hi readers,
happy first Friday of March! Next week we will have sunsets at 8pm and get to real life again after this harsh winter.
this past week was an interesting time to think about young founders and what teenagers are capable of. Cal AI, co-founded by Zach Yadegari, was just acquired by MyFitnessPal, and for an undisclosed amount. Zach was just 18 at the time of the acquisition.
in other news, Ease Health raised a $41M round as they exited stealth just this week. Yup, a company coming out of STEALTH raised $41M. Anything is possible my friends.
also, a16z is building their own college, so just drop out now. Just kidding, hopefully I can gather more information on this for next week.
enjoy reading!
Founder of the Week
This week's founder of the week is Zach Yadegari, co-founder of Cal AI. Cal AI had an ARR of $40M+ and Zach still got rejected from every Ivy League school. And as I write this from my apartment at an Ivy League school, I cannot express how much school name has become increasingly irrelevant to employers and people focused on true innovation. No one cares about where you go to school. They care about how you think, how you process information, how quickly you get back up after a rough hand you've been dealt, and what you can build for the world. And that is exactly what Zach did. From what I understand, he also bootstrapped the whole thing.
The art of bootstrapping is yet another aspect of the AI boom that has been lost on our generation. I think so many people are obsessed with saying they are founders of venture backed startups that they don’t realize building software is cheaper than ever and you don’t have to give equity of your company away just to build.
Zach ended up choosing the University of Miami this past fall, which would give him a great social life and nice weather, but he'd still be surrounded by a growing tech city (especially with the California billionaires' tax driving many tech moguls to relocate their lives to Austin or Miami).
I think Zach will continue to build cool stuff and have no doubt he is on the way to even more successful exits.
Young Founders to Watch
Zehra Naqvi building Lore
Zehra is the founder of Lore, a platform rethinking how fandom and curiosity communities form online. Lore is designed to turn curiosity and fandom into a social product where people can explore, share, and build around the topics they care about.
Parmita Mishra building Precigenetics
Parmita is the founder and CEO of Precigenetics, a biotech startup building tools that combine machine learning, hardware, and cellular imaging to better understand mammalian cells. The company’s goal is to make biological systems more programmable and measurable, helping researchers accelerate precision medicine and disease research.
Ashe Magalhaes building Hearth AI
Ashe is building Hearth AI, an agentic CRM designed to help people manage and strengthen their real world relationships using AI.
Ben Parens building Nestwell
Ben is building Nestwell, a platform focused on helping people understand and improve the health risks inside their homes. The idea emerged after wildfire smoke events highlighted how difficult it is for homeowners to evaluate indoor air, water quality, and environmental hazards, and Nestwell aims to identify risks and connect people with solutions to improve their home environments.
Pre-Seed + Seed Rounds of the Week
NextWork raised $4.45M in seed funding led by Shakti VC with participation from Cake Ventures, GD1, Blackbird Ventures, Icehouse Ventures, and Phase One Ventures. The company is building an AI-native learning platform that generates real proof-of-work portfolios from hands-on projects, helping developers demonstrate practical AI skills rather than relying on credentials alone.
IntelliGRC raised $3.5M in seed funding co-led by Blu Ventures and Huntress CEO Kyle Hanslovan. The company is building an AI-powered governance, risk, and compliance platform designed for managed service providers, automating cybersecurity compliance workflows and producing audit-ready documentation.
Vor Systems raised $3M in pre-seed funding led by Gigascale Capital with participation from Virta Ventures and several angel investors from the energy and technology sectors. The company is building AI software that automates documentation, diligence, and transaction workflows for complex renewable energy financing and infrastructure deals.
Denki raised $4.1M in seed funding led by Base10 Partners and Shine Capital with participation from Y Combinator and 20VC. The company is building AI-native infrastructure that automates financial audit workflows, turning traditionally manual assurance processes into structured software systems.
X posts I liked this week
