What does it mean to become a scale-up when AI allows smaller teams to build bigger businesses? Reflections from the Scaleup event at Reichman University on defensibility, talent and what Israel needs to build its next generation of global companies.
Israelis are flying home to vote while the tech community keeps building. This week’s #FIRGUN celebrates fresh funding, acquisitions and new funds, alongside AI mega-rounds, Anthropic’s IPO preparations and reminders that trust and security must keep pace with innovation.
Venture capital is concentrating around a handful of firms and companies, while established norms around partnership come under pressure. Yet smaller teams can accomplish more with less, creating opportunities for pre-seed investors willing to look beyond consensus.
AI can transform the economy while disappointing investors. Anthropic’s anticipated IPO, neocloud debt and circular financing expose the tension between technological progress and financial returns, with consequences for founders, VCs and the capital funding the boom.
A growing group of AI companies is building substantial businesses by running models efficiently. From Fireworks and Modal to model developers expanding into inference, the opportunity is to turn increasingly accessible intelligence into reliable services. What makes these businesses defensible, and where will the value accumulate?
This week’s #FIRGUN celebrates Varonis’s $6.3 billion acquisition agreement, reported Amazon–Decart talks and fresh Israeli startup funding, alongside flying cars, new AI models and the latest Q3 venture reports.
AI capabilities are advancing faster than businesses can adopt them. For startups, the opportunity lies in turning that potential into dependable products, repeatable workflows and measurable results.
Three years after October 7, this week’s #FIRGUN celebrates the people building forward - a lot has changed, but we should also appreciate what changed for the better
Three years after October 7, Israeli tech is raising more and exporting more, and defence tech is fast becoming a category of its own. The drive that sent Israelis home to serve is now shaping the companies they build. Here's what changed, why I'm bullish on Israeli founders, and why the recovery is still uneven at the earliest stages.
AI agents hacked government portals, broke into Hugging Face and tried to cover their tracks this year. A VC's guide to the startups building the brakes for rogue AI, why Israel's Irregular sits at the centre of the story, and why self-improving agents make the problem harder.
Courage at 30,000 feet, $13.2B raised by Israeli startups in nine months, and a week of agent security rounds, a 10-month exit to Nebius, and a new defence-tech fund.
Capital is concentrating in fewer deals. Higher valuations tell us what successful fundraises look like, but founders also need to understand the evidence, dilution and runway required to get there.
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