What allows @SpaceX to build at such a large scale and so quickly?

The culture and execution. And it starts with @elonmusk

Here are 10 principles #1: Make requirements less dumb

Two quotes by @elonmusk:

- "Your requirements are definitely dumb"
- "No matter who you are, everyone's wrong some of the time"

One fix: Every req should come with a name. Not a department. It drives ownership & makes correction faster

People wonder how @Replit ships so fast.

Last week we launched bounties.

If you work in product, marketing, BizOps or any non-eng role, then you MUST learn to use bounties.

This will kick your team into overdrive.

Let me explain with a story. In mid-august, @heroku announced an end to their free hosting plan.

We wanted to get an importer built quickly to help migrating users.

In companies, you always battle for engineering time.

Instead, we just asked someone in the community to help

@elonmusk is a master meme lord. A generational entrepreneur. A media lightening rod.

But his greatest contribution may be the @SpaceX effect.

At a time where our smartest builders are optimizing ads, @elonmusk has trained a generation of large scale hardware builders. Let's start by looking at @elonmusk companies.

By the numbers:
- +$1T in value
- +$80B in annual revenue
- +135,000 jobs created

The numbers are staggering

1/ @anduriltech: Fixing the broken sword of US defense

For years, they were the industry castaway. Now, they are the "current thing"

In my latest newsletter, I do a breakdown of the multi-billion dollar Thielean-inspired defense startup.

Here is a summary 2/ First, let's talk about the defense sector. Four macro factors to know:

1. The consolidation of defense contractors
2. The challenges of the private sector
3. The slowing pace of innovation
4. The rise of our adversaries

1/ Think you cannot learn to code? Not true.

@Replit is bending the rules of learning to program.

Here's a real-life, personal example 2/ For context, I joined @Replit ~4.5 months ago.

Before this job, I had never programmed.

Tried 3-5x in various settings.

Never able to consistently stick with it.

1/ One of the oldest venture firms in Silicon Valley is also one of the most unorthodox

Rather than just fund companies, they focus on building them

Here's a playbook on how @laserlikemike & @shv have become the silent software kingmakers 2/ **Disclaimer**

@laserlikemike does not do media... I tried!

Much of this is speculation based on hours of analysis & observation!

But from what I pulled together, the story is amazing

1/ One of my favorite lesser-known founding stories is @sigmacomputing.

Incubated by @shv. Spent three years prototyping. Three years building. All with a team of ~5.

Last year, they jumped from a $30M Series B to a $300M Series C!!

Here's their story & what they have built 2/ In 2014, @jfranty, @rwoollen, & @laserlikemike were vexed by a trend they were seeing in the market

Innovation in cloud data architecture was exploding
@laserlikemike knew firsthand from building @SnowflakeDB

But the daily life of business decision makers had not changed

1/ Big personal news.

After 2.5 amazing years at @BCG, I took the leap & joined @Replit

Taking the leap from big finance / consulting isn't easy, but @Replit is building something special

For anyone else trying to find a rocket ship, let me explain what I saw in @Replit 2/ @Replit checked a ton of boxes for me, but I will just walk through four today:
- The Mission
- The Culture
- The Trajectory
- The Intangibles

1/@solugen: The first carbon negative molecule factory

Just two months ago, @solugen raised +$350M to scale their solution to building carbon negative chemicals

Their breakthrough may be one of the most pivotal unlocks to fighting climate change

Let me explain what they do: 2/First, let's level set on the problem: climate change

It is accelerating. Some facts:

1. July 2021 was the warmest month EVER
2. The seven warmest years since 1880 have all occurred after 2014
3. There has never been more carbon in the air than there is now

1/ @coverbuild: Raising $60M to manufacture the home of the future

The US is in a severe housing crisis. The way we build homes is costly & inefficient

Imagine a luxury home that can be assembled in weeks at a more affordable cost & higher quality. This is @coverbuild. 2/First, let's discuss the housing crisis.

Over the past year, the typical housing price jumped +13% compared to +3% in median income.

A further 15% increase in home price is expected

The price of a home is far outpacing the raise in wages due to a constricted supply of homes

1/ @LambdaSchool: Reimagining secondary education in America

Get good grades. Graduate. Go to college at all costs, regardless of degree or student loans, and everything will be ok, right?

That's what we were told, but the system is failing. Lambda is challenging that model 2/ The Problem

I would contest that our education system is very broken. In the case of secondary education, let's first look at three issues:

1. Investment
2. Institution
3. Incentives

1/@DoNotPayLaw: The Robo-Lawyer Fighting For the Consumer

Every year, vulnerable consumers lose billions due to predatory, hidden, or overpriced legal fees

@DoNotPayLaw is the scalable technology solution designed to bring power to the people. Here's how: 2/The problem

Consumers often feel powerless to fees imposed from large institutions

Parking tickets. Flight change fees. Bank overdraft charges.

In isolation, they feel small. Every year, however, consumers lose billions to them, often when they are most vulnerable

1/ @huggingface: The #ArtificialIntelligence community building the future

Behind the hugging face emoji 🤗 is the fastest growing open source community in history

If you have not heard of @huggingface, it may be one of most important platforms of the next decade 2/ Founders @ClementDelangue , @Thom_Wolf, and @julien_c originally set out to build open domain AI.

Quickly, they realized the technology and platform they were building was bringing value to companies.

They decided to open source it

1/@pipe: The traditional venture capital disruptor

One month ago, @pipe raised a $50M series A from some of the biggest names in tech.

Here is my full breakdown of @pipe: 2/ The problem

High-growth companies need capital to scale rapidly.

Their options include:
A) Debt
B) Venture capital

Debt is not ideal. The structure is rigid, and interest expense compromises long-term cash

Most companies choose VC

1/ @Anchorage: The First Federally Chartered Digital Bank

In January, the US government gave there largest stamp of approval for crypto currencies like #Bitcoin

Here is my full analysis of the company poised to disrupt the banking system 2/ Cryptocurrency has exploded over the past 5-10 years.

Most people are familiar with #Bitcoin, but there are many other digital assets such as #Ether, #ZCash, #FacebookDiem, etc.

The space changes rapidly, and it requires significant levels of agility and expertise to keep up

1/ A huge hobby of mine is learning about innovative startups.

Recently, I came across @replit. I have been hooked since.

@amasad & @HayaOdeh are building the next computing platform to empower developers across the globe with almost no barrier to entry. 2/ Don't believe me? They already have 5M+ users. You probably just have not heard about it.

As of December, @paulg (Replit investor) announced that @replit has already passed 5M registered users

https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1334178824121147392?s=20