It's CoreWeave IPO Day!

Top News

• CoreWeave’s IPO meanders: After pricing under its target range — Alex’s notes here — GPU neocloud CoreWeave initially lost ground from its $40 per-share price after it started to trade. As the day comes to a close, shares of the former startup are back above its starting price — but only by a little. On one hand, CoreWeave seems to have nailed its IPO pricing in terms of raising as much money as it could at the highest price possible. On the other, its modest early trading performance will only put so much wind in the sails of companies looking to list, when we consider that it had to float at a lower valuation than it had initially hoped.

• The ups and downs of fraud: Today former Nikola CEO Trevor Milton was pardoned by President Trump, along with several members of the former BitMEX exchange. They of course plead guilty “to a range of federal criminal charges related to money laundering,” per CNBC. At the same time, we learned today that former Frank CEO Charlie Javice was convicted of fraud relating to the sale of her startup to JPMorgan. Don’t do fraud, kids.

• HoneyBook reaches $140M ARR: There’s a narrative in technology today: startups that raised at unicorn valuations during the ZIRP boom were doomed to never grow into their lofty price tags. Well, HoneyBook, which sells “business management software for independent service-based entrepreneurs” as TechCrunch puts it, has managed to scale to ARR worth $140 million. At that revenue run rate, and its historical $2.4 billion valuation, HoneyBook has all but earned (in 2025 terms) its former worth. Hell yeah, HoneyBook, and may others follow in your footsteps.

TWiST500

300 and counting! That’s the TWiST500 news of the day. Were at the 300 company mark at last, though we have to take CoreWeave off the list as it is no longer private. Fear not, we’re adding HoneyBook as well thanks to its clear grit and product-market fit so we won’t be under the new milestone for long.

Which startups just made the cut? Some that we’ve discussed before, including Flock Safety, names that you have heard before like SEMGREP and Beehiiv, and some names that you might not be as familiar with (Protect AI, Instinct Space, Extropic, Browser Use) as well.

I think for the final 200 entrants, we need to take a closer look at South, and Southeast Asia and Africa to ensure that we’re not missing any future giants from those regions. We’re probably a bit heavy on American startups, and I think we’re doing well enough getting European names onto the list. Now that I’m thinking out loud, we’re probably a bit short on Latin American startups, too.

So, if you have a favorite startup from Asia, Africa, or Latin America, send in a note (alexw@launch.co) as we’re always hunting for new names.

Regarding the show, we have a run of Launch accelerator companies swinging by in the coming few shows for Office Hours. After that, we’re back to the TWiST500 interview grind. So, expect more shortly! Have a great weekend! - Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2103: On an all-new founder-focused TWiST, Lon, Jason, and Alex explore the 11x controversy: did the startup go TOO FAR in promoting its past clients, or was this just a simple and easy-to-fix oversight? PLUS the gang considers China’s massive growth in both AI and EVs AND chat about VC Gili Raanan’s insightful “four persona” theory on startup growth.

E2102: On a shockingly Jason-free episode of This Week in Startups (he was traveling!), Lon and Alex talk about 23andMe’s dramatic collapse and MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin mega-strategy. PLUS we’re featuring THREE fresh interviews with the teams behind some of our favorite startups: chipmakers Etched, security and privacy stack Skyflow, and smart medical cabinet makers MedServe.

E2101: On an all-new This Week in Startups, Jason, Lon and Alex answer burning questions from founders and entrepreneurs about running their companies, from tips for smoothing out collaborations to building products in public. THEN, more creators are jumping in with their own Tesla self-driving experiments, TechCrunch quietly sold itself to Regent, and more from the world of tech news.

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Angel University

Angel University is back! Jason and Mike, President at LAUNCH, are hosting our next live Angel.University workshop in person on Wednesday, April 23rd, in NYC. Jason will be teaching the strategies he’s used to invest $100M+ in 300+ startups over the past decade. Register at: angel.university.

Founder University

Applications are open for Founder University Cohort 10, a 12-week remote pre-accelerator program tailored towards navigating early-startup practices, building an MVP, and growing traction. Submit your application at Founder University— Cohort 10 will kick off Spring 2025!

LAUNCH Accelerator

Applications are open for the 34th cohort of the LAUNCH Accelerator; a 14-week program focused on fundraising and growth. We invest $125K in our accepted companies and help them raise their pre-seed or seed round. Submit your application at LAUNCH Accelerator.

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