- 7 minutes 16 secondsThe secret to fast startup growth isn’t early sales say top names in tech; plus, Rivian bought a world model startup to accelerate self-driving ambitions
At this year’s Disrupt, Lovable GTM lead Luke Arno, Polska’s Ben Broca, and Theory Ventures’ Tomasz Tunguz gave founders some tips on how to achieve true sales success in the first 90 days.
Also, EV maker Rivian has acquired Third Dimension, a U.K. startup founded by veterans of the gaming and autonomous vehicle industries that uses AI to turn images and videos into lifelike 3D worlds.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
23 October 2026, 7:00 am - 9 minutes 4 secondsAI lab Flapping Airplanes raises $1B at a $6B valuation; plus, Recursive launches Flint, a laptop coding model it says was largely built by AI
Just 9 months after raising an $180 million seed round, Flapping Airplanes has landed $1 billion Series A for its mission to build AI models "without ingesting half the internet."
Also, startup Recursive has released Flint, a free, laptop-sized coding model built largely by its own AI research system, as an early test of AI that improves itself.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
22 October 2026, 7:00 am - 7 minutes 34 secondsPlants can speak using electricity, so this startup built an AI model to decipher their language
Electric Plant has built an AI-powered translator to help humans listen to what plants are saying with the subtle electricity coursing through their stems.
Also, OpenAI says it's adding Orchestra's team and technology to work on Rosalind, its AI model for life sciences research, and to its related Rosalind Workbench tool, a harness that aims to help researchers plan experiments and analyze results.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
21 October 2026, 11:45 am - 9 minutes 21 secondsAmazon is taking its biggest shot at Nvidia yet; plus, Town nabbed unicorn valuation, and Tolan snags $30M for its AI companion
Amazon wants to break Nvidia’s hold on PyTorch, the free toolkit used to build most AI apps, so that more developers run their apps on alternative chips like its own.
Also, AI assistant startup Town nabbed a unicorn valuation on Monday, announcing a $108 million Series B round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures.
And AI companion app Tolan has raised another $30 million after attracting more than 250,000 active users.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
20 October 2026, 7:00 am - 7 minutes 19 secondsVeritas expands its anti-counterfeit chip to jewelry, trophies, and fragrance bottles; plus, Elorian’s first AI model wants to reason with images
Counterfeiters are getting better at replicating brands' marks and passing off dupes, known as "superfakes," as genuine items. A startup called Veritas wants to tackle the problem with its own chip that verifies goods.
Also, according to Elorian's evaluations, Glimpse outperforms even GPT-6 Astra on scientific chart reasoning and short-form video captioning, with competitive results on other visual reasoning tasks.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
19 October 2026, 12:20 pm - 9 minutes 9 secondsRicursive Intelligence is betting on AI-designed chips to help solve the compute crisis; plus, Gudea leverages AI to help organizations prevent social media crises before they erupt
The Ricursive founders detailed how their startup is developing AI that can design chips, learn from each iteration, and improve subsequent designs, all with the goal of automating and accelerating the chip design process.
Also, Gudea, a company that tracks how stories and rumors spread online that describes itself as the “storm tracker for the internet,” is using AI to help organizations spot trouble brewing online before it turns into a crisis.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
16 October 2026, 9:50 am - 7 minutes 18 secondsApate sends AI agents undercover to get scammed so they can gather fraud intelligence
Most companies use AI agents to ship products faster or speed up workflows. Apate.ai sends them undercover to get scammed.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
15 October 2026, 7:30 am - 7 minutes 18 secondsNiobia takes the guesswork out of some of tech’s most expensive mistakes; Giraffe Bio aims its bespoke biomolecules at the looming copper shortage
The San Francisco startup aims to help battery and chip manufacturers identify defects on production lines, reducing downtime and costly mistakes.
Also, as AI data centers and EVs drive up demand for copper, Giraffe Bio has unearthed a $6.4 million seed round to help miners extract more of the mineral.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
14 October 2026, 7:00 am - 8 minutes 47 secondsHoneyjar offers AI tools to improve PR and comms at every company; plus, WindBorne wins a hefty US Air Force contract
Honeyjar believes AI can actually make PR better.
Also, WindBorne is a startup that uses weather balloons and AI to predict the weather won a US military contract worth almost $50 million.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
13 October 2026, 8:00 am - 6 minutes 57 secondsEfferon wants to eradicate the devastating toll of pediatric sepsis; plus, Petra Power looks to modernize energy for data centers
Efferon has developed blood-purification tech to save children. Sepsis, an acute inflammation triggered by infection, is a leading cause of childhood mortality, claiming roughly 3 million children under the age of five annually.
Also, Petra Power says its fuel cells are super efficient and cut fuel costs during a time when the tech industry can’t get enough electricity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
12 October 2026, 12:40 pm - 9 minutes 15 secondsA startup founder who served time in prison is looking to court an untapped market: ex-cons
Richard Bronson, a former Stratton Oakmont partner who served time in federal prison for securities violations, has launched Commissary Club, a startup that uses AI to help people leaving prison find jobs, housing, community and even dates.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
9 October 2026, 3:30 pm - More Episodes? Get the App