## The Unstoppable Rise of Small Businesses

In a world filled with economic uncertainty, **small business owners** are demonstrating remarkable resilience and optimism. Despite facing significant challenges like **labor shortages**, persistent **inflation pressures**, and widespread economic volatility, these entrepreneurs are not just surviving—they're planning for growth.

### Defying the Economic Noise

What's truly remarkable is the overwhelming confidence among small business leaders. An impressive **three-quarters of small business owners** anticipate revenue increases in the coming period. This optimism isn't just wishful thinking—it represents a fundamental shift in how entrepreneurs are approaching business in challenging times.

### The Resilience Factor

The ability to maintain such positive outlooks amid ongoing economic headwinds speaks volumes about the **adaptability and determination** that defines today's small business landscape. Rather than being paralyzed by economic uncertainty, these business leaders are finding innovative ways to navigate challenges and identify new opportunities.

### Looking Ahead

This surge in entrepreneurial confidence suggests that small businesses are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their approach to market fluctuations. They're developing strategies that allow them to not just withstand economic pressures but to actually thrive during uncertain periods.

Small business owners are staying optimistic — three-quarters expect revenue gains despite ongoing labor shortages, inflation pressures, and economic uncertainty.

Unlock the Secret: Why Small Businesses Are Thriving Against All Economic Odds

## Erica Wenger's Vision for Venture Capital

Erica Wenger will take an **elephant over a unicorn, every time**. 

“The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was against much of the unicorn obsession,” she said. “It’s just so one-dimensional. Listen, I’m all for making money, and I think elephants can be worth far more than a billion dollars. But people should be looking at traits beyond valuation to determine success. I’ve seen so many people gloat: ‘I backed eight, ten unicorns.’ I’m like: ‘what, you came in at the Series B?’ It wasn’t about the multiple, it wasn’t about the underlying health of the business.”

So, Wenger—who’s a three-time founder, including of exited startups Mistaken for Bacon and Mahkana—came to a decision: “Aileen [Lee] owned unicorns. I want to own elephants.” Elephants, she said, emphasized **resilience, solid business fundamentals, and longevity**, rather than making a point of chasing sometimes-ephemeral billion-dollar valuations. On Beehiiv in 2023, she first published her “elephants, not unicorns” thesis and it went viral, resonating in a landscape where profitability for all but the most sought-after AI darlings is key. Her goal was that the writing would serve as a **branding bat signal**. (Her essays have drawn in more than one million views, she told Fortune. Wenger, who also worked as Worklife Ventures’s head of platform, has more than 90,000 followers across social media platforms.)

“I want people to find me online, identify with my point of view, and seek me out,” said Wenger. “I want to have my brand and our firm be bigger than me. You can only have so many meetings in one day, so this was a way to reach people. You can also timestamp ideas: ‘I was calling this back then, look at the date.’”

Wenger kept up the wildlife theme, in some sense, when she started **Park Rangers Capital in 2023**. Now, after raising from 130 LPs, she’s closed the firm’s first fund at **$4.3 million**, and there are some early prospective winners in her portfolio like Superpower, Clay, and Beehiiv. 

“I really wanted to create a broader analogy about what I want to see change in venture,” said Wenger. “When I was a founder, I always felt like the relationship between the VC and founder was a little funky. The VC shouldn’t be the star of the show, it’s actually the founder who’s building. So, the analogy is that the founders are the national parks of the world. They’re majestic. They have life in them… And VCs are the humble park rangers. They’re stewards of the land. They make sure no one’s littering. They let you in, let you out, protect and serve.”

Wenger wanted to evoke “integrity, service, and humility” with the name. It was a characteristic act of narrative-making that resonated with Jacob Peters, founder of $300 million health tech startup Superpower. 

“She’s proving that **brand, content, and conviction can compound just like capital**,” he said via email. “While most investors wait for reputation to happen over decades, Erica is deliberately building it through ideas that resonate.”

To start, Park Rangers have been writing checks between $100,000 and $200,000. But General Atlantic’s Anton Levy—known for backing Alibaba, Uber, Snapchat, and Slack—said via email that Wenger will keep punching above her weight. 

“I’ve only known Erica for a few years, but Erica is a force of nature in the best way,” said Levy, co-president, managing director, chairman of the global technology group at General Atlantic. “She’s a hustler in the best sense of the word… relentless, creative, and deeply connected to the founders she backs. What makes her unique is that she doesn’t just talk about community and distribution, she lives it. She’s built a brand, a platform, and a network that most firms multiples her size would envy. “

Term Sheet asked Wenger the central question of this series: what’s next?

“For me, it’s continuing to build out our distribution, building out a really well-respected and beloved firm,” she said. “The way we ask our founders to build their own distribution—that’s the ultimate moat—we’re doing the same thing as a firm. My philosophy is that **software is a commodity, as is capital**. So, to stand out in this next decade, you have to be an incredible storyteller and go-to-market leader. You have to have a great brand, great content, and be very human. As a fund, we’re mimicking what we tell our founders to do.”

In our latest Term Sheet Next, Erica Wenger’s Park Rangers Capital has raised its debut $4.3 million fund.

Why This VC Chooses Elephants Over Unicorns: The $4.3M Fund Backing Resilient Startups

## Celebrating Women in Business

Four exceptional local women were recognized for their **professional excellence** at the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce's annual **Pow(H)er Conference**. The event, held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Rockford Riverfront, spotlighted women who demonstrate outstanding leadership, service, and innovation in the Rockford region.

![The recipients of the 2025 Women-in-Business Award from the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce. From top left to bottom right: Paige Gors Limberg, Julie Rylatt, Dr. Patricia Lynott, and Sherry Gaumond.](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/wrex.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/8d/f8d7c4ee-a4d5-45ad-b597-f24cd44b430e/6916661c52360.image.png)

### The 2025 Award Recipients

- **Paige Limberg**, Attorney at AGHL Law - Recognized for her **achievement at a young age** and **potential for future leadership**

- **Julie Rylatt**, Social Worker at Willow Creek Counseling - Honored for her **entrepreneurship** and contributions to Rockford's business sphere

- **Dr. Patricia Lynott**, President of Rockford University - Acknowledged as a **leader, mentor**, and for her **organizational impact**

- **Sherry Gaumond**, COO and Director of Interior Design at Larson & Darby Group - Celebrated for her **commitment to improving the community**

### Event Highlights

The conference featured a **guest speaker**, **panel discussions**, and **workshops** focused on professional and self-development. Caitlin Pusateri, COO of the GRCC, emphasized that "This year's honorees demonstrate the incredible range of talent, vision, and resilience that drives our business community forward."

The Pow(H)er Conference aims to **promote professional development** among women in the community while showcasing the **diverse talent** within the Rockford business ecosystem.

Four local women were recognized for professional excellence at the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce's annual Pow(H)er Conference.

Meet the Trailblazing Women Honored at Rockford's Pow(H)er Conference 2025

The Boulder County commissioners have approved the purchase of a small property for $1.5 million, paving the way for a **safer trail connection** from Boulder Canyon to Betasso Preserve. This strategic acquisition aims to enhance outdoor recreation and protect natural habitats.

### Property Details and Historical Significance

The 6.62-acre property at 38899 Boulder Canyon Drive, situated at the intersection with Fourmile Canyon Drive, is owned by Michael Sandrock and includes four buildings: two residences, a detached garage, and a studio. It covers part of the historic **Orodell Townsite**, recognized as a Boulder County Historic Landmark for its water-powered sawmill and role as a travel junction. Bordered by Betasso open space to the west, the area is noted for its **high biodiversity** and riparian environment.

### Long-Term Acquisition Goals

Tina Burghardt, Open Space Land Officer Supervisor, highlighted that this property has been on the county's priority acquisition list for **decades**. After the purchase, the site will be closed to the public for a management review to determine future uses and the fate of existing structures.

### Community and Advocacy Impact

The Boulder Mountainbike Alliance has long advocated for this purchase to address safety concerns. Executive Director Wendy Sweet emphasized that previous trail options involved steep, hazardous terrain requiring cyclists to carry bikes. This new connection could enable **safer access** for activities like lunch or after-school rides, and potentially include a new loop for mountain bikers. Betasso Preserve, being the closest mountain bike trail to downtown Boulder, is so popular it closes to cyclists two days a week, underscoring the need for expanded access.

![Betasso Preserve](https://bouldercounty.gov/open-space/parks-and-trails/betasso-preserve/)

The Boulder County commissioners signed off Thursday on purchasing a small property located next to Betasso open space for $1.5 million, creating the the possibility of building a safer trail connection from Boulder Canyon to Betasso.

Boulder County's $1.5M Land Buy Could Unlock Safer Trails and Boost Outdoor Adventures

Since 2005, **Y Combinator** has backed over 5,000 companies with a combined valuation of over $800 billion. The Fall 2025 batch features around **150 startups** spanning diverse industries, with a clear trend: **B2B software dominates**, making up nearly two-thirds of the cohort. This signals a focus on building infrastructure and tools for other businesses. Beyond B2B, the batch includes consumer startups, healthcare, industrials, fintech, and real estate, reflecting YC's shift toward practical, revenue-driven innovation. These founders are building the rails for the AI era—not just riding it.

## The Builders
Who are these ambitious founders disrupting innovation?

- **Multifactor**: Zero-trust authentication, authorization, and auditing for AI agents. AI agents are moving faster than security can keep up, and Multifactor provides enterprise-grade protection to prevent exploits like the "invitation is all you need" Gemini breach.

- **Lightberry**: The social brain for robots. It gives humanoids the ability to see, hear, talk, and move like humans, transforming remote-controlled machines into autonomous teammates.

- **Metorial**: Vercel for MCP. It makes MCP enterprise-ready in minutes with reliability, security, and scale built in, enabling startups and enterprises to scale AI agents globally in days.

- **Unsiloed AI**: APIs for unstructured data. It turns messy, multimodal data into structured formats that LLMs and AI agents can understand, addressing the 40% of time AI teams spend on data cleanup.

- **Hyperspell**: Memory for AI agents. It unifies context from tools like Gmail, Slack, Notion, and Drive, allowing agents to recall, reason, and remember across company knowledge.

- **Bear**: Marketing for AI Search. It helps brands get discovered inside AI search results as blue links fade and ChatGPT becomes the new Google, ensuring visibility where decisions happen.

- **Dome**: Unified API for prediction markets. It provides a single API for trading across platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, connecting data, liquidity, and tooling into one ecosystem.

- **Hypercubic**: AI to maintain and modernize COBOL/mainframes. It addresses the risk of legacy code in banks and airlines by using AI to reason about complex software safely.

- **Parrot**: TikTok for language learning. It turns short-form video into real language acquisition, using context and repetition for fluency instead of traditional drills.

- **Boom AI**: Your AI growth team for e-commerce brands. It personalizes interactions at internet scale to turn lost visitors into loyal buyers, cutting acquisition costs.

- **Everest**: AI support engineers for outsourced IT services (MSPs). It enables MSPs to deliver proactive support and improve margins by automating repetitive IT work.

- **Telemetron**: Customer support platform built for hardware. It uses LLMs to reason across logs, manuals, and live data for intelligent hardware support in EVs, wearables, and robotics.

- **Narrative**: Infrastructure for AI video processing. It builds tools to make video-native AI agents a reality, overcoming challenges in video understanding.

- **Deeptrace**: AI agents for on-call. It automates the end-to-end on-call workflow, from alert triage to resolution, reducing noise and improving efficiency.

- **Digipals**: Building the future of social in the age of AI. It reimagines connection with an AI-native group chat that helps coordinate hangouts and stay connected through real-life context.

- **Aside**: Real-time answers for sales calls. It provides AI that retrieves the right answer live during conversations, boosting confidence and conversion rates.

- **Nucleo**: Automated CT scan analysis for oncology care. It helps oncologists extract insights from CT scans for tumor characterization and treatment, working with top hospitals.

- **Jarmin**: 24/7 Machine Learning Engineer employees. It acts as a hireable ML engineer that handles AI/ML work through simple conversation.

- **Caddy**: Control all your work apps with your voice. It eliminates clicks and copy-paste chaos by allowing knowledge workers to talk to their computers for faster task completion.

- **Lemma**: Continuous learning for AI agents. It detects and fixes failures in production automatically, based on Stanford research, ensuring agents learn over time.

- **Clad Labs**: The brainrot IDE. It integrates gaming and scrolling into the AI coding loop, subsidized by ads and affiliate revenue, making it a Gen Z-native coding tool.

## The Stories Behind the Builders
Every founder's journey is unique, driven by personal pain points or unexpected insights. These teams come from diverse backgrounds, representing bold and resourceful innovation.

- **Dome's** founders, Kurush Dubash and Kunal Roy, started after losing money trading prediction markets and built the tools they wished existed.

- **Parrot's** founders turned a co-founder's failed attempt to impress a girl while learning Spanish into a breakthrough in language learning. As Julia Hudea explained, "Erik, our co-founder, started learning Spanish to impress a girl on vacation and accidentally fell into a year-long rabbit hole on how polyglots learn languages - emerging fluent in three. We did a deep dive on every language learning tool and realized none teach the way humans naturally learn."

- **Lightberry's** team, inspired by sci-fi robots like R2-D2 and WALL·E, aims to make robots coworkers and companions. Founders Ali Attar and Stephan Koenigstorfer said, "We want robots to be coworkers and companions, not just tools."

- **Lemma's** founders, Jerry Zhang and Cole Gawin, have been best friends since freshman year and are obsessed with agent systems. They stated, "We're young, scrappy, and will do whatever it takes to make things work."

- **Telemetron's** Shivani Patel is driven by a hardware obsession, excited about physical products people can hold.

- **Aside's** Jun Kim met his co-founders in high school, where one launched a Microsoft-backed nonprofit and another built a successful app solo.

- **Hyperspell's** Manu Ebert has been building chatbots since age 13 and combined neuroscience research with machine learning to address AI agent memory.

- **Boom's** founders, including Juan Casian, Sergio Garcia, and Jose Toscano, have over a decade of experience building and scaling companies, learning from cash crises and team rebuilds to create a platform for business growth.

Across the batch, founders operate with relentless drive, moving faster than expected and rejecting limitations.

## The YC Effect
YC accelerates growth and rewires how founders think, build, and dream, fundamentally changing company trajectories.

- **Pace and intensity**: Aman Mishra of Unsiloed AI said, "YC compresses months of growth into weeks. The real magic is momentum—you leave with a completely new sense of how fast 'fast' can be."

- **Clarity and focus**: Jun Kim noted, "The environment forces clarity through competition. Everything moves faster, focus gets sharper, and suddenly everything you do is leveraged 10x." Yolanda Cao of Everest emphasized, "Focus. YC forces focus on what drives our main KPI, and nothing else."

- **User insights**: Connor Waslo of Caddy shared how user conversations revealed the real problem: "People just want to get work done faster."

- **Ambition and community**: Karim Rahme of Metorial explained, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. At YC, those five are the most ambitious founders you'll ever meet." Vivek Nair of Multifactor turned down VC offers for YC, citing distribution advantages.

- **Mindset shift**: Janak Sunil of Bear said, "At the beginning of the batch, we used to think practically and cautiously; now, we think nothing but big." Sai Gurrapu of Hypercubic added, "YC helps you form clarity. It strips away the noise and forces you to focus on building something people desperately need. Move and fail fast, talk to users, build the inevitable."

The YC effect is about thinking bigger, moving with conviction, and being surrounded by innovators.

The Fall 2025 batch marks a turning point for YC and the startup world. Founders are building infrastructure for the AI economy, from unstructured data to humanoid intelligence. Innovation is about execution, speed, and relentless ambition. If this batch is any indicator, the next generation of billion-dollar companies will define AI.

Meet the breakout startups from YC Fall 2025 — the boldest founders and biggest ideas shaping the future of tech.

Unveiling Y Combinator's Fall 2025: The AI-Powered Startups Shaping Tomorrow

## A Game-Changing Digital Payment Platform

An **Atlanta-based digital payment platform** for restaurants that has processed **billions of dollars' worth of transactions** just announced it has raised millions of its own.

Sunday, the payments company, announced this week it raised **$21 million in Series B funding**, which it plans to use to **expand into new markets** and build additional products. The latest investment comes about four years after the company raised about **$125 million in seed and Series A funding**, to help launch its products.

![Sunday co-founders Tigrane Seydoux (left), Victor Lugger and Christine de Wendel. (Courtesy of sunday)](https://www.ajc.com/resizer/v2/BPGQKCR7P5EPNJCQVLJXQPQI2Q.png?auth=18e9ab63024b348fa30dfde3221c64f55e3f841e6c8715f65357c73e425e41aa&width=3840&height=2160&smart=true)

## How Sunday Transforms Restaurant Operations

Sunday was founded in 2020 by co-founders Tigrane Seydoux, Victor Lugger, and Christine de Wendel, with support from Big European venture capital firms. The company aims to **simplify payment processing** for restaurants by providing a **full-service frictionless experience** that makes paying faster and more digital.

According to a transaction processing company, the **restaurant industry still relies more on people processing payments** than technology, with about 40,000 transactions processed monthly in the U.S. alone. Sunday addresses this by allowing customers to **pay via QR codes** on their phones without needing to split bills or ask servers for separate checks.

![A mock-up of a QR code bill using the payments platform. (Courtesy of sunday)](https://www.ajc.com/resizer/v2/ZSSIVR7VQJF6FNYSL5N57GQ6AI.png?auth=33b2ffb2e5be404941711fa8f715be8e7351d33bf5581423b707235556ea0902&width=3840&height=2561&smart=true)

## Accelerating Growth and Expansion

Sunday helps restaurants **manage operations more efficiently** by providing dashboards that track data on payments, costs, and customer behavior. This enables restaurants to **turn tables faster** and increase monthly revenue.

Recently, the platform has processed transactions for over **3,000 restaurants worldwide**, including major chains like Two Urban Licks and The Fish Market in Atlanta. The company is now launching in new markets, including Chicago and New York, as part of its **national expansion strategy**.

## The Founders' Vision and Atlanta's Ecosystem

The founders decided to base the company in Atlanta for both business and personal reasons, citing the city's **strong support ecosystem** for startups. "The incredible support we've received from investors and the community has been awesome," said one founder.

Sunday has also been adding more employees globally and planning new product roles, particularly in sales and technology. The company is headquartered in **Midtown Atlanta's Colony Square**, signaling its commitment to growing within the city's thriving tech scene.

## What's Next for Sunday

With this new funding, Sunday aims to **accelerate growth** across the U.S. and strengthen its platform. "We're excited to bring this technology to more restaurants and help them scale their businesses," the company stated.

Sunday, a digital payment platform for restaurants, is looking to expand across the U.S. with its latest funding.

Unlock the Secret: Why Small Businesses Are Thriving Against All Economic Odds

Summary:

The Unstoppable Rise of Small Businesses

Defying the Economic Noise

The Resilience Factor

Looking Ahead

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Other Latest News

Why This VC Chooses Elephants Over Unicorns: The $4.3M Fund Backing Resilient Startups

Meet the Trailblazing Women Honored at Rockford's Pow(H)er Conference 2025

Boulder County's $1.5M Land Buy Could Unlock Safer Trails and Boost Outdoor Adventures

Unveiling Y Combinator's Fall 2025: The AI-Powered Startups Shaping Tomorrow

Atlanta's Sunday Raises $21M to Revolutionize Restaurant Payments Nationwide

Other Latest News

Why This VC Chooses Elephants Over Unicorns: The $4.3M Fund Backing Resilient Startups

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Boulder County's $1.5M Land Buy Could Unlock Safer Trails and Boost Outdoor Adventures

Unveiling Y Combinator's Fall 2025: The AI-Powered Startups Shaping Tomorrow

Atlanta's Sunday Raises $21M to Revolutionize Restaurant Payments Nationwide