Startups

How to find the right venture investor

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Venture capitalists aren’t throwing money around like they used to. The funding environment in 2023 was rough, as investors buttoned up their pocketbooks to steel themselves for a recession.


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Well, now that we’re in recovery mode, there are new rules to play by when it comes to identifying, pitching and partnering with the right investor. LPs are being more selective, and the bar for deals is higher now, writes Paul Hsu, founder and CEO of Decasonic, a venture and digital assets fund. He shares 12 tips on how to find the right venture partner in this new environment.

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How to partner with a venture investor who values technology innovators

Pitch Deck Teardown: Pepper Bio’s $6.5M seed deck

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Image Credits: Pepper Bio (opens in a new window)

After reviewing Pepper Bio’s deck that landed the company more than $6 million, resident pitch expert Haje Kamps admits that he doesn’t know much about biotech, which makes him not the target audience. However, even with that in mind, he still has a few ideas on how to make the storytelling in this deck even more compelling.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Pepper Bio’s $6.5M seed deck

As AI becomes standard, watch for these 4 DevSecOps trends

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Image Credits: Hiroshi Watanabe (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

DevSecOps leaders, listen up: You will need to be more proactive in advocating for effective and responsible uses of AI, writes GitLab chief product officer David DeSanto. “As organizations ramp up their shift toward AI-centric business models, it’s not just about staying competitive — it’s also about survival.”

As AI becomes standard, watch for these 4 DevSecOps trends

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5 steps to ensure startups successfully deploy LLMs

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And speaking of AI, more than 50% of respondents to an Arize survey said they were planning to deploy an LLM within the next year. Before jumping in, follow these five steps to ensure your deployment is successful.

5 steps to ensure startups successfully deploy LLMs

Building a viable pricing model for generative AI features could be challenging

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Image Credits: tommy / Getty Images

And finally, as generative AI features become more ubiquitous, companies are finding that monetizing these add-ons is hard. “It’s also about finding a balance between providing the kind of features that customers are suddenly demanding, and figuring out a way to price it in a way that provides real customer value, yet allows the company to make money,” writes enterprise reporter Ron Miller.

Building a viable pricing model for generative AI features could be challenging

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For over six decades, the nonprofit has been active in the financial services sector.

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Meta’s newest social network, Threads, is starting its own fact-checking program after piggybacking on Instagram and Facebook’s network for a few months.

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Looking Glass makes trippy-looking mixed-reality screens that make things look 3D without the need of special glasses. Today, it launches a pair of new displays, including a 16-inch mode that…

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As Google revamps itself for the AI era, offering AI overviews within its search results, the company is introducing a new way to filter for just text-based links. With the…

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Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will take a crew to suborbital space for the first time in nearly two years later this month, the company announced on Tuesday.  The NS-25…

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This will enable developers to use the on-device model to power their own AI features.

Google is building its Gemini Nano AI model into Chrome on the desktop

It ran 110 minutes, but Google managed to reference AI a whopping 121 times during Google I/O 2024 (by its own count). CEO Sundar Pichai referenced the figure to wrap…

Google mentioned ‘AI’ 120+ times during its I/O keynote

Firebase Genkit is an open source framework that enables developers to quickly build AI into new and existing applications.

Google launches Firebase Genkit, a new open source framework for building AI-powered apps

In the coming months, Google says it will open up the Gemini Nano model to more developers.

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As part of the update, Reddit also launched a dedicated AMA tab within the web post composer.

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Here are quick hits of the biggest news from the keynote as they are announced.

Google I/O 2024: Here’s everything Google just announced

LearnLM is already powering features across Google products, including in YouTube, Google’s Gemini apps, Google Search and Google Classroom.

LearnLM is Google’s new family of AI models for education

The official launch comes almost a year after YouTube began experimenting with AI-generated quizzes on its mobile app. 

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Around 550 employees across autonomous vehicle company Motional have been laid off, according to information taken from WARN notice filings and sources at the company.  Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported…

Motional cut about 550 employees, around 40%, in recent restructuring, sources say

The keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday and will offer glimpses into the latest versions of Android, Wear OS and Android TV.

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Google Play has a new discovery feature for apps, new ways to acquire users, updates to Play Points, and other enhancements to developer-facing tools.

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Soon, Android users will be able to drag and drop AI-generated images directly into their Gmail, Google Messages and other apps.

Gemini on Android becomes more capable and works with Gmail, Messages, YouTube and more

Veo can capture different visual and cinematic styles, including shots of landscapes and timelapses, and make edits and adjustments to already-generated footage.

Google Veo, a serious swing at AI-generated video, debuts at Google I/O 2024