TLDR Founders 2025-07-07

43North is on the hunt for their next cohort - and applications are closing this Wednesday (July 9th) at 3PM ET.

Five companies will be selected to receive a $1 million investment and join 43North's Y11 cohort in Buffalo, NY, for a year of programming and an unparalleled experience.

Since 2014, 43North has invested in 74 startups alongside co-investors like Bessemer and Greycroft. These companies have gone on to raise close to $1BN with the help of 43North's extensive network, mentoring, and business support.

Ready to build the next big in Buffalo, NY? Don't miss out on this opportunity. Apply before the deadline

NFDG, a $1.1 billion AI-focused VC fund led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, achieved a 4x return in two years before being acquired by Meta. Meta's unique acqui-hire offered full NAV liquidity to LPs without governance rights over portfolio companies. The deal reflects a shift as investors prioritize direct involvement in AI development over traditional venture returns.

Palmer Luckey, supported by Joe Lonsdale, is launching Erebor, a new crypto-focused bank, to fill the gap left by Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. Erebor is seeking a national bank charter and plans to offer services to tech sectors, including AI and crypto, using a digital-only model. The bank, which aims to be the most regulated entity in this sphere, will integrate stablecoins for fast transactions.

Google had 14 major AI announcements last month, spanning from new Gemini 2.5 models and voice conversations in Search to AlphaGenome for DNA research and weather prediction tools.

AI tools are outperforming human creators and changing business landscapes by offering superhuman advisory capabilities and reduced judgment anxiety for users. Traditional software interfaces and roles are becoming obsolete as rapid AI-driven product creation reshapes industry dynamics. Embracing AI as a collaborator enables success, while ignorance leads to irrelevance amidst this significant economic shift.

Apple's Eddy Cue just testified that search volume dropped for the first time in 22 years because people are using ChatGPT instead. Google's stock crashed 7%, wiping out $100 billion. However, here's what everyone's missing: when people ask AI tools buying questions, they're asking the same high-intent queries that drive SEO. "What is the best CRM software?" works the same whether you type it into Google or ChatGPT. Instead of panicking about AI killing search, just answer the questions your sales calls reveal customers actually ask.

Hiring your first AEs before you have a pipeline is like buying a race car without building a track. Founders must prove outbound works themselves first. The biggest mistake is that founders outsource their target account list too early. Your new AEs see logos, you see patterns from dozens of customer calls. Build the list yourself, automate the outreach so AEs start with full calendars, then get out of their way. Their only job is closing deals, not fixing your CRM.

PromptPerf is a tool for testing and comparing AI prompt outputs across multiple models with similarity scoring.

Transkriptor is an AI-powered tool that transcribes, summarizes, and analyzes conversations into actionable insights.

Build iOS mobile apps with AI.

Carta ran 20,000 simulations comparing two VC strategies and found something VCs don't want to hear. A "spray and pray" fund with 100 investments beats a "conviction" fund with 20 investments almost every time - 2.6x returns vs 2.1x, and 99.7% chance of not losing money vs 81.9%. Only the top 5% of funds do better with conviction. Yet VCs still concentrate because LPs love the story of genius stock-picking. The math says most VCs would do better admitting they can't predict winners and making more bets.

The phrase, "AI improves developer productivity by 100x," is meaningless hype without data. Most engineering leaders report 0.3-1x actual improvement. DX's framework measures what matters - not just if developers accept AI suggestions, but whether that code makes it to production. Track three dimensions that follow the AI adoption lifecycle: First, utilization (are people using it?), then impact (is it actually helping?), and finally, cost (is the ROI positive?). Most importantly, measure AI agents as part of the team overseeing them, not as standalone contributors.

Google just killed a $425 million company by making its product free. Marin Software spent 7 years building the perfect dashboard to manage ads across Google, Facebook, and Yahoo - agencies loved it, and it IPO'd in 2013. Then Google improved Ads Editor and Facebook launched Business Manager, both free. Marin's revenue peaked in 2015 and slid every year until this week's bankruptcy.

No other vendor will care about their success like you will because their success means your survival.

Anthropic has provided a directory of 29 companies, many of them coding-focused, that are using Claude to build AI-powered products.

Your business depends on three early choices: your platform (like Amazon vs Shopify) sets your costs, your investors decide your timeline and pressure, and your customers shape everything else.