The Amped Journal

Dutch indie developer and entrepreneur Pieter Levels (@levelsio) highlighted new coverage from The Economist and Stripe's blog framing an "Age of the Solopreneur," in which AI tools let individual founders run businesses once thought to require full teams. Levels argued what indie hackers have felt for years - AI compressing the work of many roles into one person - may now be entering a mainstream phase.

Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham revisited his critiques of "wokeness," citing a 2023 case in which Duke University's library system dropped Basecamp, the project-management software, over "harms perpetuated" by its founders' public comments - which he called corporate jargon for banning disfavored speech. He also proposed a new AI benchmark: measuring how much a model's answers have been shaped by campaigns to influence its views on charged topics, calling it potentially "the ultimate test of model purity."

ArrayLabs, a Y Combinator-backed startup, raised $21 million to build clusters of small, mass-manufacturable radar satellites that fly in formation and act as a single distributed sensor. The system is designed to deliver a continuously updated picture of moving objects on or above the Earth's surface.

Data from executive search firm Spencer Stuart shows that of 364 new independent directors added to S&P 500 boards through April 30, only 40% were women or racial minorities - the lowest share since 2014 and a sharp drop from 72% peaks in 2021 and 2022. The pullback comes as companies scale back DEI initiatives amid political and investor pressure, alongside a rise in CEO appointments drawn from a less diverse talent pool; overall board diversity still holds steady at 49.3%.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on X July 28 urging the country to accelerate economic growth through global trade and infrastructure, pointing to new trade deals with Europe and India and 22 major projects underway. The push comes as Canada recorded two consecutive quarters of slight GDP contraction in late 2025 and early 2026, and hedge funds have built their largest short bets against the Canadian dollar in two years on fears tied to US tariffs. Public reaction was skeptical, with critics questioning whether an international trade focus addresses everyday business closures at home.

The US military said Tuesday it thwarted an Iranian missile attack aimed at American troops, an attempt that broke the pause in hostilities that has held between Washington and Tehran since a wave of strikes weeks earlier, the Associated Press reported. No further details on casualties or Iran's response were immediately available.

Russian authorities charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism and placed him on Russia's international wanted list, the Associated Press reported. Durov built Telegram into one of the world's most widely used encrypted messaging apps and has long been based outside Russia.

President Trump eulogized the late Sen. Lindsey Graham as "a true American original" during memorial services Tuesday at Washington National Cathedral, the Associated Press reported. Foreign leaders attended the service, underscoring Graham's stature on the global stage, after lawmakers paid tribute to him earlier in the day.

Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the late former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, was sworn in as president of Peru, becoming the first woman elected to the office in the country's 205 years as a republic, the Associated Press reported.

Construction on Covil Village, a 65-unit townhome community, is set to begin in early September on a 5.4-acre site at 202, 310 and 314 Covil Ave., according to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. The property once housed Port South Village, an assisted-living facility that closed in 2013. Developers Andy Mitwol and Clayton Williams of Frying Pan Ventures LLC spent about two years tracking down the property's owners - the land had passed through multiple estates and a family trust - before getting it under contract within six months.

Three defendants in a defamation lawsuit filed by Wilmington luxury homebuilder Mark Batson, owner of Tongue & Groove, moved this week to dismiss the case, according to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. Batson's June complaint accuses competing builders and associated individuals - including Kenneth Edward Jeffries, Christopher Parker and Anthony James Kidd - of a coordinated slander campaign meant to undermine his business. N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby designated the case a mandatory complex business matter, to be heard in N.C. Business Court.

The owner of a 2.56-acre property at 4621 and 4625 Castle Hayne Road is seeking to rezone the tract from rural agricultural to regional business, to allow PipeView Technologies, a sewer inspection and repair company, to set up an office there, according to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. The existing house would be renovated for office use, with a new driveway and gravel parking added for company vehicles; a community meeting on the proposal was held July 28.

The Network for Entrepreneurs (NEW) will host its next AI Roundtable discussion August 27 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Vantaca, featuring speakers from Vantaca, Greenlight Ventures and Aster Labs, according to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal's tech events calendar. It's one of several upcoming local entrepreneur events, including UNCW's weekly 1 Million Cups pitch forum and monthly Wilmington Innovation Forum sessions on brain health research.