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Groq Founder: Poor Leadership Cost Company Years

Jonathan Ross, founder of AI chip maker Groq, admitted in a podcast that his management failures initially cost the company three to four years. A former Google engineer, Ross founded Groq in 2016 to develop Language Processing Units (LPUs) as alternatives to Nvidia GPUs. He acknowledged being 'a terrible leader' at the start, citing mistakes in hiring employees who were not self-sufficient and giving them too much responsibility, leading to stagnation. He learned to focus on people management and became more selective in hiring. In December 2025, Nvidia signed a $20 billion licensing and talent deal with Groq, after which Ross and other key engineers moved to Nvidia, where Ross now serves as chief architect for software. Groq continues as an independent company led by Adam Winter. Similar leadership challenges were shared by Figma CEO Dylan Field and Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn.

• Jonathan Ross founded Groq in 2016 to develop AI inference chips (LPUs) as alternatives to Nvidia GPUs.
• Ross admitted that his poor leadership set back Groq by three to four years.
• In December 2025, Nvidia signed a $20 billion license and talent deal with Groq.

Pragmatic Engineer Podcast: Design Engineering with Maggie Appleton

In this episode of the Pragmatic Engineer Podcast, host Gergely Orosz interviews Maggie Appleton, a staff research engineer at GitHub Next. Appleton discusses her unique career path from cultural anthropology to design engineering, her work illustrating React tutorials for Egghead, and her insights on how AI is transforming design processes. She shares practical advice on using notebooks and jigs for prototyping, the importance of understanding engineering constraints, and introduces the concept of 'capability gaslighting' where AI models overpromise and underdeliver. The conversation explores new artifacts for human-AI collaboration and encourages engineers to use AI agents as patient tutors for learning design principles.

• Maggie Appleton is a staff research engineer at GitHub Next.
• She was the first designer hired by AI startup Elicit.
• She spent four years as an illustrator and art director at developer education company Egghead.

Miro MCP Server Surpasses 16 Million Calls

Miro, the collaboration platform, announced that its Model Context Protocol (MCP) server has surpassed 16 million calls since its launch in February 2026, with usage more than doubling since May. In September alone, calls are on track to reach 6 million. The integration allows AI tools like Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and ChatGPT to interact with Miro canvases, enabling teams to visualize and edit AI outputs collaboratively. Notably, adoption has expanded beyond developers, with product, design, marketing, operations, and project management roles now outnumbering engineers. Miro positions itself as the collaboration layer for AI agents, facilitating seamless input and output between AI and the canvas.

• Miro's MCP server has generated over 16 million calls since its launch in February 2026.
• Usage more than doubled since May, with September on track to reach 6 million calls.
• Claude Desktop and Claude Code account for 65% of usage in August; ChatGPT usage grew 71% from August to September.

Digital decay: 25% of decade's web pages vanish

A recent analysis reveals that a quarter of web pages from the last decade have disappeared, with many vanishing from sites that are still active. This 'digital decay' is highlighted by the shutdown of design tool InVision in December 2024, which deleted all user-created prototypes and boards. The closure underscored a trend of SaaS tools shutting down and leaving users without a way to export their work in bulk, leading to the loss of portfolios and case studies. Miro, the whiteboard company, acquired InVision's Freehand product but not the associated user data. This has raised concerns about the lack of archiving mechanisms for digital content and the preservation of professional work. The article emphasizes that as more tools shut down, the web's content continues to erode, calling for better awareness and possibly new standards or services to archive and preserve online work.

• A quarter of the past decade's web pages have vanished.
• InVision shut down on New Year's Eve 2024, deleting user prototypes.
• Miro acquired InVision's whiteboard product, Freehand, but not user data.

Founders Dispatch: Bending Spoons' Bargain Acquisitions and Scale-Up Europe Fund

In the second episode of the podcast 'Founders Dispatch', Stefan Köppl of Samira Advisors and Jakob Steinschaden discuss Italy's Bending Spoons, a tech giant with a $24 billion valuation, and its aggressive acquisition strategy in Europe. The company has bought Miro for $1.8 billion (90% below peak) and Airtable for $1.3 billion (80% discount), following a playbook of mass layoffs and cash flow optimization. The episode also covers the Scale-Up Europe Fund, a €5 billion EU fund managed by EQT, which has rapidly made five investments, including in IceEye, Lovable, and a €3 billion round in Mistral AI. Mistral's challenges with profitability and a 'neo-cloud' strategy are highlighted. The discussion touches on Europe's sovereignty dilemma, noting Samsung's investment in Mistral and the broader question of technological independence.

• Bending Spoons has a $24 billion market valuation.
• Miro was acquired for $1.8 billion, 90% below its peak valuation.
• Airtable was acquired for $1.3 billion, an 80% discount from peak.