Andrew Ettinger 🇺🇸

Nicholas Thompson is a disciplined machine (Atlantic CEO, record-holding runner, perpetual achiever) and a wholehearted human (insatiable interviewer, loving father, lifelong student). I talked to @nxthompson about what makes words worth reading in an AI world, the discipline of long form, and what compounds when you keep showing up. Nick is the CEO of @TheAtlantic, the American record holder in the 50K, and the author of The Running Ground—a book about inheritance, pushing oneself, and remembering that life remains richer than we can possibly know. We discuss whether I am a journalist; why The Atlantic matters, great editing and coaching; lessons from David Remnick and the gift of commercial constraints from Laurene Powell Jobs; daily momentum and how tiny tailwinds compound; getting paced to a 5-minute mile by his 15-year-old son; inheritance and Nick's exuberant, chaotic dad; the part of Nick's book that he's never been asked about; and why we are capable of much more than we think. Timestamps: 0:00 - Opening Highlights 1:17 - Intro to Nick 3:30 - Start: Words, Reading, and Writing in an Automated World 18:39 - Why Stories Matter and What Makes a Journalist 28:22 - Media Institutions, The Atlantic, Democracy, Tech, and Power 44:21 - Retaining Great Writers and The Virtues of Editors (and Coaches) 57:44 - Magazines and America 1:05:57 - Running, Motivation, Momentum, and Tailwinds 1:16:08 - Aging, Fathers and Sons, Inheritance, and a Mother's Grace 1:31:00 - Merging Machine-like Discipline and Wild Curiosity, The Boat that Never Touched Water, and Who We Might Still Become 1:44:11 - Gratitude, Stalin's Daughter, Scott Thompson's Verve, and Feeling Most Alive Episode 45 of @dialecticpod: Nicholas Thompson - A Life of Long Form - is available on all platforms and below. This was a special one for me. Please enjoy.

The most underrated and innovative creative tool was just valued at $500M. @ComfyUI is the open-source AI creation engine for complete control — running in production at Netflix and Nike and and across the world's leading VFX, game development, and creative studios. Over the last few months we rebuilt Comfy's story foundation: a positioning guide, brand writing and verbal ID, a venture-grade research report, and an ICP matrix. From there, we redrafted the full website copy: homepage, about, product pages (Cloud, Local, API, Enterprise), and solutions pages (VFX, Gaming, Creative & Advertising), plus a video script — all ahead of the big funding announcement and the visual design refresh. Most AI tools give you a text box and a prayer. Type a prompt, get a result, hope it's close to what you wanted. That works for casual exploration, but it falls apart the moment you need consistency, precision, or scale. Professional production demands repeatable processes. ComfyUI is built for people who care about their craft. Every creative decision is visible, adjustable, and yours — design precise workflows, connect any model, and produce work limited only by what you can imagine.

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There is only one way to announce @ComfyUI’s $500M valuation on @tbpn 😂 👏 @yoland_yan

We just raised $30M at a $500M valuation, after never spending a dollar on marketing. 4 million people decided @ComfyUI was the platform they wanted to build on, and they shaped it into something we never could have shipped alone. This funding will accelerate our mission to build an open infrastructure, the kind that lasts, the kind that empowers rather than locks in.  The core stays open, local stays first, and every part of this round goes toward building for the people who create things for a living. The next chapter of creative AI is going to be built by them, not handed to them. Round led by @craft_ventures, with @PaceCap, @chemistry and Tru Arrow joining. Total funding now $47M.

Our Co-founder & CEO @yoland_yan is joining @tbpn at 12:40pm PT to talk about today’s $30M at $500M valuation fundraising announcement! Tune in 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=TGtgqm…

We just raised $30M at a $500M valuation, bringing our total funding to $47M. Led by @craft_ventures , with @PaceCap , @chemistry , TruArrow, and others. But before anything else: this belongs to the community. ComfyUI started as one developer and one open-source repo. No roadmap. No company. Just creators who wanted real control over how they built with AI. That community is now: → 4 million users → 60,000+ community-built nodes → 150,000+ daily downloads Every number traces back to people who built in the open, for anyone to use. Here's where the funding goes: → Comfy Cloud: for teams and studios that need security and scale → Collaborative workflows: versioning and iteration built for how studios actually work → A better local experience: more seamless, more stable → Ecosystem reliability: making 60,000+ community nodes more dependable → Day-one model support: every major release, compatible at launch We are not building a walled garden. We are building open infrastructure, built to last. Thank you genuinely, The ComfyUI Team

We just raised $30M at a $500M valuation, bringing our total funding to $47M. Led by @craft_ventures , with @PaceCap , @chemistry , TruArrow, and others. But before anything else: this belongs to the community. ComfyUI started as one developer and one open-source repo. No roadmap. No company. Just creators who wanted real control over how they built with AI. That community is now: → 4 million users → 60,000+ community-built nodes → 150,000+ daily downloads Every number traces back to people who built in the open, for anyone to use. Here's where the funding goes: → Comfy Cloud: for teams and studios that need security and scale → Collaborative workflows: versioning and iteration built for how studios actually work → A better local experience: more seamless, more stable → Ecosystem reliability: making 60,000+ community nodes more dependable → Day-one model support: every major release, compatible at launch We are not building a walled garden. We are building open infrastructure, built to last. Thank you genuinely, The ComfyUI Team

x.com/i/article/2047…

Introducing USVC — a new fund from @AngelList, for individual investors, starting at $500. One investment for exposure to private tech companies — from early-stage startups to companies scaling toward IPO. → usvc.com Venture capital funded the early stages of nearly every major tech company you use today. But historically, most people couldn't invest until the IPO, when the early growth was already captured. USVC is how you invest in venture capital. The portfolio already includes xAI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Sierra, Vercel, Crusoe, and Legora. USVC is the venture layer of your portfolio. @ankurnagpal is leading USVC as GP / Portfolio Manager, @naval is the Chairman of Investment Committee, and @cyantist @ariellezuck and Jeff Fagnan are joining as advisors. The future has shareholders. Become one of them.