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The first company I built was in 2008; we closed our seed round in May, the housing crisis hit in August, and the world collapsed. I distinctly remember Sequoia Capitals RIP good times” slide deck that September, which effectively killed the VC market overnight. We had only raised $500K and had overscaled our team. We tried to last as long as we could, but in March 2009 we had to raise again. I personally pitched 36 firms in person and they all said no. That experience forever changed how I thought about fundraising for future companies. In 2025, we’re facing a similarly volatile environment, with global economic and political uncertainties and a significant decrease in venture funding, making these lessons more relevant than ever. Honestly, if you havent already been proactive in preparing for tough economic times as a small business, it will be challenging to get out of the hole you might be in in the current market. But for founders who are just starting their journey, its still a great time to start a companythere is a lot of talent available, really early-stage funding is mostly insulated from economic downturns, and you can build a product native to AI with a super lean team. As a 3x founder and investor in over 100 startups, I’ve learned key lessons in building resilient businesses through market challenges. Here’s my advice: 1. Refine Your Value Proposition In uncertain markets, investors naturally become more risk-averse and cautious. That means its more important than ever for your startup to present a compelling, crystal-clear value proposition. Your pitch should focus on solving real, pressing problems with a clear path to monetization and should explain why you are the best in the world at doing so. Avoid hyping growth projections and potential boom-time scenarios and instead, focus on grounding your forecasts in defensible data and unit economics, demonstrating a path to profitability and a viable business model. If your product already has some early traction, now is the time to double down on telling that story and highlighting those metrics. Make your core strengths obviouswhether thats revenue growth, customer retention, or product-market fit. 2. Explore Alternative Funding Paths Valuations typically compress, deal cycles slow down, and investors become more selective during volatile periods. You should adjust your expectations accordingly. Raising less capital at a lower valuation may be necessary to survive and continue growing through those tough times. At the same time, you should be open and exploring alternative funding sources: Whether that be revenue-based financing, angel networks, family offices, strategic partnerships, or even crowdfunding. Another way companies bridge rough patches is through non-dilutive capital, like grants or government programs. Flexibility is key. 3. Extend Your Runway Disruptions to the market can happen out of nowhere, sometimes for no reason. Founders should always be prepared and shift their mindset from growth at all costs to efficient, sustainable growth. The goal is to extend runway as long as possibleideally 1824 monthsto weather any downturn and avoid needing to raise again during less optimal times. This means cutting the burn far earlier than you think you need to. Even during good economic times, keep your team very lean. Payroll typically dominates burn, so dont overscale your team based on your capital. Highlight to investors how you are being prudent with capital. Demonstrating financial discipline and adaptability shows maturity and resilience, which investors value even more when uncertainty looms. 4. Build Trust and Relationships In volatile climates, trust becomes even more critical. Begin investor conversations well before you plan to raise. Building long-term relationships allows you to cultivate trust, get feedback, and stay top-of-mind. Focus on strategic investors who offer more than just capital, such as operational expertise or valuable networks for customer acquisition and talent recruitment. These investors are more likely to support you during market fluctuations. Maintain transparency about your companys performance and challengestrying to gloss over issues can backfire. Use regular updates (emails, calls, or virtual meetings) to show progress and your ability to navigate a tough market while demonstrating the added value these investors provide. While volatility raises the stakes, it also rewards founders who are resourceful, focused, and mission-driven. By tightening your fundamentals, adjusting expectations, and building strong investor relationships, you can still find the right capital to power your startup forwardeven in the most unpredictable markets.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was recently signed into law, offers Americans a number of tax benefits. It makes many of the changes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 permanent, and adds some new tax rules, both short-term and long-term, according to H&R Block. In addition to the No Tax on Tips provision (which allows eligible tipped workers to deduct a portion of their income from tips on their federal income taxes) and a car loan deduction, hidden away in the 940-page megabill is another little-known write-off for taxpayers who make charitable donations. Here’s what to know. What are the new tax rules for deducting charitable donations? With the new law, taxpayers who claim the standard deduction, not just those who itemize their taxes, will be able to claim a charitable deduction for cash contributions, according to H&R Block. That write-off goes into effect in 2026. Not sure what the difference is between standard and itemized deductions? The standard deduction is a specific dollar amount that reduces the amount of taxable income. However, some taxpayers choose to itemize their deductions if their allowable itemized deductions total is greater than their standard deduction, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). (Other taxpayers aren’t entitled to use the standard deduction.) In 2020, during the pandemic, which fell under Trump’s first term, the CARES ActCoronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Actallowed a deduction of $300 for cash donations for those taking the standard deduction. And later it doubled that amount to $600 for joint filers or married couples in 2021, before it was phased out, per USA Today. Now, filers can take an above-the-line deduction of up to $1,000 for single individuals and $2,000 for married joint filers, which can lower a taxpayer’s bottom line, or gross adjusted income, per H&R Block. However, this does not apply to property contributions made to a charity. How will deductions for charitable donations change for itemized taxes? Also starting in 2026, taxpayers who claim an itemized deduction for charitable contributions will be required to reduce their deduction by 0.5% of their adjusted gross income.
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E-Commerce
OpenAI is rolling out a new AI agent within ChatGPT that can browse the web and conduct deep research. An AI agent is similar to an AI app that can retain extensive information about a user and an automated workflow, reasoning its way toward task completion. This new ChatGPT agent is a hybrid. OpenAI previously released an agent called Operator, which can browse the web and access tools. Another agent, Deep Research, can search the web and reason through information to produce a comprehensive report on a topic. The new agent combines the strengths of both tools, along with ChatGPTs built-in intelligence and conversational fluency. OpenAI said in a press release on Thursday that the ChatGPT agent carries out tasks using its own virtual computer, fluidly shifting between reasoning and action to handle complex workflows from start to finish. For example, OpenAI says the agent can analyze a users calendar to generate a briefing on upcoming client meetings, or plan and purchase ingredients for a dinner party. A business might ask the agent to create a slide deck based on in-depth research about a group of competing companies. The model behind these agents is designed to contemplate new directions after starting a task. Users can approve tasks the agent wants to carry out, redirect them if they go off track, or adjust the original goals details. The ChatGPT agent can run code and prompt the user to log in to websites when necessary. It might also use application programming interfaces (APIs) to access data sources, such as files stored in Google Drive. Importantly, the agent requests permission before performing consequential actions like sending emails, submitting forms, making purchases, or handling personal information. The user can take control of the browser or stop the agents tasks at any time. And the agent wont do just anything. OpenAI says the agent rejects harmful or illegal requests. It wont handle high-risk tasks such as financial transactions or legal advice. The new hybrid agent launches today for ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and Team subscribers. Users can enable it by selecting agent mode from the tools drop-down menu within ChatGPT.
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E-Commerce
Investors are betting on a bright future for Lucid after the Silicon Valley-based electric vehicle (EV) maker announced a $300 million deal to create a robotaxi program with ride-sharing giant Uber and autonomous vehicle startup Nuro. The companies partnership was announced early Thursday. By market opening, the stock price for Lucid (NASDAQ: LCID) had surged nearly 30% and continued to gradually rise through the morning. After an initial drop, Uber stock (NYSE: UBER) also started a slow rise. Together the companies are working to create a fully autonomous version of the Lucid Gravity, an electric SUV launched earlier this year, for exclusive use in Ubers U.S. fleet. The vehicles will be equipped with a level-four autonomous driving system developed by Nuro. (Level four is the highest level of autonomyability to act without human interventioncurrently available in a commercial vehicle.) “We believe this partnership will demonstrate what’s possible when proven AV technology meets real-world scale,” Jiajun Zhu, Nuros co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. A proof-of-concept vehicle has already been created and is operating autonomously in Nuros proving grounds in Las Vegas. As part of the partnership, Uber has committed to buying at least 20,000 of these vehicles, Nick Twork, a Lucid spokesperson, told Fast Company. Beyond the vehicles, Uber also invested $300 million in Lucid and hundreds of millions of dollars in Nuro, according to Twork and a Nuro spokesperson, respectively. These investments follow other Uber partnerships with autonomous vehicle companies, signaling the company’s commitment to ramping up its involvement in the autonomous vehicle industry. Earlier this week, Uber announced a multi-year partnership with Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), a Chinese technology company deploying autonomous vehicles in non-U.S. markets. Within the U.S., Uber is also working with Waymoa partnership that brought robotaxis to Austin and Atlanta earlier this year. “This is the start of our path to extend our innovation and technology leadership into this multi-trillion-dollar market, Marc Winterhoff, Lucids interim CEO, said in a statement. Lucid reported a Q1 2025 revenue of $235 million, a year-over-year increase of 36%, and a net loss nearly 50% lower than the same quarter last year$366 million compared to 2024s $681 million. The Lucid Gravity SUVs commissioned by Uber will be on the road in a yet-unnamed major U.S. city next year.
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E-Commerce
While back-to-school shopping is certainly an end of summer expense that many families dread, this year is shaping up to be even more financially straining. Binders, backpacks, calculators, and even laptops (which about 94% of high school students use), definitely don’t come cheap. This year, the stress over having to purchase the items seems to be mounting higher than ever. According to a newly released Intuit Credit Karma report, which surveyed 1,022 parents with at least one school-aged child, more than a third (39%) said they can no longer afford the back-to-school shopping trip. Likewise, 44% say they’ll have to take on debt to pay for the school supplies for the 2025/2026 school year. That figure has jumped by 10% (from 34%) in just one calendar year. The data around back-to-school shopping gets even more concerning, too. According to the report, more than half of parents (54%) say they will need to sacrifice on essentials like groceries in order to get their children the necessary school supplies. And a large portion of parents45%say they can no longer afford after-school programs, sports, or other extracurriculars. 32% even said they’re considering leaving their jobs or trimming their working hours to care for their kids after school pickup. Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma, spoke to the financial strain families are feeling this year in a press release. Back-to-school shopping can place a significant financial burden on families, often leaving them with little choice but to stretch their budgets, Alev said. In particular, parents seem to be worried about how expensive items have gotten. 60% said that skyhigh prices on items is the reason they will struggle with shopping lists this year, with 38% revealing they expect to spend between $501 to $1,500. According to a new Deloitte report, they aren’t far off. While prices on items have gone slightly down since last year, back-to-school spending for K12 students is massively expensive, costing parents $570 per child on average, or around $30.8 billion total. Adding to parents’ expenses are their kids’ own list of “must-haves,” or, nonessential items they see on social media and sometimes feel (because it appears online like everyone has them) are necessary commodities. JellyCats and Labubu Dolls are particularly huge this year. And 51% of parents say their kids are begging for trending items. More than half (54%) say they do feel pressured to get their kids the items their IRL friends or social media friends have, too. Alev urges parents to trim what they can, staying away from buying the nonessential trending items, saying, “consider using it as an opportunity to have a thoughtful, age-appropriate conversation with your kids about money, teaching them the importance of budgeting and prioritizing needs over wants.
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E-Commerce
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