The S&P 500 gained more than 14% and the Nasdaq soared about 20% in Q2, the best three-month run for both since 2020, with the Dow logging its strongest quarter since 2022. The rally was driven almost entirely by AI names: chipmakers, server builders, and the software companies racing to ship agents. For founders planning an H2 raise, capital markets are about as warm as they have been in five years. (Yahoo Finance)

Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5 on Tuesday, a mid-tier model that runs agents (browsers, terminals, multi-step tasks) at close to flagship quality for a fraction of the cost. It is priced at an intro $2 per million input tokens and $10 output through August, roughly half of Opus 4.8, and it is now the default on free and Pro plans. (TechCrunch)

As of June 30, Shopify Scripts stopped executing, forcing merchants onto Shopify Functions for discounts, shipping, and payment customizations. Stores that did not migrate may find custom discounts and checkout logic broken, with no storefront warning. Shopify has said the deadline will not move again, so if you sell on Plus, it is worth a five-minute check today. (Shopify)

Bending Spoons, the Italian software roll-up that owns Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo, Eventbrite and AOL, starts trading on the Nasdaq today under ticker BSP. Demand ran hot: it priced at $29 a share, above its $26-28 range, raising about $1.68 billion at a roughly $20B valuation. The playbook, buy tired software brands and run them lean, just got a very public endorsement. (Axios)

AI video startup Higgsfield is in talks to raise $300M to $500M at a $5 billion valuation, quadruple its January mark, with DST Global reportedly circling. The two-year-old company crossed $500M in annualized revenue this month, up from $200M at the end of 2025, with roughly 70% now coming from enterprise. The round has not closed, but the curve shows how fast an AI-native product can scale. (TechTimes)

In the early 2000s, one of our South African SDRs worked as an EMT.

Long before he ever ran a sales call, he was riding in ambulances.

And, he told me the most important question he asked any patient: "Where does it hurt?"

If someone was unconscious, he had to guess from the outside. 

But if they were awake, he could ask directly. "What kind of pain is it? Stabbing? Pressure? Pounding?" The more they could tell him, the better he could treat them.

When a founder reaches out, something hurts. His whole job is to find where it hurts most, then treat that first.

And here is the thing about most founders I talk to: they can feel that something is off. 

The week is heavier than it should be. Growth has gone quiet. You are not imagining it. 

One survey found entrepreneurs spend about 36% of their work week on administrative tasks, and more than half of founders reported burnout last year.

So most founders do the only thing that feels available. 

Work more hours and hope it passes. That is treating the symptom, not the diagnosis.

Three questions, the same ones he asks. Answer them honestly this week:

Most of the time, the answer is not "push harder." It’s that the wrong work is sitting on the wrong person, and that person is usually the founder.

Once you can name where it hurts, the fix stops being a mystery and starts being a hire. 

That is the part we are good at, and our clients think so too (check out some of their success stories here).

Here is why working with us is the easy call:

That is exactly what a call with us is for. 

If you can tell something is off, that the business could move faster than it is, but you cannot put your finger on it, we will help you find where it hurts. 

Then we match you with a candidate who eases the pain. Just reply to this email or book a free call below. 

>>>> Book an obligation-free call with our recruitment specialists <<<<

Until next time,

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