STARTUP X
The F42 brief #029
Here’s your Monday dose of The F42 Brief.
📈 Trending Now
The one thing that’s making all the noise …. with a bit of fact checking.
💸 New Funds looking to give you cash
The Raise Report
💡Innovator Spotlight
Founders that are doing stuff differently.
🛠️ Tool of the Week
Something useful to up your startups velocity.
📌 Note to Self
Stuff I constantly remind myself about, don’t want make the same mistakes again.
📈 Trending Now
Seems no one wants to miss out on the AI 🚀.
2025 has already seen:
🇺🇸 $500 Billion Stargate Project for AI Infrastructure
🇨🇳 National Venture Capital Guidance Fund (1 Trillion Yuan / $138 Billion)
🇪🇺 EU Unveils Ambitious AI Strategy to Compete Globally
The European Union launched the “AI Continent Action Plan,” a comprehensive initiative to transform Europe into a global AI powerhouse. The plan includes building large-scale “AI factories” and gigafactories to support the creation and training of advanced AI models, alongside specialized labs to help startups access high-quality data. A new “AI Act Service Desk” will guide companies through the EU’s landmark AI Act, aiming to reduce regulatory friction and boost developer confidence—not just in Europe, but also influencing the U.K. and U.S. tech sectors
Direct EU investment | €50 billion | AI development, factories, startups, research
Total mobilized (public+private) | €200 billion | Invest AI initiative for broad AI ecosystem
AI gigafactories fund | €20 billion | Up to 5 large-scale AI gigafactories
AI factories fund | €10 billion | 13+ AI factories (supercomputing centers)
I was struck by Sam Altman’s off‑hand remark that every “please” and “thank you” in our prompts adds tens of millions of dollars to OpenAI’s bill. It took me straight back to Mo Gawdat’s Scary Smart, where, as former head of Google X, he shows how AI absorbs not just facts but the tone behind them. By peppering our prompts with positivity and politeness, we’re nudging these systems towards a friendlier, more helpful bias. It’s a tiny habit with real upside—for user experience and for the kind of AI‑driven world we’re shaping. So next time you craft a prompt, don’t skimp on courtesy; it makes more difference than you might think.
💸 New Funds looking to give you cash
Look out for the The Raise Report this Wednesday, bring you all the new funds that have raised capital and looking to deploy.
We hope you had an energizing week! As we embark on Week 3, get ready for a lineup of insightful masterclasses designed to propel your startup journey:
Startup Resilience
Tuesday, 21 Apr 2025
0800 PST | 17:00 CET | 19:00 UAE
Masterclass - Forecasting, Cashflow & Unit Economics
Workshop– Build Your Financial ModelGTM for Startups
Wednesday, 22 Apr 2025
0800 PST | 17:00 CET | 19:00 UAE
Masterclass - Problem Fit Pt2. Workshop - Strategy DevelopmentPitch Kung FU
Thursday , 23 Apr 2025
0800 PST | 17:00 CET | 19:00 UAE
Panel - The Good,bad and ugly of Fundraising Pitch Kung FU
Full event calendar: https://lu.ma/Fusion-42
Your feedback is invaluable to us. Please take a moment to share your thoughts by completing our short survey
💡Innovator Spotlight
VIBE coding is all the rage and a buzz word you see everywhere. Here are the nine best vibe coding tools developers are using to improve their workflows
A guide to the newest and most widely used AI coding tools, as of April 2025
Codex CLI A command‑line coding agent from OpenAI that lets you write, refactor and execute code entirely from your terminal.
Why it’s good: Seamlessly integrates into existing CLI workflows, supports multimodal inputs (screenshots, diagrams) and is fully open‑source—ideal for developers who prefer a keyboard‑centric setup.
Cursor A VS Code fork with built‑in AI chat and inline edits (⌘ K), designed to speed up code authoring and review.
Why it’s good: Popular with a vibrant community, it pioneered the “vibe coding” trend and offers flexible pricing—including unlimited AI‑powered edits on its MAX mode.
Cline A sidebar AI assistant for VS Code that routes your code snippets to any LLM for high‑quality suggestions, plus browser inspection and log‑reading capabilities.
Why it’s good: Deeply extensible via its MCP marketplace and capable of context‑aware diagnostics, making it a powerful all‑rounder in complex codebases.
Roo Code A streamlined fork of Cline featuring custom “modes” for repo‑specific behaviour and Boomerang Tasks to split big jobs into manageable subtasks.
Why it’s good: Provides fine‑grained control over AI actions and a built‑in task‑management layer, boosting clarity and consistency in multi‑step workflows.
Windsurf A standalone AI editor built on the VS Code core, offering smart tab completion, inline AI edits and one‑click “deploy to web.”
Why it’s good: Truly all‑in‑one—no extensions required—and extends beyond VS Code with plugins for JetBrains, Vim and Emacs, streamlining coding across environments.
Claude Code Anthropic’s terminal‑first coding assistant, built exclusively for Claude models and requiring no new IDE.
Why it’s good: Exceptionally simple to install and use in the shell, making it perfect for developers who live in the terminal but still want AI support.
Aider An early terminal‑based pair‑programming agent that supports most major LLMs, not just the big names.
Why it’s good: Flexible model choice and a “pair‑programming” feel give you the breadth of options and collaboration style without leaving the command line.
Devin A web‑based “virtual hire” that autonomously tackles coding tasks, opens pull requests and can spin up multiple agents in parallel.
Why it’s good: Handles end‑to‑end development chores, cutting down on manual overhead—and at a fraction of its original cost, it’s surprisingly affordable.
Lovable A ready‑made LLM chat framework for embedding friendly, customised assistants into your apps.
Why it’s good: Comes with pre‑built templates and straightforward APIs, so you can launch a polished conversational layer in hours, not weeks.
If you have not joined the Fusion42 Community on Telegram — A space for Founders, Framers, and Funders who show up to get **it done,
it is probably time to do so.
For the ❤️ of Startups
🛠️ Tools of the Week.
This year’s Forbes AI 50 was chosen from 1,860 no‑fee applications, evaluated by a quantitative algorithm and expert panels on business promise, technical talent and genuine AI use. Diversity metrics are encouraged, making the list a more equitable snapshot of the market.
Why founders should pay attention:
Rigorous validation: Beating out 1,800+ peers demonstrates real product‑market fit.
Funding benchmarks: Actual round sizes and valuations set clear targets for your own fundraising ask.
Competitive intelligence: Spot which sectors (healthcare, legal, sales, etc.) are hot—and where fresh opportunities lie.
Investor mapping: See which VCs and angels back similar technologies, so you can engage the right partners.
Best‑practice insights: Reverse‑engineer go‑to‑market tactics, team structures and tech stacks used by top performers.
IP and compliance flags: Note legal challenges around data and copyright to craft a watertight training‑data strategy.
In short, Forbes’ AI 50 isn’t about hype—it’s a transparent, merit‑based benchmark for positioning, pitching and scaling an AI startup.
See the list with URLs here.
🛠️ 🚀 Fusion42 GSA: Share Your Tools & Resources
Help us build the ultimate toolbox for founders, framers, and funders. Please share your favorite tools and resources (you will have to do this process for each submission, but don't worry only takes 1 min).
📌 Note to Self
Thank you for reading. If you liked it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in the startup Investor ecosystem.
If you've got suggestions, an article, research, your tech stack, or a job listing you want featured, just let me know! I'm keen to include it in the upcoming edition.
Please let me know what you think of it, love a feedback loop 🙏🏼
🛑 Get a different job.
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For the ❤️ of startups
✌🏼 & 💙
Derek