In partnership with

GM! It’s Brett again. We had thousands of people join our waitlist last week. If we onboarded everyone, we’d be staring at millions in ARR and a Series A locked in. So why didn’t we?

It’s exactly what the founder of WhatsApp says here about why they charged early users $1 for the product: “we want to make sure our existing users are happy and when new people sign up they have a great experience.”

It takes time to get this right - especially with a complex product like ours. But once we do, we’ll open it up to a much wider audience.

The biggest mistake founders make is chasing growth before the product really works. We’re not making that mistake.

🏠 Tech

Keeping Up With the OpenAIans

A lot went down this week in the OpenAI universe. So let’s break it down.

First off, ChatGPT just got a memory boost. OpenAI announced it's rolling out an update that lets ChatGPT reference your past chats automatically, making your conversations feel smoother and more personal - even if you never explicitly saved anything. It’s available globally except in regions like the EU and UK due to tighter AI laws. Pro users ($200/month) are already getting it, with Plus users ($20/month) and teams set to follow soon.

Then OpenAI’s ex-CTO Mira Murati is raising a monster seed round ($2B!) for her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, reportedly valuing it at $10B. They haven't even launched a product yet - but they've got former OpenAI heavyweights like Bob McGrew and Alec Radford as advisers, so investors seem pumped.

Another OpenAI OG, Ilya Sutskever, landed another $2B for Safe Superintelligence (SSI), pushing their valuation to $32B. They’re teaming with Google Cloud to power their AI research.

And then there’s Elon Musk. You know, he's suing them over their shift from nonprofit to profit-focused (PBC). But now OpenAI has fired back with a countersuit, claiming Elon’s actions are harming their operations. Interestingly, some former OpenAI staff are backing Musk, claiming the company is betraying its original mission.

The bottom line: All these OpenAI OGs branching out with massive startups and big-money moves signal that the next chapter in AI is heating up. Expect a lot more noise (and drama) ahead.

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🤝 THE LATEST IN…

TECH

• Amazon upgraded Nova Reel AI video model.

• Samsung's Ballie robot is finally coming - powered by Google Gemini

• Snapchat rolled out Sponsored AI Lenses for brands.

• Meta’s new rule - teenagers can’t livestream on Instagram.

AI

• OpenAI would buy Altman/Ive AI device startup.

• Anthropic launched $200 ‘Max’ plan.

• Google announced Agent2Agent Protocol - for AI agents to collaborate, delegate, and deliver.

• OpenAI launched Pioneers Program to design new ‘domain-specific’ AI benchmarks.

SCIENCE

• Scientists complete largest wiring diagram & functional map of the brain to date.

• Physicists have set a new upper limit on the mass of neutrinos.

• Eight or more alcoholic drinks per week have an increased risk of brain lesions.

• Lightmatter showed a new type of computer chip that could reduce AI energy use.

CRYPTO

• Soft inflation data could push Fed to cut rates.

• SEC and Binance filed joint motion for another 60-day pause in legal dispute.

• Tariff turmoil saw global crypto funds shed another $795M in weekly outflows.

• Jack Dorsey's Block pays $40M fine to New York over compliance failures.

🏃‍♀️ QUICKIES

Raise: Raise: Base Power, a home backup battery startup, raised $200M in a Series B round to expand its battery fleet and build a domestic factory.

Stat: $10M. That’s how much value a CryptoPunk lost after selling for $6M, down from its $16M price tag a year ago.

Rabbit Hole: Make Something Heavy (Anu Atluru)

🤩 MONDAY MOTIVATION

🛠️ FOUNDERS CORNER

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

😍 HeroUI Chat turns your prompts/screenshots into production ready React apps.

💰 EasyStaff Payroll helps you to pay abroad to teams & freelancers.

🕵️ SEOBot is your AI agent for SEO.

🎯 The 80 / 20

Simple tricks to get a ton of value with minimal effort for work and life.

Make the gym hard to skip

Going to the the gym isn’t a time problem - it’s a situation problem.

Use situation selection to rig it in your favor. It’s straight out of emotion regulation science - instead of battling bad habits, you avoid the situations where those habits thrive. You pick better defaults.

• Calendar block workouts like meetings. Treat it like something you’d never flake on.

• Book group classes or hire a trainer. Someone waiting on you = you show up.

• Pay upfront. The sunk cost bias will carry you through the low-energy days.

• Train with a buddy who’s more consistent than you. You’ll rise to their level.

Each of these shifts takes minutes to set up, but saves hours of mental drama later. You don’t need more discipline - just better defaults.

❓️ AI GENERATED OR NOT

Last week’s answer: If you guessed AI-generated… you were right.

🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️ Yeah (~75%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Nope (~25%)

Here’s the original.

 👋 A Quick Note About Micro

Micro is a CRM that doesn't feel like homework and an email client that knows what matters. Simply put, it's an all-in-one productivity tool that organizes itself so you don't have to.

I built Micro with some friends because I was tired of getting guilt tripped for not hitting inbox 0 and having to bounce around between so many tools to do my job.

That said, Homescreen subscribers can cut the line - go to micro.so/waitlist, join the waitlist, and write in “Homescreen” for Other in the “How did you hear about us” question to get early access.

REACH 40K+ FOUNDERS, INVESTORS & OPERATORS

If you’re interested in advertising with us, send an email over to [email protected] with the subject “Homescreen Ads”

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