👋 Hey — Egemen here.
So much is happening in the world right now.
The startup world is no different..
This week’s drop is stacked: a hands-on AI marketing guide, a snapshot of Q2’s massive VC wave, and why Meta is throwing hundreds of millions at top AI talent.
Plus, a quick hit on Huspy’s big raise and what ElevenLabs can teach us about focus.
Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the menu today:
💡 Spotlight: AI Marketing Guidebook
🧠 Deep-Dive: Q2 Global Venture Funding
🗺️ Method: Focus to Win
⚾️ Catch: AI Talent Wars
☝️ Scaled This Past Week: Huspy
💡 Spotlight
The Future of AI in Marketing. Your Shortcut to Smarter, Faster Marketing.
This guide distills 10 AI strategies from industry leaders that are transforming marketing.
Learn how HubSpot's engineering team achieved 15-20% productivity gains with AI
Learn how AI-driven emails achieved 94% higher conversion rates
Discover 7 ways to enhance your marketing strategy with AI.
🧠 Deep-Dive: Q2 Global Venture Funding
Crunchbase just released their quarterly venture funding analysis report.
Now I’ll be honest, it’s a long, long read. Comprehensive report, I really do recommend you spend the time to go through it if you have the time.
Here’s a short summary in case you wanna have the bullet-points:
Global venture funding reached $91 billion in Q2 2025, up from $82B in Q2 2024, though slightly down from Q1’s record $114B.
Roughly 45% of that went to AI, totaling around $40B with mega-rounds like Scale AI’s $14.3B leading the way.
Capital concentrated heavily: about one-third of funding went to just 16 companies raising $500M+ each.
M&A activity was strong too, with $50B in exits during Q2. This is the highest since 2021 while H1 VC totals hit $205B, a 32% year-over-year increase.
🗺️ Method: Focus to Win
ElevenLabs is probably the coolest audio research lab.
Niching-down into a specific sub-vertical, and focusing on that usually wins.
Hear it from Pat Grady:
⚾️ Catch: AI Talent Wars
Well, last time we checked, Meta was offering $100M to top AI talent.
Now, Meta is offering up to $300M to top AI researchers. Zuck wants them to join its new Superintelligence Labs. The deals include big stock payouts and access to powerful compute.
Some hires came from OpenAI and DeepMind, Sam Altman’s crew called it aggressive and unfair. Meta says it's just building a strong team.
The AI talent war is in full swing. Crazy times.
☝️ Scaled This Past Week: Huspy
Huspy just closed 59 million in their latest round - it’s the scale of the week!
Here’s what they do:
Home buying & mortgages: Huspy is a platform that helps users find properties and secure home loans quickly and easily.
Tech-driven process: Offers digital tools, AI chatbots, and a broker portal to streamline everything from pre-approval to closing.