AI Robot CyberRunner outmaneuvers humans in a maze game, NASA engineers streamed an HD cat video from 18.6M miles away

Top News

Researchers say AI robot CyberRunner outmaneuvers humans in the maze game Labyrinth, in a breakthrough for AI beating humans at direct physical applications. - Link

NASA engineers streamed an HD cat video from 18.6M miles away, the farthest ever, using lasers instead of radio frequencies to achieve speeds of 267 Mbps. - Link

Sony sold 50M PS5 consoles in the three years since its November 2020 launch, almost as fast as the PS4 reached 50M, and outsold Xbox by almost 3:1 in 2023. - Link

Really, an AR platform providing digital collectible movie tickets and interactive experiences related to the latest blockbuster films, launches ‘Fandime’ NFTs to reward users with exclusive content. - Link

Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), marking one of the last major automakers to embrace what is now the de facto EV plug in the United States. - Link

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Startup Funding

Harvey, a startup that builds generative AI tools for law firms using OpenAI's tech, raised an $80M Series B co-led by Elad Gil and Kleiner Perkins at a $715M valuation. - Link

Meltwater, a media monitoring startup that got active in business intelligence using AI and big data analytics techniques, raised a $65M investment from Verdane. - Link

Claim, a social network that lets users earn and trade rewards with friends, raises $4M in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital. - Link

Product Demo & Launches

PicCopilot allows users to effortlessly generate product images to enhance click-through rates. - Watch

Linnk.AI is a product that cuts through content chaos, offering clear, AI-powered insights for busy researchers and multilingual users. - Watch

LogoFast allows users to make logos fast and free with AI. - Watch

Advice of the Day

Cultivating a Passionate and Loyal User Community

Airbnb co-founder, Brian Chesky, emphasizes the value of deeply engaging a small number of customers rather than superficially reaching millions. He argues that having 100 customers who love your product is far more beneficial than having a million who just like it. This approach leads to organic, viral growth, as passionate users naturally promote the product. This strategy helped Airbnb figure out how to effectively scale their business based on a core of passionate users, a different challenge than trying to make a larger, less engaged audience love the product. - Link

Founder University is a 12-week pre-accelerator program run by Jason/LAUNCH for builder founders. We're investing $25k in 20-30 companies from Cohort 7. Apply at founder.university/letsbuild.

This Week in Startups

E1868: Avi Schiffmann of Tab AI discusses the origin and capabilities of Tab, a wearable device focused on building a mental model of the user. The conversation covers topics such as Apple's new wearable, Humane, safety concerns with wearables, Tab's supportive role, achieving positive change, and a comparison with Rewind AI.

E1867: Sunny Madra joins Jason to discuss a viral post from Digi.ai about building animated characters for relationships, exploring the concept of AI companions and their societal effects. The conversation also covers the monitoring of AI conversations, confidentiality, and security concerns, along with demonstrations of tools like Vercel, Pika, and Outfit Anyone that showcase AI capabilities in generating code snippets, animated video clips, and creative remixes. - Watch

E1866: Jason and Kelly Schricker introduce Founder University's contestants, including Abe (GolfGolf), Mircea (Cicada), Spencer (dotflo), and Shreyas (Clinic Assist). The event concludes with Jason making a $25K investment in one of the participating startups. - Watch

E1865: Kruze COO, Scott Orn, joins Jason to discuss best practices for early-stage startups to prepare for and execute successful board meetings. The two dive into the reasons VCs want governance through board meetings, what should be in a full board packet, the formal things investors look for, and much more! - Watch

E1864: Jerry Colonna joins Jason in person in San Francisco for a philosophical dialogue about the search for meaning as an entrepreneur, drawing on their multi-decade friendship. They explore Jerry's personal journey from venture capitalist to founder coach, the challenges leaders face as startups evolve, how Jerry helps entrepreneurs transition from founder to CEO, and much more! - Watch

E1863: Steve Ruiz, Founder of tldraw, joins Jason, discussing the origins and business plan of tldraw, including the viral success of Make Real. The conversation delves into topics such as "Open Core," demos of tldraw and Make Real, exploring multi-modal AI responses, questioning the creation of consciousness in AI, and concluding with insights into the future potential and integration of tldraw across various AI models. - Watch

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