Jun 26, 2025 4 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ AI or Bust

SMBs’ AI Phobia, Apple Loves Offline, IPO? Keep Dreaming

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

Seventy-six percent still skip AI, yet some firms double down on desks and others hit Wall Street with black ink—does your next bet chase hype, or bankroll what most overlook?

Main Street Meets Mainframe: SMBs Quietly Go AI-Mode

👀 What’s the move: The latest NFIB survey says 1 in 4 small businesses are using AI, mostly to cut costs and keep up with the big kids. Think automation over innovation—this is more Excel++ than ChatGPT moonshots.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This isn’t some tech pipe dream. It's your local HVAC shop automating invoices while you’re still manually updating Notion. Also: nearly half of SMBs say they’ll never touch AI. Translation? The digital divide just became a moat.

⛵ What to try next:

If you're selling AI to SMBs, ditch the buzzwords—lead with “saves time, not jobs.”
If you're building, think plug-and-play, not pilot hell. Most of these folks don’t have IT. They are IT.

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💡 Insights Galore: Get actionable analytics that help you understand your customers better.

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TECH

Apple Buys Its Front Yard—for $166M

👀 What’s the move: Apple just dropped $166 million to buy the "Cupertino Gateway" office complex—basically a prime chunk of real estate across from Apple Park. Because apparently, owning half the city wasn’t quite enough.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This isn’t just a flex. It’s Apple doubling down on IRL footprint while everyone else is subleasing and running on Zoom. A bet that hybrid’s dead—or at least that Apple employees will be staring at real grass, not virtual backgrounds.

⛵ What to try next:

Revisit your hybrid strategy. If Apple’s buying offices, maybe “remote forever” isn’t the endgame.
Real estate adjacent to mega HQs? Could quietly become a new kind of goldmine.

HEALTH

Health Tech Hype Detox: VCs Finally Read the Fine Print

👀 What's the move: After years of IPO drought, two health tech companies went public this year with actual fundamentals. VCs are now preaching the "Rule of 40" — growth plus EBITDA margins should hit 40%+ or stay private.

💡 Why it's not boring: The bar is brutally high now. Hinge Health hit $400M revenue with 8% margins before going public. Compare that to 2021's "growth at any cost" disasters that are still underwater. Health tech is finally growing up.

⛵ What to try next:

Audit your unit economics — "we'll figure out profitability later" won't fly anymore.
If you're not profitable, you better be growing stupid fast or public markets will ignore you.

STARTUP SPOT

📊 Gamma
“AI-native presentation decks in a click.”
Turns text prompts into polished, interactive decks; 17 M users and $50 M ARR with a 30-person team.
→ Founded by Grant Lee (ex-Optimizely); raised a $12 M Series A led by Accel; now profitable and scaling.

🎥 Pika AI
“Idea‑to‑video magic for anyone.”
Transforms text or images into short, dynamic videos (up to 10 sec/1080p), with creative effects like Pikaframes and PikaTwists. Over 12 M users and heavy TikTok adoption.
→ Founded by Stanford PhDs Demi Guo & Chenlin Meng; raised $55 M (most recently a $35 M Series A led by Lightspeed); backed by Jared Leto.

🐄 CattleEye
"World's first hardware-independent livestock AI."
Uses security cameras + computer vision to monitor cow health, lameness, and body condition without wearables. Currently tracking 100K+ cows globally.
→Founded by MIT Sloan alum Terry Canning & Adam Askew (2019). Acquired by German industrial giant GEA (March 2024) after crossing 150K animals monitored.

BAY AREA MEMOS

SoftBank Telecom Unit Launches Debut $500 Million Dollar Bond Offering.
Vista Raises Record $5.6 Billion Continuation Fund to Extend Cloud Software Group Ownership.
Intel-Backed AI Vision Pioneer Reconova Eyes $100M Hong Kong IPO Amid Market Revival.
SAIC Secures $928M Air Force Contract for Rapid Military Technology Prototyping.
Fintech Company Bolt's Breslow Returns with $600 Million Fundraising Pitch After Previous Setbacks.

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