The Weekend by The Information Staff

Every Saturday

The Weekend

By The Information Staff

Know what happens when Silicon Valley logs off—the trends and people shaping culture, technology and everything in between.

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Recent Editions

One Year of War: How Ukrainian Tech Companies Have Persevered

One Year of War: How Ukrainian Tech Companies Have Persevered

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 18, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!While the tech press was freaking out over Microsoft’s new AI search capabilities this week (present company included), a war in Ukraine lurched toward an awful anniversary. This Friday marks one year since Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded the country, extinguishing hundreds of thousands of lives and permanently... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!While the tech press was freaking out over Microsoft’s new AI search...

A Quarter-Million Reasons to Not Trust Your Company

A Quarter-Million Reasons to Not Trust Your Company

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 11, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!When you're a tech company, life comes at you fast. Just last year around this time, things were looking mighty flush for both big firms and smaller startups. Evidence for this can be found in the sizable number of brands that splurged on multimillion-dollar Super Bowl ads in 2022: 18 of them, by our count. Now, can... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!When you're a tech company, life comes at you fast. Just last year...

Silicon Valley's Latest Invention: The Supplement Stack

Silicon Valley's Latest Invention: The Supplement Stack

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 4, 2023 7:00am PST

Greetings, and welcome to your Weekend!Today’s newsletter really ought to come with a surgeon general’s warning: “Consuming dozens of unregulated health supplements may not actually be awesome for your health.” It’s hard not to shake your head at the sheer number of nascent and untested substances that some of our tech-industry peers are... Greetings, and welcome to your Weekend!Today’s newsletter really ought to come with a surgeon...

Ban It, Divest It or Regulate It? Washington Looks for an Answer to TikTok

Ban It, Divest It or Regulate It? Washington Looks for an Answer to TikTok

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 28, 2023 7:00am PST

Ban It, Divest It or Regulate It? Washington Looks for an Answer to TikTok

Ban It, Divest It or Regulate It? Washington Looks for an Answer to TikTok

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 28, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Interesting dinner table discussion this week: My 13-year-old daughter, hearing about Nancy Scola’s cover story on TikTok’s war in Washington, offered her prediction for what would happen if the U.S. took the drastic step of banning the app.“Every teenager in America would refuse to come out of their rooms,” she... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Interesting dinner table discussion this week: My 13-year-old...

Citizen Andreessen Is Still Looking for His Rosebud

Citizen Andreessen Is Still Looking for His Rosebud

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 21, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!“I am very bullish on the future of the news business,” wrote Marc Andreessen in 2014, predicting 10x to 100x growth for the journalism industry over the next 20 years. “But as Tommy Lasorda said: ‘Nobody said this f—king job would be all that f—king easy.’”Andreessen was half right, anyway: The last decade hasn’... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!“I am very bullish on the future of the news business,” wrote...

He Helped Conceive Instagram. Can He Strike Gold Again as a Novelist?

He Helped Conceive Instagram. Can He Strike Gold Again as a Novelist?

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 14, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!If there’s an unintended theme for this week’s stories, it’s the comeback, the second act, the immune response to a contagion.In the case of Josh Riedel, it’s the story of a young tech employee who lands at the seminal startup of the early 2010s, Instagram. He devotes his whole life to the company, watching in awe as... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!If there’s an unintended theme for this week’s stories, it’s the...

The Pied Piper of Defense Startups

The Pied Piper of Defense Startups

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 7, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to the first Weekend of 2023!You have to hand it to Josh Wolfe. The co-founder of Lux Capital has spent the past two decades zigging while many in the Valley have zagged. This week’s cover story by Margaux focuses on the rise of defense tech as a booming startup sector in Silicon Valley. It’s a space Wolfe and Lux have owned for... Hi, welcome to the first Weekend of 2023!You have to hand it to Josh Wolfe. The co-founder of Lux...

In Praise of Real (Not Tweetable) Conversations

In Praise of Real (Not Tweetable) Conversations

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 31, 2022 7:00am PST

In Praise of Real (Not Tweetable) Conversations

In Praise of Real (Not Tweetable) Conversations

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 31, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to the last Weekend of 2022!Because everyone’s feeling nostalgic for auld lang syne (rough translation: before everything sucked), we wanted to reflect on some lessons from the recent past. So this week, the team asked some of the smartest people in tech about the conversations that stuck with them the most from 2022. My... Hi, welcome to the last Weekend of 2022!Because everyone’s feeling nostalgic for auld lang syne...

On Jasper! On YouTuber! On ChatGPT! A Special Holiday Edition of Weekend

On Jasper! On YouTuber! On ChatGPT! A Special Holiday Edition of Weekend

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 24, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your holiday Weekend!If you haven’t already slipped into a ’noghole (a bottomless tumbler of eggnog paired with an endless scroll of Netflix Christmas movies), we have a fascinating sampler of stories for you to indulge in this week.There’s Arielle’s dispatch from the red-hot AI scene in Texas, where a 6-foot-8-inch Kansan came up... Hi, welcome to your holiday Weekend!If you haven’t already slipped into a ’noghole (a bottomless...

Back to Work, the Party's Over

Back to Work, the Party's Over

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 17, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Compared to other austerity measures that have swept over tech this past year (the mass layoffs, the hiring freezes, the end of in-house laundry), the demise of the holiday party likely isn’t inspiring panic amongst tech workers. But should it? As Annie and Arielle write in this week’s cover story, it seems like... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Compared to other austerity measures that have swept over tech this...

Where Sleep Is Religion, These Are Our Idols

Where Sleep Is Religion, These Are Our Idols

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 10, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!After a week that gave us the exhaustive (and exhausting) Twitter Files, more fallout from the FTX affair, exhilarating World Cup matches and some rare good news out of Russia, you’re probably catching up on much-needed sleep this weekend. Maybe you’re even grabbing z’s in one of the Eight Sleep Pods that have swept... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!After a week that gave us the exhaustive (and exhausting) Twitter...

Cathie Wood Is Still Team Musk

Cathie Wood Is Still Team Musk

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 3, 2022 7:00am PST

Cathie Wood Is Still Team Musk

Cathie Wood Is Still Team Musk

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 3, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Cathie Wood isn’t just an investor—she’s a Rorschach test in cat-eyed glasses. There are few portfolio managers more argued over than the Ark Invest chief. But what I find most fascinating about the woman some call “Crazy Cathie” isn’t her contrarian stock picks or her out-there economic predictions, but her unusual... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Cathie Wood isn’t just an investor—she’s a Rorschach test in cat-eyed...

Long Holiday Gifts, Short FTX Tokens

Long Holiday Gifts, Short FTX Tokens

By Jon Steinberg · Nov 26, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The official opening of holiday gifting season is upon us, so we meet the moment as we always do—by shaking down our colleagues for gift suggestions. Our subscribers are obviously discerning, so we take gift tips seriously. I was able to knock off half of my list already by following our staff’s recommendations.... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The official opening of holiday gifting season is upon us, so we meet...

A Is for Altman, B Is For Bravo: Looking Back at One Year of Weekends

A Is for Altman, B Is For Bravo: Looking Back at One Year of Weekends

By Jon Steinberg · Nov 19, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!I remember when my kids each turned one—and the pride their mom and I felt in surviving that first joyous, exhausting year. We knew we had accomplished a lot—like learning how to sleep in two-hour increments—but also that we were still naifs. The following years were when the real tests would start. (The girls are 11... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!I remember when my kids each turned one—and the pride their mom and I...

Silicon Valley Pours One Out

Silicon Valley Pours One Out

By Jon Steinberg · Nov 12, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!After everything that transpired this week—from the midterms, to the Elon–Twitter debacle to the FTX implosion—much of tech could probably use a stiff martini right now. But as Annie reports in this weekend’s extremely well-timed cover story, much of tech will politely abstain.Sobriety—as it pertains to alcohol, if... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!After everything that transpired this week—from the midterms, to the...

Alexis Ohanian in Heaven, Elon Musk in Hell

Alexis Ohanian in Heaven, Elon Musk in Hell

By Jon Steinberg · Nov 5, 2022 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Alexis Ohanian in Heaven, Elon Musk in Hell

Alexis Ohanian in Heaven, Elon Musk in Hell

By Jon Steinberg · Nov 5, 2022 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Last week, we generously offered our readers a 100% Elon Musk-free newsletter. I got a few thank you notes for that. Now I’m sorry to inform you the moratorium’s over. Yesterday was the Massacre on Market Street. The day when Elon Musk unceremoniously axed thousands of Twitter employees, all while the world... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Last week, we generously offered our readers a 100% Elon Musk-free...

The Weird Science of Generative AI

The Weird Science of Generative AI

By Jon Steinberg · Oct 29, 2022 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!First, some good news: This week’s issue is 100% Elon free. If you’re dying to read more about the Birdman who shall not be named, may we suggest The Information’s coverage of yesterday’s Twitter takeover here, here, here and here. (Also an interesting Forum post here.)Instead, we bring you a special themed... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!First, some good news: This week’s issue is 100% Elon free. If you’re...

Still Deep Blue, But Trending Red

Still Deep Blue, But Trending Red

By Jon Steinberg · Oct 22, 2022 7:00am PDT · 5 comments

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Midterms, super PACs, Taylor Swift, Razzlekhan: We’re going very high and very low this week. First off, we have Abe’s cover story of Jeff Lawson, the Twilio CEO whose company became a Wall Street darling during the pandemic, only to take a terrifying plunge during this year’s selloff. What makes Lawson... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Midterms, super PACs, Taylor Swift, Razzlekhan: We’re going very high...

Legs in the Metaverse, Heads in Reality

Legs in the Metaverse, Heads in Reality

By Jon Steinberg · Oct 15, 2022 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The observant reader may notice an odd disconnect in this weekend’s newsletter. Above the fold, you’ll see Margaux’s cover story exploring how social media platforms can identify when users are experiencing manic episodes or other symptoms of bipolar disorder. Her reporting is backed by a decade’s worth of research... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The observant reader may notice an odd disconnect in this weekend’s...

What Us, Worry? Why Silicon Valley Seems Happy Again

What Us, Worry? Why Silicon Valley Seems Happy Again

By Jon Steinberg · Oct 8, 2022 7:00am PDT

What Us, Worry? Why Silicon Valley Seems Happy Again

What Us, Worry? Why Silicon Valley Seems Happy Again

By Jon Steinberg · Oct 8, 2022 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The economic news may be nerve-wracking, but judging from the results of our nearly 1,000-subscriber survey, Silicon Valley seems to be taking the downturn in stride. In fact, large proportions of our readership appear pretty content with the new norms of post-pandemic professional life. This is a bit of a... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The economic news may be nerve-wracking, but judging from the results...