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The Creator Economy in 2025: Powered by People, Accelerated by AI

VC Cafe

The Creator Economy has undergone a fundamental power shift, officially overtaking traditional media in 2025. With projections estimating it will reach an astonishing $528.39 billion by 2030 from its current global valuation of over $250 billion, the creator economy is on the rise. While AI continues to revolutionise content creation, it’s so far been an amplifier for creators to get more productive, not to replace them.

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Steve Ballmer’s Tricks

Feld Thoughts

In my car on the way back and forth between Denver and Boulder the past few days, I listened to The Steve Ballmer Interview on the Acquired podcast by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. If you aren’t a subscriber, it’s in the category of a “must-listen to podcast.” I’ve known Ben and David for many years from their time at PSL and Madrona, and they’ve created an outstanding new media property with Acquired.

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AI startups continue to dominate investor charts, but we shouldn’t let this overshadow growth in industry verticals 

The Startup Magazine

For startups, the first Q1 of 2025 has some important AI startup funding trends. The popularity of AI-related startups shows no signs of abating anytime soon. New data from Crunchbase found that U.S. artificial intelligence startups dominate at all stages. Nearly half of venture funding went to AI-related enterprises, with roughly 61% of venture deals related to the industry.

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magicpin – a story of innovation and growth

Lightspeed Venture Partners

menu menu About Team Companies Founder Experience Stories Launch About Team Companies Founder Experience Stories Launch Faction Gaming Jobs LP login Events Lighthouse Contact 06/17/2025 Consumer Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on linkedin Copy link magicpin – a story of innovation and growth For a business that was established in the 19th century, the last five years have been extraordinarily tough.

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

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3 Essential Ways to Improve Your Business Finances Long-Term

Women Entrepreneurs Can

Every business owner needs to look after countless areas as they run their company. While each of these are important, some can feel more overwhelming than others. It’s easy to see why, as they can be relatively confusing. Finances can be one of the more notable of these. You’ll not only need to manage them, but actively improve your business finances as much as you can.

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Three Common Manufacturing Issues and How to Resolve Them

The Startup Magazine

The manufacturing industry can face unprecedented challenges sometimes. These manufacturing issues can range from complications in the supply chain to a lack of interest in new applicants, and both of these can be costly and time-consuming. Losing money is one thing no business wants to experience, so it is vital you identify and resolve any manufacturing problems that occur.

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2 Sides Of The Same Coin: How PR And Social Media Marketing Go Hand In Hand

YoungUpstarts

By using PR and social media marketing together to create a holistic marketing approach for your business, you’ll be able to build the visibility and credibility your business needs to scale effectively. The post 2 Sides Of The Same Coin: How PR And Social Media Marketing Go Hand In Hand appeared first on Young Upstarts.

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Omnifold

Lightspeed Venture Partners

menu menu About Team Companies Founder Experience Stories Launch About Team Companies Founder Experience Stories Launch Faction Gaming Jobs LP login Events Lighthouse Contact Omnifold Founders Ishaan Nerurkar - Co-Founder & CEO Lina Lukyantseva - Co-Founder & CTO Founded 2025 Stage Series A Invested 2025 Status Private Lightspeed Team Arif Janmohamed - Partner Guru Chahal - Partner Raviraj Jain - Partner Omnifold precisely models the underlying mechanics of supply chains and commercial operation

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5 Things the Best Wellness Clinics Are Doing Differently in 2025

Women Entrepreneurs Can

In 2025, people have ingrained wellness as an important part of their lifestyle. More and more folks are prioritizing preventive health, longevity, and personalized care than ever before. But with hundreds of clinics popping up, how do you know which ones are truly ahead of the curve? For a hint, you will find the best clinics keeping up with trends and even shaping them.

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Steve Blank at LBS: Lessons from a Lean Startup Legend

VC Cafe

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a talk at London Business School by Steve Blank—serial entrepreneur (two IPOs), adjunct professor at Stanford, and one of the fathers of the Lean Startup and Customer Development movements. Alongside Eric Ries and Alexander Osterwalder, Steve helped reshape how startups are built over the past 15 years. Hearing him speak in person was a reminder of why his ideas are foundational to modern entrepreneurship.

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How to Stay Visible in the AI Search Era

Duct Tape Marketing

How to Stay Visible in the AI Search Era written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing Listen to the full episode: Episode Summary In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed myself—John Jantsch—on a topic that’s reshaping the foundation of online marketing: search visibility in an era dominated by AI search , zero click searches , and evolving Google search behaviors.

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Want To Retain Your Team? Stop Focusing On Why They Quit

YoungUpstarts

Employee retention is not damage control. Every time business owners learn why someone chooses to stay, they gain a blueprint for scaling humanity alongside revenue. The post Want To Retain Your Team? Stop Focusing On Why They Quit appeared first on Young Upstarts.

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Investing in Nominal: The Continuous Test Stack for Physical Systems

Lightspeed Venture Partners

menu menu About Team Companies Founder Experience Stories Launch About Team Companies Founder Experience Stories Launch Faction Gaming Jobs LP login Events Lighthouse Contact 06/12/2025 Enterprise Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on linkedin Copy link Investing in Nominal: The Continuous Test Stack for Physical Systems Nominal Co-Founders pictured left to right: Jason Hoch, Cameron McCord, and Bryce Strauss.

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Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2025 – Lessons Learned Presentations

Steve Blank

The videos and PowerPoints embedded in this post are best viewed on steveblank.com We just finished our 10th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. Hacking for Defense, now in 70 universities, has teams of students working to understand and help solve national security problems. At Stanford this quarter the 8 teams of 41 students collectively interviewed 1106 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, industry partners, etc. – while simultaneously bu

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Remagine Ventures Monthly Pulse

VC Cafe

Today we sent our Remagine Ventures newsletter. Given the ‘special times’ we’re living in, I thought I’d share it here as well. The original version of this newsletter was published on Linkedin. Subscribe to get the next edition in your inbox. Running a startup is never easy—but in Israel right now, it’s something else entirely.

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Transparency as Strategy: How Kazakhstan’s Venture Funds Are Stepping onto the Global Stage

The Startup Magazine

A new generation of Kazakhstani investors is choosing transparency, legal maturity, and global competitiveness — and not just in words, but in practice. According to data from RISE Research, venture investment in Kazakhstan reached $71 million in 2024. More than 200 projects with roots in Central Asia are now operating abroad — and local funds are following them into global markets.

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Fintech’s Hidden Asset: Why Better Call Quality Builds Consumer Trust

YoungUpstarts

Running a fintech company? The call quality from your telecom provider can shape how consumers perceive and trust their chosen fintech platforms. The post Fintech’s Hidden Asset: Why Better Call Quality Builds Consumer Trust appeared first on Young Upstarts.

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30 Minutes of Awesome With Seth Godin

Feld Thoughts

Wow did I need that this morning! I was feeling tired and a little down before our call. I slept until the last possible minute before starting a Techstars Managing Director Alumni Network. While that cheered me up somewhat and gave me some energy, I followed it with another call with a CEO/investor/long-time friend where we spent some of the time wrestling with things going on in the US right now.

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The Underrated Power of a Small, Smart Upsell

Mike Michalowicz

Let’s talk about one of the simplest, fastest ways to boost your profit without raising your prices, chasing more customers, or burning out trying to sell harder: A smart, value-packed upsell. No sleazy tactics. No “but wait, there’s more!” infomercial energy. Just one useful thing your best customers will genuinely want offered at the right moment.

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Betting on People: What VCs Look for at the Pre-Seed Stage

VC Cafe

At the pre-seed stage, startups are often little more than a pitch deck , a founding team, and a few early signs of promise. While every opportunity is unique, experienced investors begin pattern matching from the very first meeting. They’re scanning for signs—positive and negative—that help them assess founder-market fit, clarity of vision , and potential for execution.

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Disruption and Denial 

SVPG

When the Internet emerged in the mid-1990’s, it seemed clear to me and many others that we were entering a new era of technology, one where our devices and our servers would all be connected, and where data would largely be stored in the cloud. The Internet was essentially a new platform, and a large. The post Disruption and Denial appeared first on Silicon Valley Product Group.

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What Business Owners Regret After A Retail Buildout

YoungUpstarts

Every decision during a buildout — design, materials, layout — shapes how well a store functions long after the ribbon is cut. The post What Business Owners Regret After A Retail Buildout appeared first on Young Upstarts.

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Three Thoughts on AI and Life

Feld Thoughts

From a friend I’ve known and worked with for 35 years. Brad – like you, in the 7th decade of our lives, there seems to be three truths: 1. Every generation has thought the end is near (ice age, nuclear threat, etc.) – always in the next 8 – 10 years, blah, blah, blah – has never happened 2. Every generation thinks the younger generation is being ruined by the latest technology – radio, television, internet, blah, blah, blah – has never happened 3.

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Monday Motivation: Must Know Tips for Risk Taking in Business

Hearpreneur

Deciding to start a business is taking a risk by itself, no guarantees in entrepreneurship and uncertainty is part of the game. This motivational video is to help CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners start the week off inspired to become great. You can minimize risks and maximize your chances of success thorugh a number of ways; Make informed decisions Evaluate risks carefully.

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Ishaan Nerurkar

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends.

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$CHYM TIME: The Three Boxes Chime’s IPO Checked for Me

Hunter Walker

Whoa, it’s been a minute. Somehow went almost two months without a post. Bad blogger! Yesterday Satya and I had the chance to celebrate Chime going public on NASDAQ. There are many ways to ‘grade’ an IPO from a punditry perspective ( here’s my own framework which I think still holds ), so I’m not going chime in with my own speculation (see what i did there), but on the other side of it, did want to recognize why this one felt special.

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Six Qualities To Overcome Challenges And Prosper

YoungUpstarts

How do you continue to move forward amidst the headwinds and uncertainties? How can you be heathy, happy, and prosperous? Here are six recommendations. The post Six Qualities To Overcome Challenges And Prosper appeared first on Young Upstarts.

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4 Methods of Turning Customer Complaints into Momentum for Growth

Women Entrepreneurs Can

Customer complaints can be frustrating and daunting at times. While they are often seen as interruptions and problems, they can actually be turned into great insight. They are from people who were passionate enough to say something to you. They could have just walked away silently, but they wanted to make their feelings known so that things could improve.

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What could Siri do for you--if Apple ever got it right?

This is going to be BIG.

Meet me where I am--that's the whitespace that Apple can fill up with a genuine personal assistant. I thought about that as I thought about where my weekly nextNYC newsletter fits into everyone's content consumption stack and even my own--and whether AI will mark the end of human driven curation. Do NYC founders really need me in between you and the event calendar?

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Jason Hoch

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends.

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You’ll Earn $2 Million. Now What?

Mike Michalowicz

The average U.S. salary is around $50,000. And over a 40-year working career, that adds up to about $2 million. Let that sink in for a second. Two million dollars. That’s what flows through the hands of the “average” person over their lifetime. So if that’s true, why do so many people feel broke? Why do smart, hardworking people still struggle to get ahead, even when they’re doing everything “right”?

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Bet the farm only when the crops are on fire!

Berkonomics

How much risk you and your company are willing and able to tolerate over time? Most people believe that early stage companies should take risks aggressively because there is less to lose and much more to gain with each risky bet or decision. Common thinking goes on to address large, public corporations by expressing that the relative tolerance to risk is decreased, in favor of protecting the brand or financial health of the enterprise.

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Scaling Your Business: What You Need to Know

Women Entrepreneurs Can

How do you scale your business ? There are many ways to scale and several reasons both for and against scaling your business. However, all companies need to be built with a framework in place to scale if and when the time is right. But how exactly do you know when this is, and what is the best route for you to take? Only you can determine whether you want to scale and grow what you do and expand on what you have built.

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Puawai

NZ Entrepreneur

In Founder Focus we introduce entrepreneurs and change-makers working on innovative startups, social enterprises and SME’s around Aotearoa New Zealand. At a glance Founder/s: Kate Forward & Stephen Ponsford Business: puawai Founded: 2024 HQ: wellington Can you tell us a bit about your business? Puāwai helps users ideate, execute, and scale their business in one smart, connected workspace.

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Bryce Strauss

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends.

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Being Full of Value‑Added S**t

Feld Thoughts

My morning started early with a 6:30 a. m. drive to Denver to give a talk about Give First: The Power of Mentorship , which Erik Mitisek had organized for a group of Denver-area founders. In it, one of Erik’s questions caused me to go off on a riff about authenticity, which led me to one of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto items titled Be Authentic—Practice : What You Preach and a section in the book titled Nonsense Phrases Such as “I’m Value Added”.

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