🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

24 April 2026 10:44

→ Build a fiat runway first
The best time to plan your cash-out strategy is before TGE. Set aside stablecoin reserves during the raise specifically for 6-12 months of operating costs. If you launch with zero fiat and 100% token treasury, you're guaranteed to face this problem at the worst possible moment.

The ugly math
That founder's $40K payroll cost him over $300K in market cap loss. The token never recovered its pre-sell price. Not because of the market. Not because of the product. Because of one badly executed sell from a team wallet on a Tuesday afternoon.

Every founder in crypto will face this moment. The question is whether you plan for it or let it plan your project's funeral.

Your community doesn't expect you to starve. They expect you to be smart about it.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

22 April 2026 15:10

🔴 We Go Live in 2 Hours. Don’t Miss This.

The next EasyMM Demo Day is about to start, and this session is packed with serious builders ready to face real investor-level questions ⚡️

⏰ Starting at 15:00 UTC

🎯 What’s coming on stage:

🔹 Sumex Labs — Crypto Super App
🔹 Predictefy — Prediction Market Terminal
🔹 Cecuro — AI Smart Contract Audits
🔹 Savitri Network— Federated Learning L1
🔹 Holder.House — Private Capital Infrastructure
🔹 Onchain Bridges — Cross-Chain NFT Infrastructure

Expect raw pitches, sharp feedback, and real insights you can’t get from polished decks or Twitter threads 💡

👉 Join the live stream here

🔔 Hit the bell icon now so you don’t miss the start

See you in the stream 🚀

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

20 April 2026 20:23

📬 Founders, this one is worth your 5 minutes

If you’re building in Web3 and want signal over noise, this digest hits differently.

The Techstars Web3 Startup Digest is a monthly briefing that filters what actually matters:
💡 funding trends
⚖️ regulation shifts
🚀 real products shipping
🏗 where infrastructure is going next

No hype. No token shilling. Just insights you can actually use.

What you’ll get in the latest edition:
🔹 Why stablecoins are becoming real financial rails
🔹 How TradFi is quietly integrating crypto infrastructure
🔹 What VCs are actually funding in 2026
🔹 Where regulation is tightening (and what founders ignore at their own risk)
🔹 Practical tools and resources founders are already using

👉 This is the kind of “boring” that builds real companies.

If your startup touches payments, tokenization, custody, or compliance, you’ll want this on your radar.

📖 Read and subscribe here

Stay sharp. Build what lasts.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

17 April 2026 15:12

YC just turned stablecoins into default startup infrastructure 💸

Remember back in February when YC quietly announced founders could opt to take their standard $500k check in USDC instead of a classic fiat bank wire?

Honestly, when they announced it, we didn't even share the news here - kinda brushed it off as just a PR nod to the Web3 crowd.😏

Turns out they were serious.

This week, prediction market startup Totalis actually received the entire $500k YC seed check purely in stablecoins.

And the mechanics are actually interesting. It wasn't just a raw transfer to a cold wallet so they could sit on crypto.

• The transfer settled natively on Solana (took less than a second, cost a fraction of a cent).
• It went straight into their Ramp account.
• They aren’t even cashing out to a traditional bank account to survive. They’re using that stablecoin balance directly to pay corporate credit cards and handle fiat expenses.

Garry Tan from YC tweeted about this, basically saying the next era of startup finance won't be built on ACH or wires.

… When you see it working like this, it's hard to argue.

If you've ever suffered through SWIFT delays (especially if you're building outside the US or paying global contractors) - you know exactly why this matters.
It completely bypasses the legacy banking gatekeepers. We're talking about stablecoins as functional, everyday operating rails for treasury and payroll.

Oh, and this USDC option is now open to all YC startups, by the way. Not just Web3 companies!

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

13 April 2026 15:56

🚀 New in InnMind Knowledge Base: Universal Post-Money SAFE Template (2026)

A founder-friendly SAFE built for pre-seed and seed fundraising, designed to help startups move faster in early rounds and stay aligned with investor-standard deal logic.

💡 Why startups use this document

• Speed up pre-seed and seed fundraising with a clean post-money SAFE structure

• Reduce mistakes in valuation cap, conversion logic, liquidity events, and MFN terms

• Work with an investor-friendly format familiar to angels, accelerators, and micro-VCs

• Use one strong base across AI, SaaS, fintech, devtools, marketplaces, and other VC-backed startups

• Cover AI-specific disclosure topics like models, datasets, APIs, and IP workflows when needed

• Save time before local legal review and enter investor conversations better prepared

⚡️ Early-stage rounds move on speed. The faster you send clean docs, the faster you move conversations toward signed commitments.

Instead of wasting days combining random templates from the internet, use a practical SAFE that helps you save legal costs, reduce negotiation friction, and close your round faster.

📥 Download it now and use it in your fundraising

🧡 Smart founders prepare fundraising before investors ask for docs. Get your SAFE ready today.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

10 April 2026 16:17

Market-Maker Insider #3: Collapse in the First 72 Hours 🚨

We’re back with Part 3 of our #MarketMakerInsider series 🔍

This time, we’re diving into one of the most painful founder mistakes in Web3: why strong tokens still crash right after listing 📉

The data is brutal:
▪️ 85% of tokens launched in 2025 ended below listing price
▪️ And only 1 in 10 that dropped in the first week ever came back.

So why does this happen, and what can founders do to avoid it? 👇

Our partner EasyMM breaks down where the early sell pressure really comes from and how to manage the first 72 hours the right way 🎯

Only 1 in 10 that dropped in the first week ever recovered.

Not because of bear markets, not because of bad products.

Because the launch itself was mismanaged. A study of 125 token launches by Arrakis Finance confirmed what we've been telling founders for years: it's not about timing the market. It's about how you handle the first 72 hours. The main issue? Sell pressure that nobody planned for!

Where does the sell pressure come from?

1. Airdrops gone wrong
You distribute tokens to "build community." But 64% of airdrop recipients sell immediately. And nearly half of tokens in some major airdrops went to Sybil farmers, people running hundreds of fake wallets just to collect and dump.
That's not community building. That's handing your supply to mercenaries

2. Everyone unlocks at once
Seed investors, influencers, advisors, airdrop holders, all getting their tokens on the same day. Supply floods in. Nobody is there to buy. Price drops. Community panics

3. Empty order books
There's no depth behind the price. One moderate sell order crashes things 15%. Buyers see the slippage and walk away

4. Price gaps across exchanges
Token goes live on three exchanges. Price is different on each. Bots exploit the gap. Your project's liquidity bleeds out while you're still celebrating the listing

So what actually works?

→ Pre-load the order books
Before trading even opens, your books need real depth. Not decorative orders that disappear at the first dump, actual liquidity that can absorb early selling without the price collapsing

→ Spread out the unlocks
Cliff unlocks are dangerous. When $189M in SUI tokens unlocked in a single month, the sell-off was immediate. Best practice: lock insider tokens for at least 12 months, then release gradually over 2-3 years. If your seed investors vest in 3 months, you've already lost

→ Stop giving tokens to farmers
The old "airdrop to everyone" approach is dead. LayerZero filtered hundreds of thousands of fake wallets. Linea disqualified 40% of all claimants as Sybil accounts. By now, 85% of serious projects run anti-Sybil checks before distributing anything.

What works instead:
🔹 Reward genuine users who interact with the product over months, not wallets that showed up once
🔹 Vest the airdrop itself, don't unlock 100% at TGE
🔹 Use on-chain behavior analysis to separate real users from bots
🔹 Require meaningful product usage, not just a single bridge transaction

→ Close the price gaps from minute one
If your token is listed on multiple exchanges, the price must be aligned everywhere from the start. Unmanaged gaps don't just look bad, they actively drain your liquidity into the pockets of arbitrage bots

→ Have a plan for the first sell wave
Not hope. A plan. Pre-positioned buy support. Tight spreads that signal stability. Strategic depth at key price levels. This is the difference between a 40% crash on day one and a chart that holds its floor

Your token's reputation gets written in the first 72 hours. Not in the whitepaper. Not in the roadmap, in the chart. The founders who prepare for sell pressure survive, the rest learn what an ST tag means on their own 🙏

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

08 April 2026 15:09

🚀 EasyMM Demo Day Is Back on April 22

Another high-signal Demo Day is coming, and we’re excited to continue this recurring series together with our partners at EasyMM and the wider Web3 ecosystem 🌍

📅 April 22, 2026
⏰ 17:00 UTC

This recurring Demo Day format keeps bringing together Web3 founders, VCs, agents, and ecosystem builders for what really matters:
live product showcases, honest feedback, and direct access to sharp industry minds 💡

🔥 Why join this session:

🔹 Discover fresh Web3 projects before everyone else
🔹 Hear tough investor-style questions in real time
🔹 Connect with founders, VCs, agents, and ecosystem partners
🔹 Stay close to recurring deal flow and market momentum

No fluff. No sugar-coating. Just real builders, sharp conversations, and the kind of insights that help founders move faster ⚡️

🎟 Save your seat and learn more here

See you on April 22 🚀

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

03 April 2026 16:27

⚡️ $300K Saved Feels Better Than $300K Raised

Every founder talks about fundraising. The smarter ones are equally obsessed with how much money they never need to spend in the first place💡

Our new founder playbook breaks down how Web3 teams unlock $100K–$300K+ in hidden savings across infrastructure, tooling, analytics, etc.

It’s about finding the invisible leverage points inside your startup stack that quietly extend runway, improve efficiency, & give your team more shots on goal before the next raise🚀

✨We unpack where experienced founders usually find the fastest savings:
• tooling & startup credits
• lean MVP + infra decisions
• flexible hiring models
• grants as non-dilutive execution fuel

For early-stage Web3 teams, these savings often translate into 3–9 extra months of runway without slowing product velocity.

A highly practical read for founders who want more control, not more burn 👇

🔗 Read the full article

🧠 The cheapest capital is the capital you never need to raise.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

02 April 2026 14:58

💸 The hard truth Web3 founders are hearing from VCs in 2026

A conversation we had this week with a GP from a tier-1 crypto VC inside the InnMind network confirmed what many founders are already feeling on investor calls:

🔥 Pure token deals are losing investor interest.

His point was brutally simple:

Today, most serious deals are structured as equity or equity + token warrants.

And the logic is hard to argue with:
✅ utility token IRR has been weak for too long
✅ many top portfolio winners never launched a token
✅ product traction beats financial engineering every time

Honestly, this fully matches what we’re seeing across the rounds we help structure at InnMind.

Too many decks still rely on buzzword-heavy narratives, “moats” built around staking APY, GTM plans centered on airdrops and quests, and 30+ slides of tokenomics complexity.

Meanwhile, what actually gets funded is far less exotic:
🚀 real users
📈 retention curves that survive after day 30
💵 early revenue in stablecoins or fiat
🎯 CAC that actually makes sense
🏗 founders who know how to build a company, not just a token model

The market has clearly shifted. VCs are spending less time drilling into token mechanics and far more time looking at distribution, retention, monetization, and founder execution.

The strongest founders today are no longer trying to impress investors with 40-page token designs.

They show something much stronger: users who come back, customers who pay, and a GTM engine that compounds.

That’s what confidence looks like in 2026 ⚡️

💬 Founders, what are investors challenging you on right now — token design, traction, revenue, or GTM?
Drop your real experience in the comments. Let’s compare notes 👇

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

27 March 2026 16:55

🚀 From Accelerator to Fundraising Sprint: Built for Real Results

Friday night… but real founders don’t pause momentum 😉

We’ve rebuilt the InnMind Accelerator into something sharper, faster, and way more practical:

👉 a Private 1-to-1 Fundraising Sprint for Web3, Crypto & AI founders who are serious about closing their round.

No cohorts. No waiting. No generic advice.
Just hands-on execution with people who’ve done it before.

💡 What actually happens inside:

• Rebuild your pitch so investors care from slide 1
• Fix your deck, data room & tokenomics logic
• Prepare you for tough VC questions before they happen
• Build a targeted investor pipeline (no spray & pray)
• Support outreach + warm intros where there’s real fit
• Iterate fast based on real investor feedback

This is not theory. This is done-with-you fundraising.

📊 Backed by real traction:
$100M+ raised, 1000+ investor meetings, 1000+ VCs in network

If you're already fundraising (or about to start), this is where you compress months into weeks ⚡️

👉 Apply now and see if you’re a fit

Have a great Friday — but don’t sleep on your round 🧡

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

23 March 2026 15:57

🚀 Save Up to $300K on Your Startup Stack

Last week, we upgraded the InnMind Perks Club with new deals and better offers for Web3 founders.

If you're building right now, this isn’t “nice to have.” It’s a real runway extension.

💸 Founders using these perks can save from $50K to $300K+ across infrastructure, tools, and growth stack.

Where the savings actually hit:
• Up to 90% off tools like Intercom & DocSend
• 30% off HubSpot for marketing and CRM
• Retool free for 1 year (save up to $60K)
• 50% off HelloSign for legal workflows
• 20% off Carta for cap table management
• 20% off Linkcal AI (lifetime) for smarter scheduling
• 25% off CryptoRank AI for SEO and visibility

⚡️ This is the stack most early-stage founders already pay for.

The difference? Now you don’t have to.

No hype. Just practical tools that help you save money, move faster, and stay focused.

👉 Explore all startup deals here

Build smarter. Spend less. Scale faster. 🚀

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

19 March 2026 16:48

Active AI Angel Investors & Operator-Angels (2026 updated & enriched)

While everyone is freaking out about bleeding markets and the global macro chaos, we put our heads down & did something practical. 🛠️

Raising an early-stage AI round in 2026 is too hard. Traditional VCs and "tourist" angels are frozen. If you are raising right now, those main people actively writing checks for early stage projects are "operator-angels" - tech founders and builders who actually understand what you're building.

So we did a massive cleanup of the InnMind AI Angel Investors Database to reflect the reality of the market today:

✅ Added 40+ net-new, highly active operator-angels (deploying $50k-$500k checks right now).
✅ Enriched the portfolios & focus areas of the most active existing angels.
✅ Cleaned out the noise and inaccessible celebrity billionaires who never reply to cold emails anyway.

It’s ~350 verified contacts built specifically for your cold outreach.

Stop chasing ghost funds. Go pitch the builders.

👇 Grab the updated 2026 DB here:
https://innmind.com/downloads/ai-angel-investors-database/

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

17 March 2026 08:59

🚀 What Crypto Users Really Want from Your Token Launch

FOLIO just dropped a new report based on 11,770 votes from 2,000+ users.

And the key takeaway is simple:

👉 Founders often build for what they think users want… not what users actually value.

Here’s where expectations break:

• Staking ≠ real utility → users prefer product access
• Complex incentives → users want simplicity
• Weekly updates → too slow, 24h feedback is expected
• Equal distribution → per-wallet caps win
• Speed → less important than clear rules

💡 If your tokenomics is based on assumptions, you risk missing real demand.

📖 Read the full report

📈 What is FOLIO?

FOLIO is a gamified research platform (50K+ users) that helps Web3 projects test ideas through prediction-based polls.

Instead of surveys, you get real behaviour signals — revealing the gap between perceived consensus and actual user preference.

InnMind startups can get a free trial to test engagement & growth loops here.

Turn community attention into real user behaviour 🚀

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

12 March 2026 09:03

Market-Maker Insider #1

Your token can dump 56% - not because of the market or a hack, but because of the very market maker you hired.

A new weekly rubric in InnMind telegram: raw, unfiltered insights from inside the market-making industry for founders who want to see the traps before they sign. Use #MarketMakerInsider for navigating.

🧵 Founders are getting quietly wrecked by their own market makers. Here's what's actually happening — and how to protect yourself.

A project recently watched helplessly as their token dumped 56% in days.
From $1.85 → $0.82.

The team didn't rug.
There was no hack.

Their market maker did it.

Here's how the loan-based MM model works — and why it's a trap:

The MM borrows a large chunk of your tokens at TGE.
They're supposed to "provide liquidity."

But they now hold YOUR tokens with zero downside risk.
They can sell whenever it's profitable for THEM.

In this case?

One of the largest LPs (DWF Labs) in crypto — visible enough that their ads dominate major events and their portfolio is on CoinMarketCap.

The founder did not even know that instead of liquidity he would be a slave to DWF Labs for 2 years.

Selling started shortly after.
Chart speaks for itself.

This isn't rare.
It's the default model.

And most founders sign it because they don't know there's another option.

There is.

Retainer-based MM means:
→ The MM never holds your tokens
→ The job is to serve YOUR liquidity needs — not the MM’s own P&L

No loans.
No hidden dump incentive.
No surprises on the chart.

If your MM borrowed your tokens, they are not on your side.

Before you sign anything, ask your MM one question:

“Are you taking a loan of our tokens?”

If yes — or if they dodge the answer — walk away.

Your community deserves better than that.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

09 March 2026 13:49

💰 How Web3 Founders Stack Up to $1M in Non-Dilutive Funding

In the current market, runway is everything.
But raising equity at a lower valuation isn’t the only option.

Many Web3, AI, and fintech startups extend their runway through non-dilutive funding (grants) — and some teams stack $1M+ over time without giving up equity 🤩

So what separates founders who actually win grants from those who keep getting rejected?

They don’t treat grants like a lottery. They treat them like a pipeline.

In our new article, we break down the playbook used by successful teams:

🔹 Why most grant applications fail
🔹 How to turn your roadmap into fundable milestones
🔹 How to build a repeatable grant pipeline (like a sales funnel)
🔹 What reviewers actually look for in applications
🔹 A realistic 90-day plan to start stacking non-dilutive funding

We also explain how XFounders helps Web3 startups improve their grant success by working closely with ecosystem operators and mentors — including leaders from the Starknet Foundation.

📖 Read the full article

If you're a product-stage Seed or Series A startup ready to ship measurable milestones in the next 8–12 weeks, you can also apply to the next XFounders cohort.

👉 Apply here (takes ~5 minutes)

Build momentum. Stack wins. Keep shipping. 🚀

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

24 April 2026 10:44

📉 Market-Maker Insider #4: How One Sell Can Kill Your Token Momentum

We’re continuing our #MarketMakerInsider series — and today’s story hits close to home for many founders.

This one is about token selling mistakes that quietly destroy trust, momentum, and sometimes entire projects.

Read carefully 👇

A founder I know needed $40K for payroll last year.

His token was trading around $0.85 with decent volume. Nothing spectacular, but alive. Community was growing. Things were moving forward.

He didn't have fiat reserves. So he did what every founder in crypto eventually does — he sold tokens. Not a lot. About 50K tokens from the team wallet.

Here's what happened next:
The order book on his main exchange was thin. His sell hit the market in one block. Price dropped from $0.85 to $0.71 in under an hour.
A community member noticed. Screenshotted the wallet. Posted it on Twitter: "Team is dumping. Rug incoming." 📉

Within 24 hours:
— Three Telegram moderators quit
— The main holder group started panic-selling
— Two influencers who had been supporting the project publicly distanced themselves
— Price hit $0.54

The founder wasn't scamming anyone. He was paying his team. But nobody knew that. And even if they did, it doesn't matter. The chart doesn't care about your intentions. It only shows what happened.

This is more common than anyone admits.

Most projects don't have two years of runway sitting in a bank account. At some point, almost every founder has to convert tokens into money to keep operating. Salaries, development costs, exchange fees, marketing, it all costs real money.

The problem isn't that they sell. The problem is how they sell.

⛔️ Here's what usually goes wrong:

1️⃣ Selling into thin books
The founder dumps on their own exchange, where there's no depth. One sell order eats through five levels of the order book. Everyone watching sees a red candle that looks like a cliff

2️⃣ Selling from a known wallet
On-chain analytics in 2025 is not a hobby anymore; it's an industry. Lookonchain, Arkham, Nansen, are tools that flag team wallet movements within minutes. If your sell comes from a wallet the community already watches, you won't get to explain before the panic starts

3️⃣ Selling at the worst possible time
The token just recovered after a dip. Community is finally feeling optimistic. And then a team wallet sells into the rally. Price stalls. Momentum dies. Buyers who were coming back walk away again

4️⃣ No communication
The community sees a large sale. Radio silence from the team. No explanation. No context. The void gets filled with the worst possible assumption: "They're exiting"

✅ How smart founders actually cash out:

→ OTC, not open market
If you need to sell a meaningful amount, do it off-exchange. OTC desks exist specifically for this; they match your sell with a private buyer. No market impact. No red candle. No public panic

→ Algorithmic selling
If OTC isn't available, use a TWAP strategy: Time-Weighted Average Price. Spread the sale across hours or days in small orders. The chart barely notices. This is what institutional players do. There's no reason founders shouldn't do the same

→ Cash-out through market making
Some market makers offer revenue-generating strategies that let projects raise funds gradually by selling into active volume, without putting negative pressure on the price. The tokens get distributed across natural trading activity instead of showing up as one big red wall

→ Announce it
This one is simple, but almost nobody does it. If you're going to sell tokens for operational expenses, tell your community in advance. "We will be converting X tokens over the next 30 days for development costs." Transparency kills rumors before they start. The projects that do this actually gain trust, because the community sees an honest team, not a team that sells in silence

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

21 April 2026 16:38

🚀 Web3 Grants Database 2026 — April Update

Nowadays reality check 👇
Most Web3 grant lists you see right now are already outdated.

That’s exactly why we rebuilt and updated our grants database for April 2026.

📊 Web3 Grants Database 2026 (April Update)

Now includes 40 ACTIVE opportunities with verified application paths

This is what makes it different from everything we shared before 👇

• Not a static list → every entry checked for April activity
• Not just “top grants” → includes real apply routes
• Not generic summaries → built for fast decision-making
• Not only public goods → covers real startup use cases
• Not outdated ecosystem pages → cleaned, structured, usable

💡 This is a working tool for founders who want to move fast, not read blogs.

Inside, you get clarity on:
funding type, real ticket signals, startup fit, eligibility, and how to actually apply

Covers Ethereum, Solana, Starknet, TON, Arbitrum, Polygon and more 🌐

⚡️ €19 or included in InnMind Membership

Speed matters now. The earlier you apply, the higher your chances.

📎 Access here.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

20 April 2026 11:22

A disappeared CTO used to mean game over for all of us, non-tech founders.

It’s a real story of a founder from InnMind: he spent 9 months building a dApp with a remote CTO (self-funded from his own pocket). But a few months before TGE, the CTO disappeared and blocked him in all chats.
No code handover. No proper access. No talk.

That should have killed the project just a year ago.

But in 2026, the founder instead went full vibe-coding mode, learned Lovable, rebuilt the MVP from scratch in ~2 months, launched it to the community, and now manages development himself with a couple of junior devs helping on frontend/backend.

That’s why I still think tools like Lovable matter. Here’s your link with 10 extra free credits.

Are you sceptical about vibe-coding? Your right. But tools like this can be life-saving for an early-stage project with limited resources.

PS: These 10 free credits won’t build your whole startup. But they might be enough to get your hands dirty and stop being fully dependent on one technical person.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

15 April 2026 17:46

💡 Fresh Perk Drop: 10 Extra Lovable Credits for Faster MVP Launch

🚀 We keep bringing fresh updates and new opportunities to our community, and this one is a seriously practical win.

💡 New perk unlocked: Lovable
Get 10 extra credits and build your MVP faster with AI.

If you’re validating a startup idea, building prototype, or need a fast landing page without waiting for a full dev cycle, Lovable helps you move from concept to working product in record time ⚡️

With these extra credits, you get more room to:
🛠 Prototype product flows
🌐 Build landing pages
📊 Create internal tools
🚀 Push your MVP closer to launch without upfront cost

This is one of those perks that can save time, budget, and engineering bottlenecks when speed matters most.

🎯 Especially useful if you need something real to show investors, users, or your team fast.

👉 Access the Lovable perk here

Build faster. Validate smarter. Ship sooner 🔥

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

12 April 2026 14:59

A reminder: today is the last day to confirm participation in the campaign & boost your community traction for fundraising (investors DD), attract early adopters or create a real feedback loop & awareness campaign before your TGE.

It’s the best cost VS value balance for your GTM & marketing nowadays.

Contact campaign organiser @LordHimaa to align on details & lock in one of the final slots. 🤜

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

09 April 2026 16:18

🌍 Handpicked 2026 Events for Web3 Founders, Builders & Investors

We’ve handpicked a fresh list of high-impact global events that can help Web3 founders, builders, and investors unlock new partnerships, fundraising opportunities, market insights, and strategic connections in 2026 🌍🚀

👉 Explore the full InnMind events calendar here

Make it a habit to check the calendar regularly to discover the right conferences for your niche, connect with ecosystem leaders, and create real growth opportunities for your startup 🤝

Digital Assets Forum Abu Dhabi (DAFME 1)
📅 13 May 2026

A highly curated institutional conference focused on digital asset adoption, tokenization, regulation, and market infrastructure in the Middle East. Expect senior decision-makers from banks, sovereign funds, regulators, custodians, and DeFi leaders discussing practical strategies for capital deployment and strategic partnerships.

NFC Summit 2026
📅 4–6 June 2026

The world’s largest Web3 pop-culture festival returns to Lisbon with immersive art, AI innovation, gaming startup competitions, and Web3 workshops. With eight interconnected experiences under one roof, it blends NFTs, digital art, stablecoins, autonomous AI agents, and community culture into a powerful networking environment 🎨🧠

Global Games Show Riyadh 2026
📅 29–30 June 2026

A must-attend gathering for gaming founders, developers, publishers, and investors exploring the future of play. The agenda covers esports, game tech, monetization, cloud gaming, and investor-developer collaboration with strong startup exposure opportunities 🎮

Global Blockchain Show 2026
📅 29–30 June 2026

One of the region’s biggest Web3 and blockchain events, bringing together 10,000+ attendees, global speakers, and ecosystem builders. Key topics include blockchain scalability, AI integration, decentralized governance, and sustainable infrastructure growth across industries 🔗

Global AI Show 2026 – Riyadh Edition
📅 29–30 June 2026

A two-day AI-focused event covering machine learning, NLP, predictive analytics, enterprise AI strategy, and real-world implementation. Designed for collaboration and business impact, it offers valuable networking with founders, investors, and corporate innovators 🤖

Wiki Finance Expo Hong Kong 2026
📅 23–24 July 2026

Asia’s largest fintech and Web3 event gathers 12,000+ professionals across digital assets, DeFi, AI in finance, payments, and ESG. It’s a strong opportunity to connect with fintech innovators, regulators, and cross-border finance leaders 💹

DeAI Summit 2026
📅 28–30 October 2026

A global leadership forum exploring the future of AI, decentralized AI infrastructure, governance, safety, and investment opportunities. Founders and investors will gain direct access to frontier AI labs, policy leaders, enterprise partners, and VC networks shaping the next wave of compliant AI systems 🧠🌐

Save the calendar, shortlist the events that match your goals, and turn every conference into real business momentum for your startup 🚀

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

06 April 2026 14:54

How to move your fundraising needle in a WEAK market? 🤫

Before a VC takes your call, they check your community heartbeat. If your X or Telegram looks dead or botted, they assume your product is dead. They pass.

Right now, community activity isn’t just marketing. It is proof of life for your web3 project.

That is exactly why we’re supporting the AlphaMind Community Proof Sprint.

AlphaMind.co is InnMind’s partner: probably the last remaining non-refundable, zero-barrier Web3 launchpad built around real committed capital, measurable demand, and transparent ROI logic, not fake volume.

Join the campaign to get:
• 14 days of hyper-targeted, verified organic activity.
• ~36k launchpad retail community + over 100,000 total participants audience outreach
• 60+ vetted ambassadors & 10-15 micro KOLs.
• 200-400 pieces of real UGC about your product across X, Telegram, Reddit, Quora, CMC and YouTube.
• Full narrative coordination and manual moderation (no bot spam).

The cost: $700 total incl community rewards (which is less than the cost of a single average KOL post).

🏆 The result: You get a wall of visible momentum. When investors or partners look you up, they see active product education and real believers. You get content you can reuse for the next 100 days.

If you need your market presence to match your ambition, DM campaign organiser @LordHimaa to align on details & lock in one of the final slots.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

03 April 2026 10:36

This market does not care how beautiful your deck is.

It cares whether someone is paying for your product.

Friday reminder: focus on MRR.

If users pay, everything gets easier: fundraising, valuation, confidence, survival.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

31 March 2026 13:42

🔥 New Founder Playbook: Cut Burn, Extend Runway, Move Faster

Every extra month of runway in 2026 gives Web3 founders more than “time” — it gives strategic optionality. The teams that survive tough cycles are rarely the ones who raised the most. They’re the ones who learned how to stop silent budget leaks before they slow growth. 🚀

Our new blog article breaks down a practical founder playbook to save $100K–$300K+ without hurting execution speed. Inside, we unpack how experienced Web3 teams rethink infra, growth efficiency, retention economics, hiring structure, grants, and startup deal stacks to turn burn rate into a competitive advantage.

✨ Why this one is worth your click:
• practical 2026 founder-first frameworks
• real cost-saving levers used by Web3 teams
• ways to buy extra runway without dilution
• smarter systems for scaling lean in volatile markets

If you’re building in DeFi, infra, SaaS, AI x crypto, or any on-chain product, this is one of those save-now, thank-yourself-later reads. 👇

🔗 Read the full article

💡 Small savings compound. Smart operating systems compound faster.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

25 March 2026 14:13

🚀 Meet the People ACTUALLY Writing AI Checks in 2026

While many founders are still chasing big VC logos… the real early-stage capital is coming from operators. Builders. Founders. Engineers. The ones who get it.

Here’s a small preview from our updated AI Angel Investors Database (2026) 👇

• Bob van Luijt (Weaviate)
AI infra operator backing Cartesia, LlamaIndex, Outspeed

• Ben Sigelman (OpenTelemetry)
Deep infra expert investing in Laminar, MetalBear

• Chris Adelsbach (Outrun Ventures)
Active across Capsa AI, Nuon AI, Emblematic

• William Tunstall-Pedoe (Unlikely AI)
Early checks into LGN, Ienyks

• Jaan Tallinn (Skype co-founder)
Backing DeepMind, Anthropic, AI safety bets

These are not “Twitter angels” or passive LPs. They are writing $50k–$500k checks into real AI startups right now.

We expanded the database, added 40+ new operator-angels, and doubled down on signal over noise. No dead leads. Just reachable investors.

💡 And most importantly — the list is built for outreach:
• LinkedIn profiles (DM-ready where available)
• X/Twitter handles + direct profile links
• Portfolio context for smarter personalisation

👇 Get full access to the database

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

20 March 2026 09:52

Market-Maker Insider #2

An ST tag is often the last warning before your token gets delisted from the exchange.

Not because the exchange is unfair or scammy, but because your market already looks unhealthy.

On MEXC, Bybit or Bitget, ST (Special Treatment) usually means the exchange is seeing 🚩red flags:
bad liquidity, fake activity, weak holder distribution, dead books, toxic volatility.

Once that label is on your token, the problem is no longer reputational only.

• Visibility drops.
• Buyers lose confidence.
• Delisting stops being a remote risk.

This is where many founders get reality wrong: they think listing is the milestone. It isn’t.

Listing is easy. Staying out of ST is the real job.

What gets tokens there?

— supply concentrated in a few wallets
— wash volume that evaporates
— thin books and painful spreads
— violent dumps or dead trading
— no real activity after the hype cycle ends

Keep showing these signals, and the exchange starts treating the asset as unsafe.

That’s the path:
warning signs → ST tag → delisting risk.

Fake pumps do not solve it - they usually make it only worse.

Tokens recover when the underlying market metrics recover: real holder base, real trading activity, proper depth, tighter spreads, healthier volatility.

The founders who understand this early stay green.
The rest usually start learning when the countdown has already begun.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

18 March 2026 07:57

🚀 AI Tools Are Everywhere. Useful Ones Are Rare

In 2026, every founder’s feed looks the same:
new AI tools dropping daily, bold promises, shiny demos… and then silence.

The real problem is no longer access. It’s selection.

We just published a no-BS guide on what AI tools are actually worth using for startups 👇

Here’s the reality most founders are starting to realize:

💡 You don’t need more tools
💡 You need a stack that saves time every single week

What actually moves the needle:

• tools that organize your team’s knowledge and workflows
• tools that turn calls into insights instead of forgotten notes
• tools that automate repetitive operations
• tools that speed up content, SMM, and distribution
• tools that show how users behave and where you lose them

That’s it. No hype stack. No 20 subscriptions.

⚡️ The best AI setup is not the most advanced one
⚡️ It’s the one your team actually uses every day

We broke it all down in a practical, founder-first way
→ what matters, what doesn’t, and where most teams waste time

👉 Read the full guide

Build smarter. Not louder.

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

13 March 2026 11:58

💡 Web3 Founders: A Practical Path to Non-Dilutive Funding

Many founders still treat grants like random luck. But the teams that consistently win funding treat them like a pipeline — structured, repeatable, and tied to real milestones.

We recently published a practical guide explaining how Web3 startups stack up to $1M+ in non-dilutive funding over time, and how programs like XFounders help founders improve their success rate by working directly with ecosystem operators and mentors.

📖 Read the full article

If you're a product-stage Web3, AI, or fintech startup, you can also apply to the XFounders accelerator.

Eligibility criteria:
• $300K+ raised externally or $10K+ monthly revenue
• Complementary founder skillsets within the team
• Interest in integrating with ecosystems such as Starknet Foundation

📝 Apply here (takes ~5 minutes)

Build real traction. Stack wins. Let momentum compound. 🚀

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

11 March 2026 16:22

⚠️ Startup founders: how many tools are you actually using right now?

Be honest. 5? 10? 20+? 👀

Many founders believe that adding more tools = more productivity. In reality, it often becomes the opposite.

Switching between 10+ apps drains your focus, burns cash, creates messy integrations, and increases security risks.

So how do you fix the “tool overload” trap? - 🛠 5 simple rules:

1️⃣ Audit monthly — cancel tools that don’t have a clear owner.
2️⃣ Consolidate — aim for max 3 core tools per function.
3️⃣ Track ROI for 90 days — if it doesn’t move a key metric, drop it.
4️⃣ Automate first — before buying another SaaS.
5️⃣ Buy tools only when milestones demand it.

Used correctly, tools can save huge amounts of time — especially with AI now automating marketing, analytics, and customer interactions.

If you’re building your startup’s marketing stack, this guide might help.

But now we’re curious:
💬 Founders: what’s ONE tool your startup absolutely can’t live without?

Drop it in the comments — let's build a community stack 👇

🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

06 March 2026 16:27

⚠️ War, Oil, and Crypto: What the US–Iran Conflict Means for Web3 Founders

When geopolitics escalates, markets react instantly. Oil jumps. Gold rallies. Crypto struggles.

The recent US–Iran escalation is more than a headline — it’s a macro shock that could influence capital flows and Web3 investment dynamics in 2026.

Here’s what founders should keep in mind:

1️⃣ Liquidity may tighten

Rising oil and gas prices push inflation higher.
Higher inflation means central banks are less likely to cut rates.

Less liquidity → lower risk appetite from investors.

And Web3 startups sit at the highest end of the risk spectrum.

2️⃣ Crypto becomes more volatile

During global uncertainty, capital tends to rotate into safer assets like gold or government bonds.

Crypto usually reacts with higher volatility, because risk exposure is the first thing investors reduce.

3️⃣ Token sales face tougher scrutiny

In uncertain markets, hype stops working.

Investors start asking harder questions about real demand, actual users and metrics.

Follower counts alone won’t convince anyone.

4️⃣ What founders should focus on

Instead of trying to predict geopolitics, focus on resilience:
• build real product usage
• maintain runway
• design sustainable tokenomics
• grow a high-signal community

💭 Final thought

Macro shocks always filter the market.
Projects with real traction, strong tokenomics, and active communities will still attract capital.

For founders, the priority remains the same: build something real 🚀