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

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Essays of the Week

News of the Week

Startup of the Week

Tweet of the Week

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

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

Is TikTok Hatred Racist?

Essays of the Week

News of the Week

Startup of the Week

Tweet of the Week

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

Snowflakes Stellar Quarter

Essays of the Week

Elon Musk and Adam Neumann

Startup of the Week

Tweet of the Week

$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.