A $7 AI Course—Is It Really About the Course?
On the first day Film Hurricane launched their AI course, they sold 100,000 copies. At 49 yuan per course, daily revenue exceeded 4.9 million yuan.
If the AI Bubble Bursts, It May Not Die from Technology, But from Accounting Methods
Regarding whether AI is a bubble, the most common debate over the past two years has centered on one question: are large models actually useful?
AI Giants Lose Money on Subscriptions: This Isn't a Price War, It's a War for Users
Research firm SemiAnalysis recently did something simple but effective: actually worked under OpenAI and Anthropic's various subscription tiers, then reverse-calculated the token value of these tasks using public API pricing
Why the Most Profitable AI Startups Often Don't Chase Big Markets
Go narrow, go deep, charge premium: narrow markets = high unit economics + deep moats + avoid giants; broad markets are red ocean bloodbaths.
Bitcoin Hit $120K, So Why Did Altseason Never Come
In October 2025, Bitcoin broke through $126,000, setting a new all-time high. By the old playbook, Ethereum should have rallied next, followed by a broad altcoin surge, and finally even your neighbor would be showing off their gains. This time, those middle two acts never happened.
When AI Models Proliferate, the Models Themselves Aren't the Most Valuable Asset
As models converge, value shifts to the routing layer; the moat is cross-model data + network effects.
He Chased Every Trend and Missed an Entire Era: YC President's $2 Billion Lesson
The Y Combinator president uses one misjudgment to illustrate: chasing trends is the most expensive cost.
AI Has No Taste Because It's Wired to Average Everything
Models default to averaging, so they have no preferences—and therefore no taste.
The Internet's Data Is Nearly Exhausted—Your Workflow Is AI's Next Mine
The data business keeps evolving. Scale AI made its fortune on data labeling during the self-driving and early LLM era; as training shifted to expert data, Mercor and Surge rose; now the demand has changed again
When Giants Fight, Does the Neutral Party in the Middle Win?
OpenCode thrived in the gap between Claude Code and Codex by refusing to take sides.
AI Colleagues Are Here—But Is Your Access Control Still Designed for Humans?
Agents have become colleagues, yet our systems of permissions and trust still follow human-to-human designs.
The Real Bottleneck of AI Implementation Was Never the Model
AI implementation is stuck at the last mile; hybrid roles that understand tech + business + delivery are an undervalued opportunity.
Stop Flaunting ARR — This Metric Is Deceiving Everyone
Flaunting ARR reflects status anxiety. Three traps: metrics manipulation, survivorship bias, and ecosystem distortion. Retention and repeat purchase are the real signals.
The Moat Has Really Moved: Even Anthropic Is Desperately Hiring Salespeople
Anthropic is desperately hiring salespeople, proving the moat is no longer at the product layer.
The Pitfalls AI Agents Will Hit Were Already Hit by Quant Traders Thirty Years Ago
People building Agents tend to treat the perception-decision-execution-feedback loop as something novel. Wall Street doesn't see it that way. Quantitative trading systems are exactly this loop, running for over thirty years in an environment of real money and brilliant adversaries
AI Is Not the Next Internet: This Wave Has a Different Shape
Sequoia's verdict: AGI has arrived, and this revolution's shape differs from the internet.
The Company That Told People Not to Come Won the AI Talent War
When Meta launched its sky-high poaching offensive, two leading AI companies responded in two different ways. OpenAI followed market convention: counter offers for targeted employees, retention bonuses, and
Everyone's Productivity Is Up 10x, So Why Isn't Any Company Worth More?
Individual efficiency up 10x, company value flat—the bottleneck is organizational, not technological.
How Did a Company 'Producing AI Garbage' Raise $30 Million?
The controversy points to a real question: Can AI independently operate a company? Users investing in ads is a genuine signal.
A Shell Swap Costs 4.5 Points: The Model and Shell Are Actually the Same Product
The same model with a different shell differs by 4.5 points. The product and the model are actually the same thing.
The Dimensional Strike of AI-Native Enterprises: Not a Tool Upgrade, But Species Replacement
If large models are nuclear weapons, then AI-native reconstruction is an entirely new digital life system. This is not a metaphor. Traditional enterprises facing AI-native enterprises are in a position similar to film companies facing digital cameras, or traditional media facing mobile internet. They're not defeated—they're replaced.
Stop Worrying About API Bills—They're AI Companies' Payroll
YC partner Diana Hu said something uncomfortable for founders at Startup School: The best companies will be the ones spending the most tokens. What she meant is that a company
Learning from Block's 40% Layoff—You Might Only Learn How to Fire People
Block laid off 40% of its workforce at the end of 2025, going from idea to execution in under three weeks. Outsiders see the percentage; insiders see the algorithm: the team ran a three-step minimization exercise—how many people to keep services running at 100%, how many to meet strict regulatory compliance, how many to deliver growth commitments plus agent rebuilds. Add error margin to those three numbers, and you have the final answer.
985 Graduates Returning to Vocational Schools? In the AI Era, Companies Don't Want Diplomas
During the May Day holiday, my cousin called me. He graduated from a vocational technical school and built his e-commerce business in Shenzhen from scratch—a true doer. Due to his own educational background, he used to be anxious about his child's education, wanting them to attend a top university. But this time, he seemed at peace.
Xiaohongshu Takes Action: Why Companies Need to Establish an Intelligence Department
Since its founding in 2013, Xiaohongshu has grown over thirteen years to over 4,000 employees and more than 400 million monthly active app users. Now, it's made a move: establishing a Corporate Intelligence Department. Integrating the former Enterprise Efficiency Department and Data Science Department, coordinating with the Strategy Department and HR Department, laying the foundation for AI-era organizations across four dimensions: intelligence, talent, data, and resources.
The AI Company That Hit $30M in 3 Months—Why It Doesn't Need VCs
Yash Patel, a 12-year Silicon Valley veteran who invested in Snap, recently went solo and raised a $100 million fund. His reason for leaving his former firm deserves the entire VC industry's attention: he discovered that the fastest-growing
Only Two Paths Left in the Software Industry—No Middle Ground?
Either accelerate growth by 10+ points in 12–18 months, or achieve 40% profit margins. There's no path in between.
AI Companies Grow Fast and Spend Less—Who's Getting the Bill?
a16z partner David George recently shared a striking data point: the top-performing tier of AI companies saw year-over-year revenue growth of 693%. His team triple-checked before going public. Even more counterintuitive than the growth rate is the adjacent figure: these companies spend less on sales and marketing than traditional SaaS companies.
Does the Company Say AI Is the Top Strategy? Organizational Structure Doesn't Lie
In 2015, Daniel Zhang proposed the 'big middle platform, small front platform' at Alibaba. In 2018, he appointed Zhang Jianfeng to lead the big middle platform and placed Alibaba's most important project, the Alibaba Business Operating System, into this department. Looking at the launch event, it was just a slogan plus a personnel appointment; looking at the organization, a new direction was given resources, given position, given a trusted person—all three boxes checked.
90 Days to $1.5M: A Company Selling a Problem That Doesn't Exist Yet
A company called Gushwork recently raised a $9 million seed round, led by Susquehanna, with Lightspeed and B Capital participating. Let's start with the numbers: 90
Palantir Sells AI by Sending Engineers, Not Salespeople. Why?
When selling AI, send engineers instead of salespeople. AES is the sales paradigm for the AI era.
Why Can AI Replace Hotel Booking but Not Food Delivery?
When Silicon Valley discusses AI entry points' impact on platforms, the most widely circulated statement carries a hint of irony, called the DoorDash Problem: in the future, you won't open a food delivery app, but instead tell an AI 'order me a pizza,' and it handles
The AI Benefactor Making $13 Billion a Year Doesn't Train a Single Model
Let's start with some numbers. Tether made $13 billion in 2024 with a team of 150 people. That same year, OpenAI earned $3.7 billion in revenue but lost $5 billion, with over 3,000 employees
Five People Managing $500M, Six Hundred Managing Tens of Billions: Where Does VC Money Actually Go
In 2009, right after Ben Horowitz closed his startup's Series A, investor David Beirne asked him in front of his entire core team: When are you going to hire a real
Slack's Successor Won't Be a Better Slack
Collaboration pain stems from information overload; AI as collaborator is the real variable.
Real vs. Fake Startups: A Cognitive Reconstruction of the Essence of Entrepreneurship
Have you ever wondered whether what you're doing is a real startup or a fake one? This isn't a moral judgment, but a fundamental question about resource allocation efficiency. Recently I came across an interview with two Y Combinator partners, Da
Capital Is No Longer Scarce—a16z Is Now Selling Distribution
In 2009, when Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz founded a16z, their vision wasn't to build a better fund—it was to become the CAA of tech. CAA is
Notion Doesn't Sell Lego Bricks—It Sells Pre-Built Boxes
Notion's founder once said something worth writing down for anyone building products: making a product requires users and revenue—that's business; at the same time you have taste and aesthetics—that's
The AI Industry Is No Longer Competing on Intelligence, But on Cost
In 2025, Silicon Valley changed the axis by which it measures AI. For the past few years, all discussions revolved around Scaling Law: whether models would continue to get smarter, when AGI would arrive. That year, the mainstream narrative shifted to T
What Kills Agent Projects Is Often Not Lack of Intelligence
YC found that 90% of Agent projects fail, and the cause of death is often not lack of intelligence.
This Company Took 7 Years to Find Its Direction, Then Grew 10x in One Year
Staying close to customers and iterating repeatedly is the right path to finding direction; speed doesn't matter—what matters is whether the direction is right.
40% of Major Websites Are Blocking AI, But No One Knows How to Charge the Machines
In July 2024, only 9% of the world's top 10,000 websites blocked AI crawlers. A year later, that number is 37%, and it's still rising.
The Organizational Muscle Huawei and Midea Built Over Thirty Years—First to Depreciate When AI Arrives?
Midea air conditioners, Huawei phones, TCL televisions—during their fastest growth years, these companies shared one thing in common: sales compound growth rates above 30% for consecutive years, sometimes doubling in a single year. Management scholar Shi Wei tracked these
The Next Wave of AI Companies Aren't Selling Tools—They're Selling Results
From selling tools to guaranteeing results—only by taking on the risk can you command a premium.
Why Do Most Companies Fail When Learning from Supercell's Small Team Model?
With revenue per employee exceeding $36 million, small teams can't replicate it—what they're learning is the three prerequisites for decentralization.
The Most Profitable Crypto VC Playbook Is Squeezing Good Projects Out of the Market
A crypto fund founder managing over $200 million has barely made a move in recent months. His reason for stepping back is worth more than all the bear market analysis combined: once the industry's money-making playbook was exposed, the game became unplayable.
Why Does Your Custom AI Companion Become Boring After Two Days?
Character AI's outcome is somewhat ironic. Founder Noam Shazeer is one of the eight authors of the Transformer paper, the model capability ranks among the best in similar products, and the user base
Who's Paying for AI Knowledge? What They're Actually Buying Isn't Knowledge
They're buying a sense of security and belonging; knowledge depreciates, connection appreciates.
The Biggest Fear for AI Products: Being Limited to a Single Use Case
The biggest fear for AI products is being limited to a single use case—use case density determines product destiny.
Good Companies Are Built Through Iteration: PayPal Changed Direction Four Times in Ten Months
Today's PayPal processes nearly a trillion dollars in payments annually and has a market cap of over two hundred billion dollars. Rewind to 1999, and it was called FieldLink, working on encryption technology for mobile devices.
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