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In partnership with
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In This Edition:
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Your Shopify DTC
Brand Can’t Afford
Q4 Without
Zipchat
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BFCM traffic
costs a fortune.
If your Shopify
brand isn’t
converting at its
possible best,
you’re not just
losing sales —
you’re burning
money and
shrinking Q4
margins.
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Zipchat.ai
is the AI Agent
built for DTC
ecommerce. It doesn’t just
chat — it
sells.
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Closes
hesitant
shoppers
instantly
with product
answers and
recommendations
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Recovers
abandoned
carts
automatically
via web +
WhatsApp
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Automates
support 24/7
so you scale
without
extra
headcount
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Boosts
profit
margins in
Q4, when
every order
counts
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That’s why brands
like Police,
TropicFeel, and
Jackery — brands
with 10k
visitors/month to
millions — trust Zipchat
to handle their
busiest quarter
and fully embrace Agentic
Commerce.
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Setup takes less
than 20 minutes
with our success
manager. And
you’re fully
covered with 37 days
risk-free
(7-day free trial
+ 30-day
money-back
guarantee).
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On top, use the NEWSLETTER10 coupon
for 10% off
forever.
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Try Zipchat
free
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a16z’s AI
Spending
Report
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Where
Startups Are
Secretly
Pouring Their
AI Dollars
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Startups aren’t
just adopting
AI—they’re
reorganizing
around it. Andreessen
Horowitz
(a16z), in partnership
with Mercury, analyzed spend
from 200k+
startups to reveal
the top 50
AI-native
applications
shaping the future
of work.
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Key
insights:
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Horizontal apps
dominate
— 60% of spend
goes to
productivity tools
usable across
roles (OpenAI,
Anthropic, Notion,
Canva).
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Creative tools
surge
— Image, video,
and voice apps
(Freepik,
ElevenLabs,
Midjourney,
Descript) now span
beyond marketing
into everyday
workflows.
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Vertical AI is
splitting
— Most augment
human roles, but a
growing set
(Cognition, 11x,
Serval) act as AI
“employees.”
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Vibe coding
rises
— Platforms like
Replit and Cursor
are powering
agentic app
development at
scale.
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Consumer-to-enterprise
shift
— Nearly 70% of
companies started
as consumer-first,
now expanding into
enterprise-grade
adoption.
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The report is a
real-time signal
of how AI is
reshaping work—and
where capital is
flowing.
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Explore the
full a16z AI
Application
Spending
Report
here.
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⚡ 3 VC Shifts
Changing Startup
Fundraising
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September VC
Trends: The
Shifts
Founders Can’t
Ignore
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Over $4B was
raised by VC funds
in September, with
40+ new funds
launched. But the
real story is who
raised—and how
they’re
deploying.
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Key trends
reshaping the
landscape:
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1️⃣ Corporate
Venture
Comeback
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• Sanofi: $625M biotech
fund as
traditional checks
slowed • CoreWeave: Pairing compute
with capital • Robinhood: Filed for a
retail-accessible
NYSE-listed
fund
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2️⃣ Healthcare
Specialists
Dominate
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• 28% of new
funds targeted
healthcare • Extreme
subspecialization—from
women’s health to
AI-driven
biotech
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3️⃣ Europe’s Share
Is Growing
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• 31% of funds
were
Europe-based • US led at 46%,
but capital is
spreading beyond
Silicon
Valley
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A fund to watch: Standard
Capital
($425M inaugural
fund), founded by
Paul Buchheit, Dalton
Caldwell, and Bryan
Berg, reinventing
Series A
with:
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• Fast decisions
& standardized
terms • No board seats,
no legal
fees • Founder-set
valuations and
round sizes • Open
applications—no
warm intro
needed • AI-native
diligence
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Corporate
venture,
healthcare
specialization,
and AI-native
processes are
rewriting how
capital
flows.
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Explore the
full
September VC
trend report
here.
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✨ And here’s
the part
founders
should really
pay attention
to:
knowing *where the
money is
flowing is one
thing—but
knowing who
writes the
first checks
is another.
There’s a
list of
1,000+
active
angel
investors
making early
bets that
never show up
in VC reports.
It might be
the edge you
didn’t know
you needed.
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Why Startups
Are Demanding
70+ Hour
Weeks
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996 Is
Back—Are
Founders
Ready?
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A work culture
once outlawed in
China is
resurfacing in
Silicon Valley: 996
— working 9 a.m.
to 9 p.m., six
days a week.
That’s 72 hours,
every week.
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Key insights from
recent
reports:
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Rooted in
China’s tech
boom
— companies like
Alibaba and Huawei
fueled rapid
growth with 996
before it was made
illegal in
2021.
Resurfacing in
AI startups
— firms like Rilla
and Cognition are
openly advertising
70–80 hour
weeks.
Leaders pushing
limits
— Google
co-founder Sergey
Brin suggested 60
hours as the
“sweet spot of
productivity.”
Economic
backdrop
— layoffs
(400,000+ since
2022) may be
driving workers to
accept harsher
schedules for job
security.
Cultural
shift
— Ramp
data
shows more
corporate spend on
Saturdays in San
Francisco,
suggesting weekend
work is
rising.
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Silicon Valley is
reviving a work
culture many
considered
extreme. Is this
discipline driving
innovation—or a
step backward for
work-life
balance?
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Read the
full story
and share
your
perspective.
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Perplexity’s
Comet: The AI
Browser Goes
Free
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Perplexity
Launches Comet
Browser
Worldwide
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Perplexity AI has
released its AI-powered
Comet browser
for free global
download as of
October 2,
2025—ending
exclusivity for
premium
subscribers and
opening access to
millions on the
waitlist.
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Key
highlights:
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AI-native
browsing
— built on
Chromium,
integrates agents
to summarize
pages, organize
tabs, and automate
tasks
Productivity
boost
— supports
drafting emails
and simplifying
workflows like
online
shopping
Premium tier
— Comet Plus (for
Pro & Max
subscribers)
offers ad-free
browsing and
access to partner
news from The Washington
Post, CNN, and more
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Comet signals a
shift toward
browsers as AI-driven
productivity
hubs, not just
gateways to the
web. Explore the
full launch
details
here.
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Your boss will
think you’re a
genius
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You’re optimizing
for growth. Go-to-Millions
is Ari Murray’s
ecommerce
newsletter packed
with proven
tactics, creative
that converts, and
real operator
insights—from
product strategy
to paid media. No
mushy strategy.
Just what’s
working. Subscribe
free
for weekly ideas
that drive
revenue.
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Sign up
now
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Nvidia’s $100B
Bet on OpenAI
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Nvidia +
OpenAI: A
$100B Power
Play
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Two of the
biggest names in
AI are joining
forces. Nvidia
plans to invest up to $100
billion
in OpenAI, while
also supplying
advanced chips to
power its next
wave of AI
breakthroughs.
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Key
highlights:
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Dual structure
deal
— Nvidia to
provide non-voting
shares + OpenAI to
reinvest capital
in Nvidia
chips
Massive compute
scale
— at least 10
gigawatts of
Nvidia systems for
OpenAI, equal to
powering 8M+ U.S.
homes
Strategic
timing
— first hardware
deployments
expected in 2026
on Nvidia’s new
Vera Rubin
platform
Industry
impact
— could tighten
Nvidia’s chip
dominance and
reinforce OpenAI’s
software
leadership
Concerns
raised
— analysts note
risks of
“circular”
investments and
potential
antitrust
scrutiny
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This alliance
underscores how
compute has become
the new foundation
of AI’s
economy.
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Will Nvidia’s
stake in OpenAI
reshape the
competitive
balance—or fuel
concerns of
consolidation in
AI? Read the
full
breakdown
here.
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