everything you need to read this week by @stephthefounder (July 28)

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!

something i’ve been thinking a lot about - the debate and tradeoff of chasing trends/waves vs sticking to things for long periods of time (and building deep expertise, or because you really care about something even though it isn’t “trendy”). both in business and in life. half-baked thoughts i’ve been simmering a lot on lately:

• i have come to the conclusion that there are two main ways to win (that are on two opposite ends of the spectrum) and leaning all the way into one of them is the best:

  • type 1 - being unbelievably dedicated to one thing (regardless of macro environment/trends), or

  • type 2 - moving extremely quickly and jumping on trends (and therefore spinning up and abandoning things quickly + embracing a high failure rate)

• i listened to an episode of my first million podcast this morning where one of the hosts talks about a founder who started a clothing business in 2012 and has stuck with it / is thriving now. since then, as we all know, there are a million things that would’ve been “easier” to build because consumers were more interested in those things, great hires would’ve gravitated towards those kinds of companies, and VCs would’ve been more excited to fund (apps, AI, VR/AR, crypto… just to name a few).
  
  i will say (especially as a former VC and as a founder who has experienced both easy and hard fundraises), riding waves strategically is amazing (and is common startup and investing advice - i.e. build or invest in companies that are in good markets, because rising tides lift all boats).
  
  however, on a personal level, i’ve thought a lot about the opposite - about how great founders & genuine passion will create success in any kind of business. i see this especially among my friends & peers who i’ve been lucky enough to see the “behind the scenes” with (vs the survivorship bias i would experience seeing just the news) — passion (translated into hard work/high conviction/the willingness to stick through ups/downs) is more important than riding good waves on a personal level

• that being said, there is very much a type of person who can play into trends that can be very successful (and i envy them just as much). this kind of person (in my experience) needs to move VERY fast, is extremely high energy, and is comfortable executing without overanalyzing/stagnating. they’re wrong a lot of the time, but they know when to cut ties & move to the next thing quickly (and
  
  they typically play the numbers game so despite a high failure rate, they come out ahead in the “war”). good examples of this - people who have ridden crypto and/or AI waves well (from jumping on meme coins early to pivoting to AI right at the beginning of the hype curve)

• see below for a related graphic about popular narrative vs narrative violation. the “right” advice and the status quo can be overrated.

in other (personal) news, i got roasted badly this weekend in public:

• i recorded a 30 second clip of myself in a coffee shop in anticipation of this morning’s news recap and the barista saw me and asked me what i was doing. when i told him i was part time content creator, his immediate, enthusiastic, high-conviction response was “oh like for OnlyFans???”. when i told him i was actually a tech/startup news content creator he was severely disappointed 💀 🤓 

• a really kind member of this community called my name to get my attention on the street in a totally normal way to say hi, but because i wasn’t paying attention / am easily startled, i jumped so far backwards that you would’ve thought i was getting stood up at gunpoint (if this was you - i am so sorry!!!! 💀💀💀). side note - i have a lot of empathy now for people who feel misunderstood from their interactions with strangers. i’ve had so many weird misunderstandings with people (the other common one i’ve been self conscious about lately is people trying to get my attention when i’m listening to music/podcasts/on a call on my meta ray bans but it’s not obvious to people because there’s nothing in my ears and they therefore think i’m ignoring them). anyway, i have really loved meeting so many of you guys especially in nyc and hope to meet more of you to come!

💰 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.

This week’s companies:

1. Vanta: simplifying security and compliance by automating risk assessments and continuous monitoring, replacing tedious spreadsheets with real-time dashboards powered by AI. Trusted by over 12,000 companies like Duolingo, Snowflake, and Ramp, the platform helps businesses move faster while staying audit-ready. Despite barely using their last round, Vanta just raised a $150M Series D, pushing its valuation to $4.15 billion.

   • Job openings can be found here

2. Delve: using AI agents to automate compliance tasks like evidence collection and audit logging across frameworks such as HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR, helping teams focus less on paperwork and more on growth. Founded by MIT dropouts Karun Kaushik and Selin Kocalar, Delve supports over 500 companies, including fast-growing AI startups. The company just raised a $32M Series A led by Insight Partners at a $300M valuation to advance its technology and expand into cybersecurity and risk.

   • Job openings can be found here

3. Greptile: It uses AI to deeply understand large codebases, acting like a seasoned coworker who can spot bugs and other issues human reviewers might miss, helping teams catch up to 3X more bugs and merge pull requests 50-80% faster. The platform supports major languages and integrates with GitHub and GitLab, serving over 250 companies including Stripe and Amazon. Despite intense competition and a demanding work culture with long hours, Greptile is gaining traction and is currently raising a $30M Series A led by Benchmark at a $180M valuation to scale its technology and grow further.

   • Job openings can be found here

Some bonus companies that were also funded last week:

• Armada (AI + edge infra for remote ops) ⚙️ → $131M raise (Job openings here)

• Rune Technologies (AI military logistics) 🪖 → $24M Series A (Job openings here)

• Composio (learning infra for AI agents) 🧩 → $25M Series A (Job openings here)

• BrightAI (industrial AI for power systems) ⚡ → $51M Series A (Job openings here)

• Poseidon (decentralized data infra for AI) 🌊 → $15M Seed (Job openings here)

• Mariana Minerals (minerals dev and operator) → $85M 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. This Is Water by David Foster Wallace: a classic that’s always worth a re-read. So many gems, including a) a reminder that what we put our attention to is a choice and shapes our life, b) education is not about facts but learning how to think (and how to divert our attention). “The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see.”

2. You Don’t Have to Eat at All These Restaurants by Austin Tedesco: on FOMO and not needing to eat at all the trendiest restaurants asap (and a broader lesson for life that we don’t all need to hop on every trend 🤪).

3. The Law That Can Be Named Is Not the True Law by Sam Kriss: (related to my little rant above) a long but worthwhile read about law — about how it often functions as a mystery, how legal systems are shaped by rituals/symbols, and how it shapes reality (how people think/feel) etc etc.

4. Can AI Companions Help Heal Loneliness? (a TED talk by Eugenia Kuyda, founder of Replika): about how AI can be used to enhance human relationships rather than reduce the number of and reliance on them. How AI should be judged on how it helps us live happier, better lives.

📱 Everything you may have missed in tech/startup news

1. Figma is IPO’ing this week! This is my favorite article on the topic. The latest range is $30-32 per share (! a $18-19Bish valuation). Money is being earmarked to be converted into Bitcoin (kinda cool / unique!). And if you’re interested in the S-1 video, see my video here.

2. The Tea app drama is kinda wild. When people say that startup highs are highs, and the lows are low, this is exactly what they’re referring to. The app went viral last week, hit #1 in the app store, and then immediately had a data breach (which was supposedly not even a hack, but because the Tea team was storing the information publicly that anyone could’ve accessed 💀 ). I’m curious how stories like this will impact people’s trust of companies going forward, especially with the rise of vibe coding (which is not known for the most secure of databases for live apps).

🤪 Just because / for fun

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

• my favorite new hobby is asking chatgpt to make decisions for me to see how good its recommendations are (i went to acadia a few weeks ago and planned almost the whole thing spontaneously using chatgpt and it was excellent despite my annoyingly specific asks).
  
  this weekend i was at sweet pickle books (one of my favorite places btw) and sent chatgpt pictures of a couple bookshelves and asked it to choose books i could buy based on a couple of books i really liked.
  
  it was… ok, lol. 2 of its recommendations were real books (that i thought i’d actually like) but literally were not in the pictures (even though chatgpt insisted they were). 2 of its recommendations were good and books i actually wanted to buy (and could buy bc they were in the pictures lol).
  
  overall, i’d rate this chatgpt use case a 6/10.

  

<3 until next week!