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A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders
Power in Numbers
September 26, 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
Stripe is exploring a share repurchase at a $106.7 billion valuation, Axios reports. The move would give venture investors liquidity without taking the company public, something the Collison brothers have long resisted. Details remain fluid, including how much stock will be bought and whether employees will be included.
YZi Labs, the $10 billion investment firm built by Binance co-founder CZ Zhao, is considering opening its fund to outside capital. The move would shift the firm from a family office managing Zhao’s fortune into a public-facing investment vehicle. Its portfolio already spans more than 230 projects, with about 70% in crypto and growing bets in AI, biotech, and robotics.
Oura Health is set to double its valuation in less than a year. The Finnish company behind the Oura fitness ring is raising about $875 million in a Series E that values it near $11 billion, up from $5 billion last November. Sales have surged, with 3 million rings sold in the past year and revenue on track to top $1 billion in 2025.
Layered special-purpose vehicles are multiplying as investors chase slices of companies like OpenAI and SpaceX. But the structures are drawing scrutiny for high fees and opaque ownership, leaving some investors unsure whether they really hold equity. Carta data shows 67% of SPVs with more than $10 million in assets charged management fees in 2023, up from 41% in 2021.
Touring has now closed its first fund at $330 million. As they’ve raised this first fund, they’ve also done 12 investments, including in Numa, Cusp, and Exaforce. The firm also led the $33 million Series B in trust center platform SafeBase, which was acquired by Drata in February.
The MBA-to-VC pipeline is still alive, but it’s not as strong as it used to be. PitchBook data shows thousands of Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton alumni in senior VC roles, yet fewer mid-career investors today hold MBAs compared to two decades ago. With venture moving deeper into AI and hardware, firms now favor candidates with technical backgrounds from places like OpenAI or SpaceX.
Sam Altman and Jensen Huang struck their $100 billion partnership after days of frantic calls and late-night meetings. The pact was finalized during Trump’s UK trip and revealed hours before Altman flew to Texas to launch OpenAI’s infrastructure push. Nvidia will invest in tranches of $10 billion as the companies build massive new AI data centers.
For decades, Silicon Valley has valorized the college dropout. Founders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg left school early to build companies and they became billionaires. That ethos was later institutionalized through initiatives like the Thiel Fellowship, which famously pays promising students $100,000 to leave college and start companies.
💰 Funding announcement highlights
Shield, a Miami startup enabling exporters and importers to conduct cross-border transactions in U.S. cryptocurrencies, raised a $5 million seed round. Giant Ventures was the main investor with Andreessen Horowitz, Factor Capital, Coinbase, and Bank of America also joining.
Prosper AI, a startup building voice AI agents to automate healthcare administrative tasks like scheduling, benefits verification, and claims follow-ups, raised a $5 million seed. Emergence Capital led the round with Y Combinator, CRV, and Company Ventures also showing up.
Testkube, a two-year-old startup helping developers and enterprises run continuous software tests at scale, raised an $8 million Series A. Previous investors Ratmir Timashev and Insight Partners co-led the round.
Tilt, a Miami startup that lets investors and advisors build custom index funds with automated tax optimization, raised a $7.1 million seed round. Portage and Lerer Hippeau were the co-leads.
Brale, a three-year-old startup developing stablecoin infrastructure, raised a $30 million Series A round. Lightspeed was the main investor, with NEA, Refract, The FinTech Fund, and Foundation Capital also joining.
📚 Interesting reads of the week
Venture capital looks like a game of outliers, but research shows it behaves more like a cartel. A handful of firms control most of the money, syndicate with each other, and shut out competitors. The result is inflated valuations, weaker returns, and an industry hostile to new entrants.
This article explores why real decisions are harder than they seem. We often confuse fear with risk and flinch before facing trade-offs. By weighing the full package of outcomes, we can move from stuck emotions to clear choices.
The Generalist dives into how Nvidia’s CEO built a $4.15 trillion giant by defying conventional wisdom. Huang scaled Nvidia from a scrappy startup into the backbone of modern AI by ignoring customers at times, picking unfashionable markets, and moving at “the speed of light.” The result: Nvidia dominates chips for AI, enjoys 90% gross margins on its latest products, and holds Silicon Valley’s fate in its hands.
The AI shift is bigger than cloud and moving faster. Model costs are dropping rapidly, adoption curves are steeper, and companies finding product-market fit are scaling at unprecedented speed. Redpoint sees four AI use cases already proven at scale: chat interfaces, document processing, speech tools, and code generation. For SaaS founders, the lesson is clear: wedges matter more than features, velocity beats perfection, and quality defines the winners.
A new HBR piece warns that the workplace rush to adopt generative AI is creating polished but shallow output or what researchers call “workslop.” Despite adoption nearly doubling since 2023, 95% of companies report no measurable ROI on AI tools, according to MIT Media Lab data. The authors argue that without thoughtful integration and oversight, generative AI risks becoming a drag on productivity rather than a boost.
💪Tech mafia of the week
Highlights:
💰 Most money raised: Eventbrite
🤑 Total money raised by the Founders Fund Mafia: $6.7 billion
Weekly Tech Mafia Leaderboard
The Founders Fund alumni has built some amazing companies. This tech mafia group takes the 34th spot on our leaderboard, with 39 companies founded and $6.7 billion raised.
PS: Are you a Founders Fund 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
There's really just one fatal mistake that kills startups - not making something users want.
Everything else flows from this fundamental failure.
Paul Graham on what kills startups 👇
— PIN (@getpinxyz)
3:43 PM • Sep 22, 2025
💼 Who’s hiring in VC?
Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.
Venture Guides is looking for a VC Associate
Digital Currency Group is looking for a Fund Investments VC
Giant Ventures is looking for a VC Analyst
Comcast Ventures is looking for a Finance Lead
Temasek is looking for a VC Associate
📌 PinPoint - Get paid to refer your friends to great jobs
Want to earn thousands of dollars for referring candidates to top companies? Sign up to PinPoint.
📠 Fun fact of the week
WordPress powers 35% of all websites in the world.
