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Fintech innovation is spreading beyond Silicon Valley, biodiversity now has its own VC, and open-source security is scaling as a counterweight to centralized control. At the top end, platform giants are going bigger—Meta is racing to lock in AI compute and government ties, Nvidia and Eli Lilly are betting $1B on AI-driven drug discovery, and Slack is turning chat into an automation layer.
New video, check it out! 24 Hours in the Richest vs the Poorest City in America
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Seven bullets of updates
🌎 Fintech's next wave is rising as 80% of new innovations now launch outside Silicon Valley.
🧬 Nvidia and Eli Lilly are putting $1B into a new lab to blend AI with drug research and open-source healthcare models over five years.
🗣️ LinkedIn cofounder says peers should just speak up about what’s true as Trump twice threatened investigations.
⚡ Meta plans to build tens of gigawatts of AI computing power, and adds Dina Powell McCormick to drive government partnerships for data centers through its new Meta Compute initiative.
🤖 Users can now automate workflows across 15+ apps directly inside Slack, thanks to its upgraded AI-powered bot.
🤖 Five top AI models will split $10K to compete on Kalshi's new Prediction Arena, testing real-money forecast skills.
🛡️ Open-source VPN alternative aims to scale up after raising $10M Series A for network security expansion.
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Biodiversity just got its own venture firm
Photo by Dominik Van Opdenbosch on Unsplash
The team behind the idea of putting a “conservationist on the cap table” has closed its first fund at $25.9 million, backed by names like the Cisco Foundation, AMB Holdings, Builders Vision, and a16z partner Jeff Jordan. Call it tree-hugging—just structured as a GP/LP fund.
The firm plans to write early checks of $250K to $500K at the pre-seed and seed stages, backing startups focused on slowing extinction, building climate-and-nature solutions, and modernizing conservation tools. A notable twist: it’s committing 10% of its profits to future conservation efforts.
Why this matters: biodiversity is no longer just a CSR talking point—it’s starting to show up on the balance sheet. New frameworks like TNFD and CSRD are pushing companies to quantify nature-related risk, while permitting and supply-chain realities are making practical tools—like Spoor’s bird-avoidance tech for wind turbines—more valuable. There are still real challenges ahead, from policy whiplash to messy measurement and long sales cycles. But for founders, the signal is clear: with 20 investments already made and around 35 planned, this is a small, high-conviction fund carving out a wedge before “nature-positive” becomes table stakes.
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24 Hours in the Richest vs the Poorest City in America
Just a few hundred miles separate the richest and poorest cities in the U.S. — but the gap feels far wider. In this video, we travel from Country Life Acres, Missouri, one of the wealthiest micro-cities in the U.S., to Flint, Michigan, a city shaped by deindustrialization, state intervention, and the water crisis. What connects them isn’t luck or hard work — it’s a system of legal loopholes, zoning rules, and governance structures that decide who gets to build walls… and who gets stuck paying the bill. This is a story about wealth, power, exclusion — and the quiet rules that shape American cities.
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Hiring in 8 countries shouldn't require 8 different processes
This guide from Deel breaks down how to build one global hiring system. You’ll learn about assessment frameworks that scale, how to do headcount planning across regions, and even intake processes that work everywhere. As HR pros know, hiring in one country is hard enough. So let this free global hiring guide give you the tools you need to avoid global hiring headaches.
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🧩 Biggest wins came from people, not capital—turn ownership, curiosity, and trust into a 3‑trait moat rivals can’t copy.
🍕 Katie Lee sold 50k pizzas in 6 weeks — then parlayed a 24‑hour COVID pivot into a $20M nationwide Target deal.
Investor Data Room Checklist
An investor data room is a storage space, digital or physical, where companies store information relevant to due diligence. We've compiled a FREE Template/Checklist of all the items your data room should include and resources and tools for obtaining them.
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Apple makes “Pro” the default
Photo by Sora Sagano on Unsplash
Apple is bundling the studio. Creator Studio combines Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro across Mac and iPad, with Motion, Compressor, and MainStage on Mac. It launches January 28 with a free month, adds premium iWork content, and includes a student tier.
Priced like a latte, stocked like a production house. The move pressures Creative Cloud–era pricing and lifts services revenue while seeding future pros. For creators, it lowers the barrier to pro tools; for toolmakers, it tightens the fight for mindshare inside the OS.