🕶️ Zuckerberg’s Trial Just Got Awkward

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The year is 2025: YouTube just turned 20 (yes, you’re that old), a 17-year-old accidentally helped scammers steal $100M in crypto, and VCs are spiraling over tariffs instead of term sheets.

Meanwhile, Meta’s trial is digging up social media ghosts, and startups are still raising millions to build everything from shape-shifting cars to AI-powered cheating tools.

Let’s get into it.

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Eight bullets of updates

1. 🧑‍💻 A 17-year-old’s site made launching memecoins so easy, it enabled $100M in rugpulls — sparking panic across Solana’s crypto community.

2. 🦄 Seven new tech unicorns have emerged in 2025 so far — including health-focused Hippocratic AI and the Slack-for-factories platform, Copilot.

3. 🗣️ Startups that prioritize word-of-mouth marketing grow twice as fast, especially when early adopters feel like insiders and get rewards for sharing the hype.

4. 🚗 A Bezos-backed startup built an EV that shape-shifts on the road, expanding for speed, shrinking for city streets, and looking straight out of a sci-fi flick.

5. 🐦 Elon Musk secretly ordered the suppression of far-right influencer Laura Loomer on X — despite his public stance as a free speech absolutist.

6. 🤖 OpenAI passed on buying Cursor and chose Windsurf instead — betting on the fast-growing dev tool that’s quietly becoming a must-have in AI coding workflows.

7. 📺 YouTube turns 20 this week — from viral cat videos to a global media empire, it reshaped how we watch, learn, and spiral into 3am rabbit holes.

8. 💰 Pre-IPO investments can offer big upside — but they’re risky, illiquid, and often overhyped. Know what you’re buying before you chase the next unicorn.

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🪦 Social Media’s Graveyard Trial

Meta’s courtroom drama just got nostalgic — and awkward. In the FTC’s antitrust case, the government is dusting off a digital graveyard full of once-hyped apps like Path, Orkut, and Google Plus to prove a point: Facebook didn’t win because it was better… it won because it bought, bullied, or buried the competition.

The trial has turned into a Silicon Valley time capsule. Prosecutors argue that Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp weren’t just business moves — they were strategic knockouts designed to neutralize threats. Meta, of course, says it’s just playing the game like everyone else.

But here’s where it gets interesting for startups: this isn’t just a retro tech roast. It’s a real test of how we define competition in the platform age. If Meta loses, we could be looking at tighter regulations on mergers, more scrutiny on Big Tech behavior, and maybe — just maybe — a few doors opening for newer players in the social space.

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How Grammarly Tricked You Into Paying for Spell Check

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These companies just raised money

1. 👾 Supabase just raised $200M at a $2B valuation — thanks in part to “vibe” hiring, where charisma sometimes matters more than code.

2. 🔒 Endor Labs raised $93M for tools that scan AI-generated code for bugs, as companies rush to secure the wild west of machine-written software.

3. 🇩🇪 Noxtua raised $92M to build “sovereign AI” tailored to Germany’s legal system, aiming to keep sensitive data local and bureaucrats happy.

4. 📈 Alpaca raised $52M to expand its API-based brokerage platform, letting fintechs build trading apps without touching a single line of compliance code.

5. 🛡️ Cynomi raised $37M for its AI-powered virtual CISO, giving small businesses enterprise-grade cybersecurity without the cost of a full-time security team.

6. 🛰️ Albedo raised $35M to launch low-orbit satellites that capture 10x sharper images, clear enough to spot license plates from space. Yes, really.

7. 💳 Froda raised $23M to scale its debt financing platform for SMEs, offering fast, flexible credit without the red tape of traditional banks.

8. 💼 An ex-Meta engineer raised $14M for Lace, an AI tool that promises to boost startup revenue by automating go-to-market strategies. Goodbye, guesswork.

9. 🎓 A suspended Columbia student raised $5.3M for a tool that helps users cheat on everything, from job interviews to dating apps. Ethics sold separately.

10. ⛏️ Durin raised $3.4M to automate drilling for critical minerals , using AI-powered robots to speed up exploration for the materials powering EVs and clean tech.

11. 💘 AI dating app Sitch just raised $2M to match singles using voice chats and friend input, ditching swipes for something a little more human.

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💸 Tariffs, Turmoil, and the Startup Squeeze

Trump’s 145% tariff hike on Chinese imports is spooking VCs. As July’s tariff pause nears its end, investors are hitting the brakes, especially on hardware-heavy startups caught in the crossfire of supply chain chaos.

Venture firms like Heavybit and Flybridge Capital are sounding the alarm. Their concern? Rising costs, slower IPO pipelines, and a potential dip in consumer spending that could chill the startup funding climate even further.

The ripple effects are real: VCs are shifting focus toward software plays, startups are rethinking fundraising timelines, and secondaries are becoming a hotter option for liquidity. A few sectors (AI, defense, logistics) might ride out the storm, but for most, it’s time to bunker down and budget tighter.

Trade policy is suddenly a boardroom conversation. And this time, it's not just the hardware founders sweating.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. TODAY! l Slidebean’s Crash Course in Financial Modeling | April 24 | Online

2. Gen Z NYC Founder & Creator Mixer l April 24 l NYC

3. Startup Grind Conference 2025 | April 19-30 | USA

4. Founder x Operator x VC Networking l April 26 l Gurugram

5. From Seed to Series A - Mastering the Metrics That Matter l April 29 l London

6. Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator | Deadline: April 28 | USA

7. Startup Battlefield 200 | Deadline: June 9 | Global

8. Entrepreneur First London - Summer | Deadline: July 1 | UK

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