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Happy Valentine’s Day — where love is in the air, but mostly powered by algorithms and venture capital. A dating app once exclusive to people with “good credit” is back (standards lowered, hearts open), while a Stanford founder promises to turn matches into dates 10x faster because romance, apparently, needed better conversion rates.
Your glasses may soon know who you’re staring at, Zillow’s AI is playing matchmaker for 80% of home searches, and the ultra-wealthy are installing $1M bunkers in case Cupid misses and chaos hits instead.
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Six bullets of updates
💳 Dating app for people with "good credit" is back—now open to everyone after dropping credit score checks.
🏰 Super-wealthy homeowners now install $1M bunkers and panic rooms to fortify their mansions amid rising security fears
🤖 Surging past $240M ARR, the Canadian AI firm positions for IPO as enterprise AI demand heats up against rivals.
🏡 AI now powers 80% of Zillow searches, helping buyers navigate a sluggish market with smarter recommendations.
💌 A Stanford grad’s dating app helps users turn matches into dates 10x faster than Tinder with a new algorithm-driven approach.
📱 Claude’s app soared to the U.S. App Store’s top 10 after Anthropic’s bold Super Bowl ads spiked downloads by 14x.
🔮 Senate Democrats urge the CFTC not to intervene as legal battles shake up the $100M+ prediction market landscape.
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Anthropic: $30 billion and not even blushing
Anthropic just closed a $30 billion round at a $380 billion valuation—more than double in five months—marking the second-biggest tech raise after OpenAI’s $40B. Led by Coatue and GIC with Microsoft and Nvidia participating, the cash targets compute and R&D; Claude Code is reportedly at $2.5B ARR.
Translation: the AI capex arms race is bench‑pressing GPUs. Expect tighter supply, deeper platform lock‑in, and higher switching costs. Competing head‑on with frontier labs gets pricier; the edge shifts to specialized workflows, proprietary data, and distribution. If this war chest converts to faster ship cycles, enterprise pricing power tilts upmarket.
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Why ChatBots (Accidentally) Became Therapists
Chatbots Cure Depression, but there’s a catch. AI is proving shockingly effective at treating anxiety and depression. Real studies show measurable results. But there’s a darker side; privacy breaches, dependency, and the risk of replacing real connection with code.
This episode breaks down what AI therapy gets right, what it dangerously gets wrong, and why millions are doing it anyway.
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Speak fuller prompts. Get better answers.
Stop losing nuance when you type prompts. Wispr Flow captures your spoken reasoning, removes filler, and formats it into a clear prompt that keeps examples, constraints, and tone intact. Drop that prompt into your AI tool and get fewer follow-up prompts and cleaner results. Works across your apps on Mac, Windows, and iPhone. Try Wispr Flow for AI to upgrade your inputs and save time.
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🧭 Expansion isn't the finish line—it's earned. Scale on solid systems that turned one brand into 1B bars/year.
🎯 Misaligned OKRs? Use 3 signs you’re due for a reset to stop chasing the wrong goals and reclaim focus fast.
🔎 Zero-click search eats 60% of queries—founders should optimize for citations and AI recommendations to stay visible.
Financial Modeling Bootcamp for Startup Founders
Leveraging over 12 years of hands-on startup experience, our CEO, Caya, created a practical financial modeling bootcamp for startup founders.
The course helps founders develop clear, investor-ready projections, better understand their fundraising needs, and track the core KPIs used to guide day-to-day and strategic decisions.
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Your glasses know who you’re staring at
Photo by Damir Semirkhanov on Unsplash
Meta is testing a new facial recognition feature for its Ray-Ban smart glasses, internally called “Name Tag.” The idea is simple: look at someone, and the glasses tell you who they are—hands-free, powered by AI. The feature could roll out as early as this year, though plans aren’t final.
An internal memo shows the company is aware this won’t be a quiet launch. It discussed releasing the feature during a tense political climate in the U.S., and even considered introducing it first for visually impaired users. That suggests Meta sees real demand—but also expects pushback.
If “Name Tag” goes live, privacy concerns will come fast. Facial recognition and biometric data are highly sensitive, and regulators will likely scrutinize how consent, data storage, and misuse are handled. At the same time, the business use cases are clear: retail staff recognizing repeat customers, faster venue check-ins, or support in elder care.
Strategically, this would be a big step. Connecting real-world identity to AI-powered wearables strengthens Meta’s social graph and its push into on-device intelligence.
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Startup Events and Deadlines
Crash Course in Financial Modeling l Feb 19 l Webinar
Web Agents Hackaton l February 28 - March 1 l San Francisco
AI Tech & Startup Night — San Francisco l Feb 25 l San Francisco
How to Find your Startup Valuation l Feb 26 l Webinar