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everything you need to read this week by @stephthefounder (August 18th)

Author

Steph Mui
August 18, 2025

The goal is to be the best weekly newsletter to be the most succinct + fun way to learn about all the best things you need to know across tech, startups, VC, etc, sent out every Monday. (and at the minimum, it will include the links I post about every week on instagram!). Feedback (and a better/more creative newsletter name than the boring one I have now) always welcome!

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happy monday!

ipo’s are so back!!

gemini (the crypto trading platform founded by the winklevoss twins) & via (the ride-sharing / public transit service) both filed to IPO. s-1 analyses coming soon 👀 and at first glance it seems like companies are eager to go public because of the recent successes vs financial fundamentals (?)

  • gemini seems to have generated more losses this year compared to last year (whereas usually companies try to go public off the back of major financial growth/momentum - aka figma’s playbook). this signals that the market (successes like Circle and Bullish last week) outweigh the only ok financials

  • via tried to go public in 2021 but ultimately withdrew due to macro environment but is now back again

interesting that they were also both filed on friday (and gemini especially - filed friday evening) — curious if that was purposeful to avoid too much speculation/digging into the s-1 because the financial fundamentals aren’t the strongest (like they were in figma’s) 🤪 if you’re a banker tell me if this is a strategy or just a coincidence / conspiracy theory i have

💰 Companies that will make you a millionaire

Every week I highlight a few of my favorite startups that I personally think are really promising. They’ve typically received funding that week + are hiring, and occasionally I’ll include some special bonus ones.

And now you can easily earn some cold hard cash 💰: you can now use PINpoint (a fun product my company has been building) to earn $$ (anywhere from $5K to $30K) for successfully referring people to top startups. The brilliant part about this is:

1) you don’t even need to know the person who’s ultimately hired - if you post a link on LinkedIn and the algorithm shows it to someone who ultimately clicks the link and is hired, you get the $$$ 😏 

2) all of these companies are great and highly respected, so your friend (or random person who saw your post) will also thank you 😉 win win

(PS are you a founder or do you work at a cool startup that’s hiring? reply back with the name so we can give you guys a shout!)

This week’s featured companies:

  1. Profound: Helping brands get discovered in the AI-first internet by optimizing how they show up in assistant search results (in the same way that companies have been obsessing over SEO / Google search rankings for the last decade). Works with 2,000+ marketers at companies and raised a $35M Series B led by Sequoia (just 2 months after its Series A was announced)

    1. Job openings can be found here

  2. Jump: “Shopify for sports” - founded by Alex Rodriguez & Marc Lore (who besides bringing a lot of relevant experience also bring two major first customers - the Minnesota Lynx & Timberwolves). The platform unifies ticketing, marketing, and fan data + just announced a $23M Series A led by Alexis Ohanian’s 776

    1. Job openings can be found here

  3. Continua: AI agent for group chats, founded by ex-Google Distinguished Engineer David Petrou. It surfaces previous info, sets reminders, launches polls / calendar invites, etc. The startup just closed an $8M seed round led by GV

    1. Job openings can be found here

Some bonus companies that were also funded last week:

  • Cognition (AI for autonomous code generation) 💻 → $500M Series C (Job openings here)

  • Cohere (enterprise large language models) 🌐 → $500M raise (Job openings here)

  • Gameto (stem cell-based reproductive health) 🧬 → $44M Series C (Job openings here)

  • Protege (connects data holders with AI firms) 📊 → $25M Series A (Job openings here)

  • EliseAI (AI workflow tools for housing & health) 🏥 → $200M raise (Job openings here)

  • Titan (AI-driven IT services roll-up) 🤖 → $74M raise (Job openings here)

  • Squint (AI + AR for factory guidance) 🏭 → $40M Series B (Job openings here)

  • Sola Solutions (AI enterprise process automation) ⚙️ → $21M Series A (Job openings here)

🤓 Best things to read instead of doomscrolling

The best things I’ve read every week, listed and summarized here:

  1. How to Look Stupid by Dan Luu – the grown-up version of “the smartest people aren’t afraid to ask dumb questions” & a case for how unearthing unique ideas/thoughts come from looking at things others have deemed too stupid (another way of thinking about the consensus-contrarian matrix)

  2. Shamelessness as a Strategy by Nadia Asparouhova – on shamelessness as an increasingly common strategy for winning (attention/fame/$). people not only underestimate it, but seemingly don’t realize that actively criticizing it actually just makes these shameless people even more successful (especially in this world dominated by the influence of social media)

  3. Why Are We Suckers for Astrology, the Myers-Briggs, and Other Shaky Psychology Tests? by Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel – MBTI is basically half science and astrology, but people still love it (in the same way that we all love debating what Harry Potter house we’d be in). The reason: these tests give us community and identity (a way for us to further understand ourselves)

  4. The Crisis of the University Started Long Before Trump by Clifford Ando – this caught my eye as a uchicago alum (tldr: uchicago has a tremendous amount of debt & now only 10-20% of undergrad tuition is going towards educating students…) but is a really really compelling read to anyone who’s interested in the future of education (something i’ve been thinking about a lot lately, especially when it feels like AI + the social media echo chamber are making us all dumber 🫠).

📱 Everything you may have missed in tech/startup news

  1. Sam Altman is co-founding Merge Labs (a brain-computer interface startup competing with Elon's Neuralink) at a $850 million valuation: The company is raising around $250M with World/Worldcoin’s Alex Blania as co-founder, though Altman won’t run day-to-day ops. The move sets up a direct showdown with Neuralink, which recently hit a $9B valuation and began human trials

  2. Bullish (crypto exchange) IPO'd last week: stock surged 140%+ from its IPO price (implying a $13 billion valuation): IPOs (and crypto) are so back

  3. OpenAI restores GPT-4o after huge user backlash to its GPT-5 rollout and higher usage limits return for paying subs: consumers complaining online works, lol

  4. Gemini (crypto trading platform founded by the Winklevoss Twins) files for IPO: capitalizing on the recent crypto / IPO interest?? Gemini has seen $285B in trading volume and holds $18B in assets, but the filing shows steep losses (nearly $283M on $69M revenue in the first half of 2025)

🤪 Just because / for fun

aka random things that I found interesting enough to screenshot or take a picture of last week

  • shamelessness rage bait as a strategy?? i posted a story this week accidentally implying that a yankees logo was a mets logo (it’s not y’all - i own the right ring!! proof below) but i think it may have been my 2nd or 3rd most ever replied to stories (including many angry responses telling me that i was dumb). i now understand why social media is filled with so much controversy (it pays !! in engagement and therefore literally $)

  • i visited the POSH office last week and wow it was FUN (video coming soon). i don’t think i’ve ever seen a more beautiful office. i also learned what this is (a tesla cyberquad… for kids (!)) and now i kinda want one (i know, i know…)

  • i came across this hilarous IG account this week where a guy (or gal?) who can’t draw and is following 0 people gets people to send him pictures that he then draws (for $$$!!!!). the troll boomer editing is laso top tier.

    other gems i’ve really loved lately - judys family cafe, remy zee (esp if you have an asian dad, you can’t skip this), @sabbbbern who draws people from her NYC fire escape 🥺 people are so creative / funny / talented

  • finally finished this article this weekend by ronan farrow (his book catch and kill is one of my favorites) and wow 🤯 i don’t really even have words to describe the emotional rollercoaster and rage i felt reading this 🫠 

<3 until next week!

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