She saw the same gap from two sides. Then she built the bridge.
Katerina co-runs a small business and became a mother — two experiences that revealed the same broken system from opposite ends. Small businesses can't find reliable part-time workers. Skilled parents can't find flexible work. Momploy is her answer: a Toronto GTA platform building the local trust layer both sides need.
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
Bain Capital's $1.6B Fund: 'Work, Not Software' Thesis
Bain Capital Ventures' new $1.6 billion fund champions a 'work, not software' thesis, signaling a major shift in venture capital away from pure SaaS and offering crucial lessons for founders on future funding strategies.
Crusoe Raises $3.9B for 'AI Factories,' Valuation Hits $30.9B
Crusoe secures $3.9 billion at a $30.9 billion valuation to scale 'AI factories,' integrating compute and energy to reshape AI infrastructure and access for startups.
Temporal Secures $550M, Valuation Soars to $12.55B Amid Agentic AI Boom
Temporal's $550M Series F funding, boosting its valuation to $12.55B, validates the critical need for durable infrastructure to power reliable agentic AI systems.
AI Agents as Teammates: Reshaping Startup Team Building for 2026
Industry leaders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 confirm AI agents are now core teammates, reshaping startup team building, efficiency, and competitive advantage.
Fortell Raises $163M to Disrupt Hearing Aid Monopoly with AI
Fortell secures $163 million to challenge the traditional hearing aid monopoly, deploying AI-driven personalization and a direct-to-consumer model to offer accessible, affordable solutions.
Founders desk
Plate 01Kateryna 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 02Anastasiia 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 03Cover · 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 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