Microsoft Copilot gets a music creation feature, Guac trains algorithms to predict grocery demands

Top News

Microsoft Copilot gets a music creation feature via Suno integration where users can enter prompts and have the plugin bring their musical ideas to life. - Link

Y Combinator-backed startup Guac trains algorithms to predict grocery demand, determining how many items grocers will sell on a per-item basis each day at a given store location. - Link

Dog cancer treatment, ImpriMed, aims to expand its AI technology into human oncology applications. - Link

My Pocket Lawyer, an online platform democratizing access to legal advice and guidance for those who cannot afford a lawyer, aims to make justice more accessible. - Link

Google Maps pushes updates to enhance user experience in India, including its Live View walking navigation and address descriptors - Link

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Startup Funding

Lightmatter, which uses light for AI computing, adds $155M led by GV to its $154M Series C at a $1.2B valuation, taking its total funding to $420M+. - Link

SimSpace, a startup that creates digital replicas of organizations’ tech and networking stacks for cybersecurity training, has raised $45M in a funding round led by L2 Point. This brings its total funding to $70M. - Link

Product Demo & Launches

Creatify AI generates marketing videos for any product from a single product link. - Watch

TheyDo maps your end-to-end customer journey with a framework that links all customer insights, opportunities, and solutions together. - Watch

Job Description Generator allows you to instantly create a unique and engaging job description that attracts talent. - Watch

Advice of the Day

Productboard’s Path to Product-Market Fit

Hubert Palan, inspired during a flight, conceived Productboard to address product managers' needs. This article discusses the challenges in understanding and validating the product idea, prototyping, and identifying customer segments and personas. Key phrases like beta testing, the struggle for product-market fit, and Palan's advice to founders are highlighted. The story underscores the importance of customer feedback, strategic focus, and the evolving nature of product-market fit in building a successful startup. - 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

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!

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

This Week in Startups Paid Partnerships

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