Tied to the Mastodon

Top News

• Big changes at Mastodon: The free, open-source social networking platform is in the midst of a transition into a non-profit, and the next phase includes the departure of creator Eugen Rochko as CEO in favor of a board of directors. Overseeing the project through this new phase will be former community director Hannah Aubry, former CEO/CFO Felix Hlatky (who’s now serving as Executive Director), and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. Rochko credited his exit not just to the larger changes at Mastodon, but also emotional burnout, noting that the company has “become kind of synonymous with my identity,” which in turn led to a lot of stress. He’ll continue to serve as an adviser, and received a one-time payment of €1 million (around $1.2M US) for his many years of service.

• Maxima claims $41M Series B: The San Mateo-based startup develops (what else?) AI-powered software for enterprises. They’re particularly focused on assisting auditors and other staffers on accounting-related tasks. Redpoint and Kleiner Perkins led the round, but notably, investors include NFL legend Joe Montana. There are SO very many AI companies trying to access these SaaS dollars, with varying degrees of success, but Maxima is already finding some traction. CEO Yogi Goel told Reuters that they’ve already processed “millions of transactions” for their customers, who include Scale AI, SpotOn, and Rippling.

• Sphere gets around: The original Sphere (fka ScholarSite) was an educational marketplace, but as they were expanding the business internationally, co-founders Nicholas Rudder and Adrian Sarstedt kept running into the same compliance issues. (Each new country has its own tax regulations, schedules, deadlines, and policies, which frustrated every step of their global rollout.) Ultimately, the founders got so tired of untangling tax schedules, they pivoted the entire company. In 2023, Sphere relaunched as tax software, helping businesses automate as much busywork as possible. Apparently, it’s working. Customers now include Lovable, Replit, and ElevenLabs. This week, the new Sphere raised a $21 million Series A round from a16z and others.

TWiST 500

It’s another massive day for AI model releases and deals, so naturally a lot of TWiST 500 mainstays are involved.

First up, Anthropic announced plans to purchase $30 billion in computing capacity from Microsoft’s Azure platform, which it will use to train and scale up our pal, Producer Claude. Microsoft is also going to chip in $5 billion of its own . BUT THAT’S NOT ALL: Anthropic ALSO announced that it’s teaming with chip giants Nvidia, who will sink $10 billion into an effort to “optimize Nvidia’s technology for Claude’s platform.” AND Anthropic committed to buy 1 gigawatt of computing power FROM Nvidia.

It’s the latest example of the AI industry’s increasingly circular deal-making, in which several of the world’s largest and most valuable public and private companies exchange a few billion (or even trillion) between themselves for compute and energy. And despite increasingly loud concerns that they lack the incoming revenue to ever even potentially pay back these mega-deals, the AI companies don’t seem like they’re slowing down. In an announcement video, appearing alongside Anthropic chief Dario Amodei and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed “we are increasingly going to be customers of each other.” OK, then.

In other, but not entirely dissimilar news, OpenAI and Intuit agreed to a multi-year partnership which will expand Intuit’s use of OpenAI’s models AND integrate a number of the financial tech company’s products into ChatGPT. Users will soon be able to deploy variations of TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp within their ChatGPT sessions, while Intuit gets “extensive access” to OpenAI’s APIs. WSJ reports that the companies estimate the deal will generate more than $100 million in revenue for OpenAI over… the next few years. (No specific date was set.)

Finally, xAI released their latest and greatest model, Grok 4.1, just hours before Google unveiled their new release, Gemini 3. (Debate swirled online over whether xAI did this on purpose, to steal Alphabet’s thunder.) xAI claims that the new Grok is faster, hallucinates less, and has upgraded “emotional intelligence.” (Read: a better personality.) For their part, Gizmodo claims that the new Grok is “unusually eager to please. It’s available via Grok.com right now (and embedded within X), so you can make your own judgements. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2210: In a news-packed Monday show, Jason and Alex talk about Ramp’s huge raise, AI companies growing significantly faster than their SaaS counterparts, Joby’s big moves in Aub Dhabi, the death of San Francisco’s beloved bodega cat KitKat, Jeff Bezos’ grand return to the C-suite with Project Prometheus, and much more.

E2209: Molly Cantillon of Nox stops by the show to debut RPLY, an AI helper that lives in your iMessages and helps you keep up with all your various threads and groupchats. She thinks it’s the first step to an AI-powered future in which an “Invisible OS” monitors our activity all day and intervenes when needed. Then we’re chatting with Gregg Mojica about the state of the art in AI agents, and whether we’re in a “lull” right now. Finally, another TWiST Flashback features a classic 2013 chat with Shopify mastermind Tobi Lutke.

E2208: On TWiST, Alex chats with Ben Schleuniger of Orbital Operations stops by to tell us about using reusable rockets to tow objects into higher orbits than other space startups can reach. The secret? Extremely cold cryo-propellents! Plus we’re looking back on two classic TWiST episodes from the late ‘10s featuring Greg Brockman of OpenAI and Vlad Tenev of Robinhood.

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• Zite: Zite is the fastest way to build business software with AI. Build apps, forms, websites and portals that connect to the tools you already use. Go to zite.com/twist to get started.

Investor Networking Lunch in SF

Jason and LAUNCH are hosting an investor networking lunch, followed by pitches from our latest Accelerator batch. We'd love for you to join us for Dim Sum in San Francisco on Friday, December 5th. (Or forward this to your investor friends.)

• Date/Time: Friday, December 5th, 2025 at 12-3PM PT

• Format: Dim sum lunch, followed by founder pitches & investor networking

• Location: TBA (Chinatown area)

Spots are limited, please RSVP here. The LAUNCH team will email you confirmation once your registration is accepted. You must be an accredited investor or work for a VC Fund to join.

We’re Hiring a Program Manager

LAUNCH is seeking a program manager to help organize and manage Founder University and Angel University in Japan. Candidates must be fluent in both English and Japanese, and should plan on splitting their time between Tokyo and our home base in Austin, Texas. If you’re interested in this exciting opportunity, reach out to [email protected]!

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Need a flexible living and working environment in San Francisco? This thoughtfully designed loft-style residence at 787 Bryant St., the heart of the vibrant SOMA district and the city’s creative hub, is now available for rent or purchase. Check the listing for more details.

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