👉 What Happened on Tech Twitter in January

The most controversial, helpful, inspiring, interesting and funniest tweets from January. Plus Tweeter of the Month Sar Haribhakti!

Feb 04, 2020

Yo! It’s Brett again. 2020 seems to be off to a really ugly start given how awful January has been - Australia caught on fire, the “deadly” (depending on who you talk to) coronavirus had a major outbreak, the US almost went to war with Iran, and Kobe and Gigi died in a tragic helicopter crash.

Probably a good time to review the juiciest tweets from Tech Twitter in January to take our minds off the pain.

Want more Twitter TLDR? Check out Crypto Twitter TLDR.

😳Most Controversial - Casper’s S-1

Casper released their S-1 and VC twitter tore it apart. TLDR is Casper seems to lose money on every mattress. Are all DTC businesses this bad? Probably.

Natalie Dillon @ntdillon

Casper 💤Maker of sleep products 📍Founded in 2014 💵2017 revenue $251M 💰2018 rev $358M, $92M net loss 🗓First 9 months 2019, $312M in rev 💻$710 e-commerce AOV 🛍$820 retail store AOV 🛏60 own stores, 18 retail partners 🦄Last valued at $1.09B 📣Just filed to go public

Mike Duboe @mduboe

While I believe Casper has been smarter than many on perf mktg, blurb below is notable Have seen the argument that scale -> efficiency (ie lower CAC) in mktg, but this is rarely the case Yes, models & media rates (eg TV) can improve, but *marginal* CAC grows w aud penetration

Runner up: me! Turns out people are really conflicted about product managers should write up Jira tickets.

Brett Goldstein @thatguyBG

A designer I know told me his PM writes jira tickets that just say "make onboarding easier" or even "increase retention" 😂

🤓Most Helpful

Brianne is a well of great career advice and this tweet is no exception. Your network is your most important asset and this tweet is solid gold for building a valuable network.

Brianne Kimmel @briannekimmel

Two career-building moves that work without fail 1. Ask the most senior people in your network to forward invites to dinners 2. Prep a question before any event, then say your name and ask it confidently Be intentional and find ways to open doors

Runner up: no code tools! Use them!

Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson

Earlier this year, I had a productivity breakthrough... I used to spend $25k-$100k building an app over 3-6 months. It was frustrating, expensive, and slow. Then I started using NoCode tools like Webflow, Bubble, Zapier and AirTable...

🤩Most Inspiring - Work hard, edit, and copy

Sahil Lavingia reminds us that anything is possible with the right amount of hard work, attention to detail, and ruthless copying.

Sahil Lavingia @shl

I used to think... Facebook was built by geniuses with supercomputers. My favorite writers knew every word in the dictionary. The best artists could draw everything out of their head. Now I realize they’re all just people who work hard, edit excessively, and copy constantly.

Runner up: the PayPal Mafia. This group of people has gone on to do incredible things. What’s inspiring is that this story repeats itself at every successful startup. The alumni of AirBnB, Uber, and maybe even your startup will start their own amazing companies.

Jon Erlichman @JonErlichman

PayPal’s founders & early employees later launched and/or helped to fund: SpaceX YouTube Facebook LinkedIn Uber Square Airbnb Reddit Yelp Lyft Pinterest Eventbrite Palantir

🤔Most Interesting - Theil’s New Social Network

Peter Theil is working on a new subscription-based social network probably for people who got kicked off other social networks. The deck has been circulating around, click below to check it out.

mnfst.digest @MnfstDigest

👉 The new #Column social network is being prepared for the launch - like #Facebook, but for the smart and rich. ✍️ Subscription or invitation. 💰️Paid content. 🤡 Positive content. 👩‍💻 High-quality content to make users smarter. #Social #influencers https://t.co/eF3HBy

Runner Up: Emoji 13.0 includes a 117 new emojis rolling out to major platforms in 2020. Jennifer Daniel, Creative Director for Google Emoji shares out the list:

Jennifer Daniel @jenniferdaniel

📰 New emojis approved for 2020!! 👉 Trans flag 👉 smile with tear 👉 an anatomical heart 👉 bubble tea 👉 tombstone 👉 a stump of wood 👉 seal 👉 a woman in a tuxedo 👉 a man in a veil 👉 Ninja https://t.co/

😂Funniest - Elon (69 days after 420) Musk

Elon Musk changed his Twitter handle to E “D” M (which are mostly still his initials), added text to point out he was “born 69 days after 420” and tweeted out a soundcloud link to a new song he wrote… in the midst of one of the biggest stock rallies in the company’s history. Crazy Elon is the right Elon for us!

Elon Musk @elonmusk

Don’t Doubt ur Vibe

m.soundcloud.comDon’t Doubt ur VibeIt was all a dream

Austen Allred @Austen

Stumbled upon this graph while in the middle of reading about Tesla’s struggles in 2008. No one in their right mind would have predicted this.

Runner up: AR and Tik Tok.

Hart Woolery @2020cv_inc

The perfect face filter doesn't exis--- #tensorflow #ios #ARKit #bARkit #keras #woof @mcuban @dog_rates

nicole @nwilliams030

One of the most specific, weird talents I’ve seen on tiktok: perfectly emulating the nonsensical movement of video game characters

✨Tweeter of the Month✨ - Sar Haribhakti (@sarthakgh)

I met Sar a few months ago for the first time - if you don’t know who he is yet, I can tell you that you soon will. Over the past three years, he has gone from a quiet voice on Tech Twitter to being a major pundit, especially for all things FinTech. Sar is a GM at pizza delivery startup Slice. Here are some of his best tweets from January.