The hottest Funding Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Science Topics

The VC Corner 📰 #5

The VC Corner • 259 implied HN points • 22 Dec 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Venture capital is a great way for people to learn about investing in startups. It's useful for both experienced investors and newcomers.
  2. This newsletter shares important news and information that can help investors stay informed. It's a handy resource for anyone involved in venture capital.
  3. You can try out the newsletter for free for a week. This is a great opportunity to see if it meets your needs before committing.

Marc Andreessen: Understand "Onion Theory Of Risk" To Raise Funding For Your Startup | VC Remote Jobs & More

Venture Curator • 259 implied HN points • 18 Dec 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Understanding the relationship between risk and cash flow is crucial for successfully raising venture capital funding for a startup.
  2. Peeling away layers of risks through achieving milestones is key to pitching your startup effectively to investors at different funding rounds.
  3. The Onion Theory of Risk highlights the layers of risk a startup faces and emphasizes the importance of systematically reducing these risks to attract funding.

Import AI 330: Palantir's AI-War future; BLOOMChat; and more money for distributed AI training

Import AI • 399 implied HN points • 22 May 23
🕹 Technology Funding
  1. Palantir is making a big bet on AI for defense and intelligence, integrating it with large language models to enhance capabilities for conflict-based scenarios.
  2. SambaNova introduces BLOOMChat as a competitor to chatGPT, showcasing the ongoing race between open source models and proprietary ones in the field of AI development.
  3. Startup Together.xyz secures $20m in funding to promote open source and decentralized AI development, aiming to make AI training more accessible and widespread.

Neurotech Notables #5: March 2024

NEUROTECH FUTURES • 119 implied HN points • 29 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Funding
  1. Neurotech experienced significant growth and activity in Q1 2024, with $400 million raised in private capital, over 20 FDA decisions, and various partnerships and initiatives.
  2. Recent developments in neurotechnology include increased focus on Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) news, new partnerships, and Neuroethics considerations worth exploring.
  3. The Neurotech industry continues to see advancements in funding, market recognition, regulatory clearances, and collaborations, indicating a growing interest and investment in neurotechnology.

"Land & Expand" To Improve Your Odds of Getting to Yes With a VC | VC Remote Jobs & More

Venture Curator • 299 implied HN points • 10 Nov 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Raising capital from VCs is a sales & marketing process where you're selling trust and confidence in the future of your company. Building trust with VC partners and understanding their decision dynamics can increase your odds of success.
  2. Each VC firm has a unique decision-making process, so it's crucial to know the firm's partner structure, how decisions are made, and the role of non-partner staff. Building relationships with multiple team members before the final decision meeting can improve your chances.
  3. To secure funding from VCs, go beyond just your sponsoring partner - engage with multiple staff members, understand the decision dynamics within the firm, and address biases and concerns in advance. Building broad relationships within the VC firm can increase the likelihood of a positive outcome.
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Behind UCLA’s Funding Freeze: Anti-Israel Professors, Radical Grantmaking and Major DEI Investments

OpenTheBooks Substack • 132 implied HN points • 13 Aug 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Funding
  1. UCLA faced a funding freeze from the Trump administration, amounting to $339 million, due to allegations related to antisemitism and poor treatment of Jewish students.
  2. Several professors at UCLA have been criticized for making radical anti-Israel statements, which have raised concerns about the university's academic environment and safety for all students.
  3. UCLA has invested significantly in its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which aim to create a more inclusive campus but have come under scrutiny regarding their alignment with federal funding priorities.

Four Things Friday

State of the Future • 2 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Funding
  1. AI coding agents can become supply-chain attack vectors because they can read and write code, access build systems, and leak credentials. Teams need clear agent security policies and should limit write access.
  2. AI raises labour productivity on average but the benefits mostly go to firms that invest in workforce training and software/data infrastructure. Without that investment, smaller or slower firms will fall further behind.
  3. Winning in AI means building the full stack — inference infrastructure, sandboxing, models, and deployment — and big bets and acquisitions are reshaping who can compete. Regional players are mobilizing capital to avoid ceding dominance to US incumbents.

The Fusion Energy Landscape

Ulysses • 359 implied HN points • 05 Apr 23
🔬 Science Funding
  1. Fusion energy promises clean, pollution-free energy that can be built anywhere and lasts millions of years without geopolitical disputes over fuel reserves.
  2. Different fusion technologies like magnetic confinement, inertial confinement, and magneto-inertial confinement offer diverse approaches to achieving fusion reactions with varying benefits and challenges.
  3. Developing fusion energy requires extensive funding, traditional engineering solutions, and expertise underscoring a journey to harness limitless energy potential.

We are crowdfunding $ for design!

Offline: dating that works • 39 implied HN points • 18 Jun 24
💼 Business Funding
  1. The team is crowdfunding $5K for design to improve their product, starting with a minimum viable design and then progressing to marketing and user recruitment efforts.
  2. They are seeking support through financial pledges, volunteer resources, spreading the word, and connecting with potential users for research interviews.
  3. The project aims to evolve from a demo site to a consumer-ready product through iterative funding rounds and community engagement.

Funding Landscape

Sriram Krishnan’s Newsletter • 314 implied HN points • 12 Jun 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Different types of seed rounds have varying funding amounts and valuation ranges.
  2. Understanding your funding needs and managing expectations is crucial for securing follow-on financing.
  3. Research and identify the investors who typically participate in each seed round to target the right ones for your funding.

3 médias bonus

L'Atelier Galita • 199 implied HN points • 20 Jan 24
📰 News Funding
  1. The Media is an alternative cooperative media outlet with a focus on independence, collaboration, and diversity.
  2. The Media faced challenges with funding due to a dysfunctional economic model and a shift towards advertising.
  3. Blast, a media outlet created by a former dissident of The Media, gained more popularity despite both facing similar issues.

VC Don't Care About LTV/CAC Ratio ? | Hacking the VC process: Maximise Your Chance Of Getting Funded | VC Remote Jobs and More

Venture Curator • 299 implied HN points • 06 Oct 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Investors obsess over the LTV/CAC ratio to gauge the potential return on investment and look for 'just-add-money opportunities.'
  2. Not all customers are equal; focusing on high-LTV customers can optimize customer acquisition efforts.
  3. VCs focus on CACD (Customer Acquisition Cost Doubled) to assess the time taken to recoup investments, emphasizing the importance of velocity over just the LTV/CAC ratio.

'You Can’t Raised Funding Without Using Old Sales-Marketing Funnel’ : Y-Combinator | VC Remote Jobs & More

Venture Curator • 219 implied HN points • 04 Dec 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Raising funding requires utilizing the old sales-marketing funnel, according to Y-Combinator.
  2. Fundraising is a sales & marketing process and needs to be diligently managed, like any other sales campaign.
  3. Focus on engaging with the right investors, prioritize time management, and continuously work on building and managing a strong pipeline of potential investors.

How Can You Use Airbnb's & Stripe's Strategy To Build Your MVP? | The First Six Month Of Fundraising For NVIDIA | VC Remote Jobs & More

Venture Curator • 199 implied HN points • 11 Dec 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Successful startups focus on building a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) with the 'Viable' part being crucial, not just the 'Minimal' part.
  2. Key to MVP success is launching quickly, getting feedback from customers, and iterating based on that feedback.
  3. Early adopters are crucial for testing MVPs; founders should build products for customers with urgent needs, even if the MVP is not perfect.

Rural Schools are the Epicenters of Rural Life

The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper • 258 implied HN points • 05 Oct 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Funding
  1. Public schools are the heart of rural Missouri, playing a central role in the community's activities and connections.
  2. Missouri faces challenges with funding its public schools, ranking at the bottom in funding compared to other states.
  3. Defunding public schools through voucher schemes can significantly impact rural communities by leading to school closures, economic setbacks, and educational disruption.

An Applied Crop Genetics BBN

FreakTakes • 7 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26
🔬 Science Funding
  1. The team’s North Star is to make plant engineering like chip design — building synthetic chromosomes and easy, plug-and-play genetic parts so people can design complex, adaptive plant traits.
  2. Progress is blocked by three main technical bottlenecks: transforming and regenerating many plant species, a lack of validated higher-level genetic circuit libraries, and immature hardware to build and iterate large DNA programs.
  3. They fund tool development by mixing contracts and grants, using a high-throughput screening platform to offer screening and co-development services, and aim to grow into an engineering research institute that would need roughly $3–7M per year for about a decade.

June 2024 update

Opral (lix & inlang) • 19 implied HN points • 15 Jul 24
💼 Business Funding
  1. The company did not raise the seed funding they wanted, but they see this as a good opportunity to speed up their progress. They can now change their plans without depending on investor demands.
  2. By breaking away from git compatibility, they hope to reduce their requirements and reach monetization quicker in the future. This means their next funding round will need less money.
  3. At a recent conference, they got helpful feedback on how to pitch their product effectively. They learned not to compare their product to others to avoid confusion and that one specific term resonated well with their audience.

Hard Times on the Social Change Frontlines

theconnector • 235 implied HN points • 23 May 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Funding
  1. Social change organizations face internal challenges in terms of leadership, finances, and alignment of goals.
  2. Progressive organizations are experiencing economic pressures and a disconnect between younger and older staff.
  3. Advocacy work is primarily funded by major philanthropies, leading to dynamic leadership but potentially poor management decisions.

You Should Know Who’s Funding Your Local Paper

Second Rough Draft • 235 implied HN points • 28 Sep 23
📰 News Funding
  1. Nonprofit ownership of local newspapers is beneficial but requires transparency in funding sources.
  2. Transparency in newspaper ownership funding helps maintain trust and credibility in the press.
  3. Disclosing the donors of nonprofit newspaper ownership signals independence and strengthens public confidence.

The New Fundraising Playbook: Seed-Strapping

Tanay’s Newsletter • 126 implied HN points • 01 Jul 25
💼 Business Funding
  1. Seed-strapping is when a startup raises a small amount of money and then grows instead using its own revenue. This lets founders keep more control over their company.
  2. AI has made it easier for startups to succeed without needing lots of funding. Companies can now build products faster and sell them sooner, leading to quick profits.
  3. While seed-strapping offers benefits like less dilution and more financial discipline, it can also come with challenges like competition from better-funded startups and limitations on growth.

The Otonomist - September 2023 Funding Special

The Otonomist • 259 implied HN points • 29 Sep 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Equity fundraising can be improved by moving towards more tech-centric and automated processes.
  2. ICOs have evolved and shifted towards more traditional equity funding with some crypto integration.
  3. Developing a legitimate ICO reiteration involves features like online, automated, legally binding, and blockchain-enabled processes.

School Choice and School Vouchers Are Scams

The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper • 218 implied HN points • 28 Sep 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Funding
  1. School choice and school vouchers are considered scams by the author due to the privatization push in Missouri and the negative effects on public education.
  2. Separation of church and state is mentioned as a concern in the context of taxpayer money being funneled to private religious schools through voucher schemes.
  3. Legislators in Missouri, like Josh Hurlbert, are being scrutinized for their involvement in promoting 'Empowerment scholarship' programs despite the impact on public schools and taxpayers.

Why We Need To Angel “Invest” in Individuals

America 2.0 (by Gary Sheng) • 216 implied HN points • 23 Mar 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Web3 is changing how we fund public goods by encouraging individuals to contribute to funding infrastructure.
  2. Funding individuals, or 'Public Greats,' is essential for maximizing the impact of projects and ecosystems.
  3. Supporting Public Greats through Angel Investors and Mintable Milestones can free them from traditional grant application challenges and empower them to make a significant difference.

PostHog vs. The Industry

Alex's Personal Blog • 131 implied HN points • 17 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Funding
  1. PostHog is a startup doing things differently in the software world, like offering mostly free and open-source tools for product development. They focus on customer-friendly policies instead of typical sales tactics.
  2. There’s increasing investment in defense and AI startups, showing a trend towards innovation in these sectors. Companies like Helsing and xAI are raising significant funds to grow their projects.
  3. High costs for coding tools are becoming more common, as shown by Anysphere's price increase for its AI coding service. Developers might need to adjust to spending more to access advanced technology.

State of AI: February 2026 newsletter

Guide to AI • 4 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Funding
  1. Agentic AI is triggering a massive market repricing as autonomous agents and rapidly advancing frontier models threaten the long-term recurring revenue that justified high SaaS valuations, wiping hundreds of billions from software stocks. Investors are racing to re-evaluate how to underwrite tech companies in a world where core workflows can be rebuilt AI-first.
  2. Geopolitics and infrastructure constraints are reshaping the AI landscape: governments are clashing with labs over military use and export controls, states are limiting data center builds, and China is aggressively scaling talent and commercial AI, all of which will affect where training clusters and supply chains can be built. These policy and resource shifts will influence competition, investment, and national strategy in AI.
  3. Rapid agent proliferation has produced both theatrical emergent behavior and serious security problems: viral agent networks blurred the line between human and AI activity, while open-source agents exposed widespread vulnerabilities, leaked credentials, and growing shadow-IT risks for enterprises. The combination of autonomy, data access, and external actions makes agent security a top priority.

Colleague on Jennifer Friedenbach: 'She doesn’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg'

Gotham by Susan Dyer Reynolds • 196 implied HN points • 07 Aug 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Funding
  1. Jennifer Friedenbach is the executive director of Coalition on Homelessness and has faced criticism for her lack of qualifications and questionable financial decisions.
  2. The Coalition on Homelessness lacks transparency in their financial reports, with questionable classification of expenses and no clear demonstration of results.
  3. Friedenbach's involvement in conflicts of interest, such as granting her own nonprofit a large grant from an oversight committee she chairs, raises concerns about ethical practices in addressing homelessness issues.

Take Infinity: Mini Exasperations #1

Exasperated Infrastructures • 12 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Funding
  1. A plan to publish 52 weekly pieces focused on urban politics and infrastructure, each following a three-part format: a short observation, a few curated articles with context, and a recommended writer.
  2. Infrastructure decisions are political and require clear alternatives analysis and honest cost comparisons; big projects like tunnels or high‑speed rail come with trade‑offs around funding, oversight, and procurement (including Build America/Buy America implications).
  3. There’s an emphasis on building reader community and engagement through a short survey, subscriptions, and by spotlighting other writers to broaden conversation and connections.

The Babe Ruth Effect in Venture Capital | When To Prioritize Growth Over Profitability? | VC Remote Jobs and More

Venture Curator • 179 implied HN points • 22 Sep 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. The concept of the 'Babe Ruth Effect' in venture capital explains the importance of evaluating investments based on expected value analysis to achieve superior performance
  2. Deciding between prioritizing profitability or growth in startups depends on factors like market dynamics, access to funding, and business model, and it's crucial to understand where to focus at an early stage
  3. Successful venture capital funds exhibit a 'Babe Ruth Effect' by having more 'home run' investments of greater magnitude, even though they may also have a higher percentage of investments that lose money

🏳️‍🌈 Embracing Diversity: Pride Month, LGBTQ+ Market, VC Diversity, Early-Stage Funding Checklist, Investor List, and More!

Lolita's Newsletter • 176 implied HN points • 11 Jun 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. LGBTQ+ community has significant spending power and presents a $3.7 trillion market opportunity.
  2. Investing in LGBTQ+-founded startups shows outsized returns and profitability.
  3. Encouraging investment in LGBTQ+-focused tech startups creates an inclusive tech industry with potential for exceptional returns.

Did CCDH and AAMC Cooperate on COVID Censorship?

Who is Robert Malone • 11 implied HN points • 01 Jan 26
🏥 Health Politics Funding
  1. The AAMC and CCDH acted as complementary parts of the same censorship‑oriented ecosystem. AAMC enforced norms inside medicine while CCDH pressured platforms and public discourse.
  2. Coordination came through shared funders, overlapping advisory networks, and participation in government‑led partner calls rather than a clearly documented contract. There’s strong circumstantial evidence of synchronized messaging and influence.
  3. CCDH projects like the "Disinformation Dozen" shaped platform moderation and government talking points, and AAMC statements often echoed that rhetoric, helping to marginalize dissenting medical voices.

Navigating the universe of space tech accelerators: top 50 programs and insights to propel your startup

Space Ambition • 279 implied HN points • 07 Apr 23
💼 Business Funding
  1. Startups can benefit a lot from joining accelerators, like gaining knowledge and making useful connections. These programs can help them impress future investors as well.
  2. Choosing the right accelerator is important for success. Startups should research different programs to find one that matches their goals and needs, like focusing on specific markets.
  3. There are many accelerators for space tech, from global names like Techstars to specialized programs. Startups should apply quickly since application deadlines come up fast.

DOCUMENTS: Chinese Researcher Who Mapped COVID Virus Two Weeks Before China Released Sequence Was on Anthony Fauci’s Payroll

The DisInformation Chronicle • 630 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Funding
  1. A Chinese researcher who mapped the COVID virus was on Fauci's payroll before China released the sequence.
  2. Questions arise about NIH funding in China and the timeline of understanding COVID.
  3. The Chinese researcher's initial virus sequence wasn't published but was similar to later ones.

🗞️Neurotech Notables: January 2024

NEUROTECH FUTURES • 79 implied HN points • 03 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Funding
  1. January 2024 was a busy month for neurotech funding, with companies like Motif Neurotech, Cognito Therapeutics, and Rune Labs securing significant investments.
  2. Commercial headlines in neurotech highlighted important developments from companies like Synchron, Neuralink, BIOS Health, and Magstim demonstrating progress in the industry.
  3. Neuroethics and society discussions included announcements for conferences, grants, and events focusing on the ethical implications and societal impact of neurotechnology.