IPOverload

Top News

• A two-fer of fresh IPOs: This AM brings word that not one but TWO TWiST 500 companies are going full IPO. The Information reports that fitness app Strava — which tracks your runs, hikes, and bike rides, while also providing social and community features — has brought in Goldman Sachs to run its IPO process. They were last valued at around $2.2 billion in May, including debt. As well, we’re saying goodbye to Chinese AI concern MiniMax Group, which raised around $618 million in its Hong Kong debut. This ranks them among the first Chinese LLM makers to go public.

• Snowflake grabs Observe: Snowflake built a scalable AI data cloud that helps to power AI engineering, training, and inference. They plan to acquire the monitoring and observability startup Observe, which will enable their users to “proactively monitor their data stack,” seeking out bugs and issues more effectively. AI agents generate SO MUCH data, that sifting through and organizing it all has become a major concern. This particular pick-up makes a lot of sense; Observe’s technology was built atop Snowflake’s data stack from the start.

• Crowdstrike buys SGNL for $740M: Jason has been predicting a wave of fresh M&A activity on the pod in 2026, and now we’re definitely seeing some early indications that he’s right on! CrowdStrike announced on Thursday that they plan to pick up “continuous identity” leaders SGNL. What does that mean? Great question… They provide an enforcement layer between users and applications that tracks the identities of humans and AI agents, to ensure only authorized people (and machines) can access valuable private data. The move gives CrowdStrike an entry into the identity security business, a quickly growing sector for our AI-powered moment.

TWiST 500

Tailwind CSS is a relatively small company, providing pre-written libraries of code that developers can use to quickly generate new websites. They’re not a TWiST 500 member, but nonetheless, the news impacting them today is extremely relevant for a huge chunk of our favorite private companies.

Creator Adam Wathan publicly announced this week that he’s had to cut 75% of his small team — taking them down from 4 full time employees to just 1 — due to the massively detrimental impact of AI on the business. Traffic to Tailwind’s CSS documentation is down about 40%, knocking revenue back by a devastating 80%.

The issue is not really AI replacing Tailwind’s core offering… a decline in Google search traffic is at the root of the problem. Seeking out and finding Tailwind’s documentation was how most new users discovered and learned about the product. With AI results largely replacing Google search for end users, Tailwind’s funnel has been irretrievably broken.

The news isn’t all negative for the tiny firm… Google’s AI Studio team has stepped in and will help sponsor the project. That’s good news for Tailwind, but the larger concern remains… We tend to think of creators and publishers as the primary victims of search shifting over to AI outputs, but in truth, many different kinds of companies rely on steady incoming traffic from Google for growth. At this point — with click through rates dropping on Google searches by around 34% when an AI overview is available — they’re all threatened by users finding answers without having to seek out a solution themselves. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2231: It’s time for another epic This Week in AI roundtable “Experts Only” discussion. Jason welcomes NotebookLM editorial director Steven Johnson and the CEO and co-founder of one of our favorite AI apps, Gamma, for a wide-ranging chat about how Google and Gamma both use AI to better understand their customers, how AI is changing the way companies organize and process information, whether AI enhances or kills creativity, the new relevance of Jevon’s Paradox, and much much more.

E2230: New year, new TWiSTs. We’re starting 2026 with a look at Meta’s behind-the-scenes AI drama, Nvidia’s “acquisition” of Groq and what it means for his bestie Chamath, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s new social media app Tangle, PLUS another check-in with the sharps at Polymarket.

E2229: The 2025 TWiSTY Awards are here! Check out the nominees and winners for Best Name Drop, Top Trends, Favorite Guests, Most Controversial Takes, Iconic Jason Rants, the Disgraziad of the Year, and a lot more of our favorite 2025 highlights, clips, and memories.

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• Lemon.io: Building a great team is essential to any business. Lemon is a marketplace of vetted, experienced engineers ready to take your company to the next level. Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist

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