[WEEK 17/52] AI Sensor Startup is our Winner, St. Pete Road Trip, Exxon Mobile x Iran, and 99-Year Old Life Advice from Charlie Munger!
In today’s edition, we’ll cover the AI Sensor company who won our ‘Get Featured’ competition from last week. And, a video sharing why Exxon is tempting but not a stock I can own.
Apr 14, 2026
Hi Pioneers,
Hoping you all have had a wonderful weekend, and kicked your Monday off right.
I worked all weekend to make room for a 2.5 hour drive today. When you receive this, I’ll be currently on the road to St. Pete. With two dogs, one of which I am babysitting for the week.
That means I’ll not only be responsible for my own dog (left), for 5 days, but also his bestie (right).
I found an incredible last minute BNB deal, and felt it was perfect timing as the fund launches. Very necessary to find different environments when creating something.
Will update you on how it is next week!
But first..
A word from our author in a Harry Potter style talking-painting
“Hey! Welcome to my blog, Don’s Daily!”
Hey, I’m Don! I’ve been building career memories for a decade. Over the last three years I’ve been reinvesting my own capital and time back it into my business. All the while learning and growing my net worth via public markets and crypto.
Thanks for reading Don's Daily! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Over that same period, I also hosted 50+ virtual events with some of the world’s best VC investors and founders for our CEO group. Prior to all that, aside from my first job at Meta, I was lucky enough to raise $10 million in my twenties; doing my best to learn business, investor relations, and the startup mindset all at the same time. Maybe some of you can relate.
All that’s to say, I love business, I love money, I love to try and leverage my time.
This year, I set the goal to publish a thoughtful blog every Monday.. 52 of them! Don’ Daily is a recap of the entrepreneurship adventures I collect, as well as the new lessons I’m constantly learning from doing. My hope is that this entertains, inspires, and influences new creative ideas for you. Every Monday. If you enjoy the blog, please share!
Thanks for reading Don’s Daily! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Built Out Version v2 of My Stock Research Tool With Claude
I spent all Saturday building out Version v2 of my stock research tool with Claude. I now have a new page built specifically for helping me generate investment memo’s. Which even now pops out an investment score based on my notes:
The software spits out a message like this below:
Then, AI decodes my research notes into an investment memo, and we publish on X.
And to be very clear, I’m putting in the 10 hours of manual research work.
I don’t believe in AI being a replacement for humans (yet?). Just an amplifier.
The AI takes the copy from mynotes, and formats them into an investment memo.
I feel 100X more organized and on point doing my research with AI.
This system I built combines Claude, Grok, and Gemini.
Community Shoutout
New Members
Welcome Charles & Sabrina!
Our two newest subscribers.
I like Sabrina’s take on AI, below!
I agree, AI has so much wasted effort within the industry.
Send this to your friend, let’s feature them!
Winning Community Member:
Chris Payne of Netneural AI
We had 7 CEO’s apply within the 6 hour time window (thank you!)
Drum roll please… Chris Payne of Netneural AI, congrats!
(I actually already interviewed him on Wednesday)
Chris and team ( (Mike and Heath!)) were nice enough to donate time answering questions about their company, history with Kroger, and Sensing tech.
Think of a grocery store with hundreds of refrigerators, freezers, and cold cases.
Right now, an employee walks around with a clipboard and manually checks temperatures a few times a day. (so antiquated, I know!)
If a freezer fails at 2 AM, nobody knows until the morning..
And, thousands of dollars of food is ruined,.
Or worse, unsafe food reaches the customers.
Netneural AI’s modular sensors for industrial use-cases fixes that specifically, and a handful of other important markets.
You purchase your physical sensor, integrate it with your supply chain, and place it near the areas in your warehouse you want to track.
You can track temperature, but you can also track gas detection, vibration measurement, people sensing, and more.
The sensor feeds data to their cloud platform called Sentinel (cool name).
From farm to table, they literally track it all.
Most people think of IoT as a single device.
Chris and his team (Mike and Heath) think of it as an Industrial Nervous System.
To learn more about this wonderful community member —» Check out Chris’s Linkedin.
Why AI Sensors? Why now?
Great question.
The Food Safety Modernization Act was enacted this decade, and is expected to begin compliance requirements 2028.
This means every company that handles fresh produce, cheese, eggs, seafood must now create and maintain detailed records of the entire farm to table processs.
That means if there’s an outbreak, the FDA doesn’t want to spend weeks tracing a bad bag of spinach back to a farm.
That’s a nice tailwind, but regulators keep delaying the day it formally begins.
So the way I understand it, the world is changing, essentially, as of 2028 we’ll require full farm-to-shelf digital traceability.
You the three Founders have a perfect Founder:Market Fit team, everyone shares a background in related tech while working at Kroger.
Not to mention, Kroger is heavily implementing AI sensor technology already with "KroGO" smart carts, also smart shelf labels, and AI in partnership with Microsoft.
In fact, Kroger just unveiled their newest employee… a robot.
When Grocery chains are implementing AI robotics.. it makes you question is this just a fad? Or, a generational shift in how every single company conducts their operations? (I vote the latter)
If you want to apply for a future Community Feature, stay tuned!
Before you read more below, make sure you’re subscribed if this was forwarded to you!
Here’s Why I’m Passing on Exxon as a Value Bet:
In short, I don’t do momentum bets. Although, if we claim control of Hormuz and charge a tax, there’s a real argument to find value within Exxon Stock.
Here’s Why I’m Deep Diving into Software Stocks
Besides that Tech is my deep expertise. There’s a wave of momentum, too.
According to Apollo, Tech valuations have reset to pre-AI boom levels. Forward P/E for the S&P 500 Information Technology sector has compressed from ~40x to ~20x, erasing the multiple expansion driven by AI enthusiasm.
There’s some blood in the water, this shark is swimming.
I’m researching 8 hours a day, as many days as I can, trying to discover value that’s being overpriced on risk.
In software, the baby has 100% been thrown out with the bath water.
I’m filtering through the bath water.
If any software stocks have peaked your fancy, please respond back and tell me so I can do a deep dive analysis of their financials and team. (don@virtualrealityinvestment.com)
Must Watch Moment
At age 99, Charlie Munger drops some incredible 5 minute advice during his last interview. Skip forward about 45 seconds.
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR, DO NOT TAKE THIS AS INVESTMENT ADVICE. YOU SHOULD DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH, CONFIRM ALL DATA FROM PRIMARY SOURCES, AND CREATE YOUR OWN THESIS. I write this purely as a way to hear myself think, to provide some level of education and insight, and share my thinking with our readers.
