You don't need months or years to validate a business idea, and taking that long is incredibly risky. Waiting to prove your business model can result in a lot of wasted time and money, but one entrepreneur recently discovered how to validate any business idea within a matter of days. This business owner shared the details on Reddit. "Could I get strangers to care about my ideas in less than a weekend?" the Redditor asked this question as a challenge.
Looking for a new job has always been, generally speaking, a massive pain in the ass. These days, this pain is often inflicted bureaucratically, through firms' opaque and mysterious hiring systems and the online platforms job seekers use to find them in the first place. The basic complaint spans industries: Sparse listings on exploitative sites are overwhelmed with applicants who, after applying, never hear back, not even with a rejection (were the listings even real?).
That's where Knapsack comes in. It's a collaboration platform specifically designed for enterprises that need to resolve misunderstandings between UI designers, product managers, and engineers. Knapsack creates a unified workspace that connects with tools like Figma and Git, ensuring that any design changes are automatically updated in the code and documentation. This approach makes sure that everything remains up to date, so branding stays consistent across all digital products.
Just a few years ago, space startups were selling investors on visions of a rapidly expanding commercial market for weather monitoring, broadband, and remote-sensing satellites. Astra, for example, told investors in its 2021 SPAC deck that it would eventually launch hundreds of rockets per year to serve a growing small satellite market. Relativity Space pitched investors on a 3D printing revolution that would make rockets cheap enough to unlock large commercial demand.
Wabi will enable users to create their own mini-apps without any coding. "It's a platform to discover, remix, and share, create mini apps for daily life," Kuyda said. "We'll tell a little bit more when we launch publicly. Right now, it's a very close private beta." Wabi is a 10-person team, Kuyda said, and plans to launch its product "soon." The idea for Wabi, a "personal software platform," led Kuyda to step away from Replika, she said.
The agreement helps nudge the Menlo Park-based Novoloop through the so-called " valley of death " that many climate tech startups must slog through. Startups that depend on hardware are particularly susceptible to stumbling in the valley, the dreaded moment when they've proven their initial technology and have not generated sufficient revenues from selling their product. "For this product line, we have essentially achieved what would be the commercial relationship," Novoloop co-founder and CEO Miranda Wang told TechCrunch.
The infusion of money will provide the company with "the runway to complete development" of the Nova rocket and demonstrate its capability through its first flights, said Andy Lapsa, the company's co-founder and chief executive, in a news release characterizing the new funding. Stoke is working toward a 2026 launch of the medium-lift Nova rocket. The rocket's innovative design is intended to be fully reusable from the payload fairing on down, with a regeneratively cooled heat shield on the vehicle's second stage.
Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis was joined by Jeremy Neufeld, the Director of Immigration Policy at the Institute for Progress, to break down what the recent H-1B change means for startups, founders, and the future of tech talent in America. Watch the full episode for more about: The massive loophole that lets 80% of H-1B applicants skip the $100,000 fee entirely Why the new wage system could give more visa slots to experienced acupuncturists than fresh AI PhD grads making $200K Why universities and national labs are stuck in limbo, knowing they have to pay but not knowing how
Bank payment company GoCardless has recorded its first EBITDA positive quarter on an adjusted basis, operating in the black in the final three months of FY25 (April to June 2025). The result reflects strong cost discipline and a sustained growth trajectory, positioning the company for long-term financial sustainability. This milestone follows strong financial results in FY24, where GoCardless reported a 38% increase in revenue to £127m and a 55% reduction on losses, down to £35m.
If you've ever worked in or around startups, you've definitely seen it: a small team, new funding, great enthusiasm, and a whiteboard full of objectives and key results (OKRs). Everything appears polished, strategic, and "grown-up." However, for early-stage products, the polish might be a trap. In the early, messy, uncertain stages of product development, narrative always outperforms strategy. A compelling story not only guides your team, but it also persuades investors, early adopters, and potential hires to believe in something that doesn't exist yet.
A decade ago, I was deep in the corporate grind of brand management in Los Angeles. This meant long hours, endless meetings, and constant stress. I worked 12-hour days, chasing approvals, but I felt unfulfilled. With an autoimmune condition that flares under stress, a vacation to Steamboat Springs, Colorado- where my phone wouldn't stop pinging - was the breaking point.
"The fresh funding round will help the company scale production capacity at its Glasgow facility, with up to 300 new manufacturing jobs expected to be created to fulfil a backlog of 246 preliminary customer orders worth £17.4 million. The investment marks a key step in Munro's ambition to capture a fast-growing niche in the global electrification push: heavy-duty, all-terrain vehicles capable of replacing diesel fleets in some of the world's most demanding industries."
Jack Conte hates the word "influencers." As the CEO of Patreon, he would rather people call artists "creators" if what they do is build loyal fanbases willing to pay for what they do online. While platforms like TikTok encourage their power users to sell doodads on the TikTok Shop, Patreon wants people to buy into the platform's stars. To pay a few bucks a month to read what they write or listen to what they have to say.
Two decades after its founding in Stockholm, the fintech finally rang the bell on the New York Stock Exchange this September under the ticker KLAR, pulling off the largest IPO of 2025 (as of today). Shares priced at $40 and quickly surged, pushing Klarna's valuation near $20 billion - a head-turning debut that restored some shine to one of fintech's most scrutinized names.
At one point, Andrew Gazdecki belonged to the second of these two cohorts. "I held on because I was attached," he says of his first company, Bizness Apps, which he sold in 2017. The company, a publishing platform that helps businesses develop mobile apps, began life in 2010, riding the smartphone revolution kickstarted by Apple. When, years later, Bizness Apps began losing customers, and continued losing customers, part of Gazdecki knew it was time to sell. And yet he waited.
Vibe-coding, also known as AI-assisted coding, is the latest obsession among both tech giants and startups. The concept is simple: developers use natural language to instruct AI tools to generate code. Over the past several months, AI coding platforms have attracted millions of users and generated billions of dollars in revenue.
"I believe there are a lot of people who should be learning a lot more from him who cannot bring themselves to do it and to their own detriment," Andreessen said during a recent episode of Stripe cofounder John Collison's "A Cheeky Pint" podcast. The A16z cofounder said that by observing Musk, he's distilled the Tesla CEO's actions into an unofficial playbook that looks far different from traditional corporate management texts, like the legendary General Motors CEO Alfred P. Sloan, after whom MIT named its school of management.
US-based startup Otto Aerospace is behind the Jetsons-like plane, called the Phantom 3500. It features a teardrop-shaped fuselage that significantly reduces fuel consumption and increases range, as well as screens in place of traditional windows. Its first flight is scheduled for 2027, with delivery expected in 2030. There is one caveat: this is an all-new, clean-sheet aircraft type that has yet to be built and certified. The question of whether it delivers on time remains uncertain, as new concepts often take longer than initially planned.
The U.S. government shutdown that began this week is the first in seven years. While it might not feel immediately disruptive, for startups waiting on permits, visas, or regulatory approvals, even a few weeks can become an existential problem. On this episode of Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Max Zeff talk through how uncertainty is affecting startups in ways people might not realize, plus the messy reality of AI companies still trying to figure out sustainable business models.
On Friday Supabase announced that it raised a fresh $100 million Series E on a $5 billion valuation, led by Accel and Peak XV. This is just four months after closing its $200 million Series D on a $2 billion valuation, led by Accel, with Coatue. And that Series D was just seven months after raising an $80 million Series C led by Sequoia spinoff Peak XV and David Sacks' Craft Ventures at an undisclosed valuation.
Despite being under a year old and having no revenue, Fermi America had a very successful initial public offering (IPO) this week. The company, which aims to provide data and power centers for artificial intelligence, saw its shares (Nasdaq: FRMI) close at $32.53 on their first day of trading Wednesday, up nearly 55% from their IPO price of $21 per share. Fermi's stock price continued to rise through after-hours and into premarket trading on Thursday, reaching $36.
Identity and access management (IAM) provider Descope has announced raising $35 million in a seed funding extension that brings the total raised by the company to $88 million. The cash infusion came from existing investors Cerca Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Notable Capital, Triventures, and Unusual Ventures. Founded in 2022, the Los Altos, California-based startup landed a large $53 million seed funding round in 2023, aiming to disrupt the customer identity and authentication market.
"I'll binge the entire series with you." "I'll never leave dirty dishes in the sink." "I'll never bail on dinner plans."
