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GM! It’s Brett again. If you're thinking about starting a company in 2025, you need to watch this video of Elon.

He makes 2 crucial points: first, starting a company is brutally hard - it's like eating glass and staring into the abyss. Second, your product has to be significantly better than what's out there if you want any shot at success.

Being a founder isn't a side project or just another job - it's a career path that demands everything you've got. But if you're all in, you can get there.

—
Here's to building something amazing in 2025. Happy New Year!

🏠 AI

The Drama

OpenAI is ditching its weird nonprofit/for-profit hybrid setup. They're converting to a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation - basically the same structure Anthropic and xAI use. The original nonprofit gets shares in the new entity, but loses control.

This move isn't random. OpenAI just raised $6.6B at a $157B valuation, but Reuters reports this funding was contingent on them changing their structure and dropping the profit cap within 2 years

The plan faces strong opposition. Meta has asked California's AG to block the conversion, saying it would have "seismic implications for Silicon Valley." This adds to an existing lawsuit from Elon filed in August, claiming OpenAI abandoned its original mission.

And just last week, Encode, a nonprofit focused on AI safety, jumped in to support Elon's case with an amicus brief.

There's internal drama as well. Former employees like Miles Brundage are raising red flags about prioritizing commercial interests over safety.

Here's the thing - this is bigger than just OpenAI's corporate structure. It's showing us how expensive and competitive AI development really is. According to their blog post, they need to "become more than a lab and a startup" to pursue their mission, highlighting how AI development at this scale requires massive capital investment with conventional equity terms.

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🤝 THE LATEST IN…

TECH

• Waymo’s self-driving cars are crashing less than humans.

• Xerox to buy printer maker Lexmark.

• Telegram is finally profitable for the first time.

• Meta’s AI characters are sliding into Instagram and Facebook.

AI

• Google is using Claude to improve its Gemini AI

• Sriram Krishnan named Trump’s senior policy advisor for AI.

• Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, is launching a new AI startup.

• The Godfather of AI said that AI will wipe out humanity in next 30 years.

SCIENCE

• NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the sun.

• Short bursts of physical activity cut women’s risk of heart attack.

• AI turned viruses into a blueprint for gene therapies.

• Dogs are helping in cancer detection.

CRYPTO

• Jupiter will distribute 700M tokens in January 2025.

• China’s central bank discusses crypto regulation.

• December DEX trading volume hits $320B.

• Bitget partnered with SunPump.

🏃‍♀️ QUICKIES

Raise: xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, raised $6B in a Series C funding round to accelerate its AI research and development.

Stat: $119 billion. That's the weekly trading volume on Coinbase International, marking a 124% surge from the previous week.

Rabbit Hole: The Top Idea in Your Mind (Paul Graham)

🤩 MONDAY MOTIVATION

🛠️ FOUNDERS CORNER

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

🕵️ SEOBot is the world's 1st AI agent for SEO

🤖 Nullity AI helps you build your internal search engine in 30 seconds

📨 Aimfox helps you launch AI-personalized outbound campaigns on LinkedIn

🎯 PRO HACKS

The smartest productivity hacks we've found: tiny tweaks that create massive results.

End of Quarter Checklist:

1. Investor Update: Email an update to your extended network of investors, including those who haven’t invested yet.

2. Trim Expenses: Review all expenses, no matter how much runway you have. Cut the unnecessary. Stay lean.

3. Team Reflection: Discuss with your team on what went well, what didn’t, and what you’re going to do next.

❓️ AI GENERATED OR NOT

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

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yeah (~99%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Nope (~1%)

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.

We're launching in 2025, but if you want early access, sign up for the waitlist at micro.so and respond to the confirmation email saying you came from Homescreen.

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