Gm. Another day, another Elon crisis.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers.

APPS

Your Personalized Music Festival

Think Spotify Wrapped is cool? A new app called Instafest just one-upped it.

Instafest, an app by developer Anshay Saboo, went mega-viral last weekend. Instafest lets you create festival posters by tracking your top Spotify artists.

Saboo had the idea one day when he imagined what his own Coachella would look like.

Instafest for X

Everyone knows there's a bunch of Uber for X apps and companies.

• Wag: Uber for dog walking

• Postmates: Uber for deliveries

• Taskrabbit: Uber for task-doers

Well, I think there should be a bunch of Instafest for X apps too.

Why aren't there apps or plug-ins like:

• Memefest that highlights your most used memes

• Chromefest that highlights your most frequented domains

• Substackfest that highlights your most read newsletters

• TikTokfest that highlights your most watched TikToks

• Doggofest that highlights which of your friends' dogs you pet most

• LinkedInfest that highlights which profiles looked you up the most

Ok, let's admit we'd all pay good money for that last one.

— Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin)

SAN FRANCISCO

Robots 🤝 License to Kill

Terminator, meet San Francisco. San Francisco, Terminator.

Don’t worry; Skynet hasn’t taken over (yet). But, for those of you living in San Fran, you may soon have robots going Arnold Schwarzenegger on you.

And not in a good way.

Lethal Force

The thought of granting Robots 00 status began with a new California law requiring every municipality in the state to define who in their police department is allowed to use millitary-grade weapons.

Unfortunately for Roko’s Basilisk, robots were left out of the original SF Police Department (SFPD) draft policy. When the SF Board of Supervisors received the draft policy, they added a line that robots shall not use lethal force.

The SFPD crossed that line out, added that robots will only use lethal force when there are no other options available, and returned the draft.

And that is where we now stand, with the Board of Supervisors considering the revised proposal. SF IS SO BACK!

A Gray Area

I have mixed feelings on this.

On the one hand, these robots are remote-controlled, not autonomous, so anybody worried about a robot uprising can sleep peacefully for at least a little bit longer.

On the other hand, do we really want to give robots the power to kill? Rational or not, it just feels like a very slippery slope.

But, back on the pro hand, there is a lot of situations where robots could be useful to law enforcement. For instance, it’d definitely be better and safer to send a robot into a hostage situation.

But…what if a robot accidentally kills somebody? What happens then? Who is legally liable?

This whole thing’s a real gray zone. The only thing I know for sure is SF IS SO BACK.

— Stephen Flanders (SteveFlanders22)

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: $96 million: The amount that Seattle startup Cajal Neuroscience raised to fund their fresh approach to treating neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Story we’re watching: According to Chief Twit Elon, Apple is threatening to take Twitter off the App Store. Yes, I'm terrified. I can’t live without my daily dose of shitposting.

Rabbit hole: The Age of Acquisition (Investing 101) 

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Apple Music and Spotify’s year-end recaps are coming out soon. If you want your friends to think you listen to a certain artist, now is your last chance to make it happen.

• Crypto lender BlockFi officially filed for bankruptcy, the latest casualty of FTX.

• BeReal won app of the year at the annual Apple Store awards. Now let’s hope they can figure out a way to make some money.

• Forbes announced their 30 Under 30. Rahul Ligma appeared in it. Meanwhile, I'm in the 60 Under 6 Foot.

FOUNDERS CORNER

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

😂 Finally started reading "Surely You're Joking, Dr. Feynman". I'm simultaneously laughing out loud and learning about physics (which I didn't think was possible).

💻 I wrote a piece called Make Yourself an API. Like a confusing API won't be used, a person who can't clearly explain what they do won't make it in online.

👽 Got 2 beta invites for anonymous shitposting app Poaster. They recently raised $2 million from Balaji Srinivasan, Elad Gil, HOF Capital, and more.