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Lessons from a Startup Life

Doug Levin
Tens of paid subscribers

AI and enterprise adoption, governance and trust, founder and board perspectives, and the evolving dynamics of VC, PE, blockchain, and crypto—offered through a free-plus-subscription model with select essays free and deeper, real-time analysis for sub's.

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Substack
PricingFreemiumPublishesDaily
Issues671Founded5 years agoLast Issue3 days ago
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Latest Issues

China Is Winning the AI Model War—and Open Source Is Why

There’s been a seismic shift in global AI power, and it happened quietly.

For years, American dominance seemed unassailable by the likes of OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini. All closed. All proprietary. All locked behind e...

3 days ago
1

AI Agent Decisioning — Very Different From Human Decisioning

Today, August 26th, 2026, we lost two cultural giants: Tim Curry and Dolly Parton, both at 80. Curry’s fearless theatricality -- from The Rocky Horror Picture Show onward -- expanded the boundaries of identity and performance, brilliant in...

4 days ago
1

Spoiler Alert: Sandboxes Do Not Guarantee Privacy

Desktop AI chatbots tout their sandboxed architecture like it’s a privacy shield. It’s not—or at least, not the way you think.

A sandbox constrains where code executes and what it can access. It does nothing to stop the provider from colle...

8 days ago
2
2

Who Pays for AI? The Emerging Politics of Data Center Costs

New York’s one-year data center moratorium exemplifies an emerging policy reframing: not whether to build AI infrastructure, but who pays for it. Executive Order 62 pauses permits for data center and power plant projects exceeding 50 megawa...

9 days ago
4

Why AI Giants Are Buying Services Firms

Anthropic’s $1.5 billion Ode venture just made its first acquisition: Fractional AI, a San Francisco consulting firm that moves AI from pilot projects into production. The move signals something fundamental about the future of AI that simpl...

10 days ago
5
2

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  • Doug Levin

    Strategic, candid startup insights from Doug Levin—HBS Fellow, 4x CEO, Black Duck founder. Cutting through AI hype for founders, operators, investors & directors who want to know what actually matters.

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