Weekly Roundup: Year of Efficiency ⏱️

Happy Friday, DVC! This week I learned that Pakistan’s former Prime Minister is using ChatGPT to campaign from prison, while Albania is using it to speed up its bid for EU membership.

If like me you’ve been reluctant to use AI beyond asking it to “explain how the Moon works like I’m 5”, sadly we have no more excuses. Starting January 1st I’ll be using it to escape the prison of my unread Gmail inbox. Starting January 2nd I’ll be using it to speed up my bid for EU membership.

Club Admin & Holiday Schedule:

A couple quick admin notes as we speed into 2024!

1st - Welcome to DVC! 👋
Sending another very warm welcome to the 12 new readers who’ve joined us since last week’s edition! We’re glad to have you in the DVC community!

2nd - DVC Schedule Reminder 📆
As a friendly reminder, our DVC Deal Reviews are on a brief pause until 2024. You’ll still get our Weekly Roundup newsletter in your inbox next Friday, but we’ll be back with our next Deal Review on Tuesday, January 9th!

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Year in Review & Weekly Poll:

As the beautiful (right?) year that was 2023 winds to a close, it’s time to sit back and reflect on all that happened - including the good, the bad, and the downright absurd.

In true business fashion, below we’re breaking down some of the year’s biggest tech events into four quarters. So light a fire (or Netflix Yule Log), pour a beverage (or Athletic Greens pouch), and join us for the 2023 Year in Review!

Q1 2023:

• Mark Zuckerberg dubbed 2023 the “Year of Efficiency” as Meta doubled down on getting you to rent a U-Haul and permanently move to the Metaverse

• Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed in 48 hours after realizing that serving only startups is a bad idea and that there’s “no such thing as a free lunch/decade of 0% interest rates” (Watch DVC’s deep dive on SVB here)

• AI did what AI does and mostly just stressed us out hoovered up 25% of all venture funding in 2023

Q2 2023:

• Mark Zuckerberg launched Twitter rival Threads, then paused his “Year of Efficiency” to train for a cage match against Elon Musk

• AI Pope Francis (aka “Drippy Pope”) stepped out in a fly winter puffer jacket while tens of thousands of technologists called for a 6-month pause to AI development (which obviously never happened…)

• Taylor Swift and Beyoncé kicked off record-setting tours, prompting Swedish economists to blame Queen Bey for inflation and Canadian regulators to take legal action against Taylor for not visiting Edmonton (colour me surprised 🙄)

Q3 2023:

• Mark Zuckerberg won a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament and became a fitness influencer. Meanwhile, Threads lost 80% of its active users

• Elon Musk changed Twitter’s name to just “X”, marking either the greatest or the dumbest brand change ever. Only time will tell (though I think we can already tell 🤦)…

• The FTX trial unfolded, forcing Shaq to evade authorities and us to wonder how SBF racked up a $600,000 tab at a Bahamas Margaritaville

Q4 2023:

• Mark Zuckerberg tore his ACL, called off the Cage Match, and turned his attention back to efficiency

• Fearing “technological dictatorship” and being photographed again in Balenciaga, Pope Francis called for a new treaty on AI safety

• Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO and fashion consultant for AI religious leaders, was fired and rehired faster than you can say “Pull all of your cash from Silicon Valley Bank!”. Presumably he will now rule over us in the Metaverse

Phew! Catch your breath and then it’s time for a poll… Choose an answer below and see how you stack up next week!

Last Week's Results:

Last week we held a deep dive on the failed Adobe X Figma merger and Bird’s dramatic crash to Earth/bankruptcy. When asked which “failure” you thought was more tragic, 71% of you said “Neither - That’s business, baby! 👋”

I’m glad to see Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand (sidenote… incredible indie band name) alive and well in the DVC community. I’m also glad to see that nobody voted for me to “Stop complaining and just pay for Adobe Cloud”… I appreciate the show of support against Adobe’s obscene new pricing model 💗 

Vote for New Deals:

Help select DVC's future deals! Please view the options, upvote your favorites, and suggest your own!

New companies suggested this week:

• WingTips, Freebird Rides, Humanity