I hope you are all getting ready for your holiday weekend as I am. But If you were watching the debate, as millions of Americans were last week, you were undoubtedly concerned with the president's performance. While Donald Trump may be an inveterate liar, at least he seemed cogent (although not that cogent) when compared to the aging president. I agree with the New York Times editorial response to poor Biden's performance. While politics is depressing enough, at least there was enough salacious content for the tech world.

The Information released a recent exclusive concerning Eric Schmidt, the former long-time CEO of Google. Schmidt is known for his long string of romantic encounters while remaining with his wife, Wendy. What is more stark is Schmidt’s willingness to mix business and pleasure. The article mentions that Schmidt set up Tomorrow Ventures to invest in companies introduced by one of his former girlfriends. More striking, this is a consistent MO for Schmidt—setting up Micro-VC funds to make somewhat dubious investments for his well-groomed paramours. Forbes broke the coverage last year when Schmidt supposedly committed $100 million to the budding accelerator. While the fund has deployed over $20 million, there is little to show for it, given that its last investment was in May 2023 and their current website shows no logos.

While man may have more money than god, one wonders what on earth possesses him to give free rein to socialites to burn cash on hair-brained schemes.

The other major story this week was on Alexandr Wang, the founder and CEO of Scale AI, a data annotation platform that provides training data for machine learning models. Wang is the youngest self-made Billionaire, who is noted for the cultivation of his persona along with the company’s rise. Honestly, this guy reminds me of this guy with clothes.

I am going on vacation next week, so I will be taking a break from the newsletter. I also want some time back to build some things that will make my job a bit easier when creating this post. What I am also building is a deal list to keep track of my favorite deals as well as share updates from the portfolio. If you think it a good idea and you would subscribe click on the poll below.

News I Have Been Reading

Podcast Episodes

• Listen to my interview with Mark Lemley on the future of Generative AI, copyright, and what legal hurdles companies will face.

• Listen to my interview with Chris and Nicole Hedley who are building a company from the ground up using GenAI tools as a part of everything they do.

Tech News

• Read Jason Shuman on how AI is going to transform the SMB.

• Meta’s about to drop a new Model.

• The EU is going to war with big tech.

• The death of SaaS is not as expected by others.

• This is by far the best analysis framework I have seen on how AI can improve work. That’s it for this week. The podcast will soon have significant updates and exciting guests. Stay tuned! Please like and subscribe.

  • Alexi, an AI platform helping lawyers produce high-quality memos, pinpoint crucial legal issues and arguments, and automate routine litigation tasks, raised an $11M Series A led by Drive Capital.

  • Atticus, a document verification platform to speed up the review process, raised £5.6M in funding.

  • Clearbrief, a legal platform for attorneys to find, insert, and check facts when drafting briefs, raised $4M in funding led by Authentic Ventures and How Women Invest.

  • Deepjudge, a developer of an AI legal document processing platform, raised a $10.7M Seed led by Coatue.

  • 🎉 FirmPilot, an AI law firm marketing platform, raised a $7M Series A led by Blumberg Capital and DoubleVerify.

  • Jupus, an AI platform that automates law firms' client processes, raised €1.3M in funding led by High-Tech Gründerfonds.

  • 🎉 LawPro.ai, an AI-based platform that automates legal tasks and optimizes client outcomes, raised an undisclosed amount of Seed led by The LegalTech Fund and Scopus Ventures.

  • Norm AI, an AI platform for corporate regulatory compliance, raised a $27M Series A led by Coatue.

  • Hebbia, a document search platform built for finance, raised $100M in a Series B led by A16Z.