EverythingStartups Weekly

Welcome to all the new visionaries here who signed up last week!

Sneak peek: There is something exciting in the works in partnership with Katha VC, which will be exclusively for investors. Announcement dropping soon, so stay tuned!

Let’s get into this week’s edition on what’s happening & the main highlights. But first, check out these resources:

• 120+ Active Pre-Seed - Series A investors

• 48 pre-seed accelerators

• Latest VC funds announced

• 350+ SaaS investors

• LPs investing in VC funds

• Understanding founder vs VC investment memos

Partnership & collaboration opportunities. 

Cheers,
Ivelina

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Important News 🟣

• Neuralink closes $650 million Series E backed by ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Sequoia, and Thrive to advance brain chip trials and FDA-backed tech development.

• European LPs rethink US bets as tariff chaos drives a pivot to local deals, favoring stability, simpler exits, and less exposure to dollar swings.

• Deel hits a $1 billion revenue run rate in just six years, powering payroll and HR for 35,000 companies and 1.25 million workers worldwide.

• Elad Gil backs AI-powered roll-up strategy to transform traditional service businesses, using automation to boost margins and scale acquisitions.

• Amazon MGM Studios is reportedly developing “Artificial,” a film based on OpenAI’s boardroom drama, with Luca Guadagnino in talks to direct and Andrew Garfield considered to play Sam Altman.

• Reddit files lawsuit against Anthropic for allegedly scraping user data without a license to train AI models.

🎙️ Thoughts & Current Dialogue: VC vs. AI

Rex Salisbury, Solo-GP at Cambrian and former a16z fintech Partner, sparked a heated VC debate by pausing plans to hire investment associates, leaning instead on AI tools like Perplexity’s financial analyst for tasks like market sizing.

This reflects a broader trend:

AI’s efficiency in finance and venture capital is reducing the need for junior roles, saving lean firms like Cambrian ~$150,000 annually. But at what cost?

Can we really trust AI with $250,000-$500,000 seed investments? Seems dicey. AI’s outputs, while fast, can be opaque and error-prone, sometimes stumbling on basic math without heavy human oversight.

Unlike humans, it lacks the intuition and adaptability crucial for understanding the psychological nuances of early-stage investing. By cutting junior roles, the industry risks gutting career onramps, stunting the growth of future leaders and diverse perspectives.

On the other hand, it does free up investors to focus on what machines can’t do well: face-to-face founder meetings and relationship-building.

Final verdict: This is concerning either way.

Relying on machines that can’t feel or change their minds could lead to costly errors, outweighing short-term savings.

Interesting Links 🟣

• Can better writing make your thinking better too? That would be a yes to Paul Graham. His latest essay explores how rhythm, clarity, and flow aren’t just style but signals that your ideas might actually be right.

• Mary Meeker returns with 340 pages of market-shifting AI insights. Her first Trends report in 6 years reveals breakneck SaaS growth, near-zero token costs, and billions going straight to voice-first agents.

• The great founder filter? Clarity of thought. Kyle Harrison unpacks why the best pitches start with mental models, not metaphors and why sounding smart isn’t the same as being clear.

• The European Climate and Impact VC list. From energy and food to water and biodiversity, this list maps the funds betting on a decarbonized tomorrow.

• When word of mouth becomes word of ChatGPT. As AI takes over product discovery, brands need to optimize for bots, not just buyers.

• 25 brutal questions every founder should ask themselves. From “What’s the kill criteria?” to “Are we winning in spite of ourselves?” It’s a gut check for your roadmap, team, and sanity.

 
New VC Fund Highlight: Modern Technical Fund by Amanda Robson is the talk of the town 🟣

Modern Technical Fund just dropped a $22M debut fund, and if you're building something technical, Amanda "Robby" Robson might be your new best friend.

Let's unpack why this San Francisco-based solo GP's launch is making waves in a brutal fundraising environment.

First off, MTF is laser-focused on the technical founder zeitgeist, targeting three core areas: data infrastructure, security startups, and enterprise software across the U.S. and Israel.

With founder Amanda Robson bringing serious hustle from her Cowboy Ventures partner days (where she nailed early bets like Drata, now valued at $2B), plus her network-building superpowers through the Open Source Startup Podcast and Modern Angels community, she's positioned to back founders who live and breathe code.

She's already got seven portfolio companies locked in, including:

• FinTe (finance/engineering infra software)

• and RunReveal (data security),

• with plans to build a 20-25 company portfolio through $500K-$1M early-stage investments.

The woman met with 200 LPs to close this thing - that's some serious determination.

Brownie points for: 

🍪 Always-on approach: Robson's "bear-hug" investment style means founders get detailed feedback, strategic intros, and customer connections before they even meet with bigger funds - talk about value-add.

 🍪 Technical credibility: Her podcast with fellow investors and deep enterprise software background gives her street cred with founders who want investors that actually understand their tech specs.

🍪 Network effects: Modern Angels community (400+ female/non-binary angel investors) plus advisor networks from Cloudflare, Databricks, Anthropic, and DoorDash create serious connection potential.

🍪 Track record: Early Drata investment and partnership at Cowboy Ventures shows she can spot winners before they explode.

But...Can Modern Technical Fund deliver the goods?

Solo GP risk: Running a fund alone without co-investment partners could limit deal sourcing and due diligence depth compared to larger teams.

Brutal market timing: Even Robson admits the fundraising environment is savage right now - can technical startups survive the current funding winter long enough to scale?

Let's see if the hustle pays off.

PS: You can track all the latest new VC fund raises here.

Top Pre-Seed to Series A Funding Rounds This Week 🟣

• Console, a startup that helps IT teams automate routine tasks like password resets and app access requests via an AI assistant in Slack, raised a $6.2 million seed round. Thrive Capital invested.

• GC AI, a startup building AI agents for legal teams to automate contract review and negotiation, raised a $10 million Series A round. Sound Ventures, Fellows Fund, and others participated.

• GridFree AI, a startup using AI to optimize and automate data center energy usage for enterprise customers, raised a $5 million seed round. Giant Ventures and Amplo backed the round.

• Thunder Code, a startup offering a generative AI platform to automate software testing without code, raised a $9 million seed round. Investors include Silicon Badia, Janngo Capital, and others.

• Samphire Neuroscience, a femtech startup that developed a tDCS headband to treat menstrual symptoms, raised a $5 million seed round. Inventure VC and Fortify Ventures invested.