🥒 Elon Musk is having beef with Brazil

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Hey Pickle Gang, it’s Rob.

Here's what's in today's issue:

• Elon Musk is having beef with Brazil

• In 1997, Apple was 90 days away from collapse. What did Steve Jobs do that left Microsoft and IBM stunned?

• Attio raises $33 million in funding, for an AI CRM…

• And more…

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This Weeks Favourites

• Guide: The Billion-Dollar Playbook: How Top Startups Secure Game-Changing Funding (link)

• Article: TechCrunch - OpenAI’s Converge 2 program has been shrouded in mystery (link)

• Video: Matt Diggity - How I BREAK Google with Instant Traffic Overnight (using 301 redirects) (link)

• Podcast: My First Million - Jesse Pujji on Bootstrapping a +$1B Business + Selling To The Ultra Rich (link)

• Fun Stuff: Startups are full of ups and downs… (link)

Today’s Sugar Daddy

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News

Elon Musk is having beef with Brazil

Okay, so, a few things going on here.

Brazil tried to get X to block certain accounts, and Musk told them to “F off” (not those exact words, but you get the jist).

Due to the scrutiny, Elon shut down X’s Brazil office, but continued allowing Brazilian users on X.

But, Brazil fired back, and this week blocked X entirely in their country. So, what did Musk do?

He sh*t posted on X about how the Brazilian Supreme Judge is “Dictator de Voldemort.” For clarity, he posted a meme of the Brazillian judge looking like Voldemort.

It was pretty funny. As I’m writing this, here is the pinned post Elon has on his profile…

What a joker.

Story

In 1997, Apple was 90 days away from collapse

In 1997, Apple was 90 days away from collapse.

What did Steve Jobs do in 1997 that left Microsoft and IBM stunned?

He was ruthless:

• Axed the Newton

• Massive overhaul of the board

• Culled 70% of inventory

• Abandoned the Macintosh clone program

But, this wasn’t everything. They needed more. Read on…

Funding

Attio raises $33 million in funding, for an AI CRM

News: Attio is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management), but with a twist….it’s built for AI.

Simply bolting LLMs onto legacy CRM infrastructure is an issue, but that’s where Attio comes in. They’ve spent 3 years building from the ground up, a system capable of being native to AI.

This funding was led by Redpoint Ventures, Balderton Capital, and Point Nine, along with their new partner 01 Advisors.

My take: Okay, so that sounds pretty awesome. But, the problem is it can be hard for companies to switch CRM’s as the systems are normally heavily integrated with other systems in a company’s stack. So they don’t switch often.

But, this is a double-edged sword, whilst it’s hard to get customers, the lifetime value is also huge, as once they’re on the platform, they ain’t moving for a while!

My take is that if they can get the wheels spinning fast enough, they’re be off the the races.

Growth

What is a Startup Activator?

So, you're a startup. And, you wanna make it big. What's the best path?

There's loads of ways to get started, but one of them is with a startup activator. A startup activator is a program or event designed to identify and engage potential entrepreneurs at the start of their journey.

Unlike incubators or accelerators, activators focus on sparking interest and identifying promising founders, rather than providing long-term support or funding.

Learn more

Recommendation

Meme of the Day

Hope you enjoyed today’s issue!

I won’t lie, it takes me a while to write, so I’d love it if you could give it a share! (just forward it to a friend if you’re lazy like me!)

Cheers,

Rob 🥒

Robert Benson-May, ACA

Get me a beer?