Gm. Football is back, the air is growing colder, and VC OOO emails are growing more infrequent.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like fall, folks.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers.

CRYPTO

Ethereum's rebirth is almost here

One Wednesday, the most anticipated second act since Grown Ups 2 will officially get underway. Here are a couple things to look out for ahead of Ethereum’s long-awaited network upgrade.

• Quick refresher: “The Merge” is a full makeover of Ethereum's cumbersome and energy-inefficient network. Ethereum currently uses as much energy annually as the entire country of Bangladesh so this has been top of mind in the community for a long time. Once complete, Ethereum will run on a proof-of-stake system which relies on a pool of stakers to validate transactions, not miners.

Here are a few themes to keep in mind ahead of Wednesday's event

• It’s kinda like the moon landing: Yes, the Merge is a complicated and delicate process. But the mechanics of the switch have been repeatedly tested and no one expects anything to go seriously awry. Just like landing on the moon, the Merge wouldn’t be happening unless everyone was as certain as possible that it will be successful.

• L2s won't be affected: Given the size and scope of the Layer 2 ecosystem, not to mention all the dApps that have been built on top of Ethereum, it's understandable there’s some anxiety around the Merge. But outside a catastrophic network failure, the ecosystem that Ethereum props up shouldn’t be affected by the gradual shift to the new model.

• It won’t fix gas fees: One of the biggest knocks on Ethereum is that transacting on the network is often debilitatingly expensive. But since gas fees are determined by the supply and demand for capacity on the network, the Merge won’t provide any relief in the short term. However, in the long run, it may lead to a more scalable network which would bring fees down.

Looking ahead…once the Merge is deployed, a second phase kicks in called the Shanghai Upgrade that will let stakers collect rewards for supporting the new model. So, even though the Merge gets underway this Wednesday, there’s still a long road ahead.

FUNDRAISING

Checking in on fall's fresh pow

Tracking VC fundraising metrics is a bit like wrestling an oiled up pig: one minute you think you have a grasp on where it's going, then the next moment it's slipped away. The one constant drumbeat we heard all summer long was that a fundraising slowdown was coming.

But that's only partially been true

Granted, Pitchbook data through August does indicate that VC funds this quarter will likely raise less than in Q2 which was also a steep decline from a historic Q1. But there are some exceptions.

• Winners are still hoovering up money: It stands to reason that those with a strong track record are closing funds more quickly than those without. Jai Malik, the founder of Countdown Capital, told TechCrunch that raising in a lousy economic environment “was definitely easier and faster.”

• But so are funds with an interest in specific niches: Chalo Ventures, which focuses on early-stage startups in Pakistan, has raised two funds totaling $80 million since May. LPs like their non-US centric approach

Bottom line: As summer comes to a close things should pick back up again for everyone—not just the outliers.

QUICK HITS

Seed round

Stat: The common saying in venture capital is to bet on people, not companies. Y Combinator is taking that to heart and accepting more and more founders who are in the idea stage of building their startups. Of the 227 companies that made up its most recent winter batch, 43% were accepted with only an idea. That’s up from 29% in the previous batch.

Story we’re watching: One-click checkout company Bolt is scrapping its previously agreed-upon deal to buy crypto payment processor Wyre for $1.5 billion. Back when it was announced, Bolt was flying high, fresh off a new round of fundraising that valued it at $11 billion while Wyre was cashing in on the crypto boom cycle. Fast forward to today and Bolt is a shell of its former self with shrinking revenue and ballooning losses and Wyre has suffered from the crypto winter. Now, a deal that was supposed to be the largest acquisition for a crypto company ever, is officially dead.

Rabbit hole: The twister life of Clippy, Microsoft’s annoying paperclip (SeattleMet)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Elon Musk sent a third letter to Twitter attempting to terminate his $44 billion acquisition of the company.

• Instagram is testing a feature that lets users repost other people’s content, similar to Twitter’s retweet function.

• Roblox is jumping into the advertising game with plans to test some ad formats with developers by the end of the year.

PICK THAT PITCH DECK

This payments processor was last valued at $10+ billion, but has had a rocky go of it recently. Can you guess which startup this slide belongs to?

Note: Gray rectangles have been added to block out the company’s name and logo.

MONDAY MUSIC

The best work jams to write, focus, and build your company to.

• Artist: Purple Disco Machine (Spotify)

• Playlist: Techno Bunker (Spotify)

• Song: Early Hours (Spotify)

P.S. If you have any songs or artists you love, feel free to reply to this email and send ‘em our way.

LAYOFFS TRACKER

September is shaping up to be a much quieter month for layoffs.

Here’s to hoping that the trend continues.

Notable layoffs this week

Uber: 60 people (<1%)

Fullstory: 72 people (12%)

FOUNDERS CORNER

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

📈 How to build your career on the back of dirty work 

🙋‍♀️ Turns out that lots of people actually like meetings

🏠 A nifty chrome extension for analyzing rental properties on Zillow

PICK THAT PITCH DECK ANSWER

The pitch deck belongs to Bolt.