TLDR FOUNDERS 2025-09-29

Get a video out today

TRUMP PAVES WAY FOR $14B TIKTOK DEAL THAT PUTS US INVESTORS IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT

Trump just approved a TikTok deal where American investors, including Oracle, Michael Dell, and Rupert Murdoch, will control 80% of a new US entity valued at $14 billion, with ByteDance keeping 20%. The new structure means the US company will control TikTok's algorithm and content, technically complying with the 2024 law requiring ByteDance's divestiture while keeping the app running.

YC EARLY DECISION FOR STUDENTS

YC's Early Decision allows students to apply while in school, securing a future spot in a batch post-graduation. Successful applicants receive immediate funding, ensuring they can complete their studies before starting with YC.

HUMANOID ROBOTS ARE META'S NEXT ‘AR-SIZE BET'

Meta is investing heavily in humanoid robots, focusing on software rather than hardware, according to CTO Andrew Bosworth. The company plans to develop a licensing software platform for other manufacturers, similar to Google's strategy in the mobile industry. Meta's new Superintelligence AI lab aims to create a "world model" for dexterous robotics, with key talent hired to lead this effort.

THE RIGHT WAY TO PITCH VCS AND ACCELERATORS (AND WHY MOST FOUNDERS GET IT WRONG)

Venture capital funding is rising, with North American startups securing $184 billion, yet competition remains intense. Investors seek differentiation and scalability, and VCs require early market validation, while accelerators focus on the founder's problem-solving insights. Successful pitches emphasize clear, jargon-free communication, a distinctive future vision, and proof of traction to convert investors from skeptics to believers.

WHAT WE'VE LEARNED ABOUT BUILDING AI-POWERED FEATURES

PostHog founders waited until 2024 to add AI, seeing most features as "fool's gold" - bolted on, rarely used, quick to tarnish. After a year of building Max AI, the team shares three hard lessons learned.

EFFORT-OUTCOME ASYMMETRY

Effort and outcomes often don't align. Cheaper celebrity podcasts now out-earn costly narrative shows. Business degrees provide higher starting salaries than counseling degrees, despite the same time investment. Entrepreneurs should evaluate ideas and existing projects to ensure efforts yield substantial returns, focusing on projects that compound input effectively.

a demo today.

KLING AI

KLING AI is a next-gen creative studio for generating high-quality images and videos from text prompts built for rich detail and diverse visual styles.

INDIEMERGER

IndieMerger is an all-in-one platform where co-founders can match, chat, and build startups together with shared workspaces, Kanban boards, and AI-powered skill matching.

WEGIC

Wegic is the first AI website team that builds, optimizes, and updates your site automatically while collecting leads and boosting sales.

PERSONAL CONTEXT SEARCH IS THE REAL SEO APOCALYPSE

Google will launch a personal context search that adds everything it knows about you to queries. It would turn a search like "coffee" into "oat milk latte near my 2 pm meeting that won't make me late" automatically. This fragments SEO because profitable generic searches are split into millions of hyper-specific queries nobody can optimize for - sites dominating "best laptop" lose traffic to niche players matching individual contexts. The shift means SEO moves from keywords to being genuinely useful for specific moments, while Google's data moat makes this advantage permanent.

THE ART OF PROTOTYPING

Just because AI lets anyone spin up an app in minutes doesn't mean they understand prototyping - real prototyping is about asking the right questions, not just building things. The best prototypes are disposable tools designed to answer one specific question: does this solve a real problem (Role), does it feel right to use (Look and Feel), or can we actually build it (Implementation)? Pick one lens, build just enough to learn something, then throw it away.

WHY EXPERTS WRITING AI EVALS ARE CREATING THE FASTEST-GROWING COMPANIES IN HISTORY

Experts writing AI evaluations have transformed them into essential sales tools and technical benchmarks for AI companies, driving rapid growth. Mercor leveraged this opportunity and reached $500M revenue in 17 months by partnering with top AI labs to provide expert evaluations that improve model performance. Brendan Foody, Mercor's CEO, highlights the importance of evaluations in addressing AI bottlenecks and shaping the future AI-driven economy.

WHAT IS YOUR OPERATING PHILOSOPHY?

How you spend your time reveals your operating philosophy - your unstated beliefs about how the world works.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FOOL MOTHER NATURE

The real test isn't what other people think, but what nature and free markets tell you.

WHAT'S THE SECRET TO GROWING FASTER?

It comes down to just making sure people who should pay you know who you are, get what you do, and trust you enough to call you first when they're ready.