Harry Stebbings, an investor and host of the popular Twenty Minute VC podcast, sent the industry into a tizzy yesterday morning after sharing his opinion that “The biggest problem of venture capital… is we have made entrepreneurship too safe a career path.” He further explained founders are well paid (his maybe), get to work on something “interesting,” and “own their own time,” implying a fairly low-pressure environment. Now, Stebbs interviews a lot of VCs, but I wonder: has he actually met a founder? I’m one. I’m dating one. I’ve worked with founders now for 15 years. The job is not “safe,” and the opportunity cost alone nearly precludes it from the realm of “rational.” Founders sacrifice their health, their relationships, and many years of their lives for a small chance of great success. Basically the opposite of, while he is a very nice person!, hosting a podcast, or collecting management fees.

Cards Against Humanity recently filed a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX, alleging the aerospace company has been trespassing on a plot of land near the US-Mexico border that the game makers purchased in 2017 (their trollish attempt to stop Trump from building the wall). CAH also claimed that SpaceX’s use of their land was damaging for their brand (?) because Elon has been accused of racism and sexism (yep, the party game that uses “Auschwitz” and “Having a vagina” as punchlines is deeply concerned about this). Elsewhere, Elon announced that SpaceX would be sending five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years, with the first-ever crewed missions possible in 2028. Pick a side, Cards Against Humanity: do you want to become the first party game ever played on Mars? Or do you want to stand in the way of interplanetary travel just for the approval of soyjaks on Reddit?

Telegram will now pass users’ phone numbers and IP addresses to authorities when valid legal requests are made, CEO Pavel Durov announced yesterday. Durov, who was arrested in Paris last month, still faces charges for crimes committed by users of his platform. And frankly? Holding a CEO responsible for the actions of all 950 million of his users seems like an effective move from regulators. Pavel’s case is notable because he did everything right: he avoided institutional investors, built the company without an HQ, and spent most of his time in Dubai, theoretically outside of the censorship-industrial complex. Turns out no matter how hard you work, the bureaucrats work harder. “Private” messaging apps were always a useful fiction, but now it’s official. The only remaining privacy app is the United Airlines app. Get on a plane, and talk face to face while speaking in hushed tones. Find the romance in avoiding big brother.

We’ve all had that one Zoom call where we clicked the link, the software took 5 minutes to update, we joined late, and then Zoom connected to our next door neighbor’s Samsung TV instead of just using the laptop speakers. The alternative would’ve been to just use FaceTime: it works every time, has zero frills, and takes almost no effort. Most payroll systems today are metaphorically Zoom: designed in 2015, bloated, and time consuming. Warp, on the other hand, is how payroll and compliance would work if Apple designed it: compliance is handled automatically, everything is optimized for speed (takes just 10 minutes to set up), and it’s sexy too. Consider moving to a payroll platform that values speed of execution and user experience as much as you do. 

Get started with Warp here.

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this pirate wires exclusive from ashley rindsberg, written after durov’s arrest, still serves as an essential backgrounder on telegram that explores how the platform has engaged with governments since its inception

a san francisco voter guide for people who aren’t insane

this week on the pod, we discuss the second trump assassination attempt and the media coverage that followed. plus: amazon’s return to office order, nyt tech workers threaten to strike, israel blows up beepers, and our pirate idol pod competition continues

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