Hardtech startups are all the rage and some people are haters. Everyone is posting about Airchat and Blackbird.xyz. Kids should spend less time with screens but more education tech is being made for them.

Hey there, everybody. Today we’re talking about competing hardware, new social apps, kids using hardware in class, and kids getting off social apps. If you read anything this week, it should be Words Matter: How Tech Media Helped Write Gig Companies into Existence. It’s a long one, but it’s good for you. My thoughts on it are at the bottom under Brain Dump.

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RAISES

•  Flyers Cocktail Co., a producer of THC & CBD canned cocktails, closed a seed funding round led by Delta Emerald Ventures. In the past 9 months, the company saw 250% revenue growth. 

• Udio, a music creation app that utilizes AI, raised $10M in seed funding led by a16z. Other investors included will.i.am, Common, Kevin Wall, Tay Keith, UnitedMasters, Mike Krieger, and Oriol Vinyals. It was was developed by former Google DeepMind researchers and aims to make it easier to make music resonate with listeners. 

• ShareChat, a Bengaluru-based social media startup that lets users connect via spaces like micro blogging and audio chat rooms, raised $49M in a convertible note from Lightspeed, Temasek, Alkeon Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures and HarbourVest. A source told tech crunch that the startups valuation dropped to $2B from ~$5B. The nine year old startup claims to have over 400M users in South Asia.

NEWS

Startups I’m seeing in hardtech: 

• Humane dropped their first product, AI Pin, and a lot of people aren't happy about it, like SAMTIME, Marques Brownlee, and Mrwhosetheboss. The $699 device uses touch, voice, and a projection interface for all its UI. While it doesn't expect to be a full phone replacement, the AI Pin handles similar features in a more hands-off way, like text, calls, taking notes, and taking videos or photos through its 12MP camera. Some people are more mad about Marques actually posting the review of this device than the actual function of the device. While the craftsmanship and concept were good, Marques noted the device was slow, often returned the wrong answer, had inconsistent battery life, and poor photo and video quality. Colin and Samir spoke with Marques about his review choice and impacts. See Brain Dump for more.

• I am waiting for a similar piece of tech to the above, the Rabbit R1.CNET reported that it was supposed to drop in late March, but so far, I haven't seen it! The Rabbit R1 is a $199 universal controller for apps that runs on Rabbit OS, which "can control your music, order you a car, buy your groceries, send your messages, and more, all through a single interface" according to The Verge. "Rather than a ChatGPT-like large language model, Rabbit says Rabbit OS is based on a 'Large Action Model,' and the best way I can describe it is as a sort of universal controller for apps." 

• The Limitless Pendant by Limitless is different from the AI Pin; they are trying to do a few things well rather than cast a wide net. Right now, the $99 device's main function is to make your meetings better by preparing you, transcribing, and providing real-time notes and summaries. For $20 a month, you can also give it access to your calendar. Limitless can take your data and, with the help of AI models, get information back to you whenever.

Startups I’m seeing on my feed: 

• All the web3 homies are posting about Blackbird.xyz. Blackbird works by creating a digital membership token for you using NFT tech from Coinbase, which is based on blockchain. When you go to a restaurant that uses it, you can check in on the app by tapping your phone on a special reader at the restaurant, getting you access to rewards, perks, and other benefits. So it’s like a coffee shop punch card but with Web3 involved. (On my feed: I first saw it online from Gabby Goldberg. Then, I saw Adam Faze’s production company Gymnasium is collaborating with Blackbird.xyz to create Take Me To Your Spot, the show about restaurant regulars. I bet all the restaurants included are customers of Blackbird.xyz.)

• I’m sorry, but I have to mention Airchat. I know, we have all seen it. If you've been living under a rock, Airchat is a new social media app by Naval Ravikant (the founder of Angelist) and Brian Norgard (former Tinder exec) that encourages users to “just talk.” It was released last year but now it has been rebuilt and relaunched for iOS and Android users. Basically, it is a feed that is read aloud to you. If you like voice notes and listening into people's conversations, this is the app for you. Unfortunately, I only like one of those things… and it's not voice notes. I snagged the username @rachel so I feel pretty cool. We know what happened to Clubhouse usership and we are currently watching the fate of ShareChat, the India-based startup offering audio chatrooms among other spaces to connect for users. It’s just a matter of time before bigger tech companies incorporate and embrace the “voice note” communication some people love. I am interested to see if it will stick. I don’t even like the Twitter Spaces tbh. 

Big Tech:  

• Instagram is testing a program that lets top creators use AI to chat with followers. The program, known as Creator AI, will mimic the voice of influencers to respond to fans according to NYT sources. Most messages are sent automatically and would disclose they are AI generated. 

• YouTube’s official livestream Coachella includes multiview functionality so we can watch multiple performances all at the same time and switch between audio. This is the 12th year that YouTube is the exclusive livestream and content partner of the event. I mourn our attention span. 

• Meta changed its rules on AI-generated content and manipulated media following criticism from its Oversight Board. Related, I’ve been seeing more and more about the Dead Internet Theory with Facebook. I would check it out if you are looking for a good rabbit hole.

• Post Company revived a hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea that was the site of an 1983 Apple company retreat… the one where Steve Jobs unveiled the first working prototype of the Macintosh computer! The hotel, and computer, are stellar. Dream honeymoon destination for all my hot nerds out there. (Ok… so this isn’t about big tech really, but I need someone to bring me here). 

• Adobe is in early stages letting Premier Pro creators use AI models from third party generative AI tools, like  OpenAI, to generate videos.  I think that the indie movie scene is going to get a lot more interesting. 

Kids:

• Meta is planning to launch an education product for Quest, focused on letting teachers access education apps for students and manage multiple headsets simultaneously. Meta won’t be making the educational content itself, it will just provide the platform for companies building VR experiences. Could Meta get a leg up in the headset race with education or will they stick to gaming?  

• Emma Chamberlain won’t be putting her kids online? Yeah, I get that.  

• Is your kids' homework getting to the point where it’s hard to help? AI can be their next tutor and the humans that are training them are making bank. The New York Times wrote: “The boom in A.I. technology has put a more sophisticated spin on a kind of gig work that doesn’t require leaving the house. The growth of large language models like the technology powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT has fueled the need for trainers like Ms. Becker, fluent English speakers who can produce quality writing.” 

• Childcare costs are on the up and up, with the cost of daycare and preschool rising 4.4% in March Y/Y, outpacing the overall rate of inflation. Last year, the annual wage in the child care industry came out to $33K, a 27% increase from 2019, even after adjusting for inflation.  

• The American Psychological Association says that tech companies have to step it up to protect kids online. Endless scrolling and notifications are heightened distractions for kids, whose brains are less able to disengage for addictive experiences. I was soooo mad my Mom wouldn’t let me have an iPod Touch in middle school… don’t tell her, but now I’m thankful she delayed my screen addiction.

BRAIN DUMPS

If you read anything this week, it should be Words Matter: How Tech Media Helped Write Gig Companies into Existence. I started to think about it after listening to Colin and Samir speak with very famous tech reviewer Marques Brownlee about his Youtube video about the Humane AI Pin.

Words Matter was interesting, especially as someone who shares a lot with tech journalists. When companies like Uber and TaskRabbit came about, the media raved about these new app service companies, making them out to be disruptors connecting consumers and gig workers. The positive framing convinced regulators and the public, leading to laws favoring their business models. The glowing, but uncritical, tech reporting helped a few small firms influence labor practices and policies big time, despite their limited economic footprint. I don’t think this is the journalists fault; they didn’t know the questions to ask because they weren’t deep in the sectors they were told to report on. If we had amplified journalists who were subject matter experts in traditional fields (like mobility/transportation in Uber's case), rather than focusing on "tech" or "startups", would there have been stronger pushback against these companies? I need to be more critical and understand that what I am reading could very well be a product review rather than hard hitting questions and deep analysis about the impacts to the overarching industry. 

Tech and startups do not exist in a vacuum in their own little world. They exist in society and that should be taken into account more, including by me. That being said… thats for subscribing to my tech and startups focused newsletter!  

Until next time,
Rachel Braun