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  • Rice-sized tiny robots, Apple at Fashion Week, the streaming service with the least ads, and Dry January.

Rice-sized tiny robots, Apple at Fashion Week, the streaming service with the least ads, and Dry January.

"It's hard to change when you're being paid not to change." - Brian Collins

My highlights from last week: saw my college roommate and it felt like we never left, went to the Met, and attended a CreativeMornings session featuring Brian CollinsKeith Yamashita, and Cindy Gallop.

Here are my favorite quotes from the session:
• "It's hard to change when you're being paid not to change." - Brian Collins
• "Agents get the clients they deserve." - Brian Collins
• "Surrendering to failure is not the same thing as giving up." - Keith Yamashita
• "No one is shaming your failures, publicly or privately... No one is keeping score." - Cindy Gallop

Living in New York City is something I will never take for granted. Being able to hear from some of the brightest minds in the creative world and learn from the people I look up to, just a few blocks from my apartment, is a gift.

Big Tech

  • I’m not even going to talk about all that has happened with TikTok. You guys get the gist. If you don’t, Google it. (Google)

  • Employer.com founder and CEO posted some rumblings on X last night about buying TikTok alongside Mr.Beast. Earlier this month, I wrote about Bench Accounting, a startup that shut down and locked users out before getting acquired by Employer.comEric Newcomer went in more detail about that.

  • On the same day as the TikTok ban, Instagram launched Edits, their version of Capcut (same parent company as TikTok), and is now letting users post Reels up to 3 minutes. Petty. (Edits)

  • Jacquemus is partnering with Apple to capture its Paris Fashion Week show, "La Croisière," on January 26 using the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The show will feature live video in 4K120 fps and iPhone photography with close-up shots. There will also be an interactive installation with iPhones. This is not Apple’s first fashion collaboration. Former Apple design chief Jony Ive co-hosted the 2016 Met Gala. (NSS Magazine)

  • Airbnb is putting its political hat on and getting to work. The company has launched a Super PAC called "Keeping New York Affordable," with plans to spend $5M backing candidates who support short-term rentals. This move comes after Airbnb faced a setback in 2023, when NYC passed strict regulations on home-sharing. They are now pushing for a new bill to restore homeowners' rental rights, but the hotel industry, led by the Hotel Trades Council, is fighting back against the effort. Airbnb’s goal is to make a comeback in New York by influencing upcoming elections. (New York Post)

  • I really appreciated the visuals from this, so I would click on the link if I were you. Jon Keegan analyzed the amount of time ads occupy on ad-supported streaming platforms by watching 12 popular shows across six platforms, quantifying the ad content versus the program itself. As we all know, streaming services are piling on more ads, even for the cheaper plans, and after testing six platforms, he found that Netflix’s ad-supported plan is the clear winner, with the fewest ads (just 2.6-4%) and a price of only $6.99/month. Paramount+ and Peacock were the worst offenders, with up to 18 ads per show. Disney+ and Hulu weren’t far behind, with ads taking up 13-16% of the show. Insane. (Sherwood)

From Sherwood

  • Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, deactivated the WordPress.org accounts of several community members, including Joost de Valk, creator of the Yoast SEO tool, and Karim Marucchi, CEO of Crowd Favorite. Both denied plans to create a WordPress fork* but had raised concerns about WordPress governance and the need for a more independent system. The issue started when Mullenweg criticized WP Engine for profiting from WordPress, leading to a lawsuit. Mullenweg reduced Automattic’s contributions to match WP Engine’s and suggested de Valk and Marucchi join WP Engine’s efforts, while also deactivating other accounts. He joked that any new fork could be called "JKPress" and even proposed a joint summit.

    • *If you’re asking yourself, “What the fork?”: A "fork" is when developers take the code from an existing project and create a new version of it. This new version can grow and change on its own, without affecting the original project. It usually happens when people want to try out new ideas or fix things in a different way. For WordPress, a fork would mean making a separate version of the platform with its own rules and features.

  • An internal memo shared that Meta will be cutting up to 5% of its workforce. The news comes a few days after rolling back their DEI initiatives. In the memo, Zuck wrote “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster”. Sheesh. (New York Times)

Startups

  • Bluesky is getting hip. The platform is now offering a custom feed for vertical videos. (TechMeme)

  • I previously wrote about Bench Accounting, a startup that shut down and locked users out before getting acquired by Employer.com. Eric Newcomer went in more detail. (Newcomer)

  • Stand, a new insurance startup that launched just last month, is already making waves. With AI-powered tools, it’s helping homeowners in wildfire-prone areas of California get personalized insurance options and fire-safety advice. With many insurers leaving California, Stand is stepping in to provide affordable coverage while working with neighborhoods to improve overall fire resilience. (Wall Street Journal)

  • The app Fameify lets you cosplay a successful livestreamer to fake fans that gush over you…. Online validation is eating your soul. (Famefy)

Recent Raises

  • Robeauté raised $28M, co-led by Plural, Cherry Ventures, and Kindred Ventures, to advance their microrobots for neurosurgery. Tiny little robots the size of a grain of rice that can travel into the human brain to help neurosurgeons was not on my bingo card for this year. So freaking cool. (Fortune)

  • Synthesia raised $180M at a $2.1B valuation, with NEA leading, to scale their B2B AI video generation platform. The valuation is more than double the $1B valuation when they last raised in 2023. (CNBC)

  • Lady Technologies raised $6.5M in Series A funding, led by Relentless Consumer Partners, to support their fertility tracker and pelvic floor trainer. The company analyzes vaginal data by tracking changes in cervical mucus to identify a woman’s full fertile window. (FinSMEs)

Dry January

  • Ever wonder why you pay the same price for a non-alcoholic beer? While they avoid alcohol taxes, they are still pretty expensive to produce (especially for up-and-coming brands) due to newer brewing techniques, smaller batch sizes, and limited economies of scale. Across the pond, 120M pints of no/low-alcohol beer were consumed in UK pubs in 2023, with that number expected to rise by 20M in 2024. Supermarket sales of non-alcoholic beers, wines, and spirits rose by £44M to £320M in 2024 (95.5M liters). (Telegraph)

    From Telegraph, NIQ data

  • Hot take from an opinion piece: “Sobriety without addiction feels like stolen valor.” (New York Times)

  • Traditionally, men drank more than women, but women, particularly in their 20s and 30s, have been drinking more since the 2000s. The stereotypes of the sorority party girl and wine mom troupes haven't been helping. Experts often refer to this behavior as "drinking to cope," which has a more serious connotation.(Bloomberg)

Culture

  • The MTA's subway signal system at the DeKalb Avenue station in Brooklyn is the same today as it was in the 1930s. To put that into perspective, Herbert Hoover was President in 1930. The MTA is now pushing for a $65B modernization plan to upgrade signals and improve service, with only the 7 and L lines currently using modern, more efficient systems. (I live on the L. It still breaks down and skips stations… a ton.) (Gothamist)

  • Researchers have been able to show us the tattoos on a 1,200-year-old mummy. (One time, I got a tattoo from Ephemeral that was suppose to fade after a year and a half… but it took three years… and it was a matching one… with someone I met two weeks before… Luckily, it was just a small cowboy hat and the tattoo buddy and I started dating shortly after getting them and never stopped.) (Gizmodo)

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.
- Rachel Braun

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