gm gm. Yesterday was International Women's Day which led us to discover the most epic Twitter account ever, the Gender Pay Gap Bot. Throughout the day, as companies posted about IWD, the account quote tweeted posts with data about the pay disparity between men and women at each organization. 

And if that wan't good enough, another Twitter user started keeping track of all the companies who deleted their posts in reaction the bot's attention.

Sometimes Twitter is the best. 

WORK LIFE

The shifting geography of tech

We finally have data to prove what people on Twitter already knew: everyone did actually move to Miami last year. According to LinkedIn data tracking, Miami saw a 30% increase in the net flow of tech workers to the area in 2021, up from 15% in 2020. 

Is that a trend we smell? 

It’s been well documented over the past year that distributed and remote work are becoming more popular in the tech and startup worlds. In fact, it's almost the norm at this point. 

• Last year, a survey from the VC fund Initialized found that 42% of its firms’ founders said that if they were starting a company today, their preferred “place” to launch it would be through remote or distributed work

And where are those remote and distributed workers congregating? Warm places, mostly. A Brookings report released yesterday found that 7 of the 10 fastest growing cities for tech worker inflows last year were Sun Belt cities, including San Antonio, San Diego, Orlando, and Jacksonville.

Quick reality check

Even though tech talent has been dispersing across the country, the pressure to return back to the office is the highest it's been since the pandemic began. Last week, Biden publicly called for American workers to return to the office while Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Meta all have concrete return to office dates. One potential reason for the increased pressure: tech companies held 36 of the 100 biggest office leases in the country in 2021. 

Zoom out: For two years all we’ve heard about is how WFH and remote work are the future. But now, as mask mandates are lifted and the pandemic recedes a bit, we’ll finally see if working without pants was just a pandemic thing or if remote work truly is the generational shift some believe it to be. 

TECH

Apple drops some goodies

Apple held its virtual Peek Performance event on Tuesday. The hour-long showcase was packed with major product announcements and a truly overwhelming number of infographics. Here's the news you need to know. 

• The big reveal: The gigantic M1 Ultra was unveiled as “the world’s most powerful chip for a personal computer.” The processor will make its debut in the Mac Studio, Apple’s brand new desktop computer that'll set you back a cool eight grand fully tricked out.

• Another big reveal: The iPhone SE—Apple’s most affordable smartphone offering—added a boatload of new upgrades including an A15 Bionic chip, 5G support, more durable glass (lfg), and a longer-lasting battery. The base model clocks in at an actually reasonable $429.

• Okay fine, one more big reveal: The iPad Air will now feature Apple's snappy M1 chip, giving it a huge boost in power. Cook and co. directly called out Microsoft saying that the new tablet is “up to two times faster than the best-selling Windows laptop in its price range.”

We haven’t even mentioned the biggest announcement of the day: just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro now come in green.

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: Biden’s plan to ban oil imports from Russia is raising concerns about America’s foreign oil dependence. But the US is actually in the black when it comes to black gold. In 2020, the US produced an average of 18.4 million barrels of oil each day while consuming only 18.12 million. So why import oil at all if the country already produces enough? Turns out foreign oil is often cheaper, even when you factor in shipping costs.

Startup: Serve Robotics and their cute, little sidewalk delivery robots just raised $10 million from Nvidia to expand their delivery footprint. More here.

Rabbit hole: How can we know if paid search advertising works? (Substack)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Biden announced a ban on oil imports from Russia.

• Ryan Breslow, the Bolt Twitter thread guy, is now cofounding a pharmaceutical startup.

• Discord and Spotify experienced widespread outages on Tuesday. Finally, a win for the Slack and Apple Music crew.

• Google announced its acquisition of Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm that exposed the SolarWinds hack.

• Twitter released its “Creator Dashboard,” a tool that lets content creators monitor their earnings.

GAMES

Three lies, and a truth

Three of these headlines are from The Onion. One is from real life. Can you guess which?

A. “Bisquick unveils sprawling state-of-the-art Silicon Valley campus”

B. “New evidence reveals Pythagoras wrote dozens of unhinged conspiracy theorems about triangles”

C. “Dave & Buster’s opens new fine dining, gaming outpost David & Benedict’s”

D. “Hiker lost on mountain for 24 hours ignored calls from rescuers because he didn’t recognize phone number”

NEWS FROM THE HOUSE

Launch House wins an award

Fast Company chose Launch House as one of their 10 most innovative social media companies of 2022 alongside names like Shopify and Tinder. Always exciting to make it onto fun lists like that recognize the community we are building.

Next year’s goal: make it onto the “10 most difficult companies for parents to understand” list.

TID BITS

💵 If you are a founder looking for newsletter placements, Packy McCormick of Not Boring fame is looking for sponsors for the upcoming quarter. 

📈 Some generation defining stats. 

🔁 How to build a successful referral program. 

GAMES ANSWER

The hiker one is not from The Onion, it's actually a real news story. Also, we’re convinced that David & Benedict’s could find its niche.