🎉 Fizz brings on TikTok alum to supercharge Growth!

College social app Fizz is leveling up! The company has hired David Vasquez, former Head of Creator Monetization and TikTok Shop Product Lead, as its new Head of Product.

What’s coming next for Fizz?

🟣Smarter Recommendations – Vasquez aims to build a TikTok-style recommendation engine to serve users the most relevant content.

🟣Marketplace Expansion – In-app payments, peer-to-peer transactions, and even brand integrations are on the way.

🟣More Video Content – Video length increased from 15 to 30 seconds, leading to a 350% spike in video creation!

🟣Advertising & Brand Partnerships – AI companies are already showing major interest.

🔥 Fizz is on fire:

📈 +245% daily posts since the start of the year*📈 +61% daily active users*📍 Available at 300+ colleges💵 Raised $41M in funding

The future of student social media is here. Are you ready?👍

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🌱 Google’s X Launches Heritable Agriculture to Revolutionize Crop Yields Using AI

This week, Google’s X “moonshot factory” announced the spinout of a groundbreaking startup—Heritable Agriculture. This new company aims to transform agriculture by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve crop yield and make farming more sustainable.

🍀 While plants are naturally efficient, the agricultural industry heavily strains our planet, contributing to 25% of greenhouse gas emissions, excessive groundwater use, and soil erosion. Heritable is tackling these issues by analyzing vast datasets to help farmers optimize plant growth and make agriculture more environmentally friendly.

🤖 Using AI, Heritable studies plant genomes to identify traits that could lead to higher yields, lower water usage, and better carbon storage. The startup is focused on enhancing traditional breeding methods, with future plans to incorporate gene editing techniques like CRISPR for more advanced plant optimization.

With backing from investors including Google, Heritable Agriculture is set to commercialize these innovations and help bring sustainable farming into the future *🌍***

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🇮🇳India pledges $1.15 Billion for Startups and unveils ambitious reforms!

India is solidifying its position as a key player in the global economy. As part of the new 2025-26 budget, the government announced the creation of a $1.15 billion Fund of Funds for Startups to boost tech innovation and clean energy development.

📢What else was announced:

🟠A High-Level Committee for Regulatory Reforms to simplify bureaucratic processes and reduce compliance burdens for startups.*🟠Plans to launch a Deep Tech Fund of Funds to support startups working on advanced technologies.🟠Extension of tax benefits for startups until 2030.🟠*A new scheme to support 500,000 first-time entrepreneurs, including women and underrepresented groups.

📌 Nuclear Energy Mission:
India also unveiled a $2.3 billion Nuclear Energy Mission, aiming to develop at least five indigenous small modular reactors by 2033 and achieve 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047.

Why does this matter❔
Startups have already created millions of jobs and attracted over $100 billion in investments in the past decade. India is targeting 8% economic growth to generate enough jobs for its young population and strengthen its global standing.

💡Quote:
“We are determined to ensure that our regulations keep up with technological innovations and global trends,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

✅ India continues to inspire with its ambition and reforms!

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? Can AI be our moral compass?

OpenAI is funding research at Duke University to explore if AI can predict human moral judgments. With a $1M grant, the study dives into using AI in ethical decision-making across medicine, law, and business.

The challenge? Morality is complex and subjective. Past efforts like Ask Delphi faced issues, from biases to contradictory judgments. Will AI ever master the art of ethics, or is this a philosophical puzzle too intricate for machines? ?

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? Robots taking over? Let’s talk numbers
South Korea leads with a whopping 1,012 industrial robots per 10,000 workers, making it the robot king. Singapore and Germany follow close behind, while China flexes as the ultimate robot collector with the largest total count.

? Automation game strong, but how long before we start seeing robot unions popping up in the US?

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? ByteDance Values Itself at $300 Billion Amid TikTok Uncertainty

ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, recently valued itself at $300 billion in a share buyback offer, maintaining its 2022 valuation despite prior dips. TikTok’s U.S. prospects remain uncertain following legislative pressure for ByteDance to sell or face a ban, though Donald Trump's reelection has brought potential policy shifts, with Trump expressing support for keeping TikTok in America.

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? Startups Forge Ahead Despite IPO Challenges

The U.S. IPO window remains closed, but startups are making moves with major funding rounds and acquisitions. Klarna and other tech firms explore public offerings, while notable investments include Writer’s $200M raise and Tessl’s $125M funding. Additionally, AI startups dominate Paris’ Station F incubator.

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? Bottom Up by David Sacks: Key Sales Pipeline Metrics Simplified
1️⃣ Pipeline Generation Metrics

Opportunities Created: Count of potential deals.
Pipeline Value Created: Total ARR (or TCV) value of these deals.
Win Rate: Percentage of deals closed (~20% is standard).

2️⃣ Pipeline Conversion Metrics

Sales Cycle Length: Time to close deals, often 6-9 months for complex B2B products.
Cohorted Win Rates: Analyze win rates by client cohorts; identify drop-off points and optimize support.
Stage Conversion Rate: Track how deals move through sales stages to find bottlenecks.
Average Time per Stage: Spot delays and improve pipeline flow.

3️⃣ Active Pipeline Metrics

Open Pipeline by Close Date: Forecast when deals will close and revenue will arrive.
Weighted Pipeline: ARR multiplied by the probability of closing, varying by stage.
Pipeline Waterfall: Visualize pipeline changes over time to pinpoint growth drivers.

#️⃣ These metrics provide a data-driven approach to refining your sales strategy and forecasting growth. Leverage tools like SaaSGrid to automate and visualize these insights.

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♻️ OpenAI’s Upcoming Model May Face Slower Improvement

OpenAI's next model, reportedly named Orion, might not show the same leap in performance as prior models like GPT-4. Testers noted smaller improvements, especially in areas like coding. To address this, OpenAI has formed a foundations team to explore new training strategies, including synthetic data generation and post-training optimization.

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