everything you need to read this week by @stephthefounder (October 6th)

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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last week felt like a typhoon of announcements regarding ai taking over (social and traditional) media.

in this video i mentioned how it looks inevitable we’re headed to a future where all (or at least a substantial part of social media) is entirely AI:

• OpenAI launched Sora + Meta launched Vibes (both all-AI generated short form video platforms). Sora has since hit #1 in the app store.

• it’s cheaper (especially for fully vertical companies like Google) to push AI content instead of sharing $ with creators - a financial incentive I think people underestimate

it’s fascinating to see the pushback. if you scroll for even a few minutes on TikTok/Instagram, the general sentiment is that no one wants this. posts encouraging people to get off their phones (including my weekly Sunday post) let alone not consume ai content to spend time with friends, get new hobbies, etc., are taking off. in the face of news of a) Taylor Swift facing major backlash over using AI in her promo video, b) Anthropic crushing the marketing game and positioning Claude as AI to help you think better (counterposition to OpenAI/Meta’s launches of video slop), and c) the new AI actress that is getting active talent management inquiries, it feels like there’s a(n extra) strong fear and anti-AI sentiment right now especially from people not in tech.

i’m so intrigued (and nervous 😬 ) to see how this evolves. i think one thing’s clear though - we can all benefit from being off our phones a bit more and touching some grass (and if you’re in NYC - this is the most beautiful fall i’ve ever EXPERIENCED so soak it UP).

💰 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. Periodic Labs: Aiming to build autonomous AI scientists that don’t just hypothesize—they run physical experiments, collect data (positive and negative), and learn from both. Their core lab setup merges robotics, materials science, and model training to push discovery forward. The startup just raised a $300M seed led by a16z (with support from Nvidia, Accel, Bezos, Schmidt, and more)

   1. Job openings can be found here

2. Juicebox: Hiring just got a lot smarter. Juicebox built PeopleGPT, an AI-native search engine that helps recruiters find, score, and reach out to candidates across 30+ data sources with a single prompt. They just raised a $36M round (including a $30M Series A led by Sequoia) to bring AI agents deeper into the recruiting stack.

   1. Job openings can be found here