Tech and startups: 14th October 2025

• The Oura raises $900M at an $11B valuation to scale AI-driven wearables, production, and global distribution.

• India’s tech and fintech heat up as Google invests $15B in an AI/data center hub, Revolut launches full-KYC wallets with UPI and remittance, and Flipkart’s Super.money taps Juspay for D2C checkout.

• Q3 venture trends stayed resilient: AI-centric rounds dominated with active investors, Europe held steady on early-stage strength, Brazil led Latin America, and space infrastructure hit a five-quarter funding high.

• Charles Schwab backed cap-table rival Qapita with a $26.5M Series B to power Private Issuer Equity Services for U.S. startups.

• SoftBank will acquire ABB Robotics for ~$5.4B, signaling aggressive consolidation bets across AI and robotics.

• Atlassian shipped major Rovo AI upgrades and new developer tooling across Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and more to push AI-native workflows.

• The Linux Foundation is creating a React Foundation to govern React and React Native, with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Vercel as founders.

• Fintech consolidation intensifies as Mastercard and Coinbase vie to acquire BVNK, a UK stablecoin infrastructure startup.

Introducing the Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model (deepmind​.google). Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model enables UI-interacting agents via Gemini API with low latency for web and mobile tasks

Introducing the React Foundation: The New Home for React & React Native (engineering​.fb​.com). Meta introduces the React Foundation to host React & React Native under Linux Foundation governance with new governance, funding, and community initiatives

Productivity Habits (engineering​.gusto​.com). Practical productivity habits for engineers: stay unblocked, breadth-first structuring, and strategic tooling including VSCode, Vim, and AI aids

Engineering Real-Time Multimodal AI Pipelines: Scaling File Processing to 50M Daily Uploads (engineering​.salesforce​.com). Real-time multimodal AI pipelines for 50M daily uploads: file processing, validation, base64 grounding, and cross-platform prompts

How to build reliable AI workflows with agentic primitives and context engineering (github​.blog). Three-layer agentic framework using Markdown prompts, agentic primitives, and context engineering to build reliable AI workflows with Copilot CLI and APM

Vibe engineering (simonwillison​.net). Vibe engineering distinguishes seasoned AI-assisted software work from hype, using multiple coding agents to produce production-ready code

The Past and Future of Vibe Coding (blog​.nateliason​.com). Vibe coding evolution, AI-assisted tools (Cursor, Claude Sonnet, Codex), Build Your Own Apps, Covici, and the shift toward production-ready, AI-assisted software development

Next.js is not a good fit for vibe engineering (fabianlindfors​.se). Next.js falls short for vibe engineering; Fabian Lindfors explores an agent-optimized alternative with Specular for coding agents

Leveling Up in the Vibe Coding Video Game (feld​.com). AI pair programming journey from Cursor and Claude to Claude Code, with Vercel, Supabase, Clerk, GitHub, Docker, and CI/CD

Vibe Engineering with Django: Working with AI Coding Agents (vinitkumar​.me). Vibe Engineering with Django explores AI coding agents, planning, testing, documentation, version control, and human accountability in Django development

Jeremy Kranz and Sentinel (ma​.tt). Jeremy Kranz's career spans Intel Capital to Sentinel Global, with insights on Open Source, AI adoption, and enterprise asset allocation

Launching Pathfounders (mikebutcher​.me). Launching Pathfounders aims to deliver informed reporting, analysis, and opinion on top tech startups, VC firms across Europe, Silicon Valley, and global ecosystems

Meet Ted McKlveen, David Jaramillo and Bav Roy, founders of Verne (climatecap​.substack​.com). Verne founders discuss on-site power and cooling for data centers, transitioning to zero-emission operations and rapid power deployment

Launching Asylum Ventures (nickchirls​.com). Founder-focused venture firm aims to treat builders as artists, not assets, with a $55M fund and Brooklyn studio

The illegible nature of software development talent (surfingcomplexity​.blog). Talented engineers are often inconspicuous; observable signals like GitHub or LinkedIn fail to reveal their true impact

Hiring, from the Other Side (blog​.waleson​.com). Insights on hiring from an interviewer’s perspective across scale-ups, startups and small firms, with tips to decode processes and improve candidate impact

Earning the Right to Be Illegible (joshbeckman​.org). Earning illegibility through legible work, Jira planning, and trust-based budgeting in large software organizations

The PowerPoint Paradox (novice​.media). Explores how deep technical work goes unseen compared to crowd-pleasing no-code demos and PowerPoint-like outputs

The State of AI Adoption in Engineering Teams 📊 (refactoring​.fm). Exclusive report on AI adoption in engineering: personal and team usage, adoption challenges, skills shifts, and an AI-driven three-stage path with Augment Code collaboration

Coding managers, types of context, and bad decisions 💡 (refactoring​.fm). AI context types for managers: broad vs deep context, coding once with AI, and avoiding the resulting bias

How We Rethought Culture While Facing the Unknown (medium​.com/fiverr-engineering). Fiverr Go: using AI tools, startup-like pace, Gantt visuals, Cursor AI, and cross-team integration to reshape culture and delivery

How to Build an AI Product Team (productcompass​.pm). Practical guide on hiring, structuring, and scaling AI teams with Bryan Bischof; phased hiring, centralized vs embedded models, eval-centered development

My startup diary: Techstars (austinhenley​.com). Startup diary from Techstars Columbus: Khaki, AI features, MVP roadmap, mentor madness, microfeatures, credits from Google/OpenAI/DigitalOcean/AWS/Anthropic, and the first month

Studioworks (seancoates​.com). Studioworks: a platform for sending polished invoices built by Sean Coates and team with a focus on privacy and sustainable business

Time for a change (alexhyett​.com). Alex Hyett discusses returning to YouTube, career shifts, AI impact, a new product-focused plan, and Patreon-backed behind-the-scenes content

Why doesn't anything work anymore? (notes​.jim-nielsen​.com). Reflections on web performance, AI, design craft, and the frictions of modern software culture

30 Years of Building (veen​.com). Jeffrey Veen reflects on 30 years of veen.com, rebuilding a personal site, and reigniting a passion for building with modern tooling

Got opinions on observability? I could use your help (once more, with feeling) (charity​.wtf). Observability opinions requested on migrations, costs, OpenTelemetry, build vs buy, and tool consolidation for three-pillar setups

Basecamp alternative (jwz​.org). Discussion of self-hosted Basecamp alternatives: wiki, bug tracker, mobile UI, and tools like BookStack, Trac, Nextcloud, GitLab, Redmine, Kanboard, Vikunja, Gitea, Fossil, and RT

Polyglot Conference Vancouver 2024: Real Talk About AI, Industry Hubris, and the Art of Unconferencing (compositecode​.blog). Polyglot Vancouver 2024 unconference debates AI hype, hubris, and real-world tooling with devs worldwide

Fast Software, the Best Software (notes​.jim-nielsen​.com). Curated tech thoughts on fast software, AI, UX, web performance, and the open web from Jim Nielsen’s notes, featuring Andy Budd, Jason Santa Maria, and John Gruber

How Notion sees itself (ben​.page). Notion is framed as a software-building tool with building blocks, enabling custom workflows and AI-enabled features

Build what makes you special. Buy the rest. (werd​.io). A newsroom build-vs-buy framework prioritizing differentiating journalism, open source options, and modular SaaS for sustainable tech strategy

A Founder's Guide to Product Management (tomtunguz​.com). Foundational PM guide covering PMF, roadmaps, user research, PLG, and scaling teams with frameworks like RICE, Kano, and Value/Complexity

A Founder's Guide to Data Strategy & Analytics (tomtunguz​.com). Founders learn data strategy, modern stack, governance, data products, metrics, and team structure to build data-driven moats using Snowflake/BigQuery, dbt, Looker/Tableau, Fivetran, Hightouch, Great Expectations

The Founder’s Blind Spot That Kills Startups (fastcode​.io). Non-technical founders risk strategic blind spots as they confront technical debt, architecture, and delivery realism in startups

Developer Trust Over Conversion: The 10 Touchpoint Rule (nibzard​.com). Developers crave trust via 10+ touchpoints: docs, open source, content, and social proof to drive enterprise adoption

What a 10X TEAM looks like (newsletter​.manager​.dev). Velocity-focused engineering: direct customer access, AI-assisted PR reviews, architecture-first code reviews, extensive testing, and hiring interns to boost learning rate

Remote Working & A Company Trip Adventure (enderahmetyurt​.com). Remote work evolution at Teamtailor: from pandemic start to multi-country collaboration and annual in-person trips

Scaling a startup often is when everything breaks. Here’s how CompanyCam, Bulu and Hudl adapted. (siliconprairienews​.com). How Hudl, CompanyCam, and Bulu navigated scaling challenges, culture, hiring, and geographic strategy during growth

Superpowers: How I'm using coding agents in October 2025 (simonwillison​.net). Simon Willison explores coding agents with Claude Code, Superpowers plugin, memory notes, and root-cause tracing across DOT graphs and URL-based visualizers

Python, Go, Rust, TypeScript and AI with Armin Ronacher (newsletter​.pragmaticengineer​.com). Armin Ronacher discusses Python, Go, Rust, TypeScript, AI tools, language choices for startups, and agentic coding with AI interns

A non-technical CFO is shipping better code than the agencies he hired (martinalderson​.com). Non-technical CFO builds production dashboard with Claude Code, challenging low-code tools and agencies

Running AI agents in parallel (adityathebe​.com). Running multiple AI agent sessions in parallel, with planner prompts, review automation, and Claude/Codex workflows

English is a High Level Programming Language Now (ryanxcharles​.com). AI agents (Claude Code) replace editors; English as a precise interface to express programmer intent for features like dark mode and HMAC-SHA256

We Are All Software Architects Now: Using AI Responsibly for Software Development (ryanxcharles​.com). Explores responsible AI use in software development, shifting from coding to architecture with tools like Copilot, Claude, Cursor, Gemini, Codex, and OpenCode

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