Munch.
Ugh. Every time I hear the word ‘disrupt’ now, I automatically assume it’s in the context of a startup innovating in a well-established vertical.
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“Quarantine has really disrupted my day-to-day.”
“Wow - Quarantine sounds like an awesome startup! Has it raised capital?”
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🥄 Today's Spoonful
The internet gods took a dump on IBM Cloud 💩
Meaning that the popular hosting platform experienced a smelly service outage Tuesday evening, temporarily bringing properties like Techmeme down with it.
POV: the internet straight body-slamming IBM Cloud.
IBM also experienced a small outage in Dallas back in March, although that didn’t seem to be of much concern until now. We’ll keep you updated!
Techstars just doubled down on space with its Starburst Space Program ☄️
No, not the candy.
Between SpaceX’s successful human launch and the release of Netflix’s Space Force starring Michael Sco- Steve Carrell, the final frontier has been receiving a ton of flashy PR. Techstars slid right in with the announcement of its Starburst Space Program, a program focusing on “the next generation of space technology companies and related frontier technologies”.
It looks like commercial spaceflight is knocking on the door. I call shotgun 🏃♂️
Nikola Motor just opened up pre-sales for its fuel cell pickup
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American genius known for his work with the AC electricity supply system (among other things like, you know, the Tesla Coil??). Mans was smart.
Nearly a century after his death, who knew that we’d be looking at two companies both carrying his name and both competing in electric pickup trucks.
We all know Tesla, Elon Musk’s baby child and proprietor of that Cybertruck. Well Nikola, an Arizona-based startup, is coming out with its own hydrogen-electric fuel cell pickup. Interestingly enough, despite not having any products, Nikola Motor’s market cap actually surpassed Ford’s at one point on Tuesday.
As of market close Tuesday, the company is valued at more than $28 billion. 🤯 Pretty good for a company not generating any revenue.
🥣 Cereal of the Day
You know when you see those those clickbait articles on the web with insane promises of wealth and glory? Or those crazy takes on social media that force you to do a double take? Maybe even a triple take?
You know, like, “LeBron James is a better basketball player than Kobe Bryant” or some crap like that.
Yeah, that’s fake news. Here’s where Factmata comes in.
Factmata is a suite of AI-driven products that empowers everyone with a better understanding of content.
In all seriousness, fake news is a real problem. Ever since the term caught fire with repeated use by #45 and many of his hires (I’m looking at you, Kellyanne and your ‘alternative facts’), we’ve seen an explosion in biased content and journalistic distrust.
Dhruv Gulati, founder of Factmata, caught wind of the problem and decided to fix it by turning to software. As a technically-minded product operator with lots of experience at other Deep Tech companies, Dhruv knew that something like AI — which has the power to input and output data at inhuman speeds — could revolutionize content moderation.
So, he created a suite of product tools that help clients like brands and even governments analyze and flag suspicious content on the web based on risk, credibility, and relevance. Here’s an example of one of Factmata’s intelligence reports:
Turns out, investors like Mark ‘The Shark’ Cuban believed in the product’s efficacy too (has anybody ever called him that? I’m coining it 🦈). The Shark got in on Factmata’s seed round along with others like Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga.
But outside of simple content moderation, Dhruv also sees massive potential for the company in other areas, like enterprise PR and marketing. In fact, he says that’s the company’s primary user at the moment:
“Right now, Factmata’s core use case is going to be to help CMOs in the contextual brand safety space i.e. preventing placements of ads on low-quality content that harms reputation e.g. fake news, misinformation, sexism, controversy and hyperpartisan content.”
With fake news on the rise and no clear end in sight thanks to powerful aggregate platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it’ll be interesting to see how Factmata measures up to the challenge.
Fingers crossed!
Coolness meter:
‘Nuff said.
🍳 A Healthy Serving of...
I was sitting in my room last night and practicing some HTML when I got the sudden urge to check under my bed.
You know that nagging feeling you get that there is something under there (no thanks to the entire American horror canon)?
Well, luckily, I didn’t find a monster. But I did find Educated, by Tara Westover, casually resting on my carpeted floor.
💭 “Jeremy, why are you telling us about what’s under your bed?”
Good question! You see, my New Year’s Resolution was to read 12 autobiographies or memoirs (for anti-mathematicians, that’s one a month for the year). I had gotten through 2 and a half by mid-March… but, as you know, quarantine ~disrupted~ our daily programming and I found myself at home with a changed lease on life.
That included tons of Netflix and restful sleep-ins BCI (Before The Cereal Intern). 🥣
I was of course able to work myself back into a winning, productive schedule but a few things fell through the cracks, including my New Year’s Resolution!
So, here’s lesson #10: Look under your bed.
Figuratively!
Things fall through the cracks all the time. It’s unavoidable.
But if there’s one thing you have right now, it’s all the time in the world. If you’re getting that nagging feeling like I did, just take a second to gather your thoughts and take a look under your mattress. Check to make sure you’ve responded to all your old e-mails, give your iMessage scroll a once-over, and make sure your Nintendogs are fed!
Yes, I’m aware that’s a cat.
That’s all I’ve got for you today, team. Thanks for joining in as always! 😎
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Munch.
The Cereal Intern.010