Azad 🚀

it’s pretty wild that VCs poured billions into web3 and the category didn’t produce one breakout company

"tokenized startups" will be the next meta. been tracking this space since january for my "structure of ICM piece". a few thoughts: > the goal of "tokenized startups" is to allow broader access (at least in price action) of VC-gatekept startups, creating "Internet Capital Markets" in the truest sense. > today, the fastest growing companies (SpaceX, Anthropic, Stripe) stay private for years/decades. access is gatekept, rather than like the IPOs of 20-30 years ago, when 18-month-old companies like Netscape could IPO. > the market has responded with adhoc fixes, the most obvious being the SPV which have grown 500% in last 2 years. the market's thirst for venture-performing assets needs to be quenched. > the idea for "tokenized startups" is not new - it rhymes with many things, including ICOs, DAO funds, tokenized SPVs, token-equity standoffs (eg. Aave/Axelar) , ownership coins, pre-ipo perps. > what's new is the set of primitives being used to build things (eg. closed end funds with Robinhood/USVC, tokenized SPVs with PreStocks, MetaDAO style launchpads, Ventuals styles perps). It's the wild west of experimentation. > the design space is just getting mapped out around now - some open questions include: 1. early stage vs late stage? are founders receptive or adversarial to tokenized markets? 2. pure price exposure (eg. via perps) vs. spot backing? 3. legal entity - SPV? Delaware CEF? Cayman token foundation? i would not be surprised if the major SF accelerators (YC/HF0/SPC etc.) are all actively experimenting on tokenization designs. having a "tokenized" basket of each batch (eg. YC W26) might unlock a ton of demand. more research on this topic incoming.... stay tuned....

The notion that Iran will cave to added pressure betrays a profound ignorance. Iran is a country that resisted eight years of the most brutal war in modern history, even as both the Soviet and Western camps poured every resource into arming the aggressor. In fact, crushing Iran was one of the very few goals on which Cold War rivals found common ground, and one in which they collectively failed. Iran is a country that faced Saddam Hussein’s invasion while he was financed by every Arab capital, armed and shielded by the USSR and the United States alike, and allowed to unleash chemical weapons with total impunity upon Iranian cities, civilians, and combatants. Iran is a country that endured economic pressure so crushing it would have starved and shattered most nations on Earth, yet rose stronger, advancing and surpassing many of its contemporaries. Iran is a country that preserved its domestic cohesion and social unity through decades of relentless psychological warfare—24/7 satellite channels deploying every lie, every provocation, every narrative of despair designed to fracture societies. Iran is a country that mastered the COVID-19 crisis with a fraction of the resources available to nations of similar size, succeeding while denied vaccines, loans, and aid granted freely to every other country. Iran is a country that withstood “maximum pressure,” massive cyberattacks, covert operations, assassination campaigns, coup attempts, and the ring of American bases and armed terrorist groups planted along its borders. Iran is a country surrounded by wealthy, hostile neighbours and an influential Israel that mobilise every medium and every lever in Western capitals to demonise it and undermine its vital interests. And still Iran has not merely survived this storm of hostility—it has advanced, it has progressed, it has grown. Because resilience is in Iran’s DNA. It is a proud, sophisticated nation where both its government and its people carry within them the instinct, the culture, the intelligence, and the unbreakable will to turn pressure into strength and adversity into victory. The more you try to coerce Iran, the more it will resist.

McDonald’s is reportedly planning a Subscription Fry service, offering unlimited medium fries for $20 per month.

If you use Claude in French it will refuse to work past 5pm

For nearly 7 years there have been no direct commercial flights between the U.S. and Venezuela. Under President Trump we're changing that today. Flights between Miami and Caracas restored.

Last night, Israeli forces intercepted and boarded a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza in international waters off the coast of Greece — unlawfully detaining more than 175 people, including several New Yorkers. My team has been in direct contact with State and Federal partners as we work to confirm the whereabouts and conditions of these New Yorkers. This is a brazen violation of international law. Those detained must be released.