Gal Cohen

The most interesting thing about this AI cycle isn’t the models. It’s what it’s doing to people. You can see it in every story: contractors being pushed to upload real client documents so labs can train “agents,” founders wondering if California will tax them on wealth that doesn’t exist yet, engineers realizing their biggest competitive edge isn’t their repo—it’s their judgment. The infrastructure is getting more extreme (nuclear, multi‑billion rounds, sovereign funds), but the actual bottleneck is still painfully human: Who do you trust, and what do you trust them with? We’re quietly moving from “move fast and break things” to “move fast and delegate things,” and that’s a very different kind of risk. When you hand work to an AI, or to a low‑paid annotator, or to a random cloud startup that started as a Reddit post, you’re not just optimizing a workflow—you’re extending your circle of trust. Sometimes without admitting that’s what you’re doing. The uncomfortable truth for a lot of founders and investors is this: the next decade of advantage won’t just be about who has the best model or the biggest GPU budget. It’ll be who builds the tightest trust graph around those systems—who their people are, how they make trade‑offs, what they refuse to automate, and where they draw a hard line on data, attribution, and blame. In other words, the hardest part of AI isn’t artificial or intelligent. It’s human. #AI #Trust #Leadership

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One of the hardest lessons in building a company: Hiring a founding engineer who’s working far below their usual rate almost always creates hidden risk. Not because they aren’t talented — but because the mindset quietly shifts to: “Do the minimum to get this shipped so I can get paid.” That mindset shows up later as: brittle architecture shortcuts that don’t scale constant rewrites slow velocity after launch paywalls and decisions made which affect the product even working And in today’s world, that’s dangerous. With modern AI tooling, speed is no longer rare. Quality is. If your product isn’t clearly best-in-class, someone can rebuild, out-iterate, and replace you in weeks. A founding engineer role isn’t a discounted contractor position. It’s a high-expectation role that defines the future of the company. When the founder and founding engineer are both fully invested — intellectually and emotionally — that’s when real leverage appears. That’s when small teams do things that look impossible from the outside. #Startups #FoundingEngineer #StartupLessons #ProductQuality #TechLeadership #EarlyStageStartups #EngineeringCulture #BuildInPublic #AIStartups #ScaleUp

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We don’t give our user acquisition team a cap on their marketing budget. That line turned a few heads at GDC. One studio kept pressing me: - What are the rules and restrictions around how you spend? - What targets does your UA team need to hit? - What does the approval process look like? My answer: “Spend profitably. That’s the rule.” A slow, rigid decision-making system doesn’t make sense in this environment. The UA landscape changes constantly. Platforms evolve, player behavior shifts, and strategies that worked six weeks ago might no longer deliver. That’s why we avoid hard rules and multi-step approval processes. Instead, we built a system that prioritizes speed and experimentation. Our UA team operates independently. They are action-oriented, data-driven, and empowered to act quickly when opportunities arise - without waiting for green lights. This level of flexibility surprises some people, but it’s exactly what allows us to experiment more and adapt faster. We’re not reckless with spending. We’re deliberate about staying nimble - because in mobile gaming, agility isn’t optional. It’s survival.

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FinOps practices is a must for cloud infrastructure. It is not about single check , it's about constant monitoring and trends assessment.

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Electronic Arts (EA) Arts is in advanced talks to go private at around $50bn, with Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners involved. The Wall Street Journal reported the discussions on 26 September, and EA’s shares jumped nearly 15% to a record close of $193.35, lifting its value to c. $48bn. If a deal lands at c. $50bn, it would eclipse the 2007 TXU transaction as the largest leveraged buyout on record. The Financial Times adds that an announcement could come as soon as Monday 29 September, with JPMorgan said to be arranging more than $20bn in debt financing. This comes as the industry leans harder into mobile and free-to-play models. EA’s catalogue spans Madden, EA Sports FC, Battlefield and The Sims, and recent performance has been mixed in 2025. Private ownership could give cover for a deeper shift in how these franchises are built and monetised. ⚡️ Valuation discussed at c. $50bn, take-private in advanced talks ⚡️ Investor group: Silver Lake, PIF and Affinity Partners ⚡️ EA stock up nearly 15% to $193.35 on 26 Sept, market cap c. $48bn ⚡️ Would surpass the $32bn TXU deal as the largest LBO If this consortium closes, it will be a defining test of whether long-cycle AAA franchises can be reshaped faster away from the quarterly spotlight. What would you prioritise first under private ownership? #videogames #mna #privateequity #lbo #ea #gamingindustry #capitalmarkets #dealmaking

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NYC's Election Results: A Signal for Tech's Next Regulatory Frontier Zohran Mamdani's confirmed victory is more than a political headline; it's a indicator of the evolving regulatory landscape for tech in New York City. As a prominent progressive voice, his policy priorities directly intersect with core tech operations: · Housing & PropTech: Expect intensified focus on tenant protections and data privacy laws that could impact how real estate tech platforms operate. · Gig Economy & Labor: The push for wage standards and benefits for gig workers is likely to gain further momentum, affecting delivery, ride-share, and other on-demand platforms. · Public Services & Civic Tech: This win signals strong support for modernizing public services, creating opportunities for civic tech companies that partner with the city on equitable solutions. #NYC #TechPolicy #NYCTech #PropTech #GigEconomy #CivicTech #Innovation #PublicPolicy

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