TRW - Issue#62

Energy tech eating the world / Draghi trying to save Europe from itself / When does AI outthink humans? / Who becomes an entrepreneur? / Seed round 101

Sep 22, 2024

Hello there 👋

I'm Edo, and welcome to the 62nd issue of Tech Readings of the Week!

Every Sunday, I curate a digest of tech insights for non-tech folks and aspiring founders. From data-driven trends to tech leaders' opinions, with a pinch of startup wisdom, I help you cut through the noise and stay ahead of the curve.

Ready to dive in? Let's go! 🚀

In Today's Issue 👇

Energy tech is eating the world
Draghi is trying to save Europe from itself
When does AI outthink humans?
Who becomes an entrepreneur?
Raising a seed round 101

👓 Essays & articles

Nice ideas, Mr. Draghi, now who will pay for them? - from “whatever it takes” to “whatever the cost” (The Economist)
The plummeting cost of intelligence - on smaller models, on-device inference, and the path to zero-cost intelligence (Tanay Jaipuria)
Why energy tech is eating the world - farewell autocrats. Farewell cartels. Hello technology (Exponential Views)
European firms are smaller and less profitable than American ones - the continent’s policymakers are right to be worried (The Economist)
Draghi is trying to save Europe from itself - if Europe cannot become more productive, we will be forced to choose... (Financial Times)
Netflix and thrill: The hunt for the next Squid Game in Southeast Asia - as Amazon and Disney step back, Netflix invests in “locally authentic” content to grab subscribers in the region (Rest of World)
AI models let robots carry out tasks in unfamiliar environments - “Robot utility models” sidestep the need to tweak the data used to train robots every time they try to do something in unfamiliar settings (MIT Technology Review)(€)
Data center emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse? - emissions from in-house data centers of Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple may be 7.62 times higher than official tally (The Guardian)
When will AI outthink humans? - what if we compare the volume of AI tokens vs that of humans? (David Valerio Gilmore)

Found value here? Share ☕Tech Readings of the Week with a friend or a colleague!

Who Becomes an Entrepreneur? - seven research studies reveal the traits and experiences that influence the decision to start a business (The Generalist)
The verticalization of everything - AI is about to make the vertical SaaS pool 10x deeper (NFX)
Germany unveils €12bn initiative to bolster startup scene - politicians hope to mobilise €12bn from both public and private investors by 2030 (Sifted)(€)
Beyond the PayPal Mafia: how alumni networks drive new ventures - tracing founder factories to find your next outlier (Data-Driven VC)
23andMe is going to figure out exactly how much 15.1 million genomes are worth - at some point, a big tech company will buy 23&Me for its huge DNA dataset, right? (Sherwood)
Venture funding to black-founded startups remains stagnant - in the first half of 2024 about .3% of the nearly $79 billion that went to U.S.-based startups (Crunchbase)

📊 Reports & Data

Quantitative perspectives: a new regime begins - VCs took a collective sigh of relief this week: The Fed’s 50-basis-point rate cut has given them a beacon of hope (Pitchbook)
Smart solutions in healthcare – European startups report 2024 (Dealroom)
Pet startup funding has slowed - last year, it’s estimated that more than $320 billion globally went to caring for pets (Crunchbase)

📚 Founder's Toolkit

TRW's collection of free fundraising resources for founders!

Raising a seed round 101 - the whys, whats, and hows of seed funding, with advice from the founders of Notion, Linear, Figma, Ramp, Instacart, 37signals, and more (Lenny's Newsletter)
Unfortunate startup pivots (a short list) - adding chat/social, B2B to consumer, going free, and other pivots that don't work (Andrew Chen)
The hidden metric that’s getting more important - companies (and investors) are laser-focused on efficiency, so expect your CEO to start tracking revenue per employee, if they aren’t already (Personal Math)
Ignoring the wisdom of crowds - discover how to leverage the wisdom of the crowds, but also when to avoid it, as it can easily lead you astray (A Smart Bear)