Posts by Liam Redmond
AI Agent Security: Neo Launches With $100M to Lock It Down
A new security startup named Neo left stealth on July 20 with $100 million in funding, the company announced, aiming to secure the flood of AI agents now entering the enterprise. Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, with Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures joining. The size of the check signals where investor…
Read MoreManufacturing Automation Goes Autonomous as 1872 Raises $15M %
If you have ever waited weeks for a fabricated steel order, you know the quiet stress of a supply chain that cannot find enough workers. A startup called 1872 just raised $15 million in seed funding, announced this week, to run an autonomous steel fabrication factory in Cincinnati. The round, led by The O.H.I.O. Fund,…
Read MoreHow to Start a Side Hustle as More Americans Take the Leap
A fresh QuickBooks entrepreneurship study found that one in three U.S. adults plans to start a business or side hustle within the next 12 months, a 94 percent jump from last year. That is not a trend. That is a stampede. I used to tell people to wait for the perfect moment. I was wrong.…
Read MoreSolo 401k: The Retirement Move Founders Keep Skipping
Many founders answer the retirement question the same way, telling a widely shared 24/7 Wall St analysis that they will simply sell the company one day. A solo 401k offers a steadier path, and in 2026 it lets a self-employed owner shelter up to $80,000. That gap between a hopeful exit and a funded account…
Read MoreSmall Business Marketing in 2026: Where Customers Come From
Small business owners just told LocaliQ’s 2026 marketing trends report that their best customers now arrive through word of mouth, with 83 percent naming referrals as their top acquisition source. One year earlier, that figure sat at 65 percent, so the climb is steep and fast. For founders watching every dollar, this changes where marketing…
Read MoreIran hangs 2 men convicted of killing 4 police officers in January protests
Iran on Tuesday hanged two men convicted in a case of killing four police officers during January protests, state media reported. A report by Mizanonline. ir, affiliated to the country’s judiciary, identified the two as Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani and Amir Hossein Safari Hosseinabadi, saying they also set a police station on fire and damaged public…
Read MoreAI Email Security Gets $4.1M as Threats Outsmart Filters
Email is still where most attacks on small companies begin. This week, AI email security startup StrongestLayer said it raised $4.1 million in new funding, bringing its total seed round to $9.3 million. The company argues that the last generation of filters can no longer keep pace with attacks written by AI. For a founder,…
Read MorePhysical AI Startup Gritt Launches With $32.4M
A new kind of construction crew just raised real money. Physical AI startup Gritt launched from stealth this week with $32.4 million in combined pre-seed and Series A funding, aiming to automate the hardest outdoor work on a jobsite. The raise signals that robotics is moving from the warehouse into the open air. For founders,…
Read MoreFed Rate Hike Odds Climb Ahead of the July Meeting
A Federal Reserve rate cut looked like the base case a month ago. Now a fed rate hike is back in the conversation, with CME FedWatch data putting the odds of a quarter-point increase at the July 29 meeting near 47%. That is a sharp shift for founders who assumed borrowing costs had peaked. The…
Read MoreAI Agents for Business Are Giving Founders Their Week Back
When I scaled my first company, every problem looked like a hiring problem. Fresh data on AI agents for business challenges that reflex, because knowledge workers who run production agents now recover a median of 6.4 hours every week per seat. Those figures come from the McKinsey Global AI Survey 2026 and the Slack Workforce…
Read MoreTeen Summer Jobs Fall to the Lowest Level Since 1948
Hiring a teenager for the summer used to be one of the easiest wins a small business had. A new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that window closing, projecting teens will gain just 790,000 jobs across May, June, and July 2026. That would be the lowest summer total since the government began tracking…
Read MoreUS dollar retreats as oil slides on Middle East pause; focus on central banks
It dropped against other major currencies after the US paused its bombing in Iran Published Mon, Jul 27, 2026 · 08:34 PM [LONDON] The US dollar dropped against other major currencies on Monday (Jul 27), after the US paused its bombing in Iran, which dragged oil prices lower and lifted investor confidence ahead of a…
Read More