Founder Mode - 8 Oct 2025

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Hi there,

Welcome back to Founder Mode, every week I’ll keep you updated on the top finds and opportunities for startups, so that you save time and stay in the know.

Together with WAIC (World AI Conference), we’re hosting an exclusive online event that brings together China’s most promising AI startups and Southeast Asia’s leading innovation ecosystem. You’ll get to hear from five cutting-edge Chinese startups and explore how both regions are shaping the next wave of AI-driven growth. See you there.

🔥 Top Finds

OpenAI Unveils Major Updates at DevDay
OpenAI is taking ChatGPT to the next level with Apps inside ChatGPT and a new Apps SDK for developers. It’s also launching AgentKit, a tool for building and deploying agents(n8n, make and Zapier need to up their game), plus the upcoming Sora 2 video model and an upgraded GPT-5 Pro API.

Better Add an AI Slide to Your Pitch Deck
VCs have already poured $192.7 billion into AI startups this year. 2025 could be the first year over half of all VC funding goes to AI, according to PitchBook. If you’re not telling an AI story yet, investors might not bite.

How San Francisco Became the Ultimate “996 City”
“996” - 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week was once a Chinese tech-culture badge of honor. Now, data from Ramp shows Saturday corporate spending is spiking, suggesting SF’s tech workers are grinding weekends again. Is 996 the price of startup success?

The Second Time at Y Combinator
Thirteen years after his first YC batch with Clever, Rafael Garcia is back with his new startup, Kernel. He reflects on how YC has evolved, from a small, tight-knit experiment to a scaled, structured, and deeply networked machine that remains the gold standard for startup acceleration.

🎯 Startup Opportunities

🛠 Tool of the Week

OpenAI Agent Builder
OpenAI just dropped Agent Builder, its bold move into workflow automation and a direct competitor to Zapier and n8n. It’s a no-code, visual canvas that lets anyone design and deploy smart AI agents that can reason, call APIs, and take action across apps. Key advantage I see is the simple UI and natively powered by OpenAI’s models so no additional setup needed with API keys.

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- Ray