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Travis Kalanick is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time.
The bad guys took his company.
But they never broke his spirit.
He rebuilt from scratch.
And now he’s back.
travis kalanick@travisk
Atoms. atoms.co/vision
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CRAIG
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@CR41GD
Just a noob, I don't belong here. Purely sarcastic advice - tweets should be read with a grain of sea salt. Space, web3, music & all that jazz. Que sera, sera!
The Metaverse Katılım Şubat 2013
3K Takip Edilen974 Takipçiler
today is my birthday.. really can’t believe what my life has become in the past 10 years. thank you for being here
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This is the first AI cut.
And it will send shockwaves.
Remember: Jack is one of the greatest founders of all time. He created this platform that we’re all on, and has been early to many technological shifts. And Block was doing very well as a business.
So, for him to cut 40% of headcount in this way is a signal to everyone in tech: get good now. Become indispensable. Work nights and weekends. Learn the AI tools and raise your game. Or you might not make the cut, as an employee or as a company.
I know. That sucks. But capitalism is natural selection. The market is unforgiving, because you are the market. After all, it’s not like you’re buying some random gallon of milk from the store; you’re always buying the best product at the best price.
So too for apps: your customers are always installing the best piece of code they can get. And because AI is going to create new winners, if you aren’t the best in your market, someone may become better with AI. Particularly with the new agentic workflows.
To be clear: Block’s severance is generous by any measure. 20 weeks of pay, six months of health insurance and vested equity, all of that goes far beyond any typical package. Jack did his level best to cushion the disruption. The laid off are a temporarily unfortunate class, as opposed to a permanent underclass.
But had he not leaned into the AI transition, he might have had to lay off more people, slowly, and over time, as faster competitors went after his market share.
How would they do that? Sure, AI isn’t a panacea by any means, but the closer you are to software engineering the more aggressively you need to embrace agentic workflows. The AI companies are already doing that, and places like Stripe, Shopify, Coinbase, and now Block are pushing hard on this area.
There will be overcorrection. But the fundamental technical innovation is real. And you need to either disrupt yourself or get disrupted.
jack@jack
we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company. #### today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i'll be straight about what's happening, why, and what it means for everyone. first off, if you're one of the people affected, you'll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if you’re outside the U.S. you’ll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you're being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay. we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly. i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures. a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we've done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we've pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we've built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers. we're not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i'll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold. to those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that's a fact that i'll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward. to those staying…i made this decision, and i'll own it. what i'm asking of you is to build with me. we're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we're going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that's what i'm focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow. jack
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National Stock Exchange of India has started preparations for an IPO after its board approved the proposal and formed a committee to oversee the process, according to a regulatory filing bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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My new album The Fall-Off available now everywhere jcole.lnk.to/TheFall-Off
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Peak XV Partners confirms exit of three of its MDs , says it will pave way for more AI-native investors
"We have mutually decided to part ways with Ashish Agrawal. After thoughtful consideration and discussions, it became clear that parting ways was in the best interests of our Limited Partners and the long-term interests of the firm. Following Ashish’s departure, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma have decided to join him.
These changes allow us to rapidly evolve our firm in the direction of AI, by making space for AI-native investors."
Chandra R. Srikanth@chandrarsrikant
🚨 BREAKING Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal, Tejeshwi Sharma Exit Peak XV Partners in Latest Departures
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Pleased to share that India will be invited to join Pax Silica, a U.S.-led strategic initiative to build a secure, resilient, and innovation-driven silicon supply chain. As the world adopts new technology, it is essential that India and the United States work hand-in-hand together.
Cc: @UnderSecE
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Interesting account from the US side on why the India-US deal stalled.
Their framing - sequencing & a ticking clock !
Looks like India chose not to rush a call & deal on U.S.’s else’s timetable !
Courtesy - @theallinpod
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Why DID THE INDIA/US DEAL NOT HAPPEN ?
Howard Lutnick, US Commerce Secy on @theallinpod
Read the full thing to understand his claims. I have bolded the India portion. But read the full thing 👇
"
I'll tell you a story about uh India. So, um, if you remember, so I did the first deal, the UK deal, and we told the UK that they had to get it done by two Fridays from now. That that was the date that the train was going to leave the station by two Fridays because I have a lot of other countries doing things and, you know, if someone else is first, they're first. And President Trump does deals like a staircase. First gets the best deal. You can't get the best deal after the first guy went. Everyone says, "I want the UK deal. I want the UK deal." The answer is No. They were first. They took the chance. They moved quickest. They're first. Second up a stair.
So that sets the floor, right? And then the next one's got to be higher. And then the next one higher. And then next one higher, the next one higher. So he does things that way because that way it incentivises you to come to the table. Right. Right. You could have three countries who are the second deal. They all get done the same time, right?
But, you know, if you want to wait and see how it goes, it's at your risk. So, he does the UK deal and they had to get it done by Friday. And Thursday afternoon, Kier Starmer's on the phone, the president, we have they do their deal Wednesday night and on Thursday, we have a press conference and we announce it.
Okay. So, everybody asked the president, who do you think is next? And if you look back at the time, he said he talks about a variety of countries, but he names India a couple of times publicly. It's not it's not like a big secret. And we were talking to India and we told India you had three Fridays. You put them on a shot clock. Well, they have to get it done because what happens is I have lots of other countries and when those other countries do their deal, the staircase goes up.....
Right. And yeah, the president during all these deals, he would refer to me as the greatest table setter who ever lived. Okay? Because you've never had anybody who was as successful as me as a businessman before who's just the table setter [laughter] basically, you know ? So, because what I would do is I would negotiate the contracts and set the whole deal up.
But let's be clear, it's his deal.
Yeah.
Okay. He's the closer. he does the deal. So I said, "You got to have Modi. It's all set up. You have to have Modi call the president." They were uncomfortable doing it. So Modi didn't call.
Wow.
So that Friday left, middle of the next week, we did Indonesia, the Philippines, right? Vietnam, we announced a whole bunch of deals. Malaysia in that period. So we did these whole bunch of deals. So that's like that staircase and they were at and because we negotiated them and assumed India was going to be done before them. I had negotiated them at a higher rate. So now the problem is the deals came out at a higher rate, right? And then India calls back and says, "Oh, okay. We we're we're ready." I said, "Ready for what?" You know, it was like 3 weeks later. I go, "Are are you ready for the train that left the station 3 weeks ago?". So what happened is they just you know there sometimes there's that seessaw and people on just the wrong side of the seesaw ...
"
#Nifty #BankNifty #Trump #India #stockmarket
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What Nik Storonsky @ Revolut taught me about leadership and ownership:
"There is a difference between a janitor and a VP.
If the janitor fails to collect the trash because the locks to the door have changed. It is irritating but it is acceptable because you are the janitor.
Somewhere between janitor and the VP, reasons stop mattering.
Excuses don't matter. If you're a leader of an area in the company, excuses don't matter.
If you succeed, you get all the praise, you fail, you get all the blame, and it does not matter why you failed." @alanchanguk
Love to hear your thoughts on this and if this rings true for you in your management style @bhalligan @karrisaarinen @justinmateen @an21m
Harry Stebbings@HarryStebbings
I have interviewed 1,000 of the best founders over the last 10 years. The top three: 1. Nik Storonsky (Revolut) 2. @awxjack (Airwallex) 3. @alanchanguk (Fuse Energy) All three share one trait. Unwavering obsession to win. We BS so many founders today because people hate what makes them feel mediocre. Truth is, if you want to build a generational company, you need to work weekends. You won’t have work-life balance, it will be fricking hard. Today Alan Chang says it like it is, no BS, raw and unfiltered. For founders, this is your must listen and my 8 takeaways from @alanchanguk 👇 Spotify 👉 open.spotify.com/episode/1eG9QT… Youtube 👉 youtu.be/T4-sSCxiU4c Apple Podcasts 👉 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/20v… Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:20 The interview process that led to the $150M pay packet 04:58 How Revolut drove speed and urgency in their teams 08:35 You cannot have work-life balance 10:56 What I disagreed with Nik on most 13:50 Is Nik right that Revolut should have got a banking licence earlier? 18:18 Energy Crisis 25:20 Why China is the shining light for regulation to follow 30:28 Interview Process: Green & Red Flags 39:31 Lesson from Nik about ownership and excuses 40:58 The signs of truly top performing people in a team 48:15 You need to work weekends to win 54:00 Every single year we 10x revenue - now at ~$400M 55:45 Why Eastern European engineers are the best 57:33 What People Get Wrong About Having Money 59:12 Quick-Fire Round
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Thank god for enlightened people who get it
Amitabh Kant@amitabhk87
India’s gig & quick-commerce economy is consumer-led. 🇮🇳 Gig jobs are set to grow from 7.7M → 23.5M by 2030 — among India’s largest job-creation engines. Calling this “exploitation” by folks who have not created a single job is political, not factual. On Dec 31 alone, Zomato + Blinkit delivered 75L+ orders. That demand came from millions of Indians choosing speed, convenience & value. Politicising the gig economy will kill quick commerce, destroy jobs & push workers back into the informal sector (zero rights, zero safety). @raghav_chadha and AAP are not job creators ; they are job killers. @deepigoyal & @sbikh are right: let markets work, strengthen safety nets — don’t sabotage innovation for political ends.
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Last one on this topic, and I have been holding this in myself for a while.
For centuries, class divides kept the labor of the poor invisible to the rich. Factory workers toiled behind walls, farmers in distant fields, domestic help in backrooms. The wealthy consumed the fruits of that labor without ever seeing the faces or the fatigue behind it. No direct encounter, no personal guilt.
The gig economy shattered that invisibility, at unprecedented scale.
Suddenly, the poor aren't hidden away. They're at your doorstep: the delivery partner handing over your ₹1000+ biryani, late-night groceries, or quick-commerce essentials. You see them in the rain, heat, traffic, often on borrowed bikes, working 8–10 hours for earnings that give them sustenance. You see their exhaustion, their polite smile masking frustration with life in general.
This is the first time in history at this scale that the working class and consuming class interact face-to-face, transaction after transaction. And that discomfort with our own selves is why we are uncomfortable about the gig economy. We want these people to look our part, so that the guilt we feel while taking orders from them feels less.
We aren't just debating economics. We are confronting guilt. That ₹800 order might equal their entire day's earnings after fuel, bike rent, and app cuts. We tip awkwardly, or avoid eye contact, because the inequality is no longer abstract. It's personal.
Pre-gig era, the rich could enjoy luxury without moral discomfort. Labor was out of sight. Now, every doorbell ring is a reminder of systemic inequality. That's why debates explode. It's not just policy. It's emotional reckoning. Some defend the system (“they choose it”), others demand change (“this isn't progress, its exploitation”).
And here’s the uncomfortable twist: the unsaid ask of clumsy ‘solutions’ isn’t dignity. It is about returning to invisibility.
Ban gig work and you don’t solve inequality. You remove livelihoods. These jobs don’t magically reappear as formal, protected employment the next day. They disappear, or they get pushed back into the informal economy where there are even fewer protections and even less accountability. Over-regulate it until the model breaks, and you achieve the same outcome through paperwork instead of slogans: the work evaporates, prices rise, demand collapses, and the people we claim to protect are the first to lose income.
And then what happens?
The rich get their old comfort back. Convenience returns without faces. Guilt dissolves. We go back to clean abstractions and moral posturing from a distance. The poor don’t become safer, they become invisible again: back in cash economies, back in backrooms, back in shadows where regulation rarely reaches and dignity isn’t even debated.
The gig economy just exposed the reality of inequality to the people who previously had the luxury of not seeing it. The doorbell is not the problem. The question is what we do after opening the door.
Visibility is the price of progress. We can either use this discomfort to build something better (which we keep doing continuously as delivery partners are our backbone), or we can ban and over-regulate our way back into ignorance. One of those choices improves lives. The other simply helps the consuming class feel virtuous in the dark.
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Zepto’s IPO will be almost as large as Swiggy’s Rs 11,327 crore issue if current estimates hold, and larger than Zomato/Eternal’s Rs 9,375 crore IPO in 2021.
It’s important to note that Zepto is less than five years old.
By comparison, Swiggy took a decade to go public, and Zomato took 13 years.
Madhav Chanchani@madhavchanchani
Looks like Zepto has significantly increased the size of its planned IPO. Earlier reports pegged it at $500 mn. But it’s now looking to raise $1.3 bn, most of it as primary capital, according to Economic Times. The move is aimed at countering the massive war chests of its rivals: Blinkit-owner Eternal and Swiggy, which together have $1.8–2 bn in firepower. Zepto itself had around $900 mn in cash as of October.
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Pods, not Pyramids: @Meesho_Official's Operating System
@mobhat has done an amazing job articulating our Decentralised "startups within the startup" model (autonomous pods with high accountability) and Innovation with Discipline model (capital allocation across Horizon 2,1 and 0).
linkedin.com/pulse/pods-pyr…
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I personally know someone who has worked at SpaceX since 2012. His salary has been average, but the rest of his compensation has all been granted in stock options.
If the IPO does, in fact, happen at the strike price specified… this fabulous kid and his young family will be generationally rich.
You love to see it.
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U.S. trading of Metaplanet ADRs begins December 19. Ticker: $MPJPY
This directly reflects feedback from U.S. retail and institutional investors seeking easier access to our equity. Another step toward broader global participation in Metaplanet.
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On December 17, Starlink experienced an anomaly on satellite 35956, resulting in loss of communications with the vehicle at 418 km. The anomaly led to venting of the propulsion tank, a rapid decay in semi-major axis by about 4 km, and the release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects. SpaceX is coordinating with the @USSpaceForce and @NASA to monitor the objects.
The satellite is largely intact, tumbling, and will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise within weeks. The satellite's current trajectory will place it below the @Space_Station, posing no risk to the orbiting lab or its crew.
As the world’s largest satellite constellation operator, we are deeply committed to space safety. We take these events seriously. Our engineers are rapidly working to root cause and mitigate the source of the anomaly and are already in the process of deploying software to our vehicles that increases protections against this type of event.
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