She had no CS degree. She used AI to teach herself to build.
Anastasiia Shumilo had no computer science background when she decided to build software. She taught herself Flutter and Xcode using AI, founded Shumi Technologies, and is now developing Draw Flow — an AI-powered construction technology platform that automates drawing analysis, quantity takeoffs, and cost estimation for construction professionals.
This week
The most important act of a founder this decade will not be building. It will be deciding what not to build. Restraint is the unwritten chapter of every great company — and the next four years will reward it more than any cycle in memory.
The feed
OpenAI Safety Turmoil: Firings, Dissolution, & AI Ethics Lessons for AI Startups
OpenAI's internal conflicts, marked by safety resignations and team dissolution, expose the critical tension between rapid AI innovation and responsible development, offering vital lessons for AI founders.
Chinese AI Startup Manus Closes $500M Round, Eyes Hong Kong IPO *China's AI Ambitions*
Manus, a Beijing-based AI firm, secured $500M in Series B funding led by Tencent, signaling investor confidence and a strategic Hong Kong IPO for global tech dominance.
AI Agent Startup Nous Research Hits $1.5B Valuation Launches Business Tools
Nous Research secures $1.5B valuation and launches AI agents for business, signaling a strategic shift towards vertical AI applications and demonstrating investor confidence in specialized enterprise solutions.
DeepSeek, Moonshot AI Lead $50B+ AI Unicorn IPO Rush
DeepSeek AI and Moonshot AI are leading AI IPOs, targeting over $50 billion in combined valuations to secure immense capital and provide liquidity.
Anthropic Launches AI Startup Program: Free Claude, $500K Credits Challenging OpenAI & Google
Anthropic is offering early-stage AI startups free Claude Team access and up to $500,000 in model credits, aiming to deepen its ecosystem presence and compete directly with OpenAI and Google for developer loyalty.
Founders desk
Plate 01Anastasiia Shumilo
Anastasiia Shumilo is a Ukrainian-born technology founder who started over in Canada and built her career in technology from the ground up. She founded Shumi Technologies, an international B2B softwar
Plate 02Cover · Issue 47Tony Loeb
The man who decided hospitality needed just ten minutes — co-founder of 10minutes.news, the quiet media engine now read by 220,000 hoteliers across Europe and North America.
Plate 03Kateryna Eisen
Founded Momploy to solve a problem she lived on both sides — as a small business owner who struggled to hire part-time, and as a mother who needed flexible work. Now building Toronto GTA's local trust layer for skilled parents and the businesses that need them.
Plate 04Dylan Field
Dropped out of UPenn on a Thiel Fellowship, spent six years building a design tool that ran in the browser, said no to Adobe's $20B all-cash offer when the regulators killed it, and IPO'd anyway.
By desk
Read with the people who build the next decade.
Wednesdays at 7am Pacific. One letter, four minutes, and the five stories that actually mattered — chosen by the desk, not by an algorithm.
- ✓ The week's five most important reads, briefly
- ✓ One short interview, often unpublished elsewhere
- ✓ A memo from the editor — three minutes, one idea
- ✓ No ads, no roundups, no growth tactics