Tech and startups

• CoreWeave is pricing its IPO between $47 and $55 per share, aiming to raise at least $2.2 billion following a $12 billion agreement with OpenAI.

• This week saw major M&A activity with Google agreeing to acquire cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion and SoftBank purchasing Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion, contributing to an M&A-rich period.

• Perplexity, the AI-powered search startup, is in talks to raise up to $1B at an $18B valuation with annual recurring revenue hitting $100M amid growing competition from Google and OpenAI.

• BuildOps raised $127 million in Series C funding, achieving a $1 billion valuation with its AI-powered platform that streamlines project management for commercial contractors.

• Browser Use raised $17M to enhance AI agents' website navigation capabilities by converting webpages into a digestible format for improved task automation.

• Evroc secured €50.6 million to develop a sovereign hyperscale cloud in Europe, focusing on sustainability and AI workloads amid the push for reduced reliance on U.S. tech infrastructure.

• Nearly 40% of startups on AngelList are now AI-focused, with CEO Avlok Kohli emphasizing that "every software company is an AI company now".

• Nerdio raised $500M in Series C funding, achieving a $1B+ valuation for its virtual desktop management tools on Microsoft Azure.

The Software Engineering Identity Crisis (annievella.com, 2025-03-23). Software engineers face an identity crisis as AI coding assistants shift their roles from creators to overseers, raising questions about the future of programming, creativity, and the essence of engineering work

The People We Used to Be (joanwestenberg.com, 2025-03-19). Joan Westenberg explores her shift away from U.S. tech dominance, advocating for support of European and Canadian alternatives, and discussing her frustration with the current systems and the need for ethical digital choices

How and Why I Read Hacker News (joshbeckman.org, 2025-03-22). A personal reflection on reading Hacker News reveals insights on startup culture, programming tools like Ruby and JavaScript, and the value of community-curated content versus negative comments in the tech forum

I kinda like the web (bradcypert.com, 2025-03-22). Reflecting on the evolution of web development and the importance of personal ownership, the author shares experiences with PHP, Groovy, dynamic content, and the need to embrace self-hosted solutions and decentralized protocols like AtProtocol

Where are the normal roboticists? (robotsandstartups.substack.com, 2025-03-23). Ologic celebrates 20 years in robotics, discussing Gaussian splatting's role in AI data needs and emphasizing the importance of normal engineers and teamwork in the field rather than the myth of exceptionalism

The Slow Hunch Podcast: Episode 8 with Fred Wilson & Brad Burnham (paragraph.xyz, 2025-03-21). In the latest episode of The Slow Hunch podcast, Nick Grossman discusses USV's journey, investment philosophy, and tech evolution with Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham, touching on AI, social media, and tech's future

Engineering a New Job: Part 2 - The Hiring Process (pseudofreedom.com, 2025-03-21). A Software Engineer shares insights on evaluating companies during the hiring process, emphasizing the importance of understanding company metrics, products, team dynamics, and negotiating job offers for a successful transition

Unapologetically Technical Episode 18 – Adrian Woodhead (jesse-anderson.com, 2025-03-18). Adrian Woodhead, a pioneer in the European Hadoop ecosystem, discusses his technology journey, the evolution of data engineering, and insights from his experience with Hadoop in the latest Unapologetically Technical episode

Impact at scale in an engineering organization (nick.scialli.me, 2025-03-22). Explore strategies for making a significant impact in large engineering organizations through leadership roles and initiatives like improving testing processes and optimizing build times

What engineers get wrong about communication (newsletter.posthog.com, 2025-03-23). Effective communication for product engineers involves focusing on user needs, avoiding information hoarding, forming clear opinions, providing context, and maintaining structure to enhance collaboration and outcomes

The 5 Obstacles to High-Performing Product Teams (mdalmijn.com, 2025-03-19). Product management faces significant obstacles, including internal bureaucracies and rigidity that hinder team performance, leading to issues such as contextual misalignment and diminishing autonomy for teams using structures like SAFe and OKRs

Context switch, prospect theory, and task-relevant maturity 💡 (refactoring.fm, 2025-03-24). Exploring context switch impacts on code reviews, insights from Prospect Theory, and task-relevant maturity for managing engineering teams effectively, with the introduction of Bufstream as a modern Kafka alternative

7 principles for balancing agility and durability (leaddev.com, 2025-03-24). Maxime Najim outlines seven principles for balancing agility and durability in engineering, highlighting concepts like steel threads, managing technical debt, and embracing sacrificial architecture to optimize system reliability and speed

Challenges of Managing a Large Team - Lessons from My Own Experience (vtorosyan.github.io, 2025-03-20). Managing a large team requires redefining leadership approaches, prioritizing values, utilizing the LNO framework, and employing tools like personal dashboards and pulse surveys to maintain team health amidst increasing challenges

Leadership Fundamentals and Tech (subbu.org, 2025-03-18). Subbu Allamaraju discusses the human aspects of technical leadership, emphasizing the importance of influence, managing change, and creating a flow state for developers through effective tool integration and cultural adaptability

Set Expectations or Set Up Failure (avivbenyosef.com, 2025-03-20). Setting clear expectations is vital for team success. Without defining goals and measuring progress, teams struggle, repeating errors. Employ tools like Test Driven Development to own expectations for continuous improvement and accountability

The Frontend Treadmill (polotek.net, 2025-03-20). Frontend teams should focus on mastering their current frameworks instead of constantly rewriting, as all frameworks will become obsolete. Emphasizing web fundamentals will yield long-term benefits and a stronger engineering workforce

Superhuman's secret to success: Ignoring most customer feedback, manually onboarding every new user, obsessing over every detail, and positioning around a single attribute: speed | Rahul Vohra (CEO) (lennysnewsletter.com, 2025-03-23). Rahul Vohra emphasizes speed, manual onboarding, and focused customer feedback strategies in Superhuman, employing techniques like the 'Single Decisive Reason' framework and AI enhancements to optimize the email experience for users

Part 4: Technology Stack Selection (idiallo.com, 2025-03-18). Selecting the right technology stack is crucial for projects like FamFlix, prioritizing familiarity, scalability, and maintainability over personal preferences, while avoiding untested tools such as Microsoft Silverlight

How successful websites are made (idiallo.com, 2025-03-24). A tech success story of Ron, who built a million-dollar website using outdated desktops and Perl, emphasizing that solving real problems is more important than technical perfection or modern tools like AWS and CI/CD pipelines

Build, Use, and Improve Tools (vale.rocks, 2025-03-21). Developers should create tools for repetitive tasks or one-off needs, leveraging LLMs for efficiency and learning, ultimately enriching personal workflows and contributing positively to the developer community and open-source projects

Don’t outsource control. (waldo.jaquith.org, 2025-03-18). Waldo Jaquith advocates for reduced outsourcing of software development control in government, emphasizing the importance of empowered product owners and technical leads to ensure project success and mitigate risks

A Field Guide to Rapidly Improving AI Products (hamel.dev, 2025-03-24). Teams often focus on tools rather than process in AI development. Successful teams prioritize measurement, structured error analysis, custom metrics, and empower domain experts to directly write prompts, enhancing iterative improvement

Congratulations, You Are Now an AI Company (oreilly.com, 2025-03-18). Companies embracing AI must learn beyond surface-level knowledge, addressing operational complexities, team dynamics, and legal concerns to maximize benefits and minimize risks associated with AI product integration

I Tested 20+ AI Tools to Go from Idea to Product — Only This One Gave Me a Real Business (medium.com/swlh, 2025-03-24). Nitin Sharma tested over 20 AI tools, including ChatGPT and Buildpad, to create a profitable newsletter, 'AI Made Simple', earning $10,000 in six months using a structured 7-phase roadmap for product development

95% AI-written code? Unpacking the Y Combinator CEO’s developer jobs bombshell (leaddev.com, 2025-03-20). Garry Tan from Y Combinator claims 25% of YC startups utilize AI to generate 95% of their code, suggesting a shift in engineering team structures, funding needs, and job market dynamics for software developers

Red Flags & Big Wins: Lucas Swisher on What Makes Coatue Say Yes (or No) to an Investment (mostlymetrics.com, 2025-03-20). Lucas Swisher discusses Coatue's investment strategies, focusing on data-driven decisions, the Mosaic platform, and evaluating software companies' unit economics while navigating public and private markets with a concentrated investment portfolio

🎧🍌 How the Top US Angel Investor Operates | Ed Lando, Founder of Pareto Holdings (thespl.it, 2025-03-21). Ed Lando, founder of Pareto Holdings, discusses strategies for angel investing, including deal flow creation, PR approaches, employee hiring, and insights on concentration versus diversification in building successful companies

💰$32B Wiz Acquisition = VERY Rich Employees (onlycfo.io, 2025-03-24). Wiz's $32B acquisition by Google underscores massive growth, making employees and investors wealthy while highlighting strategic M&A and equity complexities involved in rapid startups, such as varying equity percentages and early exercise options

Letter #271: Arielle Zuckerberg and Molly O'Shea (2025) (aletteraday.substack.com, 2025-03-20). Arielle Zuckerberg and Molly O'Shea discuss the 'Rizz and Tiz' founder theory, the importance of charisma and neurodivergence in successful entrepreneurship, along with investment strategies and the future of their firms

Cracking the code of vibe coding (uxdesign.cc, 2025-03-21). Vibe coding streamlines software development using AI tools like Cursor, Replit, and Windsurf, enabling non-technical entrepreneurs to create apps rapidly but risks losing the craft and creativity inherent in traditional coding

The Vibe Manifesto (blog.michalprzadka.com, 2025-03-21). Michał Prządka discusses the Vibe Coding Manifesto, promoting a shift towards AI-assisted development, emphasizing intent over code, and predicting applications in various fields like marketing, research, and medicine

Not all AI-assisted programming is vibe coding (but vibe coding rocks) (simonw.substack.com, 2025-03-19). Exploring the emerging concept of vibe coding, Simon Willison emphasizes its playful use of AI tools like GitHub Actions and LLMs, contrasting it with responsible AI-assisted programming in software development

Copy copy revolution (benn.substack.com, 2025-03-21). The limitations of AI-generated code are discussed, highlighting how tools like Claude and Cursor can create complex, haphazard software structures that fail to anticipate future needs, contrasting with the logic-driven approach of experienced engineers

My Takeaways on Vibe Coding (codecapsule.com, 2025-03-24). Emmanuel Goossaert discusses his experience using OpenAI's o3-mini-high model to create a web application for transferring ChatGPT conversations to an e-reader, highlighting the role of iterative development and trust in LLMs

"Vibe Coding" vs Reality (cendyne.dev, 2025-03-19). Exploration of 'Vibe Coding' reveals pitfalls and hype around LLMs like Cursor and GitHub Copilot, asserting their limitations in delivering production-quality software without expert intervention

Vibe coder (davidsj.substack.com, 2025-03-24). David Jayatillake discusses developing the LLM Tagger Obsidian plugin using Windsurf and local LLMs, highlighting the rigorous code submission process and the concept of 'vibe coding' in software development

My Thoughts on Vibe Coding and Indie Hackers (pacurar.dev, 2025-03-19). Vibe coding and indie hacking risk lack of foundational knowledge; reliance on AI tools leads to mediocre apps and unsustainable support. Developers must evolve to meet user expectations and maintain real value in programming

Too legit to Git (proofofconcept.pub, 2025-03-23). Vibe coding transforms programming by prioritizing creativity and intuition over traditional practices, leveraging tools like Git and AI-driven interfaces to enhance the software development experience