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GM! It’s Brett again. Quick thought I’ve been sitting on - the best startup advice is also the best relationship advice.

At Airbnb, Brian Chesky had a rule: "Winning an argument is never more important than preserving the relationship." Break that rule enough times, and you either have a cofounder breakup or a divorce.

A few years back, I realized professional relationships work exactly like romantic ones - just swap out love for respect.

I don’t have cofounders at Micro, but I think about this with my team every day. Trust and respect are what keep everything moving, especially when the pressure's on.

🏠 AI

This Big Browser Play

Big shakeup last week: OpenAI is openly eyeing Google's Chrome.

Here's the deal - last year, a federal judge ruled Google holds an illegal monopoly over search. Now the DOJ is pushing aggressive remedies, including forcing Google to sell Chrome, their massively popular browser with around 64% market share.

At Google's antitrust hearings, Nick Turley, OpenAI's product chief, testified they'd absolutely buy Chrome if given a chance.

Owning Chrome means direct access to billions of users' browsing data, potentially turbocharging AI training efforts. It’s the ultimate shortcut to supercharging their AI models.

OpenAI already tried partnering with Google to integrate search tech into ChatGPT, but Google declined, wary of helping a competitor. Turley mentioned at trial that Google's data would've made ChatGPT dramatically better. Right now, ChatGPT relies heavily on Bing but has reportedly struggled with quality there.

It's not just OpenAI circling either - AI search startup Perplexity and Yahoo also showed interest. DuckDuckGo’s CEO Gabriel Weinberg even estimated Chrome could fetch up to $50B.

The big picture - Last week, we mentioned OpenAI might also be prototyping an X-like social platform, signaling a broader data acquisition play. Owning Chrome would amplify that significantly. Chrome’s potential sale isn't just about browsers - it could massively reshuffle the AI and search landscape.

Keep watching this closely - this isn't just another antitrust case. It could be a seismic shift in tech that could redefine who owns that giant data.

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🤝 THE LATEST IN…

TECH

• A new Grok-powered X algorithm is coming.

• Apple drops ‘available now’ from Apple Intelligence page.

• Blue Shield shared the private health data of millions with Google for years.

• Sam Altman steps down as Oklo board chair.

• BMW to integrate DeepSeek AI in its new vehicles in China.

• Motorola launches a new device to cut emergency response time.

AI

• xAI Holdings is in talks to raise $20B - second-largest private funding round ever.

• Trump signs executive order for AI education for K-12 schools.

• Microsoft launched 2 reasoning agents for work: Researcher and Analyst.

• Perplexity launched iOS Voice Assistant.

• The Washington Post partners with OpenAI on search content.

SCIENCE

• A 113M year old hell ant from Brazil is now the oldest ant fossil ever discovered.

• Bacteria killing material creates superbug busting paint.

• Both low & moderate-high intensity exercise can help in the fight against Alzheimer's.

• Researchers have discovered a surprising new connection between gut health & blood cancer risk.

CRYPTO

• Term Finance recovers $1M of $1.6M loss to oracle configuration error.

• Nike sued over abrupt shutdown of RTFKT NFT unit.

• Researcher proposes scaling Ethereum gas limit by 100x over 4 years.

• Nexo to reenter US market after 2 year regulatory exit.

🏃‍♀️ QUICKIES

Raise: Superpower, a health optimization platform, raised $30M in a Series A funding round to launch the world’s first health super-app for proactive, preventative, and personalized healthcare.

Stat: 74%. That’s the share of U.S. teens who say social media makes them feel more connected to their friends, according to a new Pew study.

Rabbit Hole: There's a place for everyone (Adam Mastroianni)

🤩 MONDAY MOTIVATION

🛠️ FOUNDERS CORNER

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

🤑 FormStory will never let you lose any lead.

🧑🏻‍💻 Trag is your AI code review companion.

🕵️ DryMerge connects to business apps and uses AI to automate repetitive tasks.

🎯 The 80 / 20

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

The End-of-Month Reset

Here’s a simple play that takes less than an hour but pays off big:

First, open up your expenses and SaaS subscriptions. Ruthlessly cancel or downgrade anything you didn’t actively use this month. Even if you’re not worried about runway right now, keeping your burn rate lean builds the right reflexes for the long game.

Second, pull your team (or yourself) into a 30-minute reflection:

• What worked this month?

• What didn’t?

• What's one thing we’ll do differently next month?

That’s it.

This two-step ritual is stupid simple: 60 minutes total, zero fancy tools. Yet it slices waste, surfaces blind spots, and keeps the whole team rowing in the same direction.

❓️ AI GENERATED OR NOT

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

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yeah (~30%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️ Nope (~70%)

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

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