Tom Bachar retweeted
There are so many heartbreaking stories to be reread and remembered on this anniversary of Oct 7th. Not sure there is much one can add to find or create meaning. Except one thing, every time.
Am Yisroel Chai!
Tom Bachar retweeted
The prevailing view of so much of the young left in America is that we’re the worst country ever, so if someone attacks us, they can’t be all bad.
Clash of Civilizations
HBO Real Time Sept. 11, 2026
Switch to Android
New study: Did the introduction of the iPhone causally reduce fertility?
Yes, by more than 1/3.
New study: nber.org/papers/w35310?utm_c…
most consumer fintech apps treat their core product as lead gen. the UX feels cheap, every feature bolted on like an ad. users notice.
the easiest organic growth hack in fintech isn't a hack. it's building a product that doesn't feel like it's trying to sell you something else the entire time.
Only started? These cars have been on the streets of Austin for the last 4 years, what has been the point?
Amazon's $AMZN self driving car startup Zoox has started to map out the streets of Dallas, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona as a precursor to testing its autonomous vehicles in the cities
EWA for the rich?
ROBINHOOD $HOOD JUST SAID:
Customers will be able to receive dividends from major 🇺🇸 stocks up to 1 month before the official payment date
Commoditization isn’t death.
It’s the market telling you your moat moved.
Payments are commoditized.
Stripe still wins on DX, reliability, and ecosystem — not raw payments.
Commoditized markets:
• Are massive
• Grow fast
• Have temporary pricing power
• Punish anyone without a new moat
Ride-hailing worked… until pricing matched.
Then only scale, regulation, and logistics mattered.
When product or distribution commoditizes, differentiation goes invisible:
Trust. Defaults. Switching costs. Habit.
Amazon doesn’t win on checkout UX.
It wins on logistics + Prime lock-in.
Most great companies start commoditized.
Execution first. Moat later.
Netflix began with DVDs.
The real moat came after.
Commoditization doesn’t kill companies.
Founders who don’t move the moat do.
When working on @get_pei - @willreeves was always supportive. It's incredible to see this team hit this milestone - extremely deserving as they rode through all the waves. Can't wait to see what is next for them!
Excited for the team and what's to come! Inspiring to see🚀
Allow me to re-introduce myself…
I’ve been passionate about space since childhood, inspired by my Dad’s career as a scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center. As a kid, I remember reading Black Holes and Time Warps, talking physics with my Dad on long drives, and imagining science fiction that could happen in the real world. All of this led me to Stanford, where I earned my Bachelor’s in Physics and Master’s in Mathematics. I thought I was going to be a physicist or mathematician, but as I left college in 2008, the financial crisis was in full swing and pulled me in.
After college, my friend and I moved to New York City to start a finance company. The early years were challenging and our first companies didn’t gain traction. And then we got the idea for Robinhood. With a mission to democratize finance for all, the company we founded pioneered zero commission trading, helped millions of people access the capital markets, and today is publicly traded. I served as co-CEO until November of 2020 and left my day-to-day role in March of this year to focus on the next episode: @AetherfluxUSA.
Our mission is to commercialize space solar power. If we succeed, we unlock a renewable energy source for humanity that can be delivered virtually anywhere.
Space solar power can revolutionize energy distribution, especially where delivering power is expensive, challenging, or dangerous. Powering hard-to-reach places like remote military bases, islands, or areas hit by disasters unlocks new capabilities and advantages for our country. Long term, we want to deliver renewable and affordable energy, day and night, to power commercial or civilian use cases.
If this sounds audacious, it’s because it is.
The idea for space solar power can be traced back to 1941, in Isaac Asimov’s short story, “Reason”. The concept involves capturing the sun’s energy in space, converting it into electricity, and beaming it down for use on the ground.
The sun is our greatest energy source, emitting more in an hour than Earth uses annually. In the 1970s, researchers turned to space solar power to harness this energy in a meaningful way. Sunlight in space is more powerful than incident sunlight on Earth, and collection in space is largely unaffected by day-night cycles and weather.
Traditional proposals called for billion-dollar, goliath structures in Geostationary orbit, using radio waves for power transmission and requiring massive footprints on the ground. The proposals never materialized.
We’re taking a different approach. We’re building a constellation of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit, working together to transmit power to many small ground stations. Instead of transmitting power through microwaves, we’ll use infrared lasers, allowing for higher power output and smaller footprints on Earth. This isn’t your grandfather’s space solar power concept.
Over the years, space technology has progressed rapidly. Launch costs are lower, lasers and optics are cheaper and more efficient, and constellation management is better understood.
At the same time, global energy consumption continues to skyrocket and America continues to be energy dependent. Energy needs are growing even more with the adoption of AI, global conflicts, and the electrification of seemingly everything.
Making space solar power a reality won’t be easy.
If you’re excited about our mission and want to solve hard technical problems, check out our open roles.
Onward 🛰️
Baiju
aetherflux.com
Tom Bachar retweeted
Just spoke with a CEO running a $10B+ 'startup.' They want to be less defensive & more proactive. My quick & dirty tips
• Join the optimists. Engage with techno-optimists & media like @twistartups @lennysan @HarryStebbings @notboringco @PirateWires for distributing messages.
• Be surgical with MSM (mainstream media). For “hard news” like new product or exec, funding, be selective in leveraging MSM. MSM isn’t the only way to get messages out. You don’t want to be top of mind when they choose which co to investigate/dig.
• Experiment with new modes. Try short or long-form video (@arcinternet @joshm crushes). Spaces. In product. Email. Just not a new pod pls.
• Don’t play in the margins. For MSM inbounds re negative news, cushion and fix the core issues/themes w good facts. Let the rest go, even if false info. Free up Comms, Legal, CEO to be proactive.
Say it ain't so!
Adam Neumann makes a $500 million bid for WeWork,cnbc.com/2024/03/25/adam-neu…
Tom Bachar retweeted
Why is no one talking about this? Coinbase still charges customers an arm and a leg to trade cryptocurrencies.
I respect Coinbase in many ways but this is bad.
Tide pod hors d'oeuvres will be passed or this would be the biggest marketing miss of all time
🧼 @Tide Laundry SXSW Experience 🧼
📆 Fri 3/8 - Sun 3/10
📍 Wanderlust Wine (downtown)
Free food/drinks. Free product samples. “Immerse yourself in a revolutionary new era of laundry thru tactile experiences that ignite the senses” with hands-on demos etc
No RSVP. Free/open.
Tom Bachar retweeted
🧼 @Tide Laundry SXSW Experience 🧼
📆 Fri 3/8 - Sun 3/10
📍 Wanderlust Wine (downtown)
Free food/drinks. Free product samples. “Immerse yourself in a revolutionary new era of laundry thru tactile experiences that ignite the senses” with hands-on demos etc
No RSVP. Free/open.


























