The Best of Times... 📧
Reading about CRV giving back money to their LPs given the current investing environment seemed like a good time to recap/summarize how we got to the place where we are now. The week we have VCs stating that "the math no longer worked" is the very same week we have the largest VC round ever closing.
Quite the Dickens dichotomy...
Some Thoughts...
🚙 Waymo is Adding the Hyundai Ioniq 5 to its Robotaxi Fleet – When I first read this, my mind immediately recalled the rumor that Apple was going to partner with Hyundai to manufacture the (now defunct) Apple Car. At first, such a partnership seemed odd to me, but their Georgia plant seemed to be a key element of the deal – which is also where they'll make the Ioniq 5. Also of note: Hyundai is quietly now the number two EV player in the US market behind only Tesla. You know, the company which is on the verge of their own – theatrical? – robotaxi unveil to compete with Waymo... The timing here is interesting. One more thing: the Ioniqs apparently aren't intended to fully replace the current Jaguar models or the forthcoming Geely models – which may be quite problematic now which huge tariffs against Chinese manufacturers – but to add to the fleet. They're also years away from being ready to roll, it seems. [The Verge]
🍹 Can a Neon Blue Gummy Worm Cocktail Save the Movies? – I mean, probably not Neon Blue Gummy Worm Cocktails in particular – that sounds absolutely disgusting, but I guess is sort of on trend – but the idea of trying to make going to the movies an experience that's actually unique and enjoyable, yes, that's the right idea. It sounds so simple, but for years and years, the big chains like AMC degraded the movie-going experience into sitting in an increasingly small semi-dark room that was often quite filthy. So when the pandemic came around and took a sledgehammer to the illusion that you needed to go to such a place to watch a first-run movie, it was – and remains – a problem. Weird drinks? Sure, that's a start. Also, how about actually good food? Trivia. Massive screens. Perfect sound. Amazing chairs. Etc. This is hard because even all of that won't be enough to push back the reality that the overall theater footprint needs to shrink, but it's better than the entire industry totally collapsing, no? [NYT]
💍 ‘The Rings of Power’ Reaches 55 Million Viewers in One Month – While seemingly an impressive big number for the second season, it's actually down from the first season, it would seem. Still, the latest season is in their top five most-viewed shows – Fallout is their biggest hit to date – and that would seem to speak well for a season 3 renewal (with seems like a formality, but you never know in a post-Acolyte world). Mainly I want to mention that after a slow start, I was impressed with the way they ended this season. The last two episodes in particular were strong, and so far TVcharts – not a perfect proxy, of course, but interesting directionally – seems to agree (the last episode ratings aren't out yet – but you can find the penultimate ratings thus far on IMDb). Tom Bom, Jolly Tom! [Variety]
🏈 NFL is in Talks With Ellison’s Skydance, RedBird About Deals – This shouldn't be a surprise given how much overlap there is between all of these entities, but it would seemingly be a signal that the NFL does not intend to opt-out of its deal with Paramount-owned CBS when Skydance completes their takeover. There's probably still some question if more money needs to change hands though given the crazy amount of money the NBA just brought in with their new TV deal and now much bigger the NFL is, ratings-wise. Given that no one else seemingly wanted to buy the NFL's media assets – Disney was talking to them as part of a roundabout deal to get the NFL to invest in ESPN as well, but it's stalled now per this report – perhaps this is a way to sweeten any deal. [Bloomberg 🔒]
Some Analysis...
M.G. Siegler
Some Links...
- Is an HBO documentary about to unmask Satoshi Nakamoto? Cullen Hoback, who made the (great) documentary about QAnon, gives this some credibility. Also, some weird Bitcoin activity with early wallets... The doc airs next week. [Politico]
- Speaking of Tesla and robotaxis, they're seemingly having some trouble ramping the production of the batteries needed for such vehicles... [The Information 🔒]
- Some new details about how Epic and Disney are working together would suggest a Disney-friendly version of a Fortnite environment with some characters that can go back and forth between "worlds". But not all will get guns, like Mickey, per brand guidelines. [The Verge]
- Also coming to Fortnite? Hasbro board games. The first of which will be Clue. I'm personally more excited for Guess Who? [The Verge]
- Just in case the $6.6B isn't enough (and it won't be!), OpenAI also secured a $4B line of credit from various banks who are undoubtedly jockeying for positioning if and when the company were ever to go public. [NYT]
- Sort of weird that Meta would announce their 'Movie Gen' AI video generation tool alongside Llama 3.2 at Connect last week? Then again, as is often the case with these video tools, it's not yet available to use [Wired]
- Speaking of, one of the co-leads of Sora, OpenAI's video tool also not available for use yet, has left to join Google [TechCrunch]
- Apple's Q4 earnings call will be on Halloween, which is a Thursday, so I wouldn't be shocked if any October event were earlier that week – 10/29? As they usually like to talk about what they just announced on such calls. Another "spooky" event? But that's a pure guess, could be earlier too. [MacRumors]
A Golden Oldie...
M.G. Siegler
And I Quote...
"You’d have to be pretty crazy already to do a friend-based social app. Now, it’s all but impossible."
-- Nikita Bier, an entrepreneur who has become synonymous with the type of growth hacking needed to get social apps to scale. Per his point, with the latest changes to iOS contact permissions within apps, those days may be over.
I'm of two minds with this. On one hand, it's tough because it does basically lock in Meta and handful of other services that are already at scale to forever be the social services on the iPhone – including when they launch new ones, like Threads, that can leverage their existing ones, like Instagram. On the other, too many apps/services took advantage of the contact lists to do spammy things in the name of growth. So it's hard to fault Apple for this change. Consumer apps may not be over – everyone has now pivoted to AI attempts – but it's looking dicey.