Paul Willard

@ryanzip @davidpantera_ The focus on speed in the office is so energizing I am soooo happy when I am there :)

@davidpantera_ Yes, expanding both across Africa

We are 3×-ing our scale in Africa to save an additional 50,000 lives each year. What did you get done this week?

1/ The future of general-purpose robotics will be decided by one major question: which flavor of data scales reasoning? Every major lab represents a different bet. Over the past 3 months, @adam_patni, @vriishin, and I read the core research papers, spoke with staff at the major labs, and mapped the talent pool. This has completely changed how we think about general-purpose robotics. Our paper builds intuition, step-by step, across the 2025 frontier: from architectures → evals → data → industry dynamics. Each layer reveals a different bottleneck, but they all converge on one truth—data decides everything. Our takeaways + process below👇 If you want access to our graph (sound on), comment or DM me

@nhfoley @GravisRobotics Dm me please :)

A friend’s been quietly building insanely capable autonomous excavators & visiting SF end of this week — help me connect him with people in robotics, seed stage deep tech, huge earthmoving needs. They dig load etc but this retaining wall from found material blows my mind:

@terronk @johncoogan @PirateWires Thanks for pulling and publishing this data. Confirms the anecdotal interactions I have had where no one in tech has changed positions.

This is awesome. And obviously true for anyone who spends any time in this industry. Thanks for bringing data to dozens of my purely vibes-based arguments on this topic the last few weeks. I wonder what the comparison is to other industries, especially finance. I bet we are left of average.

Are VCs really shifting to the right? I've heard this a few times and it feels reasonable anecdotally, but I wanted to see the data, so I pulled FEC donation records and cross referenced them with the Midas List. Here are my key findings:

Very excited to see the XB-1 getting close :)

@JennaHannon I wonder if no paid ads also includes no paid search?

The top 3 marketing channels from a SaaS founder targeting traditional industries. In no particular order. 1. LinkedIn influencers 2. Partner/channel programs 3. Cold email but personalized using AI No paid ads.

@Paul_Gassee @JennaHannon Check out Thoughtful GPT maybe?

@JennaHannon I have yet to find a tool that is good at doing personalization at scale leveraging AI. Would love to hear what they are using.

@JennaHannon I have a couple that predate the requirement i can still sneak up on people with :)

I was today years old when I learned that electric cars don't actually make noise. The eerie ghost sounds are designed by composers and "played" by the car — so they don't sneak up on you.

@JennaHannon Liability laws make the weighted average cost greater than the value :/

It’s a standard luxury in Europe to have heated towel racks. I’ve never seen this in the US. Why?

@halletecco To me? Or a large long list of angels or crowd funded investors or syndicated investors ? To me, absolutely yes, as well as bookings if different, Gross and net burn, cash/runway, and any other significant/vanity metrics.

@halletecco Since the stock market went down last Spring. Started calling everyone for slow burn/slow growth/more conservative raise plan. Now executing + biting nails a lot :)

@alidiab I like San Mateo School District approach of adding a 9th grade algebra—> Calculus path in addition to the classic 8th grade one. And hey, DM me or follow me so I can DM you for coffee :)

@cwhogg Hilariously. Too late though, I think someone else already bought it but it should still be running. And there are others. Ask a health tech investor and they probably have a market map listing all of them.

@webgeek Maybe I’ll buy that. Wouldn’t that be ironic?

Lazy twitter: Any health tracking devices out there that don’t require a downloaded app on the phone to connect it? A hub or beacon to connect or something?

@cwhogg I bet almost everything in that space requires no app actually. Too much friction for older folks primarily being tracked. You should be able to Google for it if you pretend you are a doctors office that wants to get that Blue $ by 2,000 of your patients on one of these.

@cwhogg I think Ryan’s 100 Plus did not require an app. I bet there are others in the home measurement reporting to doctor’s office space that ship with a hub no app.

@halletecco I got Omicron right before the Omicron booster came out and my anecdotal neighbor survey similarly informed a much higher rebound rate. So I skipped the Paxlovid myself and powered through 4 days of high fever and 1.5 weeks of testing positive. Hope it stays light <3

@JennaHannon I would say 6 has been the standard for a long time for Founders, not new. And if there is a founder/cofounder breakup that is a good thing. Also I suggest getting 25% of Founder Class shares that convert to Preferred if sold in a funding round.

Founders & investors, what are you seeing for founder vesting schedules? 4,5,6, or 7 years What is the new standard?

@lorakolodny Remember “hella”? I feel like that was a California kid thing. My little the other day said, in proper context, “that sucks” and I said that was a borderline “adult word” they may get in trouble for saying at school.

@lorakolodny I think it started in broader culture with the song ‘Valley Girl’ and further advanced with 10 key texting cuz “OMG”. I don’t use it cuz my parents trained me not to, but my kids do and I don’t try to stop them though I have told them they might offend a Christian.