The Saturday Morning Newsletter #96
How to Become a Likable Person, European Heat Waves, and Robotics Servicing Satellites in Orbit
This Week I’m Tracking: 12 developments across the sectors shaping our future
Reading Time: 5 minutes of curated insights
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Let’s dive in.
#1: Aston Power
Description: Aston Power is an energy provider for data centers.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Aston Power recently raised $20M in venture capital funding. Aston Power is developing new power sources and capabilities to serve datacenters, which is especially relevant given new growth. As utility timelines continue to stretch out years, if not decades, datacenters will need more immediate growth drivers. Powered by renewable energy, Aston Power provides a perfect solution to the current issues.
#2: Katalyst Space Technologies
Description: Katalyst Space Technologies is a developer of satellite servicing spacecraft.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Katalyst Space Technologies recently raised $12M in venture capital funding. Katalyst Space Technologies is introducing a multi-mission-capable robotic spacecraft capable of docking with other satellites, maneuvering in orbit, and performing robotic servicing. These devices deliver hardware payloads to upgrade in-orbit machinery quickly. They are currently validating their technologies, enabling future de-risking of missions.
#3: Galvany Energy
Description: Galvany Energy is a heat pump installer.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Galvany Energy recently raised $10M in venture capital funding. Galvany Energy is a developer of a system and methodology for deploying and operating heat pumps in residential buildings. They have the Galvany Cube, a modular heat pump system, and Galvany Fusion, an energy management system that connects heat pumps to drive efficiencies and integration with legacy technologies.
#4: Tomorrow
Description: Tomorrow is a weather intelligence startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Tomorrow recently raised $35M in venture capital funding. Tomorrow is the only space-based, AI-powered weather intelligence platform. They deliver cloud-penetrating analysis and data that competitors can’t replicate. They have solutions for every industry, primarily targeting insurance, manufacturing, aviation, energy, and transportation.
#5: Stilta
Description: Stilta is an agentic AI platform for patents.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Stilts recently raised $10.5M in venture capital funding. Stilta is an agentic AI platform targeted at the patent and intellectual property industry. It provides more evidence on prior art, cites sources, and draws on much more data than other patent LLM providers. They provide modules for patent infringement, attorney workflows, patent creation, and more.
NAM: DOE Unveils a Roadmap for Scalable Nuclear Fusion
DOE’s fusion strategy outlines the infrastructure needed to commercialize the technology in the next 10 years and sets timelines for milestones. It created a new Office of Fusion. What it doesn’t do is commit specific funding, which is compounded by the Trump administration’s 2027 budget, cutting $50M in fusion-related funds. It’s a confusing message where they want to push the technology forward while simultaneously cutting funding.
The New York Times: Is Climate Change Fueling Europe’s Heat Wave? Yes, Research Says.
Climate change is worsening Europe’s current heat wave. All of the extra heat on the Earth’s surface pushes summer weather patterns to deliver hotter days and nights than in recent history. This causes ripple effects across all aspects of life, including the economy, death rates, indoor and outdoor activities, shopping, and much more.
The New York Times: Energy Department Unveils $17.5B Plan to Kick-Start New Nuclear Plants
This week, the Trump administration announced a plan for up to $17.5B in low-cost loans to help electric utilities purchase expensive components for up to 10 new nuclear reactors developed by Westinghouse. These utilities would still need to put up hundreds of millions of their own money to unlock this financing, but the opportunities are on the table.
JD Supra: Intellectual Property in the 21st Century
In recent years, intellectual property has become one of the central pillars of the global economy. Business value is increasingly driven by intangible assets like brands, innovation, patents, technology, proprietary data, and more. Intellectual property is increasingly a central area of competition between businesses and countries as leadership in key technologies drives GDP and enterprise values across the board.
Nautilus: How to Feel at Home in the Modern World
Home-making and belonging are central features of all life forms, argues this philosopher. Humans try their whole lives to understand who they are and how they fit. The home is the solution—where we all start from. As you grow up, you continue to go out and explore. Unfortunately, many aspects of modern life are preventing or discouraging homecoming, which affects our ability to sense who we are, how we fit, and what all this means.
Big Think: A Philosopher’s 5 Tips on How to Become the Most Likable Person
David Hume famously argued that being well-liked is important not only because it feels good but because it reduces social friction. His 5 tips for becoming likable are below:
The mutual sacrifice of ego
Take things lightly
Let others shine
The Scottish Confucian
Wash your clothes now and again
I was reading an article this week about the idea of linear scientific progress.
For instance, a person with this view would say something along the lines of “science will eventually explain everything. It’s just a matter of time.”
And honestly, there are some solid reasons to agree with this mindset. Science is a field that responds to and actively seeks new evidence. And, in the vast majority of circumstances, what is indicated by new evidence is closer to the real truth.
If you think about it in math terms, we’re on a plane of diminishing marginal returns and/or linear progress towards the eventuality wherein science explains everything.
How close are we? I don’t think we truly know at any given time. 500 years ago, we would have said we were close. Now we’ve seen how far we were. There’s probably so much further to go.
That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup.
Drew Jackson
Founder & Writer
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