Go for Launch 🚀

At 19 years old Mirra Andreeva is a major champion and it’s all thanks to Mirra. Mirra who put in the work, Mirra who battled for every point, Mirra who believed in Mirra. Many thanks, Mirra.

$750M upfront. $300M in milestones. $1.05B ceiling. That's what Roche just paid for PathAI. It is a 271-person Boston startup that was founded in 2016. Here's why that number makes complete sense to me. PathAI raised $255M across 6 rounds over 9 years. Investors put in $255M, and Roche's check starts at $750M. That's a 3x return on total capital raised before the $300M milestones even kick in. But the real story isn't the exit multiple. It's how Roche got here. 2016 ..PathAI was founded. It builds an AI that reads cancer tissue slides. Models trained on 15 million annotations, which is a huge number, btw. 2021.. Roche doesn't acquire them. Roche partners with them and runs PathAI's models inside actual drug trials, where they watch how it works in their own pipeline. 2024.. Partnership expands and builds FDA-grade companion diagnostic algorithms together. PathAI is now embedded inside Roche's clinical infrastructure. 2026.. Roche buys them for $750M. 5 years of proof before the check is cleared. Now, what does Roche actually own in my view? An AI that tells oncologists which patients qualify for which cancer drugs, running in 160 countries. Across 600M diagnostic tests every year. Interestingly, PathAI's models don't go to market. They go everywhere Roche already is. Most acquirers write a check first and figure out the integration later. Whereas Roche ran a 5-year pilot, proved every assumption, then bought certainty. That's not M&A. That's the smartest structured acquisition I've seen in a long time. If you're building in vertical AI, this is a great exit playbook. Partner with your buyer first. Make yourself impossible to unplug. Then negotiate from proof, not pitch decks. Are you building something that becomes infrastructure, or something that stays a product?

The quiet grief of adult friendship: One of the most beautiful articles I've read in a while. Hits hard timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…

Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean perform “Killing Me Softly” in tribute to Roberta Flack at the 2026 #GRAMMY awards

A New Axis of Power: Warsh, Druckenmiller, Bessent and the Next Fed Chair The centre of gravity in US economic policy is shifting from isolated personalities to a tightly connected network: Kevin Warsh, Stanley Druckenmiller and Scott Bessent, now aligned under Donald Trump. They are attempting to end a 15‑year experiment in Keynesian demand management and replace it with a supply‑side regime built on productive capital rather than financial engineering. With the next Fed chair decision front and centre, that network suddenly matters a great deal. Read the room. For years, the playbook was simple: fiscal stimulus plus ultra‑easy money to prop up demand, producing an “asset‑rich, income‑poor” economy of soaring markets but weak productivity and uneven wages. Warsh and Druckenmiller were early insiders to declare this model exhausted, arguing that QE and financial repression distorted markets and discouraged real investment. Their critique was not anti‑market; it was a warning that valuations cannot permanently substitute for capital formation. Bessent now provides the fiscal and industrial counterpart. Drawing on a Hamiltonian tradition, his strategy emphasises deregulation, investment‑friendly tax rules and targeted tariffs to pull production and capex back onshore, allowing private capital to profit from building in energy, manufacturing and technology instead of riding policy‑driven multiple expansion. Government sets the rules; the private sector carries the baton. The personal links make the Fed race especially intriguing. Warsh and Druckenmiller have worked closely together, blending the vantage point of a former Fed governor with one of the most successful macro investors of the era. Bessent comes from the same global‑macro lineage, so Warsh’s and Bessent’s views are joined not just by ideology but by shared mentors, methods and market experience, with Druckenmiller as the junction between them. In this context, Warsh’s potential role as Fed chair is pivotal. He is one of the few candidates whose record already fits Bessent’s project: sceptical of balance‑sheet activism and mandate creep, but realistic about managing a high‑debt, dollar‑centric system without shock therapy. A Warsh Fed could narrow the mandate, normalise the balance sheet over time and still cut rates in a way that supports a supply‑side agenda rather than another round of financial engineering. Trump provides the political cover; Bessent runs fiscal and industrial levers; Warsh anchors a more focused, market‑attuned Fed; and Druckenmiller bridges central bank and markets. Now can you see why Warsh would make a good Fed chairman, why he would read and work well with Bessent, and why the Druckenmiller link makes the structure so compelling? Read the room.

Driving the future of tennis 🤩 We're thrilled to announce that Mercedes-Benz is the new Premier Partner and Exclusive Automotive Partner of the WTA Tour, starting in 2026 🤝