🏠 Gas me up

Nikita's back, baby.

Author

Jason Levin
November 02, 2022

Gm. Gas app? Back when I was a kid, we called that tbh.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers.

APPS

Gas App is 🔥

It turns out Nikita Bier does more than shitpost.

The founder of tbh (acq. by Facebook) is back with a #1 app: Gas.

Teens can anonymously compliment their high school friends via pre-written polls. It’s designed to be a positive space. Users say it’s been making their day and boosting their egos.

See Who Likes You

“See who likes you” is Gas’s tagline. Some people certainly don’t like the company.

There’s been a smear campaign going on across the country that Gas is responsible for human trafficking incidents. Bier said its probably an attack from a competitor.

News stations are reporting on the claim and then correcting themselves. Sounds a lot like something else Ligma-related that happened this week.

The Stats

What does a #1 app look like behind-the-scenes?

As of October 21, Gas had 1 million daily active users (DAU) and was acquiring 30,000 users/hour. Over 500 million polls have been sent. Over $1 million in sales.

This also meant a $75,000 bill from AWS lol. Respect.

APPS

Vine Getting a Reboot

You’d be hard-pressed to find a millennial or older Zoomer who doesn’t miss Vine. For many of us, it’s the one that got away.

For the younger readers, Vine was TikTok before TikTok. Acquired by Twitter in 2012, it had a scorching stretch between 2013 and 2015, slowed down in 2016, and was officially shut down in 2017.

Now, Elon is planning on bringing it back.

But is it a good idea?

The Good

With 200 million daily active users, Vine was a behemoth at its peak. It was fun to use, addicting to watch, and gave birth to internet memes still referenced today.

What killed Vine was nothing inherently wrong with the app but a case of bad timing. As has been proven with TikTok, Reels, and Youtube Shorts, short-form video content works. The problem with Vine was that it was so far ahead of its time that Twitter didn’t really know how to manage and monetize it.

It’s entirely possible that Elon and his team will learn from past mistakes and turn Vine into the giant it was meant to be.

The Bad

Just like how it’s often best to leave old relationships in the past, perhaps Vine is best kept as a happy memory, because the problems with a reboot appear hard to overcome.

The code base is a decade old. The competition for both users and content creators is much stiffer now. It’s unclear how Vine will siphon people away from Reels and Shorts, let alone TikTok and its creepily accurate algorithm.

Maybe the past should remain in the past.

The Funny

Ultimately, we won’t know if the new Vine is successful until it happens. In the meantime, here is the definitive list of the five best Vines of all time to get you excited for the encore:

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: Uber stock surged 13% after it’s earning report showed a 72% revenue gain.

Story we’re watching: RewindAI raised $10 million from a16z for the Rain Man of mac apps. Rewind is a macOS app that allows you to record everything you see, analyze it, and make it searchable in real-time.

Rabbit hole: The Great Progression, 2025 - 2050 (Big Think)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

  • The music streaming wars continue as Amazon Music’s entire library is now free with Prime. You’re only allowed to shuffle though, which is…not exactly ideal.

  • Elon is going to start charging for Twitter verifications. Guess that ends my blue checkmark dreams.

  • SpaceX successfully launched Falcon Heavy for the fourth time.

  • Hong Kong plans to legalize retail crypto trading. Watch out Singapore.

THREE LIES AND A HEADLINE

News is so weird these days. Three of these headline are fake stories from The Onion while one is actually true. Can you spot the truth amongst the fakes?

A. Biggest Harry Styles Controversies Explained

B. Artists Explain Why They Are Boycotting Spotify.

C. Christina Applegate Pours One Out for ‘Dead To Me’

D. Ballot Paper Shortage Could Cause Problems on Election Day

    WEDNESDAY ROLE CALL

    Beehiiv: Product Manager

    FOUNDERS CORNER

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

    🧳 Julia Dewahl wrote an amazing piece on nuclear energy: past, current, and future.

    ✏️ Oldie, but a goodie. David Perrell shows you how to take notes like Kendrick Lamar.

    👀 A HackerNews thread of freelance devs. High signal, low noise.

    THREE HEADLINES ANSWER

    C. It turns out the NYT has a lot invested in Christina Applegate.