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๐Ÿ—“ What Happened on Tech Twitter in October

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๐Ÿ—“ What Happened on Tech Twitter in October

โ˜•๏ธ Morning Brew and Paystack get that $$$, ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ The election run-up debates got heated, ๐Ÿคฌ Bad board members were exposed, ๐Ÿ“ˆ The next crypto bull run began

Brett Goldstein
Nov 23, 2020
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๐Ÿ—“ What Happened on Tech Twitter in October

socialstudies.substack.com

Yo!ย โœŒ๏ธย Iโ€™mย Brett! I am a founder and former Cognitive Science researcher.ย Social Studiesย is a semi-weekly newsletter for people building great products for humans. It includes recaps of what happened on Tech Twitter every week plus deep analysis using frameworks from Psychology, Economics, and the other Social Sciences.

Sorry for the delay, yall! Been running around Tulum for the last month. Now that Iโ€™m back stateside, consistency will be back as well!


โœจ TLDR

October was quite an eventful month! Hereโ€™s a quick rundown of the top stories.

โ˜•๏ธ Morning Brew and Paystack get that $$$ - Two huge acquisitions shined the spotlight on our two favorite things to talk about - newsletters and Stripe.

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ The election run-up debates got heated - A debate about Prop 22 and the future of the gig economy got Tech Twitter riled up.

๐Ÿคฌ Bad board members were exposed - A scathing email from Ryan Caldbeck to a seemingly comically terrible board member started an important conversation on how to evaluate board members.

๐Ÿ“ˆ The next crypto bull run began - Bitcoin broke $14K and several meaningful crypto projects reached wider adoption. Many were saying that this is the real deal this time.


โ˜•๏ธ Morning Brew and Paystack get that $$$

Daily business news media company, Morning Brew was acquired by Business Insider for $75M+!

Twitter avatar for @KinseyGrant
Kinsey Grant โ˜•๏ธ @KinseyGrant
you still count as popular even if it's your new legal guardian that calls you a "popular podcast series"......right?
businessinsider.comA big welcome to Morning Brew!Insider Inc. has acquired a stake in the awesome email and podcast company Morning Brew. Welcome to the team!
8:37 PM โˆ™ Oct 29, 2020
95Likes1Retweet

Biggest deal about this deal? They only raised ~$750K in total.

Twitter avatar for @web
Web Smith @web
The @MorningBrew story is a great one. It shows what's possible when you work hard and choose to avoid the traditional VC game. If the deal closes, the two will take home more than most growth founders. And still have tremendous upside for the future. There's more than one way.
12:25 PM โˆ™ Oct 14, 2020
447Likes28Retweets

Naturally, everyone had a hot take to share.

Twitter avatar for @austin_rief
Austin Rief โ˜•๏ธ @austin_rief
All the sudden everyone is a media analyst. I love this site.
3:31 AM โˆ™ Oct 14, 2020
454Likes18Retweets

The most important point is that not all newsletters are created equal. Morning Brew nailed the daily business news media play, which is significantly more massive opportunity than the typical weekly research and analysis newsletters that everyone seems to be starting these days.

There are still tons of huge opportunities.

Twitter avatar for @amlewis4
Ari Lewis @amlewis4
The local newspaper will be replaced by the local newsletter in the next 10 years. Trucking, warehousing and print expenses are unnecessary when they can be replaced with an email.
4:48 AM โˆ™ Oct 14, 2020
56Likes3Retweets

Stripe also acquired Nigerian payments startup, Paystack in October. Huge news for the African startup ecosystem.

Twitter avatar for @paystack
Paystack @paystack
In the midst of a tough week in Nigeria, we have some positive news to share. Paystack will be acquired by @stripe to accelerate online and offline commerce across Africa. paystack.com/blog/company-nโ€ฆ
Image
1:35 PM โˆ™ Oct 15, 2020
29,852Likes19,417Retweets

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ The election run-up debates got heated

In weeks before the election, the biggest discussion in tech was around Prop 22, which โ€œExempts App-Based Transportation and Delivery Companies from Providing Employee Benefits to Certain Drivers.โ€

Uber and Lyft were strong advocates for it, as well as a number of their drivers, but a few people spoke out against the bill.

Twitter avatar for @ljin18
Li Jin @ljin18
Prop 22 codifies everything based on "engaged time" so workers would earn far less than min wage (~$5.64/hr). Drivers would need to work 39 hours/wk just to qualify for the minimum healthcare benefit. Prop 22 rolls back existing protections against harassment & discrimination.
3:04 PM โˆ™ Oct 22, 2020
56Likes11Retweets

A few people shared their voting guides.

Twitter avatar for @micsolana
Mike Solana @micsolana
if you're looking for direction on our local house of horrors (government), a san francisco voting guide for people who aren't insane:
solana.substack.comEndorsements for Human Civilizationa san francisco voting guide for people who arenโ€™t insane
10:51 PM โˆ™ Oct 16, 2020
770Likes123Retweets

๐Ÿคฌ Bad board members were exposed

Delian dropped a scathing email from Ryan Caldbeck to one of his board members. Itโ€™s worth the full read.

Twitter avatar for @zebulgar
delian @zebulgar
Absolutely eviscerating email from a founder to a former board member on all of their extremely unproductive and harmful behaviors Woof, tough to read...
docs.google.comEmail to former board member---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ryan Caldbeck {{12 - - - - - - - - -}} Date: Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 8:38 PM Subject: Feedback To: {{13 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -}} {{14}}๏ปฟ, I believe in the importance of feedback for both people in a relationship. We will never work...
2:36 AM โˆ™ Oct 16, 2020
1,705Likes177Retweets

It got awkward.

Twitter avatar for @ricburton
Richard Burton @ricburton
@zebulgar Alright Iโ€™ll do it: @cshapiro, what gives? It doesnโ€™t sound like @collabfund is very collaborative.
3:35 AM โˆ™ Oct 16, 2020
164Likes4Retweets
Twitter avatar for @cshapiro
Craig Shapiro ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ @cshapiro
@ricburton @zebulgar @collabfund @ricburton, thanks for asking. Ryan releasing his own redacted email without context is disappointing and misleading. There are always two sides to every story.
9:15 PM โˆ™ Oct 16, 2020
17Likes2Retweets

This naturally started a larger conversation about board members where more questionable board members were exposed.

Twitter avatar for @kimmytaylor
Kim Taylor @kimmytaylor
Twitter is free. inc.com/minda-zetlin/sโ€ฆ
Image
5:17 AM โˆ™ Oct 17, 2020
153Likes6Retweets

๐Ÿ“ˆ The next crypto bull run began

Itโ€™s that time of the cycle again. Crypto is headed for another bull run similar to 2017. BTC, ETH and other cryptocurrencies saw explosive growth in October.

Twitter avatar for @pridesai
priyanka desai๐Ÿฆ @pridesai
14k tomorrow ๐Ÿ‘€
8:18 PM โˆ™ Oct 22, 2020
23Likes1Retweet

Whatโ€™s new this time? Big companies are putting Bitcoin on their balance sheet (Square bought $50M) AND more importantly, actually building stuff people use (Reddit is testing turning their karma feature into an Ethereum token).

Twitter avatar for @ljxie
Linda Xie @ljxie
The list of positive news in crypto continues to grow incl: - PayPal launches crypto support. Venmo in 2021 - MicroStrategy purchased $425m of bitcoin - Square purchased $50m of bitcoin - Kraken received bank charter approval - DeFi grew exponentially ($11bn total value locked)
Twitter avatar for @ljxie
Linda Xie @ljxie
Really exciting how much positive news there's been in crypto recently incl: - JPMorgan banking Coinbase & Gemini - Paul Tudor Jones' public support of Bitcoin - Square Cash App's major growth in bitcoin revenue - Reddit's beta testing of Eth tokens There's a lot of momentum ๐Ÿ”ฅ
4:35 PM โˆ™ Oct 21, 2020
272Likes49Retweets

NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which allow people to create and sell unique digital items (e.g. photos, music, etc) are also having a field day. RAC

Twitter avatar for @RAC
RAC @RAC
Today at 1PM we accepted the highest bid for "Elephant Dreams" at 70 ETH ($26,185) from @MaxStealth5. the first of our @reisingerandres x @RAC collab. Thank you to @MaxStealth5 @rabmarut2 for battling it out. We broke the @SuperRare_co I believe.
8:15 PM โˆ™ Oct 10, 2020
160Likes17Retweets

Social tokens are also a growing new category. Social tokens are basically cryptocurrencies tied to creators and communities. I launched one in October called $THANKS.

Twitter avatar for @thatguyBG
Brett Goldstein ๐Ÿš€๐Ÿ ๐ŸŒด @thatguyBG
4/ I have been a fan of @kanakhey's writing for a while, so I'm super excited to have her as the first of hopefully many guest writers (also social experimenters) on @__socialstudies. Check it out ๐Ÿ‘‡ socialstudies.substack.com/p/a-primer-on-โ€ฆ
socialstudies.substack.com๐Ÿง  A Primer on Social Money by Holyn KanakeHow creators will become corporations and the launch of $THANKS
5:59 PM โˆ™ Oct 30, 2020
15Likes3Retweets

As we prepare for the next bull run, itโ€™s important to rememberโ€ฆ take it easy!

Twitter avatar for @AriDavidPaul
Ari Paul โ›“๏ธ @AriDavidPaul
Thoughts on the psychology of the crypto cycle: Entrepreneurs and traders in any industry go through cycles of exuberance and burnout. Crypto accelerates both the magnitude and speed of swings. The second best mentality is to maintain an even keel throughout the whole cycle /1
2:22 PM โˆ™ Oct 1, 2020
62Likes12Retweets

๐Ÿค” What else happened?

Here are a few more big stories from October.

Twitter avatar for @JoshConstine
Josh Constine -SignalFire @JoshConstine
Quibi is shutting down -- a $1.75B crash due to 4 problems I listed upon launch: -Stodgy Hollywood directors instead of mobile-native creators -No screenshots = No memes -Slow content + weak discovery = no attention -No social or 2nd-screen features
techcrunch.comQuibi is the anti-TikTok (thatโ€™s a bad thing) โ€“ TechCrunchIt takes either audacious self-confidence or reckless hubris to build a completely asocial video app in 2020. You can decide which best describes Quibi, Hollywoodโ€™s $1.75 billion-funded attempt at a mobile-only Netflix of six to 10-minute micro-TV show episodes. Quibi manages to miss every trend andโ€ฆ
7:51 PM โˆ™ Oct 21, 2020
2,541Likes368Retweets
Twitter avatar for @AlecStapp
Alec Stapp @AlecStapp
๐Ÿšจ House Judiciary Committee report on tech and antitrust is out! Thread with some of my initial reactions as I go through it...
Image
8:08 PM โˆ™ Oct 6, 2020
333Likes83Retweets

๐Ÿ™ Thanks!

If you enjoyed this, feel free to buy me a coffee - oat milk lattes ftw.

Check out this hilarious TikTok duet!

Twitter avatar for @eade_bengard
Eade Bengard @eade_bengard
Thatโ€™s another 500M from @TurnerNovak
Image
4:39 AM โˆ™ Oct 20, 2020
2,904Likes207Retweets
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๐Ÿ—“ What Happened on Tech Twitter in October

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