Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Software as an Agent · Bubs
The mechanic is straightforward. SaaS apps were built around a human navigating a UI. When agents do the work, the UI is overhead. You don’t need a dashboard if your agent reads the data and reports back. You don’t need a settings page if your agent hits the database directly. The whole infrastructure of “things to click through” was solving a problem that’s gone.
Opinion | Silicon Valley Is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass – The New York Times
Whether you talk with engineers, venture capitalists, founders or managers, or with doomers, accelerationists, lefties or libertarians, the so-called San Francisco consensus on the impact of A.I. for workers is bleak. Many are convinced that advanced A.I. will soon surpass human capabilities. This would produce tremendous growth and scientific achievement, but it would also displace millions of jobs as fewer humans are needed to make the economy run. The technology will depress economic mobility and exacerbate inequality, while ferrying power and wealth to the A.I. companies and the existing owners of capital.
Your website is not for you — Websmith Studio
The website isn’t for the founder, the marketing manager, or the board. It’s for the person you’ve never met – the customer weighing up a purchase, the lead chasing a phone number, the visitor sizing up your credibility or the member signing up to access gated content.
Maladaptive frugality – Herbert Lui
When you default to the lowest cost option without considering the drawbacks, procrastinating or hesitating on spending, or guilt tripping yourself about an essential expense or making a recoverable mistake, you’re engaging in maladaptive frugality.
What you’re actually writing when you write a SKILL.md
This post is about what skills actually are underneath, and why understanding the runtime changes everything you do at the surface.
Data: The Seed Funding Boom Is Concentrating Capital In The San Francisco Bay Area
U.S. seed investment is surging, but with more money going into fewer deals, it’s not altogether surprising that the funding uptick isn’t lifting all startup hubs equally. Crunchbase data shows that while seed capital is still flowing nationwide, it’s concentrating in a familiar place: the San Francisco Bay Area.
On what actually predicts YC startup success | by Jared Heyman | Apr, 2026 | Medium
This post takes a step back from Rebel Theorem to focus on some of the AI-derived scores that we now assign to every YC startup before Demo Day, and which best predict a startup’s likelihood to raise a Series A round or beyond.
AI chatbots can prioritize flattery over facts – and that carries serious risks
AI sycophancy seems harmless, maybe even cute, until you imagine someone consulting a chatbot about a weighty question, like a military strategy or a medical treatment. We study the impact of extensive human interactions with chatbots, and we recently published a paper on the ethics of AI sycophancy. We believe this tendency harms people’s ability to tell truth from fiction, and is psychologically and politically dangerous.
Sequoia Ascent 2026 summary | karpathy
As an experiment, I fed an LLM all of my recent blog posts and tweets, then I had it read this video’s transcript and produce 1) a summary and 2) a cleaned up transcript (correcting all transcription mistakes, getting rid of fill words, etc). I am posting both of these below. These can be useful for both people who may want to just read the summary in text format, but also for LLMs so that my content is legible and available to them.
Claude Code for Product Managers
Claude Code has eliminated the drudgery of product management. The busywork that used to happen across 10 different apps now happens in a single chat thread. I’ve come to view the work of product management through the lens of this conversation—the conversation is the work.
Tailwind — Topsail
Tailwind is a conversation series with sales leaders, operators, and outbound experts on what’s changing, what’s working, and how teams can build better sales motion.
#StartupsEverywhere: Seattle, Wa. — ENGINE
Retail workers have long shifts and often little time for feedback. Evan Smith is a Starbucks Vice President turned first-time entrepreneur, building Ethosphere, an AI-powered platform that uses personalized microphones to listen to sales conversations and provide retail associates with feedback on where they shine and could improve. We sat down with Evan to discuss his product, the importance of incubators, navigating the patchwork of state privacy laws, and more.
Mayors look to shape AI policy — and the technology itself — in new coalition | Smart Cities Dive
The U.S. mayors selected for the Mayors AI Forum have embraced the technology. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie last year provided AI tools for some 30,000 city employees, while Boston became one of the first major U.S. cities to adopt AI guidelines in 2023. San Antonio city workers have also been actively experimenting with municipal AI projects, Axios reported in October 2025.
