Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures have sent partners to China to study AI, robotics and manufacturing companies even as U.S. venture investment there has plunged. The trips underline how much influence Chinese startups now have on American tech strategy. Full story:

Founders notice everything. Every bug, Every screwed up deal, Every employee that didn't give it their all, Everything every competitor does, Every moment that ever mattered. Everything that matters. Just make sure you keep most of it to yourself.

Founders are taught to obsess over TAM. I think timing matters more. A huge market doesn’t help if customers aren’t ready to buy yet. Some of the best startup opportunities look small at first because something just changed: AI made the product possible, regulation changed, costs collapsed, or customer behavior shifted. That’s what I want to understand. Not just “How big is this market?” Why does this company need to exist right now? A great market can wait. A great timing window usually won’t.

Founders used to manually log in every day to send and receive payments because their bank had no API. That changed with Mercury. Founder Immad Akhund (@immad) built the bank he wished existed after hitting that wall himself. What started as banking for startups now includes agentic cards, letting an AI agent hold a virtual card and spend on your behalf. He joined me on Navigators to break down how Mercury decides what to build next, and where he draws the line on what AI should be trusted to do without a human clicking send. 00:00 Why banks never built the API he needed 02:34 A trillion-dollar category still run by incumbents 05:29 "I don't like jumping on hype trains" 07:34 Agentic cards: letting AI spend on your behalf 09:15 AI as a junior employee you've never met 11:09 Why fintech is 3x harder than software 36:39 The "cosmic cube": Deciding what to build next 37:27 The two-year mistake of waiting on the credit card Listen to our full conversation on Navigators, available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

founders and recruiters - my talented engineer friend is looking for his next role here in sf. some qualities: - senior MLE at adobe for ~5 years - founded his own AI for econmerce startup - most recently founding engineer @ agentic finance seed stage startup - PHD in sys eng no referral fee needed - he’s one of my best friends and i wanna help him get placed. dm me for an intro!