Tootfinder

Ian Crosby's Synthetic, which is building an AI bookkeeper, raised a $10M seed led by Khosla; Crosby founded Bench, which raised $100M and imploded in 2024 (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/14/khos…

Khosla Ventures is betting $10M on Ian Crosby, whose first startup, Bench, imploded | TechCrunch
Crosby is building Synthetic, a fully autonomous AI bookkeeping service for other startups.

Q&A with Puck CEO Sarah Personette about the outlet's talent-first model, structure of the company, Air Mail acquisition, journalists as influencers, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/podcast/910443/can-puck-r…

Can Puck reinvent the news business for the influencer age?
Nilay Patel and Puck CEO Sarah Personette discuss journalism, influencers, and if the business model of the rockstar reporter-driven trade publication is viable.

US wholesale prices surged 4% last month after the war in Iran sent energy prices soaring (Paul Wiseman/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/inflation-oil-gasoline-inflation-trump-6990c9ca0e19553b40c13af11b9c575b
http://www.memeorandum.com/260414/p63#a260414p63

Report: Ex-Canes DE Bain drove in fatal car crash https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/48471125/ex-miami-de-rueben-bain-involved-2024-car-accident-which-1-person-later-died-report-says

Trump’s policies are working together to hike prices, as midterms approach
Trump promised to bring inflation down. Yet he keeps doing things that push prices up.

The war on Iran is Exhibit A. When Iranian authorities retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a global energy lifeline, the price of gasoline jumped more than 50 percent from pre-war levels.
Consumers are now paying an average of $4.51 per gallon, according to AAA.

Higher energy costs are also spreading…

Trump’s policies are working together to hike prices, as midterms approach
Trump needs lower inflation to help Republicans in the November elections. But some of his main economic policies are causing prices to rise.

Q&A with NYT reporter Tiffany Hsu about AI-generated online influencers, how the volume of synthetic content produces exhaustion for users, and more (Charlie Warzel/The Atlantic)
https:…

How Fake People Became Real Influencers
AI avatars are redefining influence and trust online.

Key inflation gauge worsened in January, before Iran war lifted gas prices (Christopher Rugaber/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/inflation-federal-reserve-gas-35abd24fd14edcfa5da52dcc6c2ee860
http://www.memeorandum.com/260313/p29#a260313p29

Profiting From Inflated Hospital Prices (Merrill Goozner/Washington Monthly)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/14/hospital-prices-health-care-inflation/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260514/p24#a260514p24

Conservative Influencers Tap a Nonprofit to Pay for Their Security (Ken Bensinger/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/business/media/conservative-influencer-security.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260514/p22#a260514p22

Wholesale inflation rose in March to three year-high (Alicia Wallace/CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/14/economy/us-ppi-wholesale-inflation-march
http://www.memeorandum.com/260414/p99#a260414p99