everything you need to read this week by @stephthefounder (October 20th)

The goal is to be the best weekly newsletter to be the most succinct + fun way to learn about 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!

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happy monday! the weather in nyc is perfect(ly fall) 🤌 and therefore my (non-essential aka non-work) screen time is at an all time low.

it’s consensus that that’s a good thing (and generally it has been for me — there were a few weeks over the summer where the constant consumption of terrible news via social media really caused me to reevaluate my life choices 🫠 )

that being said one thing i’ve been thinking a lot about is that less scrolling also equals less content ideation (at least for me). doomscrolling can be mindless (and commonly is), but it’s also a big source of new ideas for me, new readings, new blogs to stumble upon. my content volume has noticeably slowed down in line with my doomscrolling slow down, and i’m currently trying to figure out how to get inspiration/discover new things without being so algorithm dependent. (building ~taste~ as one might say without depending on social media and a personalized algo)

it also had me thinking extra about this article (FT’s “have we passed peak social media?”) which has gone super viral over the last couple weeks

the two most interesting charts to know: social media time is generally going down across the board, except in America (lol)

i’m excited to see this trend (along with pushback on openai’s sora + meta’s vibes - not the technology, but rather the form factor / the fact that its success depends on people further increasing their screen time which i think is generally a net negative) and am intrigued to see whether all the anti-doomscrolling content i’m seeing lately (including my weekly sunday reading round ups 🤪 ) will make a difference

for other writers/creators etc, how do you get inspo (separate from social media)?? i would love to know

💰 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.

And now you can easily earn some cold hard cash 💰: you can now use PINpoint (a fun product my company has been building) to earn $$ (anywhere from $5K to $30K) for successfully referring people to top startups. The brilliant part about this is:

1) you don’t even need to know the person who’s ultimately hired - if you post a link on LinkedIn and the algorithm shows it to someone who ultimately clicks the link and is hired, you get the $$$ 😏 

2) all of these companies are great and highly respected, so your friend (or random person who saw your post) will also thank you 😉 win win

(PS are you a founder or do you work at a cool startup that’s hiring? reply back with the name so we can give you guys a shout!)

This week’s featured companies:

1. Flow Engineering: Flow creates collaboration tools that help engineering teams manage changing requirements, track decisions, and stay aligned across complex hardware projects (similar to Github but for the intersection of hardware/software). They raised a $23M Series A led by Sequoia (with Odyssey Ventures and Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison joining the round)

   1. Job openings can be found here

2. Viven: Ever wished you could ask a coworker a question when they’re offline (instead of having to answer a blackberry at 2am because my investment banking associate has another formatting comment? purely fictional of course)? Viven makes that possible with AI “digital twins” trained on employees’ work data to answer queries, surface insights, and keep projects moving even when teammates are unavailable. Founded by 2 experienced founders (of Eightfold AI - a $2B+ valuation recruiting startup), Viven just raised a $35M seed led by Khosla Ventures, Foundation Capital, and FPV Ventures

   1. Job openings can be found here