It’s been a busy week for the government, AI industry, and payments sectors. Let’s unpack. First, what’s at the top of everyone’s mind today: the U.S. government has shut down. Government-funded AI projects are likely to stall — such as those powered by the NSF, which has already announced its closure. Under its umbrella is […]
LLMs can answer business questions — but how do you know if their inferences are accurate? Theory Ventures Partner Andy Triedman unpacks what it would take to make AI predictions about human behavior more accurate for marketing and customer research. Like a good friend, LLMs have opinions if you ask them. “Which of these outfits […]
Tariff headwinds are causing a headache for many businesses with sprawling supply chains and large importers, yet small businesses continue to be optimistic — and fintech is taking note of the opportunity. According to the latest MetLife and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index, optimism climbed to 72.0 this quarter, up sharply from 65.2. […]
The first wave of fintech in small business lending brought real innovation. Not only could we apply for loans online for the first time, but the approval decisions were very quick, sometimes even instant. By the mid-2010s, companies like Kabbage, Square, and OnDeck had broken new ground, and small businesses had access to capital like […]
Self-service finance is here, but the technology needs room to grow before consumers will fully embrace it. In the age of DIY and self-checkout, financial management has entered its own “do it yourself” revolution. Artificial intelligence-powered tools and chatbots now help people budget, invest, and plan for the future — all without waiting for a […]
Delta’s tentative launch of AI for personalized plane-ticket pricing was far from a smooth takeoff. Consumers reacted with alarm to the idea that travel — a sector in which passengers have increasingly limited rights — may become even costlier for the end user, and more profitable for the corporate behemoth. It had us thinking about […]
From agentic Fiverrs to enterprise-grade verticals, builders are racing to define how AI agents are created, deployed, discovered, and monetized. Online shopping. Stock trading. Vacation planning. If you listen to the most bullish projections about the scope and speed of AI-agent adoption in the coming years, use cases in commerce, public markets, and flight bookings […]
In a country that built its tech edge on global talent, a six-figure entry fee now stands at the border. The U.S. just rolled out a $100,000 surcharge on new H?1B visa petitions. While the intent is to curb abuse of the system — and perhaps re-onshore talent in what’s proved to be an increasingly […]
Despite a turbulent 2025, public markets are heating up again. Luke Sikora of J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners explains why the optimism may last, how startups are using M&A for AI advantage, and why investor discipline could outlive the rate-hike era. Policy-induced market jolts since the return of Donald Trump to the White House have […]
“It’s a time of high demand for human augmentation in the accounting sector… around 75% of the US accounting workforce is at retirement age.” Vibe coding has become the talk of the town, with autonomous agents helping developers compress months of work into hours. But in finance and accounting — domains where accuracy is non-negotiable […]