That Was The Week: Recent Episodes
Keith Teare
Published weekly as a supplement to the 'That Was The Week' newsletter, this podcast features Keith Teare and Andrew Keen discussing the events in tech that will shape the future of startups, venture and angel investing. https://thatwastheweek.com Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
Contents
- Editorial:
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Essays of the Week
- Least Bad (De-Dollarization?)
- Only About 10% of VCs Make Money
- Searching for Unicorn Funds - A Look at Fund DPI
- Venture Firms Hang the ‘For Sale’
Sign on Portfolios + How to Win in Venture Capital: Focus on the Fat Tails + What Makes a Good SaaS Company? + The Best Founders are over 50 Years Old + Meet the YC Summer 2023 Batch Garry Tan + AI and the New Digital Cold War * Video of the Week
- Andrew Keen and Ludwig Ensthaler on AI
- Fareed Zakharia on AI
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AI of the Week
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What OpenAI Really Wants - Steven Levy
- 6 Examples of Doman-Specific Large Language Models
- What We Can Learn From AI Startups in Y Combinator’s Latest Batch
- Apple Spending Millions of Dollars a Day on Conversational AI
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News Of the Week
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European Venture Funding Halved In Q2 2023 As Late-Stage Investors Dialed Back
- The End of Airbnb in New York
- Spotify’s $1 Billion Podcast Bet Turns Into a Serial Drama
- UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging
- Apple Signs New Deal With Arm to License Chip Designs Beyond 2040
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Startup of the Week
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‘He Doesn’t Need VC in His Life’: How Midjourney’s Founder Built an AI Winner While Rejecting Venture Capital
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X of the Week
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Apple
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Contents
- Editorial: Hit Job
-
Essays of the Week
- VC Returns - The Power Law
- Down Rounds Are a Nothing Burger?
- VCs are just middlemen.
- Realizing Non-Winners Early Drives IRRs
- Secrecy Harms Startups
- Fund of funds: why to invest and, more importantly, why not
- As Venture Market Slows, Fewer Early-Round Unicorns Being Minted
- Rest - The case for sabbaticals
- Why Do Investors Care So Much About LTV:CAC?
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AI of the Week
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Generative AI applications: an investing framework
- Early days of AI (and AI Hype Cycle)
- Meta Releases ‘Code Llama’ Generative AI Model to Assist in Code Creation
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News Of the Week
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New SEC Rules Could Hurt VC’s Newcomers
- Hugging Face Hits $4B Valuation After Salesforce Ventures-Led Round
- SoftBank’s Arm IPO Win Won’t Make Up for What It Missed Out On
- Startup World Looks On As Arm And Instacart Set To Test Waters Of IPO Market
- Cracking Open the IPO Window
- The IPO Window Is Open. But Are Founders Ready?
- The Scam in the Arena - Is Chamath a Scammer?
- New Features For LinkedIn Newsletters
- Nvidia’s Rocket-Ship Year
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Startup of the Week
-
Pact VC
- X of the Week
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Contents
- Editorial:
-
Essays of the Week
- Institutionalized Belief In The Greater Fool
- New Unicorn Creation Has Dwindled From 2 Per Day To 2 Per Month
- Even a Down Round is Hard to Get
- Tech Valuations Q2’23 Report
- Advice to Venture Fund Investors
- State of pre-seed fundraising: Q2 2023
- Venture capital funds are mostly just wasting their time and your money
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Video of the Week
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Dave Winer and Andrew Keen on Blogging, Podcasting and More
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AI of the Week
-
The AI Power Paradox
- What if Generative AI turned out to be a Dud?
- Insight Partners Has Invested More Than $4B Into AI. What’s Next?
- Google DeepMind testing ‘personal life coach’ AI tool
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News Of the Week
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Blackbird Ventures Sells Stake in Canva at $25.5 Billion Valuation
- Biden administration restricts US investment in tech China's military might employ
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Startup of the Week
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MTN, African Fintech
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X of the Week
-
Emotional Investing is Bad for Your Wealth
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Contents
- Editorial: Dry Powder?
-
Essays of the Week
- Dry Powder is not About to be Invested
- Down Rounds Should Be Led by Entrepreneurs
- Why Bill Gurley & Josh Wolfe Think VCs Won't Deploy All Their Dry Powder Anytime Soon
- ‘Tidal Wave’ of Down Rounds Hits Startups
- Global Venture Funding In July Was Second-Lowest This Year As Seed Startups Are Hit Hard
- VC Optimism Returning But More Pain Ahead In Their Portfolios
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AI of the Week
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OpenAI Shoots To No. 1 Spot On Private Cloud Startup Ranking, Underscoring AI’s Sudden Ascendency
- Generative AI Is Making Companies Even More Thirsty for Your Data
- Money on Autopilot: The Future of AI x Personal Finance
- Apple seeks to bolster expertise in generative AI on mobile devices
- AI Won’t Replace Humans — But Humans With AI Will Replace Humans Without AI
- Cloudflare as a Leader in AI? + Q2 Results
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News Of the Week
-
Yaccarino Says Advertisers are Coming Back to X in First Major Interview as CEO
- Five months ago Crunchbase vowed to try and avoid layoffs. Since then A.I. has changed everything
- WeWork’s going concern warning is a reminder that VC and low-margin business don’t mix
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Startup of the Week
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A better internet for readers
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X of the Week
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Twitter for Sale by X
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Contents
- Editorial: Bonfire of the Unicorns
-
Essays of the Week
- Historical Futurism
- Venture Capital and the Retail Investor
- Raising a fund in a downturn
- Fundraising in Confusing Times
- Fundraising is Hard - Fund of Fund Fundraising is Harder
- Unicorns Hobbled Amid VC Pullbacks
- The Unicorn Fire Sales Ahead
- Hopin, the struggling virtual conference unicorn, sells events and engagement units to RingCentral
- Reset & Rethink – Assessing Venture Capital with Gené Teare of Crunchbase
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Video of the Week
-
LK-99 - Room Temperature Super Conductor
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AI of the Week
-
SEC Proposes New Conflict of Interest Regime for Predictive Technology
- Where Will AI Have the Biggest Impact? Healthcare.
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News Of the Week
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State of Private Markets: Q2 2023
- Early-Stage Venture Capital Investment Down 54%
- Coatue Raises $331 Million for Early-Stage Fund, 34% Below Target
- Alphabet Stands Out in a Trio of Unimpressive Earnings
- Meta Posts Strong Q2 Results as Facebook Crosses 3B Monthly Active Users
- AngelList expands into private equity with the acquisition of fintech startup Nova
- Venture Capital Firm Sequoia Cuts Crypto Fund by 66%
- Volkswagen takes 5% stake in XPeng as part of Chinese EV deal
- Tuesday Capital, a Silicon Valley firm that moved to Austin during the pandemic, captures $31M for its newest seed-stage fund
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Startup of the Week
-
LK-99
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Tweet of the Week
-
Stripes New CFO
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Contents
- Editorial:
-
Essays of the Week
- Venture Capital — We’re Still Not Normal - @CoatsDavid
- Seed investing can’t turn back on - @lessin
- The Broken Venture Value Chain - @fintechjunkie
- Here Are The Venture Capital Firms That Are Investing Much Less - @ericnewcomer
- Indexing Venture and Other Fool's Errands - @jordsnel
- Manager Selection in Venture Capital - @scotthartley
- The meeting that showed me the truth about VCs - @tomerdean
- All-In Podcast on the venture business - @jason, @chamath, @DavidSacks, @Friedberg
- In Defense of Strategy - @packym
- The creator economy was already exploding. Then Hollywood went on strike. - @drewharwell, @TaylorLorenz
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Video of the Week:
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Marc Andreessen on Why Elon is Special - @pmarca
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AI of the Week
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A Case for Heuristics: Why Simple Solutions Often Win in Data Science - @HollyEmblem
- OpenAI, Google will watermark AI-generated content to hinder deepfakes, misinfo - @ashleynbelanger
- Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Secures Voluntary Commitments from Leading Artificial Intelligence Companies to Manage the Risks Posed by AI - @WhiteHouse
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News Of the Week
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Sam Altman's biometrics-based cryptocurrency Worldcoin is now live - @Fauza4IR
- How Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Engineered Its Token Launch - @aidanfitzryan
- Elon Musk Says the Twitter Brand Will be Retired, Renamed ‘X’, Very Soon - @adhutchinson
- Almost 70% of Israeli startups act to shift funds, relocate due to judicial shakeup - @SharonWrobel1
-
Startup of the Week:
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Cafe Cyberia - @restofworld
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Tweet of the Week:
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Not the X Designer - @anothercohen
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Contents
- Editorial: Data-First Venture is Coming
-
Essays of the Week
- The Future of Venture Capital? Insights Into Data-Driven VCs
- Has persistence persisted in private equity? Evidence from buyout and venture capital funds
- Why more is less in investing
- Symposium: The unique uselessness of business advice
- VCs make mistakes too. And LPs need to be aware of them.
- How This Ends (Part Three)
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Video of the Week
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Producing Charts with AI - Tomasz Tunguz
-
AI of the Week
-
ChatGPT update allows it to remember who you are and what you like
- Teaching Programming in the Age of ChatGPT
- The AI craze will implode faster than #Threads (🫢) if folks can't figure out how to make money from AI.
- Apple is reportedly developing its own generative AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT
- Microsoft launches vector search in preview, voice cloning in general availability
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News Of the Week
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Silicon Valley start-ups explore sales as funding runs dry
- Venture debt deals decline 38%, led by SVB's core market
- Meta unfriends the news industry in growing rift with publishers
- BlackRock's Larry Fink says crypto will transcend any one currency
- Court denies FTC’s last-ditch attempt to stop Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard
-
Startup of the Week
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Sequoia Capital
-
Tweet of the Week
-
Entitled Employees?
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thatwastheweek/message
Contents
- Editorial: Khan and Gensler Should Be Fired
-
Essays of the Week
- Threads won’t kill Twitter if it’s boring
- Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
- FTC appeals its loss to Microsoft in Activision Blizzard case
- XRP Sold on Exchange Declared Not an Investment Contract
- Ripple’s XRP Token Surges 96% After Court Rules XRP Sales Aren’t Investment Contracts
- FTC opens investigation into ChatGPT creator OpenAI
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Video of the Week
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Y Combinator - Will OpenAI Kill Startups?
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AI of the Week
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Elon Musk launches AI startup and warns of a ‘Terminator future’
- Elon Musk's xAI Might Be Hallucinating Its Chances Against ChatGPT
- Bard’s latest update: more features, languages and countries
- Inside Google’s big AI shuffle — and how it plans to stay competitive, with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis
- OpenAI and Associated Press (AP) announce partnership to train AI on news articles
- Harvard is using ChatGPT to teach computer science
- How elite schools like Stanford became fixated on the AI apocalypse
- Survey Finds AI Interviews Will be Used by 43% of Companies by 2024
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News Of the Week
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Threads Reaches 100 Million Members in Record Time
- China sets wide-ranging rules for private investment funds worth almost $3 trillion
- Mercedes will use Tesla's EV charging standard on North American cars
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Startup of the Week
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Pulsar Fusion
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Tweet of the Week
-
Michael Arrington
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Contents
- Editorial: Data-First Venture is Coming
-
Essays of the Week
- The Future of Venture Capital? Insights Into Data-Driven VCs
- Has persistence persisted in private equity? Evidence from buyout and venture capital funds
- Why more is less in investing
- Symposium: The unique uselessness of business advice
- VCs make mistakes too. And LPs need to be aware of them.
- How This Ends (Part Three)
-
Video of the Week
-
Producing Charts with AI - Tomasz Tunguz
-
AI of the Week
-
ChatGPT update allows it to remember who you are and what you like
- Teaching Programming in the Age of ChatGPT
- The AI craze will implode faster than #Threads (🫢) if folks can't figure out how to make money from AI.
- Apple is reportedly developing its own generative AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT
- Microsoft launches vector search in preview, voice cloning in general availability
-
News Of the Week
-
Silicon Valley start-ups explore sales as funding runs dry
- Venture debt deals decline 38%, led by SVB's core market
- Meta unfriends the news industry in growing rift with publishers
- BlackRock's Larry Fink says crypto will transcend any one currency
- Court denies FTC’s last-ditch attempt to stop Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard
-
Startup of the Week
-
Sequoia Capital
-
Tweet of the Week
-
Entitled Employees?
https://thatwastheweek.substack.com/p/data-first-venture-is-coming
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Contents
- Editorial:
-
Essays of the Week
- How to Do Great Work Paul Graham
- How Analytics Wins - Ergest Xheblati
- The Modern Data Stack - Muji
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Twitter and Threads
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Twitter's Final Boss: Zuckerberg Wages War
- You can’t post ass, Threads is doomed
- Meta’s New Threads App Reaches 30 Million Users in Less Than a Day
- Twitter threatens to sue Meta over its new Threads app
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Video of the Week
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Vinod Khosla - The Trillion $ AI Opportunity
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AI of the Week
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AI and the automation of work - Benedict Evans
- Why Generative AI is such a "Nuclear" Force
- OpenAI makes GPT-4 generally available
- Artificial Intelligence firms flock to SF, “AI capital of the world”
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News Of the Week
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Nutrition, sleep and mental health advice offered to tech founders at risk of burnout
- First Cut — State of Private Markets: Q2 2023
- VC Exit Value Sags to Lowest Level Since the GFC
- US venture capital spending drops sharply in 2Q
- Unicorns face mass extinction as funding plummets
- Khan Rewrites the Merger Rulebook
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Startup of the Week
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SoftBank backs Japanese robotics startup Telexistence in $170M funding round
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Thread weet of the Week
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Bluesky, Twitter, Threads and Mastadon as clothing styles
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Content this week from @gideonrachman, @Tabby_Kinder, @KateClarkTweets, @askhalid, @DanKuhn13, @mvpeers, @maskedmanmarc, @BitcoinSVTrain, @IanBremmer, @IKrietzberg, @a16Z, @JagmeetS13, @EllenYChang, @Dexerto, @elonmusk, @finkd
- Editorial: The Venture Wreckage
-
Essays of the Week
- Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing
- Silicon Valley VCs rush into defence technology start-ups
- Antitrust Threat to Figma-Adobe Deal Thwarts Hopes for VC Rebound
- Spotify’s podcast plan is going off the rails
- FTC’S Amazon Lawsuit Is ‘Silly’ If Not Insulting, Analyst Says
- What the FTC Misses With Amazon Lawsuit
- In VC Ranking, New & Small Firms Make The Biggest Splash
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Video of the Week
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Ian Bremmer’s ‘new globalization, a digital global order’: Will it work for us, or against us?
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News Of the Week
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Molten Ventures still hamstrung by dismal trading backdrop
- Big Tesla Rival Latest to Partner Up With The EV Leaders
- Masayoshi Son Ends Seven-Month Silence to Make Case for SoftBank’s Future
- Visualizing BlackRock’s Top Equity Holdings
- Twitter Rolls Out 25k Character Tweets for Twitter Blue Subscribers
- UK Considers New Law To Label AllL AI-Generated Content
- Andreessen Horowitz creates ‘Perennial’ evergreen fund amid market slowdown
- Startup of the Week
- Tesla Supercharger Network: Gas Station for EVs in Future
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Tweet of the Week
-
Elon Must and Mark Zuckerberg to Stage a Cage Fight
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Content this week from @Om, @Isabellesarraf, @pmarca, @elonmusk, @lexfridman, @jessicalessin, @ajkeen, @nickgrossman, @krishnanrohit, @kyle_l_wiggers, @demishassabis, @levie, @databricks, @@madewithmosaic, @mustafasuleymn, @inflectionAI
Contents
- Editorial: Phew, That Was A Week
-
Essays of the Week
- Why Apple’s Vision Pro Will Change Movie-Watching
- Spotify’s Video-Podcast Surge
- Linda Yaccarino’s vision for Twitter 2.0 emerges
- ‘Pressures Remain’: Coatue Prepares Tech Founders for the Road Ahead
- Three Reasons to Look Past the 40% Drop in VC Funding
- Big News Publishers Look to Team Up to Address Impact of AI
- Matt Higgins on How the Publishing Industry Will Feel the Coming AI Storm
- Amazon, Friction, and the FTC
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Video of the Week
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Marc Andreessen on what makes Elon Musk special | Lex Fridman
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AI of the Week
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AI + Crypto: Best and Worst Cases
- The US Senate Wants to Rein In AI. Good Luck With That
- Building god
- Inflection lands $1.3B investment to build more ‘personal’ AI
- Snowflake and Databricks are putting the data stored in their services to work
- Google DeepMind’s CEO Says Its Next Algorithm Will Eclipse ChatGPT
- MIDJOURNEY’S 5.2 GAME-CHANGING FEATURES EXPLAINED
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News Of the Week
-
Cash Is Drying Up in the Late-Stage VC Market
- ThoughtSpot acquires Mode Analytics, a BI platform, for $200M in cash and stock
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Startup of the Week
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Why Lightspeed is Leading Redpanda’s $100 Million Series C
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Tweet of the Week
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Aaron Levie - Databricks Buys Generative AI Startup MosaicML For $1.3B
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thatwastheweek/message
- Editorial - The Year of the Mask (again)?
-
Essays of the Week
- The Gospel of ARK Invest
- Twitter’s value down two-thirds since Musk takeover, says investor
- Elon Musk reclaims title of world’s richest person
- Twitter is Approving Far More Government Censorship Requests Under Elon Musk
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Video of the Week
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The Cure @Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, 2023.05.27
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AI of the Week
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Improving mathematical reasoning with process supervision - OpenAI
- Is The AI Hype For Real? $20B In Investments Says Yes - Crunchbase
- Introducing The Information’s Generative AI Database - The Information
- VC Giants Accel, Sequoia Scour Portfolio Startups for AI Risk
- AI Canon - A16Z
-
News Of the Week
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What is the total value of unicorn exits for US universities? Ilya Strebulaev
- Investors turn to AI-guided dealmaking to gain edge over rivals - FT
- JPMorgan is developing a ChatGPT-like A.I. service that gives investment advice
- What’s new on Substack
- WordPress.com challenges Substack with launch of paid newsletters
-
Startup of the Week
-
Apple MR Headset
- Is Apple’s weird headset the future?
- Meta Quest 3 Launches Later This Year + Lower Prices & Improvements for Quest 2
- Tweet of the Week
-
Renaming Twitter
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Contents
- Editorial
-
Essays of the Week
- State of Private Markets: Q1 2023
- Fund Size Is Still Strategy - The Growing Disconnect Between Founders and VCs
- 'ZIRP' No More: A Founder Playbook for the Market Downturn
- Series D Hits Lowest Point In Years. What Does That Mean?
- Nearly Half of YouTube’s U.S. Viewership Is Now on TVs, Helping Drive Ad Shift
- The Unified Content Business Model
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Video of the Week
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Greg Brockman at TED
- Yejin Choi at TED
-
AI of the Week
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Google "We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI"
- Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey?
- Lina Khan: We Must Regulate A.I. Here’s How.
- Google Suffers a Major Loss
- Slack updates aim to put AI at the center of the user experience
- Profit in AI
-
News Of the Week
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OpenAI closes $300M share sale at $27B-29B valuation
- New Unicorns Led By AI Companies In April, And Two Dropped Off
- ARM registers for US initial public offering
- Twitter Plans to Enable Publishers to Charge Per-Article to Bypass Paywalls in the App
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Startup of the Week
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Elon Musk Continues to Transform Las Vegas
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Tweet of the Week
-
Paul Graham
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Contents
Editorial: Shrinking
Essays of the Week
- These 4 Charts Show That, Slowly But Surely, Startup Funding Deal Sizes Are Shrinking
- The Fintech Funding Crunch In 4 Charts
- M&A for venture-backed startups has fallen to the lowest quarterly level in a decade
- Elon Musk Is Transforming Twitter, Not Killing It
- The Mother of All Pivots
- Grimes invites people to use her voice in AI songs
- 2023 State of AI in 14 Charts
- The History of AI in 7 Experiments
- Michelle’s Approach to ChatGPT Has Me Convinced Google Will Launch a Direct Competitor
- The first babies conceived with a sperm-injecting robot have been born
- Facebook Parent Meta Soars After Blasting Q1 Earnings Forecasts; Zuckerberg Sees More Cost Cuts
- First Republic Plunges To Fresh Record Low Amid FDIC Receivership Report
- Humane
- Benedict Evans
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Content this week from: @jonfingas, @harrymccracken, @TurnerNovak, @fredwilson, @kwharrison13, @ballmatthew, @ttunguz, @timoreilly, @davidcummings, @NeilThanedar
- Netflix will shut down its DVD rental business in September
- The End of Computer Magazines in America
- Shuttering of BuzzFeed News Signals Shift to Survival Mode
- Can Substack Save the Social Network?
- What Is A Protocol And Why Does It Matter?
- Building an Actual Unicorn
- 2023 Private SaaS Company Valuations
- Is Twitter finally dying?
- Why Every Startup Needs an AI Strategy
- Sam Altman: Size of LLMs won’t matter as much moving forward
- You Can’t Regulate What You Don’t Understand
- China’s new GDP figures may restore faith in its economy
- Elon Musk wants to develop TruthGPT, ‘a maximum truth-seeking AI’
- Google Looks to Turbocharge AI Efforts With Combined Brain, DeepMind Unit
- VCs Challenged by the Downturn
- Tiger Global Management’s $12.7 Billion Venture Fund Records 20% Loss
- Apple launches Apple Card’s savings accounts with 4.15% interest rate
- SeetGeek
- @NeilThanedar
This week’s headline is “Gone.” Specifically, Nexflix’s DVD service, Maximum PC and MacLife Magazines, and BuzzFeed News. The latter was “shuttered” today.
We could extend the meaning to include unicorns, later-stage venture funding, and Elon Musk’s first Starship.
In the case of the first three, it is surprising that they survived this long.
But I think these closures are a moment to acknowledge and mark. They have already been replaced long ago, and their passing is a testament to the work Netflix has done with streaming, the emergence of the newsletter and blog, and the frustrations we all have with headline writers seeking clickbait.
The downbeat tone continues with a Vox piece asking (with an implied answer) Is Twitter finally dying? Vox is no longer a news publication when it comes to Twitter, it has become a rag with a campaign seeking to fight against the company’s very existence. It is the Fox News of Twitter coverage.
A more thoughtful piece from Kyle Harrison is still, however, downbeat. It asks why almost all unicorns have never made a profit but overlook that many have enormous free cash flow that they decided to spend on growth as a conscious strategy. Spending profits (thus removing them as profits) is what startups should be doing. Amazon has done so for decades successfully.
Turner Novak writes about Substack, one of the emergent platforms, and asks the question, “Can Substack Save the Social Network?”
He tracks the history of Substack, increasing the tools that enable its writers, creators, and consumers to discover and recommend each other and the impact on subscriber growth. Meanwhile, Tomasz Tunguz of Theory VC states that all startups must have an AI strategy. Fred Wilson says protocols are important but are not well understood.
These articles and others focus on what is new and what comes next. As Leonard Cohen famously wrote, “that’s how the light gets in.”
In Silicon Valley, over $11.5 billion was invested in AI startups in the past three months. Web 3 funding has slowed to a crawl but has not disappeared. And biotech funding remains vibrant, along with new energy startups.
We are entering a phase where a new cohort of companies, funded since the middle of 2022, is attracting capital because of the scale of their ambition and the opportunity it represents. The number of funding rounds at the seed and early stage is declining, but the quality of the investments and the amounts raised are both strong.
2023 will be a big year for the next generation of successful startups, and I can’t wait to see what they bring to the table.
- Editorial:
- Product of the Week
- Now live for all: Substack Notes
- Notes questions answered
- Is Substack Notes a ‘Twitter clone’? We asked CEO Chris Best
Essays of the Week
-
- ‘We have to move fast’: US looks to establish rules for artificial intelligence
- Prohibition of AI that ‘subverts state power’ in China may chill its nascent industry
- What the End of HBO Max—and the Rise of ‘Max’—Means for Streaming
- Crypto VC Funding Slows to a Crawl
- Here Comes the Startup Panic
- SignalRank Funding Round and the Next Steps
-
AI of the Week
- Y Combinator’s Most Recent Winter 2023 Batch Shows A Shift To AI, DevTools And B2B
- A Brief Note To Our Founders Re: Impact Of Artificial Intelligence
News Of the Week
+ Garry Tan’s First Big Move as Y Combinator CEO Roils Founders
+ As tech slumps, SoftBank sells VC unit to Singapore-based firm led by Masayoshi Son’s brother
+ European VC Funding Drops 66% As Seed Takes A Hit, US Investors Pull Back
+ Twitter, Inc. is now X Corp.
+ Twitter partners with eToro to show real-time stock and crypto information
+ Twitter Rolls Out Creator Subscriptions
+ More newsrooms bail on Twitter as Musk meddles with account labels
Startup of the Week
- Betaworks’ new ‘camp’ aims to fund transformative early-stage AI startups
- Apple Savings AccountTweet of the Week
Contents
Editorial: An Open Letter
Essays of the Week
- Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter
- The Open Letter to Stop 'Dangerous' AI Race Is a Huge Mess
- Vinod Khosla on how AI will ‘free humanity from the need to work’
- Thinking About AI
- A Short History of Artificial Intelligence
- ChatGPT Gets a Computer
The Accidental Consumer Tech Company; ChatGPT, Meta, and Product-Market Fit; Aggregation and APIs
-
Video of the Week
- Coldfusion - AI is Evolving Faster Than You Think [GPT-4 and beyond]
-
News of the Week
-
Are solo GPs screwed?
- Death of The Generalist Seed VC
- The NFL Is Quietly Investing Millions Into Its Venture Capital Fund, 32 Equity
-
Apple Mixed-Reality Headset May Not Appear at WWDC as Mass Production Pushed Back Yet AgainStartup of the Week
-
Good Eggs Cuts Its Valuation 94% in Lifeline Financing as More Startups Get DesperateTweet of the Week
-
Sam Altman
Content this week from @stuwoo @mvpeers @JuliaAngwin @chloexiang @vice @neuwaves @jason_keobler @tayhatmaker @pkedrosky @blurcon @billgates @theo_wayt
Editorial: Are You a Communist?
Essays of the Week
- Who Is Shou Zi Chew, the TikTok CEO Trying to Reassure America?
- U.S. Tech Should Support TikTok at This Moment
- How to Fix the TikTok Problem
- Banning TikTok Is Unconstitutional, Ludicrous, and a National Embarrassment
- TikTok CEO says it wasn’t ‘spying’ when ByteDance employees surveilled journalists
- Teens Social Media Habits and Experiences
- Society's Technical Debt and Software's Gutenberg Moment
The Age of AI has begun
Amazon Faces Moment of Truth on Alexa as ChatGPT Steals Its Thunder
-
Video of the Week
- The Age of AI and Our Human Future
-
News of the Week
-
OpenAI connects ChatGPT to the internet
- OpenAI and Microsoft Are Partners, Until They Vie for the Same Customers
- Apple reportedly plans to spend $1B a year to release Apple TV+ movies in theaters
- Amazon layoffs will shut down camera review site DPReview.com after 25 years
- JPMorgan to acquire Aumni, provider of venture capital analytics software
- GitHub Copilot X: The AI-powered developer experience
- Adobe Launches Firefly AI
The FTC Just Announced a Solution to an Annoying Problem - Startup of the Week
-
Character.AI Hits Unicorn Status With $150M Raise As AI Craze ContinuesTweet of the Week
-
Keith Teare (yes, me)
That Was The Week 2023, #9
Content this week from @AlphaSignalAI, @kleinerperkins, @thegeneralistco, @theinformation, @htaneja, @om, @mslopatto, @geneteare, @reidhoffman @garrytan, @techcrunch, @wsj
Contents
Editorial
Essays of the Week
- Venture Capitalists Made a Big Mess of SVB
- What happens to Silicon Valley without Silicon Valley Bank?
- Where the Venture Community Goes From Here
- A Tough Weekend
- The Silicon Valley Bank fallout is just beginning
- In Their Own Words: What Silicon Valley Bank Meant To The Valley
- Impromtu - A Book Written by Reid Hoffman and GPT4
- Changes at YC
Video of the Week
- The BBC visits CYBERIA Café
News of the Week
- TikTok Is in Deep Trouble
- First Republic Gets Additional Funding From Fed, JPMorgan
- GPT-4 will arrive next week and will be multimodal
- Microsoft’s new Power Platform AI copilot will build your apps for you
- LinkedIn Adds AI-Generated Profile Summaries and Job Listings
- Robots Don’t Make Art
- AI Will Make Human Art More Valuable
- Mark Zuckerberg Ends the Tech Party
- Tiger Global Writes Down Venture Funds’ Bets by 33% in 2022
- Uber, Lyft Score Victory as California Court Affirms Right to Treat Drivers as Contractors
Startup of the Week
- The Remaking of Kleiner Perkins
Tweet of the Week
- @AlphaSignalAI
ContentsEditorial: Silicon Valley Bank. Canary in the Coal Mine?Essays of the Week* Silicon Valley Bank CEO Tells VC Clients to ‘Stay Calm’ * Silicon Valley Bank shoots self in foot * A Great Thread by Genevieve Roch-Decter * Another Good Thread, by Turner Novak * Some SVB customers are struggling to wire funds out of the bank * Silicon Valley Bank’s Stock Plunge Sends Jitters Through The Startup World * Banks Lose Billions in Value After Tech Lender SVB Stumbles * Generative AI And The Future Of Creative Jobs * Yes, ChatGPT Is Coming for Your Office Job * How ChatGPT Will Restructure Engineering Teams & Create Opportunity for Startups * OpenAI President on Musk Criticism: ‘We Made a Mistake’ * Substack: Empire of Narratives
That Was The Week 2023, #7, with content from:
@pmarca @chamath @eladgil @annimaniac @Cookie @hunterwalk @SignalRank
Bubbles and AI, by @kteare
That Was The Week 2023 #6
Content from @hunterwalk @altairvc @krishnanrohit @micsolana @johnbattelle @BessemerVP @stephen_wolfram @emollick @thecontentmines @tferriss @bgurley @Altimor
That Was The Week 2023, #5
Contents
Editorial: “Here’s Sydney”Essays of the Week* The Ascent of ChatGPT - Open Data Science * Bing’s A.I. Chat: ‘I Want to Be Alive. 😈’ - Kevin Roose (NYT) * A Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled - Kevin Roose (NYT) * Inside the Heart of ChatGPT’s Darkness - Gary Marcus * From Bing to Sydney - Ben Thompson, Stratechery * We’ve Seen This Before: Investors Take To The Next Shiny Toy — AI - Chris Metinko * Microsoft explains Bing's bizarre AI chat behavior - Steve Dent * ChatGPT clearly has a place- Dave Winer * Feedback loops, and Google’s home-field advantage with LLMs - Sarah Tavel * VC-Unicorns Vs. Real-Unicorns: The 2 Disastrous Impacts Of VC Hype - Dileep Rao * Growth Investing - All Change - Rob Go * Section 230 is On Trial. Here's What You Need to Know. Josh Richman * Sydney and the Bard - Mike Loukides * AI Platforms, Markets, & Open Source - Elad Gil
AI Can't Be Stopped.
https://thatwastheweek.substack.com/p/ai-cant-be-stopped
Content from @IndexVentures @a16z @azeem @GaryMarcus @Ljungman @krishnanrohit @bradleytusk @karanslala @pmarca @Samirkaji
Facebook at 2 billion users a week, ChatGPT already at 100m. Meta stock up 100% in 3 months. Is Tech Born Again?
thatwastheweek.substack.com/p/born-again-i…
Content from @alexkantrowitz @alexeheath @kateclarktweets @om @davekarpf @BrentLeary @hamishmckenzie @JONATHANVANIAN @karissabe & @TwitterDev
Contents* Essays of the Week
--AGI will not happen in your lifetime. Or will it?
--Google vs. ChatGPT
--Unicorn Valuations Are On The Chopping Block
--Thinning The Herd
--Netflix’s New Chapter
--Why Now is a Great Time to Raise Seed Funding. Even If It’s Awful for Series A-E Rounds.
--Japan to remove limit on overseas investment by startup funds
* News of the Week
--Cowboy Ventures goes bigger with $260M across two new funds, including an opportunity fund
--Lightspeed - Fintech Trends for 2023 and Beyond
--What Microsoft gets from betting billions on the maker of ChatGPT
--NEA Announces Two New Funds Totaling $6.2B
* Startup of the Week
--Substack
* Tweet of the Week
--Dave Rubin on Twitter
Contents* Essays of the Week
--24 Seriously Embarrassing Hours for AI
--Is Microsoft about to get the deal of the century? Or is Sam Altman unloading OpenAI at just the right time?
--Is ChatGPT Really a “Code Red” for Google Search?
--ChatGPT Creator OpenAI Could Be Valued At $29B In Tender Offer
--Infinite AI Interns for Everybody
--Who Owns the Generative AI Platform?
--Fireside Chat: Reid Hoffman, w/ Elad Gil (AI, Big Tech, & Startups)
--New AngelList Data Shows Startup Fundraising Pain in Second Half of 2022
--What Creators Really Want From Twitter
--Visualizing China’s Dominance in Battery Manufacturing (2022-2027P)
* News of the Week
--Apple’s New Reality
--Twitter Officially Bans All Third-Party Apps
--The European Union and the Quest for Digital Sovereignty: Briefing addresses the causes of Europe's failure on digital innovation
* Startup of the Week
--Blackstone raises over $22B for world's biggest secondaries fund
* Tweet of the Week
--Bill Gurley on Degobalization
This week we look at the fallout from the ChatGPT launch. How concerned should we be that ChatGPT is often wrong? Can we trust it? Should we use it? If so what for?
ActivityPub & #Mastodon are in the news. A long-time passionate group of believers in the indieweb has recently found a use case. @elonmusk has inspired many opponents to try this new distributed social technology. It is time to understand it.
Masayoshi San, Cathy Woods, Elon Musk, and Sam Bankman-Fried have all been in the spotlight I want to take a step back, and a deep breath and ask. Would we be better without risk-takers? Even risk-takers that take too much risk and lose? Content from @elonmusk, @CathyDWood, @GSands, @masason, @SBF_FTX, @HarryStebbings, @mwseibel
Contents Editorial
- In Defense of Risk-Takers
The Crazy Ones
- Masayoshi Son owes $4.7bn to SoftBank following tech rout
- 20VC: ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood - Harry Stebbings
- Musk Warns Twitter May Lose Billions Next Year
- Elon Musk gives Twitter staff deadline to commit to being ‘hardcore’
- Twitter Employees Have Reportedly Had Their Building Access Suspended and Musk is Being Suspiciously Quiet
- Costanoa’s First 10 Years: What a Long (and Short) Strange Trip It’s Been
Essays of the Week
- What to Watch in AI
- In My Newsletter I Trust
- Binance role in FTX collapse under congressional scrutiny
- Binance’s CZ is considering purchasing Genesis’ loan book
- Crypto Lending Seizes Up as FTX Contagion Spreads
- Narratives – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
News of the Week
- Endowments quickly slide from record-breaking returns to losses
- Want to Invest Like a VC? These New Indexes Can Help You Do It
- Meet The Companies That Joined The Emerging Unicorn Board In October 2022
- Sam Bankman-Fried Tries to Explain Himself
Startups of the Week
- Protocol - RIP
- Mother Duck
- Mastodon
Tweet of the Week
- Michael Seibel - @mwseibel
This week saw FTX shrink from $32 billion of value to zero in less than 48 hours. @TheInformation is doing great reporting. It seems the ill-named founder @SBF_FTX - Sam Bankman-Fried - invested hundreds of millions into Sequoia and other funds. The @SECGov failure to provide a regulatory framework for Crypto seems even more silly. But @DavidKirkpatric and @LHSummers provide a thoughtful distraction from the noise.
Contents Editorial: I Vote For Change
Essays of the Week: The end of the Internet?
- In Our Own Best Interests - Techonomy - David Kirkpatrick
- Larry Summers Compares the Surge of Pain in Tech to the Dot-Com Bubble
The Big FTX Collapse
- Sam Bankman-Fried’s Late-Night Move and How the FTX House Crumbled
- FTX’s $2 Billion Startup Fund Ensnared in Collapse
- FTX’s Bankman-Fried Quietly Invested More than $500 Million in Sequoia and Other VCs — The Information
- Binance walks away from FTX deal, citing ‘mishandled customer funds,’ regulatory scrutiny
Substack
- Introducing Mentions and Cross-Posts
- The Substack Bestseller Badge
Zoom Zooms
- Zoom is coming for Microsoft’s territory with email and calendar services
- Tesla vehicles will soon have Zoom video conferencing
This Week in Twitter
- Musk Warns Twitter May Lose Billions Next Year
- Musk ends remote work at Twitter
- Elon Musk sells Tesla shares worth $4bn
News of the Week
- Meet The New Unicorns Minted In October 2022
- Tiger Global Slashes Value of Private Tech Bets by Billions, Documents Show
- VC firm Molten Ventures cuts portfolio value after tech sell-off
- Changing times (or, why is every layoff 10-15%?
- Stripe will lay off 14% of its employees
Startup of the Week
- The Internet
Tweet of the Week
- Sam Bankman-Fried
Twitter is complicated. And this week it has attracted intense and emotional attention from a wide spectrum of opinions. The standoff between @AOC and @ElonMusk on his intent to charge $8 a month for the Twitter blue tick is symbolic of a wider debate. @karaswisher, @waltmossberg and @davidsacks all weigh in. @HamishMckenzie of @Substack also has an angle.
Contents Editorial: Elon Musk 1-0 Kara Swisher
Twitter’s Rebirth
- Elon Musk
Twitter is Good for Substack
- Hamish McKenzie
- Introducing Substack Chat
Essays of the Week
- Meta Myths - Ben Thompson
- Ways to think about the Metaverse - Benedict Evans
- Will nationalism end the golden age of global AI collaboration?
- After A Lot Of Hype, (Useful) AI May Finally Be Here - Crunchbase
- Google releases text-to-image AI model Imagen for public use for the first time
- Why America Must Develop Space and How We’ll Do It - Andreessen Horowitz
Review of the Week
- iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: A Small Step, a Huge Leap
Fool of the Week
- Elizabeth Warren
Startup of the Week
- Tiger Global Management
Tweet of the Week
- Elon Musk
Meta lost 25% of its value in 24 hours. Twitter moved to close the deal with Elon Musk as its stock neared $54. Both founders have a vision. Whose will win? Discuss…
Content from @elonmusk, @finkd, @noahpinion, @stratechery, @seedcamp, @ttunguz
Contents Editorial
A Tale of Two Platforms
- Meta
Essays of the Week
- 9 Predictions for Data in 2023
- Apple’s new App Store tax on ads is a direct shot at Meta
- Generative AI Startups Attract Business Customers, Investor Funding
- Chips and China
- The end of the system of the world - by Noah Smith
- The Rise of Real-Time Collaborative Tech : Seedcamp
News of the Week
- Mobileye stock rises 40% in its return to a public market in chaos
- Stability AI CEO, After Ruffling Feathers of Researchers, Discussed $1 Billion in New Financing
- Andreessen Horowitz’s Flagship Crypto Fund Takes A Beating — Report
- Tech unicorn start-ups valued at $1 billion now rare in Silicon Valley
Startup of the Week
- Snowflake
Tweet of the Week
- Elon Musk
The rise of data, and the increasing scope for AI to mine it for useful outputs, leads some to predict the end of apps. Can we dream of just asking for what we want, and getting it? Lots to chew on this week. Enjoy.
Contents Editorial
The End of Apps? - A Discussion
Essays of the Week
- The AT Protocol - The Bluesky Team
- AI 2022: The Explosion - The Coatue Venture Team
- AI: Startup Vs Incumbent Value - Elad Gil
- An AI Might Have Written This - Fadeke Adegbuyi
- Alien Truth - Paul Graham
- Will the Metaverse replace PCs?
- Accel 2022 Euroscape: Reset
- Mission → Vision → Strategy → Goals → Roadmap → Task - Lenny Rachitsky
- Dylan Field (Figma) - at TechCrunch Disrupt
News of the Week
- Meet The New Unicorns Minted In September 2022 - Gené Teare
- Around Acquired by Miro Labs
- Stanford Wants a Bigger Piece of Silicon Valley’s Top VC Funds: Endowment Chief
- Silicon Valley is starting to cave to European regulators
- Meta Must Sell Giphy, U.K. Competition Authority Orders in Final Decision
Startup of the Week
- Minerva Lithium
Tweet of the Week
- Hunter Walk
Twitter needs new leadership, and Elon Musk is the best chance of getting it. This week he renewed his bid to buy Twitter at the original price. But is he really going to pull the trigger? Or is it a ruse to blame bankers? Also @danrose999, @rabois, @Mazzeo @alex @elonmusk
Contents
Take a Walk on the Wild Side
- ‘Elon Musk Proposes to Buy Twitter for Original Price of $54.20 a Share’
- Elon Musk's lawyers ask the judge to call off the Twitter trial
- Judge halts Elon Musk-Twitter litigation to allow time to finance $44bn takeover
- Everything we know about Elon Musk’s messy new Twitter offer
- Elon Musk’s Half-Baked Robot Is a Clunky First Step
Essays of the Week
- The art and science of picking winning teams
- The unicorn funding slump is worse than you thought
- Tiger Partner John Curtius is Leaving to Launch His Own Fund
- Coatue General Partner Matt Mazzeo Departs to Launch Fund
- The US venture capital slowdown doesn't look that bad
News of the Week
- EU votes to force all phones to use the same charger by 2024
- From seed to series E, companies cut staff after raising millions
Startup of the Week
- Substack
Tweet of the Week
- Dan Rose
- Keith Rabois
When Lina Khan came into office. She was championed as a friend of the people facing up to Big Tech. Today her reputation is in tatters. We predicted she was not well prepared for success, and we were right. Also, great content from @a16z @openai, @conniechan, @elonmusk @stevecase, @floodgatefund and @annimaniac
Content
Regulators on the Rocks
--Lina Khan’s ambitious FTC is facing ‘extremely difficult choices
--A Call to the SEC to treat Crypto Assets is if Clients Matter
Essays of the Week
--Why Google is pushing for open media formats
--There’s New Proof Crispr can Edit Genes Inside Human Bodies
--The Best Managers Are Leaders — and Vice Versa
--What China Can Teach Us About the Future of TikTok and Video Search
--Introducing Whisper
--Dall-E 2 users to be allowed to upload faces for the first time
--Funding When Capital Isn’t Cheap
--Debt Pitches Are in Vogue, but Not All Tech Startups Are Biting
News of the Week
--Musk’s Legal Team Will Be Allowed to Use Zatko Payout as Part of Case Against Twitter Deal
--New Report Underlines the Increasing Reliance on Social Platforms for News Content, Including TikTok
--Meta Announces Facebook Reels API to Enable Reels Sharing via Third Party Apps
--Semafor Interview: Facebook could lift Trump’s suspension in January, Nick Clegg says
--Steve Case | Rise of the Rest | McKinsey Author Talks
Startup of the Week
--Looking at 320 pitch decks here’s what science tells us works best
Tweet of the Week
--Floodgate Fund and Anna Miura Ko
Contents from this week’s newsletter
This week a whistleblower demonstrated how poor Twitter’s internal data controls are, mirroring previous proof that TikTok is similarly challenged. And politicians focused on TikTok
Contents Is TikTok Hatred Racist?
- Is TikTok’s Time Running Out?
- Meta Can Thank TikTok for its quiet day in Congress
Essays of the Week
- Twitter Whistleblower Testifies (video)
- OpenAI - Sam Altman and Reid Hoffman in conversation - Podcast and Transcript
- What you Learn from Hypergrowth - 3 years at Hopin
- Big Tech Revenue and Profits Breakdown
News of the Week
- Twillio Lays off 11%
- The Post Crash VC Market - Mark Suster
- A Bull Case for Fintech
- VC fundraising and the New Normal
- VC Secondary Bargain Hunters
- Northzone closes $1bn fund
- Venture Healthtech funding falls 42%
- A16Z is now a Landlord
Startup of the Week
- Figma
Tweet of the Week
- Fred Destin
Her full title reads
Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
She is no more. And much of what she stood for is also in decline
A lot to digest this week. China’s global economic leadership in sustainable tech, @garrytan has a new role heading Y Combinator, @OM exposes Apple’s AI weakness, @VitalikButerin has a new book, @Cloudflare defends the freedom to publish, @ttunguz thinks about web3 apps and @SamirKaji tweets about what makes a good VC.
Silicon Valley is struggling to adjust to the post-2021 correction. Some signals are way up, like Snowflakes revenues and stock price. Others are down, like funding rounds. Venture Capital is always a few steps behind on both the downside and the up. But today is sunny, and so is the near future. Andrew Keen and I discuss this week’s newsletter.
Here are the links from this week
Contents Snowflakes Stellar Quarter
Essays of the Week
- Worldcoin founder starts an AI Venture business
- Netflix is not a Tech Company - Benedict Evans
- Apple Car - Software and Money - Jean Louis Gassée
- Fundraising in 2022 - Tomasz Tunguz
- Paramount gets UEFA Champions League Streams till 2030
- Why Youtube made its own Video Chip
- Investments in Nuclear Fission and Fusion - Crunchbase
Elon Musk and Adam Neumann
- Musk Welcomes a Whistleblower
- Elon Musk subpoenas former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey
- Everything you need to know about the Twitter whistleblower complaint
- Can a Zebra Change its Stripes?
- The Anti-Adam Neumann - TechCrunch
Startup of the Week
- Thomvest
Tweet of the Week
- Jason Lemkin of SaaStr
$350m for the man who lost most of $20 billion. The world has not gone mad. Read why Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) did it. Plus @ReidHoffman on AI, Josh Nicholson on Science and AI, @BrianSolis on Web3 marketing@Alexoppenheimer on valuing companies, and much more
This week @bhorowitz of A16Z and David Weiden of @KhoslaVentures talk about culture as a catalyst for a healthy company. @SamirKaji talks about the importance of emerging seed investors, and @HunterWalk discusses the importance of angels with operating experience to a CEO. @Om Malik and @BGurley talk about survival techniques during downturns. How Unicorns are Born? That is the common theme.
This week I contrast the views of Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie and Vox’s Peter Kafka. And I couldn’t resist a few suggestions to Hamish. The Future of the Newsletter is the future of the network, whatever the outcome, so this is important.
Deep in the heart of summer and @Om links to the 200 best dance songs of all time. I’m passing it on as a gift. And DeepMind figured out the structure of 200m human proteins. Now that really is a gift. Data and Science are crucial to humanity’s future. Deep Minds think alike is this week’s theme.
A @bgurley tweet pointed to an essay written by Isaac Saul (@Ike_Saul), founder of Tangle. His essay challenges the idea that misinformation is a problem. He argues that nothing we humans think we know is actually true. Rather it is our provisional understanding. Of course, he is right. Truth is overrated
So many points of view about the venture ecosystem. Some panic, some optimism, some ‘wait and see’. Modern media likes to take sides but all of these sentiments are appropriate because more than one thing is happening. All at the same time. And many of them are good.
That Was The Week #317 can be found here - https://thatwastheweek.substack.com/p/stop-breathe-think
Andrew Keen and Keith Teare discuss That Was The Week #316
An average sports stadium can hold 50-100,000 fans. But teams have millions and sometimes billions of fans. What is the rue value of rights to stream games? This week Amazon bought UK Champions League rights. Can we expect more money to come for sports rights and who should own them?
Netflix announced 300 layoffs and Brex pulled the rug on its small business customers. But LocalGlobe raised $500m, InFarm announced two new farms and eBay bought NFT firm KnownOrigin. Making the right choices will help us all to live long and prosper. Web 3 seems to still be a good choice.
The Dark Ages describes a time when little or nothing changed. There was no progress. It needed the agricultural and industrial revolutions to break out from the dark. 2022 might seem dark but there is innovation all around us. Adapt or Die is this week’s theme. And unlike the dark ages, adaptation is an option. Content from @bgurley @samirkaji @sethlevine @geneteare @sequoia
This week sees a major shift from public to private investment, with UBS and Cathie Wood’s ARK weighing in. But what is the secret to unlocking private wealth growth? Content from @ArkInvest @UBS @join_EF @fpert041 and @geneteare from @crunchbasenews
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
34 new unicorns in May, 3 new decacorns. The best time in 5 years to be a VC? But Tiger is down 52%, 20,000 tech workers have been laid off, Sheryl Sandberg is leaving Facebook. It’s a good news, bad news, week. @geneteare @hunterwalk @gdibner @cz_binance @ftx_official
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
Another week and another glut of writing seeking to understand what has changed in the economy, the public markets, and the startup and venture capital world. As the old world dies the only important question is, what is being born?
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
LUNA token lost 99.99% of its value in a flash and #UST lost close to 80%. This is not supposed to happen. The FT disclosed Tiger Global is down $17 billion? Are crypto and unicorn investing dead? @bchesky @bgurley @davidsacks @jonwu_ @packyM
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308
Markets fell over 5% Thursday on the day Elon Musk announced he had raised $7 billion to help the purchase of Twitter. What are we to think? Bull market for tech, or bear market? Content from @danrose999 @elonmusk @mattturck @EricNewcomer @ttunguz @Samirkaji @sether
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
The King is dead, or are they? Indeed, the Google Finance chart seems to imply that Netflix is in horrible shape. From a 52-week high of almost $700, its stock sits at $218.22 as Thursday, 21st April.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
Is Elon Musk a “right-wing troll”? Or is he an example of real democratic thinking? How did it become “right-wing” to favor free speech? Content from @ElonMusk @DavidSacks @VitalikButerin and more
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
This week Elon Musk joined Twitter’s Board and Roelof Botha was named head of Sequoia. The UK made a bid to become the crypto capital of the World and Substack announced improved Podcasting and Editing tools.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
It’s hard to avoid being impressed by the vision of Worldcoin. Sam Altman wants to create a human-centric coin that can be distributed to every person on earth regularly. It is Universal Basic Income using a new currency.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
Apple held one of its 3-4 annual launch days this week and showed us the M1-Ultra. And a new 27" Screen. @Om has a top-end Apple display but still lusts after the less expensive new one. What gives?
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
This week we look at the Internet in War Time. Ukrainians are using it effectively. Meta, Youtube, and others are banning Russian content. Coinbase and Binance are not banning Russian content. Big Tech seems compliant with government requests. Is the Internet for good or for bad?
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
Putin invades Ukraine and Tiger invades Series A rounds. OK Not the same thing. This week we look at the 3 venture asset classes, unicorns, with content from @profgallaway, @geneteare, @crunchbasenews, @eastdakota, @cape and @LocalGlobeVC and others
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This week The Generalist covered Coatue while Paul Graham Tweeted that he has never read a business plan or a balance sheet. The contrast between the investment stages could not be starker. Are seed and growth investors partners, enemies, or frenemies?
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Web3 is becoming a more familiar label for innovative technologies. But what is it? This week Maggie Hsu from Andreessen Horowitz gets the lead position for her article covering what makes Web3 marketing different.
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This Week @Beezer232 Clarkson leads the way in analyzing 2022 venture capital trends. The public markets remain in a frenzy of volatility. @Bryce, @SamirKaji, and @MylesDanielsen all have opinions. Plus @AleResnik, @HPierreJacques, and @MillicastRTC
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Crunchbase reported that over 100 2021 unicorns reached the status by the B round. TechCrunch reported that Angel List has a fund that allocates capital using algorithms. Kyle Harrison says Venture Capital is becoming productized. Institutional Investor says that there is plenty of data on private companies. Is this is the golden age of data-driven decisions?
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January has been all gloom for tech on Wall Street, but there is still a boom in Silicon Valley. What are the implications for Venture investors and founders of startups? Let’s dig into valuations and trends in tech investing.
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Moxie Marlinspike ruffled feathers this week by suggesting that Web3 is, well, Web2 with marketing. Vitalik Buterin. did all but apologize and complain of lack of resources.Web3 is controversial and becoming more so.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
A new year always triggers reflection on the past 12 months and speculation on the next 12 months. Let’s do it. Predicitons on:
- Venture Capital
- The Creator Economy
- Web 3
- Globalization
- Big Tech and Regulation
- The Metaverse
- AI
- SPACs
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The Web 3 Wars broke out to the sound of loud cannon shots between Jack Dorsey, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk. Why do they care to disagree so much? We explain it all. Really
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Protocols, Nations, and Companies
- By Keith Teare • Issue #288 • View online
Will Protocols (Web3) or Big Tech (Web2) or Nation States (17th Century) own the future? Quite the debate raging in Foreign Affairs Magazine. We weigh in and explain.
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This week we focus on Web 3.0 news. DAOs, Creator Coins, Square becoming Block, David Marcus leaving Meta and Mysten Labs raising a $36m first round. Nothing happening here 😉. With Andrew Keen discussing - https://thatwastheweek.com/2021/12/09/web-3-0/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
This week we focus on Web 3.0 news. DAOs, Creator Coins, Square becoming Block, David Marcus leaving Meta and Mysten Labs raising a $36m first round. Nothing happening here 😉
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keith-teare/support
Announcing Signalrank Corporation
This week my new FinTech startup, SignalRank Corp, closed a $5m funding round. The company is focused on changing the rules of seed investing in favor of seed-stage companies and their seed investor. As more and more Decacorns are born, how do the early risk-takers secure their legacy?
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Lucid, Rivian, Tesla vs GM and Ford
Rivian lost $580m last quarter but is valued at $124 billion. Ford’s 2021 revenue will be over $120 billion and it is worth only 60% of Rivian. Now, is Apple about to join the party? Read on to see why it makes sense.
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USDC is rapidly becoming an acceptable currency for investment firms. It is secure, stable and a ready-made bridge to every other cryptocurrency. Now its parent — Circle — has started a venture fund using it, Fred Wilson advises owning it and Wall Street hedge funds are earning up to 9% interest by holding it. So why is it important?
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After Sequoia Capital’s reorganization last week, rumors are spreading that Andreessen Horowitz is considering a public offering. Whether true or not it begs an important question. Should VC seek to list publicly and trade on Wall Street? Or should it remain open only to large fund investors and wealthy families?
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This week Facebook announced the NothingVerse (read it, you’ll see) whereas Sequoia Capital fundamentally changed their organization and venture capital forever. What a contrast.
With Andrew Keen and Keith Teare
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Donald Trump is launching a social media platform just as Facebook is closing one down. Facebook’s proposed name change is an indication that Web 2 has reached the end of the road. Social Media is dead, long live Web 3. What Web 3 is, is still being written. But it is not Facebook or TRUTH.
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The Facebook whistleblower accused the company of putting growth and profit before everything. So, is growth bad? Is it incompatible with human good? Or is it the essence of progress?
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That Was The Week 2021 #275
This week’s news is dominated by Facebook, Apple, and Crypto but we ignore it and deep dive into libertarianism, DAOs, and Peter Thiel.
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This week a far deeper dive into the changing world of venture capital, and a video essay by @kteare to accompany a great selection of writers from across the venture ecosystem
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That Was The Week #273
This week Apple declares victory in defending its app store from claims it is a monopoly while its enemies circle the wagons intent on freeloading on Apple’s infrastructure.
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That Was The Week #272
South Korea Hits Apple and Google Where it Hurts Apple agrees to modify App Store rules in Japan in a week where South Korea passes a law forcing Apple and Google to create a billing back-door for developers who want to avoid paying for carriage.
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That Was The Week #34
Money is changing. Machine Learning is broken. China is winning foreign investment. Apple is becoming a spy and venture capital is exploding in all directions. Another That Was The Week.
With Andrew Keen and Keith Teare
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As Kabul collapsed and the Taliban took over, Facebook decided to try and remove any Taliban-related content. Good or Bad?
That Was The Week 2021 #33
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That Was the Week 2021, #32
Why Privacy Matters. With @ajkeen and @kteare
Apple crosses to the dark side. Its image fingerprinting and matching technology can be used for much more than protecting children. And it will be. The right to privacy is more important than ever.
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That Was The Week 2021, #31
Software and internet-focused investing is not dead. It's barely started.
Sam Lessin writes a really good piece on the end of venture capital as we know it. But it is not the end of venture capital as we know it. It’s the end of the second act. 3.0 coming up.
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That Was The Week 2021, #29
Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Cathie Wood, Fred Wilson, Mike Arrington all weighed in on the future of the planet this week. Some must-read stuff.
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That Was The Week 2021, #28
Facebook announced a one billion dollar budget for enticing creators to use its platforms. The New York Times said Venture Capitalists are looking to invest in creators. Cash for creators is finally here.
Cash For Creators? It's happening
https://www.getrevue.co/profile/thatwastheweek/archive/686342 (via @revue)
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That Was The Week 2021 #27
Another Venture firm announced plans to become a publicly listed company this week. Nic Brisbourne’s Blackrock-backed Forward Partners is the fund in question. So, can VCs become publicly listed companies?
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That Was The Week 2021, #26
2021 has seen 199 private valuations over $1 billion. The year has 7 months still to run. In response to this wealth creation angels, seed funds, venture funds, and growth-stage investors are changing the rules of the game.
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That Was The Week 2021, #25
This week Amazon said no to Google’s new tracking tech, FLOC. Microsoft launched an app store that takes zero from developers. Brave, the startup browser, launched a search engine competitor. Do free markets challenge Google and Apple better than Governments could?
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That Was The Week 2021, #24
Lina Khan’s rapid elevation from student paper writer to head of the US Government’s corporate regulation authority is a worrying signal that the Democratic Party has lost the plot on innovation and technology. Far from killing innovation, the US technology leaders are the heroes of it.
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That Was The Week 2021, #23
Global technology is creating a new class of companies valued over $100B. But who is winning and who is losing, and how can we ensure the benefit is evenly spread?
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That Was The Week 2021, #22
Are Micro VCs eating the startup world, or is it Tigers?
With @ajkeen and @kteare
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That Was The Week 2021, #21
CNBC chooses the most disruptive companies each year. This year's top 50 have been revealed. Who's in and who's out?
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That Was The Week 2021 #20
With @ajkeen and @sohear
2021 has been a good year so far for technology startups. 166 unicorns have been minted already, more than all of 2020. But how do you find a unicorn?
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That Was The Week 2021, #19
Back in the day, Venture Capital was simple. Raise a fund, pick the best startups and invest in the A round, follow on at the B and C, when revenue gets to a certain point (a variable) go and do an IPO, possibly preceded by a mezzanine round. Exit and go again. Not any more.
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That Was The Week 2021, #18
This week we do a deep dive into how China’s tech sector is building replacements for many US-sourced technology products and seeking true independence from the US as a supplier.
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That Was The Week 2021, #16
Momentum is building behind blockchain technology, and it is not limited to Bitcoin. This week we step back and survey the horizon
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That Was The Week 2021, #15
Coinbase listed in New York and is now worth over $60 billion. The listing symbolizes the coming of age of Bitcoin and the Blockchain.
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Is the Creator Economy For Real?
That Was The Week #14 with @ajkeen and @kteare
Should you quit your day job and turn to newsletters, videos, podcasts, and Clubhouse? Or, like Leonardo do you need your very own patron?
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That Was The Week 2021, #13
With Andrew Keen and Keith Teare
Clubhouse is used by 2% of adult Americans. Facebook has 68%. That is a lot of future growth if Clubhouse can own the experience. I’m still betting on it. I suspect Twitter, Fireside, Facebook, Linkedin, Spotify will struggle with quality content more than Clubhouse.
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That Was The Week 2021, #11
A monologue this week as Andrew was moving house.
A week where dreamers and innovators were confronted by skeptics and detractors. As you might guess, "I'm a believer". ;-)
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That Was The Week 2021, #10
The future of the human race is addressed by Sam Altman this week. A must-read edition of the newsletter
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That Was The Week 2021, #9
In a week that saw the belief in democracy decline, 22 new Unicorns reported, and the belief in digital art, user-generated games, and Bitcoin soar. What do we really value?
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That Was The Week 2021. #8
This week we look at Google’s new ad targeting tech, Jay-Z selling Tidal to Square and the rise of non-fungible tokens, widely known as NFTs.
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That Wast The Week 2021, #7 with Keith Teare and Andrew Keen
Recent increases in Podcasting and Newsletters are driving awareness that creator generated content is going through a renaissance. And now the major players have noticed. Since Spotify acquired Anchor.fm and SubStack launched to acclaim, the need to serve the creator has surfaced as a major theme of innovation.
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That Was The Week 2021, #6
The new world order in question has been coming for a long time. It is driven by an inevitability - the decline of great nations. There has never been an empire that did not decline. The reason? Capitalism.
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That Was The Week 2021, #5
With Andrew Keen and Keith Teare
There is not a problem to solve. Section 230 already provides the right balance. It allows me to publish on your platform without you becoming liable. It allows you to take down what I post if you have a solid enough reason. It does not expect you to scrutinise everything published. It works.
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That Was The Week 2021, #4
The slippery slope to top-down authoritarianism
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That Was The Week 2021, #3
This week’s That Was The Week has an obvious theme — disruption. The news of Gamestop’s crazy stock — growing by hundreds of per cent due to a Reddit group r\WallStreetBets — is evidence enough. But the out of control stock is only one story.
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That Was The Week 2021, #2
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
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That Was The Week 2021 - #1
Keith Teare and Andrew Keen on the week in tech
Commercial interests owning platforms used by the majority of society as a modern printing press are no more suited to deciding what is allowed to be published than the first printing press owners were suited to deciding what newspapers were allowed to print.
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That Was The Week #48
The last episode of 2020. Enjoy.
The Federal Trade Commission and 48 State Attorney Generals filed a suit against Facebook on Wednesday this week. It alleges that Facebook, through its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, exhibited antitrust behaviour.
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That Was The Week #47
Stewart Butterfield, the Slack founder and Bret Taylor, Chief Product Officer at Salesforce, represent a formidable team. Together with Salesforce's market weight and sales energy they are likely to play a major role in helping to evolve the operating system that enterprises run on.
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That Was The Week #46
Capitalism cannot innovate without investing. So Venture does not deform capitalism. It enables it.
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The State, Freedom and Big Tech in the Spotlight
That Was The Week #45
The astonishment at Mark Zuckerberg stating that Steve Bannon's calls to murder various people do not break Facebook's rules enough to ban him drew the eyes of many of the headline writers.
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That Was The Week #44
I usually do not like to talk about politics in That Was The Week. After all, tech and politics are very different worlds, and most of us do not determine our tech preferences based on politics.
That said, the rise of massive corporations valued over $1 trillion and the calls from all sides of the political spectrum for anti-trust measures against them make it hard to ignore politics in tech.
As we say goodbye (good riddance) to President Trump, and hello (phew) to President-Elect Biden, it is worth reflecting on how it will change the landscape in Silicon Valley. The consensus is well summed up in this week's News of the Week section dedicated to the topic.
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That Was The Week #43
Andrew Keen & Keith Teare
This week I highlight contributions from a wide range of points of view. Some call for the modification of Section 230. Others want it to remain untouched. Some want it ended altogether.
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That Was The Week #42
This week's show is a talk with Alex Kantrowitz from the "Big Tech" newsletter on Substack (https://bigtechnology.substack.com). Alex is also author of "Always Day One: How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay on Top Forever".
We discuss the Section 230 hearing in Congress, with the three leaders of Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but first, we talk about the anti-trust case against Google.
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That Was The Week, #41
I’m drawn to Bill Gurley again this week. He has been relentless in calling out the Investment Banks for “stealing” money from founders and employees’ pockets. He does not mince words.
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That Was The Week #40
What is the alternative to an open approach where everybody can post without fear of being "edited"? It can only be that some people designate themselves as more capable of truth than others and impose that truth on everybody. Such a 'benevolent', big brother, brave new world, approach goes against any sense of freedom and democracy.
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That Was The Week #39
Who stands for progress any more and human agency of the way to achieve it? Not the House Democrats it would seem.
https://thatwastheweek.com/anti-trust-can-we-trust-government/
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That Was The Week #38
The US and China are heavily interconnected economies. Their future is together in a connected world. TikTok is a false signal of the future.
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That Was The Week #37
This week Chamath Palihapitiya announced that he has 3 more SPACs set up and ready to go. These SPACs are vehicles to enable a company to go public, and get cash, without an IPO. Instead of gifting cash to the friends of Morgan Stanley this method gifts cash to Chamath and his friends.
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That Was The Week #36
It seems as if the going is getting too tough for some of Apple's former friends, especially MG Siegler. While Fred Wilson, never really a friend, is pleading on behalf of his portfolio for Apple to stop being so....well, capitalist.
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That Was The Week #35
The war between Apple and the advertising-led platforms is a war between business models. On the one hand, clickbait and ad revenue and on the other subscription and pay as you go.
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That Was The Week #34
The anti big-tech stance of DC is a replacement for any genuinely innovative or progressive outlook from either of the main political parties. Shame on both of their houses.
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A very public fight between two Venture Capital titans over how a company should go to the public markets. Andreessen tells Gurley to SPAC Off!
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We live in strange times. Apple's stock valued the company at over $2 Trillion this week. A reason to celebrate you might think. A company created, famously, in a garage by 2 young men, has grown to be a world leader. But in today's world it appears that big is bad.
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Elizabeth Yin is a founder at Hustle VC. 2 years ago she and her partners closed the first fund for the firm. This week she pointed to the story of how they did it. Anybody raising funds - whether for a startup or to become an investor should read it.
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Do we care where a consumer internet company was founded?
Let's start with the fact that I am British. Bear with me, it's relevant. I can still remember my middle school geography when the teacher told the class that the pink parts of the world map were "ours". There was a lot of pink. it was 1966 and I was 12.
The £ was no longer the currency of world trade and the empire had been in decline since about 1870 (its peak). The $ was triumphant ,and the US was the center of the world, but the map was still pink in lots of places. It took another 30 years for that to change.
So I am not suggesting that China (playing the role of the rising economy) is going to eclipse the USA (playing the role of Britain) any time soon. That said, the end game is already written. China will be an enormous global economy, just from its domestic buying power, and the US will not be able to retain the singular position it has had since before World War Two. Li Autos (one of several Chinese Tesla competitors) just completed a US IPO on the NASDAQ, raising $1.1 billion. I bought the stock for a long term hold, along with its competitor NIO.
Companies now internationalise very fast. FaceBook, LinkedIn, Google, Amazon and Netflix all benefit from that. There is no reason to believe that companies originating outside the USA will not benefit from the same tailwinds.
So, Tik Tok. Clearly it is a very successful company founded in China. And it spent a lot of money getting into its current position. Mainly cash from investors spent on Facebook ads. It now has a strong position and our President wants to ban it, or have Microsoft, or somebody else, buy it.
This is unlikely to be the last time a strong overseas company becomes strong in the US market. And asset seizures, bans or otherwise seem to be a bad precedent for a nation with many global companies to set. This week's discussion and newsletter focuses on China,Tik Tok and the future of global innovation.
Enjoy. And if you do please consider a paid subscription
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The big reads of the week focus on the positive elements of the current 'cancel culture' situation that point to a new enlightenment. Open discussion, free debate, tolerance for being offended combined with transformative innovation leading to widespread ability to deliver the needs of life, freely, to everybody.
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This week, ‘That Was The Week’ leads with Ned Desmond leaving TechCrunch after eight years as the boss. On the surface perhaps not the biggest story, but Ned has been the hidden hand of logic and execution at TechCrunch for the past 8 years, in the same way Heather Harde was in the period before. Having been acquired by AOL, then Verizon, the odds on Techcrunch surviving, never mind prospering, seemed low back in 2012 following the sacking of Mike Arrington by Arianna Huffington. But under Ned’s stewardship it has retained and grown its brand, expanded itself globally, grown readers to 20 million a month whilst scaling revenue. The foundation built by Mike Arrington clearly created a surviving brand and impact. Ned cultivated, protected and grew it. He will be missed.
The big reads of this week include a lot on the controversy around how to make money. Filthy lucre has never been a Silicon valley obsession – at least not explicitly. but now Bill Gurley of Benchmark fame has been leading the charge accusing bankers of stealing money from companies by underpricing IPOs. The response is to suggest direct listings, not using Bankers. Or SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies). Lots to read and digest as the future is architected through these conversations.
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