Tech and startups: 5th August 2025

• Anthropic is set to raise up to $5 billion at a $170 billion valuation, cementing its position as a rival to OpenAI and demonstrating the massive scale of AI investments.

• Figma successfully launched its IPO at $33 per share, raising over $1.2 billion, as venture-backed IPOs continue to perform well post-debut signaling improved public market conditions for tech companies.

• Venture capital is increasingly concentrated in ultra-unicorns, particularly in AI, leaving growth-stage companies struggling for attention and funding as investors focus on the largest opportunities.

• Robotics funding has surged past $6 billion in 2025, driven by humanoid and medical applications from companies like Apptronik and Neuralink.

• More startups are acquiring other startups in 2025 amid tightened funding and reasonable valuations, with AI acquisitions shifting toward essential infrastructure rather than speculative models.

• Google rolled out Gemini 2.5 Deep Think AI, a reasoning model that tests multiple ideas in parallel and outperforms competitors in complex problem-solving tasks.

• AI-first companies are adopting new value models and scaling playbooks, using usage-based pricing structures and consultative selling tactics to enhance scalability.

• GV continues betting big on AI startups despite competition with parent company Alphabet, focusing on chips, applications, and high-value early-stage opportunities.

Solving Dispatch in a Ridesharing Problem Space (eng​.lyft​.com). Lyft's dispatch team tackles dynamic ridesharing challenges using graph theory and optimization algorithms for efficient rider-driver matching

How AI Test Automation Cut Developer Productivity Bottlenecks by 30% at Scale (engineering​.salesforce​.com). AI-powered Test Failure Triage Agent improves developer productivity by 30%, enhancing test failure resolution with context-driven suggestions and semantic search integration

How we built AI agents at Airtable (medium​.com/airtable-eng). Airtable's agentic framework enables AI features like Omni and Field Agents, enhancing automation, reasoning, and decision-making capabilities within its app platform

Scaling Catalog Attribute Extraction with Multi-modal LLMs (tech​.instacart​.com). Instacart implements PARSE, a multi-modal LLM platform, enhancing catalog attribute extraction by integrating text and image data for efficient, high-quality product classifications

Our $100M Series B (oxide​.computer). Oxide raises $100M Series B, doubling total funding, led by USIT, focusing on co-designed cloud computing solutions for on-premises markets

Figma: A Random Walk in Palo Alto (2025) (adamnash​.blog). Figma's journey from a startup founded by Dylan Field to a significant IPO, showcasing cloud graphic design, collaboration, and Silicon Valley dynamics

Meeting a founder in Zurich (petecodes​.io). Meeting with Dominic Monn, founder of Mentorcruise, highlights entrepreneurship challenges and the evolution of indie-hacking in Switzerland's competitive landscape

Ultra-Lean AI-Assisted Startups (brajeshwar​.com). Explore the potential of ultra-lean AI-assisted startups utilizing tools like Terraform and Kubernetes for efficient, specialized workflows and rapid product development

How Founders Are Ditching VC Norms and Finding Capital on Their Own Terms at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 (cosmicmeta​.ai). Founders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 embrace alternative funding methods, emphasizing tailored strategies, equity retention, and flexible partnerships over traditional VC norms

Leading PlayerZero’s Series A: Solving for what happens when AI writes your code (foundationcapital​.com). PlayerZero raises $15M to tackle software quality issues arising from AI-generated code, using AI-driven insights for code behavior and debugging

Advice for the Next Generation of Startup Founders (speedrun​.substack​.com). Top 12 tips for startup founders from SR004 alumni in the a16z speedrun program, covering pitching, team collaboration, social media, and resource utilization

Privacy Meets Innovation: How AI Startups are Redefining Tech Frontiers (eliza-ng​.me). AI startups focus on privacy innovation, open-source LLMs, collective intelligence, and equity-driven workplaces for sustainable tech development

I couldn't submit a PR, so I got hired and fixed it myself (skeptrune​.com). Engineer resolves a persistent search bug at Mintlify using AbortController, highlighting the benefits of open source and direct problem-solving

Prot Asks: Diego about Emacs use, head of engineering, industry’s state, and combat sports (protesilaos​.com). Diego discusses Emacs usage for development, leading an engineering team, industry trends, AI impact, and his passion for combat sports

Junior Extinction (davidsj​.substack​.com). Discussion on the future of junior engineering roles amid AI advancements and hiring reductions in tech companies, emphasizing skills needed for AI orchestration

Thoughts on the future of software development as a non-developer (atelfo​.github​.io). Exploring software development challenges with LLMs, insights into workflows, and the evolving role of non-developers in startups

Specialists vs Generalists (codecube​.net). Exploring the balance between specialists and generalists in tech, highlighting tools like CI/CD, IaC, and the impact of AI on team dynamics

The Vibe Coding Imperative for Product Managers (cacm​.acm​.org). Vibe coding, a concept by Andrej Karpathy, transforms product management by enabling AI-driven development through plain English descriptions, democratizing software creation

Cline: The Open Source Code Agent — with Saoud Rizwan and Nik Pash (latent​.space). Cline's open-source coding agent excels in automation for coding and non-coding tasks, leveraging the Plan + Act paradigm amid the AI coding landscape

Why You Should Join Lovable (whyyoushouldjoin​.substack​.com). Explore Lovable's ambition to revolutionize software creation with vibecoding, AI tools, and a growing landscape of innovative coding solutions

Vibe-coding is for unproduced, not production, code (s-anand​.net). Vibe-coding enables non-experts to create quick prototypes and tools, leveraging Python and LLMs, while acknowledging the potential for increased technical debt

Orta Therox: 6 Weeks of Claude Code (craftycto​.com). Orta Therox's six-week exploration of Claude Code revolutionizes programming, transforming maintenance tasks and side projects while enhancing productivity and collaboration

Key Insights: 'How to Vibe Code in PM Interviews' (newsletter​.pmcurve​.com). Vibe-coding is essential in PM interviews, emphasizing product sense, diverse tools, and thoughtful design over mere technical speed

I Built a Notion Publishing System Without Looking at the Code (biilmann​.blog). Mathias Biilmann explores building a Notion publishing system using AI tools like Claude Code and Netlify, focusing on outcomes over manual coding

Ramblings (stephango​.com). Implement personal 'ramblings' channels in chat apps to enhance social cohesion and communication for remote teams of 2-10, fostering idea generation

AI bottlenecks, translating impact, and systems thinking 💡 (refactoring​.fm). Exploring AI bottlenecks, productive coding, and the importance of systems thinking in engineering management

How We’re Working, 2025 (kellysutton​.com). Scholarly's operational strategies in 2025 reveal a focus on customer needs, AI integrations, and B2B SaaS innovations for universities, with tools like Linear and Slack

“I think of analysts as data wizards who help their product teams solve problems” (towardsdatascience​.com). Mariya Mansurova discusses the role of analysts as data wizards, their expertise in agentic AI tools like LLMs, and the value of simulations in product analytics

The Mountain Pass (visitmy​.website). Reflections on product management, AI development, and personal adventures including a recent trip to Spain and experiences with an electric car

Introducing alt.management (alt​.management). alt.management introduces a new content platform focused on management insights, personal impact, and humorous takes on leadership challenges

I'm a scrappy startup and I care about all our customers' usecases (pid1​.dev). Scrappy startup Terrateam emphasizes user empathy and flexible solutions, contrasting with big tech's rigid features and account requirements

A Three-Step Framework for Launching Your Project (sergiolema​.dev). Launch projects effectively with a three-step framework: build an MVP, enhance features and pricing, then focus on growth and innovation

AI Agent Frameworks: A Product-First Approach to the Problem of Plenty (harini​.blog). Navigating AI agent frameworks like LangGraph, CrewAI, and AWS Bedrock requires a product-first strategy focused on business outcomes and manageable complexity

Dragoncatcher: Oxide dreams (robinsloan​.com). Oxide Computer raises funds; offers a physical computer for flexible cloud resource management, sparking dreams of a collaborative nerd consortium

[notes] Who Wants an Oxide Rack? (v5​.chriskrycho​.com). Robin Sloan dreams of a consortium running apps on an Oxide rack, merging cloud convenience with on-prem control, despite high costs

ML for SWEs #61: The secret behind how Google came back (mlforswes​.com). Google's AI resurgence attributed to user feedback, community building, and rapid model development through social media engagement and changes in corporate culture

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