🕶️ Millionaires & Startups: these U.S. cities are a goldmine for entrepreneurs

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Six bullets of updates

1. 🏢 Startups face fines or bans by individual states, with Texas enforcing over 340 penalties in 2024 alone.

2. 🌏 Mo Shaikh's journey from a Brooklyn immigrant to co-founding Aptos, a $1B+ blockchain startup expanding in Asia.

3. 👩‍⚖️ Judge says Google will face punishment for its search monopoly by next August, which will impact 90 nations.

4. 👟 A viral AI image helped Someone Somewhere secure a major Adidas contract, boosting their revenue 36x in 3 years!

5. 📱 xApple's AI-focused iPhone 16 launch saw shares dip 1% despite new features like AI integration and enhanced privacy.

6. 🟦 Bluesky now has over 9M users, adding 3 million new members recently and continues its rapid growth.

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The ultimate entrepreneurial playground: 10 U.S. cities where startups soar

A new report from fintech company SumUp has ranked the top 10 U.S. cities for entrepreneurship, factoring in tax data, millionaire populations, and even Google search trends. New York tops the list, offering a 4% sales tax—the lowest among the cities—and access to numerous coworking spaces, making it a prime destination for entrepreneurs across industries like tech and fashion. Chicago ranks second, with a high number of millionaires and strong interest in finance startups, while Miami, with its zero personal income and capital gains taxes, rounds out the top three, appealing to startups in travel, tourism, and commerce.

Other cities in the top 10 include Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, and Houston, each offering unique advantages such as low or no personal income tax, favorable sales tax rates, and thriving business communities. The list highlights how factors like tax benefits and a strong network of millionaires can influence a city's appeal to entrepreneurs, with many of these cities showing strong Google searches for terms related to wealth-building and business success. Read more!

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Crash Course in Financial Modeling | September 11 | Webinar

2. Startups and Business Networking Event NYC | September 11 | NYC

3. mHUB MedTech | Deadline: September 12 | Chicago

4. Antler Singapore | Deadline: September 16 | Singapore

5. Financial modeling bootcamp for startup founders | September 16-20 | Bootcamp, Live

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Unlock $10,000 in AWS Credits for Your Startup

Cloudvisor, an official AWS partner, offers startups up to $10,000 in AWS credits! These credits cover your AWS bills, making your usage free. Whether you're using AWS or just exploring, it’s a great chance.

P.S. Partnering with Cloudvisor also unlocks AWS discounts and consulting.

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These companies just raised money

1. ⚔️ OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever raised $1B for a startup with a single goal: safe superintelligence.

2. 👮 Progress acquired the file management platform ShareFile for $875M, aiming to bolster its automation - IT monitoring services.

3. 🗺️ Miami-based AI bookkeeping startup Finally has raised $200M in equity and debt to expand its services.

4. 3️⃣ Alpha Partners raised $153M for its third fund, focusing on pro-rata investments alongside early-stage VCs.

5. 📧 A cold email to a VC helped salon software startup Mangomint raise $35M. Could your following email net millions?

6. 🌱 C-Zero is raising $18M to create emission-free hydrogen using natural gas, aiming for a greener future.

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Musk's xAI vision: Tesla opts for in-house AI

Elon Musk claims Tesla won't need to license AI models from his new venture, xAI. This decision could signal an internal focus on developing proprietary AI solutions tailored to Tesla's needs, potentially giving the automaker a competitive edge.

However, it raises questions about xAI's revenue model and strategic alignment. For entrepreneurs, this underscores the importance of leveraging in-house AI capabilities to maintain control and drive innovation.

Musk founded xAI as a competitor to OpenAI, aiming to integrate data from his various companies—Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X—to train its models. These models would then enhance the technologies across all his ventures. Read more.

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What NOBODY Tells You About Selling a Startup

Tech startups often attract millions in funding by offering only a small share of equity because investors expect the company to go public or be bought out eventually.

However, selling a company is far more drawn-out and challenging than what could be anticipated. Learn more on this video and subscribe.