The Flex - March '23

Only what matters. Often bragging. Nothing more. Brought to you by Flex Capital.

Announcing our monthly note where we share our writings, what we think matters, and our perspective on the "current thing." Let us know your feedback!

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Our Latest Thinking…

Auren wrote an essay. The web loved it; we hope you do too.

If you are gonna be a founder, you gotta choose if you are going to be an insider or an outsider. Every insider secretly wants the freedom to be an outsider. Every outsider secretly wants the respectability of being an insider. Some outsiders eventually become insiders. Rarely does an insider ever become an outsider.

• a Nirav or a Naval? - that is the question (Auren Hoffman)

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What Matters Now…

• Venture capitalists race to land next AI deal on Big Tech's turf (Reuters)

• SVB’s challenges will accelerate valuation down rounds, startup mortality, and layoffs (CBInsights)

• ChatGPT can now access the internet and run the code it writes (NewAtlas)

• America’s banks are missing hundreds of billions of dollars (TheEconomist)

• What is a sweep network and how does it allow Mercury to offer $5M in FDIC insurance? (Mercury)

• As U.S. leaders debate a TikTok ban, lawmakers and creators clash over generational and social differences (Mashable)

• OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google (Reuters)

• We asked the SEC for reasonable crypto rules for Americans. We got legal threats instead (Coinbase)

• A $500 million term sheet in 12 hours: How Rippling struck a deal as SVB was melting down (TechCrunch)

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Diving Deeper…

• The Age of AI Has Begun (GatesNotes)

• Amazon’s Cloud Crisis: How AWS Will Lose The Future Of Computing (Semianalysis)

• Block: How Inflated User Metrics and “Frictionless” Fraud Facilitation Enabled Insiders To Cash Out Over $1 Billion (HindenburgResearch)

• 5 Interesting Learnings from UiPath at $1.2 Billion in ARR (Saastr)

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The Non-Obvious…

America is getting older 📈

Rex Woodbury @rex_woodbury

One of the most underrated shifts happening in America: our aging population. • Every day, 10,000 people in the US turn 65 • By 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be over 65 • Half the population is already over 50 At the same time, the number of Americans under 18 will remain… https://t.co/SwEXkqc9f9

A way to bypass the DOJ? 🤔

Josh Wolfe @wolfejosh

It’s very simple. This was an acquisition + this is what would happen in M&A. It’s just one that the DOJ would never approve. So $10B from MSFT in a highly clever structured captive economic + tech deal. Any other co could have made same or better deal but MSFT won this asset

Elon Musk @elonmusk

As part of their investment, Microsoft gained exclusive access to the entire OpenAI codebase

What if you had perfect memory? 🔮

Dan Siroker @dsiroker

GPT-4 is just the beginning. It is trained on a massive amount of data but knows nothing about you. What if it did? Introducing ChatGPT for Me What if you had perfect memory? Check out the demo below and sign up here: rewind.ai/chatgpt

Old but gold: Deel reached $295M ARR 🤯

Alex Bouaziz @Bouazizalex

Today, we’re launching @deel’s biggest product ever. So we wanted to look back at 2022 where we learned & improved by helping the world’s biggest brands scale their global teams: 🚀 $57m -> $295m ARR 💸 EBITDA positive since Sept 📈 85%+ Gross Margin 🌎 $5B+ paid to 250k+ people

See you all next month 👋