Jean-David Benichou

Wednesday Startup Profile Here's a dynamic startup empowering creators and makers 🚀​ Pony Express Studio builds tools for creators and makers 🎨​ Flagship products: Tweet Hunter 🐦 and Taplio 💼​ Achieved $3.5M ARR within two years 📈​ Co-founded by Thibault Louis-Lucas and Thomas Jacquesson 🤝​ Acquired by lempire in 2022 for up to $15M 💰​ Continues to innovate in the creator economy 🌟

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What Investors See That Founders Don't — Inside the VC Decision Process — with Leon Eisen, PhD Listen in here - https://lnkd.in/e7J5Tvfp A quantum physicist who built the world's first FDA-cleared wearable medical monitor — then crossed to the VC side and finally understood why he only raised $20M instead of $200M. What Leon Eisen, PhD discovered on the other side of the table will change how you think about every investor conversation you've ever had. 🎯 What We Cover: - Why founders pitch to the wrong brain — and the three-brain decision framework investors actually use - The difference between "asking for money" and offering equity in a growing asset — and why it changes everything - How to control the investor meeting through intelligence and preparation, not dominance - Why raising capital too early costs you more than you think — and the right time to raise - What VCs mean by "being in the flow" — and how they identify which companies are riding a trend vs. fighting one - The Fundables OS™ approach: why becoming fundable is a company-building exercise, not a pitch exercise - Momentum + charisma: the intersection Leon used to raise his first $1M during the 2008 financial crisis - How imposter syndrome silently kills founder credibility in investor meetings — and how to eliminate it - Why syndicate VCs have to sell themselves to founders, not just the other way around - The consciousness framework: how self-awareness separates entrepreneurs who scale from those who stall Listen in here - https://lnkd.in/e7J5Tvfp

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[JUST IN] Y Combinator just revealed what it wants founders to build next. TL;DR Robotics and physical AI are front and center! 1. AI tutors Personalized tutors that adapt to each child and help with reading, writing and math. 2. Defense tech Low-cost interceptors, drones, sensors, logistics and advanced military hardware. 3. A cloud for small software Infrastructure that makes tiny AI-built apps easy to deploy, secure and share. 4. Multiplayer AI Shared agent environments where entire teams can collaborate with the same AI agents. 5. Compute at sea Offshore data centers as a potential answer to growing constraints around land, power and permits. 6. Billion-user AI products New consumer apps for learning, health, money, mobility, productivity and entertainment. 7. AI for aging populations Voice assistants, monitoring, robotics and care-coordination tools for older people. 8. Operating systems for the physical world Software that coordinates humans, robots and AI agents working together. 9. Crypto infrastructure Stablecoins, agentic commerce, trading, institutional products and private blockchains. 10. Real-world data New sensors, robots and autonomous systems that collect richer physical-world data for AI. 11. Proof of human Privacy-preserving ways to verify that a person, account, call or transaction is actually real. 12. AI-native compliance Automating regulatory monitoring, reporting, anomaly detection and audit trails. 13. Self-maintaining APIs Agents that detect API changes, find affected code and automatically open fixes. The takeaway: YC is betting that the next AI wave will be less about another chatbot and more about AI becoming part of software, infrastructure, robotics and the physical world itself. Here's the link to access the doc → https://lnkd.in/ep4Qe3MP

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Europe is gaining serious momentum in the global quantum race. According to PitchBook, European quantum computing startups raised a record €1.5 billion (~$1.8 billion) in 2025 — a staggering 170% increase from the previous year. Several mega-rounds closed, new dedicated quantum funds launched (including Quantonation’s €220 million fund), and Europe is positioning itself as a serious global contender in one of the most strategically important technologies of our time. For private equity sponsors and growth investors in deep tech, this record funding wave has clear talent implications: • Quantum companies require exceptional leadership teams capable of bridging cutting-edge science with commercial execution and scaling • The demand for visionary CEOs, technically sophisticated CTOs, and commercial leaders (CROs/CGOs) who can navigate long R&D cycles and capital intensity is intensifying • Leadership that can attract and retain top scientific talent while building scalable businesses will be the biggest differentiator At HMN Capital, we’re actively supporting mandates in the quantum and deep tech space as sponsors look to strengthen leadership teams to capitalise on this opportunity. How do you see the leadership and talent requirements evolving in quantum computing as funding continues to grow? DM me or comment below — happy to share anonymised insights from recent searches. #QuantumComputing #DeepTech #VentureCapital #EuropeanTech #ExecutiveSearch #PrivateEquity #Leadership #HMNCapital

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🚀 The AI-PC Ecosystem Is Now Fully Activated — OEMs, VCs, and Global Fulfillment Are Engaging What started as a simple idea five months ago has now become a true category moment. AIPC.computer + AIPCS.computer — the first dual-marketplace dedicated to AI-PCs — is now attracting attention from every corner of the industry. And it’s happening all at once. 🌐 Global Fulfillment Partners Are Now Reviewing This week, senior leaders from: Amazon Web Services (AWS) • D&H Distributing • NTT DOCOMO • World Wide Technology • Insight reviewed our proposal and pitch materials. These companies sit at the intersection of: ☁️cloud + edge AI 📶telecom bundling 🌍global procurement 🛒digital commerce infrastructure Their interest shows one thing clearly: ➡ The AI-PC marketplace will not be owned by an OEM — it will be owned by the platform that organizes the entire category. AIPC.computer/pitch-deck Shop.AIPC.computer

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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗫𝗥 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀. 🥽 French startup Lynx has entered judicial liquidation, meaning the company will be dismantled and the highly anticipated Lynx-R2 headset will never see the light of day. While it is incredibly sad to see a passionate team of innovators close their doors, this outcome highlights a brutal truth about the current spatial computing landscape: 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀. Lynx was a genuine pioneer. They successfully built true color passthrough and championed an open-source OS ecosystem long before the tech giants made it the industry standard. However, trying to survive as a hardware startup with under $7M in total funding against juggernauts like Meta and Apple - who can afford to subsidize hardware at a massive loss to dominate market share - proved to be an impossible mountain to climb. Coupled with the recent loss of Google's Android XR support, the runway simply ran out. The fall of Lynx isn't a failure of vision; it is a reflection of the brutal economics of consumer electronics. If we want a diverse, decentralized hardware ecosystem, the tech sector desperately needs better pathways to fund and scale independent creators. Otherwise, the "metaverse" will be built entirely by three companies. What are your thoughts on the consolidation of the XR hardware market? Is there still room for independent headset makers, or is the future exclusively owned by Meta, Apple, and Samsung? Let's discuss below. 👇 🔗 Read the full breakdown on the liquidation proceedings here: https://lnkd.in/d2xRQdmV #Lynx #MixedReality #VirtualReality #XR #SpatialComputing #TechNews #Funding

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Your project is great. Nobody cares yet. And it's not a marketing budget problem. Most Web3 founders pour everything into the product — the whitepaper, the tokenomics, the roadmap. Then they launch into silence and wonder why adoption is slow. Here's what's missing: People don't buy into projects. They buy into belonging. A community gives your project: 1. Early feedback before you waste months building wrong 2. Ambassadors who promote because they believe, not because they're paid 3. Retention that no airdrop can manufacture 4. Trust that converts strangers into holders, users, contributors The projects that survive bear markets aren't the ones with the best tech. They're the ones with people who refuse to leave. Ethereum. Solana. Nouns DAO. All community-first, product-second. Your roadmap tells people what you're building. Your community tells them why it matters. Are you building a product with users or a movement with believers?

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