together with

Gm. I’m happy to say science fiction is officially becoming reality. Today’s issues features a whole lotta robots and metaverse. Let the fun begin.

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Yesss ski fam.

“Shreddin some gnar pow during ETH Denver this Friday 🤙” Jealous.

“Trees are not to be f*ed with…” Ok we need a story. You can’t leave us hanging like that. Let’s hear it.

“Not at the moment because my startup is my priority.” Respect. But I do recommend the good ol’ gondola VC pitch. Works every time.

Alright on to today’s poll. I was having a convo with my Dad and he didn’t understand why YouTube premium is a business expense. Wbu?

Looking at three startups that just raised. Congrats!

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I know Meta’s metaverse bet hasn’t paid off yet. You know Meta’s metaverse bet hasn’t paid off yet. The American people know Meta’s metaverse bet hasn’t paid off yet.

But, that doesn’t mean Meta’s Robot-In-Chief Zuck is giving up just yet.

On the contrary, Meta’s execs have their AR/VR hardware plans for the next 4 years(!) all mapped out.

So, what’s on the docket for Meta’s mixed reality division?

As it pertains to Meta’s flagship Quest VR headset:

Meanwhile, VR isn’t all that Meta has cooking in the pot. Zuckerberg is famously obsessed with AR glasses, and Meta’s plans reflect this obsession:

Meta was early to the metaverse trend, but they are definitely not alone. Apple is working toward its own VR headset, Sony just released their own well-received VR headset, and pretty much the entirety of Big Tech is striving for AR glasses.

If Meta wants their metaverse bet to ever pay off, they have to continue to innovate, improve, and stay ahead of the pack.

This roadmap is a good start.

Yesterday, Figure came out of stealth in fashion.

Founder Brett Adcock posted a Twitter thread saying “Here’s what the future will look like.” You just know whatever he was gonna say next would be wild.

Figure is building autonomous humanoid robots.

This isn’t science fiction folks. This is real life.

“Physical labor is the largest market on the planet = 50% of GDP (~$40T/yr),” Adcock wrote. “Predictions indicate 85 million job shortages by 2030. If we want growth, we need more productivity — and this means more automation.”

Ok Brett let’s just admitted we all want a robot friend named WALL-E.

But forreal, this is amazing.

Adcock’s vision is “a future where humanoid robots work alongside us on a global scale.” And the future seems to be right now.

As Adcock points out, the last 10 years have seen enormous advances in:

And it’s now the moment all of us sci-fi nerds have been waiting for: robot time.

Here’s a shot of the first “commercially viable autonomous humanoid.”

It’s fully electromechanical (batteries/motors), designed to work safely alongside humans, and its hardware is capable of doing whatever humans can.

“Humanoids will revolutionize a variety of industries,” Adcock wrote. A few examples he gave were corporate labor roles, caring for the elderly, consumer housework, and building new worlds in space. Incredible.

Ok, I gotta go grab burritos with my robot. Check out Brett’s thread for more.

Stat: $0.002: The price of 1000 tokens for ChatGPT’s API, 10x cheaper than OpenAI’s existing GPT-3.5 model. Not bad.

Story we're watching: Tesla’s “Master Plan 3” was light on details on new products, but big on Elon’s visions for a sustainable Earth. Unfortunately, investors care more about new products than Elon’s dreams, and thus, shares are down ~6%. So, the question now on everybody’s mind is: where does Tesla go from here?

Rabbit hole: A Beginner's Guide To Category Design: How To Create A Category For Yourself And Your Business (Category Pirates)

How many startups do you think Y Combinator has funded?

Wise words from OnDeck founder Julian Weisser.

trueup.io/layoffs

Waymo: 209 people (8%)

iFood: 355 people (6.3%)

Thoughtworks: 500 people

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

🤝 Check out Community Powered Marketing for breakdowns and tips on running a community-driven company.

🔑 Hey VC/startup marketing ppl. I wrote up a guide to Y Combinator’s content strategy. See why it’s known as the best accelerator in the world.

🔥 Are you a 90s baby and too young to remember the dot-com bubble? Same. That’s why I read F’d Companies: Spectacular Dot-Com Flameouts.

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Guesstimate answer: 3,500+