Startup-X AI Launchpad
The F42 brief #037
Here’s your Monday dose of The AI Brief.
From today, The F42 Brief evolves into AI First—your weekly updates of game-changing AI breakthroughs, hands-on startup case studies, velocity-boosting tools and no-nonsense strategic reminders, all designed to give founders the insights and tactics they need to stay ahead in an AI-driven market.
📈 Trending Now
The week’s unmissable AI headlines.
What’s buzzing in the AI world, the key facts behind it and why every founder should sit up and take notice.
💡 Innovator Spotlight
Meet the change-makers.
A down-to-earth snapshot of a founder using AI in a brilliantly unexpected way—and one practical lesson you can pinch straight away.
🛠️ Tool of the Week
Your speed-boost in a nutshell.
An AI tool or integration that’ll shave days off your dev cycle—plus how to get started in minutes and our top insider tip.
📌 Note to Self
Words above my desk.
A hard-won reminder or question to pose yourself—keep these front and centre to dodge the same old traps.
📈 Trending Now
GPT-5 Announcement
Sam Altman has confirmed that GPT-5 will launch this July as a full-blown AI operating system—replacing the multi-model dropdown with one unified architecture.
Key Highlights from People with Early Access
True AGI (until you look at the definition of AGI)
GPT-5 “thinks, reasons, creates and executes” across domains without switching models—feeling more like artificial general intelligence than any prior release.All-in-One Multimodal
One model to rule them all: text, image, video, audio and code (Codex) capabilities bundled into a single endpoint.Outperforms Experts
Early benchmarks show GPT-5 eclipsing specialists in PhD-level tasks—rewriting the rules for domain-specific AI applications.Device-Agnostic OS
Runs natively on laptops, phones and embedded systems, effectively acting as an AI OS for any hardware.Seamless Multitasking
Edit videos, generate transcripts, analyse data and research problems concurrently—no lag or context-switch overhead.Persistent Memory
Deep personalisation and total recall across chats and documents, transforming GPT-5 into a true personal assistant.
G7 Leaders Agree Joint Statement on AI
G7 nations signed a six-point joint statement covering critical minerals, quantum computing and artificial intelligence at the summit in Canada last week. reuters.com
They committed to a human-centric approach and pledged to collaborate on safe, trustworthy AI deployment.
Founders should watch for emerging standards and funding schemes born of this pact—as alignment among leading economies often sets the tone for global investment and market access.
The Rise of the “AI Whisperer” Economy
CEOs worldwide are hiring “AI whisperers”—specialist advisers who translate technical models into boardroom strategy and hands-on implementation plans
This burgeoning advisory market presents founders with a dual opportunity: to offer consultancy services for AI integration and to ensure their own teams aren’t left scrambling for expertise.
Each of these developments—from massive infrastructure spends to shifts in compute sourcing and new advisory models—reshapes the AI landscape for startups. Keep these trends front of mind as you plan your next product roadmap, funding round or strategic hire.
Investors are zeroing in on 19 AI-powered consumer social startups that blend niche communities with next-gen intelligence.
Swsh: A Gen Z photo-sharing app partnering with festivals like Rolling Loud, using AI to surface event shots—has raised $3 million since 2022.
Status: A gamified platform mixing real users and AI characters, now boasting over 2.5 million users.
Bible Chat: A chatbot trained on scripture, with 25 million users and $16 million in funding.
Doji: Virtual try-on avatars for fashion, fresh off a $14 million seed round.
Gigi: “The AI who knows everyone” dating app that learns user preferences for smarter matches.
Founders should study how AI-infused community hooks are driving rapid traction—and ask how they can weave similar agent-led experiences and network effects into their own products.
Check out our content store at insights.fusion-42.com
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Startup-X – The AI Brief every Monday: Trending Now, Innovator Spotlight, Tool of the Week and a Note to Self, all in a rapid-fire five-section format.
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💡Innovator Spotlight
Pranjali Awasthi, Serial Founder
By the age of sixteen, Pranjali taught herself to code, built Delv.AI—a research assistant that raised ₹100 crore and cut academic prep from days to minutes—and then handed the business over to a leadership team so she could tackle something new.
The Journey
Starting with weekend hacking sessions, Pranjali launched Delv.AI in 2022 to help researchers sift pay-walled papers, reports and video lectures using AI-powered summaries and interactive dashboards. Backed by On Deck, Pioneer Fund and Village Global, her lean team of specialists rapidly turned a prototype into a ₹100 crore-valued platform.
Why She Stepped Back
Once Delv.AI was on solid footing, Pranjali brought in experienced operators to run day-to-day operations. She didn’t sell the company—she simply moved aside, allowing Delv.AI to grow under new leaders while she pursued her next passion.
What’s Next
In March 2025, Pranjali launched Dash—“ChatGPT with hands”—combining a plug-and-play robotic arm with an AI brain. Now you can ask it to “pick that up,” “assemble this,” or “run a quality check” and it just gets on with the job.
Practical Pin-up
“Who could I empower on my team so I can focus on tomorrow’s big idea?”
Key Lesson
Building value isn’t just about the first win—it’s about knowing when to hand over the reins and give yourself room to dream up what comes next.
🚨 Your competitors are already using AI—are you ready to catch up?
Join our FREE 45-min AI Launchpad Intro on Wed 2 Jul @ 19:00 GMT+4. We’ll walk you through our 4-week sprint: LLMs → Automations → Agents →Agentic
🛠️ Tools of the Week
Next-gen SOP tools now capture every click, keystroke or video segment, then apply AI to assemble step-by-step guides complete with annotated screenshots, callouts, voice-overs and rich media. These platforms can cut documentation time by up to 80 per cent, ensure process accuracy and let teams focus on impact rather than manual write-ups .
Top 4 Next-Gen SOP Tools
1. Tango
Tango runs as a Chrome/Edge extension and records every click and tab switch, turning live processes into polished how-to guides with perfectly cropped, annotated screenshots—no manual screenshots or notes required . Its AI also automates repetitive CRM and pipeline tasks by replaying your actions, so you get both SOPs and runnable automations from the same recording .
2. Scribe
Scribe’s AI-powered SOP generator captures clicks and on-screen text as you work, then auto-generates a step-by-step guide with screenshots and editable annotations in under 30 seconds . You can customise each step, add extra tips, combine multiple recordings and export to PDF, HTML or Markdown for seamless sharing .
3. Trupeer
Trupeer lets you record a walkthrough video (or upload an existing one) and its AI parses the footage to extract key actions, generate annotated screenshots and build a full video-backed SOP complete with a searchable transcript and step editor . Its drag-and-drop editor makes it trivial to refine steps, add notes or translate the entire SOP into 50+ languages for global teams .
4. Guidde
Guidde captures your workflow as a screen recording with voice-over, then uses AI to draft a narrative “storyline” for each step, overlay captions and package everything into a branded SOP video guide . You can blur sensitive fields, tweak wording and embed or share via link—ideal for customer training and internal compliance .
Why These Matter
By leveraging click-and-video-driven SOP generators, founders can lock in accuracy, onboard teams faster and keep procedures evergreen without the admin drag—freeing you to iterate on product and growth rather than process docs .
📌 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.
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Derek