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everything you need to read this week by @stephthefounder (September 2nd)

Author

Steph Mui
September 02, 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 Tuesday! Hope you all had a restful holiday <3

Side note: My biggest pet peeve about long weekends is the number of people (usually other founders or finance people (which I am or have been 💀) - sorry y’all) who post (mostly on Twitter) about how hard they’re working 🫠 That’s great for them (I also worked for most of the day because of some time-sensitive stuff this week!) but I feel like posting about it (especially unironically) is cringe (the bad kind - not the ‘i’m starting the company or doing this untraditional thing or i’m posting the video and don’t care about what people think’ kind)

💰 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. Eyebot: Bringing eye care to the masses with kiosks that deliver free, 90-second vision tests and doctor-verified prescriptions. Smart because they’re driving foot traffic to the places that host them (stores, malls, etc) and therefore getting a good deal on rent, and also seem to be partnering with retailers (especially online ones) and giving them a physical footprint/additional way to connect with their customers. The Boston startup, founded in 2021, has already run 45K+ tests and just raised a $20M Series A led by General Catalyst to expand nationwide

  2. InstaLILY AI: the obsession with AI agents continues!! Deploying “AI Teammates” called InstaWorkers™ that don’t just assist—they execute full workflows inside ERPs, CRMs, and other legacy systems. Already deployed in industries like construction, OEM service, and healthcare claims (cutting manual review time by ~70%), the NYC-based startup just raised a $25M Series A led by Insight Partners to scale its vertical AI platform

  3. The Clearing Company: ex-Polymarket teammates are building a new prediction market that’s on-chain (!). They just raised a $15M seed round led by Union Square Ventures

Some bonus companies that were also funded last week:

  • Terraton (carbon removal for emerging markets) 🌍 → $11.5M Seed (Job openings here)

  • Attio (AI-native CRM platform) 📇 → $52M Series B (Job openings here)

  • Assort Health (AI phone agent for providers) 🏥 → $50M Series B (Job openings here)

  • OpenLight (light-based data chips) 💡 → $34M Series A (Job openings here)

  • Aurasell (AI CRM for sales & marketing) 📊 → $30M Seed (Job openings here)

  • Aurelian (AI for non-emergency 911 calls) 🚨 → $14M Series A (Job openings here)

  • Nest Health (in-home Medicaid care) 🏡 → $12.5M Series A (Job openings here)

  • Central (AI HR & payroll in Slack) 💼 → $8.6M Seed (Job openings here)

  • Heave (AI platform for construction ops) 🏗️→ $7M Series A (Job openings here)

  • Bench IQ (AI judicial intelligence platform) ⚖️ → $5.3M Seed (Job openings here)

🤓 Best things to read instead of doomscrolling

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

  1. Self-Silencing Is Making Women Sick by Maytal Eyal / TIME — on how the cultural pressure for women to be agreeable and selfless doesn’t just hurt mentally, but is directly tied to chronic illness and even higher risk of early death (also highlighted in a video from 5 days ago that seemed to signal this article also resonated with y’all!)

    1. Also from my video, here are the touchy feely self silencing readings I referenced

  2. You Might Be a Late Bloomer by David Brooks / The Atlantic — a case for rejecting “30 under 30” culture: many of the most consequential innovators and creators peak in their 40s, 50s, or later. Signs you might be a late bloomer: you’re driven by intrinsic motivation, you don’t fit in “existing systems” and have a willingness to battle authority, you have diverse curiosities, you self-teach, you have the mind of an explorer, etc.

  3. happiness from the inside out by Divya Venkat — on how happiness is a skill: we can redirect our attention and detach from automatic reactions to regain agency over how we experience life (related, a powerful taylor swift quote 😉, “you should think of your energy as expensive, as if it’s a luxury item. not everyone can afford it.”)

  4. Believe One Thing Deeply by Oscar Hong — argues that doing great work doesn’t require many big ideas, just one belief taken seriously enough to pursue with intensity and persistence (an essay that resonated a lot especially as i think about entrepreneurship - there are always “better” markets and ideas to pursue, but i’ve observed over and over how ambitious/determined people will be successful in any market/idea - no matter how cliche or unideal).

📱 Everything you may have missed in tech/startup news

  1. Klarna (the popular BNPL company) is IPO’ing in the US — and at an up to $14B valuation (with 34.3 million shares priced between $35 and $37 each).

  2. White House invests $5.7B for 10% stake of Intel — to some, a strong strategic move to strengthen national security and reshape the U.S. semiconductor industry. To others, the move is drawing considerable criticism for veering away from free-market norms by inviting political interference into corporate decision-making (and setting a potentially dangerous precedent).

  3. Apple weights buying Perplexity + Mistral as pressure mounts on its Google deal (google pays Apple $18-20B per year to be the default search now). I liked The Information’s analysis - highlighting how Apple has historically been more cautious about large acquisitions especially compared to some of its peers

  4. Meta’s new AI lab is already losing talent — three researchers quit in weeks, with two heading back to OpenAI: Despite Zuckerberg’s splashy recruitment (nine-figure pay packages included), the early exits suggest that team culture and internal instability may be proving tougher to fix than just throwing cash around

🤪 Just because / for fun

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

  • two random channels i stumbled upon (that made doomscrolling feel somewhat worth it 🫠). both high quality educational content i learned a lot from — 1) predictive history (i almost never watch YT, but i devoured the whole hour long video titled “Secret History #4: How Evil Triumphs” without checking my phone ✨ once✨) and it was both insightful and easy to digest. this video in particular started off talking about the Gaza war as an initial jumping off point, and then spoke more broadly about tribal and societal dynamics that cause “evil to triumph.” 2) caleb writes code — i watched the “AI competition in 10 minutes” video outlining the US vs China AI war (the history, the current relationship between US + China in regards to AI, how supply chain is being weaponized, etc) and it was excellent. His other videos about AI deep research are on my watch list.

  • for my fellow new yorkers, here some other truly excellent NYC things i did this weekend: 1) a solo half day in Red Hook (the Red Hook Tavern burger was truly excellent; also highly recommend Steve’s Key Lime Pie, a cool vintage/furniture/art store I stumbled into called Resiklo, + of course the brewery. didn’t get to make it to Brooklyn Crab but also heard the vibes are excellent)., 2) cabaret at the kit kat club on broadway - i can’t stop talking about this show because it was truly that good. the talent, the story, the relevance to our current political environment. the experience was also so excellent - the pre-show, the covered cameras (adding to the secrecy + ability to feel truly immersed in the experience), the actors mingling among audience members during intermission, the very unique and cool theatre (stage in the middle, seating on both sides like an arena). incredibly worth it (and they’re running only through October!)

  • trying to stop doomscrolling and increase your focus time?? same. i finally tried out hank green’s focus friend app and wow — the way it ✨works on me✨. the whole premise of the app is that leaving your phone untouched allows your little bean pet (?) to continue knitting. those knitted creations can then be exchanged for items to decorate his home. at first glance did this sound like something that could deter my very sticky phone habit? absolutely not (especially as someone who doesn’t really engage with many “cute” things), but 1) the psychology does make a difference - whenever i go to pick up my phone while it’s running, i think about interrupting my poor little bean guy, feel immediate guilt, and get right back to working, and 2) it’s so simply designed while also being very cute / fun to interact with. inspiration on so many levels 🤌 

<3 until next week!

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