The Hub. Founders with bright eyes and caffeine breath. Everyone chasing the next big thing

Somehow, I love it. Public talk, small talk, mind talk. It all charges me up 🙃

Catch some vibes from that meet-up in Paphos

#Founders #StartupLife #PublicTalking #Entrepreneur #TechStartups #Cyprus #WebSummit

DeepSeek is back on stage 👾

The Chinese dropped two reasoning models: V3.2 and V3.2‑Speciale. 685B parameters. The basic V3.2 catches up with GPT‑5, Sonnet 4.5 and Gemini 3 Pro on math, tool use, and code. Speciale grabs gold medals at the International Math Olympiad

The price is fantastic: $0.28/0.42 per 1M input/output tokens (GPT‑5.1 $1/10, Gemini 3 Pro at $2/12, Sonnet 4.5 $3/$15). Numbers laugh!

Frontier performance + open weights + predatory pricing. So what now?

• US AI platforms: You’ll have to sell product and ecosystem, not brand mystique
• Startups: you can slash AI feature costs overnight. Run DeepSeek experiments. Move to prod. Self‑host if you love sovereignty
• Investors: the money migrates to verticals and last mile distribution [by the way, read my article about it]

#AI #DeepSeek #OpenSource #LLM #GPT5 #Gemini #SelfHost #ML #Startup #AIInfra

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.


***

It’s simply ingenious! ❤️‍🔥
The original post got 20M views & 150k likes on X in just a few days

#DigitalTransformation #Copilot #Microsoft #AIenabled #KPI #EnterpriseGrade

A friend of mine, Natalia Kardash, runs a course for the expats, who need to pass exams on Cyprus politics & history for the citizenship

Natalia is an author, journalist, interviewer. She knows Cyprus inside out and explains things in a bright and friendly way

• Russian group starts 26 December
• English group starts 3 January

👉 Details

Forward it to your mates who might need it

#Cyprus #ExpatLife #Citizenship #PassportProgram #Exams #NataliaKardash #Immigration

We launched in 2023. Had to make an avatar for Placy chatbot. We, founders, always listen to the voice of community, you folks. You voted for a photo‑real portrait of a young woman. So, Placy got a human face in February 2024

Frankly, I wanted a non-realistic image. Look at Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT’s abstract avatars. You disappointed me. And I did a tiny act of rebellion. I made 2D version (that smiling face) the channel’s logo. You see it at the top of the screen. Yes, this creamy graphic didn't become the company’s symbol, but it found its spot here. No, I don’t regret it 😏

Just a founder’s story

[related post: Deciding Placy’s Avatar 3]

#Startup #AI #Avatar #Design #FounderLife #Branding #Placy #UX #AIDesign

GameDev luddites are canceling AI! 👾

Claire Obscure: Expedition 33 just had two Indie Game Awards taken away. Because they didn’t tick a box “we used AI.” Even though the AI bits were removed before release

Organizers: “You lied on entry, so you’re out.” Awards moved to Sorry We’re Closed (Best Debut) and Blue Prince (Game of the Year). Moral panic

Kojima called AI unavoidable. Sven Vincke got roasted on Twitter. Daniel Vávra warned: don’t overlook AI or your rivals will eat your lunch. Players’ community tried to cancel them all too

Well, I could expect such a conservatism from realtors or accountants. But in Game-freaking-Dev?!!

By the way, I’ve played Expedition 33, it’s fantastic indeed. And you know why it’s “33”? It was built by the compact studio of just 33 heroes! Comparing with hundreds of devs in the typical titles of this quality and scale. Bigger ones, like Call of Duty, run by 2-3k people

I thought 33 made this possible because of AI automation. But, you see, this team is even cooler. They built such an amazing product almost without AI. Now they have nothing to lose, so they will start using AI to its full extent, I guess 🤖🚀

Welcome to modern GameDev, the island of AI morality!

#AI #IndieGameAwards #Expedition33 #BestDebut #GameOfTheYear #GameAwards #Kojima #Luddites

While we’re on video games: shoutout to my previous startup Playsense together with Valorant (Riot’s tactical shooter) for their Clio Award win in creativity 🏆 Cheers to the teams!

I'm just curious if creative agencies should expect penalties from ad festivals for the use of AI, following the Expedition33 case (above)?

#Creative #AdLife #Playsense #Valorant #RiotGames #Clio #Expedition33 #TheGameAwards

Half your team is software. Half is breathing. Leadership changes fast. I spot 5 models emerging:

• Augmented leadership. AI as your assistant
• Algorithmic. Full-stack AI companies, humans as the thin strategic layer
• Transparent. Robots talk, log, and expose everything (including your mistakes)
• Adaptive. Flexibility beats experience
• Collective Intelligence. Hybrid teams where AI becomes a partner, not a tool

I bet on the hybrid teams. But! More AI capability → more autonomy → more productivity → more concerns about bots’ rights and boundaries (which is the biggest non-tech question today)

The next 3 years will be an intensive leadership bootcamp. About becoming more ethical, strategic, adaptive. Not more techie

We had a great talk about this with psychologist and coach Andrey Evdokimov. Watch on my 👉 Naturally Artificial YouTube channel!

#AILeadership #AIEthics #AIStrategy #FutureOfWork #CollectiveIntelligence #AdaptiveLeadership

Training and running frontier models are extremely power‑intensive. Compute + electricity = AI destiny of the country 🤖

America has the holy trinity: chips, hyperscale cloud, ecosystems. A religion of Nvidia, AWS, and venture capital

China has coal, hydro, solar, nuclear. And the uncomfortable advantage of saying yes to power plants at scale, fast, without asking Twitter

The next 3 years promise to be hot

[Related post: DeepSeek is back on stage👾]

#AIInfrastructure #Compute #Datacenters #EnergyIsTheNewOil #GeopoliticsOfAI #FrontierModels #ChipsAndWires #AIArmsRace #RobotsNeedElectricity

Communities were Homo Sapiens’ greatest hack

Harari: The Cognitive Revolution, which occurred 70,000 years ago, enabled our ancestors to create myths and ideas that united large groups around shared beliefs and values

I love the idea that a product should be driven by the community, not just founders.😇Placy is powered by 8k+ wonderful folks (subscribers of this blog, our LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.) Your feedback is the map. When one my post gets shared 20 times and another 2, it’s a blood pressure reading. You vote. I listen

Thanks for your views and likes this outgoing year. They’re soft currency, warm and immediate 😘

#Community #CognitiveRevolution #AI #Startup #Blog #Harari

Corp buzzwords evolved. Here’s what you’ll hear in 2026 😎

Marketer → Storyteller
Layoffs → Strategic talent rotation
GPU provider → Neocloud
Gambling → Prediction markets
Outsourcer → Forward deployed engineer
Private Equity → AI rollup
Series A → Pre-seed
ARR → Annualized Run Rate
Debt → Negative equity expansion
IT service → Full-stack startup
Automation → AI agents
Database → Vector store
Frontend dev → Design engineer
Marketing campaign → Viral growth hack
Shutdown → Community sunset event

What other corp euphemisms have you heard in 2025?

✈️ Share with colleagues who need to improve their biz slang 😉

#Innovation #Startups #AI #Entrepreneurship #VC #TechStartups #Community #TechTrends #FutureOfWork #Leadership #Technology

Placy🦄 AI Startup Insights turned into Naturally Artificial by Sergey Osipov

Two years ago I started this channel with a modest plan: gather 100-200 people to test Placy’s prototype. The MVP lived in Telegram, so I launched my blog here

By April 2024 we were >500 when the MVP was shipped. I discovered, wow, I’m an influencer! 😮

Thanks to your feedback and the team’s courage,😇Placy got its first clients and revenue in 2025. PMF found in Cyprus and Greece. Spain didn't give in right away, and the romantic phase continues in 2026. Also scaling to the UAE and UK

Eventually, Placy grew into a pretty young lady. And every startup is powered by AI these days. I’ve got fewer secrets. Now I talk more about last-mile-distribution and other founders' findings rather than our own product. And I love chatting with smart assholes who actually build

So, I announce the launch of Naturally Artificial! 🚀

Founder-to-founder talks in the age of AI. Mission-driven strategies, AI-first roll-ups, fundraising, and the usual insights around the industrial revolution

It’s dual media: Telegram to read, YouTube to watch. Cross-linked

Official language is English. But if guests prefer Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarusian (that I understand too), I’m ok to let them. We’ll add AI dubbing & English subs

My channel just got a new name (as you see above). Vibe unchanged. It’s still me typing this, not a bot, don’t worry 😉

Mantra: every modern business is a media business. Let’s see where this goes

#NaturallyArtificial #AI #Startups #Founders #PMF #Scale #Fundraising #Tech #StartupLife #Placy #Osipov