The UK has backed away from its proposed exit tax—a 20% levy on the assets of founders who leave the country. The plan was dropped after fears that entrepreneurs would pack their bags and after more than 150 founders signed a letter pushing back. As it turns out, announcing an exit tax is one of the fastest ways to make people consider exiting.

For now, the immediate risk of founders relocating has eased, and the UK gets to claim it’s still “open for business.” But the back-and-forth isn’t done. Bigger tax reforms are still influencing where founders choose to live and list their companies. Expect private-equity-backed and fintech-heavy startups to keep their options open while they wait to see what new fiscal fix replaces this sudden U-turn.

Most startup timelines are fiction. We broke down the real founder journey, from team-building to M&A, with lessons from real founders who went through the process.

Why settle for one CEO when you can have two? Fidji Simo, now running Applications, is taking charge of ChatGPT and the company’s revenue engine. She’s already moving fast—launching a calendar-aware Pulse tool, exploring an AI-powered jobs marketplace, and even considering ads for the free tier.

Her goal is clear: shrink the gap between how smart the models are and how much people actually use them. That means turning assistants into paid, everyday utilities and pushing deeper into enterprise tools. Expect a big expansion into agents and industry-specific bundles, all limited only by GPU supply and the giant data-center deals needed to keep everything running.

The stakes are high. As assistants become the main way people interact with software, distribution shifts—and startups will either integrate or get outpaced. Enterprise revenue should grow, but so will scrutiny around privacy and procurement. Meanwhile, huge compute costs and complex infrastructure financing will squeeze margins. Pricing power is about to face a real test.