Everything42
Life, the Universe, and Fusion42 #005
Hello Hello,
I hope you all had a fantastic week and are making great moves. It was an up and down week here at Fusion-42. Here’s the 😇 Good, 😈 Bad and the 🤢 Ugly so we can all learn together.
😇 The Good
➡️ We have started building agents at the application layer, and that is something we promised but it took way longer to get the infrastructure sorted, but now we have, it is all pretty exciting.
First Agent is going to be an Elevator Pitch agent, it conducts deep research and gives you your 30 second pitch and in your tone and voice. 🚀
➡️ Our masterclasses are back to their previous cadence, and numbers are already starting to pick up. As is audience participation, which is just the absolute best.
If you are planning to host an event, I do recommend using Luma, it has a great UI and UX, to the point I just want to kiss whoever designed it.
➡️ On a personal note, I managed to grab a moment of ME TIME last weekend, so off I went to sit on the beach armed with my book and pen to do some of the meditation and introspection stuff that keeps me on the straight and narrow. This is what came up…
😈 The Bad
The constant reminder that building community and a market place are probably one, if not, the hardest things to build in Startup world.
On one hand I want to say, “what were we thinking “ and on the other “If it aint hard everyone would be doing it” but the overarching thing that drives us forward each and every day is simply…
for the ❤️ of startups 😀
🤢 The Ugly
Well, last week we put out a survey to ask you what you wanted … and said we’d come back with the findings. The response rate was so shit that the sample set doesn’t give us anything solid. That’s on us. We must do better. So this week, we’re switching tactics. Stay tuned. 😉😉
Cheers,
Enjoy and hope to see you soon.
What’s inside »
📱 The F42 Telegram channel highlight.
🔥 The 03 🚨 Danger (PITCH) Room Has Been on Fire This Year! 🔥
🌟 Masterclass Recaps.
🔥AI for Startups. Can We All Really Have Our Own Model?
🔥 Fundraising Fluency & Startup Sales Mastery
🤝 Meet the Channel Champ
Raymond J. Hegarty. IP strategist
📅 Online Webinars
Startup Resilience. IP Does Not Stand for Ignore Protection
F42 Fused: Startup Night
Where top founders meet active investors to get funded.
📱 The F42 Telegram channel highlight
🔥 The 03 🚨 Danger (PITCH) Room Has Been on Fire This Year! 🔥
Founders have been stepping up, pitching hard, and getting real, no-fluff feedback—and the results speak for themselves.
Most founders struggle with pitching. It’s nerve-wracking, investors interrupt, and two minutes never feels like enough. But what if you could practice in a safe, no-judgement space, get real feedback, and actually enjoy the process?
That’s exactly what we’ve built with The Danger Room.
What’s In It for You?
Inside The Danger Room, you can:
✅ Test your two-minute pitch—no slides, just your story.
✅ Get direct, practical feedback—from founders and investors.
✅ Refine your clarity, confidence, and conviction—without the pressure of a real pitch.
✅ See what works (and what doesn’t)—so when it counts, you’re ready.
How It Works
1️⃣ Record a two-minute pitch (it doesn’t have to be perfect).
2️⃣ Drop it in The Danger Room.
3️⃣ Get real-time, constructive feedback from founders, investors, and storytellers.
4️⃣ Iterate, improve, and watch your confidence grow.
What Founders Are Saying
🗣️ “This pitch is excellent. I like that you not only share important details, but you do it in a way that tells a story and triggers emotion.”
🗣️ “Great energy yesterday—zen level of pitching at a kung fu session.”
🗣️ “I literally stopped halfway through to rewatch the storytelling. This is how it’s done, folks!”
🗣️ “I love this idea! I’m interested in how many subscriptions are needed to break even, and expected revenue. Great research!”
Why It Works
🚀 It’s quick and simple—no slides, no pressure, just your pitch.
🤝 The feedback is honest but encouraging—helping you refine your message.
💡 It’s a safe way to test before stepping in front of real investors.
The Danger Room is only getting hotter. Are you in?
👉 Join The Danger Room & Drop Your Pitch Here → [insert link]
Your next investor might be watching.
Join the community and enter the Danger room, the hard truth is, if you can’t do it in a safe supported space, how are you ever going to sell ?
🌟 Masterclass Recaps.
AI for Startups
🔥 Can We All Really Have Our Own Model? – Event Recap
Missed this session? Big mistake. AI is moving at breakneck speed, and this deep dive into models, reasoning, and the future of automation was a goldmine for founders, operators, and investors looking to stay ahead. Here’s what went down.
🎤 Who Spoke & Why It Mattered?
Derek Watson, alongside AI expert Eric Perez and automation specialist AJ, led the charge, with a packed audience of founders, engineers, and investors firing off high-impact questions. The discussion wasn’t just theoretical—it was tactical, practical, and brutally honest about the current AI landscape.
Key questions tackled:
How can businesses ensure AI model security? (Hermine Ngnomire raised concerns on privacy & data protection.)
Can AI-generated code be trusted? (Andy Swindler asked about AI writing backdoors in code.)
How do you keep up with AI advancements without wasting money? (Eric Perez weighed in on balancing cost & innovation.)
What’s the best approach for prompt engineering across different models?
Is the SaaS pricing model for AI tools sustainable, or will we see a shift to pay-for-output models?
💡 Key Takeaways
✅ DeepSeek vs. GPT vs. Claude – Who’s Really Smarter?
Different AI models were put to the test. DeepSeek was the outlier—more pessimistic in reasoning. The verdict? No one model rules them all. Pick your tool based on the use case.
✅ AI is Infrastructure—The Real Money Is in Services
Building the model isn’t where the gold is. AI models are becoming a commodity—the real value is in fine-tuning, integrations, and application-layer services.
✅ Your Data = Their Playground
DeepSeek and others make it clear: if you use their models, they’re taking your data. Want full control? Host models on your own infrastructure (AWS, Azure, Digital Ocean) to protect IP.
✅ Hallucinations Are Still a Problem
LLMs make mistakes. Always validate AI-generated content, especially in high-risk sectors like legal, security, and coding. AI is a powerful assistant, not a silver bullet.
✅ Automating Workflows? Start Small.
Massive AI workflows often break. Instead, chain small automations together with human checkpoints in between. This keeps things flexible and avoids cascading failures.
✅ The Real AI Game-Changer? Industry-Specific Vertical Models.
Generic AI is getting outdated. Expect hyper-specialized models built for legal, finance, medical, and other sectors to dominate. AI will be about precision, not just power.
✅ Security & Trust in AI-Generated Code
AI coding assistants are powerful, but security is a real concern. Be wary of hidden vulnerabilities or backdoors when using AI-generated code—always have a human in the loop to review.
✅ Prompt Engineering: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Different models require different prompt strategies. No universal prompt works across all LLMs. Experimentation is key, and tools like Perplexity and Claude have different strengths.
✅ Agent-Based AI is the Future
By the end of 2025, expect AI agents handling more complex business workflows with minimal human intervention. These AI-driven agents will specialize in marketing, sales, and customer service.
🎭 Live Demo by AJ – AI in Action
AJ ran a head-to-head model comparison using probability analysis on terraforming Mars. Key insights:
⚡ DeepSeek was highly pessimistic, calculating only a 0.3% chance of success, whereas Claude and GPT were more optimistic at 2%.
⚡ DeepSeek focuses on hard constraints, while Claude & GPT focus on broader assumptions.
⚡ Takeaway: Reasoning varies drastically between models—cross-check your results when making business decisions.
❓ Can We All Really Have Our Own Model?
🔹 The short answer: Yes, but it’s complicated.
Open-source models like DeepSeek and Mistral make it possible for businesses to host their own AI.
Hosting your own model requires serious infrastructure (GPUs, cloud servers) and ongoing optimization.
Most companies will rely on fine-tuning existing models rather than building from scratch.
Privacy concerns? Running an open-source model on your own hardware avoids data-sharing risks.
Expect smaller, industry-specific models to be the norm rather than massive general-purpose LLMs.
🚀 Final verdict: If your business relies on AI-driven differentiation, investing in your own model is worth considering. Otherwise, leveraging APIs and fine-tuning existing solutions is the smarter play.
Fundraising Fluency
🔥 Masterclass Recap: Fundraising Fluency & Startup Sales Mastery
Missed this session? You just skipped a masterclass in startup survival. Here’s the no-fluff breakdown:
🌟 The Scene
Hosted by Kurt Walker, with insights from Steve Rosenbeck (exited founder, now raising & building a fund).
Focus: Mastering sales, validating your market, and structuring fundraising the right way.
Audience: Startup founders, investors, and operators hungry for real, actionable insights.
✅ Core Takeaways – Pay Attention, Founders!
1️⃣ SALES FIRST, PRODUCT SECOND
Stop hiding behind product development. If you can’t sell it, don’t build it.
Validate demand by selling before you build – pitch, test, refine.
Founders who can’t sell shouldn’t be founders. Period.
2️⃣ Ugly Babies Don’t Get Funded
Investors aren’t here to do your work – if your startup isn’t market-ready, don’t even try fundraising.
No one wants to fund your dream. They fund traction. Show market proof, not just ideas.
3️⃣ Stop Wasting Time—Fail Fast
Your first 90 days are critical—find out ASAP if your market actually wants what you’re selling.
Minimum Viable Experiment > Minimum Viable Product. Test cheaply and quickly before committing to development.
Sell with paper mockups before spending money. Figma, Photoshop, and even napkin sketches work.
4️⃣ Strategic Money is Better Than Dumb Money
Steve closed a $100K strategic investment from a buying group that had never invested in a startup before. Why? Because they wanted the problem solved.
Strategic investors bring more than cash – they bring customers, partnerships, and credibility.
Fundraising is a sales process. It’s an enterprise sale, not a donation request.
5️⃣ AI is Your Co-Founder (If You Use It Right)
AI accelerates pitch refinement, customer validation, and even product mockups.
If you’re not using AI daily, you’re already behind.
💡 BOLD INSIGHT: "You’re competing with a genius in India who will outwork you for less money."
The world is smaller than ever. If you’re not leveraging every tool at your disposal, someone else is—and they’re coming for your customers.
⚡ What’s Next? Take Action!
Join Pitch Kung Fu tomorrow – watch real founders get shredded (and rebuilt) by investors.
Apply for FUSED next week – if you’re fundraising, this is where real deals get made.
Show up, sell, and stop waiting for capital to magically appear. Capital finds great projects, not the other way around.
📅 Pro Tip: Upload your 2-min pitch in the Danger Room for real feedback. Funders don’t take cold pitches—get warm intros by being part of the right circles.
Meet the Channel Champ
Raymond J. Hegarty. IP strategist
💡 Startup Validation ⚖️ Legal Support:
Hi all, 'm Raymond,
Coaching CEOs and CFOs to strategise and implement global IP plans is my game. I excel at scaling businesses, securing investments, and prepping for lucrative exits.
I've penned three best-selling books on IP strategy and had my work praised by Steve Forbes.
In tech, I've worked on everything from IoT and AI to VR, AR, and blockchain, and I've built and grown five startups from the ground up.
If you have not joined the Fusion42 Community on Telegram —
it is probably time to do so.
For the ❤️ of Startups
📅 Online Webinars. Get the calendar here.
Startup Resilience.
IP Does Not Stand for Ignore Protection
Building resilience—for yourself and your team—can set you up for long-term success. Join us for a no-fluff masterclass designed to give you the tools to stay strong and steady through the challenges of building your business.
We’re super lucky to have Raymond J. Hegarty joining us, an absolute expert in IP strategy and author of
Billion Dollar IP Strategy: Intellectual Property for Tech CEOs, Unicorn Founders & Investors to dive into strategies that make founders and startups more resilient.
Expect actionable takeaways you can start using right away.
What’s on the Agenda?
➡️ What Actually Counts as IP? (And Why It Matters to You)
➡️ Common IP Traps That Kill Startups
➡️ How IP Strengthens Your Fundraising Strategy
➡️ IP as a Business Weapon: How to Use It to Win
➡️ Final Challenge: What’s Your Next Move?
➡️ Q&A
F42 Fused: Startup Night
Where top founders meet active investors to get funded.
Featured Startups:
🌟 EdTech | AI Tutoring | £2M Sales | Seed | 🇬🇧 UK
AI-powered tutoring replacing outdated education systems.
✅ Lead investor secured
✅ £2M in sales, operating in 16 countries
✅ Led by a Forbes 30 Under 30 founder
🌟 AI | No-Code Custom AI Platform | Early Stage | 🇬🇧 UK
Makes AI creation fast, cost-effective, and accessible.
✅ Enterprise clients: UN & Roche
✅ ARR growth from £120K to £550K in 14 months
✅ £3.2M weighted sales pipeline
🌟 FinTech | SaaS Equity Management | Seed | 🇦🇪 MENA
Simplifying cap table and fundraising processes.
✅ Beta launching with 25+ onboarded clients
✅ Strategic partnerships with Station F, Vision Bank, and Theseus AI
✅ Built by unicorn-scaling founders (Lazada, Dubizzle/OLX)
🌟 FinTech | Financial Intelligence SaaS | $150K ARR | 🇦🇪 UAE
Helping SMEs track financial health with real-time insights.
✅ Serving 130K businesses in 190 countries
✅ $3.3B in processed transactions
✅ Led by an expert in scaling 1,000+ businesses
For the ❤️ of startups
✌🏼 & 💙
Derek
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