Daniel Darling retweeted
We have 80 empty desks in our SF SoMa office, and weโd rather fill them with founders.
Free for early-stage teams of 2โ20. 6 months. No equity, no strings.
Come build next to us at Pump.co ๐
forms.gle/92wKAja5mkMdXSQ47
Daniel Darling retweeted
Code is cheap now. Ambition isn't. Stop building in the cold! Come to Miami!
Southbound W27 is open, our winter founder residency w/@focal_vc at @thelabmiami
10 technical founders, 3 months in Wynwood + weekly dinners w/unicorn founders
Apply now ๐ southbound.focal.vc
Anyone can build now. Few dare to aim big enough.
That's why we're launching Southbound W27 by @thelabmiami & @focal_vc today.
Code is now cheap, abundant, and written by machines. Whatโs scarce is real ambition, intelligence, compute, and distribution.
It's what Southbound is built for: To help the best technical founders think bigger and move faster from day 1.
We're now opening applications to the second cohort of our winter residency.
If you want to:
- Escape the cold
- Work on an absurdly ambitious problem, surrounded by your best technical peers
- Get weekly mentorship by unicorn founders
- Funding on an uncapped MFN SAFE (vs giving up 7%)
- $1M in perks and compute
- and much more
... then join us in Miami from Jan 11 - Apr 11 2027.
Southbound is:
- Limited to 10 spots (teams or solo founders)
- Fully in person in Miami
- 7 days / week in office.
The cohort is small by design: Instead of being a number in a big batch, you get a hand-picked group of your best peers, weekly dinners with unicorn founders, and real time with focalโs GPs.
Rolling admission until all 10 spots are filled / applications close Dec 11.
Apply asap (link in comments!)
@ayalstern | @DanielDarling | @amiine_afia | @wynwoodceo | @SydneyWasi
Daniel Darling retweeted
Anyone can build now. Few dare to aim big enough.
That's why we're launching Southbound W27 by @thelabmiami & @focal_vc today.
Code is now cheap, abundant, and written by machines. Whatโs scarce is real ambition, intelligence, compute, and distribution.
It's what Southbound is built for: To help the best technical founders think bigger and move faster from day 1.
We're now opening applications to the second cohort of our winter residency.
If you want to:
- Escape the cold
- Work on an absurdly ambitious problem, surrounded by your best technical peers
- Get weekly mentorship by unicorn founders
- Funding on an uncapped MFN SAFE (vs giving up 7%)
- $1M in perks and compute
- and much more
... then join us in Miami from Jan 11 - Apr 11 2027.
Southbound is:
- Limited to 10 spots (teams or solo founders)
- Fully in person in Miami
- 7 days / week in office.
The cohort is small by design: Instead of being a number in a big batch, you get a hand-picked group of your best peers, weekly dinners with unicorn founders, and real time with focalโs GPs.
Rolling admission until all 10 spots are filled / applications close Dec 11.
Apply asap (link in comments!)
@ayalstern | @DanielDarling | @amiine_afia | @wynwoodceo | @SydneyWasi
Daniel Darling retweeted
.@DoxxnetHQ founder Barrett Lyon on data center myths versus reality: jobs, talent, and faster internet.
"That's the other thing that's driving me crazy, is people don't understand data centers at all... Data centers have been around for a very, very long time."
"People are being manipulated with this data center thing... It's very interesting to be in the know and then watch this and go, oh my goodness, these people are missing the mark."
"The big data center park in Virginia, you just see bunny rabbits in the field. There's nothing. It's just a big building and a bunch of parking lot and then nothing."
"It brings jobs. The people that work in them aren't getting paid pennies. And it also brings high tech talent. And then also infrastructure, and infrastructure powers everything you do. So if you have a data center nearby, your internet's faster. Things like that work better."
@BarrettLyon @YODELAGARZA
.@BarrettLyon built the first cloud DDoS-protection service, mapped the entire internet (now on display in New York's Museum of Modern Art), and got chased out of Moscow hunting Russian extortionists.
His new company is doxx.net, a parallel internet designed to keep advertisers, trackers, and creepy VPNs out of your life.
Barrett joins a16z's Joel de la Garza to explain what it is and how it works: a private network where messages, calls, and files travel directly between people instead of through someone else's server, and where nobody needs your name, number, or email to reach you.
They also get into why most VPNs are "just entry and exit points," why you can't set policy on equipment you don't own, the day Barrett's plane lost power over Oakland on the way home from a16z, and the data center myths that drive him crazy.
0:50 Meet Barrett Lyon
1:31 Losing an engine over Oakland
7:08 The hacker name behind the company
10:12 Censorship is coming to the US
13:17 Why VPNs barely protect you
14:21 Building a parallel internet
16:30 20GB files with no middleman
17:57 Free VPNs sell you
21:47 Why you must own the hardware
22:27 26 data centers, 12 people, run by AI
25:03 Data centers don't drink water
29:17 What ad trackers know about you
32:35 The DDoS attacks that built Prolexic
36:17 Mapping the internet for $50
39:46 Hunting extortionists in Moscow
41:47 Starlink at Burning Man
YouTube: youtu.be/bmDrbHOh7Bo
@BarrettLyon @YODELAGARZA
Daniel Darling retweeted
Excited for the rest of the world to get to use @DoxxnetHQ too @BarrettLyon
I'm pretty sure it's been on 24/7 since I first started using it and I (+ my agents) won't use the internet without it on anymore!
Daniel Darling retweeted
This is a global overlay network that runs its own internal BGP, and DNS. Supports ipv6. Is distributed with no centralized log retention. Fully U.S based. And has great method for connecting agents without pair the device bullshit. Private and secure, from the ๐, Barrett.
Today weโre launching doxx.net, enabling Agentic Defined Networking for everyone. We raised $38M from @a16z, @AnimoVentures and Focal.vc.
Create private networks for you and your AI agents, without a server in the middle. 38M+ threats blocked since December.
Our first private-network call was a freedom call. Now itโs your turn.
Daniel Darling retweeted
Today weโre launching doxx.net, enabling Agentic Defined Networking for everyone. We raised $38M from @a16z, @AnimoVentures and Focal.vc.
Create private networks for you and your AI agents, without a server in the middle. 38M+ threats blocked since December.
Our first private-network call was a freedom call. Now itโs your turn.
Daniel Darling retweeted
Still buzzing from yesterdayโs Miami Founder Summit ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ
Huge thanks to @ClementDelangue, @nejatian & @BarrettLyon for amazing sessions , @focal_vc for our incredible partnership and Miamiโs best founders for showing up, sharing, and building together.
We are so back ๐
Daniel Darling retweeted
Token costs are exploding
Companies have to choose: cut AI spend or cut people?
Coworker is the 3rd option
> Same frontier AI
> Chat, Cowork, Code
> 5X more tokens per dollar
Live today.
Daniel Darling retweeted
Fifi is one of the most impressive founders we're fortunate to have backed - even though she's barely 18!
She's now hiring a founding engineer for Maxed. The most important thing when joining a company as a founding engineer is the founder.
Fifi's track record speaks for herself: Self-taught coder since 7, three companies before 18, speaks five languages, played competitive chess, and SO MUCH more.
Now, at 18, she's rebuilding accounting from the ground up as an AI-native operating system at Maxed, with backing from angels including the founders of Notion, DigitalOcean, and SecurityScorecard.
If you want to build with a founder who'll definitely raise your bar and intensity, take a look: maxed.life/hiring
I'm hiring our first, full-time founding engineer at Maxed ๐
Accounting is one of the largest professional services markets on Earth and it's about to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Maxed is an open-source, AI-native operating system for CPA firms.
Design partners are live. The architecture underneath has never been built before and as a result, most of what we're doing has no playbook - you have to be the kind of person who finds that energising.
I'm technical, obsessed and this is my whole life. I need someone wired the same way.
Help rebuild a trillion-dollar industry from the inside out - apply here: maxed.life/hiring
Daniel Darling retweeted
We're hiring a founding Head of Technology & Applied AI at @focal_vc !
The leading next-gen venture firm will be AI native from the ground up. Which is why we're going all in.
This is an n-of-1 opportunity for an n-of-1 builder.
A founder-type role for a founder-type person with full ownership, real upside (carry in funds), and leverage from day one.
Help us see sooner, decide faster, and build systems that learn across every founder, deal, and outcome. That's how our 5-person team beats 50-person firms.
It's a hard challenge to get right. But when we get it right, the impact will compound for decades.
If this sounds like you, apply at focal.vc/hiring!
Daniel Darling retweeted
10 spots. 3 months. 1 goal: Build a venture-scale company.
Weโre bringing together the best technical AI builders for an exclusive residency in Miami this winter.
Think the firepower of a top accelerator - WITHOUT the heavy dilution.
What you're signing up for:
- Hyper selective (10 startups only)
- Highly intense (6+ days / week in office)
- Fully in person (Miami relocation required, costs of move offset)
Plus get mentored by unicorn founders incl. DigitalOcean ($4B NYSE), Mural ($2B), Papa ($1B), vLex (acquired for $1B), Quicknode ($1B), Spotnana ($1B), and more.
Importantly: Thereโs no โtoo earlyโ - apply with nothing more than your drive, your idea, and the ability to ship exceptional products at breakneck speed.
A few spots remain - apply asap at focal.vc/residency
By @focal_vc x @thelabmiami
Daniel Darling retweeted
Having a hard time closing a fund? You're not alone.
2025 ranks as the most challenging of the last three years for early-stage GPs.
I conducted a short survey to understand how early-stage VC is faring, gathering data from 48 funds in total (primarily EMs, almost all <$250M).
Amongst the findings, there's a clear rebalancing of LP allocation, particularly for anchors and multi-stage firms, with an overall concentration of LP activity.
The commentary offered by GPs also highlighted a few themes, like "GP as a brand" and a growing appetite for co-investment opportunities โ but no real consensus on shifts between small/large funds.
The breakdown: credistick.com/lp-2025/
Thanks to everyone who responded, and the willingness to share data that may be helpful to other GPs โ a welcome example of positive-sum thinking.
Daniel Darling retweeted
OpenBuilder (@theopenbuilder) is the open source alternative to Lovable. Unlimited build credits and real developer support when you hit a wall.
Built for non-technical builders to ship real apps.
Daniel Darling retweeted
๐๐๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ก ๐๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ญ: Winter 2026 Residency for Technical Founders at Inception!
This winter, weโre bringing together 10 hardcore AI builders for an exclusive residency in Miami with all the firepower of a top accelerator without the heavy dilution!
This is the most talent-dense, high-velocity, carefully curated launchpad for technical AI founders outside SF to start a venture scale company - AND you get to escape the harsh winter while you ship!
The 3+ month residency - hosted in partnership with The LAB Miami - is hyper selective (10 startups only), highly intense (6+ days / week in office) and fully in person (Miami relocation required / costs offset).
Plus you get mentored by unicorn founders including Digital Ocean ($4B NYSE), Mural ($2B), Papa ($1B), vLex (acquired for $1B), Quicknode ($1B), Spotnana ($1B), and many more.
The best part: Thereโs no โtoo earlyโ - apply with nothing more than your drive to build a venture scale company, your idea, and the ability to ship exceptional products at breakneck speed.
Applications just opened - apply at focal.vc/residency to start in Jan 2026!
๐๐: ๐๐จ ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ซ ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ, ๐ญ๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐โ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ข๐ซ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง.
@focal_vc
Daniel Darling retweeted
Have had a lot of LP meetings recently and a consistent theme across large institutional LPs is that very few have continued with their blue-chip relationships (outside of Index). "Those funds are no longer hard to access". Looking to concentrate in the next generation. The new challenge is writing smaller checks to new funds while they are small and where they need to deploy 50M+. Times are changing. Huge opportunity for new funds looking to build something durable.
Daniel Darling retweeted
Mercor (@mercor) scaled from $1-500M in revenue run rate in the last 17 months, making us the fastest growing company of all time. Our growth is accelerating. We averaged 11% week over week growth in July, 18% WoW growth in August, and 19% WoW growth in September.
One trend driving this meteoric growth: the Economy is Becoming an RL Environment Machine.
Reinforcement learning is becoming so effective that agents can hillclimb any benchmark, but humans need to define the rewards to automate everything.
While everyone fears job loss, weโre creating a new category of knowledge work faster than any other time in history. The future of work will converge on training agents.
We're paying out over $1M / day to people in our marketplace and hiring experts rapidly across nearly every domain: software engineers, doctors, lawyers, consultants, bankers, and many more.
Daniel Darling retweeted
So many leaders and companies are just starting to realize this. Stacked PRs, merge queues, and AI code review will be the standard for every fast-moving company. Thanks again for having me on the show!
As AI coding tears aways ($500M ARR from Cursor, $3B acq. of Windsurf) the next developer unlock is not more code, but agentic quality control at scale. Code review is THE choke point for the 100X AI developer.
@MerrillLutsky got this before anyone and has built @withgraphite to become the go-to for 45,000 developers to automate and accelerate code review at scale with AI.