Tech and startups: 29th April 2025

• Chainguard, a software supply chain security startup, secured $356M in Series D funding at a $3.5B valuation, making it one of the largest funding rounds this week.

• Supabase raised $200M achieving a $2B valuation with its open-source SQL database tools gaining traction among 1.7 million developers through 'vibe coding' for AI app development.

• 19 U.S.-based AI startups successfully raised over $100M each in 2025, continuing the strong funding trend from 2024 with multiple billion-dollar rounds and increased megaround activity.

• European climate tech funding dropped to a five-year low of $2.3bn in Q1 2025, attributed to market maturity, AI's capital pull, and challenging exit conditions.

• OpenAI's alumni have launched notable startups focusing on AI safety and customization, including Safe Superintelligence and Anthropic, with several ventures raising significant funds without launching products yet.

• Volution launched a new $100M fund targeting UK fintech companies with established revenue streams, addressing funding challenges in early-stage investments in the sector.

• TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is accepting applications for the Startup Battlefield 200 competition until June 9, offering 200 startups the opportunity to compete for a $100,000 equity-free prize.

• Adaptive Computer aims to transform PC software for non-programmers using 'vibe' coding, enabling users to create apps via text prompts with AI, databases, and payment integrations.

The State of Startup Media (investing101.substack.com, 2025-04-27). Exploring the evolution of startup media from TechCrunch to specialized newsletters, blogs, and podcasts, driven by builders reclaiming tech storytelling narrative during the COVID era

The unbearable lightness of big tech (doc.cc, 2025-04-23). The shift to Agile frameworks like Scrum and Kanban has strayed from user-focused strategies, failing to incorporate vital market research and leading to frequent product failures throughout tech companies

Escaping the Cube: The Smartest People Are Disappearing from W-2 and How Much $ You Can Get (bowtiedbull.io, 2025-04-22). Smart individuals are leaving W-2 jobs to focus on building online businesses, investing in real estate, and leveraging asymmetric assets like crypto and tech stocks while exploring options for tax havens

🎧🍌 Lessons Scaling Zero to $40M ARR in Two Years | Dan Lorenc, Chainguard (thespl.it, 2025-04-28). Dan Lorenc, CEO of Chainguard, shares insights on scaling to $40M ARR, the security of open source software, software supply chains, and the impact of AI, following a major malware attack on the internet

The Never Rewrite Podcast, Episode One Hundred: Detecting B.S. as a Non-Technical Founder (shermanonsoftware.com, 2025-04-22). Dustin and Isaac discuss detecting developer B.S. for non-technical founders in the latest podcast episode, addressing trust, communication, and the importance of iterative development while revealing a framework for open dialogue

Podcast: The $500MM Startup Making Payroll Painless, with Gusto Co-Founder Joshua Reeves (lex.substack.com, 2025-04-22). Joshua Reeves discusses Gusto's journey to simplify payroll for small businesses, emphasizing technology's evolution, understanding customer needs, and the significance of strong unit economics in their product ecosystem

Building Reddit’s iOS and Android app (newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com, 2025-04-23). Reddit's mobile engineers rebuilt their iOS and Android apps with a new tech stack, including Jetpack Compose and SwiftUI, enhancing architecture, testing strategies, and developer experience while scaling to 2.5 million lines of code

Weekly Retro 2025-W17 (0xda.de, 2025-04-28). Reflecting on personal experiences amid a company acquisition, this entry discusses challenges faced during startup growth, stock options, and participation in BSides SF, emphasizing engineering and collaboration

Working on the weekend (solmaz.io, 2025-04-26). Working over the weekend, Onur Solmaz resolved a 2-year tech debt at TextCortex involving a significant refactor with 5-6k lines of Python code and 90 commits, highlighting the unique challenges in startup environments

Confessions of a (former) Rockstar Developer (notyourlanguage.com, 2025-04-25). The struggles and realizations of a former Rockstar Developer, addressing team dynamics, the pitfalls of solo work, and the need for collaboration in software development

The side hustle from hell (blog.jacobstechtavern.com, 2025-04-28). An exploration of Jacob Bartlett's experience at a startup, highlighting challenges faced while developing a car repair platform using SwiftUI, Google Maps SDK, and navigating complex team dynamics amid the pandemic

Not all heroes wear capes. Some just fix your NAT (tailscale.com, 2025-04-23). Avery's journey from debugging ARCNET drivers to founding Tailscale illustrates a quest for simple, secure networking solutions, reshaping infrastructure for devices across organizations using peer-to-peer connections without the complexity of traditional VPNs

Gumroad CEO’s playbook to 40x his team’s productivity with v0, Cursor, and Devin | Sahil Lavingia (lennysnewsletter.com, 2025-04-22). Gumroad's CEO Sahil Lavingia shares strategies for dramatically boosting productivity using AI tools like v0, Cursor, and Devin, achieving 40x faster feature development and reshaping engineering roles within the company

Inside monday.com’s transformation: radical transparency, impact over output, and their path to $1B ARR | Daniel Lereya (Chief Product and Technology Officer) (lennysnewsletter.com, 2025-04-27). Daniel Lereya discusses monday.com's transformation to achieve $1B ARR through radical transparency, ambitious goals, and a focus on impactful product development using tools like timeboxed deadlines and real-time metrics

Supabase and spotting opportunities (aswathkrishnan.com, 2025-04-22). Supabase raised $200M at a $2B valuation, offering Backend as a Service with features like auth and databases, positioning itself as a strong alternative to Firebase by utilizing PostgreSQL

It's okay to have no idea what you're doing and try anyway (kaveland.no, 2025-04-26). Emphasizing the importance of psychological safety in teams, the piece encourages experimentation and learning, suggesting exercises like 'It's okay to...' and cultural reminders to foster an accepting environment

Coding as a Craft (bluelander.bearblog.dev, 2025-04-26). The author explores coding as a craft, emphasizing creative invention over optimization, discussing tools like TUIs, Kiki CMS, and personal programming preferences in contrast to conventional software development practices

Solution-space Taste (grantslatton.com, 2025-04-25). Solution-space taste in software design emphasizes exploring paths and recognizing complexity. Developing taste requires writing extensive code and seeking feedback from experienced programmers to navigate complex problem domains effectively

Code-ing (everything.intellectronica.net, 2025-04-25). Eleanor Berger reflects on her experience with the term 'coding,' contrasting it with 'programmer' and 'hacker,' while sharing her views on industry terminology and personal journey in software development

On luck (no-kill-switch.ghost.io, 2025-04-22). Explores the concepts of 'luck' and 'szczęście' in software delivery, emphasizing the importance of preparation, attention to detail, and situational awareness to enhance success while distinguishing them from mere chance

Fallthrough #17 - Maintainers, Monetization, and Making The Time (carlosbecker.com, 2025-04-28). Carlos Becker discusses maintainership, the monetization of open source projects, and time management in conversation with Matthew and Angelica, alongside insights on GoReleaser

KYVC: Know Your VC (mostlymetrics.com, 2025-04-27). Understanding venture capital strategies is crucial for founders. The KYVC framework differentiates between hyper-selective funds like Benchmark and volume players like Tiger Global, with insights on operational involvement and expected returns

Funding The Dream: Exploring Startup Capital Without Losing Control (founderreports.com, 2025-04-24). Exploring startup funding options such as self-funding, angel investors, venture capital, and debt-based alternatives, focusing on maintaining control and aligning financial decisions with long-term goals

Modern Meditations: Keith Rabois (thegeneralist.substack.com, 2025-04-24). Keith Rabois discusses talent identification, management philosophy transition from output-driven to input-driven, and the importance of embracing stress in personal and professional development

From Beta to Bedrock: Build Products that Stick. (alistapart.com, 2025-04-23). Liam Nugent discusses the shortcomings of feature-first development in financial products, emphasizing the importance of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept and identifying core user needs to build products that truly stick

Building as a search algorithm (zeptonaut.com, 2025-04-23). Exploring game development as a search algorithm emphasizes the importance of testing various ideas through fast prototyping, avoiding local maxima, and prioritizing exploration for finding impactful projects

How I use Reddit to find and validate problems worth building (shavinpeiries.com, 2025-04-22). Shavin Peiries outlines a structured approach to validate business ideas using Reddit, highlighting the importance of confirming problem pain, market existence, customer willingness to pay, and pre-validating solutions before MVP development

Part 1: Finding Your Thing's Essence (sublimeinternet.substack.com, 2025-04-26). Explore the journey of Sublime's launch, focusing on refining essence, user clarity, and creative positioning through insights gained from team discussions and tools like Figma, culminating in a dual-themed landing page

Giving software away for free (simonwillison.net, 2025-04-28). Static HTML and JavaScript, along with tools like WebAssembly and Pyodide, enable the creation of free software that can run client-side without ongoing server costs and complexities, preferably hosted on GitHub Pages

On the use of SaaS in systems engineering (blog.bofh.it, 2025-04-27). The utilization of hyperscaler cloud services raises debates in systems engineering regarding the cost-effectiveness and necessity of competent developers or system administrators over reliance on simple assembly of cloud tools

Data Platform Engineering (davidsj.substack.com, 2025-04-28). Data platform engineering accelerates data processing by enabling analytics engineers to self-serve data with tools like Terraform and Snowflake, reducing dependency on data engineers and improving project velocity

How startups work: a field guide for security people (ventureinsecurity.net, 2025-04-22). Security professionals must grasp how startups operate, focusing on aspects like vendor dynamics, go-to-market strategies, and the iterative process in shipping features to better evaluate tools and engage with the tech ecosystem

When is a Deployment “Good Enough?” (eric.mann.blog, 2025-04-23). Balancing speed and quality in software deployment is crucial. Containerization and Kubernetes simplify processes for engineers, but can be overly complex for early projects. A new tool aims to streamline Kubernetes setup

A model for IV&V that’s actually useful. (waldo.jaquith.org, 2025-04-25). Exploring a practical model for Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) in custom software, focusing on strategies like coaching product owners and enforcing code quality to enhance agency performance and vendor collaboration

Don’t use a feedback waterfall (stevesmith.tech, 2025-04-23). Feedback waterfalls hinder effective decision-making, as seen in a CTO's transition from Scala to Kotlin. Sequential feedback can lead to under-informed decisions and missed perspectives, emphasizing the need for more inclusive feedback strategies

Why Developers Don’t Trust Your “Build vs Buy” Guide (everydeveloper.com, 2025-04-28). Developers often distrust 'build vs buy' guides due to their marketing bias, lack of technical depth, and failure to fairly compare building versus buying solutions. Authentic insights lead to greater trust and respect from developers

Vibe Coding and the Rise of AI Agents: The Future of Software Development is Here (thedataexchange.media, 2025-04-24). Steve Yegge discusses 'vibe coding' and the evolution of software development through AI agents, emphasizing the need for trust, new skills, and how these agents surpass traditional coding methodologies like chat programming

Vibe coding (markjgsmith.com, 2025-04-25). Vibe coding is a software development methodology influenced by AI tools. Peter Levels exemplified this by quickly creating a social media screenshot service using Node.js, emphasizing the speed and efficiency AI brings to coding

Vibe job hunting (markjgsmith.com, 2025-04-26). Mark Smith explores using AI in job hunting within the European tech startup scene, seeking insights from Grok on relevant topics and blogging strategies based on his extensive startup experience

Vibe Coding at Heroku with Vish Abrams (softwareengineeringdaily.com, 2025-04-24). Vish Abrams discusses 'vibe coding' at Heroku, highlighting AI's impact on programming, the role of developers as code directors, and tools for individuals versus teams, including the Model Context Protocol