Episode 9 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 9 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. "Ling Xin Qiao Shou" Secures Hundreds of Millions in A+ Round Funding After Exceeding 1,000 Monthly Orders (WeChat Startup News)

2. The Toy Startups Getting Funded This Year: Talking Dinosaurs, Sticker Cubes And Tin Can Phones (Crunchbase News)

3. Hypershell Raises $70 Million in Two Rounds of Funding (WeChat Startup News)

4. HKUST-Affiliated Embodied Robotics Firm Secures Strategic Investment from China Mobile, Global Leader in Single-Unit Shipments (36KR)

5. What Startups Are Selling For The Person Who Has Everything (Crunchbase News)

6. Edtech-Specific Startup Funding Stays Low (Crunchbase News)

7. The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: A Lot Of Really Big Deals (Crunchbase News)

8. Sector Snapshot: Defense Tech Funding Hits Record High (Crunchbase News)

9. Germany’s AI Image Generator Black Forest Labs Raises $300M At $3.25B Valuation As European AI Fundings Scale Up (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 8 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, fintech valuations, and the trends shaping 2026, covering 6 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. AI, Less VC Funding Dependence and 5 Other Trends That Will Shape 2026 (Entrepreneur)

2. Exclusive: With Customers Like Okta And Coinbase, Coverbase Raises $16M To Grow AI-Powered Procurement Platform (Crunchbase News)

3. How To Raise Capital When You Don't Sound Like An Insider (Crunchbase News)

4. The Week's 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: A Lot Of Really Big Deals (Crunchbase News)

5. Fintech Revolut Sees Valuation Spike 67% To $75B After Secondary Share Sale (Crunchbase News)

6. Innovation Policies: The Australian Lesson Focusing Startup Investments On A Few Strategic Sectors (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 7 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, covering 4 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. 5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: Robotic Hands, An Artificial Retina Developed In Space, A GenAI Sticker Printer For Kids, And More (Crunchbase News)

2. Don't Sell Your Business Without These 4 Core Advisors — One Saved My Client $1.8 Million (Entreprenuer)

3. Even Bigger Venture Bucks For Obesity Therapies As Metsera Sells For Up To $10B (Crunchbase News)

4. The Week's 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: AI And Defense Tech Take The Lead (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 6 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into AI innovation, founder insights, healthcare, covering 6 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. 6 Common Data Backup Mistakes That Established Businesses Make (Entreprenuer)

2. Don't Let AI Fool You — Here's Why Every Founder Still Needs to Learn to Code (Entreprenuer)

3. Crunchbase Sector Snapshot: Funding To AI-Related Healthcare Startups Is Robust This Year (Crunchbase News)

4. Startups Are Serving Up Drinks With Protein, Caffeine And A Shot Of Wellness (Crunchbase News)

5. Active US Investors Kept Busy Cutting Checks In October (Crunchbase News)

6. Electric Aircraft Upstart Beta Rises In First-Day Trading (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 5 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 8 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. The One Trait That Separates Successful Fintech Founders From the Rest (Entrepreneur)

2. The Grid Can't Keep Up With AI, But Startups Are Primed To Help (Crunchbase News)

3. Inside The Post-ChatGPT Playbook: A Founder's Lessons On Building AI-Native Startups (Crunchbase News)

4. Tech Giants Accumulate Huge Startup Stakes, Even As M&A Appetite Wanes (Crunchbase News)

5. U.S. Household Debt Hits Record $18.59 Trillion (Entrepreneur)

6. Infravision Raises $91M Series B For Robotic Power Line Construction (Crunchbase News)

7. Ripple Lands $500M At $40B Valuation As Crypto's Good Year Continues (Crunchbase News)

8. AI-Powered Parking Platform Metropolis Raises $500M Series D At $5B Valuation (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 4 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 6 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. I Asked 100 Founders, CEOs and VCs About Career Transitions — Here's What I Learned (1st Round)

2. Regulation As Alpha: Why The Smartest Startups Now Build Legal Strategy Into Their DNA (Crunchbase News)

3. The State Of Startups In 7 Charts: These Sectors And Stages Are Down As AI Megarounds Dominate In 2025 (Crunchbase News)

4. Sure, Valuations Look High. But Here's How Today Is Different From The Last Peak (Crunchbase News)

5. Exclusive: Founded By Uber Alumni, Archy Raises $20M To Put Dental Practices 'On Autopilot' (Crunchbase News)

6. Whatnot Lands $225M Series F, More Than Doubles Valuation to $11.5B Since January (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 3 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 12 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. The Non-Humanoid Robot Startups Are Rising Too (Crunchbase News)

2. Whatnot Lands $225M Series F, More Than Doubles Valuation to $11.5B Since January (Crunchbase News)

3. Regulation As Alpha: Why The Smartest Startups Now Build Legal Strategy Into Their DNA (Crunchbase News)

4. Q1 Global Startup Funding Posts Strongest Quarter Since Q2 2022 With A Third Going To Massive OpenAI Deal (Crunchbase News)

5. How To Found A Startup Inside A Scale-Up (Crunchbase News)

6. Shares of Navan Closed Down 20% In Long-Awaited IPO Debut (Crunchbase News)

7. I Asked 100 Founders, CEOs and VCs About Career Transitions — Here’s What I Learned (1st Round)

8. The State Of Startups In 7 Charts: These Sectors And Stages Are Down As AI Megarounds Dominate In 2025 (Crunchbase News)

9. I Was Fired From My Own Startup. Here’s What Every Founder Should Know About Letting Go (Crunchbase News)

10. Sure, Valuations Look High. But Here’s How Today Is Different From The Last Peak (Crunchbase News)

11. Exclusive: Founded By Uber Alumni, Archy Raises $20M To Put Dental Practices ‘On Autopilot’ (Crunchbase News)

12. What Sweetgreen Can Teach Startups About Scaling Intimacy (1st Round)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

In this 88-minute deep dive, George and Michelle tackle the question every founder struggles with but rarely admits: How do you level up as a leader when you're drowning in execution?

We break down six game-changing frameworks from First Round Review's leadership playbook—from Chris Holmberg's "It/We/I" reflection practice to Adam Grant's techniques for embracing tough feedback. Then we follow Tim Chen's brutally honest journey from scrappy NerdWallet founder to CEO of a 300-person company, revealing the painful mindset shifts required to scale.

Plus: Sweetgreen's secrets for "scaling intimacy," why a VC firm rescued Lemonaid from 23andMe's bankruptcy, how AI is upending SaaS product roadmaps, Findem's $36M bet on AI-powered hiring, and the debate around artificial superintelligence.

You'll learn:

• The 15-minute daily practice that prevents founder burnout

• How to use the Trust Equation to diagnose broken relationships

• Why "toward vs. away from" communication can make or break your team

• The prioritization matrix that lets you say "no" without guilt

• How to build a "challenge network" that tells you the truth

Whether you're leading your first startup or scaling your third, this episode is your permission slip to invest in yourself—not just your company.

Looker turned SQL and a quirky language called LookML into a $2.6B outcome—and a cult following. In this kickoff to Startup Jazz, we reverse-engineer how a small team beat dashboard fatigue, won over data teams, and built a category by obsessing over speed, clarity, and customer love. You’ll hear the pivotal product bets, the GTM experiments that actually moved revenue, and the culture rituals that made execution feel inevitable.