Your weekly briefing on all things AI
Presented by Clark Valberg

“The historical data industry as we know it is dead,” said Jager McConnell, CEO of Crunchbase, in an interview with VentureBeat. He rightfully points out that “If you deal in historical data, once your data gets into these systems, the facts remain facts. Even data behind paywalls eventually leaks, and once it does, your value disappears because AIs can build better insights by combining it with all the data on the internet.”

Data providers who once relied on exclusive access as a competitive moat now face a future where AI can aggregate, analyze, and generate insights beyond what any single dataset offers. As AI's reach expands, the economics of information itself will need reconfiguring.

Let’s dive in… 

> Crunchbase’s New AI Predicts Startup Success with 95% Accuracy
>Elon Musk’s $97.4B Bid to Buy OpenAI Was Unanimously Rejected
> Meanwhile xAI Talks Raising at $75B Valuation
> Convergence’s Proxy Pulled A “Deepseek Moment” on OpenAI’s Operator
> A Prompt For Deep Research

AI Predicting Startup Success? Crunchbase’s Model Boasts 95% Accuracy

Venture capital has long relied on intuition, pattern recognition, and industry expertise. Now, Crunchbase’s AI-driven model is challenging that approach, with a 95% accuracy rate in predicting startup success. By analyzing vast datasets—funding history, leadership backgrounds, market trends, and hiring activity—the AI identifies which startups are most likely to scale.

While there is still quite a bit of skepticism, if proven effective, this model could level the playing field for smaller investors and potentially reshape how venture capital operates. It also raises concerns about the diminishing value of proprietary investment data. As AI absorbs and synthesizes these datasets, human investors may find that their traditional edge—exclusive access to information—is no longer as valuable as the AI-powered insights derived from it. (VentureBeat)

More Stories

• OpenAI Board Unanimously Rejects Musk’s $97.4B Offer – OpenAI’s board declined Elon Musk’s takeover bid, reaffirming that the company is not for sale. (Firstpost)

• Ex-OpenAI CTO’s New AI Venture – Mira Murati’s AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, recruits top talent from OpenAI, Meta, and Mistral. (Reuters)

• NYT Ironically Expands AI Use – The New York Times permits reporters to use AI tools internally while continuing legal action against AI companies over copyright concerns. (Nieman Lab)

• Be Wary of Deep Research’s Early Stages – Amidst every major LLM rolling out deep research capabilities, tech analyst Benedict Evans explores AI’s struggle with complex, long-term research challenges. (Ben Evans)

• Guidde’s New Broadcast Tool Delivers 90% Reduction in Tutorial Production Time – Guidde, a Tiferes portfolio company, added tools for it autonomously driving digital adoption.  (PR Newswire)

• Humane AI’s Wearable Device Shuts Down – Humane AI halts connectivity to their pin devices as HP buys its assets, ending the wearable AI device experiment. (The Verge)

• AI Alters Call Center Voices – As the AI voice sector grows (projected to be worth over $28.1 billion by 2027), Sanas’ real-time AI, carves out an interesting niche in modifying accents to improve customer service interactions. (TechCrunch)

• FiverrGo Changes the Freelancer Landscape – Fiverr is pushing AI-powered gig work with Fiverr Go, letting freelancers train AI models on their own work so clients can generate content in their style—reshaping how creative services scale. (TechCrunch)

• Hybrid AI Named HealthTech Industry Leader by Frost & Sullivan – Fabric introduces a “hybrid AI” multi-modal model to enhance patient experience and accessibility. (FabricHealth)

• Nvidia’s Compute Boom – The total installed NVIDIA computing power has doubled every 10 months. (Reddit)

Real Estate | AI-Powered Chatbots Reshape Real Estate Operations

Five major real estate organizations, including First MLS and MetroTex Association of Realtors, have adopted Lundy's AI-powered Navigator chatbot to streamline operations and improve member support. Unlike general AI tools, Navigator pulls from each entity’s internal knowledge base, ensuring accurate, consistent responses on policies, regulations, and procedures. The tool enhances efficiency in onboarding and governance while also enabling agents to access information via text and phone. (Real Estate News)

Healthcare & Biotech | AI Vision Makes Houston Operating Room 15% More Efficient

Houston Methodist Hospital has significantly enhanced its operating room (OR) efficiency by integrating AI and computer vision technologies. By implementing Apella's ambient sensor system, the hospital now captures real-time data from OR activities, enabling precise tracking of surgical events and resource utilization. This advancement has led to a 15% increase in OR capacity without additional staffing, allowing for more surgeries and improved patient care. (Healthcare IT News)

Finance & Banking | AI Money Coach Drives Significant Engagement & Cashflow Positivity at Fintech Firm

Stash, a fintech firm specializing in automated investing and personal finance management, has achieved free cash flow positivity, largely thanks to its AI-driven assistant, Money Coach. The AI tool provides personalized financial guidance, nudging users toward smarter investment decisions. Notably, 25% of users interact with Money Coach and diversify their portfolios within just 15 minutes of engagement. (BankingDive)

Technology | Agents Can Share Data Without Constant Intervention

AI agents enable automated interactions across applications, but fragmented authorization systems create friction. Stytch’s new solution streamlines authentication, enabling AI-powered apps to securely share data and automate workflows without constant user intervention. This shift toward frictionless identity management is critical as the technology industry moves toward hyper-connected AI ecosystems, where apps, agents, and users collaborate in real-time. (VentureBeat)

Retail & E-commerce | Walmart Leverages AI for Produce Price Predictions

Walmart is set to enhance its supply chain resilience by integrating Helios AI's climate risk assessment and price forecasting software. This technology will enable Walmart to predict the price and availability of agricultural commodities, particularly in produce, by analyzing medium- and long-term climate risks. This initiative aims to strengthen Walmart's food supply chain and support its sustainable sourcing efforts. (Retail Dive)

Media & Entertainment | BuzzFeed Developing a New Social Media Platform

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti has announced plans to develop a new social media platform designed to "spread joy and enable playful creative expression." Rather than being at the mercy of external algorithms, BuzzFeed aims to own its distribution—a move that may only now be feasible thanks to AI-driven automation, which has dramatically lowered development costs. If successful, this could set a precedent for other media companies looking to break free from platform dependency. (Hollywood Reporter)

Featured Tool of the Week: Proxy 1.0 by Convergence

Proxy 1.0 is a web-browsing AI agent similar to ChatGPT’s Operator, but with a key advantage—it’s 1/10th of the cost. In what feels like a miniature Deepseek moment, Proxy went live on product hunt this past wednesday, achieved a top 3 ranking for the day, and as of this morning retains a 5/5 star rating, and was developed on a tighter budget and leaner team.  Some interesting differences between OpenAI’s Operator & Convergence’s Proxy:

• OpenAI: $18B raised | Convergence: $12M (0.067% of that!) 

• OpenAI: 5,300 employees | Convergence: Just 24 

• Proxy 1.0 is globally available, 10x cheaper & ridiculously fast

Yet, just like Operator, Proxy can 

1. Read & summarize news

2. Engage on social media

3. Find & message sales leads

4. Automate job searches

5. Review code & PRs 

With a simple natural language interface, Proxy executes clicks, scrolls, and form entries autonomously, making it a powerful tool for professionals looking to streamline or experiment with their workflows.

Try it out for free at convergence.ai.

More Tools:

• Lingo – AI-powered localization tool that automates translations for apps and websites, ensuring accuracy and consistency.

• Lucidic – AI analytics and simulation platform that enhances agent decision-making and behavior refinement.

• WisprFlow – AI-driven voice dictation tool enabling faster text composition with multilingual support.

• AndSend – AI-enhanced sales tool that prioritizes contacts, drafts personalized messages, and automates follow-ups.

• Tanka – AI-powered team messaging platform with smart replies, long-term memory, and app integrations.

• Nugget – AI agents for automating quality audits, customer support, and business intelligence.

• AnotherWrapper – An easy-to-interact-with platform for repackaging AI capabilities into your own app.

• ReplyGuy – AI tool for identifying online discussions and generating context-aware replies to drive engagement.

• xAI in Talks to Raise $10B – Elon Musk’s AI startup seeks major funding at a $75B valuation to compete with OpenAI. (TechCrunch)

• Codeium Eyes $3B Valuation – AI coding-assistant startup in funding talks to scale operations. (TechCrunch)

• Hightouch Secures $80M ($1.2B Valuation) – AI-powered marketing tools firm expands growth. (TechCrunch)

• Augury Raises $73M ($1B Valuation) – AI-driven machine health monitoring gains traction. (TechCrunch)

• ICON Lands $56M – 3D-printed housing pioneer secures fresh funding.(TechCrunch)

• Karman Grabs $20M – Startup advancing autonomous asteroid mining technology. (TechCrunch)

• HenryAI Gets 4.3M Seed - AI analyst for CRE brokers. (VCNewsDaily)

_. Prompting Tip _.

Prompting Tip: Research-Backed Problem-Solving with AI

Want AI to generate deep, actionable insights for your niche? Structure your prompts to emphasize research, problem identification, and solution development. (X)

Example Prompt

"I create content about [YOUR SUBJECT OR NICHE HERE]. I want you to perform thorough, in-depth research on this niche by analyzing its common pain points, the root causes of those problems, and the types of solutions that exist (if any).

1. Identify Key Challenges:
 • Provide me with 5 major challenges that people in my niche frequently encounter.
 • Explain each challenge in detail, focusing on:
 • Why it occurs
 • Who is most impacted
 • What current (if any) solutions or workarounds exist

2. Propose Software Solutions:
• For each of the 5 challenges, propose one unique software idea that could solve or significantly reduce that challenge.
• Break each software idea down into:
• Core Functionality: What does it do? How does it address the challenge directly?
• Key Features: List 3–5 critical features that make it stand out from existing solutions.
• Value Proposition: Clearly explain how it benefits users, saves time/money, or simplifies tasks compared to other tools on the market.
• Potential Tech Stack / Implementation Notes: If applicable, suggest frameworks, languages, or libraries that might be well-suited to build this solution.

3. Cite Sources & Data Points (If Available):
• If you refer to any statistics, facts, or expert opinions, please provide references (studies, articles, or credible sources) to support the claim or finding.

4. Conclusion & Next Steps:
• Summarize why these challenges are significant.
• Emphasize how the proposed software ideas could disrupt or advance the niche.
• Suggest any further reading or research paths that could help refine these software concepts.
• Give me a detailed action plan on how I can get started building these ideas with Cursor. Act as if I have no programming experience.

At the end of your response, provide a concise action plan or checklist summarizing how to go from idea to product validation."

Why It Works

✅ Research-Driven Analysis – Encourages AI to investigate pain points and cite sources where possible.
✅ Solution-Oriented Thinking – Guides AI toward actionable recommendations, rather than surface-level insights.
✅ Clear Structure – Breaking responses into challenges, solutions, and implementation makes insights more digestible.

By prompting with structured research objectives, you can extract valuable AI-generated strategies to enhance your niche content.

Thanks for Reading! Just 2 Quick Questions: