Sourcery (7/3-7/7)
Threads vs Twitter 2.0 Continues.. ☀️ Clair, Topkey, CADDi, Voice.ai, Infisical; DigitalOcean/Paperspace, Tiny/HappyFunCorp...
Well. That escalated quickly.
The battle of text-based social apps took the web by storm last week. Zuck opened the floodgates of his billions of IG users to the new, seemingly enticing, Elon spite-project.. Threads. And the people are still signing up (chart below). However, the early growing pains are being felt, users are complaining about lag times, lack of community features, getting caught in the trap of celebrities and ads, and getting spread a bit too thin across all of their channels. This one might need to bake a bit more, get even more users on it, train the ‘algorithm,’ and allow features to carve out smaller sub-communities to make it feel a bit less commercial and a bit more personal. But I think they’re working on it.
If you missed our outlook from last week, check it out here.
On the flip side, this could be a really amazing opportunity for other communities of the social media universe (ie not so professional/techy) that have been missing a casual, fun, creative text-based social platform. And the fresh start means it’s all fair game out there. Maybe instead of launching a 168 page poetry book, we can just get hit with new exclusive Drake lines every day?
However, due to this influx of testing out multiple social media platforms over the weekend, I burnt out. I truly don’t know how content creators do it?! I needed a digital detox from my iPhone and went on airplane mode for about 24 hours. It was nice, didn’t miss much. But maybe I’ll just buy a Light Phone and really go off the grid.
Musings
There is no such thing as Series A metrics, Tomasz Tunguz
The ambiguous ‘metrics’ of the Seed round has now reached Series A territory
How Markets Value Software Companies in 2023, Tomasz Tunguz
Tim Urban on AI Relationships, Wokeness and Humans Living to 150, Logan Bartlett
This was one of the more fascinating conversations I’ve heard in a while. Branching out of the typical successful CEO discussion, the two talk about more existential, evolutionary, philosophical topics. This Logan Bartlett has range.
On the meat discussion.. as a recently ‘recovering vegan’ for 8+ years 😂 I still can’t quite wrap my head around lab-grown meat. The scientific innovation around it is remarkable, don’t get me wrong, but even when I was vegan I couldn’t get myself to eat BeyondMeat’s ‘food’. I just think the manufactured/processed imitation part of it is the biggest hurdle. Instead, focusing on high quality meats/proteins, and quite honestly, the rise of ‘wild meat’ has me intrigued, particularly bison, ostrich, & venison (check out the next biohacking podcast for more on this..).
The future of biohacking (and Ozempic): Matt Cook, M.D., mbg Podcast
Biohacking the Silicon Valley elite, Matt Cook shares his perspective on a series of important health discussions
33:52-40:28 What you need to know about Ozempic & the available tools for regulating blood sugar & human biology
FYI Ozempic is not a cure-all, it has serious side effects, & some are even microdosing to achieve their goals
It can help regulate the psychological response/’dependence’ on food, whether it’s anxiety, overconsumption, etc. But his key to getting back to mind-body equilibrium is, wait for it… conscious moderation
1:05:19-1:08:36 Wild meat versus grass-fed, farm-raised meat
The World's Great Family Dynasties: Rockefeller, Rothschild, Morgan, & Toyada - Founders
I have a deep intrigue into specifically understanding the Rothschild family, but this was a great recount of the comparisons between these four family dynasties and their similarities to each other
They came from nothing
Instilled hustle & grit into the fabric/principles of their families
Took advantage of their skills and applied them to whitespaces in global markets
E136 Hacking the pod, Threads launches, Fed minutes, immigration debate, balloon farce, heart health, All-in Pod
. . .
Last Week (7/3-7/7):
Relevant deals include the 60+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into four categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise & Consumer, and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds. Highlighted deals include Clair, Topkey, CADDi, Voice.ai, Infisical; DigitalOcean/Paperspace, Tiny/HappyFunCorp
Final numbers on Instagram Threads 100M Users at the bottom.
Deals
Fintech:
- Clair, a New York-based on-demand pay provider, raised $25 million in funding. Thrive Capital led the round and was joined by Upfront Ventures and Kairos.
- Topkey, a Nashville-based financial operating system for vacation rental and hospitality property management companies, raised $5.1 million in seed funding. Felicis led the round and was joined by a16z, Y Combinator, Assurant Ventures, Grit Partners, Liquid2 Ventures, Derive Ventures, and Kindergarten Ventures.
. . .
Care:
Nothing to see here…
. . .
Enterprise & Consumer:
- CADDi, a Chicago-based procurement solutions provider for the manufacturing industry, raised $89 million in Series C funding co-led by Globis Capital Partners, DCM, Global Brain, World Innovation Lab, JAFCO Group, Minerva Growth Partners, and others.
- Clerk, an SF-based provider of front-end identity simplification tools for developers, $30m in second-round funding, per an SEC filing. Existing backers include Madrona. www.clerk.com
- Cavli, a San Jose, Calif.-based maker of cellular modules, raised $10m in Series A funding co-led by Chiratae Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures. www.cavliwireless.com
- Nokod Security, an Israeli cybersecurity startup, raised $8m in seed funding from Acrew Capital, Meron Capital and Flint Capital. https://axios.link/449225S
- Voice.ai, a real-time voice editing startup, raised $6m in funding led by Mucker Capital and M13. https://axios.link/3XxkcvH
- Infisical, an SF-based provider of secrets and app configuration management, raised $2.8m in seed funding led by Gradient Ventures. https://axios.link/46wBtZY
- BidSight, a New York-based commercial real estate software startup, raised $2m in pre-seed funding led by Outsiders Fund, with Y Combinator and angel investors also participating. www.bidsight.io
- ChipFlow, a Sheffield, U.K.-based open-source semiconductor chip design platform, raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. Fontinalis Partners led the round and was joined by Fuel Ventures, InMotion Ventures, APX, and others.
. . .
Sustainability:
- WasteFuel, a Pacific Palisades, Calif.-based startup that seeks to convert agricultural and municipal waste into bio-methanol, raised $10m in Series B funding. BP Ventures led, and was joined by A.P. Moller Maersk and i(x) Net Zero. https://axios.link/3JKsD0S
Acquisitions & PE:
- DigitalOcean acquired Paperspace, a New York-based A.I. and machine learning infrastructure startup, for $111 million.
- Tiny has acquired HappyFunCorp, a New York-based app design company, for $30m. https://axios.link/436t3FD
. . .
IPOs:
Nothing to see here..
. . .
SPACs:
Nothing to see here..
Funds:
- The Raine Group, a New York-based investment firm, raised $760 million for a fund to invest in growth-stage technology, media, and telecom companies with a focus on sports, media, entertainment, and gaming.
- Insight Partners, a New York-based venture capital firm, raised $118 million for a fund focused on diverse-led, early-stage funds investments.
Twitter vs. Threads
Two hours after the official launch of Threads, Meta's text-based rival app to Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg posted that downloads had reached 2 million. After 4 hours, the number was 5 million. From there, momentum only slightly slowed and as of this morning, just over 100 hours since the app's launch, Threads crossed the remarkable threshold of 100 million downloads, per data from Quiver Quantitative.
To put that in context, it took Instagram 2 and a half years to reach the same milestone, while TikTok accomplished the feat in 9 months. Even ChatGPT, which previously held the record for the fastest downloaded app, took 2 months to reach 100 million users. Driving Threads' rapid growth is its seamless integration with Instagram, making it effortless for the platform's 2 billion users to link their accounts to a new Threads one.
Threading the needle
Twitter’s owner Elon Musk, is not taking Threads lightly. On the day of launch, he threatened legal action, alleging that Meta had poached Twitter employees to develop the app and used confidential information. Meta’s response was "that's just not a thing." Nonetheless, Meta does have a track record of adopting elements from competitors, whether it be Stories resembling Snapchat, Reels imitating TikTok, or even Facebook's origins emulating features from MySpace and Friendster. While Threads bears a resemblance to Twitter in terms of layout, it also has distinctive elements such as being more mobile-focused and no hashtags whatsoever.
Of course, it’s impossible to know how much traction Threads would have got without integration with Instagram. But, as the battle between Meta and Twitter unfolds, which may still get physical, Threads has made a significant statement in getting to 100 million users. The next question is: will they stay?
The material presented on Molly O’Shea’s website are my opinions only and are provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. It is not a recommendation of, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Any analysis or discussion of investments, sectors or the market generally are based on current information, including from public sources, that I consider reliable, but I do not represent that any research or the information provided is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. My views and opinions expressed in any website content are current at the time of publication and are subject to change. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Great great article. I’ve been waiting to hear what you thought about Threads vs. Twitter. Going to be very interesting to see what that does for tech going forward.