🕶️ The Quiet Startup Inside U.S. Defense

From Batteries to Battlefields: The Future Is Startup-Built

Author

Paula Echeverria
May 10, 2025

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Big bets, bold hires, and a flying car looking for a new garage. 🏎️ 

Today’s edition covers the startups chasing scale, the giants rethinking their playbooks, and a few wild pivots in between.

Also, Warren Buffett says skip the 10,000 hours—mastery’s about focus, not a stopwatch. ⌚️

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Eleven bullets of updates

  1. 🧑‍💼 OpenAI adds Fidji Simo to its board, tapping the Instacart CEO and ex-Facebook exec as pressure mounts for stronger governance.

  2. 🧠 Hims & Hers hires ex-AV exec to lead AI efforts, tapping into autonomous vehicle talent to boost its health tech play.

  3. 💼 Founder turns simple cold pitch into a 7-figure business, proving that old-school hustle still wins in the age of AI.

  4. ✈️ Flying car startup for sale. Klein Vision seeks a buyer for its AirCar, the certified road-to-sky vehicle that wowed the world but stalled in scale.

  5. 🔒 Microsoft bans DeepSeek app over security concerns, as its president warns employees to steer clear of the Chinese AI tool.

  6. 🛡️ PowerSchool paid ransom but schools say they're still being extorted, as fallout from the edtech hack keeps escalating. 

  7. 📱 Apple opens iOS to downloads from the web and rival app stores; biggest App Store shake-up in 15 years, driven by EU pressure.

  8. 💰 Trump’s new tariffs hit hard as Plaintext warns consumers to brace for price hikes and a “buy now” economy.

  9. 🧓 Buffett debunks 10,000-hour rule saying mastery comes from focus, not time: “do what makes sense, not what’s trendy.”

  10. ⚖️ Fizz sues Instacart and Partiful over trademark infringement, claiming their new “Fizz” apps hijack its social media brand.

  11. 🧬 Healthtech startup gets FDA nod for the first at-home cervical cancer test, backed by Serena Williams and targeting broader access to screening.

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 ⚡️ Can This Massachusetts Startup Revolutionize EV Batteries?

Mercedes is making a high-voltage move into the next era of electric vehicles with a $100 million investment in a U.S. factory for solid-state batteries, built in partnership with Massachusetts-based startup Factorial Energy. The goal is clear: unlock EVs with longer range, faster charging, and safer performance than anything on the road today.

Solid-state batteries have been the holy grail of EV tech for years, promising to leap past the limitations of traditional lithium-ion cells. Until now, the challenge has been scale most breakthroughs were stuck in the lab, not the assembly line. But with major automakers like Hyundai, Stellantis, and now Mercedes putting real money behind Factorial, the momentum is shifting fast.

The new factory will be built in Massachusetts with U.S. Department of Energy support, and it’s slated to start operations by 2026. If Factorial’s tech holds up, it could trigger a reshuffling of the EV supply chain and give legacy carmakers a critical edge in a market increasingly defined by battery innovation.

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👻 🏙️ Does Anyone Actually Live In Panama City?

How did Panama, a tiny country split in half by the U.S, become a skyscraper empire (and a magnet for dirty money)? We flew to Panama City to uncover the story behind its luxury boom, the dark money hiding in empty condos, and what happens when a country sells its skyline.

🕶️ More videos here 🕶️ 

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Mobile app revolution: What to do in this post-Apple ruling landscape.

In the latest turn in the Epic Games v Apple legal saga, Apple is now required to allow developers to link to external payment options without imposing additional fees or restrictions.

With the freedom and the complexities of taking payments for your app on the web, the real question is: what to do next?

Join Paddle as they answer your burning questions and give practical advice you can execute today.

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These companies just raised money

  1. 💸 CoreWeave seeks $1.5B debt after a lukewarm IPO, leaning on credit to keep pace in the red-hot AI infrastructure race.

  2. 📊 Clay approves tender offer at a $1.5B valuation, giving employees early liquidity as Sequoia doubles down on the data startup.

  3. 💼 Rippling raises $450M at $16.8B and reveals Y Combinator as a customer, flexing both funding power and founder cred.

  4. 🧠 AI21 plans $300M raise to fuel its bid against OpenAI and Anthropic, as investors back global challengers in the LLM race.

  5. 🌎 Bosch Ventures launches $270M fund to back deep tech in North America, shifting focus from Europe as the global startup race heats up.

  6. 🤖 Ex-Synapse CEO wants $100M for a new humanoid robotics startup, jumping from fintech failure to the AI arms (and legs) race.

  7. 🏗️ Scalera raises $1M to bring AI to construction procurement, aiming to cut admin work and streamline how builders buy.

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🛡️ The Startup Quietly Powering the Pentagon’s Data

While big defense names like Palantir and Anduril grab headlines, Valarian is scaling up behind the scenes. The Utah-based startup just launched a new platform to help U.S. defense agencies manage and analyze massive streams of battlefield and surveillance data in real time.

Backed by General Catalyst and staffed by Palantir and Google veterans, Valarian is positioning itself as the next generation of defense tech: more nimble, more adaptable, and built for modern data complexity. Its new platform integrates structured and unstructured data across military systems, with an eye on making fast, informed decisions in high-stakes scenarios.

This expansion comes as the U.S. military pours billions into AI, autonomy, and data fusion tools to stay competitive in a tech-driven arms race. Valarian may not be a household name yet, but it’s quickly becoming a critical player in the future of national security.

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