Daniel Shalinsky (withe.co)

𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭: Winter 2026 Residency for Technical Founders at Inception! This winter, we’re 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: There’s no “too early” - 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! 𝐏𝐒: 𝐓𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐚𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞’𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. @focal_vc

"Finally a startup podcast where you actually learn something that matters!" That's what I set out to do when I started having discussions with founders and operators around potentially doing a podcast. Why? Because most startup podcasts are basically a highlight reel that barely scratch the surface across the 20+ topics they cover. They're entertaining - but you don't actually learn anything useful. Thus, meet the focal podcast where I go deep with some of today's best founders / operators on ONE crucial lesson they learned the hard way early on. No fluff, just the real, actionable insights you'd get if these founders were mentoring you 1-on-1. Our debut episode - launched today - tackles a critical mistake most founders make early on: “Most startups don’t focus on growth nearly early enough.” This comes from @austinh___ who knows startup growth better than almost anyone else. As a former early growth lead at @tryramp and now the co-founder and CEO of @unifygtm (>$30M raised from @ThriveCapital , @emergencecap, @OpenAI), Austin has both built a growth organization from scratch as well as helped scale one faster than almost anyone else. A few weeks ago, I had a fascinating conversation with him that changed how I think about growth at startups, including: 1. Experimentation speed is everything 2. Why you have to start with outbound from day 1 3. To win, move from cold to warm outbound 4. Why to build your growth team as early as possible 5. The ultimate startup moat: Building in public Starting tomorrow, I'll also share insights from these conversations in writing. For more, check out our conversation on the newly launched focal podcast and subscribe to my Substack for the write ups (LINK IN COMMENTS).

In response to economic challenges and rising layoffs in the tech sector, Vancouver-based career fair platform @withevideo has launched HireNorth — a site designed to bring together Canadian companies, community organizations, and job seekers. @Shalinsky vantechjournal.com/p/hirenorth-s-…

Let's talk about Canada for a moment 🇨🇦 In these tumultuous times, Canadians are coming together to support each other. We want to help. That's why we're launching #HireNorth If you're Canadian (or want to help) - please watch this video and read the thread. 1/8