everything you need to read this week by @stephthefounder (May 5th)

Happy May 5th!! (One day late but I recommend searching “May the 4th be with you” on Google - thank me later)

The goal is to be the best weekly newsletter to summarize all the best things you need to know across tech, startups, VC, etc, sent out every Monday. (and at the minimum, it will include the links I post about every week on instagram!). Feedback (and a better/more creative newsletter name than the boring one I have now) always welcome!

💰 Companies that will make you a millionaire

Every week I highlight a few of my favorite startups that I personally think are really promising. They’ve typically received funding that week + are hiring, and occasionally I’ll include some special bonus ones.

This week’s companies:

1. Dub:

   • an app that allows you to easily copy the trades of investors, financial influencers, politicians etc. The company raised $30M this week (coincidentally the same week that a law is being pushed through that would ban members of Congress from trading appropriately nicknamed the PELOSI - Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments - Act, lol)

   • Job openings can be found here

2. Reducto AI:

   • transforms complex, unstructured documents such as PDFs, Excel sheets, and PowerPoint presentations into structured data formats suitable for LLMs (and has done so for 1000’s of customers). Raised ~$25M Series A.

   • Job openings can be found here

3. Nuvo:

   • verified “LinkedIn” for 50K+ businesses that allow businesses to seamlessly check other businesses’ credit, payment history, licenses, etc to reduce fraud and admin. Raised $35M.

   • Job openings can be found here

🤓 Best things to read instead of doomscrolling

The best things I’ve read every week, listed and summarized here:

1. ‘I Have Cancer,’ the TikTok Star Said. Then Came the Torrent of Hate by Katherine Rosman/NYT: The clickbait-y title reflects the intrigue of this article but doesn’t do justice to how substantive it is. Is sharing your personal life on the internet “worth it” (especially when you have something as tragic in your life as cancer)? Are people entitled to very loud criticism (and when does hate cross into harassment and go too far)? Side note - I love how the real identities behind some of the most cruel and active Reddit haters of this creator were called out in the article because of the good detective work of another Reddit sleuth lol. The power of the internet and an interesting illustration of how divided many of us are on this topic

2. The Playing Field by Graham Duncan (a highly respected investor). Although the basis of the essay is him reflecting on what has differentiated truly exceptional investors from everyone else, I like this essay because the themes (self awareness, growth through stages, reframing luck vs control etc) are broadly applicable to anyone navigating personal growth

3. The group chats that changed America by Ben Smith/Semafor: the article all over tech Twitter this week arguing that group chats are heavily influencing American politics/cultural discourse (especially by bridging Silicon Valley with Washington).

4. The empathy exploit by Adam Singer: I shared a video yesterday about my hatred for scammy sob story videos that are infecting social media as a way of selling crappy drop-shipped product for 5x markup to caring and unsuspecting doom-scrollers (lol) and this article resonated with some themes. This in particular resonated: “It is also notable and related that people lose friends when those friends have inverted empathy in favor of a political tribe and far off conflict instead of the intimate relationships in their own life. If everyone focused mostly on improving things locally, in a way their work had immediate impact on solving problems and improving relationships, the world would instantly become better.”

5. For fun: Vidclue.com - I get a lot of DMs asking about advice for content creation, especially if you’re a founder trying to invest more in social media and/or building out a brand. This is an incredible resource - i.e. a huge library of viral TikTok videos all thoughtful sorted into different types. Perfect for inspo.

6. For fun: “The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies—and Their Mothers” by Dana Mattioli/WSJ. The article is as scandalous as the title makes it sound lol.

📱 Everything you may have missed in tech/startup news

1. Anthropic to Buy Back Employee Shares at $61.5 Billion Valuation: Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, has announced plans to repurchase employee shares at a valuation of $61.5 billion. Really interesting because employees typically have to wait until exit/IPO (commonly 7+ years) and speaks to the competitiveness of AI talent wars. Follows others like Figma and Databricks.

2. Sam Altman’s World unveils a mobile verification device: Sam Altman's World (formerly Worldcoin) has introduced the Orb Mini, a portable iris-scanning device designed to verify human identity vs AI agents

3. Thinking Machines Lab CEO Has Unusual Control in Andreessen-Led Deal. Mira Murati (former CTO of OpenAI) is using her startup Thinking Machines Lab to set interesting precedents re board control and startup recruiting! The Information reports her having extremely favorable board control (“The provision ensures that she will control the startup’s board votes, no matter how many other directors vote against her, on major decisions like deciding whether to accept an acquisition offer, firing executives and approving executive compensation, according to a person who viewed the documents.”) and recruiting employees (and ensuring they get low strike prices) before solidifying a rumored $2b+ round.

4. Venture Firm Thrive bets on buying firms that can benefit from A.I. VCs are changing! Thrive announced $1b fund to buy/hold companies + Lightspeed is becoming an RIA (a trend of more VC firms transforming into truly multi-stage firms including PE, rollups, etc).

5. Inside the AI boom that's transforming how consultants work at McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte. Consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte, etc are embracing AI - some consultants are nervous about job security while others are excited about the productivity gains.

🤪 Just because / for fun

aka random things that I found interesting enough to screenshot or take a picture of last week

1) Ozempic can be a touchy subject, but I’m intrigued by all the research of GLP-1 of its potential benefits to other things (see one example below published in the WSJ this week re athletes and performance):

2) Charli XCX show - chef’s kiss. Another reminder for me that experiences > material possessions always!

3) And if you’re in NYC, couldn’t recommend this show more (even if you’re not a Stranger Things fan - I’ve never seen an episode lol). The effects and cast were amazing (and fun fact, you can enter the lottery for discounted tickets here — my favorite “hack” - many other shows offer them too!).