Photon held a funeral for mobile apps; plus, Kevin Mandia’s new ‘agent swarm’ security startup

Founded by two sisters, Hot Girl Hotline uses AI to give young women personalized dating and relationship advice, with an emphasis on safety and avoiding emotional dependency. Also, days after Vinod Khosla called Factory a struggling also-ran, Menlo has shown up with a check and a glowing blog post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Photon helps developers build AI agents that work over iMessage, SMS/RCS, email, and other messaging platforms. It's a bet that consumers will increasingly use agents instead of downloading apps. Also, Kevin Mandia, best known as the founder of Mandiant, has a new startup that is using agent swarms to test and protect enterprises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fervo Energy completed its first power plant in less than two years. The next phases promise to connect to the grid even quicker. Also, MyMonthlyCar is a platform that lets dealers rent out their idle used cars month to month (with an option to buy), and it's now one of the startups showing off at this year's TechCrunch Disrupt, running October 13 to 15 in San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

VC Chris Degnan and former board advisor to Factory AI has taken a job as chief revenue officer for Cognition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Atomic's agentic supply chain software is now being used by companies like DoorDash and HelloFresh. EliseAI raises $350M, doubles valuation in a year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The acquisition will see World Labs founder Fei-Fei Li join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist. Also, SiMa.AI, the edge computing startup, raised a $150 million Series C led by Fidelity and Amplify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The tech enables real-time awareness for what Quartermaster calls the “largest blind spot on Earth.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nexterity's robot can tighten or loosen four bolts at a time, and it fits in a Pelican case. Feather is betting on a customizable, $30,000 platform built for software developers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Modal Motors is working on small, light motors with no rare earth magnets that are suited for drones, fans, and robots. Also, PitPro says its automated system can change four tires in under 15 minutes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This academy for promising high school grads is somewhere between a trade-school, Y Combinator and Peter Thiel's Fellowship Program. Autonomy-1 will have a small, transformer-based AI model taking charge of a space probe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices