Tootfinder

Inertia, cofounded by ex-Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson to build one of the world's most powerful lasers for a grid-scale fusion power plant, raised a $450M Series A (Tim De Chant/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/11/twil

Twilio co-founder’s fusion power startup raises $450M from Bessemer and Alphabet’s GV | TechCrunch
Inertia Enterprises will use the Series A investment to build one of the world's most powerful lasers, a key part of its power plant design.

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai is found guilty of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring to publish seditious articles (Kanis Leung/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-jimmy-lai-ve…

Former Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai convicted in landmark national security trial
Jimmy Lai, the former Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, has been convicted in a landmark national security trial in the city’s court. Three government-vetted judges on Monday found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. Under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law, Lai could face up to life imprisonment. A mitigation hea…

A deep dive into a16z, which has stakes in 10 of the top 15 private companies by valuation and whose Funds 1-4 totaled $853B in enterprise value at distribution (Packy McCormick/Not Boring)
https://www.notboring.co/p/a16z-the-power-brokers

a16z: The Power Brokers
A Deep Dive on a16z and its $15 billion Fundraise

The State Leadership Initiative (SLI),
is a policy-focused organization that investigates and counters the influence of progressive ideologies
—specifically Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards
and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies
—within state-level bureaucracies and government,
particularly in conservative "red" states. 
🔸Focus on Policy Influence: SLI investigates how national associations and "shadow gov…

Jenny Cohn (@jennycohn.bsky.social)
New pro-Trump group, the State Leadership Initiative (SLI), is “writing the blueprint for dismantling bureaucracy in every red state.” Nate Fischer—a founder of New Founding, which is backed by DOGE advisor Marc Andreessen—is an SLI co-founder. The board includes Heritage president Kevin Roberts. 1/ https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/19/meet-the-group-writing-the-blueprint-for-dismantling-bureaucracy-in-every-red-state/

A look at an "etiquette camp" for young founders in San Francisco, which teaches them how to dress, act, and talk, amid shifting expectations for tech founders (Lisa Bonos/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/07/te…

Tech bros head to etiquette camp as Silicon Valley levels up its style
As Silicon Valley grows in power and prominence, some insiders say it’s time for the tech industry to remake its slobby image. An etiquette camp for founders showed how.

The two ends of the Capitol are worlds apart -- as the founders intended (Karen Tumulty/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/16/shutdown-senate-house-power-founders/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251116/p9#a251116p9

Documents: AI music startup Suno has spent $32M on compute power and $2,000 on data, such as music, to train its model since January 2024 (Kristin Robinson/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/suno-creates-spotify-catalog-music-two-weeks-pitch-deck/…

Suno Creates an Entire Spotify Catalog’s Worth of Music Every Two Weeks, Says Investor Pitch Deck for $250M Fundraise
Suno has raised $250 million in a quest to become a "verticalized" creation, social media and streaming service, according to an investor deck.

Documents: AI music startup Suno has spent $32M on compute power and $2,000 on data, such as music, to train its model since January 2024 (Kristin Robinson/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/suno-creates-spotify-catalog-music-two-weeks-pitch-deck/…

Suno Creates an Entire Spotify Catalog’s Worth of Music Every Two Weeks, Says Investor Pitch Deck for $250M Fundraise
Suno has raised $250 million in a quest to become a "verticalized" creation, social media and streaming service, according to an investor deck.

Sources: after five Thinking Machines staff left, investors are rattled, potentially impacting fundraising; two researchers quit via Slack during an all-hands (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/thinking-mach…

Thinking Machines Exodus Tests Investor Appetite for a $50 Billion Valuation
The timing couldn’t have been more awkward for Thinking Machines Lab. On Wednesday, during an all-hands meeting at the AI startup, its CEO, Mira Murati, announced that she had fired one of Thinking Machines’ co-founders, its Chief Technology Officer Barret Zoph, for poor performance and speaking ...

Miami-based Indigo, which uses AI-powered underwriting tech to provide medical liability insurance to physicians, raised a $50M Series B led by Rubicon Founders (Brock E.W. Turner/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deal

Exclusive: Indigo raises $50M for medical liability insurance
The company is open to M&A that would help it enter credentialing or tucking in competitors that add scale.