Scott Nolan
@ScottNolan
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354
Partner @FoundersFund , former engineer @SpaceX , believer in founders and teams building important, non-inevitable futures
Los Angeles, CA
Joined April 2008
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Excited to support Neuralink’s next chapter of helping human patients in need.
The team has been working for seven years to make this possible, pulling off technical breakthroughs that feel like science fiction. The chance to work with world-class teams accelerating a positive
We’re happy to announce our $280M Series D round led by
@foundersfund
. We’re extremely excited about this next chapter at Neuralink.
If you’d like to help make the first human experience incredible and work on engineering challenges to restore vision and mobility, come join!
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Board of directors as...
Sanity check: 👌
Rolodex: 🤙
Strategy committee: 🙅♂️
The most successful founders drive company mission, vision and strategy. No one else is as close to the business or has the same moral authority. Hence why the most successful CEOs are also founders.
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Huge steps forward for Starship this morning:
- all 33 first stage Raptors performed to stage sep
- hot-staging worked (!) and first stage survived it (!!)
- all 6 second stage engines performed through T+8min
- launch pad looks great
Should be a huge party at Starbase tonight!
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Literally an excerpt from Atlas Shrugged
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A few SpaceX veterans set out to make 3D printing relevant for every industry.
The result after years in stealth mode: higher quality, digitally-verified parts at a fraction of the cost.
Freeform's unveiling, by
@ashleevance
:
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Mike and I started working together in 2011. Our first project was a niche class at Stanford that quickly became something much bigger.
What he's done at
@PirateWires
is already impressive and important, but I have a feeling the trajectory will be a lot like that class.
Can't
Welcome to the brand new Pirate Wires site, an independent home for our community and work. Come check out the new digs, and lmk what you think.
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WRONG:
1) ask VC what metrics will trigger investment
2) do whatever it takes to get those metrics
3) show metrics, hoping VC's story hasn't changed
RIGHT:
1) assess what metrics best reflect success
2) strategically build your business
3) show metrics, convincing VC to invest
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Lesson 2: except the explosion happens continuously
Lesson 3: and you need to carry the fuel with you as you ascend
Lesson 4: and you need to make the structure as light as possible
Lesson 5: and you need to control the trajectory
…plus cost minimization, reusability, etc
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After 5+ years in stealth, yesterday
@GordianBio
unveiled their platform for age-related diseases.
Gordian uses gene therapies to merge pooled screening and in vivo testing for the first time.
The result will be better therapies, faster and cheaper, using far fewer animals.
Shouldn’t aging be part of drug discovery for diseases of aging?
Gordian exists to move therapeutic testing from plastic wells and young mice into a living environment with all the complexity present in patients with age-related disease.
We’re now
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Why VCs actually have "ownership targets":
- to negotiate lower valuations
- to invest more than companies want
- to maximize influence as activist shareholders
These reasons are all bad for founders. Don't fall for ownership targets.
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If you’re building a satellite business, getting to orbit cheaply isn’t enough.
You also want to get there in hours, not weeks or months, to avoid $Ms in opportunity cost.
With that in mind, today Impulse announced
#Helios
, designed for the most important missions above LEO.
Introducing
#Helios
, our new high-performance kick stage.
Helios is designed to transfer 5+ tons from LEO to GEO in under 24 hours, dramatically cutting customer launch costs and time to operations.
Check the design specs 👉
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Financing negotiations are the period of max VC-founder misalignment.
Tranched rounds extend that period from days/weeks to months/years.
Avoid tranched rounds like you’d avoid a business partner who is fundamentally misaligned.
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If you’re building something physical you need to be - and will be happier than you ever thought possible to be - in El Segundo, tech’s Mecca of hardware
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Until meeting
@iSee_AI
I was skeptical full self-driving would happen very soon. Now
@foundersfund
is leading iSee's Series A. Their approach and why we're excited:
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One hallmark of great robotics companies is elegant constraining of the problem. Corollary: the less humanoid your robot the better your solution.
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Not only is there a quickly growing startup ecosystem, but as
@sama
and I are seeing, NZ is also an outdoor paradise.
http://t.co/BASoshf42S
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Since our seed investment 6 years ago,
@Synthego
has been quietly building the platform for genome engineering. We're thrilled to support them again as they unlock new applications across cell and gene therapies:
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"Being a founder and watching Silicon Valley is like being a cop with a tough beat going home and watching The Wire"
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"We choose to [do these] things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..."
#SpaceX
#PerAsperaAdAstra
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A very important financing for an even more important mission: fixing US healthcare. Some of the thinking behind why we believe it's possible and why we've backed
@Collective
since day one:
We’re excited to announce the next chapter in our mission to make it effortless to navigate, understand, and pay for healthcare.
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I couldn't have put it better myself. I first met
@rabois
back in 2010 and have wanted to be teammates ever since. Welcome to
@foundersfund
, Keith!
An outstanding operator, a passionate entrepreneur, and a brilliant thinker — Keith Rabois is one of the greatest minds in venture capital. He's also a friend. Welcome to the team,
@rabois
.
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The only thing that exploded into tiny pieces was my mind as I watched the synchronized landing of two rockets
Falcon Heavy side cores have landed at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2.
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“The next Google won’t be a search company” and the best chance to modernize an industry is where others haven’t looked. Austin-based
@RigUp
is doing exactly that in oil and gas.
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More relevant today than when we wrote it in 2015.
tl;dr
1. AI development is uniquely hard to detect
2. Regulation slows good actors, not bad actors
3. Accelerating good AI development is the best bet
On regulation of AI and the next Manhattan Project:
http://t.co/TKmfdjZncY
w/
@kaushalmohit
@BrookingsGov
#TechTank
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Boring Co is one of very few startups with unlimited upside. Few understand this.
For hints on the master plan, read the link below.
If you get it and want to build the future of transportation and cities in Austin or Vegas, DM me or apply at
The Boring Company just raised $675M at a $5.675B valuation from A-list investors.
Purpose is to recruit amazing people, scale up boring machine production & build thousands of miles of tunnels.
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For a given team, market, technology, etc... being HQ'd near SF helps when fundraising.
This is a clear capital markets inefficiency. Your company should be located where it will be the most successful. Capital should follow.
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Not every $27M Series B announcement includes Buzz Aldrin, Don Draper and NZ. Congrats
@8iReality
on the trifecta!
We're all about getting up close and personal with holograms.
@TechCrunch
on our Series B funding & Holo app 💫
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Fun conversation - thanks for having me
@himinnie
!
.
@ScottNolan
tells us what he thinks about the Elon-haters and how Founders Fund is unique in their investing approach. Scott, a partner at Founders Fund, has been there 12 years and was one of the first hires at SpaceX
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Thrilled and honored to be a part of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship. Can't wait to be back in Auckland next month - DM me if you're around!
@ScottNolan
joins Edmund Hillary Fellowship to bring Silicon Valley tech networks to NewZealand, cc
@foundersfund
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The US defense sector is broken. Trust me - I once worked in it.
We need to start from scratch, mission by mission and product by product, doing way more with a lot less.
Meet
@anduriltech
, the team doing exactly that.
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Broken windows theory:
1) enforce "unimportant" laws
2) signal crime is not tolerated
3) crime rates drop, violent and non
SF policy:
1) decriminalize small offenses
2) signal crime is tolerated
3) ?
Out of 81,000 auto break-ins, San Francisco police have made 13 arrests
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Achievement unlocked: daily whole-earth imaging. Momentous day for
@planetlabs
, commercial space and planet Earth. Congrats PL!!! 🎉🎆🙌
Launch Success! 5 years in the making!
@PlanetLabs
now has fleet to image entire Earth land daily. Proud! Thx
@ISRO
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"[Explaining VR] is like trying to convey the potential of the Internet in the early 1990s."
@DownLinc
,
@8iReality
:
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Excited to finally brag about
@boltthreads
: the startup mass-producing spider silk, one of the holy grails of matsci.
http://t.co/BaNxw8xbpe
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Finally, VR/AR passes the uncanny valley. Excited we can now share what 8i is up to:
http://t.co/27m7kfoIlE
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…and physically placing the cars under the people (hence
@boringcompany
)
Nothing will do more to revive a city than placing people above cars.
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why focus on market median cash comp?
your median competitor grants options that will never pay out
the median startup lacks an inspiring mission
your company must believe it's exceptional on both dimensions
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If you want to help advance longevity via a pragmatic, engineering-driven approach to epigenetic reprogramming, DM me or
@byersblake
. Proud to be backing the
@newlimit
team and this mission.
$40M from
@_DimensionCap
,
@foundersfund
and
@kleinerperkins
+
@ericschmidt
,
@FEhrsam
and
@eladgil
.
Small team. 17 people, growing to 25 for the next two years. Everyone executes and everyone learns to company build. Come discover the passphrase to youth!
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I just don't know if I can trust Matt Damon in The Martian after what he did to us in Interstellar
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At some point "we are in a severe, multi-year drought" needs to pivot to "we live in a de facto desert where it rains every few years"
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Investing and entrepreneurship are similar in one important way: the best in each believe in and bet big on futures most scoff at or ignore
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"Build something a few people really love":
@sama
spreading the startup gospel at
#NZStartups
at
@SparkNZ
w/
@GridAKL
http://t.co/yJHYc2Ds2X
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In layman's terms,
@SirenBio
is using a combination of tumor-directed AAVs and cytokine immunotherapy to treat tumors systemic drugs can't reach, like high-grade gliomas. Unlike most cancer therapeutics the expectation is robust response.
Congrats on the unveiling
@Nicole_Paulk
!
I spy with my little 👀 ... My secret stealth
#AAV
#GeneTherapy
company is launching today! 🚀
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t1: length of your enterprise sales cycle
t2: min time btwn turnover of exec buyer
If t1 > t2, your sales cycle will never close
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The best partnerships bring about a better world faster. Congrats
team
@stemcentrx
,
@abbvie
& FF's
@briansin
:
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If you want to fix healthcare, you need longitudinal data. Proud to be backing
@jeffkaditz
and Q on this mission:
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Idea: name son and daughter Json and Perl. Note: I will absolutely not be doing this.
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Very glad this has officially launched. Until there's a vaccine, we will simply need to manage through covid. Tools like this are the key piece in letting people get back to work.
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Not only will BTC mining lead to more renewables - monetization when or where grid demand is absent - but it can help reduce fossil fuel pollution. Controversial, I know.
If you care about accelerating renewables and compute check out
@CrusoeEnergy
. Great place to work in SF/CO.
It was great spending time with
@emilychangtv
to share the
@CrusoeEnergy
story today! Thanks for having us on
@BloombergTV
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Welcome to FF,
@cyantist
! The
@foundersfund
team officially just leveled up.
A founder, a CEO, a CTO, a self-taught engineer, an incredible investor, and a colleague. Welcome to the team,
@cyantist
.
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.
@WSJ
got it right ranking
@Collective
as one of the top 2 tech co's to watch: . Congrats - excited for what's ahead!
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Depends entirely on definition of "use". If you mean "transfer wealth into a non-fiat store of value", then people are using bitcoin *at least* every time they invest in bitcoin. Usage outpaces investment by definition.
Important difference:
1997:
- most have heard of the internet
- many invest in internet stocks
- everyone’s *using* the internet
2017:
- most have heard of bitcoin
- many invest in bitcoin
- almost no one *using* bitcoin
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Always nice to see a few friends on the Forbes cover! Hi
@rebeccak46
,
@SLP_EDU
,
@msquinn
and
@MarHershenson
- incredibly well deserved.
@alexrkonrad
, thanks for spreading the word:
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If you're near London next week, go hear my friend
@Adelbadge
speak along with
@ericries
at Lean Startup Summit!
🇬🇧 The program schedule for our 1st Lean Startup London Summit (May 16-18) is now online!
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If you're looking for a podcast that's thought-provoking, inspiring and practical, your search has ended. Subscribe now, and don't forget to read the intro essay by
@micsolana
.
Before we can build humanity's second home on Mars, we need to get there. In the season premier of ANATOMY OF NEXT: NEW WORLD we explore the most likely shape of our first mission to the Red Planet.
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Today
@Collective
announced its WorkForce Health Mgmt System and $100M+ in new capital. A true platform for employer-led healthcare now exists.
If you want to finally understand US Healthcare and employers' role, the infographics here reveal all:
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Hosting startup meetup w/
@sama
Dec 17 in
#Wellington
. Great speakers and hangout time after. Join us if you're free:
http://t.co/b59TNfRCjZ
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If Pokemon Go can create 1000s of unexpected jobs, it seems inevitable autonomous vehicles will net-create millions.
Go to Craigslist services & search "Pokemon" … be amazed at the grassroots economic ecosystem that's sprung up
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Huge thanks to
@GridAKL
and
@SparkNZ
for sponsoring and hosting Friday's
#Auckland
tech & startup meetup! Waitlist:
http://t.co/JIFzZRFGmt
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Missions like
@Neuralink
's are why we're investors. Their first users will be patients with neurological injury or disease.
Great engineers are the limiting factor and
@Neuralink
is hiring. Please send us your best, no matter their specialty.
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Boring Co in 2022 has uncanny parallels to SpaceX a decade ago. Should you have joined?
SpaceX 2012:
Achieved reusability
~50% price of cost-plus providers
Capacity scale-up imminent
100x upside: Starlink and Starship
Boring Co 2022:
"
"
"
100x upside: Inter-city and Hyperloop
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Collective's new
@Collective
Go product enables sitters to safely get back to work, and those with kids to do the same - WFH or otherwise.
With school reopenings in question this partnership with
@urbansitter
couldn't have come at a better time.
We’re excited to partner with
@urbansitter
on the rollout of Collective Go™ to help thousands of sitters across the U.S. safely return to work, while giving working parents the support they need.
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Remember this
Political attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months
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Epigenetic changes can be passed down. This isn’t new but few appreciate the broad implications.
Aspartame in Diet Coke raised anxiety-like behavior in mice in a dose-dependent manner, and anxiety persisted epigenetically for two generations.
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True - we're really regressing
by today's definition, y=mx+b is an artificial intelligence bot that can tell you where a line is going
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"Each generation has brought fwd a better mode of transportation." -
@SecretaryFoxx
at
@SpaceX
@Hyperloop
wknd
@TAMU
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Guessing they didn't spend much time on social media, either
Ages on July 4, 1776:
James Monroe: 18
Marquis de Lafayette: 18
Alexander Hamilton: 21
Betsy Ross: 24
James Madison: 25
Thomas Jefferson: 33
John Adams: 40
George Washington: 44
Two generations worked together (including some very young savants) to get the job done.
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200k members and declining healthcare costs for customers (vs. industry average 5% growth rate)...plus a new SLC office just in time for ski season
As we head into the new year, we welcome our largest group of members to date and continue to see strong adoption of our platform by forward-thinking employers across the U.S.
Check out our 2018 retrospective, and a look ahead to 2019 (hello Utah!)
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Why we invested our largest amount ever in Stemcentrx, a fully-integrated cancer therapeutics company:
http://t.co/7eDjpV1Fad
@techreview
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A worthwhile read: why "used" rockets are safer, and what reusability means for the space industry and all of us:
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Congrats
@zebulgar
and
@WillBruey
- well deserved raise by one of the most ambitious teams in space. T minus 6 quarters!
Excited to announce that we've raised a $42m Series A to build the world's first space factories
Co-led by Khosla Ventures (
@SamirKaul1
) & Caffeinated Capital (
@tonsing
)
Varda will bring the benefits of space to a much wider population via our products we bring back to Earth!!
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Thanks
@fluxaccelerator
and
@the_icehouse
- met some awesome companies and founders. Until next time!
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Prediction: employers will lead the way in reopening the economy, paying for employee testing and becoming self-contained "green" or "yellow" zones
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Basic rules: if burn ROI high, increase burn; if low/negative, reduce it; if TBD, refine the model. Hope is not a mgmt tool but strategy is.
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We must become a high power density civilization
The graph: fulfillment of sci-fi predictions based on their energy intensity.
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@EverettRandle
@gbrl_dick
True. Trying to keep that follower to tweet ratio as high as possible. 🥷
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Also true: [any person w/ sustained, 3+ sigma success] works harder than most [people in any generalizable category]
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If you like mobile growth (who doesn't?) come to Branchout, a 2-day event on bridging mobile journeys
#branchout2017
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Fun panel and great crowd tonight w/
@roddrury
, Brian and
@matthewmonahan
&
@sama
at
@CreativeHQ
- thx to
@kiwiconnectnz
and all who helped!
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Do you have what it takes to lead a team of these engineers with zero ego and an extreme “roll up your sleeves” work ethic?
If “yes” and you’re ready to thrive in Austin DM me!
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Thanks
@adamberke
and team for the vision to build for a distributed future long before it was obvious
Thanks to
@ScottNolan
and
@alex_gurevich
for seeing the opportunity even before the world changed. Article by
@Megan_Hernbroth
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Joseph and the
@turntablettlive
team are building a future that should have been.
Glad to see them come out of stealth and talk about their positive mission ahead of the public launch:
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F9 and Starship will keep dropping launch costs. This unlocks a frontier of new space ventures where the best in-orbit delta-V wins.
So
@lrocket
and the all-stars at
@GoToImpulse
set out to build the best in-orbit dV products. We’re honored to back them.
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Here's hoping the self-driving algorithms have fewer errors than the ads 🤞
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In fact, investors should be hyper-aware of this type of flawed logic; "past performance does not predict future returns"
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The corollary: whatever country collects the best entrepreneurs and engineers will define this century. Via
@paulg
:
http://t.co/GQYSA6UcU1
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Favorite new product of 2022. Nothing weird either: standard vitamins, low-dose melatonin and an algorithmic protocol. If you're flying across the Atlantic or Pacific it's a must-have.
Thanks to everyone who used FlyKitt in the beta phase! We’ve taken your feedback into account and are proud to launch our full solution to jet lag for everyone!
@traestephens
@melanter
@DarcyNorman
@JoshuaSteinman
@JereSimpson
@sherrywalling
@TheClayMethod
@CJ_Reim
@ScottNolan
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