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What’s on tap today:
Podcast with Mounir Mouawad
Our Founder Story
Weekly Headline Recap
What's trending in AI this week
Community Update
How Homebase Helps You
AI Founder Story
How This Ex-Stripe Executive Solved Enterprise AI's "Permission Death Loop"
Quick Background
What happens when a former Stripe executive who launched Google Pay in 30 markets decides the AI revolution is passing too many companies by?
Mounir, CEO of Portia AI, walked away from leading Bank as a Service at Stripe to solve what he calls the "permission death loop" - the reason up to 70% of enterprise AI agent implementations get stuck in proof-of-concept stage.
After speaking with hundreds of potential users, Mounir discovered that while companies could build impressive AI agent demos, they couldn't deploy them at scale. The problem wasn't the AI - it was that enterprises had no way to safely control what agents could access, when they needed human oversight, and how to maintain security at production scale.
Key Achievements & Insights:
Identified the Real Production Blocker: Found that companies struggle to move from 10-person prototypes to 1000-employee deployments because they need certainty that agents won't send emails without consent or act outside user permissions.
Built Execution Hooks for Critical Moments: Created a system where agents automatically pause at high-stakes moments (like issuing refunds) and request human approval before proceeding with workflow completion.
Solved Authentication Without Permission Mirroring: Instead of recreating complex permission systems, agents request OAuth tokens or browser sessions from humans in real-time when accessing apps or data stores.
Open Source Strategy for Developer Trust: Chose open source because developers need control and customization for deeply embedded SDKs, while also learning from the collective community.
Dogfooded Product for Real Use Cases: Used Portia to automate his own tasks like contact research across 30 people and invoice collection, proving real-world utility beyond demos.
Targeted Regulated Industries First: Leveraged his fintech background to focus on industries where reliability and human oversight aren't optional - they're regulatory requirements.
Watch the full interview below! 👇
The Ultimate Lesson
The biggest insight from Mounir's approach is that successful AI adoption requires making human involvement more strategic, not eliminating it entirely. Companies don't want fully autonomous agents - they want agents that know exactly when to ask for help. This principle extends beyond AI: the most successful automation tools are those that enhance human decision-making rather than replace it.
The real competitive advantage comes from understanding that reliability and control matter more than pure automation. As Mounir learned from hundreds of user conversations, the path to production isn't through perfect AI - it's through perfect human-AI collaboration at the moments that matter most.
🎯 Read the full interview → See how Mounir reduced a 3-hour monthly task to 5 minutes using his own SDK, plus his predictions on which jobs AI will create vs. eliminate
HEADLINE ROUNDUP
Headline recap
Elon Musk's Neuralink Secures Massive $650M Funding as Brain Chip Trials Begin (Link) Neuralink raises $650 million in Series C funding as brain-computer interface clinical trials begin. The investment accelerates neural implant development for treating neurological conditions.
Microsoft Commits $400M to Transform Switzerland into AI Powerhouse (Link) Microsoft invests $400 million in Swiss AI and cloud infrastructure targeting startups and SMEs. The expansion establishes Switzerland as a key European AI innovation hub.
Anthropic Rockets to $3B Revenue Run Rate, Challenging OpenAI's Dominance (Link) Amazon and Google-backed Anthropic achieves $3 billion annualized revenue through explosive enterprise growth. The Claude AI developer now directly competes with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in business markets.
Google Unleashes $7 Billion Iowa Investment to Supercharge AI Infrastructure (Link) Google commits $7 billion to Iowa AI and data center infrastructure, creating thousands of tech jobs. The investment represents one of the largest technology commitments in Midwest history.
Nvidia & Dell Earnings Surge While $140M AI Security Funding Wave Hits Market (Link) Nvidia and Dell report stellar AI-driven quarterly earnings while cybersecurity startups secure $140M in funding. Horizon3.ai raises $100M and Cerby secures $40M amid growing enterprise security demands.
TRENDS
What's trending in AI
Gamma AI
Key Player: Co-founded by Grant Lee (CEO), Jon Noronha, and James Fox in 2020, Gamma achieved $50M ARR and 50M users by 2025. The San Francisco-based startup raised $19M total funding with Accel leading their Series A round.
Market Value: The global presentation software market is valued at $6.7B in 2025, projected to reach $16.5B by 2032 with 13.7% CAGR. Gamma represents one of the few profitable AI startups with lean operations of just 30 employees.
Adoption: Gamma offers free-to-use AI design capabilities for presentations, websites, and documents without coding requirements. AI integration in March 2023 sparked explosive growth, gaining 10M users in nine months.
Recent Developments: Gamma achieved profitability in early 2024 and crossed $50M annual recurring revenue milestone with hundreds of thousands of paying customers. Major competitor Tome announced sunsetting their slides product in March 2025.
Growth: Gamma achieved explosive revenue growth from $1.8M (2023) to $50M (2025) while maintaining profitability. The company has more cash than total funding raised ($23M), proving sustainable execution in the competitive AI presentation market.
Why It Matters: Gamma's profitability sets it apart in an AI landscape where 19 startups raised over $100M each in 2025. The platform solves universal design challenges while the presentation software market grows 13.7% annually driven by remote work and visual content demands.
The Big Picture: Gamma challenges the venture capital-intensive AI startup model by proving sustainable growth without massive funding. As the market expands to $16.5B by 2032, AI-powered platforms are fundamentally transforming professional communication from traditional slides to intelligent, multimedia-rich content creation.
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