PIN

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
July 25, 2025

Welcome to PIN’d - our weekly newsletter where we pin (lol, bear with us) the most important tech/startup news of the week for aspiring angels, vc’s, startup investors, founders, etc. Expect a new weekly roundup from us every Friday morning!

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📰 This week’s best news

OpenAI’s advisory board calls for continued and strengthened nonprofit oversight

A special advisory board assembled by OpenAI has released a report urging the company to remain under nonprofit oversight. The group, which includes civil society leaders like Dolores Huerta, says AI is “too consequential” to be steered by corporations alone. Their proposals include public-interest funding, stronger community involvement, and a nonprofit always led by a human.

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo will join OpenAI on August 18 as CEO of Applications, leading a third of the company under Sam Altman. She’ll focus on scaling AI products, with big ambitions in healthcare, education, and personal productivity. In her first memo, she called for AI that empowers people, not just the powerful.

Figma’s IPO is shaping up to be the biggest of 2025, and existing shareholders are cashing in. CEO Dylan Field plans to sell over $60 million worth of shares, while still keeping 74% of voting power. Top VCs like Index, Sequoia, and Greylock will also offload millions, signaling strong demand for the offering.

Former Y Combinator, a16z experts hold invite-only summit for founders

On August 9, the people who previously ran startup incubator Y Combinator’s events and PR, along with a former Andreessen Horowitz social media manager, are holding a small, invitation-only event. The To Do List Summit will cap off at 80 early-stage founders and will teach them how to work with the press and run their own social media, the organizers promise. The fee for the event is $600.

Bryan Johnson planning to sell his anti-ageing company

Bryan Johnson, the US biotech entrepreneur looking to defy death, has revealed that he was planning to sell his anti-ageing startup, Blueprint. Mr Johnson, responsible for the 'Don't Die' ideology, called his wellness company a "pain-in-the-a**", adding that juggling business ventures and philosophical pursuits had become too difficult.

Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly mulling on a possible acquisition of media outlet CNBC. According to an exclusive report by The New York Post quoting a person familiar with the developments, the billionaire has been showing interest in buying the media network, and has been signalling the same to his business associates.

After two years as a venture capitalist for top-shelf firm Benchmark, Victor Lazarte is leaving that company to start his own investing gig, he announced on X on Thursday. Lazarte became known in tech for co-founding mobile gaming company Wildlife Studios, which was last valued at an estimated $3 billion in 2020. Wildlife raised money from a multitude of VCs, including Benchmark

💰 Funding announcement highlights

BrightAI, a San Francisco startup using AI to help industrial companies manage power systems and identify maintenance problems, raised a $51 million Series A. Khosla Ventures and Inspired Capital co-led the round, with BoxGroup, Marlinspike, VSC Ventures, Rsquared VC, and Cooley LLP also investing.

Greptile, an AI-powered code review startup founded by Georgia Tech alum Daksh Gupta, is raising a $30 million Series A. The round is reportedly led by Benchmark.

Receive, a New York startup helping small businesses receive payment faster by turning invoices into digital payment requests that can be tracked, paid online, and automatically reconciled, raised a $4 million seed. The round was led by NGVP, with Blank Ventures, Verissimo Ventures, Insight Partners, Corner Ventures, and Clocktower Technology Venture also showing up.

Delve, a startup automating regulatory compliance with AI agents, raised a $32 million Series A at a $300 million valuation. Insight Partners led the round, joined by CISOs from Fortune 500 companies.

Fortuna Health, a startup simplifying Medicaid enrollment and recertification, raised an $18 million Series A round. Andreessen Horowitz led the investment, joined by Y Combinator and leaders from DoorDash, One Medical, and others.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

The dust is finally settling. Early AI markets like code, legal, and customer service now have clear leaders. From OpenAI to Perplexity, the winners are scaling fast while new frontiers like compliance, sales, and security are ripe for disruption. The next wave? Agentic workflows, cognition-as-a-service, and rollups built on AI-native infrastructure.

Jared Hecht shares a legendary fundraising fail involving a bold text, a live demo, and a very public screen share. The young GroupMe team thought they had Sequoia in the bag, until an onstage mishap nearly blew it all. Spoiler: Sequoia passed… and bet big on WhatsApp instead.

ChatGPT has hit 500 million monthly users, and software development is still the top use case, according to Sensor Tower. But interest is diversifying fast, with history, finance, and education gaining ground. The AI’s role is expanding from coding companion to everyday brainpower.

Good outcomes don’t always mean good decisions. Michał Poczwardowski explores how emotion, ego, and inertia sabotage our thinking and what to do about it. From default behaviors to decision checklists, this is a practical guide to making better calls at work and in life.

VC behavior can be compared to cab drivers, always waiting for the right moment, often driven by FOMO, not conviction. This theory argues that venture has drifted toward consensus and short-term wins, losing sight of risk and originality. To fix it, investors need to reward bold thinking, not just hot deals and quick markups.

Elana Gold, partner at Red Beard Ventures, breaks down the real economics of syndicates and venture funds, and why she’s doing both. While syndicates offer flexibility and speed, funds bring structure and scale.

💪Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Eventbrite

🤑 Total money raised by the Index Ventures Mafia: $2 billion

Weekly Tech Mafia Leaderboard

The Index Ventures alumni has built some amazing companies. This tech mafia group takes the 52nd spot on our leaderboard, with 65 companies founded and $2 billion raised.

PS: Are you an Index Ventures alum interested in getting your community together to invest in the community (and earn carry/other benefits along the way)? Or are you a member of another community that you think would make for an amazing startup investment community?

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📌 PIN tweet of the week

💼 Who’s hiring in VC?

Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.

Audacious Ventures is looking for a VC Investor.

Crosscut Ventures is looking for a VC Director.

Techstars is looking for a VC Associate.

Cota Capital is looking for a VC Principal.

Foreground Capital is looking for a VC Associate.

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Want to earn thousands of dollars for referring candidates to top companies? Sign up to PinPoint.

📠 Fun fact of the week

Venture capital assets under management (AUM) worldwide have soared above $3 trillion by early 2025, a dramatic rise from just a decade ago.