Stuart Ray
1.9K posts

Stuart Ray
@Stuartray
e/λ. Building https://t.co/QCRAhaDaud & software engineer.




Just a random aerial photo of San Francisco and Manhattan (Generated using ChatGPT Images 2.0)



A home featuring a Japandi-style garden



The IRL connection economy is a $400B+ market. And companies are racing to own it. In the last 6 months, $800M+ in capital was deployed on "IRL" bets. @Tinder invested $60M into a new Events feature for connecting matches in-person. They're pivoting to IRL and offering experiences such as speakeasies, raves, and pottery classes. @222place: raised a $10.1M Series A to curate blind social experiences for Gen Z. Personality-matched groups sent to hyperlocal nightlife events. @JagermeisterUSA launched BestNightsVC - the only venture fund in the world dedicated solely to nightlife and IRL connection. 16 portfolio companies across 4 continents. @timeleft: dinner with 5 strangers, every Wednesday. €18M ARR. 6,500 dinners/week across 200+ cities. Dion: members-only social app where the first move is buying someone a real drink, redeemed IRL. 10K members, 30K+ on the waitlist founded by @revekkapal. Pie: Bonobos founder @dunn built an IRL friendship app. $24M raised. 130K+ MAU. @weroad_official: group trips for 20-30 year olds who don't know each other beforehand. $150M valuation. Matchbox: is an algorithm-powered matching platform for IRL events and has powered over 100,000 connections. founded by @liamjmcgregor (prev @MarriagePact) New dating apps like Known @Celesteamadon, Cerca @MylesCerca, and Ditto @AllenWangzian are aiming to improve connection amongst young people. Billion-dollar companies are paying $$$ for community and events leads: - @AnthropicAI: Marketing Events Manager ($255k) - @tryramp: Community Manager ($223k) - @tryramp: Events & Culture Manager ($181k) - @duolingo: Senior Community Manager ($193k) - @NotionHQ: Community Programs Lead Everyone knows the more time we spend online, the more valuable real-life connection becomes. The question isn't whether IRL wins. It's who facilitates it best.



Forget about any other AI, the signs are clear: Grok 4.3 Beta is already #1 - Creates clean slides, graphs, images & dashboards - Pulls real-time web data + images - Runs smooth multi-step workflows - Analyzes videos like a beast From idea → full presentation or dashboard in one chat. Grok is finally becoming that everyday superpower. And the Grok Computer drops soon This is the one. Source: @grok, @elonmusk



It’s not just new, it’s newspeak

just realized english doesn’t have a word for smells nice like you have stink or reeks for smells bad, but nothing for a good smell








