Doug Bend

SF music firm @EMPIRE invests in waterfront domes entertainment complex #SanFrancisco sfexaminer.com/news/business/… via @sfexaminer

Hershey wins lawsuit claiming its Reese's #Halloween candies aren't spooky enough cbsnews.com/news/hershey-r… via @cbsmoneywatch

SF’s office vacancy rate is dropping but is still very high #SanFrancisco sfexaminer.com/news/business/…

It's Prediction Week 👀 You ready? Our AI robot friend Axel sure is...

I’m legit, YC should buy Westfield mall and make it into startup land. Office park, food court, maybe even housing. VCs would set up offices in there. Then ancillary service providers. All the little startup would sell to each other. SaaS / AI Shenzhen. Last appraised at $200m? A steal. Would completely change downtown.

#Waymo gets permit to test autonomous vehicles in New York City cnbc.com/2025/08/22/way…

The First-ever World Humanoid Robot Games has concluded in Beijing #Robots youtu.be/le_a2ADlSns?si…

Chuck Heads - The adults still obsessed with Chuck E. Cheese #ChuckECheese thehustle.co/originals/the-…

This isn’t creepy . . . not at all. thehustle.co/news/strangers…

.@Edgedive helps you understand what your customers are actually saying. They make it simple to collect, tag, and synthesize all incoming feedback from every channel (linked to your CRM) so you can focus on building something people want. Congrats on the launch, @meksikanpijja & @nimeshmc!

Thank you LAUNCH Accelerator and @jason for the invite to your 34th Demo Day. There are so many great options it would be hard to decide which companies to write a check to. #Startups #DemoDay #AngelInvestors

How #Robots will likely be replacing hundreds of millions of jobs in the next 10 years (if not sooner).

The hunt is on to find Marty McFly’s ⁦@gibsonguitar⁩ that has not been seen since 1985 #BackToTheFuture #LostToTheFuture #GibsonGuitar youtu.be/m6RdBMtAgSA

The new standard for early stage companies is real initial traction and revenue to be fundable. AI just makes it too easy to get a useful product into the market with zero capital. Failing to have those early customers before attempting to raise is now a massive red flag.

Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons hacked to imitate Musk and Zuckerberg's voices techcrunch.com/2025/04/14/sil…

There has been lots of good SF news this week including B. Patisserie expanding into Union Square. #SanFrancisco sfrecpark.org/CivicAlerts.as…

Congratulations to @ycombinator for hosting another memorable demo day. #Startups

Databricks gives downtown SF vote of confidence in expansion #AI #Startups #SanFrancisco sfexaminer.com/news/technolog…

4,369 startups founded in 2018 -where are they now? All US companies that used Carta for their cap tables. 4.4% have gotten to Series C. 1.1% to Series D or later. 0.34% have IPO'd, 5.5% have gotten acquired, and 1.3% are currently private unicorns. 61.9% have closed down

Every month in San Francisco we run a dinner for founders. We are always looking for new folks to join. If you or anyone you know might be interested in coming we would love to have you join. Link to sign up below.