As anyone trying to break into national journalism 20 years ago will recall, there were 4 well-worn paths:
1/ know someone,
2/ be so dazzlingly talented that you’re plucked from a uni paper,
3/ work your way up from the locals (the path that built the best, but is now largely
I’m delighted to have joined
@sequoia
as Director of Comms, based in London. Sequoia has a long track record of investing in Europe and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of the team helping the daring build legendary companies.
So what happened next? I did prove him wrong. I also proved him right…
He reluctantly let me shadow him for a single day, and well, it was an eye opener 👀
All of it was spent drinking in the Commons bars. I never saw a pen and paper let alone a computer. After about 8 hours
Few things have made me as furious, distressed or anxious as the treatment of pregnant women during the pandemic. Huge gratitude to
@PregnantScrewed
@stellacreasy
& all those who’ve demanded better, & to
@thedalstonyears
for such harrowing, vital reporting.
Entrepreneurship may not seem an obvious thing to put near the top of the to-do list for whoever’s behind the iconic black door on Friday morning 👀 but it’s fundamental not just for growth & competitiveness, but social mobility & opportunity too.
Britain’s startup and scaleup ecosystem is at a crossroads.
And whoever forms the next Government has some serious decisions to make.
That's why today we are launching our Startup Manifesto. Read it here:
Or find out more below 👇
Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day 2024, we are deeply honoured to announce that Her Majesty The Queen -
@RoyalFamily
, has become the first Royal Patron of the Anne Frank Trust UK✨
OK Londoners - fun night out on June 7th with comic legends
@Jamesacaster
&
@luisaomielan
& more at Islington’s Union Chapel. Come along, laugh at their jokes and know that you’re helping raise vital ££ for brilliant charity
@LossFoundation
(THREAD) 1/8
That lurchy feeling when your phone shows dozens of Twitter notifications & you can’t think what on earth you’ve done. The relief when it transpires you’ve been accidentally tagged. Changing my bio to “musical genius” immediately. 🎼
#AskSammy
this was one of the wonderful collaborations with
@RuthBarnett
she is a musical genius and we put our heads together both wanting to create something special. I had the music from her a good 2 weeks in advance which really helped me with my prep.
NEW: South by Southwest is heading to London in 2025! 🙌🏾
Absolutely thrilled to welcome
@sxsw
to London for the first time ever - confirming our place at the heart of Europe’s tech and creative sectors & as a global capital of culture.
A powerful thread about grief and how we talk about it. Grateful for
@LossFoundation
and all the orgs out there trying to end the taboo about something we will all experience in some form and yet don’t seem to have language for.
this isn't really what twitter is for, but ten years ago today my son died and I basically never talk about it with anyone other than my wife. it's taken me ten years to realize that I want to talk about it all the time.
this is about grief
Great science writing is so hard: a juggling act between accessibility and maintaining the integrity of complex ideas. Kelly is the most extraordinary science writer and I can’t wait to read this book!
My first book, PLAYING WITH REALITY: HOW GAMES HAVE SHAPED OUR WORLD comes out next week! I was constantly surprised while researching this book—and learned so much about people by studying something that fascinates them (thread)
Here's the thing: we'll all be affected by cancer in some way, & we'll all be affected by loss. 👇This is the UK's only dedicated cancer bereavement charity & it urgently needs cash to continue into 2020.
I've donated, can you help?
#LossFoundation2020
When I lost my dad to cancer, I really wobbled. Then, I discovered a complete lack of support. Since then our charity has helped many hundreds of others. Now it’s our turn to ask for help & we need it right now. 1/3
#LossFoundation2020
#cancer
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. We remember the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, all victims of Nazi persecution and the victims of subsequent genocides.
#HMD2023
#HolocaustMemorialDay
Londoners! Enjoy laughing? Thought so. Come join this incredible line up for a night of great comedy in aid of
@LossFoundation
- June 13, Union Chapel.
Please join us all at the Loss Foundation in celebrating founder & CEO Dr Erin Hope Thompson’s
@erinhopet
inclusion in the Queen’s Honours List, with an MBE for Services to Bereaved Families! Why does this matter? 🧵 1/6
As the campaigns end and a new chapter begins, some (personal) views on political communications and the Consistent / Maverick paradox…
Being a good communicator really matters!
1 People consider comms skill a meaningful proxy for leadership skill & integrity. This has been a
Need some laughter during the lockdown? 22 May join comedians
@JenBrister
@EvelynMok
@TomHDeacon
+ more for an evening of silliness beamed into your living room - all for a good cause
Tonight’s RTS television news awards were a powerful reminder of the incredible work delivered yet again by reporters, producers, editors, camera operators, translators, fixers & so many more. These remain dangerous jobs, with too many traumatised, harmed or killed.
I’d estimate I’ve read a thousand articles on what women should do to avoid, prevent or survive violence against women & girls and precisely 1 (below) on what it might take for the perpetrators to stop.
“Science is the most beautiful invention,” he says, “a way of generating theories and testing them experimentally. AI can act as a multiplier for human ingenuity. What could be more exciting than that?”
@demishassabis
meets
@matthewsyed
So happy to have got my hands on Laura Barnett’s latest novel This Beating Heart - IVF and pregnancy loss are such challenging, life altering experiences for so many yet they’re peculiarly absent from literature, it’s brilliant to see that change 🙌
The Lost To The Virus series from
@thedalstonyears
is such vital, heartbreaking journalism: individual portraits of people who were loved, their hobbies & habits, & the sequences of events (&/ or systemic failures) that led to their deaths.
📣 Calling aspiring founders in London! To celebrate
#LTW
@_georgerobson
,
@cornelius_menke
and I from
@Sequoia
would love to meet anyone starting a company or interested in starting a company. We’ll be at WatchHouse Marylebone (32-42 New Cavendish Street) tomorrow, 2-4pm. Come
I can’t think of a better illustration of how AI research has gone fully mainstream than seeing Transformers & Attention Is All You Need - the breakthrough underpinning GenerativeAI - being given the FT Big Read treatment. 🤩
The story of the Transformer and its inventors was the first one I began to report when I took on my role as AI editor earlier this year - it helps encapsulate the current moment we are in with generative AI, and where we are going. 👉
The app that’s become my lockdown lifesaver:
@caribu
- family (or friends) can read books & draw on a live video chat designed for kids. It’s the only way meals get cooked in our house.