We’re excited to introduce Taste Labs. Our mission is to end AI slop. We’re building the data and infrastructure layer to give AI models and agents taste. And today we’re coming out of stealth, announcing our $18.5M seed funding, co-led by @CRV and @AmplifyPartners AI has nailed objective domains and made it easy to generate anything. But it still feels off. Now, the challenge is judgement. What fits, what feels like you, what’s GREAT. This requires turning a fuzzy, subjective domain into something we can measure and codify. We’re starting with design. There are two sides to cracking this, the foundation model layer and the agent layer: - We’ve already been working with the top frontier labs to evaluate and improve their models, crafting the right post-training data and RL environments. - We’ve also been working with app-layer companies to build the context and verification tools for their agents to produce better, more on-brand, more creative outputs. We want a future where AI feels right. If you’re passionate about this mission, join us!

I’m excited to share that Podium Automation has raised an $18M Series A led by Construct Capital, with participation from a16z, Transition, Sunflower, and Banter to help our customers build the automated world faster. Today, Podium designs and ships UL 508A control panels in less than four weeks for the most ambitious hardware teams across industries. Our customers trust us to deliver panels on spec, on time, with full visibility from quote to delivery. In less than two years, we have shipped over 200 panels to customers ranging from hardware scale-ups to Fortune 500 companies. We’ve been heads down building our team, software platform, and factory to meet rapidly growing demand for quick-turn capacity, and we’ve also doubled our throughput in the last quarter. More importantly, we’re laser focused on delivering sustainable value to our customers with bottom line discipline. This quarter we delivered positive factory-level economics in our Brooklyn factory that launched in August 2025. If you want to be part of a team that cares about tangible results and believes in a future where industrial products are built efficiently, transparently, and without compromise - we're hiring across the board. To our team, customers, and investors - thank you. Today's announcement is grounded in the trust you’ve placed in Podium, and the responsibility we feel to keep earning it.

Each day in New York this past week has been more electric than the last.

The Claude Codification of everything is most apparent by a blinking dot followed by "STATUS: LIVE" in the top left corner of every. single. website.

Nuclear

We are hiring aggressively (across AI research/eng, automation, and wet lab) for top talent that’s passionate about engineering human tissue and producing the best training data for bio AI models - if that's you, DMs open or send me an email (matthew@polyphronbio.com)

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Fund concentration is trading at a discount to % ownership right now, and I think that's worth leaning into.

Automated manufacturing startup Deterrence is teaming up with General Dynamics Ordinance and Tactical Systems to deploy manufacturing software and AI across GDOTS facilities, beginning with their 155mm artillery plant in Mesquite, TX. tectonicdefense.com/exclusiv…

Google reports training expenses under Alphabet, rather than under GCP. I’m very curious what clever financial engineering we see as more companies add back token costs to EBITDA, and what types of tokens the Street will seem kosher versus misrepresentation.

In a world of ubiquitous robotics doing useful work, do new service/maintenance line items just replace employee healthcare costs, and we all net out to the same place anyway?

I’ve witnessed injustices beyond comprehension on the West Side Highway bike path.

We've been busy. Too busy to show off the Mark-0 reactor. Until now! Check out the 2 month build. Amazing camaraderie and teamwork throughout.

Some recent thoughts: - domestic terror attacks on data centers are coming - emerging tech will need to be very cold: cryogenics? - robots SIs will probably cap out similarly to the AI transformation businesses - power shortage will be resolved quicker than we think - venture market is as inefficient as ever. don't let your X feed fool you - new tech for new maintenance will be a massive theme - we need more innovation around equipment financing - health insurance will rip in the short term and is in trouble in the mid/long term

There’s gotta be a trade here. Right?

Honored to host the @EximBankUS team at our LA factory. Walked them through what the future of textile manufacturing looks like and where federal programs can help accelerate reindustrialization. More to come soon.

Immense alpha in simply doing what you say you will, because nobody else is going to. Send the cold email, anon

Reaching a point in my investor journey where I am confident in just not making a bet.