Don Katz

Really important point Dave. Regulations may force change, but trust is what sustains platforms longterm. Privacy first, on-device protection shows that safeguarding children doesn’t require surveillance alone and that’s a critical distinction more developers need to understand and adopt.

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Trying something new this week - a studio industry roundup with my take on what matters. The studio model is no longer an experiment being run in a handful of places. It is infrastructure being built across geographies, sectors, and institutional types. 5️⃣ stories from the past seven days:  1️⃣ OSS Ventures hit a EUR 40M first close on a EUR 75M follow-on fund -- capital raised specifically to back the 30 companies their studio created since 2019. The "build then fund" lifecycle is maturing. B'More Venture Studio with a similar thesis: studio operations first, then dedicated capital to scale what's working.  2️⃣ Delta40 raised $20M from 54 investors across 13 countries to launch Africa's first integrated venture studio and fund. The LP base is almost entirely DFIs and foundations. Impact capital is discovering the studio model as a deployment vehicle, something I seeing across geographies (conversations with Michael Bob Starr and Damias McDonald this week alone) 3️⃣ Start Holdings launched Start.vc out of NYC and Barcelona after a $200M EV infrastructure exit. Another operator-turned-studio-founder. This is the pattern we see quite often in our work at 9point8 -- experienced operators like Jason Goldsmith who've built and exited deciding the studio model is how they want to build next.  4️⃣ UBC HATCH admitted 10 new deep-tech spinouts for Winter 2026 -- mostly climate tech. University venture builders are quietly becoming one of the fastest-growing segments. Follow Evan Allen and Jaimie Testai to keep track of its rapid evolution.  5️⃣ The INVEST Act is advancing through the Senate. If passed, it expands qualifying VC fund size from $10M to $50M and loosens general solicitation rules for accelerator and university events. For studio-funds -- and for folks in the The Venture Studio Forum community tracking policy -- this could be the most significant capital formation legislation since the JOBS Act. If this roundup format is useful, I'll keep it going. What other noteworthy news hit your desk this week, and what stood out to you?

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Even the most skeptical voices are starting to acknowledge the value of LLM generated code. Not as a replacement for deep expertise, but as a practical tool for acceleration, exploration, and iteration. When someone as famously disciplined about code quality as Linus Torvalds publicly acknowledges that AI generated code can be useful, it signals a shift worth paying attention to. The takeaway is not that AI writes better software than humans, but that good engineers are learning where and how these tools create leverage. https://lnkd.in/eFbNFqYN

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We are entering a phase where AI scaling is no longer just a silicon problem. The constraints are shifting to power density, topology, and the physical interconnect layer inside the rack. Small architectural changes there can drive disproportionate system-level gains. #ai #ainfrastructure #datacenters

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Really fun to sit down with Dianne Na Penn, Head of Product for Research at Anthropic, right after the launch of Opus 4.5 to discuss everything about the new model. Dianne has been at Anthropic since the very early days as their first PM and has been instrumental in shipping many of Claude's most transformative capabilities over the past 2.5 years. We discussed how Anthropic builds models, what's actually working with computer use today, how they use Opus 4.5 internally, and why their safety focus is a competitive advantage. Some favorite parts: ▪️How Anthropic conducts research  ▪️How builders should think about computer use and what's newly enabled by Opus 4.5 ▪️What's next for models  ▪️How and why scaffolding and agent architecture have evolved A few takeaways: ➡️ What’s next for models Dianne's AGI timelines moved up this year. She explains the building blocks for transformative, long-running AI are largely in place. The bottleneck shifted from model capabilities to product innovation. She calls this a "product overhang": the challenge isn't whether models can handle ongoing responsibilities like code maintenance or portfolio monitoring, but designing the right experiences to harness them. What's needed: UX patterns for managing agent fleets, evaluation frameworks for long-horizon tasks, and products that move beyond chat toward proactive, persistent agents. ➡️ The evolution of scaffolding AI scaffolding underwent a fundamental transformation. In 2022-2024, most scaffolds were rigid instructions like training wheels keeping models on track. The best scaffolds today are lightweight augmentations using generic tools that maximize autonomy rather than constrain it. As models improve, successful builders iteratively remove parts of their scaffolds that no longer amplify intelligence. The builders who develop "model taste", maintaining libraries of ambitious prototypes and testing them with each release, discover breakthrough capabilities. ➡️ Why safety work is actually intelligence work Most safety discussions focus on preventing bad outcomes, but Dianne highlights an under-appreciated benefit: well-aligned models are better thinking partners. When models are trained to avoid sycophancy, they become independent thinkers that push back and offer genuine alternatives. This happened when she asked Opus 4.5 about pricing strategy: it generated approaches she hadn't considered. Check it out ⬇️ YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gDhVCfVB Spotify: https://bit.ly/3M90hS9 Apple: https://bit.ly/48giSEt

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Talking to users and thoughtfully integrating their needs and wants was woven through everything we did at IDEO—threaded through every prototype and product decision. Reading my colleagues Joanne and Leo's latest work brought that to mind. They describe a future where research runs continuously, with AI agents recruiting participants and instantly surfacing insights. Synthetic personas, carefully trained on consumer signals, mirror human behavior closely enough to extend live studies and compress timelines from weeks to hours. Today user research mostly runs in fits and starts, prohibitively expensive and locked away in dedicated project cycles when it could be a constant companion, seamlessly integrated into the product development process. Joanne and Leo lay out the full vision here: https://lnkd.in/gEUBSG_J

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Today Isembard announced a $50m Series A fundraise led by Union Square Ventures, less than a year after Notion Capital led their Seed round. 💥This is a company right at the intersection of AI & supply chain sovereignty & they’re exceeding even our most optimistic expectations. By the end of the year they will have 25 factories across the UK, US, Germany, France & Ukraine. 💥Isembard is rapidly scaling its network of AI-first factories for precision manufacturing at the same time as market demand is accelerating. Macro forces (reshoring, rising defence spend, concentration risk in Asia, and the growth of neo-primes) are structurally increasing demand for fast, local, flexible manufacturing that the current industry is unable to deliver on. 💥The innovation is in the way the company builds and franchises factories as a product with tightly integrated units of machines, software, robotics, & process intelligence that turn design files into certified components with speed & reliability. 💥Their AI software platform, MasonOS, connects all sites into a single operating system, replacing fragmented shops with standardised, high-performance industrial nodes & enabling real-time quoting, predictable delivery, & low defect rates. By owning the full production stack, Isembard delivers premium manufacturing performance with the scalability & flexibility of a software platform. 💥We are at the top of the AI hype cycle and there are understandable concerns about the ROI on the vast sums of money being invested into this new super-cycle. But, the ROI for Isembard is both clear and compelling. They will deliver components 10x faster and at 50% of the cost of current suppliers. They will also build a de-centralised, global network of factories to meet the growing demand for national or regional sovereignty. 💥This is a company with a clear vision to disrupt a massive, fragmented $1.8tn component manufacturing market. Today marks another huge stride towards that vision. And they are only just getting started. We’re thrilled to be on this journey with Alexander Fitzgerald & the team & we’re also excited to welcome Rebecca Kaden & USV into the investor base. Notion Capital Union Square Ventures Alexander Fitzgerald Rebecca Kaden Maximilian Eichler Stephen Millard Britt Mulder

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