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The UK is throwing £2.5B at a Sovereign AI Unit like it’s buying the last Birkin on the shelf, Phictly is resurrecting fandom culture with cozy, spoiler-blurred clubs, and some genius hackers at Kawaiicon decided that real-time CO₂ monitoring is the new party trick.
Video pick: How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value the RIGHT Way
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🎙 Catch the punchline hidden in this week’s headlines 🎙
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Six bullets of updates
🤖 The UK commits £2.5B to launch a Sovereign AI Unit and boost homegrown innovation in the AI sector.
📚 New app Phictly revives niche fandom clubs with intimate groups, paced chats, and blur-to-reveal spoilers.
🌱 Ingenious hackers let guests monitor real-time CO2 at every Kawaiicon room, tracking 17,000+ air readings before arrival.
🤖 A16z-backed PAC drops $2M to block Alex Bores—yet voters start rallying to his campaign amid AI regulation debate.
🌐 Payment giants roll out new stablecoin strategies, with Visa handling $2B+ in USDC transactions so far.
🩺 AI agents still struggle with patient questions, needing more time to handle real medical inquiries safely.
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Sorry Silicon Valley—Europe’s entering its main character era
Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash
Europe’s startup scene is having a moment. There’s more U.S. money showing up, founders aren’t feeling as much pressure to move abroad, and big successes like Spotify and Klarna are inspiring a new wave. The energy is shifting from “underdog” to “it’s happening,” with companies like Lovable hitting $200M ARR while staying in Stockholm. The EU is also considering easier, one-stop registration for startups.
What to watch: whether there’s enough late-stage funding, whether big companies in Europe keep buying, and whether local IPO markets become real options. If those improve, Europe could see its first trillion-dollar startup. Big winners would be founders and governments that simplify taxes and equity rules. Risks include slow government purchasing and weaker public markets in London/Euronext, which still push huge rounds and listings to the U.S.
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How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value the RIGHT Way
Most startups calculate their Customer Lifetime Value wrong. In this episode, Caya breaks down how to actually measure CLTV (and CAC) like a pro; using real templates, realistic churn, and actual payback periods. We’ll cover the most common mistakes in LTV math, how to adapt it for SaaS, e-commerce, and marketplaces, and what your numbers really mean for growth.
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Find your customers on Roku this Black Friday
As with any digital ad campaign, the important thing is to reach streaming audiences who will convert. To that end, Roku’s self-service Ads Manager stands ready with powerful segmentation and targeting options. After all, you know your customers, and we know our streaming audience.
Worried it’s too late to spin up new Black Friday creative? With Roku Ads Manager, you can easily import and augment existing creative assets from your social channels. We also have AI-assisted upscaling, so every ad is primed for CTV.
Once you’ve done this, then you can easily set up A/B tests to flight different creative variants and Black Friday offers. If you’re a Shopify brand, you can even run shoppable ads directly on-screen so viewers can purchase with just a click of their Roku remote.
Bonus: we’re gifting you $5K in ad credits when you spend your first $5K on Roku Ads Manager. Just sign up and use code GET5K. Terms apply.
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AI Pitch Deck Reviewer
Slidebean has been helping startups craft pitch decks for over 10 years. We recently built an AI Pitch Deck Review tool, that processes the text and visuals on your presentation, and provides actionable feedback on the story, potential missing items, and recommendations on how to improve each slide.
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Hackers just speed-ran a 200-company data breach
Hackers stole Salesforce-hosted data from 200+ companies in a major supply-chain breach. The attack stemmed from compromised apps made by Gainsight, which were infiltrated after hackers stole authentication tokens during an earlier attack on Salesloft/Drift customers. The hacking collective Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters — including ShinyHunters — claimed responsibility, naming companies like Atlassian, GitLab, Verizon, and Malwarebytes as victims.
Salesforce says the incident wasn’t caused by a flaw in its platform. Gainsight is investigating with Mandiant, while Salesforce has revoked access tokens and is notifying affected customers. Some companies deny impact; others are still investigating. The hackers say they’ll launch an extortion site for victims next week, continuing their pattern of using stolen data for leverage.