Silicon Valley’s AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet; plus, name Ex-Ramp engineers raise $20M for platform Melius

Photon helps developers build AI agents that work over iMessage, SMS/RCS, email, and other messaging platforms. It's a bet that consumers will increasingly use agents instead of downloading apps. Also, Kevin Mandia, best known as the founder of Mandiant, has a new startup that is using agent swarm…

Founded by two sisters, Hot Girl Hotline uses AI to give young women personalized dating and relationship advice, with an emphasis on safety and avoiding emotional dependency. Also, days after Vinod Khosla called Factory a struggling also-ran, Menlo has shown up with a check and a glowing blog pos…

VC Chris Degnan and former board advisor to Factory AI has taken a job as chief revenue officer for Cognition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fervo Energy completed its first power plant in less than two years. The next phases promise to connect to the grid even quicker. Also, MyMonthlyCar is a platform that lets dealers rent out their idle used cars month to month (with an option to buy), and it's now one of the startups showing off at…