🗓 What Happened on Tech Twitter in September

🥰 Financial toys got VCs hot and bothered, 💀 SF died…, 🚨 TikTok got…, 🎶 We glimpsed the future of music, 🌴 We started a Hype House for startups AND 🤔 Chris Messina shared his thoughts

Yo! ✌️ I’m Brett! I am a founder and former Cognitive Science researcher. Social Studies 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.

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✨ TLDR

Here were the biggest stories from Tech Twitter in September.

🥰 Financial toys got VCs hot and bothered - September was SPAC city with numerous companies IPOing by being acquired by SPACs. Even more rolling funds were raised. Even more hot takes on how these financial instruments will change the tech industry were shared.

💀 SF died… It’s now ded. D. E. D. - We’ve been doomsplaining SF for a long time, but after some hellish wildfires and the COVID exodus, Balaji finally may be right.

🚨 TikTok got… well I don’t really quite know how to explain it. But it’s not going away and somehow Trump made out with a lot of money…

🎶 We glimpsed the future of music - TikTok has been upending the music industry right under our nose. A viral tweetstorm shed light on this interesting trend.

🌴 We started a Hype House for startups - It was just supposed to be a month of coworking in Tulum but wound up as a full blown reality show. Currently casting season 2. This is actually for real.

🤔 Chris Messina shared his thoughts - I had the chance to sit down with the inventor of the hashtag to talk about digital identity, design, and… blackberries?

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🥰 Financial toys got VCs hot and bothered

Read Stanford’s Reign on Venture Capital Is Over

SPACs and rolling funds were super hot in September.

Tons of companies went public via SPACs - Opendoor, Palantir, and Hims&Hers to name a few. “Congrats Twitter” gave the founders and employees the congrats they deserved and the investors the congrats they didn’t. Meanwhile, a small few have expressed some skepticism over the long-term legitimacy of this means of going public.

Could SPACs be as bad as the shitcoins of 2017 or the tech IPOs of the dot com era?

Turner Novak @TurnerNovak

@LukeThompson360 @Post_Market @nikillinit How many credible investors lost money and embarrassed themselves in blockchain, crypto etc? 😂 The economics make bringing SPAC’s to market very attractive (pic‘s an example from a friend)... but there’s a limited pool of good companies. Many will tank post IPO IMO

Chamath has been the SPAC ringleader and has been keeping the momentum going into October.

Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath

We just raised $2.1B for three new SPACs for the IPO2.0 Platform: IPOA—> @virgingalactic IPOB—> @Opendoor IPOC—> @Clover_Health IPOD: $400M IPOE: $700M IPOF: $1B They start trading tomorrow on @NYSE Back to work.

Rolling funds also hit their stride in September. Anthony Pompliano raised one of the largest seed funds in only 7 days. While most others didn’t quite have this success, many followed suit.

Pomp 🌪 @APompliano

Pomp Investments Rolling Fund Update #4 🔥 It has been one week since I announced the fund. We crossed over $1M per quarter in commitments or $4M a year. That is the equivalent of a $12M seed fund (3 yr investment period) raised in a week on the internet. Building an army!

This got a lot of people thinking… what does this mean for ✨the future of venture??✨

Bring in the influencers.

Andreas Klinger 🏝 @andreasklinger

3) Audience = Fund Every large newsletter host, every podcast host about startups (or related - eg gaming) will have a fund Influencers and investors roles will merge early-stage I expect the first VC fund by a livestreamer by November.

💀 SF died… It’s now ded. D. E. D.

The SF exodus has begun… really though. It’s actually happening. SF sales tax revenue is down 43% YoY, which may be a good trailing indicator of the fact that everyone is GTFO.

A handful of holdouts on Tech Twitter still seem to believe SF will be a thing, but most people wound up in Balaji’s “SF is dead” camp after the California wildfires turned SF into an apocalyptic doomscape.

I’m not sure if doomscape is a word, but that’s what it was last month.

Richard Burton @ricburton

I will never take clean air for granted ever again The sky in San Francisco is a dark orange from the fires’ smoke

Keith Rabois @rabois

@pt @jmj it is very real. i serve on 16 boards and at least half of the companies are seriously evaluating or planning to move.

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🚨 TikTok got…

Well it didn’t quite get banned… or even acquired. WTF happened?

Alex Heath @alexeheath

Under new Trump-approved deal, TikTok will be: - 12.5% Oracle - 7.5% Walmart - 80% ByteDance Somehow ByteDance’s existing U.S. backers push American investor interests above 50% “majority” threshold that White House officials said would be required. OK!

theinformation.comBriefing: TikTok Deal With Oracle and Walmart Wins Trump’s Approval, Delaying BanU.S. authorities delayed a looming ban on new downloads of TikTok shortly after President Trump said Saturday that he had given a corporate restructuring proposal for the Chinese-owned app his “blessing.” The deal will see Oracle become TikTok’s cloud hosting provider and manage its data for U.S. …

Basically this:

Jack Appleby @JuiceboxCA

Here’s a good explainer on Oracle’s new TikTok ownership structure

People were surprisingly supportive of the deal.

Web Smith @web

The TikTok deal is shaping up to be the biggest media x commerce agreement that we’ve seen. Oracle: infrastructure TikTok: demand generation Walmart: eComm / fulfillment Linear Commerce at scale.

Minus the shady extortion scheme

Josh Constine -SignalFire @JoshConstine

Trump’s TikTok extortion scheme: -Declare it a national security threat with no evidence -Threaten to ban it -Force it to sell an undervalued stake to his buddy Larry’s company Oracle -Demand a $5B kickback -Still let China control it...

🎶 We glimpsed the future of music

Read TikTok & The Future of Music

Shardul shared a quick thread observing how musicians on TikTok using the duet feature are generating THOUSANDS of collaborations on single songs.

Shardul @shardulgo

3/ but wait, there’s more. @JUSTUSraps adds a rap verse to fill the song out. This BTS of making the song is fascinating. Just listen to all three versions of the same song. These 3 never met. Never sent texts/emails back and forth. No studio. Just headphones, mic and music.

This is emblematic of what’s to come in music, but that’s not all.

Brett Goldstein 🚀🏠🌴 @thatguyBG

I've produced music for a decade - we're really underestimating how different music will sound in a few years. - TikTok is creating a new genre of interactive 15-second songs - AirPods will introduce immersive spatial music - AI will democratize creation

socialstudies.substack.com👉 TikTok & The Future of MusicHow new music distribution and creation tools are killing the 3 minute song

🌴 We started a Hype House for startups

Read Creator Mansions, Shitposts & Chief Meme Officers

I just wrapped up living in a mansion in Tulum with 19 entrepreneurs called Launch House - think of it like a TikTok collab house, but more cringe since it’s filled up with startup founders instead of ridiculously good looking 19 year olds.

It started as a joke, but wound up turning into ✨a thing✨

Launch House 🚀🏠🌴 @launch_house

2/ Stats from the month: - 10k+ total signups / follows - 10 products launched - 3 Top 5s on @ProductHunt - 3 incorporated companies - 2 people quit their full-time jobs - 1 ODF hackathon win - 1 @naval DM And - 324 tacos eaten 🌮 - 19! new friendships

It was so much of a success that we decided to do it again. If you’re interested in joining up, apply here 👇

Launch House 🚀🏠🌴 @launch_house

Ok that was fun... let's do it again?? Thrillllled to announce 🚀🏠✨LAUNCH HOUSE 2✨🌴🚀 Apply here: launchhouse.co/lh2 So what's new? ... Everything 😇 Tiempo for a thread👇👇👇

launchhouse.coLaunch House 2Want to join the next Launch House?

🤔 Chris Messina shared his thoughts

Read/Listen to Chris Messina's thoughts on digital identity, design, and inventing the hashtag

I had a chance to sit down with Chris Messina, the guy who invented the hashtag, for my very first podcast (kinda).

Brett Goldstein 🚀🏠🌴 @thatguyBG

Had an amazing time talking to @chrismessina recently. We covered: - how he killed his digital identity, @factoryjoe - designing for humans - blackberry bushes in Scotland Full profile (and podcast!) here: socialstudies.substack.com/p/-chris-messi…

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🙏 Thanks

Sorry for the delay this week - I’ve been sick and running from hurricanes in Mexico. I’ve got some REALLY exciting stuff on the horizon for you all. Stay tuned.

Jack Appleby @JuiceboxCA

.@Xbox just posted their first TikTok and I'm crying laughing. Brands who turn community chatter into ridiculous, self-aware content win.