The Hatch Agency

06/03/2026

Ask us our favorite day of the month. The answer is always Waffle Wednesday 🧇✨

06/02/2026

“Real physical systems don't fail cleanly… What's needed is a fundamentally different kind of model: A model that understands the world not through pixels, but through physics.”

In a new Forbes byline, Archetype AI’s Co-founder and COO Brandon Barbello makes the argument for why the current conversation around world models needs to factor in runtime modeling – in which AI inference runs directly on real-world, real-time sensor feeds. He posits that runtime world models are the next frontier for Physical AI.

Archetype is generating a shift in how we think about AI and the physical world, leading the conversation away from standard generative AI and focusing on how machines can understand real-time physical dynamics. Brandon believes that the answer lies in pairing a universal foundation physics model with localized machine data to solve the sim-to-real gap and truly unlock the power of physical intelligence.

Read the full article here:

Simulation world models are making rapid progress, but physical runtime world models remain an open frontier.

05/29/2026

District Marketplaces just announced a strategic partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk.

The partnership will connect enterprise brands and larger commerce businesses with the infrastructure that leverages commerce-AI agents to rapidly build custom live shopping platforms they own outright, complete with multi-casting, buy-now listings, real-time and multi-day auctions, flash sales, and other next-generation commerce formats.

Read more about how Vaynerchuk and District will help brands build, grow, and own their businesses in this next era of commerce:

Today, we are announcing a strategic partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk. When we first met Gary, we bonded over a shared conviction for community commerce and live selling. He immediately understood …

05/29/2026

May momentum! From launches to stages to the boxing ring, our clients made a splash this month. Check out the highlights:

🚀 District Marketplaces officially launched in GA and announced $14.7M in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Kindred Ventures, with participation from Greylock Partners and others.

🎙️ICONIQ GP Tengbo Li joined Articulate’s Edwin Scholte, exploring the company’s journey from bootstrapped to serving all of the Fortune 100, and what it means to play the long game.

🎤 FieldAI Founder and CEO Dr. Ali Agha joined the DealMakers podcast to discuss what it takes to build AI for the physical world.

⚡Benchmark GP Ev Randle took the Web Summit stage alongside Gumloop CEO Max Brodeur-Urbas to discuss the importance of human relationships and trust in the AI era, and why entrepreneurs should try to prove themselves wrong.

🥊 Pathway’s one-of-a-kind AI boxing match, featuring four prominent AI researchers from Pathway, Liquid AI, and Sakana AI, was featured in The Neuron

💰Benchmark’s Ev Randle and ICONIQ’s Tengbo Li discussed fund differentiation, IPO expectations, and why now is the best time in the past 25 years to be a founder.

🎮 Discord launched Nitro Rewards and partnered with top gaming companies like Xbox, Logitech and SteelSeries.

💸 Articulate was covered in Axios - Articulate has tripled its ARR to $300 million since its only funding round in 2021, with all Fortune 100 companies using its AI-powered corporate training tools.

05/22/2026

“The debate turned 'Post-Transformer' from a vibe into a testable claim. A challenger has to show a better curve: same performance for less cost, better long-context learning, stronger reasoning without long word-by-word traces, or safer adaptation from new experience.”

This week in The Neuron-AI News, Grant Harvey featured the recent Post-Transformer Boxing Match put on by Pathway and co-hosted by Zuzanna Stamirowska. Grant gives a minute-by-minute rundown of the event, highlighting each speaker and their key points (or punches). 🥊

Read the full article on The Neuron here: https://bit.ly/4ut0kJO

And watch the full debate here: http://bit.ly/4v2Vumf

Watch the inventors of the Transformer and the Post-Transformer Era debate head-to-head in a boxing ring! Brought to you by Pathway.This is the complete show...

05/19/2026

ICYMI – Benchmark, ICONIQ and Articulate were on stage at Web Summit Vancouver last week 🇨🇦

The event was packed with industry insights 💭
Benchmark’s Everett "Ev" Randle Randle and Gumloop Co-Founder & CEO Max Brodeur-Urbas, highlighted the power of being model agnostic, the importance of human relationships and trust in the AI era, and why entrepreneurs should try to prove themselves wrong.

VC’s took the stage – including Benchmark’s Everett "Ev" Randle and ICONIQ’s Tengbo Li – to discuss fund differentiation, IPO expectations and why now is the best time in the past 25 years to be a founder.

And later, Tengbo joined Articulate’s Edwin Scholte, exploring the company’s journey from bootstrapped to serving all of the Fortune 100, and what it means to play the long game.

Exciting to be on the ground for another impactful event 🥳

05/14/2026

Discord had exciting news for the gaming community this week 🎮

The company launched Nitro Rewards, extending the value of their Nitro membership with perks across the entire gaming lifestyle. Initial partners include top gaming companies like Xbox, Logitech and SteelSeries.

Discord CTO and Co-Founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy sat down with GamesBeat's Alexander Lee to share how the company is focused on extending Nitro’s value, while still staying true to Discord’s product.

Read more here:

Discord's Nitro Rewards program offers a host of new benefits to the platform's subscribers — but advertisers are benefiting as well.

05/13/2026

Headed to Web Summit Vancouver this week?

Get ready to hear from Benchmark, ICONIQ and Articulate.

Don’t miss these sessions:
🔮On Wednesday, Benchmark’s Everett Randle will be speaking at the AI Summit to discuss Betting on a 'model-agnostic' future with Gumloop CEO Max Brodeur-Urbas.

📈On Thursday’s Startup University Stage, ICONIQ’s Tengbo Li is joining Articulate President and CFO, Edwin Scholte for a session on Building to Last: Lessons from Two Decades Bootstrapped and the AI Bet That Came Next.

⏰And catch both Everrett and Tengbo on the Centre stage for a VC panel discussion – Is the middle of VC dead? Where they’ll explore changes in the VC landscape in the age of AI.

05/12/2026

ICYMI: Last week, District launched in GA and announced $14.7M in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Kindred Ventures to help anyone build an online commerce business - no technical know-how required.

Full story from Allie Garfinkle in Fortune:

The a16z-backed AI startup wants to bring the corner store experience to online shopping.

05/07/2026

District is officially launching in GA and announcing $14.7M in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Kindred Ventures, with participation from Greylock Partners and others.

The AI commerce platform lets creators, entrepreneurs, and brands describe their vision and have a production-ready commerce business with live shopping, auctions, marketplaces, and subscriptions up and running in minutes. Over 1,000 businesses are already built on District, including NikNax, Stacked Golf, Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema, and more.

Full story from Allie Garfinkle in Fortune:

The a16z-backed AI startup wants to bring the corner store experience to online shopping.