Neural Net Worth and the AI Talent Wars
Jul 23, 2025
Kaley Ubellacker
Happy Wednesday!
Happy Wednesday! If you’re new here, welcome to Necessary Nuggets, your one-stop pre-seed shop. We deliver updates from Necessary Ventures and helpful tidbits on our little corner of the world. Every edition is also on our blog.
What's happening at Necessary Ventures:
On its mission to accelerate EV truck adoption, portfolio company Nevoya raised a $9.3 million seed round, led by Lowercarbon Capital. Nevoya plans to use the funds to scale its team, expand into new markets, and continue developing its transportation management system.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
This Pirate Wire post explores how the escalating AI talent wars are reshaping Silicon Valley’s norms around compensation, loyalty, and company-building.
The crypto market just crossed $4 trillion in value, with Bitcoin briefly topping $120k and institutional capital piling in like it’s 2021.
Biotech venture funding hit a wall in Q2, with HSBC reporting a steep drop in both overall capital and first financings, making it the worst early-stage quarter since 2023.
For the less rushed reader …
Commission-driven
It seems like vision is out, and vesting is in. This Pirate Wire post explores how the escalating AI talent wars are reshaping Silicon Valley’s norms around compensation, loyalty, and company-building. With big tech shelling out hundreds of millions for top researchers, AI talent is becoming a scarce and highly leveraged asset, comparable to star athletes or hedge fund traders. This dynamic is challenging traditional startup dynamics, where trust, shared mission, and long-term alignment used to bind founders, employees, and investors. The article argues that we’re entering an era where concentrated talent drives outsize value, and companies may need to rethink employment contracts, recruiting strategies, and cap tables to compete. Whether this is a temporary bubble or the new normal, it raises important questions about who gets funded, who gets hired, and how startups will be built in the age of AI – and who will win the neural net worth wars.
The house always wins
It’s a hot blockchain summer. The crypto market just crossed $4 trillion in value, with Bitcoin briefly topping $120k and institutional capital piling in like it’s 2021. Crypto is officially graduating from a speculative sandbox to a fixture of global finance. Helping fuel the run is a trio of bills passed by the U.S. House, including stablecoin regulation and a proposed ban on a U.S. central bank digital currency. The “Genius Act” is headed to Trump’s desk, signaling a shift in D.C.’s stance on digital assets. Public companies are stacking BTC in their treasuries, ETH has doubled in the past three months, and Coinbase and Robinhood hit all-time highs. Safe to say, crypto is giving a new meaning to Capitol gains.
Where's the cure for the cap table?
Is biotech in need of a lifeline? Biotech venture funding hit a wall in Q2, with HSBC reporting a steep drop in both overall capital and first financings, making it the worst early-stage quarter since 2023. Investors are spooked by a cocktail of pharma tariff chatter, public health agency shakeups, and budget cuts, leading to fewer private rounds as VCs flock to safer, later-stage bets. Even the once reliable megarounds over $100 million saw a dip, and crossover investors are largely MIA, burned by a 70% median stock decline from 2024’s IPO class. The one silver lining is that M&A is holding steady, offering some relief for exits even as the IPO window stays firmly shut. Biotech is dealing with more trials than just those in the lab.
Market Stirrings 🚩
Here's what the week looked like in pre-seed:
$6.4M
11
Data aggregated from proprietary research and Crunchbase; valuation estimate based on 10-20% ownership stake.
FROM PITCH DECK TO PAYCHECK
Early-stage acquisitions have quietly become a dominant exit path. Since 2021, the share of M&A activity targeting pre-seed and seed-stage startups has been steadily climbing, now approaching 40% of all acquisitions. Strategic buyers are moving earlier, betting on potential over maturity.
Fire Up the Pre-Seeds🔥
Highlights from this week’s pre-seed raises:
Healthtech
Novaflow - A date-a with destiny.
Novaflow raised $500k from Y Combinator. Novaflow is creating an AI-powered platform to expedite scientific discoveries, including data analysis automation.
Fintech
Hootology - Giving a hoot about retention.
Hootology raised $1.1 million. Hootology is building a modern market research platform with tools to deliver scalable insights into consumer loyalty and behavior.
AI
Eventship - The function for the function.
Eventship raised $300k. Eventship is developing an event-hosting platform supporting the end-to-end organizing journey, from matchmaking attendees with relevant events to ticketing and sponsorships.
JOBORTUNITIES
Senior Embedded Systems Engineer - Copper:
Rethinking the induction stove and making kitchen electrification more accessible than ever. Picture a fossil-free future, without sacrificing aesthetics.
Production Engineer - Infinite Machine:
Envisioning the future of transportation beyond cars and into the realm of personal electric vehicles. Its first product, P1, is the ultimate tool for city navigation.
Outro🚪
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Some last matters of business:
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Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
