Snout, Space, Silicon
Disney star raises $100M for satellites, Ricursive hits $4B building self-improving AI chips, and Dario warns 50% of entry-level white collar jobs will vanish in 5 years
TL;DR: Ricursive Intelligence raised $300M at $4B, Waabi $1B, Northwood Space $100M + $50M Space Force deal, Phia $35M. Plus 20+ roles across consumer, fintech, health, and AI startups, and must-reads on women investors losing ground, Dario's 50% job displacement warning, and Spring Health acquiring Alma's provider network.
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Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini, Co-Founders of Ricursive Intelligence, an AI chip startup building self-improving systems to design and optimize silicon substrates, raised $300M in Series A funding at a $4B valuation, led by Lightspeed.
Raquel Urtasun, Founder & CEO of Waabi, an autonomous vehicle company, raised $1B in funding, including a $750M Series C co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, alongside a strategic partnership with Uber.
Bridgit Mendler, Co-Founder & CEO of Northwood Space, a company building next-generation ground communications infrastructure for satellites, raised $100M in Series B funding led by Washington Harbour Partners and a16z. The company also secured a $50M contract with the US Space Force.
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, Co-Founders of Phia, an AI-powered shopping platform helping consumers find cheaper and secondhand alternatives, officially announced $35M in funding led by Notable Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins.
Thuria Wenbar, Co-Founder & CEO of Evaro, a digital health platform enabling consumer brands to embed regulated NHS-backed healthcare services, raised $25M in Series A funding led by AlbionVC.
Anada Lakra, Co-Founder & CEO of BoldVoice, an AI-powered voice coaching platform for non-native English speakers, raised $21M in Series A funding led by Matrix.
Sapir Markus-Alford, Co-Founder & CTO of Gigablue, an ocean-based carbon removal company, raised $20M in Series A funding led by Planet Ocean Capital.
Philippa Brown, Co-Founder of Elyos AI, an AI platform building agents for trades and field services, raised $13M in Series A funding led by Blackbird Ventures.
Allie Melnick, Co-Founder & CCO of Climatic, a wellness startup focused on lung health, raised $10M in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau.
Emily Dong, Founder & CEO of Snout, a pet wellness financing platform turning vet care into monthly memberships, raised $110M across $10M in Series A funding led by Footwork and $100M in debt financing from Clear Haven Capital Management.
Casey McGinley, Co-Founder of Barnwell Bio, a precision animal health company using metagenomic biosurveillance to detect disease threats in poultry operations, raised $6M in seed funding led by Twelve Below.
Arantxa Barcia, Co-Founder of MITO AI, an AI-native collaborative video platform for filmmakers and creative teams, raised $4.5M in pre-seed funding led by Lightspeed.
Nicole Landis Ferragonio, Co-Founder & CPO of Datalinx AI, an AI data refinery helping enterprises turn complex data into AI-ready assets for marketing and analytics, raised $4.2M in seed funding led by High Alpha.
Anabel González, Founder & CEO of Good Bacteria, a gut health startup building a rotating probiotic supplement system, raised $3.2M in seed funding from BAM Ventures, BrandProject, RiverPark Ventures, and Listen.
🥂 Scout from De Soi is hiring a summer MBA intern to work on operations at a non-alcoholic apéritif brand co-founded by Katy Perry.
🏦 Julia from Rogo is hiring 5-10 MBA summer interns from top finance programs to work on strategy, product, and GTM for an AI platform serving financial services.
🍷 Jess from Theodora is hiring a contract Founding Marketing Lead to own all marketing for a wine rec app that helps people find bottles they'll love.
🐔 Andrea from ChicknLegs is hiring across marketing, content creation, apparel design, and e-commerce ops for a creative activewear brand with multiple full-time and intern roles open.
💰 Anna from Goodfin (YC W22) is hiring interns across engineering, biz, and marketing to help build an AI-native wealth platform for private markets and pre-IPO investing.
✍️ Vedika from Social Capital is hiring Thinker-Writers to create viral Twitter threads for influencers and Silicon Valley companies.
📱 Fabiana from Alinea Invest is hiring a Creative Intelligence Strategist to find the next best ad ideas by scrolling with taste and fueling scalable paid social.
🎯 Juliette from Rookie Move is hiring a part-time Marketing & Operations Assistant to help develop events and content for an experiential marketing platform.
🏥 Erica from Healthie is hiring 5 roles including Senior Account Executive and Director of Product Design (hybrid NYC), plus remote engineering roles in observability, app security, and new products.
🛍️ Samantha from Try Your Best (TYB) is hiring across sales, including SDRs, AEs, SDR Manager, and Sales Leaders to scale a community-first commerce platform.
🎮 Playad is hiring interns and full-time roles across engineering, design, GTM, and sales to build AI-native ad creatives following a $5.4M pre-seed raise.
🍁 Maple is hiring a Founding Customer Experience Engineer and SMB Account Executives (in-person NYC) to build voice AI for restaurants.
🎬 Mints Media (founded by the former CMO of Cluely) is hiring a full-stack creative to ideate, film, and edit social media content in NYC.
🌐 Posh is hiring 15 roles across Product, Engineering, Data, and GTM to build IRL communities based on shared interests.
🤖 Human Archive (YC W26) is hiring Machine Learning Interns to work on VLA model benchmarking, video annotation, and multimodal alignment.
🎓 NYU Leslie Entrepreneurial Institute is hiring a Marketing and Communications lead to run social, content, and marketing for programs supporting NYU founders.
🍐 Pear VC is accepting applications for its Female Founders Circle, an 8-week in-person program in SF for female and non-binary AI founders with mentorship, workshops, and studio access. Apply by Feb 6th.
💼 She Capital is hiring an Analyst in New Delhi to work with early-stage founders.
🌱 a16z College Talent Program is hosting spring campus events to connect with the next generation of builders, operators, and investors.
✨ 951 fresh startup jobs posted in the past week. Want daily jobs? Check out Teli Labs’ job board!
💁♀️ Teli Labs matches and introduces young talent to founders at top early-stage startups & SMBs. Join here!
The future for women investors is in danger. Anu Duggal (Female Founders Fund) argues that cultural and political shifts and tight markets are making it harder for women-led funds to preserve their gains, as VCs retreat to familiar spinouts from Sequoia, a16z, and Benchmark rather than backing diverse managers despite strong performance data.
Everything you need to know about Clawdbot (now OpenClaw). The viral AI assistant that can manage your calendar, send messages through your apps, and check-in for flights. The catch: it requires technical setup and carries real security risks.
Confronting the risks of powerful AI. Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO) on the five civilizational risks ahead: (1) autonomy risks (AI going rogue), (2) misuse for destruction (bioweapons accessible to anyone), (3) misuse for seizing power (AI-enabled totalitarianism), (4) economic disruption (50% of entry-level white collar jobs gone in 1-5 years), and (5) indirect effects (rapid changes we can’t predict). We’re entering a “technological adolescence” that will test whether our systems have the maturity to wield almost unimaginable power, but he believes we can prevail with the right safeguards, transparency, and international cooperation.
She was rejected by Y Combinator. Now her bootstrapped startup just passed $36M in ARR. Flodesk hit $36M ARR while staying 100% bootstrapped, supporting 100K+ users and 13B+ emails sent in 2025, with Rebecca Shostak now CEO leading their AI-powered next chapter for small businesses.
April Koh’s Spring Health acquires Alma. The mental health benefits platform is acquiring the therapist network (24K providers) to solve care continuity when patients switch jobs or insurance, closing Q2 2026.
Arctis AI raises $1M+ pre-seed to digitize construction paperwork. Dila Ekrem announces funding led by PT1, EWOR, and superangels to build digital infrastructure managing the complex web of contracts and documents buried across PDFs, emails, and spreadsheets.
VIA launches to unify the fragmented resale market. Hana Elster (BU ‘26) introduces her discovery platform bringing consignment, vintage, and secondhand into one searchable shopping experience.
The minimum financial model every seed-stage founder needs. Emily Bennet (a16z Speedrun) argues that “we’re too early for a model” is wrong. Build a simple tracker for three things: financial viability (cash, burn, runway), structural goals (north star metric for PMF), and unit economics (LTV/CAC).
Protein isn't just for gym bros anymore. Natalie Weiner breaks down how GLP-1s are bringing protein to the drive-thru, with 1 in 8 U.S. adults now on GLP-1s driving demand for protein-rich, light, and satisfying products at Starbucks, Chipotle, Dunkin', and Subway, plus emerging brands like Cotto and (P)rind.
11 talented women, messy ideas, and a 2026 bingo. A recap of Antler's female founders event in Australia, a low-pressure space for women building or exploring early ideas, with more sessions coming in 2026.
Clawbot & the Consumer Baby Boomer. This week’s Teli Digest breaks down Dario’s 50% job displacement prediction, why you should develop theses on industries worth attaching yourself to, and deep dives on labor market infrastructure, consumer baby boomers, and sports tech gaps.
70+ Top Series C Startups. A list of VC-backed Series C companies with descriptions, raise amounts, employee counts, and industry tags.
📈 Partner with Her Hustle & Teli Labs if you are a early-stage startup interested in hiring top talent.
🗞️ Explore our other newsletters: Teli Digest, a roundup of startup hiring, funding, and ecosystem insights, and Dorm Report, spotlighting standout young founders.
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, Hustlers!
Love,
Daniela & Adrian