Good morning.

Black Friday crushed it with $11.8 billion spent online. AI is letting startups sell with half the team size. And a VC turned women's sports from $500M to $3B in two years.

Meanwhile, defense darling Anduril's weapons failed in Ukraine, and Supabase hit $5B by turning down enterprise deals.

Your Sunday rundown:

Hey there, Alberto here.

Every Sunday,

I break down the biggest moves in tech and startups—where capital's flowing, where it's stuck, and what matters if you're watching private markets.

Let's go.

Americans dropped $11.8 billion online Friday, up from $10.8B last year.

Shoppers spent $12.5 million per minute between 10am and 2pm. Cyber Monday is projected to hit $14.2 billion.

The reality check: Prices were up 7% while order volumes dropped 1%. People aren't buying more stuff—they're just paying more for it.

Why it matters: E-commerce infrastructure wins regardless. Payment processors, logistics platforms, fulfillment tech—they get paid whether the economy's hot or cold.

OpenAI and Google say AI is fundamentally changing how startups go to market.

AI tools now find prospects matching very specific requirements, way beyond simple database queries. Inbound leads get qualified with precision that wasn't possible a year ago.

But domain expertise still matters. Google's marketing VP says you need AI knowledge plus understanding of customer insights, research, and creative strategy.

Why it matters: Startups using AI to compress sales cycles and shrink customer acquisition costs will scale faster than competitors hiring armies of sales reps. AI amplifies good judgment—it doesn't replace it.

VC Kara Nortman launched Monarch Collective, a $250M fund focused purely on women's sports.

When they started in 2023, the women's sports market was worth about $500 million. It's now closer to $3 billion.

Her playbook: co-founded Angel City FC, grew it to $30M in revenue, sold majority stake for $250M to Bob Iger and Willow Bay—the most valuable women's sports franchise ever.

Why it matters: This isn't charity. The men's sports market is half a trillion dollars globally. Women's sports has massive room to grow, and early investors are capturing it.

Defense tech darling Anduril hit major setbacks testing autonomous weapons.

More than a dozen drone boats failed during a Navy exercise in May. The Fury jet fighter had engine damage in summer tests. The Anvil counterdrone system caused a 22-acre fire in Oregon.

Worse: In Ukraine, soldiers found Altius drones crashed and missed targets. Ukrainian forces stopped using them in 2024.

Why it matters: Anduril raised $2.5B at a $30.5B valuation in June. High valuations don't matter if products don't work in combat. Defense tech is lucrative but unforgiving.

Supabase raised $100M at $5B valuation—2.5x jump from $2B just months ago.

The twist: CEO Paul Copplestone keeps turning down million-dollar enterprise contracts, betting that sticking to his product vision will pay off more than chasing short-term revenue.

He's right so far. The open-source database became the go-to backend for AI coding tools like Replit and Lovable.

Why it matters: Enterprise deals look great but pull you off roadmap. Supabase stayed focused on developers who love the product—and scaled faster than competitors chasing Fortune 500 logos.

Execution beats hype. Always.

Black Friday proved e-commerce infrastructure is a picks-and-shovels play. AI is letting lean teams outpace bloated ones. Women's sports is real money, not feel-good investing.

But a $30B defense company's weapons are failing in combat. And the fastest-growing database company got there by saying no to distractions.

Capital matters. Timing matters. But execution separates winners from PowerPoints.