🕶️ A robot walks into your house...

Building in 2025: robots, roadblocks, and risk

Author

Paula Echeverria
April 05, 2025

Sponsored by

Robots are walking, fact-checkers are walking out, and startups are bracing for another round of tariff whiplash.

Toss in a spy scandal, a protest at Microsoft, and the EU turning up the heat on Elon — it’s been a week.

-🕶️ 

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Ten bullets of updates

  1. 🎮 Nintendo delays Switch 2 pre-orders, citing potential Trump tariffs on China-made consoles.

  2. 🍁 Canadian startups brace for a Trump-era tech shift, eyeing talent and capital flowing from Silicon Valley.

  3. 🗣️ Linguana raises seed funding to help YouTubers translate content with AI — pitch deck included.

  4. 🛡️ OpenAI makes its first cybersecurity bet, backing early-stage startup HiddenLayer.

  5. 🇪🇺 EU threatens heavy fines over disinformation on X, putting pressure on Elon Musk’s moderation policies.

  6. 🎓 Teen who built viral AI study app and held a 4.0 GPA gets rejected by 15 top universities.

  7. 🕵️ A Rippling employee was caught spying for Deel — and the affidavit reads like a thriller.

  8. 🎤 Protester crashes Microsoft Copilot keynote, shouting the company has “blood on its hands.”

  9. 📰 Meta to drop all U.S. fact-checkers on Monday, sparking concerns about misinformation and platform responsibility.

  10. 📱 Trump extends TikTok ban deadline by 75 days, giving ByteDance more time to divest.

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🤖 Humanoid Robots Want In — Even at Home

OpenAI-backed startup 1X has unveiled NEO, a humanoid robot designed to operate in homes and office environments. Sleek, bipedal, and unmistakably sci-fi, NEO is built to handle tasks like patrolling buildings or assisting staff — all while moving through human spaces in a human-like way.

The question is: does that form factor actually serve a purpose, or is it more about familiarity and novelty?

Plenty of automation already works well without the need to mimic us — think Roombas or robotic arms in factories. But with advances in AI and robotics converging, startups like 1X are betting there’s value in machines that don’t just think, but move, like we do.

We're working on a video that dives into this trend — stay tuned. 🤖

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America’s Stock Market Obsession is Worse than you Think

61% of Americans invest in the stock market—more than anywhere else in the world. But here’s the twist: most of them lose money.
So why do they keep doing it?

This isn’t just about building wealth. It’s about risk, adrenaline, and the illusion of control. From 401(k)s to meme stocks, the U.S. market is starting to look more like Vegas than Wall Street.

🎥 We made a video about it. Watch it here.

Meanwhile, Trump’s proposed tariffs could throw even more volatility into the mix—just in case it wasn’t risky enough already.

🕶️ Subscribe for more videos 🕶️ 

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These companies just raised money

  1. 💸 Plaid raises $575M at a $6.1B valuation, shelving IPO plans for 2025 to focus on growth.

  2. 🔐 Ballistic Ventures, led by Ted Schlein, is raising $100M for a new cybersecurity-focused fund.

  3. 🩺 Thatch raises $40M to let employees take the wheel on their health insurance choices.

  4. 💰 Turbine raises $22M to help VCs unlock liquidity without selling their stakes.

  5. 🌍 Djamo raises $17M and hits 1M users, cementing its banking app’s growth across Francophone Africa.

  6. ⚡️ Strike raises $13.5M Series A to scale its payments platform across Latin America.

  7. 🌐 Ex-BVNK founder launches Fuse, raising $6.6M to streamline cross-border payments in MENA.

  8. 🌊 Poseidon raises $5M to launch uncrewed sea gliders, aiming to shake up maritime logistics.

  9. 💼 Grace raises €5.9M to insure luxury goods, targeting high-end collectors and brands.

  10. 📊 Brazil’s FinanZero raises $808K to expand its credit marketplace platform.

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Slidebean Revenue Data

Mistakes were made as we grew Slidebean, but those mistakes shaped the lessons that helped us thrive. The journey wasn’t just about surviving—it was about learning and evolving.

To give you an honest glimpse into what growth really looks like, we’re sharing our actual financial numbers from the formative years of Slidebean. Download them now and see the ups, downs, and everything in between that built the company we are today.

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🌐 Tariffs, trade wars, and tech: the Trump effect on startups

From Trump’s potential return to China-U.S. tensions, the tech industry is bracing for a turbulent ride. A new Business Insider piece outlines 5 macro trends that could reshape startups and VC strategy — from a cooling AI hype cycle to friendshoring hardware production.

Bottom line: it’s not just about building cool products anymore. Founders need a foreign policy primer and a backup plan.

Here are the 5 key trends:

  • 📉 The AI bubble might deflate — investors are becoming more skeptical.

  • 🇨🇳 China decoupling is real — startups are rethinking global supply chains.

  • 📦 Hardware’s moment is here — from AI chips to robotics, VCs are paying attention.

  • 🌎 Friendshoring is the new offshoring — geopolitics now shapes where you build.

  • 🗳️ U.S. elections could rattle the market — especially if tariffs or tech policy shift fast.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

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