Chamath likes influencers, just like me. Howdy from the Texas Stock Exchange! OpenAI is in the world of entertainment.

Hey there, everybody. Hope you all had a wonderful Global Day of Running yesterday! Today we’re talking about how Texas wants to sit at the cool kids' table, but New York thinks they’re weird; the importance of online curators; and OpenAI getting buddy-buddy with the entertainment industry. Also, Chamath dropped his take on the creator economy. I wonder if he knows about Alix Earle.

🤑 RAISES

• ZeroMark, a New York developer of military rifle attachments for shooting down drones, raised a $7M seed co-led by a16z and Ground Up Ventures. Been seeing a lot of people building at the intersection of drones and guns lately. Just thought I’d share. (Link)

• Storyblok, an Austrian headless CMS, raised a $80M Series C led by Brighton Park Capital. It claims their customers’ customers include Adidas, T-Mobile, and Oatly. Calling something a “headless CMS” makes my imagination go wild. (Link) 

• Realm, a Finnish workplace search startup led by ex-Slush event leaders, raised €1.7M led by Lifeline Ventures. I LOVED Slush and if you asked me, I would give you an ENTIRE NEWSLETTER about my solo trip to Helsinki, which involved me getting on the wrong plane. Still, biggest fan of Finland ever. (Link) 

• Human Native AI, a startup focused on ensuring rights holders are paid when their work is used to train LLMs, raised £2.8M from LocalGlobe and Mercuri. (Link)

• Surely, a non-alcoholic wine brand, closed an equity round led by Pure Ventures. Drop your NA red wine favorites; I still haven’t found one. It can be chilled, but not too juice-like. I still want that full body experience.  (Link) 

• Eko Health, creators of an AI stethoscope, raised a $41M Series D. Cleared by the FDA in April, the tool uses heart sounds and cardiac rhythm assessment to identify heart failures and improve patient outcomes through early identification of cardiovascular issues. (Link)

🗞️ NEWS

Online Personality

• 🚨 Trend alert: Online curators are here to stayAI is good at organizing data and guessing what we like, but it can't be a tastemaker like humans can. Online curators are important because they help us find the good stuff on the internet. Unlike influencers, curators give us more details and context. Sure, they can make money through sponsorships and ads, but we trust them to recommend good stuff. Some of my favorite include the aforementioned newsletter FeedMe for cultural business news, the podcast How Long Gone for music, The CPG Wire for consumer, and The Stanza for fashion. (Link) 

• Chamath shared his thoughts on the creator economy in his newsletter, but there is a paywall for the good stuff. If you are one of the people who pay $99/month, I’d love to talk. '...influencers like MrBeast and Kim Kardashian build massive consumer goods businesses on the back of their captive audiences. But they aren’t the only ones.' This feels low-key late to the game, but I love that he’s getting into it. He should go on a Tarte influencer trip. (Link)

  

  Photoshop by me. Graphic by Chamath.
  Deep Dive: Creator Economy - The Next Phase of Media

• Following up on a previous issue of B&B: I saw the How Long Gone x MORJAS boat shoe… but it didn’t come in a size smaller than a 39 and I am a 36.5. They were beautiful; heavy sole, hairy suede, and well crafted. I got to meet the founder, and fun fact, he worked in hair products before shoes!

Big Tech 

• Instagram Roundup: Instagram enhances its Notes feature with likes and mentions (Link), introduces an “Inspiration” tab for trending songs and audio (Link), and expands its Limits tool for teens to restrict unwanted interactions to Close Friends. (Link) Instagram is also testing an unskippable ad format with a countdown timer that prevents feed scrolling briefly. (Link)

• An article explores the experiences of ninth graders without iPhones, revealing a mix of longing for phones and a critical view of peers' phone addiction. “All of the kids I spoke with — those with long-delayed phones, those still waiting — seemed to have developed a dual mentality. They longed for phones and envied friends who had them. At the same time, they saw that their peers had become addicted and casually policed them in the style of exasperated parents and teachers.” (Link) 

• Samsung has filed a preemptive lawsuit against Oura, seeking a declaratory judgment that their Galaxy Ring does not infringe on five Oura patents, alleging a pattern of patent suits against competitors over common smart ring features. That’s right… this is a preemptive lawsuit! Meaning Oura hasn’t even said that Samsung is copying their idea yet. I love my Oura ring (like I said, big fan of Finland), but I can’t wait to see what other smart rings hit the market. (Link)

• TikTok influencers helped a self-published author sell over 1M copies of the book “The Shadow Work Journal”, including approximately 700K on TikTok Shop. This is a great example of how TikTok is wildly changing the book industry. However, I got a lot of fake versions of this book popping up on my feed, so that is something to think about.  (Link)

Startups 

• Modular laptop maker Framework introduces a $269 drop-in 120Hz display, an improved $39 webcam, and a swappable mainboard for Intel Core Ultra chips. I am really into modular tech; not only do I like to personalize things, but I like the idea of replacing one part of a product that is broken rather than the entire thing. I have had to do that too many times to Apple products. (Link)

• Sékr launches Copilot, a tool that uses natural language processing and community data to plan road trips, providing information on campsites, toilets, and showers. This gets me in the mood to road trip this summer. (Link)

Consumer 

• Investment firm Consortium Brand Partners acquired the athleisure brand Outdoor Voices. Their portfolio also includes Draper James, Reese Witherspoon’s lifestyle brand. Remember just a few weeks ago, Outdoor Voices shut down all their stores without giving the employees a heads up. That place seems a mess. (Link)

• Zara plans to expand live shopping broadcasts in the UK, Europe, and the US between August and October 2024, inspired by the format popular in China. Live shopping has been a thing for a while in China, but in the states, the closest thing we have is probably QVC. This is like if QVC merged with TikTok. I don’t know how much I would actually like this, but one thing I do like is having people put videos in their reviews of products. (Link)

• Huge news for girls in the West Village: Golden Goose IPO aims to raise €100M at a €3B valuation (~5.1X 2023 revenue). My Dad would HATE these shoes so much. (Link)

Entertainment 

• OpenAI Roundup: The Atlantic and Vox Media sign multi-year deals with OpenAI. (Link) The Tribeca Festival will showcase five short films made with OpenAI's text-to-video tool Sora on June 15. (Link)

• FeedMe Scoop: The producers of Vanderpump Rules and Unwell, the network by Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper, are casting a New York City influencer friend group for a reality TV show akin to Gossip Girl, with filming in early 2025. Omg. (Link)

• Alec and Hilaria Baldwin announced a reality show featuring their family, coming to TLC next year. When I Googled “Alec Baldwin”, this covered the front page more than his criminal trial. I wonder how long this has been in the works. (Link)

• A few weeks ago, I talked about how everyone who has been making games since Connections and Wordle popped off, from LinkedIn to MorningBrew. Now, New York Magazine is investing in games, following The Times’ example.. Vulture is hiring an editorial games producer to build on the success of Cinematrix, their daily movie trivia grid game. (Link)

New York 

• Move over, New York Stock Exchange… Texas wants the spotlight. Texas aims to establish its own national stock exchange by 2026, supported by BlackRock and Citadel Securities, to challenge the NYSE and Nasdaq. (Link)

@morningbrew

Texas is creating its own stock exchange #texas #wallstreet #stockmarket #nyc @Macy is on TikTok

🧠 BRAIN DUMPS

☕ Thinking of hosting a Braun & Brains coffee hour before work or something — let me know if you’re down to come! ☕

Until next time,
Rachel Braun

P.S. I read all my emails! If you have feedback, a question, or just want to say hello, please do so by responding to this newsletter or by emailing [email protected] 💌