Posts by Liam Redmond
Venture Capital Funds: 5 Signals in a16z’s $1.1B Bet
Andreessen Horowitz announced the Machine Age Fund on August 28, a $1.1 billion vehicle aimed at founders building chips, memory, networking, systems software, power and the machines that push AI into the physical world. It is the first fund the firm has raised specifically for the hardware layer underneath every model you use. I used…
Read MoreNon Dilutive Funding: Lambda’s $926M Debt Lesson
Lambda, Inc. closed a $926 million senior secured term loan B facility on August 27, capital earmarked for GPU hardware that a customer has already committed to using. The San Francisco company first priced the facility on August 12, and Moody’s rated it Baa2. That rating is the detail worth sitting with. A lender studied…
Read MoreEmployee Background Check Startup Yardstik Raises $30M
A Minneapolis company that screens workers has raised fresh growth capital, and Yardstik closed a $30 million round led by Harbert Growth Partners on August 27. The financing lifts the total capital to $65 million and funds a push beyond the traditional employee background check into ongoing monitoring. For founders, the relevant detail is not…
Read MoreSmall Business Hiring Splits Sharply Across Industries
If your hiring feels harder than your neighbor’s, the numbers now back you up, because NFIB’s quarterly industry survey found optimism rising unevenly across four sectors. Construction, manufacturing, retail and services all improved from April. What they are experiencing on the ground, however, looks nothing alike. That gap is worth sitting with before you rewrite…
Read MoreSeed Funding: 5 Signals Behind Transfyr’s $25M Round
A brand new company just walked out of stealth with a check most Series A founders would envy, because Transfyr launched with $25 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst. Lux Capital, Breakout Ventures, Factory, Neo, SV Angel, MVP Ventures, Underscore VC and philanthropist Lyda Hill joined the round alongside a group of angels.…
Read MoreCorporate Transparency Act: BOI Reporting Is Now Over
The reporting mandate that rattled millions of small business owners is finished, and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council confirmed the Corporate Transparency Act rollback in a statement on August 24. Treasury and FinCEN finalized a rule that exempts US companies and US persons from Beneficial Ownership Information reporting. The rule was announced August 11…
Read MoreStartup Grants: NC Opens Public Voting on 17 Founders
North Carolina is about to turn a state accelerator into a public campaign, because voting on the inaugural SBCN Startup Showdown opens September 1. Seventeen founders will compete for more than $60,000 in unrestricted startup grants, and the winners get named at an invitation-only reception in Raleigh on September 17. The prize pool is real…
Read MoreAugust Jobs Report Caps a Heavy Week of Economic Data
The August jobs report arrives Friday, September 4, closing out a week that also delivers ISM manufacturing and services surveys, the JOLTS openings data, the ADP employment reading and the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book. All of it lands before the Fed meets on September 15 and 16. Five releases in four days sounds like noise.…
Read MoreGen Z in the Workplace Wants Careers Without Borders
A Pebl survey released August 27 found that 54% of US Gen Z knowledge workers now define the American Dream as chasing the best career opportunity anywhere on earth, not specifically at home. Researchscape polled 1,022 respondents between July 6 and July 16. That reframes the talent market for anyone hiring young people right now.…
Read MoreNvidia Earnings Top $96B as AI Buildout Accelerates
Nvidia reported quarterly revenue of $96.22 billion on August 27, more than double the same period a year earlier and roughly $4 billion ahead of the analyst consensus compiled by FactSet. Shares rose more than 8% during Thursday trading. Founders have limited reason to care about a chipmaker’s quarter in isolation. This one is different,…
Read MoreWorkplace Culture: What the Best Small Firms Get Right
Great Place To Work and Fortune published the 2026 Best Small and Medium Workplaces lists on August 27, drawing on 1.3 million confidential employee responses gathered across companies employing 7.3 million people in the United States. Lumin Digital topped the medium list, and Abile Group led among small companies. Running a small company is hard,…
Read MoreHollywood studios have sued over AI. Now Google is courting them to use its tools
Tech giant Google has been quietly making overtures to the major studios as it tries to find ways to entice Hollywood to use its artificial intelligence technology. Google executives have approached representatives at Disney, Universal, Warner Bros. Discovery and other studios about licensing intellectual property to be used in AI models, according to three people…
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