Bullish has become the first company to use stablecoins in an initial public offering, raising $1.15 billion through stablecoins such as Circle's USDC and Societe Generale-FORGE's EUR CoinVertible. Jefferies coordinated the process, while Coinbase is holding the stablecoins in custody.

Empathy is more than a soft skill leaders ought to have; it is a strategic asset that can help you connect authentically and build trust within your teams, writes LaRae Quy, who recommends creating an "empathy protocol" to define empathy, encourage active listening and establish healthy boundaries. "Empathy requires us to gain the perspective of a person who may be quite different from us. It means we become the learner as we listen," Quy writes.

AI products require a different development lifecycle because they are inherently non-deterministic and must balance agency and control, write Aishwarya Naresh Reganti, the founder of LevelUp Labs and Kiriti Badam, a technical staffer at OpenAI, who have developed the Continuous Calibration/Continuous Development framework to address these challenges. The framework involves a continuous loop of development and calibration, gradually increasing the system's agency as it proves reliability.

Founders can mitigate the risk of their startup failing by actively identifying and addressing potential risks by envisioning possible failure scenarios and confronting them head-on to create an environment where the fear of failure is manageable, says Chris Fuller, the founder of Spacewalk AI. "It can be terrifying, but at some point you acclimatize to that. And that allows you a wonderful freedom to think clearly about the problem and dismiss mental biases and all those sorts of things," Fuller says.

On The Ultimate Entrepreneur podcast, Jay Abraham, CEO of The Abraham Group, advises that expansion is possible by optimizing current operations, assets and customer relationships, rather than pursuing riskier tactics like new product launches or aggressive hiring. Abraham notes that even small improvements in these areas can lead to substantial results, and he advocates for consultative selling and viewing business assets strategically to maximize returns without added risk.

Venture capital funding for cryptocurrency startups declined 55% in the second quarter, dropping to a multi-year low. However, the seed and early-stage rounds saw new highs in terms of median deal sizes and valuations.

Via, a transit technology startup, has filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, signaling growing confidence among tech companies in public markets. Via, which offers public transportation software, has narrowed its losses and reported 34% year-over-year revenue growth as of the second quarter.