The Big Read

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Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

The Epic Corporate Marathon of Strava, Cult-Favorite Fitness App

By Annie Goldsmith · Jul 12, 2024 9:00am PDT
While running a half-marathon in Philadelphia a few years ago, Courtney Kitchen noticed another woman near her running roughly her pace: She seemed like she’d make a great training buddy. But there wasn’t an opportune moment for the pair to exchange phone numbers at the race, so later that day, Kitchen opened Strava, the popular... While running a half-marathon in Philadelphia a few years ago, Courtney Kitchen noticed another...
Art by Clark Miller
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Fear and Longing in Sun Valley

By Nick Wingfield · Jul 5, 2024 9:00am PDT · 1 comment
The summer gatherings of the alphas are upon us. This weekend, the annual running of the bulls will commence in Pamplona, Spain. And a couple days later, the media, tech and finance moguls of the world will begin descending in their private jets on Sun Valley, Idaho, for the annual confab hosted by Allen & Co., boutique investment bank. ... The summer gatherings of the alphas are upon us. This weekend, the annual running of the bulls...
Art by Clark Miller
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Fame, Feud and Fortune: Inside Billionaire Alexandr Wang’s Relentless Rise in Silicon Valley

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 28, 2024 9:00am PDT · 7 comments
In January 2021, Alexandr Wang’s friends and colleagues gathered for a party at his swank South of Market apartment, which featured a 2,000-foot private terrace with a hot tub and views of the San Francisco skyline. Wang, co-founder and CEO of Scale AI, wanted to mark his birthday with a bang: He was turning 24. Wang had spent the holidays... In January 2021, Alexandr Wang’s friends and colleagues gathered for a party at his swank...
Art by Clark Miller
Trump’s Young Man in Silicon Valley
By Margaux MacColl · Jun 21, 2024 9:00am PDT · 16 comments
Art by Clark Miller
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Trump’s Young Man in Silicon Valley

By Margaux MacColl · Jun 21, 2024 9:00am PDT · 16 comments
Soon after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records last month, the former president headed uptown to a restaurant, where a dinner party awaited him. Trump, who appeared unfazed by the conviction, walked in with a smile on his face, greeted by about 20 supporters and members of his innermost circle. The crowd... Soon after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records last month,...
Art by Clark Miller
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How the World Plans to Stop American AI Domination

By Julia Black · Jun 14, 2024 9:00am PDT · 3 comments
Founders usually create startups to make money for themselves and their investors—or to change the world and protect humanity, as some of them say in their more grandiose moments. For Aleph Alpha, an artificial intelligence startup in Germany, those things mattered too, but its founders had another, more tribal motivation: to make sure... Founders usually create startups to make money for themselves and their investors—or to...
Art by Clark Miller
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The Three Young Founders Looking at Food Tech’s Dark Age in a New Light

By Larissa Zimberoff · Jun 6, 2024 6:00am PDT
A few weeks ago, at a former jellybean factory in Emeryville, California, I tasted what may be the future of food: the lab-grown, or cultured, meat produced by Prolific Machines, a four-year-old startup that has been operating in secret while it develops its technology. “Last night, I worried what you were going to think,” admitted... A few weeks ago, at a former jellybean factory in Emeryville, California, I tasted what may be...
Art by Clark Miller
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Mega-billionaire Ken Griffin Wants to Own Our World

By Michelle Celarier · May 31, 2024 9:00am PDT
The popular image of Ken Griffin is that of a master manipulator of financial markets, the bogeyman of a generation of memestockers who spin conspiracy theories about his company, Citadel Securities, interfering with their ability to trade shares of GameStop. But two decades ago, when his hedge fund was still young, Griffin was the one who... The popular image of Ken Griffin is that of a master manipulator of financial markets, the...
Art by Clark Miller
How Lacework Went From Cybersecurity Stardom to Fire Sale Talks
By Aaron Holmes and Natasha Mascarenhas · May 17, 2024 6:00am PDT · 3 comments
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

How Lacework Went From Cybersecurity Stardom to Fire Sale Talks

By Aaron Holmes and Natasha Mascarenhas · May 17, 2024 6:00am PDT · 3 comments
Last summer, more than a hundred people crowded into the brightly lit basement of a Lululemon store in Manhattan at the invitation of Lacework, a cybersecurity unicorn. By all appearances, the startup seemed to enjoy an enviable position, with an $8.3 billion valuation and an assortment of blue-chip investors, including Sutter Hill Ventures,... Last summer, more than a hundred people crowded into the brightly lit basement of a Lululemon...
Art by Clark Miller
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The Musk Whisperer

By Margaux MacColl · May 10, 2024 9:00am PDT · 20 comments
On Oct. 17, several executives in tech contacted Sequoia Capital managing partner Roelof Botha, all making the same simple demand: Fire Shaun Maguire. Maguire, a 38-year-old partner at Sequoia, had spent the past 10 days posting fierce defenses of Israel on X (the social media platform he had helped steer Sequoia money into). He often wrote... On Oct. 17, several executives in tech contacted Sequoia Capital managing partner Roelof Botha,...
Art by Clark Miller
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How Whoop Survived a Race Against the Apple Watch—And Made Its Wearables a Hit Among Athletes

By Akash Pasricha · May 3, 2024 9:00am PDT · 4 comments
Up on the roof above corporate headquarters, Will Ahmed eyed the weather as April wind and rain swirled. “We’re going to make this a surgical strike,” he said, and off we trotted toward two giant baths filled with 42-degree water. We slid in, dunking our heads beneath the surface—and were greeted by the kind of cold that... Up on the roof above corporate headquarters, Will Ahmed eyed the weather as April wind and rain...
Art by Clark Miller
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Japan’s New Appetite for Risk Lures Venture Investors to Tokyo

By Juro Osawa, Natasha Mascarenhas and Margaux MacColl · Apr 26, 2024 6:00am PDT · 2 comments
Just south of the vast Imperial Palace in downtown Tokyo lies the Kasumigaseki district, with blocks of offices constructed mostly during the last century when the country rose as one of the world’s largest economic powers after World War II. Much of the Japanese government does its work here: A walk through this neighborhood of concrete... Just south of the vast Imperial Palace in downtown Tokyo lies the Kasumigaseki district, with...
Art by Clark Miller. Altman via Getty images.
Jack Altman Is Ready for His Spotlight
By Abram Brown · Apr 19, 2024 9:00am PDT · 3 comments
Art by Clark Miller. Altman via Getty images.
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Jack Altman Is Ready for His Spotlight

By Abram Brown · Apr 19, 2024 9:00am PDT · 3 comments
Few things matter more to Jack Altman than bedtime with the Altman siblings: the two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son he shares with his wife, Julia, who is pregnant with their third child. “Childhood is such a short period. Maybe you get 10 years where your kids want nothing more than to be with you,” he said as we... Few things matter more to Jack Altman than bedtime with the Altman siblings: the...
Art by Clark Miller. Tull image via Getty Images.
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Secretive Billionaire Thomas Tull’s Never-Ending Transformation

By Julia Black · Apr 12, 2024 9:00am PDT · 1 comment
Private jets are a common enough sight over Driggs, Idaho, a hamlet 30 miles west of the exclusive resort town of Jackson Hole, Wyo. But one weekend a few months ago, so many chartered flights and luxury SUVs arrived in the small town that the mayor began to receive calls from residents asking what was going on. The commotion, as it turned out,... Private jets are a common enough sight over Driggs, Idaho, a hamlet 30 miles west of the...
Art by Clark Miller
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Behind the Marriage of Microsoft and Mustafa Suleyman, a Bid for Redemption

By Julia Black · Apr 6, 2024 6:00am PDT
On March 19, the 70-person staff of Inflection, an artificial intelligence startup that had raised $1.5 billion in less than two years, was summoned to a Hyatt hotel auditorium near the company’s Palo Alto, Calif., offices. Moments before, they’d received some shocking news: Microsoft would pay $650 million to license... On March 19, the 70-person staff of Inflection, an artificial intelligence startup that had...
Art by Clark Miller
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How the CEO of Kim Kardashian’s Skims Dodged Retail Armageddon

By Ann Gehan and Annie Goldsmith · Mar 29, 2024 9:28am PDT · 2 comments
When Skims co-founders Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede were recently considering where to put their very first physical store, they knew right away that New York and Los Angeles wouldn’t work well. Their retail unicorn had previously held pop-up shops in those cities, and they had attracted enormous crowds that limited any chance to observe... When Skims co-founders Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede were recently considering where to put their...
Art by Clark Miller
Jeff Bezos Readies Blue Origin for Its Biggest Test
By Nick Wingfield and Becky Peterson · Mar 22, 2024 9:00am PDT · 1 comment
Art by Clark Miller
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Jeff Bezos Readies Blue Origin for Its Biggest Test

By Nick Wingfield and Becky Peterson · Mar 22, 2024 9:00am PDT · 1 comment
At some point during the second half of this year, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, will stuff his feet into a pair of cowboy boots and, if everything goes as planned, watch as a rocket made by his space startup, Blue Origin, blasts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The boots are a good luck charm that Bezos wears... At some point during the second half of this year, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, will stuff...
Art by Clark Miller
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The Sora Saga Has Only Just Started

By Margaux MacColl · Mar 15, 2024 9:00am PDT · 4 comments
A month ago, Greg Pilon, a 44-year-old visual effects artist on such films as “Deadpool 2,” thought he heard the tick-tock of a doomsday clock for his industry. What set the gears in motion? His initial glimpse of Sora, OpenAI’s new text-to-video artificial intelligence tool, unveiled by CEO Sam Altman. In a 10-minute demo... A month ago, Greg Pilon, a 44-year-old visual effects artist on such films as “Deadpool...
Art by Clark Miller
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The Startup Investor Who Earned Andreessen’s Ire

By Kate Clark · Mar 8, 2024 6:00am PST · 2 comments
The inner sanctum of one of Silicon Valley’s most intriguing investors is a small, bland room in Los Altos Hills, Calif., filled on a recent morning by little more than a marble-top conference table, a whiteboard and a stack of bagged spicy chili potato chips. The home office belongs to General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja, and... The inner sanctum of one of Silicon Valley’s most intriguing investors is a small,...
Art by Clark Miller
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Investor Neil Mehta Answers the Panic Button

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 1, 2024 9:00am PST · 3 comments
The Clay Theatre, a Pacific Heights landmark constructed shortly after the 1906 earthquake, has stood empty for four years on a busy stretch of Fillmore Street, the exterior poster frames as vacant as the adjacent ticket booth. Given the venue’s storied past and the area’s tony reputation as a place filled with Gettys and... The Clay Theatre, a Pacific Heights landmark constructed shortly after the 1906 earthquake,...
Art by Clark Miller
The Ultimate Insiders’ Guide to AI: How Founders, Investors and Executives Really Use the Technology
By · Feb 23, 2024 9:00am PST · 13 comments
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

The Ultimate Insiders’ Guide to AI: How Founders, Investors and Executives Really Use the Technology

By · Feb 23, 2024 9:00am PST · 13 comments
We’re deep into an era-defining boom in artificial intelligence, and with so much attention falling on the money and mania generated by this fast-evolving technology, it’s worth stepping back to ask: How do people really use it? And moreover, what are the people at the epicenter of this surge using AI to do? They use it for quite a... We’re deep into an era-defining boom in artificial intelligence, and with so much attention...