing for looking smart, and start optimizing for learning fast. you stop hiding half-built things, and start sharing imperfect ones. the valley humbles you. it teaches that silence doesn’t build momentum, but motion does.

True growth hack: Growth was never about chasing channels - it’s about building systems that compound. One viral post fades fast; one repeatable feedback loop scales forever. Growth isn’t a campaign, it’s a rhythm. You don’t sprint to grow - you design a machine that keeps running while you sleep.