- 📶 Confluence.VC Weekly
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- 📶 a16z bets BIG on GPUs
📶 a16z bets BIG on GPUs
The AI hardware war hits Silicon Valley, cyber companies ready to IPO, and crypto VC drama
Good morning 👋
Long couple of travel days, but I’m officially back to reality after the long weekend.
The venture news cycle is in full summer swing which means expect fewer big headlines over the next few weeks.
All of that said …
Let’s get into the biggest stories we found from yesterday.
P.S. We have a question for you …
We’re thinking of building a playbook / course / whatever you want to call it that shows how we’ve turned this newsletter into a growing revenue machine (and form of leverage for our business).
Would that be something you’d be interested in?
Let us know in the poll section at the bottom.
TL;DR:
HEADLINES
a16z is LOADING up on GPUs 🤖
Andreessen Horowitz Is Building a Stash of More Than 20,000 GPUs to Win AI Deals (The Information)
Global Funding And M&A Picked Up In Q2, While AI Funding Mushroomed (Crunchbase)
IPO Watchlist: The cybersecurity startups most likely to go public (Pitchbook)
Musk’s xAI and Oracle End Talks on a Server Deal (The Information)
Top Crypto VC Says Ex-General Partner Made Undisclosed Side Deal With Portfolio Company (CoinDesk)
Seae Ventures acquires Unseen Capital after founder death (TechCrunch)
Humane execs leave company to found AI fact-checking startup (TechCrunch)
LINKS
📋 The Little Tech Agenda: The GPs at a16z lay out their thinking
😈 The Dark Side of Sales: How unintended consequences can ruin your sales org
🏠 Real Estate 3.0: How Pete Flint and NFX see the next phase of real estate ownership playing out
💪 Building Muscle: Our friend Julian Shapiro is doing a deep dive on how you can actually gain muscle
🎫 How the Coupon was Invented, and How Tech Propels Marketing: Andrew Chen tells why AI, VR, web3 and future tech will beget new marketing strategies.
➗ Founders Should Divide and Conquer: Elad Gil makes the case this is the only way to keep things moving
😎 Cynicism is Easy. Mimcry is Easy. Optimistic Contrarians are the Rarest Breed: Naval lays out the combination of optimism and contrarianism is powerful, yet rare, because it requires both courage and vision
☕️ Starbucks—A Brewing Crisis: The challenges facing the coffee giant
TWEET
I sometimes get introduced to the same person by two people. The same person who won't even respond to an email from the first person will respond immediately and setup a call with an email from the second. Intros are currencies. They have to be managed or they become worthless.
— Jeremy Giffon (@jeremygiffon)
4:54 PM • Jun 26, 2024
REFER
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FUNDS
Name | Fund Size | Fund Number |
---|---|---|
$3.2b | VI | |
$15m | I | |
$35m | II | |
$943,167,000 | II | |
$150m | III | |
$380m | II |
P.S. 👉 If you’re looking to get a new VC job …
We’ve found the best way to do that is to find the jobs before they become available. In our opinion, the best way to do that is to a) find who is raising funds and b) find who is the right person to contact at each of those funds.
Lucky for you, we’ve already collected all of that information for you.
RECS
Cyber Patterns by Jason Levin: One of our favorite newsletters on how to use the internet to attract luck
Creator Spotlight: How the best online creators make it all happen.
The Early: A new place for junior VC resources and content
POLL
If we were to build a step-by-step course / playbook on starting, scaling, and monetizing a newsletter, would that be something you would use?If it is, we'll build it. If not, we'll scrap the idea. |
Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.
Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.
- Clay
RESULTS
Here are the results from our poll question in yesterday’s piece:
Which of the following verticals are you MOST bullish on over the next five years?
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤖 AI (2)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💰 Fintech (11)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📈 SaaS (11)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛍 E-Commerce (1)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🤷♂️ Other (8)
33 Votes
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