Good evening!
Congrats to the teams at Rippling and Clay today… good way to go into the weekend! 🎉
Here are the 7 things you missed today:
1. 🤑 Rippling Raked In $450M For a $16.8B Valuation
Rippling just raised a whopping $450 million in a new round led by Coatue and Founders Fund, pushing its valuation to $16.8 billion. The HR-tech company’s valuation is up from $13.5Bn a year ago, but its CEO and co-founder Parker Conrad says it isn’t planning for an IPO “in the near future”. (CNBC)
2. 📈 Fully managed, automated, white-hat SEO
Most SEO agencies will charge you $5,000 a month, promise the world, and deliver nothing but a confusing report and disappointment. Ranked is the exact opposite.
These guys are almost too good to be true, but they’re actually amazing. We use them ourselves, and the results speak for themselves:
Real SEO that works — weekly content, site optimization, and quality backlinks
Full transparency — clear deliverables and easy-to-read reports
No BS contracts — all plans are month-to-month, starting at just $99/month
I know what you’re thinking: “$99? Is it a scam?” Nope. Just a team that figured out how to make SEO actually affordable and effective.
3. 🔥 Clay Hit a $1.5B Valuation With Help From Sequoia
Sales automation startup Clay authorized an employee tender offer, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Sequoia, an investor in Clay since its 2019 Series A, has agreed to purchase up to $20 million in employee stock. (TechCrunch)
4. 🚀 The Leads Aren’t the Problem…
My team has been working with 40+ B2B brands on a new lead funnel... one that doesn’t just generate leads but actually warms them up and turns them into real conversations.
The results?
💬 “This has directly lead to $100,000+ in revenue for us in just a few months” – Agency Owner
💰 “We are booking 3-5 qualified calls a week” – Enterprise Director of Demand Gen
If you want to bring in more leads (and actually convert them), let’s talk.
5. ☢️ Google’s Going Nuclear (Energy)
Google announced its planning to work with nuclear site developer Elementl Power to develop three sites for advanced nuclear reactors, generating 1.8 gigawatts of advanced nuclear energy for its data centers. In 2025 alone, Google plans to spend $75 billion on building data center capacity. (TechCrunch)
6. 🚫 Microsoft Banned Employees From DeepSeek
Microsoft has banned employees from using Chinese AI app DeepSeek, due to data security and propaganda concerns. For the same concerns, Microsoft also hasn’t put DeepSeek in its app store – though this is the first time Microsoft has publicly spoken about such a ban. (TechCrunch)
7. 🤗 Hugging Face Dropped a Free Agentic AI Tool
Hugging Face just released a free, open-source tool that mimics OpenAI’s GPTs without the paywall. The cloud-hosted computer-using AI “agent” allows users to prompt it to complete a simple task… but it’s honestly sluggish and makes mistakes. And you’ll have to wait in a virtual queue (with wait times based on demand) to use it. (TechCrunch)
Bonus. 🤖 Level Up Your AI Game
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