Crazy Frog → Burning Man → AI startup
This one still makes me laugh: Matthias was part of the team behind the music for Crazy Frog… and now he’s building an AI hardware engineering company. Somewhere between those chapters: he was deep in the maker world (including leading a big Burning Man camp) — and that builder energy seems to be the through-line. If you like founder stories that don’t fit the typical template, you’ll love this episode. Listen: https://lnkd.in/eVyZRjZ6 Flux

Everyone's talking about the '10x founder.' Here's what they're not telling you. 🚀 AI tools are genuinely compressing the timeline from idea to traction. Product-market fit that once took 18 months is now happening in 6 months. Founders are moving faster than any previous generation. But speed amplifies everything, including the mistakes. I've coached founders who moved at extraordinary velocity and built extraordinary things. I've also coached founders who moved at extraordinary velocity and made catastrophic decisions three times faster than they otherwise would have. The difference isn't the tools. It's the discipline behind them. Clear hypotheses. Rigorous interpretation of results. Knowing when to slow down on purpose. The 10x founder isn't just fast. They're fast and precise. That combination is rare, and it's what actually scales. 💬 Where have you seen speed become the enemy of progress? I'd genuinely like to know. #foundermindset

I watched the SMU v. Miami (OH) game last night to kick off March Madness. My takeaway: whoever winds up playing Miami, y'all need to shut down their 3-point game. But March Madness is not the point of this post. During the game, there was an ad for ChatGPT. In this particular ad, the application was to have AI write a business plan for a restaurant in Austin. I'm not in Austin. I don't know the Austin regulatory scene. But I do have some familiarity with the Spokane regulatory scene and I have some insight into the Spokane market. Drawing on that, a few days ago I pointed Claude.ai to some authoritative sources and asked it combine content from the City of Spokane, Washington Secretary of State, Washington Department of Revenue and StartUp Spokane to write a comprehensive regulatory guidebook and business planning playbook for opening a restaurant in Spokane. Claude obliged and produced the attached 13-page document. By and large, this is a super helpful document. But who can spot the error/misstep in Step 1.1? With Step 1.1 being the. very. first. step. Bragging rights for the first one to shout it out! I haven't had the chance to go through the entire document and fact check every single thing that is asserted as fact (there are a few other things that did cause my left eyebrow to shoot up), but my point here is this: at this stage of the game, yes, use AI to develop a list of questions that need to be answered in navigating the business planning process. But from there, for the love of Pete, go directly to the authoritative sources to find those critical answers. Don't rely on AI for that step. I know there are others who have been shouting this out, and at the same time, there needs to be a concerted push to make sure our startups are approaching business planning and AI with their eyes wide open. Also... #GoZags! Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Greater Spokane Incorporated Washington APEX Accelerator SNAP Financial Access New Venture Lab at Gonzaga University LaunchPad INW Michael Allen StartUp Spokane Health Sciences & Services Authority (HSSA) Evergreen Bioscience Innovation Cluster Ignite Northwest

Entrepreneurship doesn’t always look like a polished pitch deck and a glass corner office anymore. Sometimes it looks like teenagers hacking Wi‑Fi, sleeping in conference rooms, and turning a 'frat house meets research lab' into a billion dollar AI company like Aaru, reminding us that grit, curiosity, and execution matter more than suits and titles. Three founders who barely tried Dartmouth and Harvard before dropping out built an engine that replaces slow, expensive focus groups with thousands of synthetic consumers so brands like McDonalds, Boston Beer, EY, and Bayer can test products, pricing, and campaigns in days instead of months. The market is listening: Aaru has raised a multi‑tier Series A at a reported $1B 'headline' valuation, led by Redpoint Ventures with earlier backing from A*, Abstract Ventures, General Catalyst, Accenture Ventures, and Z Fellows. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gT_WrrSF

The danger of fundraising before finding product-market fit with David Park, Narada  This week on Build Mode, we’re joined by David Park, co-founder and CEO of Narada, an enterprise AI agent platform spun out of UC Berkeley’s AI research lab. Narada uses large action models to automate complex, multistep workflows across enterprise systems. After previously co-founding and exiting Coverity, Park is now building his second company with a different playbook: Stay lean, talk to customers, and don’t raise before you’re ready. ...

Some chapters come to a close before you're ready for them to end. 1848 Ventures is closing its innovation engine, and that's a bummer. I do have to say that I'm deeply grateful: for the mission, for the people, and for the kind of work that makes you feel like it actually matters. We were building AI tools for small and medium-sized businesses. The kind of businesses that can't afford a full engineering team, a data science department, or an AI strategy consultant. We were trying to level that playing field, and that's work of which I'm really proud. Venture studios teach you something most environments don't: How to build conviction fast. How to move before you have all the answers. How to lead a team through uncertainty and still ship something real. I'm carrying all of that into whatever comes next. To the team: It was a pleasure. Wishing everyone who touched this place nothing but good things in what comes next. #OneTeamOneDream

Is the SaaS industry facing its final curtain call? 📉 Our latest episode is The SEA SaaSpocalypse & The Rise of the Space Lobsters (links in the comments) We dive deep into the "SaaSpocalypse"—the massive valuation correction hitting software stocks—and what it actually means for the future of tech, especially in Southeast Asia. While the headlines are full of doom and gloom, the reality is much more nuanced. We’re not seeing an end, but an evolution. From the impact of AI integration to the rise of regional powerhouses, we explore how companies are turning this market disruption into a massive growth opportunity. This episode Kevin Brockland, CFA from Indelible Ventures is joined by Chris Birrell from Func Ventures

We’re pleased to welcome 14 new advisors to Glasswing Ventures’ Connect and Protect Advisory Councils, expanding our network to 70 AI and industry leaders. These advisors represent the highest tier of AI and enterprise talent, including operators driving innovation inside leading organizations, founders building and scaling companies, and business leaders at the forefront of emerging technology waves. As first-capital-in investors, we believe our commitment to founders extends well beyond the check. Our advisory councils serve to strengthen this commitment. The cohort of advisors announced today will work directly with the firm and our founders to navigate enterprise AI adoption and unlock growth. Learn more about our new additions here: https://lnkd.in/exgQrarg

Excited and proud to officially welcome 14 new advisors to Glasswing's Advisory Councils! These are operators and founders who have done the hard thing inside enterprise AI, and they lend their expertise to our founders directly, working with them on real problems. At Glasswing, being first-capital-in means that the check is only the beginning. This is just one of the ways that we back up that commitment.

New artificial intelligence trend: teenagers founding mega AI companies. For example, Cameron Fink was 18 when he founded Aaru, an artificial-intelligence startup that recently reached a $1 billion valuation. It is one of a growing crop of hot companies led by people who have barely cracked their 20s: Fink’s co-founder, Ned Koh, was 19 when they started the company two years ago. Aaru’s technology chief, John Kessler, was 15. https://lnkd.in/g526b6jM