Tech and startups: 10th June 2025

• Nintendo launched the Switch 2 with a $500 price point and global midnight launch events, while also revealing the Xbox handheld console developed with Asus for late 2025 release (venturebeat.com, bbc.com).

• Neuralink raised a record $650M Series E at a $9B valuation as brain-computer interface funding is projected to reach $1.4B in 2025, while global venture funding slowed to $21.8B in May but startup M&A surged to $24.7B led by AI acquisitions (news.crunchbase.com).

• North America dominated AI VC investments with $69.7B from February to May 2025, far outpacing Europe and Asia despite political challenges, as Khosla Ventures and Accel emerged as the most active US investors in May (techcrunch.com, news.crunchbase.com).

• OpenAI is developing an AI-first social network with image generation and Jony Ive-designed hardware to compete with Meta and Google, while Bing now offers OpenAI's Sora video generator for free without requiring a ChatGPT subscription (freethink.com, theverge.com).

• African fintech PalmPay is raising $50-100M in Series B funding leveraging its extensive user base, while Irish fintech NomuPay secured $40M from SoftBank at a $290M valuation to enhance cross-border payments (techcrunch.com).

• Wildtype's lab-grown salmon received FDA approval marking a milestone for cultivated animal products, currently available at one Portland restaurant with plans for wider distribution (theverge.com).

• VC funding is driving a global boom in worker surveillance tech including biometric tracking and AI productivity monitoring, especially in less regulated developing markets (restofworld.org).

• Galway's TitanHQ was acquired and merged with Redstor to create CyberSentriq targeting $100M ARR by 2028, as startup M&A activity picked up significantly in May 2025 (siliconrepublic.com, news.crunchbase.com).

🎧🍌 Benchmark’s Eric Vishria on Going Zero to $100M ARR in 12 Months (thespl.it, 2025-06-06). Eric Vishria discusses Benchmark's approach to investing, the rapid growth of AI startups, storytelling's importance for founders, and the evolving archetypes of successful entrepreneurs in today's tech landscape

AI is a Threat to SaaS Multiples (thebootstrappedfounder.com, 2025-06-06). SaaS founders face declining multiples as AI enhances coding efficiency, reducing the previously valued technical moat. Emphasizing human insights, partnerships, and branding is crucial for sustaining business value amidst automation

Build a Cannon to Kill a Mosquito with Mani Doraisamy (skmurphy.com, 2025-06-09). Mani Doraisamy discusses bootstrapping products using a product-led growth model, demonstrating through Neartail and tools for Google Workspace like Form Facade, focusing on specific user needs and iterative development

deleteee (alexanderjarvis.com, 2025-06-05). Investment memos for PayMongo, Rippling, Argyle, and pitch decks for Cleo detail fundraising goals and strategic directions across a range of financial tech sectors, alongside lessons from Peter Thiel for startups

Everyone Thinks They Are Underfunded (readsuperfluid.com, 2025-06-05). A discussion on funding disparities, highlighting how AI and DeepTech dominate capital allocation while 'Forgotten Middle' startups face challenges, emphasizing creative strategies for sustainable business growth with tools like Vanta and Notion

Unless Tied to Hardware or Network Effects, Will AI Render Standalone Software Obsolete as an Asset Class? (alchemistaccelerator.com, 2025-06-04). Exploration of standalone software's decline due to AI-driven code generation, investment opportunities in hardware and manufacturing, and implications of demographic changes on innovation and venture capital landscape

50 Years of Microsoft and Developer Tools with Scott Guthrie (newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com, 2025-06-04). Scott Guthrie discusses Microsoft’s evolution in developer tools, from Visual Basic and ASP.NET to Azure and VS Code, and the implications of AI on future development environments in a recent episode

Week 23, 2025 - Search and Burnout (peterszasz.com, 2025-06-06). In Week 23 of 2025, a platform team is built using Meilisearch and Node scripts, while insights from compensation surveys indicate stability in work culture, management styles, and compensation trends in the tech industry

TDD, performance reviews, and diagnostic metrics 💡 (refactoring.fm, 2025-06-09). AI tools are improving TDD by easing test writing. Effective performance reviews should not surprise employees, highlighting ongoing feedback. Understanding diagnostic vs. improvement metrics is key for actionable development insights

The path to profitability (frappe.io, 2025-06-04). Frappe's journey to profitability took over a decade, involving complex ERP systems, building platforms, and the challenges of monetizing open source while developing a committed team and strong vision

The Personalization of Software (digitalnative.tech, 2025-06-04). The personalization of software is evolving, driven by AI tools like Lovable that enable users to create custom apps quickly and Helium's self-improving software vision aimed at enhancing user experiences in mobile applications

The Scaling Trap in Software Development (flyingwhilebuilding.com, 2025-06-08). The article discusses the KISS Principle and highlights the challenges of software development, emphasizing that projects often exceed budgets and timelines due to unique complexities and cultural issues rather than purely technical problems

Anthropic's CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram) (lennysnewsletter.com, 2025-06-05). Mike Krieger, CPO of Anthropic, discusses AI's impact on product development, with Claude writing most code, introducing MCP, and offering new metrics to prioritize value over engagement in AI applications

Dude, Where's My Strategy? (elidedbranches.com, 2025-06-05). Platform teams evolve technology strategies by supporting innovations like containerization, microservices, and cloud solutions, fostering gradual advancements rather than driving radical changes

Creating Intelligent Products (svpg.com, 2025-06-09). Embracing probabilistic behavior in product development is essential for creating intelligent products, integrating deterministic and probabilistic approaches, with applications in AI like Waymo, Google Translate, and Shopify Magic

Solve Real Problems (zoia.org, 2025-06-07). To effectively solve real problems, focus on severe user pain points, engage with potential buyers, prioritize product functionality over aesthetics, and start small to achieve clarity and freedom in your project

Dude, Where’s My Strategy? (skamille.medium.com/dude-wheres-my-strategy-8c86aa01729c, 2025-06-05). Camille Fournier explores the challenges and strategies of platform teams, emphasizing the importance of incremental innovation and support for evolving technologies like containers, microservices, and cloud solutions without overburdening application teams

Rust For Foundational Software (corrode.dev, 2025-06-06). Rust is positioned as a key language for foundational software, emphasizing reliability, infrastructure, and versatility across domains, highlighting its growing adoption by major companies for critical systems and robust development practices

Think big, build small (joeblu.com, 2025-06-06). Exploring the transition from small software companies to larger enterprises emphasizes the need for platformization, standardization, and key tools like application platforms, job queues, and data pipelines while advocating for a 'think big, build small' approach

Simple Defaults (gebna.gg, 2025-06-04). This piece discusses keeping software engineering simple with a focus on monolith architecture using one programming language and deploying on a single Linux box, emphasizing tools like Coolify for server management

💭 PocketCal Build Log (waylonwalker.com, 2025-06-08). Waylon Walker discusses the development of PocketCal, a tiny web app emphasizing state storage in the URL bar, minimizing server reliance, and the challenge of using JavaScript for web applications

Voxicle Build Log 14 (haseebmajid.dev, 2025-06-09). Voxicle's Build Log 14 highlights the development of a Public Feedback Dashboard, enhancing user anonymity with deviceID cookies. Tech tools used include Terraform/Open ToFu, Grafana, and Zellij for improved command management

How Mercado Libre built Latin America's most valuable company: 18k engineers, 30k deploys a day, and their own fleet of planes | Sebastian Barrios (lennysnewsletter.com, 2025-06-08). Sebastian Barrios, ex-Mercado Libre for product and engineering, scaled the company with 18,000 engineers and 30,000 daily code deployments, prioritizing user experience and fostering a culture of radical candor

Stripe Deploys 1,000 Times A Day And You Don't Deploy On Fridays (news.alvaroduran.com, 2025-06-04). Stripe boasts 1,000 daily deployments with 99.999% uptime, challenging the notion of avoiding deployments on Fridays, emphasizing speed as a key competitive advantage in software delivery and quality through continuous improvement practices

Aligning Teams around Work - An Optimization Problem Solved by Smaller Cells (v01.io, 2025-06-06). Aligning teams around work involves creating smaller, interdisciplinary cells optimized for value streams and effective communication, moving beyond large silos that impair product delivery and strategic outcomes

Mobile onboarding evolution at Flo Health - Engineering Strategy (learnings.aleixmorgadas.dev, 2025-06-05). Eugene shares Flo Health's transformation of onboarding from a rigid, hardcoded approach to a dynamic, server-driven model, utilizing domain-specific language (DSL), backend-driven UI, and visual tooling for autonomous flow management

I dream of roombas - thousands of automated AI robots that autonomously maintain codebases (ghuntley.com, 2025-06-07). Automated AI robots, termed 'Roombas', are envisioned to manage software codebases, using subagents for context management and addressing low-value tasks such as KTLO, leveraging tools like GitHub Actions and the Cursed programming language

My first vibecoding project (idratherbewriting.com, 2025-06-04). Exploring 'vibecoding,' an innovative approach utilizing AI agents to automate weekly report generation, focusing on changelists from version control to create human-readable summaries for efficient documentation

Adventures in babysitting coding agents (changelog.com, 2025-06-06). Steve Yegge discusses vibe coding, the decline of IDEs, and the appeal of supervising AI agents over traditional coding, alongside tools like Retool and Heroku’s upcoming Fir platform

Vibe Coding vs Agentic Coding (smcleod.net, 2025-06-06). Vibe coding fosters creative development with AI tools, while agentic coding emphasizes structured collaboration with AI agents like Cline for sustainable, production-ready solutions. The shift impacts business strategy and coding practices

Vibe Coding: A Threat to Your Dev Machine? (markjgsmith.com, 2025-06-04). Vibe coding tools may expose developers to security risks by modifying local systems and running commands under user privileges. This raises concerns about attacks that compromise sensitive data or the development environment itself

Taking Ownership: My 5-Year Journey to Engineering Management (blog.devgenius.io, 2025-06-09). Alex Kondrashov shares insights from his five-year journey to engineering management, emphasizing the importance of ownership and leadership in software development without a formal promotion

The 2-Week Vacation Test for Engineers and Managers (newsletter.eng-leadership.com, 2025-06-08). The 2-Week Vacation Test evaluates knowledge sharing among engineers and managers, emphasizing the avoidance of bottlenecks and the importance of effective documentation, supported by tools like DevStats for improved project management

Avoiding Management (funcall.blogspot.com, 2025-06-09). Joe Marshall expresses his preference for being an individual contributor over a manager, highlighting challenges like project timelines and the complexities of team dynamics while advocating for supportive leadership in software development

A RedMonk Conversation: Ori Saporta on the Architect’s Role In Crisis (redmonk.com, 2025-06-05). Ori Saporta discusses the evolving role of architects in software development, emphasizing architectural observability, the disconnect between intent and implementation, and the need for accountability amidst increasing complexity and the impact of AI

QFM059: Engineering Leadership Reading List March 2025 (matthewsinclair.medium.com/qfm059-engineering-leadership-reading-list-march-2025-1fcc6cc17778, 2025-06-08). The Engineering Leadership Reading List discusses key themes like the myth of '10x engineers', AI's impact on software development, the rise of GTM engineers, and innovative product development approaches in modern teams

Digital Equipment Corporation no more (nedbatchelder.com, 2025-06-09). Ned Batchelder reflects on his 39-year journey since joining Digital Equipment Corporation, highlighting its groundbreaking contributions in minicomputers, Unix, and C, while acknowledging its fading presence in today’s tech landscape

Why Leetcode Style Interview Tests Are Bullshit (darrenhorrocks.co.uk, 2025-06-09). Darren Horrocks critiques leetcode-style interview tests, discussing his experience of being accused of cheating after completing three tests in 39 minutes, despite having 20 years of experience and no cheating tools

Leaving PythonAnywhere (gilesthomas.com, 2025-06-05). After 14 years co-founding PythonAnywhere, Giles reflects on its journey from Dirigible to a leading cloud Python IDE, now under Anaconda. He plans to take a year off for relaxation before new ventures

MVP, Technical Debt and Rebuids (rodolphoarruda.pro.br, 2025-06-09). Building a rushed MVP incurs technical debt and stresses development teams, leading to costly rebuilds. Emphasizing quality software can enhance developer satisfaction, as articulated by DHH on maintaining 'developer's happiness'