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A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders
Power in Numbers
November 14, 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
Artificial intelligence startup Cursor on Thursday announced it has closed a $2.3 billion funding round at a $29.3 billion post-money valuation, nearly triple what it was worth as of its last raise in June. Cursor built a popular AI coding tool that helps software developers generate, edit and review code. It initially launched as a product within the applied research lab Anysphere, which was founded in 2022.
New documents show Anthropic is pacing toward break-even by 2028, far ahead of OpenAI’s plan to become profitable in 2030. The companies are taking sharply different paths, with Anthropic keeping costs aligned to revenue while OpenAI bets big on massive compute and data center spending.
Gamma just raised a $68 million Series B at a $2.1 billion valuation as demand for its AI-generated presentations and content keeps exploding. The company says it has hit $100 million in ARR profitably, powered by 70 million users and a 50-person team. Early employees also saw liquidity through a $20 million secondary included in the round.
Sapphire Sport has rebranded as 359 Capital, spinning out as an independent firm with a sharp focus on consumer innovation. The team brings $300 million in assets and more than 30 portfolio companies into the new structure as it doubles down on sports, media and entertainment. The move is seen as both a fresh start and a way to strengthen its specialized investment thesis.
Lovable is racing toward 8 million users just a year after launch, a surge fueled by rapid product creation and growing interest from Fortune 500 companies. Despite questions about whether vibe coding has peaked, the startup says retention is strong and usage inside big organizations keeps climbing.
💰 Funding announcement highlights
1mind, a San Francisco-based AI platform designed to lead marketing, sales, and customer success, raised a $30 million Series A round. Battery Ventures led the deal with Primary Ventures and Wing Venture Capital also joining.
AirOps, a New York City-based content engineering platform for AI search, raised a $40 million Series B. Greylock was the main investor, with Unusual Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, XFund, Village Global VC, and Frontline VC also contributing.
Fastbreak AI, a Charlotte, N.C.-based AI-powered sports operations software company, raised $40 million in Series A. Greycroft and GTMfund were part of the investors.
Avallon, a New York City-based developer of agentic AI technology designed to automate insurance claims tasks, raised $4.6 million in seed funding. Frontline Ventures was the main investor with Y Combinator and 1984 also joining.
Neros, a two-year-old El Segundo, CA startup developing low-cost military drones for the U.S. and allied forces, raised a $75 million round. Sequoia Capital led the deal.
📚 Interesting reads of the week
Peter Thiel’s resurfaced 2020 email warned that youth socialism was coming and he now says the current political mood proves it. In a new interview, he argues that high debt, housing costs and shrinking opportunity have made capitalism feel broken for younger generations. Thiel calls this shift a rational reaction to a system that no longer delivers mobility, sparking fresh debate about whether the American economy still works.
Accel’s latest Globalscape report shows AI investment hitting a projected $184 billion in 2025, nearly 80% higher than last year. The boom is being driven by AI-native apps and model developers that are scaling fast across the US, Europe and Israel. The surge is also intensifying the race for compute, with up to $4 trillion needed for new data-centre capacity over the next five years.
Founders often get boxed into three archetypes: missionaries, mercenaries and minstrels. But the real story is the messy psychology behind them. This piece explores why motivations matter more than labels, how leaders like Zuck and Sam Altman shift as power reshapes them, and why the real question for builders isn’t how to win but who they’ll become if they do.
A writer embedded inside Cursor finds a workplace that feels more like a focused technical studio than a hyper-growth startup. Teams solve problems shoulder to shoulder, hiring moves fast, and the calm atmosphere hides intense concentration. Everything centers on rethinking how software gets built with speed, ambition and product quality driving the culture.
Apollo and 8VC are joining forces to deploy billions into advanced manufacturing, aerospace, energy and other heavy industries. The partnership pairs Apollo’s asset-backed financing with 8VC’s network in industrial tech to give founders more flexible, non-dilutive capital. Both firms are betting that private credit will be a major driver of America’s industrial comeback.
Mercury founder Immad Akhund says the company’s breakthrough came from tackling the hardest problems first and refusing to rush. The team spent 18 months perfecting core banking features, and customers showed up without a sales push. For Akhund, patience and deep product work beat quick wins and today Mercury’s 200,000-plus customers prove it.
📌 PinPoint - Weekly Startup Job Opportunities
GPT Zero is hiring a Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Bending Spoons is hiring a People and Events Manager
Whatnot is hiring a Customer Experience Agent
Gamma is hiring a GTM Engineer
ShopMy is hiring a Director, Product Support
You can earn thousands of dollars for referring candidates to top companies. Sign up to PinPoint.
📌 Tweet of the week
💼 Who’s hiring in VC?
Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.
a16Z is looking for a VC Partner
Savano Capital Partners is looking for a VC Associate
ReThink Impact is looking for a VC Analyst
Initio Capital is looking for a VC Partner
NewsBreak Ventures is looking for a Senior VC Principal
📠 Fun fact of the week
The first alarm clock could only ring at 4 a.m.
