Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into OpenAI’s $6.6 billion fundraising round, the fifth Cybertruck recall in less than a year, and a neat project that’s Shazam-ing songs heard on a San Francisco street. Let’s get into it. OpenAI closed the largest VC round of all time this week. The startup […]
OpenAI closes the largest VC round of all time Read More »
Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, and Margaux MacColl are unpacking another busy week in the tech world, kicking things off with Governor Newsom’s veto of SB 1047, the controversial AI bill aimed at stopping real-world disasters caused by AI systems before they happen. This may not be the last we’ll see of the bill, however, as
YC takes a bite out of PearAI, and French startups have a new home Read More »
Ali Rowghani, a former Y Combinator managing director and former Twitter executive, is launching a venture firm called Maxq. Maxq is targeting $250 million for its debut fund, Maxq Fund I, according to an SEC filing. The firm will focus on seed-stage investments, Axios reported on Wednesday. Rowghani’s former YC colleagues Mia Mabanta, Simon Lu,
Former head of YC’s Continuity Fund Ali Rowghani launches new seed firm Read More »
The lawmaker behind California’s recently vetoed AI bill, SB 1047, is going down swinging. For months, Silicon Valley debated whether SB 1047 would have a chilling effect on California’s AI boom or would protect against catastrophic harms from advanced AI systems. The answer never became clear, since California governor Gavin Newsom decided it was the
A Y Combinator startup named PearAI launched with an X post thread and YouTube video on Saturday and created immediate controversy. And some of that is splashing onto YC itself. PearAI offers an AI coding editor. The startup’s founder Duke Pan has openly said that it’s a cloned copy of another AI editor called Continue,
This episode of Equity had so many themes: VC karaoke, the SpaceX economy, no moats for AI, OpenAI versus open source. You know it’s going to be good when the conversation between host Kirsten Korosec and fellow TCers Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl starts with the evergreen question: is it ever OK to use shirtless
Green flags for defense tech and Silicon Valley’s longevity obsession Read More »
Famed Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator on Wednesday kicked off its two-day “Demo Day” event that showcases what the most recent YC batch, S24, companies are building. Unsurprisingly, AI companies dominated the day, with startups looking to apply the technology to problems like estate planning and settlements, Elayne; automating clinical trial data, Baseline AI;
13 companies from YC Demo Day 1 that are worth paying attention to Read More »
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan wants to bring the famed accelerator’s Demo Day presentations back as in-person events by the end of the year. During Tan’s opening remarks during Wednesday’s YC summer cohort Demo Day, he said this week’s Demo Day presentations will “knock on wood” be the final ones held entirely online. Tan added
Y Combinator’s next Demo Day will include in-person seats for top VCs, Garry Tan says Read More »
Platforms to connect apps that wouldn’t normally talk to each other have been around for a minute (see: Zapier). But they have not gotten dramatically simpler to use if you’re nontechnical. Generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry somewhat. However, getting the most out of these platforms — and fixing things when they break
Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator will expand the number of cohorts it runs each year from two to four starting in 2025, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Y Combinator president Garry Tan told the site that approximately the same number of companies will go through YC each year, despite the change. This means each cohort will
Y Combinator expanding to four cohorts a year in 2025 Read More »
