Tech and startups

• Elizabeth Holmes's partner, Billy Evans, raises millions for a new blood-testing startup Haemanthus, using lasers to diagnose conditions through bodily fluids, despite similarities to the failed Theranos technology.

• Substantial AI funding continues with Perplexity reportedly securing $500M at a $14B valuation, AI21 Labs raising $300M from Google and Nvidia, and WisdomAI nabbing $23M for their approach to prevent AI hallucinations.

• HR platform Rippling raises $450M at a $16.8B valuation, revealing Y Combinator as a customer and strengthening its position in the HR tools market.

• Parloa raises $120M at a $1B valuation to expand its enterprise AI agent platform, enabling businesses to create custom AI customer service agents through a low-code interface.

• Defense tech investment grows as Quantum Systems achieves unicorn status with €160M funding for dual-use AI-powered drones, while former CIA officer Eric Slesinger invests $22M in European defense startups.

• Mercury CEO Immad Akhund launches a $26M fund targeting early-stage founders with products addressing markets valued over $10 billion.

• NewLimit, co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, raises $130M to develop age-reversing treatments using AI to simulate drug experiments.

• Venture capital investment has doubled globally to $300 billion over the past decade, driven by megarounds, international expansion, and AI funding, which has exceeded $100 billion in 2024 alone.

The Heart of Innovation: Why Most Startups Fail (commoncog.com, 2025-05-12). This piece examines the challenges faced by Damballa, a cybersecurity startup, emphasizing the importance of understanding 'authentic demand' through their framework of Deliberate Innovation and the concept of situations over traditional pain-driven models

How Palantir built the ultimate founder factory | Nabeel S. Qureshi (founder, writer, ex-Palantir) (lennysnewsletter.com, 2025-05-11). Nabeel Qureshi discusses Palantir's 'forward-deployed engineer' model, unconventional hiring strategies, and its focus on AI integration, which led to a data platform with high margins and significant applications across various industries

🎧🍌 Ultimate Startup Growth Playbook, Using AI to Automate Operations | Sam Ross, Numeral (thespl.it, 2025-05-12). Sam Ross discusses retention over growth, harnessing Facebook ads, and using customer demand for business ideas while navigating sales tax complexities through AI automation at Numeral, raising a $1M Series A in just four days

The Founder’s First Hire: When to Let Go of Your Weaknesses (thebootstrappedfounder.com, 2025-05-09). A solopreneur reflects on the need for a part-time sales hire for Podscan, navigating customer acquisition challenges among PR and marketing professionals, and recognizing the value of strategic delegation in growing a business

Welcome aboard! 🥳 (shavinpeiries.com, 2025-05-11). Discover actionable guides on problem discovery, demand validation, and growth using Reddit audience research. Learn to escape research loops and find valuable building ideas without extensive competitor comparisons

A perfect cybersecurity startup idea (ventureinsecurity.net, 2025-05-06). Exploring dimensions of an ideal cybersecurity startup, including founder-market fit, talent access, and the importance of addressing pain points versus compliance needs in product development

Reflecting on Little Bird (june.kim, 2025-05-08). Reflecting on experiences at Little Bird, focusing on engineering challenges in a pre-PMF startup, quality standards, and the importance of testing with tools like Auth0 and Temporal Workflows

Lead Bullets (2011) (a16z.com, 2025-05-10). Ben Horowitz shares lessons from Netscape's battle against Microsoft's IIS, emphasizing the importance of 'lead bullets'—practical, actionable solutions—over elusive 'silver bullets' in overcoming significant business challenges

Changing The Future (stepsandleaps.wordpress.com, 2025-05-08). Seth Godin highlights the surge in content creation, with 65 million YouTube videos and 10 million Spotify songs, while emphasizing AI's role in software development and its potential to transform the future

AI, platform engineering, or DX? How to choose where to invest (leaddev.com, 2025-05-08). Leaders face the challenge of investing in AI, platform engineering, or developer experience (DX) to enhance software delivery and collaboration while managing technical debt, with tools like GitHub Copilot driving efficiency

15 Steps to Build a $100M+ AI Company (From Someone Who Has Done It) (news.aakashg.com, 2025-05-12). Matt Arbesfeld shares a 15-step framework for building a $100M+ AI company, covering essential topics like MVP development, funding strategies, product expansion, and the importance of quality content for sustained growth

How Clojure Shapes Teams and Products (dzone.com, 2025-05-06). Clojure helps small teams innovate rapidly across diverse domains like banking and technology, emphasizing functional programming, simple tools, and effective collaboration, as shown by Quuppa and Griffin's real-world success stories

When I built six apps in under 4 weeks (mrlacey.com, 2025-05-12). Matt Lacey reflects on his experience building six small apps in under four weeks, showcasing his capability to deliver software quickly despite limited user feedback and interaction

When process improvements can be more valuable than code changes (mrlacey.com, 2025-05-09). Process improvements can often lead to greater benefits than code changes, as discovered in a role focused on desktop software development, emphasizing collaboration and custom functionality over traditional coding tasks

💭 THE STANDUP - Coding DIRTY Episode 7 (waylonwalker.com, 2025-05-07). Gradually rolling out software releases can prevent critical failures, as seen with Crowdstrike; integration tests are essential for complex systems to avoid catastrophic issues from seemingly small changes

Development Process at SANPRAM Research (aman-agarwal.com, 2025-05-08). SANPRAM Research emphasizes a concentric development process focusing on feature building, early testing, and aesthetic improvement to ensure products are indispensable and exceptional

How I ship projects at big tech companies (seangoedecke.com, 2025-05-06). Effective project shipping in big tech requires a deep understanding of technical details, prioritizing leadership trust, and employing strategies like feature flags and early deployment to ensure success

Beyond speed: Measuring engineering success by impact, not velocity (stackoverflow.blog, 2025-05-12). Engineering success should focus on business impact rather than velocity metrics. Leaders must align teams with organizational goals, fostering a better understanding of productivity and satisfaction among developers through transparency and collaboration

The Inlined Agile Software Craftsmanship Manifesto (christiantietze.de, 2025-05-12). Christian Tietze explores the relationship between the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto and the Agile Manifesto, highlighting the importance of well-crafted software, customer collaboration, and a community of professionals

New Era of Small Software Shops (christiantietze.de, 2025-05-12). The rise of small software teams emphasizes human value and craftsmanship as Big Tech adopts LLMs and factory-like production, risking the loss of junior developers for efficiency and cost-cutting

How to Use AI to Be a Great Engineering Leader (newsletter.eng-leadership.com, 2025-05-11). Ten engineering leaders share their experiences using AI tools like GenAI, Claude, ChatGPT, and Grammarly to enhance productivity, communication, and documentation processes in their engineering roles across various company sizes

Overnight successes, unlearnables, and heroic cultures💡 (refactoring.fm, 2025-05-12). Success stems from consistent effort over time, with a focus on hiring for 'unlearnables' and avoiding heroic cultures that reward visibility over valuable outcomes

Co-Leadership in Complex Product Development (leadinginproduct.com, 2025-05-06). Exploring co-leadership in complex product development, pairing seasoned product managers with subject matter experts to leverage domain knowledge and implement agile methodologies for effective product outcomes

Characterizing a high-functioning team (newsletter.getdx.com, 2025-05-07). High-functioning engineering teams enhance productivity and satisfaction. Google researchers developed metrics measuring collaboration and team dynamics, identifying factors like processes, culture, strategic alignment, and workload balance that affect team performance

Building Tools for Healthier Teams (sijobling.com, 2025-05-09). Tools like PETALS, built using Python/Django and Heroku, aim to improve team health through feedback mechanisms and AI-driven support, advocating for better communication and collaboration in professional environments

Building Windsurf with Varun Mohan (newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com, 2025-05-07). Windsurf develops an AI-native IDE that optimizes LLM latency, enables non-engineers to code, and provides custom model capabilities with unique 'fill-in-the-middle' training approach

AI Solution Factories (danielmiessler.com, 2025-05-06). The future of AI-based companies suggests a shift from traditional developers to skilled generalists capable of full-stack creation, problem-solving, and leveraging AI, altering the workforce landscape significantly by 2035

Tips when generative coding (alexhyett.com, 2025-05-11). Utilizing AI for efficient coding, the author shares strategies such as setting clear requirements, using familiar technologies, breaking down tasks, and regular refactoring to enhance coding projects like a stock analysis tool using Python and Plotly

100x AI Coding for Real Work: Summon The Ghost Army (philippcannons.com, 2025-05-12). Philipp Cannons explores a workflow that accelerated coding speed 100x using AI tools like Claude and Gemini, achieving remarkable efficiency in software development and experimentation

How to be an agentic engineer (societysbackend.com, 2025-05-12). An agentic engineer proactively identifies and solves high-impact problems by understanding business objectives, fostering curiosity, and initiating projects, adapting traditional workflows to enhance productivity in the age of AI

Inside My First Engineering Podcast: AI, No-Code, and Breaking Things on Purpose (paragraph.com, 2025-05-12). In a podcast with Ray Myers, Bethany Crystal shares her experiences using AI-powered no-code tools to build her app MuseKat, focusing on rapid prototyping, managing non-technical teams, and addressing security challenges

An Explosive New Distribution Channel (tomtunguz.com, 2025-05-07). AI agents are generating Neon databases at quadruple the speed of human developers, leading to automated tooling selection and a new distribution channel in tech procurement for web applications and data solutions

Don't Let Vibe Coding Hinder Your Technical Growth - Fatbobman's Swift Weekly #83 (fatbobman.com, 2025-05-12). Vibe Coding can enhance coding experience, yet developers must not overlook fundamental learning. Emphasizing AI's role, tools like SwiftUI, Measurement API, and testability challenges, contribute to evolving technical understanding and project control

Joy & Curiosity #39 (registerspill.thorstenball.com, 2025-05-11). In Joy & Curiosity #39, reflections on 122 hours in San Francisco explore tech culture, with insights on software, AI coding tools, and Rust language complexities, alongside personal anecdotes and conversations with industry peers

The consolation of containerisation (deadsimpletech.com, 2025-05-08). Iris Meredith reflects on the solace found in containerisation and technology amidst personal and societal challenges, highlighting the use of Docker, Flatcar, and self-hosted systems by trans women for empowerment and agency

The Water of Leith (visitmy.website, 2025-05-11). Attending Turing Fest in Edinburgh, speakers emphasized user empathy and soft skills in tech, with insights on scaling start-ups and practical AI applications, highlighting the significance of understanding user needs and feedback loops

Writing (sahilparikh.com, 2025-05-08). Effective communication in software teams, including emails and Gen-AI prompts, is crucial as inefficiencies arise from poor articulation of technical issues, motivating a focus on superior writing skills in hiring developers

12th May, 9:16 am (iamcal.com, 2025-05-12). Cal Henderson, Slack co-founder, shares thoughts on Lizardman's Constant and the importance of diverse questions in surveys on his personal blog, posted on May 12th, 2025