26-YEAR-OLD GIRL QUIT HER JOB AND BUILT A SMALL SOCIAL NETWORK FOR NYC CAFES. 31,000 USERS IN 4 MONTHS. NOW IT MAKES $18,400/MO FROM LOCAL SHOPS
she didn’t try to build another instagram. she built a tiny app for one obsessed niche: people who save cafes, share lists, follow local taste, and discover places before they go viral on tiktok
the product is simple. profiles, posts, likes, saved lists, search, comments, and a feed. that is basically every social network at the core. the hard part was never the idea. it was needing 5 engineers to make it work
claude code changes that. one person can now build auth, database, feed logic, profiles, follow system, storage, notifications, and deployment with supabase and vercel instead of hiring a full team
the money is not from ads. cafes pay $199/month to claim their page, boost new menu drops, see which lists saved them, and post local offers. power users pay $8/month for private maps and early city guides
most people still think social networks need millions of users. she proved the opposite. 10,000 people in one niche can be worth more than 100,000 random users scrolling for nothing
small social networks are the new local media businesses. claude code just made them cheap enough for one person to start one from a laptop
Claude isn't replacing Obsidian. Hermes isn't replacing Cursor. Kimi isn't replacing Claude.
Each solves a different bottleneck.
The biggest productivity gains in 2026 aren't coming from better prompts.
They're coming from workflows where context compounds, tasks run autonomously, and the right model handles the right job.
One AI tool is useful.
A coordinated AI system is a force multiplier.
Europe only knows how to regulate.
@roxannevarza is tired of hearing it.
She argues that many of the comparisons between Europe and the US ignore how much regulation exists on both sides of the Atlantic.
This view of Europe is missing a lot of what is happening on the ground.
Some of the world’s most exciting companies are being built here and there has never been a better time to build in Europe.
A group of students just raised $3.1 million in 14 days
not because they had decades of experience
not because they had a massive audience
but because they understood one simple truth
Your network can change your life.
That's why they built an AI-powered social network designed to make meaningful introductions instead of chasing likes, followers, and vanity metrics.
The idea is surprisingly simple.
You tell the AI who you are.
You tell it who you'd like to meet.
And it finds the right person from its network and creates a warm introduction through a group chat.
> no cold emails
> no endless networking events
> no spending months trying to get someone's attention
Just the right connection at the right time.
What's fascinating is that the platform isn't only helping entrepreneurs.
People are already using it for:
> building businesses
> finding mentors
> dating
> fitness goals
> educational opportunities
The founders spent years studying how startups actually get funded.
And they discovered that more than 90% of first-time founders receive funding because of someone already in their network.
HUI LUI bought 100 Mac Minis to build a private AI server farm.
Most people still pay $200/month for Claude Code.
One $599 Mac Mini can replace it for ~$3 in electricity.
A dev posted a $170 Claude Code bill for 10 days on Reddit.
Someone replied: “I bought a Mac Mini M4. Haven’t paid Anthropic since.”
M4 delivers 120 GB/s unified memory, making local AI viable for many workloads.
Ollama now supports the Anthropic Messages API.
Claude Code connects locally via one variable.
Same workflow. Zero API cost.
A heavy AI stack costs ~$459/month across tools.
That’s $5,500/year.
A Mac Mini pays itself off in months, then runs near free.
Uber spent $3.4B on Claude Code for 5,000 engineers in 4 months.
The gap between renters and owners is widening.
Bookmark this.
Here's a deep dive on Code Puppy and how it's designed to prevent tech "enshittification" and other damage if AI's circular funding merry-go-round ends badly: businessinsider.com/walmart-code-p…
NO KEYBOARD. NO MOUSE. NO HANDS.
Just a voice and a computer that actually listens.
GPT Realtime 2.0 just made voice-controlled computing real in a way that every previous attempt at it was not.
Not voice-to-text that types what you say. Not a command that triggers a pre-programmed action.
Full computer control through natural conversation.
The operating system responds to intent, not syntax.
@FarzaTV made this insane build and it is called @heyclicky.
Apple has 150,000 employees. Farza has a laptop. Farza just won.
He shipped Clicky an AI that lives next to your cursor, sees your screen, and listens to you talk.
No new tab. No copy-pasting into ChatGPT. No breaking your flow. You just speak, it works.
His demo controlling his entire Mac with just his voice, no keyboard, no hands hit 2.7 million views in a single day.
And watching it doesn't feel like a product demo. It feels like someone using a computer from 10 years in the future.
The thing that gets me though — every AI tool right now asks you to stop working and go talk to it. Clicky stays where you are. That one shift changes everything about how it feels.
One guy. One laptop. Free to try. Only on Mac right now.
Watch his demo. Then you'll understand why 2.7M people stopped scrolling.
Benchmark Scores Won't Tell You Who Is Winning the AI War. The real question is whether AI can get hard work done -- and the answer is complicated. For me, for now, it is a mashup of Claude, Claude Co-Work and OpenClaw.
But every user and enterprise is different. Bottom line is is go with the architecture that can help your enterprise get things done.
open.substack.com/pub/bobgourley…
Claude + Instagram = Money Machine 💸
No camera. No editing. No showing your face.
I'm sharing the 12 exact prompts I use to generate daily virals and make the maximum money possible ⬇️
.
If you live in Southeast Asia and are thinking about starting a startup, this is a program worth checking out
Google for Startups Accelerator offers a three-month, equity-free program designed to help startups scale faster. Participants receive direct support from Google engineers, experienced mentors, and industry experts.
Some of the key benefits include:
One-on-one mentoring with Google and industry specialists.
Technical support to solve real product and scaling challenges.
Workshops on AI, product development, customer acquisition, and leadership.
Early access to selected Google AI products.
Potential access to Google Cloud credits.
Free Cloud TPU resources for eligible machine learning projects.
A hybrid format combining online sessions with an intensive in-person boot camp in either San Francisco or Singapore.
The program targets startups from the seed stage up to Series B funding. For founders building AI or technology-focused companies, it can provide valuable technical expertise, networking opportunities, and access to Google’s ecosystem.
Over the past year, we've worked closely with some of the most well known enterprises in the world seeking to adopt AI while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and security.
Today, we're thrilled to announce that Nesa has been supporting Procter & Gamble in deploying AI across its internal workflows and environments with our proprietary AI encryption technology.
P&G marks our first paid contract with a Fortune 50 client. This is a first for our industry, and we are excited to take our enterprise momentum across the Fortune 500 where there is no shortage of demand for safe, secure, encrypted AI.
Andy Jassy explains Amazon's rule for keeping a giant company from turning into a committee:
"We let them make the lion's share of the two-way door decisions."
"A two-way door decision is one where if you walk through it and you're wrong, you can walk back through it."
"As you get larger... there's a premeeting for the premeeting for the premeeting for the decision meeting."
So Amazon flattened the org and raised the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15%.
This is the part operators miss:
Bureaucracy is not a vibe. It is a measurable tax on reversible decisions.
I've seen the same thing building $300M+ businesses. Speed dies when the people closest to the work need permission from three levels up.
SITUATION EXPLAINED: Anthropic just raised $65B at a $965B valuation. Three months ago they were at $380B.
• Run rate revenue crossed $47B this month
• Co-led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia
• Participation from Jane Street, Blackstone, Fidelity, General Catalyst, Situational Awareness and more
• Strategic infra partners: Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix
• Amazon 5 GW of compute. Google + Broadcom 5 GW
• First frontier model on AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure simultaneously
@theojaffee: "Anthropic could have priced it at $1T for aura. They didn't."
Introducing Claude Opus 4.8: it builds on Opus 4.7 with sharper judgment, more honesty about its own progress, and the ability to work independently for longer than its predecessors.
Available today at the same price.
$65B raised. $965B valuation. $47B in revenue.
The Anthropic deal is insane. I made a short whiteboard-style explainer video using Simi so that you don't have to read the article.
We've raised $65 billion in Series H funding at a $965 billion post-money valuation, led by @AltimeterCap, Dragoneer, @Greenoaks, and @sequoia.
This investment will help us advance our research and expand our capacity to meet growing demand for Claude.
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