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A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders
Power in Numbers
May 01, 2026
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
The judge in Musk’s court battle with OpenAI wants the fight kept inside the courtroom, not on X. After Musk posted new jabs at OpenAI leadership, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told both sides to stop making things worse online. Musk, Sam Altman, and OpenAI president Greg Brockman agreed to a “clean slate” as the trial begins.
Lovable is bringing its no-code AI app builder to mobile, letting users start projects from their phone with voice or text prompts. The launch comes right after Apple clarified its rules for vibe-coding apps, pushing generated app previews out of host apps and into browsers. The move keeps Lovable inside App Store guidelines while making app creation feel more spontaneous.
Sam Bankman-Fried is out of options. Judge Lewis Kaplan has denied his motion for a new trial, and in doing so, closed off what was likely his last realistic avenue to escape his 25-year prison sentence besides his ongoing appeal to the Second Circuit — which is widely expected to fail.
Investor interest in Anthropic has reached a feverish pitch. The maker of the Claude AI assistant has received multiple preemptive offers to raise fresh capital of around $50 billion at a valuation in the $850 billion to $900 billion range, according to half a dozen sources familiar with the matter.
VC firm 137 Ventures announced that it has raised more than $700 million across two new growth-stage funds to back startups “with the potential for significant market impact.” In the past year, the firm, founded by former Founders Fund investor Justin Fishner-Wolfson, said it has deployed more than a billion dollars into companies building in defense, AI, and industrial systems. Its portfolio includes AI agent company Cognition, AI-powered manufacturing company Hadrian Automation, and defense company Anduril.
💰 Funding announcement highlights
Era raised $9M seed co-led by Abstract Ventures and BoxGroup, with Collaborative Fund and Mozilla Ventures participating. The company provides a software platform for building and running AI-powered gadgets.
Shapes.inc raised $8M seed led by Lightspeed, with AI Capital Partners and AI Grant participating. The company provides a platform designed for users to talk to AI with their friends.
Blomma raised $5M seed led by Felicis Ventures, with angel investors participating. The company provides an AI career coaching platform.
Dreambase raised $3.7M seed led by Felicis Ventures, with Active Capital, FirstMile Ventures, Darkmode Ventures, Angel Collective, Earl Grey Capital, and Mercury Fund participating. The company provides an AI-powered analytics platform for Supabase.
Golden Child raised $37M from Atomic, A*, and Redpoint Ventures. The company produces dog food products.
📚 Interesting reads of the week
Y Combinator’s latest RFS has landed, a full list on what they are funding and what has changed. The new wave of startups are rebuilding software, services, and silicon, and pushing AI into the physical world.
Blackstone’s Jon Gray is turning LinkedIn into part of the modern executive playbook. His running videos mix market commentary, leadership lessons, and personal discipline, drawing millions of views along the way.
The hardest hires are often the most important ones: people who know far more than you do in areas you barely understand. Here’s a guide on how to hire the best in class.
Startups are hiring for a new kind of operator: people who can drive more revenue, automate more work, and create sharper brand output with smaller teams.
Seed investing is getting squeezed from both sides: valuations are rising fast, but even the biggest winners may no longer deliver the 1000x outcomes that made old fund math work. Lucas Vaz argues that emerging managers cannot simply retreat to cheaper deals, because low entry prices often hide weak paths to scale. The new playbook is concentration, sharper picking, and real edge.
AI has made competent writing free, and a16z's Evan Armstrong argues that is exactly why the best founders are investing more in their written product communication, not less.
📌 Tweet of the week
💼 Who’s hiring in VC?
Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.
RA Capital is looking for a VC Associate
WEX is looking for a VC Investor
Ridgepost Capital is looking for a Head of IR
Northwestern is looking for a VC Principal
Blackford Capital is looking for a VC Analyst
