Max Kolysh

Circle's Q4 numbers show USDC gaining ground as regulated stablecoin infrastructure matures. For LATAM: the institutional shift from USDT to compliant alternatives is accelerating. The winning layer won't be the coin it'll be the compliance + ops middleware that makes corridors bankable.

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Sphinx raises $7.1M seed to scale browser-native compliance agents 📎 Sphinx has announced a $7.1 million seed round led by Cherry Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, Deel Ventures, and Singularity Capital. The funding will expand Sphinx’s agentic compliance workforce, helping banks and fintechs automate AML, KYC, and KYB processes without adopting new systems. 💬 “Compliance today is mostly human glue between systems that were never designed to work together. Sphinx takes on that work directly so analysts can focus on the judgment calls - and institutions finally get a complete, defensible record of how every decision was made.” – Alexandre Berkovic, Co-Founder & CEO, Sphinx 💬 “Very few products can function inside that level of complexity. That’s what’s driving such rapid adoption across banks and fintechs.” – Filip Felician Dames, Founding Partner, Cherry Ventures 📎 Sphinx is tackling the $200B+ annual spend on compliance teams and outsourced review houses by delivering operational infrastructure that works inside existing workflows - automating tasks, reducing risk, and enabling global scale without additional headcount. 📌 Read more: https://lnkd.in/e6vezfq9 #Sphinx #ComplianceAutomation #RegTech #AML #KYC #KYB #FinTech #SeedFunding #FinancialServices #FinancialIT

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The worst fundraising advice for founders is to follow the Sequoia deck format. Rishabh Jain (CEO, FERMÀT) explains why templates do not win investors. What matters is having a clear hook, 2–3 metrics that prove it, and relationships with the investors who will add value long term.

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Managing finances across 25+ companies with just 4 people? Most call it impossible. Aleph Ventures doesn’t. Partner/CFO Erich Leidel and his team used to spend hours exporting QuickBooks data for each subsidiary, updating financial models, and checking for accuracy. Across 25+ companies, that meant 25+ hours wasted every month. With LiveFlow, Aleph consolidates instantly, runs live reports, and empowers departments with real-time visibility. We’re thrilled to power Aleph’s growth and bring more clarity as they expand and add new companies. 🚀 Explore their story here: https://lnkd.in/dtBXKREg

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Steam just launched purchasing power parity pricing tools for game developers. (https://lnkd.in/eeUGy2yU) Three pricing methods, built right into Steamworks: 1. Exchange rate conversion (the old default) 2. PPP-adjusted pricing (based on local purchasing power) 3. Hybrid (PPP + entertainment costs + exchange rates) This is exactly the approach #PricePush takes for mobile apps. The difference? Steam built it into their platform. Apple and Google haven't. If you're shipping subscriptions or in-app purchases on the App Store or Google Play, you're still getting exchange-rate-only defaults. Your $9.99 price auto-converts to roughly the same real cost everywhere, which means your app is functionally unaffordable in most of Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. PricePush calculates PPP prices for 190+ countries and pushes them to both stores in one click. Steam just proved the model works. Mobile developers deserve the same tools -> pricepush.app

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🚨 Community Bulletin: Open Opportunities Across the MA Startup Ecosystem 🚨 If you’re a founder, operator, builder, or expert looking to plug in right now, here are some high-signal opportunities worth your attention 👇 💸 MassVentures START Grant Program: MA startups can secure $100K–$500K in non-dilutive funding to move federally funded research from lab to market, plus commercialization support and business guidance. ⏰ Deadline: Feb 23 👉 https://lnkd.in/gbiuZyaK 🛍️ Women Entrepreneurship Bazaar at Babson College on March 7: Women-led businesses are invited to vend at the Babson Women Entrepreneurship Summit on International Women’s Day. 👉 Apply: https://lnkd.in/ge7qYKPi 🌱 Greentown Labs Mentor Pool: Industry experts, operators, and former founders can support early-stage climatetech startups with flexible, high-impact mentorship across GTM, fundraising, product, tech, and leadership. 👉 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eRPzACBV 💻 Demo Your Infrastructure Software to Real Buyers on Feb 24: Infrastructure software founders can demo in front of technical + product leaders, a room full of software engineers, and local VCs — with real feedback from real decision-makers. 👉 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gpMkZHMV 🚀 Techstars Startup Weekend Boston (May 1–3): A hands-on weekend going from idea to execution alongside founders, operators, and builders. 🎟️ Startup Boston community gets 20% off with code STARTUPBOS 👉 https://lnkd.in/gd4gKPNY 🩺 UMassM2D2 $200K Challenge – Women’s Health: Open to early-stage startups, academic teams, and founders tackling unmet clinical needs in women’s health, from diagnosis through treatment. ⏰ Deadline: Feb 15 👉 https://lnkd.in/dPZ6G6EC 🏢 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium Innovation Showcase on May 19: 10 early-stage startups will pitch enterprise-ready solutions at one of the country’s top CIO convenings. Built for founders solving real enterprise IT problems. ⏰ Deadline: March 31 👉 https://lnkd.in/gBQ6VggY ⚕️ MIT Hacking Medicine GrandHack 2026 (March 13–15): An in-person health innovation hackathon bringing together builders, clinicians, engineers, designers, and founders to tackle real healthcare challenges. ⏰ Deadline: Feb 15 👉 https://lnkd.in/geKjUZ2j Got something to amplify? Drop it here: https://lnkd.in/eSZRVc8Y

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🚀 Stop chasing investors blindly. Here's the 5-step system that gets startups funded: Define financial needs (12-18 months) Research aligned investors Build a killer pitch deck Systematize outreach Prep due diligence docs Most founders skip steps 1 & 5. Don't be like most founders.

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