Top News | Figma’s going public: This afternoon, design unicorn Figma filed to go public. Its S-1 filing shows a growing company that was profitable to start the year. With $228.2 million in Q1 revenue, Figma is already just under the $1 billion annual run rate mark. Its 46% growth in the first quarter, positive net income, and more than $1.5 billion in cash mean that Figma is an incredibly healthy, potent company. It intends to list under the ticker symbol FIG. Oh, the company also generated nearly $95 million worth of free cash flow in the first quarter, because sure, why not. SurgeAI seeks $1B: Today on the podcast, we included an interview with TWiST500 company LabelBox, an AI data and date labeling startup that claimed it expected nine-figures worth of additive revenue after arch-rival Scale AI (mostly) sold to Meta. Now Surge AI, another startup in the data labelling space, is looking to raise $1 billion, Reuters reports. Surge, which has avoided external capital to date, could capitalize on the moment to onboard a simply enormous slug of funding. Given that Scale generated $870 million worth of top line last year, there’s a huge prize out there to be divvied up. And with so much new capital flowing to the players, expect to see some consolidation in short-order. AI regulation moratorium dies: Never say never in politics, but it appears that language in the current U.S. government funding bill that would have limited state-level AI regulation is dead. Work was made to convert House language into something that could pass the Senate, but those tweaks apparently failed. Now, it appears that each state will retain the right to choose a la carte AI policies as they see fit. That means technology companies could face a complex domestic regulatory environment, which could in turn make it harder for smaller firms to compete. The technology industry had lobbied for the regulation moratorium inclusion.
| TWiST500 | Where to start? Today’s been bonkers. Before we get into the meat of our TWiST500 update, a refresher on two major stories that impacted companies on our list: | Grammarly buys Superhuman: Today Grammarly (which purchased Coda at the end of 2024), announced that it is snapping up well-known email service Superhuman. Confused? The two companies (three?) want to build the AI OS of the future, using both agents and heavily-used work surfaces to create a new platform for getting things done. Check out today’s episode of the pod for more. Cloudflare shakes up the AI content argument: While suits concerning previously ingested content used to train AI models wind their way through the courts, Cloudflare is building tools to protect online material from future AI scraping. If you love using RAG to source information from the web using your favorite AI tool, a price increase might be heading your way. We’re reaching out to TollBit, Created by Humans, and other companies on the TWiST500 that are building competing, or complementary products. More to come, but if the Cloudflare tool — dubbed Pay Per Crawl — picks up momentum, the very fabric of digital economics could change.
| Got all that? Great, now to the latest news from the TWiST500: Anthropic has added another $1 billion to its annual revenue run rate, per The Information. The foundation AI model company’s has quadrupled in size so far this year — which is staggering — but the ride thus far has not been entirely smooth. The same report from The Information indicates that Cursor — yet another company on our roster — managed to hire away two Anthropic staff to its own offices. | Anthropic’s growth makes it a bargain. Its $61.5 billion price tag set during its last fundraise is now a mere 15x its annualized top line, a figure that could fall to the single digits by the end of this year if the private firm doesn’t raise more capital at a new, higher price. OpenAI’s own revenue multiple has been falling this year as its revenues have also soared. The two companies are now on a combined ~$14 billion run rate today. | Place your bets now on where they close they year! — Alex | A message from Squarespace | Turn your idea into a new website! Go to https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST for a free trial. When you’re ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. | This Week in Startups | E2145: In a special TWiST, recorded during Jason’s trip to Singapore, he chats with entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan about The Network School and his wider vision for an internet-native, decentralized society. Is the future going to be “sharp societies” creating civilizations united by shared values rather than physical boundaries? MAYBE! | E2144: It’s an auto-heavy Friday TWiST, with Jason and Alex looking at Xioami’s cheap, high-quality electric vehicles that could find themselves at the center of a global tariff war. Plus Uber’s rumored team-up with former CEO Travis Kalanick, Telsa’s cautious robotaxi rollout, Meta’s ongoing talent shopping spree, a new edition of Reddit Rapid Response, and much more. | E2143: It’s an EPIC, legendary VC roundtable special this week, with Jason sitting down with Sequoia partner Doug Leone and Cyberstarts founder Gili Raanan for some insider, brutally honest insights on recruiting, working with first- and second-time founders, finding true market fit, the myth of early ARR, their early investments in Wiz, and much much more. Do not miss this episode! | TWiST Partner Offers | Superpower: The best founders know: better health = better business. Visit superpower.com/twist to get $50 off your membership. This offer is only for the first 100 twist listeners who sign up. Vanta: Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.com/twist Vouched: Turn your AI infrastructure into production-grade software with Know Your Agent from Vouched. Check it out yourself at http://vouched.id/twist. Trust for agents that built for builders like you.
| LAUNCH Accelerator | We’re hosting an in-person Demo Day for LA34 in SF on July 16 from 9a-12p PT, the latest cohort from Jason Calacanis’ Accelerator. | If you are an early-stage investor and interested in attending, please reach out to bianca@launch.co. | Want to Work for This Week in Startups? | We’re looking to fill two in-person sales positions at our Austin, Texas HQ! First, a high-performing Sales Executive to help us seek out and promote clients, sponsorships, branded content, and more. Plus an experienced Sales Manager to lead, coach, and scale our sales executive team, while setting performance goals. Love the podcast and have B2B sales experience? We want to hear from you! | SF Live-Work Space Now Available | Need a flexible living and working environment in San Francisco? This thoughtfully designed loft-style residence at 787 Bryant St., the heart of the vibrant SOMA district and the city’s creative hub, is now available for rent or purchase. Check the listing for more details. | Founder University | Applications are open for Founder University Cohort 11, a 12-week remote pre-accelerator program tailored towards navigating early-startup practices, building an MVP, and growing traction. Submit your application at Founder University— Cohort 10 will kick off Summer 2025! | The TWiST500 newsletter is the new, updated, and improved TWiST Ticker. |
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