Gm. We've all bought something and immediately regretted it. 

Now, imagine that something was a $44 billion social media app that turns your brain to mush. 

All this to say, Elon's buyer's remorse is starting to make a little more sense. 

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers. 

P.S. If you share Homescreen with just one other person, we'll send you the entire list of all the funds we've put in this section. 

SOCIAL MEDIA 

The state of Elon's Twitter deal

Elon Musk sent a titter through Twitter on Friday when he said that his deal to buy the social media platform was on hold until he finds out how many fake accounts and spam bots are on the platform. 

Here is everything you need to know about the current state of the deal.

1. Is it still on? Yes, at least according to Elon and Parag Agrawal. Elon followed up his Friday tweet saying “Still committed to acquisition” while Parag said he still “expects the deal to close.”

2. What is Elon’s problem with the bots? According to Twitter, fake accounts represented fewer than 5% of mDAU in Q1 of this year. But Elon thinks they are being undercounted to such a degree that he is willing to pause the whole transaction.

3. Are bots being undercounted? In classic Elon fashion, he is taking an almost painfully straightforward approach to finding out for himsefl. “Pick any account with a lot of followers,” and “ignore first 1000 followers, then pick every 10th,” he tweeted over the weekend. Elon thinks that if enough people do this and get an answer >5% then Twitter is undercounting. And given the fact that Twitter has been overstating user numbers over the past 3 years...it’s not impossible to think it’s also been miscounting bots. 

4. What happens if Elon pulls out of the deal? The two sides agreed to a reverse termination fee of $1 billion when they reached a deal last month. But Elon can’t just write a check and bounce. If he walks, Twitter can sue him for breach of contract and potentially billions in damages. 

Bottom line: Though Elon says he is committed to following through on the deal, he may be tempted to bail given the huge losses he’s taking in regard to his Tesla ownership. Shares are down over 24% this past month alone. 

FINTECH 

Better's CEO is a bettor  

Once known as the CEO who fired 900 employees on a Zoom call, Better.com chief exec Vishal Garg might have a new moniker: the founder who personally guaranteed a nearly billion dollar loan.

Driving the news: According to an email seen by TechCrunch, Garg told Better employees that he assumed personal responsibility for the $750 million cash infusion the online mortgage lender received from SoftBank back in November. 

• It goes without saying, but such a maneuver is highly risky. Outside of Elon, execs hardly ever take on personal liability for company funds. Even wilder, Garg took on uncapped liability, meaning that there is no ceiling to his potential losses. 

Zoom out: In the email Garg justifies the crazy risk by saying he “wanted the capital to build our dream.” As a promising, albeit controversial, startup worth $7.7 billion, you could forgive Garg’s overconfidence at the time. But now, Better is in a much worse place having laid off over 4,000 members of its staff and had a major partnership with a commercial bank fall apart. 

Bottom line: Better is still aiming to make its public debut by the end of this quarter, so we’ll find out soon enough if Garg has the necessary funds should SoftBank come knocking.

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: 51% of the Chief Marketing Officers featured in Ad Age’s top 100 advertisers of 2021 were women. It’s the first time since the list’s inception in 1956 that over 50% of CMOs were women. To cap it off, 71% of new CMOs were women in 2021.

Story we’re watching: Netflix updated its culture page for the first time since 2017. The big change? Be prepared to work on projects that might offend you…or quit. The exact wording was “Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful,” but, “if you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.” Not sure how a culture change is going to get all those lost subscribers back. 

Rabbit hole: A macro breakdown of the current financial situation (All-In Podcast).

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Epic plans to release the game production engine behind Fortnite to let anybody build and deploy game content, similar to how Roblox operates.

• Robinhood shares rose more than 20% as Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, purchased a 7.6% stake in the company.

• FA former eBay executive plead guilty to a harassment campaign involving live insects.

• Jeff Bezos keeps getting into Twitter spats with Joe Biden.

TRIVIA 

Peloton announced it’s launching a new product outside of cycling. What sport is the new product derived from?

A. Soccer

B. Rowing

C. Climbing

D. Skiing

MONDAY MUSING

We've asked before and we'll ask again: do you think Elon will eventually end up owning Twitter? Or will he back out?

We'll post the results in next week's Monday Musing. 

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across this weekend that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

📹 David Sacks open-sourced his presentation to his port cos on navigating a downturn in the markets

💸 An explanation of cash conversion cycle and why it’s essential

🌐 A guide to scraping the web with python

ANSWER

B. Peloton is launching a rowing machine in its latest attempt to get the company back on track.