Founder @try_olive_AI (https://xitter.cf/t.co/mXQLboU8WO). Former VC & Head of Launch & Global Expansion Strategy @Bird 🌎🛴🌍 I'm bigger on LinkedIn 😂
Los Angeles, CA
Joined November 2020
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Dave Pack retweeted
Today we're announcing a new round of funding that values @eightsleep at $1.5 billion, led by @tether Investments.
Ten years ago I started Eight Sleep with one conviction: the night is the most underutilized lever in human health. Almost nobody was engineering their sleep.
Last year, we hit free cash flow positivity, launched 3 new products, expanded to 34 countries, and published peer-reviewed studies showing the Pod reduces menopausal hot flashes by 56% and restores the body's natural circadian temperature rhythm during sleep, lowering core body temperature and improving cardiovascular recovery. A product you sleep on is producing clinical outcomes that rival pharmaceutical interventions.
We're now building a predictive AI agent trained on 1B+ hours of sleep data. It anticipates your night before it happens.
And we're advancing FDA filings for sleep apnea detection. Passive. Every night. No wires, no clinic visits.
The night is just the beginning.
Dave Pack retweeted
startups have higher odds of success putting someone with no sales experience into an early-stage sales role than someone with sales experience
startups have higher odds of success putting someone with no sales experience into an early-stage sales role than someone with sales experience
startups have higher odds of success putting someone with no sales experience into an early-stage sales role than someone with sales experience
Dave Pack retweeted
People will congratulate me on raising money and it's like bro I am poor and stressed out it should be condolences
Dave Pack retweeted
I’ve joined Cognition to continue to work on the future of software engineering.
I was employee #2 at Windsurf and have worked on AI+code for years. There’s never been a more exciting time and place for it than now at Cognition.
I had a place at Google DeepMind as part of the deal. I won’t go into detail for legal reasons, but I’d like to be transparent about my personal situation.
I was given an offer that would explode same day. I had to forfeit all of my vested shares earned over my 3.5+ years at Windsurf. I was ultimately given a payout of only 1% of what my shares would have been worth at the time of the deal.
In going to Cognition, I’ve chosen a different direction.
For someone who loves software engineering, Cognition feels like home. It reminds me of the energy of the earliest days of Windsurf, where we wrote excessive amounts of code and had excessive amounts of fun.
Really excited to see how we can take the best of Devin and Windsurf to make the world’s best IDE and coding agents.
Woah
It’s a privilege to welcome Windsurf to Cognition. Here are more details in the note I sent to our Cognition team this morning:
Team,
As discussed during our all-hands, we are acquiring Windsurf. We have now signed a definitive agreement and we couldn’t be more excited. Here’s a recap and, again, this information is highly confidential until 11am PT, after Windsurf’s all-hands. The Windsurf team deserves to hear this from Jeff and me in the right way, so please keep everything quiet in the interim out of respect for our new colleagues.
So, what exactly is the deal? With this acquisition, Cognition will own Windsurf’s beloved product and strong business:
-The Windsurf IDE, now with full access to the latest Claude models
-Windsurf's IP, including their trademark and the strong brand they have built
-$82M of ARR and a fast-growing business, with enterprise ARR doubling quarter-over-quarter
-A user base that includes 350+ enterprise customers and hundreds of thousands of daily active users
Above all, we are welcoming some of the most impressive people in our industry, including world-class GTM, engineering, and product teams.
We’ve long admired the Windsurf team and what they’ve built. One of my top priorities in structuring this deal was to honor their talent, hard work, and accomplishments in making Windsurf the great business it is today.
To that end, Jeff and I worked together to ensure that every single employee is treated with respect and well taken care of in this transaction. Specifically:
100% of Windsurf employees will participate financially in this deal
100% of Windsurf employees will have vesting cliffs waived for their work to date
100% of Windsurf employees will receive fully accelerated vesting for their work to date
Every new employee of Cognition will be treated the same way as existing employees: with transparency, fairness, and deep respect for their abilities and value. After today, our efforts will be as a united and aligned team. There’s only one boat and we’re all in it together.
What this means for Cognition is that we’ll be able to move even faster on our mission of building the future of software engineering. As you all know, we’ve had strong momentum and adoption over the last few months. For many enterprise engineering teams, Devin is already a top contributor. As our customer base continues to grow, it’s clear that combining the rapid adoption of Devin as the leading fully autonomous agent with Windsurf’s IDE product and scaled GTM machine will be a massive unlock.
There’s never been a more exciting time to build. Within our lifetime, engineers will go from bricklayers to architects, focusing on the creativity of designing systems rather than the manual labor of putting them together.
It’s a privilege to be in this position, and it’s your hard work that has brought us here. There’s much more to do ahead, and the work won’t be easy, but today is a huge win for all of us in the positive-sum game we’re playing. Thank you for being on this journey together. Now let’s get ready to give our new colleagues a warm welcome.
Scott
A few weeks ago, I was thrilled for a buddy at @windsurf_ai when the @OpenAI acquisition was announced. I joked in our group chat that he'd be picking up the tab on the next boy's trip.
Now, with Google’s acquihire, the news is devastating.
Here’s what I’ve gathered:
- The top 30 AI engineers + leadership are going to Google.
- Existing employees are getting nothing.
- Even early team members with significant vested equity are reportedly receiving peanuts. I was dm'd by several who asked to remain anonymous
- The company still has a massive cash balance—but is gutted. The employees now own it! They should be so grateful!
Early startup employees are the heroes of this industry. Not founders. Not VCs. These are the people who take real risks: leaving stable jobs, accepting lower salaries, buying into the dream that equity might someday mean something.
They work more hours. They take on more stress. And yes, they sign up for the possibility of a big win.
When that big win actually happens—and people get cut out? It breaks trust in the whole system.
A $3B+ exit is the dream scenario. This is when things go right. This is the top .1% of startups that you dream about as an early-stage employee. This isn't just buy a house money, this is set for life money. If this is what happens when things go right, I can't imagine what this will do to the industry.
Calling it an "acquihire" to dodge regulatory scrutiny while stiffing your team is just greed disguised as compliance.
As a founder, this will hurt us dramatically. Hiring was already getting harder. Post-ZIRP, the salary gap between startups and big tech did shrink however overfunded startups made employees skeptical of equity. I hear more and more early employees negotiating for less equity in favor of cash and have experienced that myself. They think its just a nice bonus if things work out and have been trained to think it' worth $0.
I don't know the solution here but there is a ton of $ to play with on a $3b exit. Even a $250K–$500K bridge for every employee would make a massive difference. There’s enough to do that, and more.
If you're a founder or a VC: this is your wake-up call. If this becomes the norm, startups will be staffed by mercenaries—not missionaries. Equity will mean nothing. The model breaks. Stop being a short term thinker and squeezing every last dollar out of this deal.
Founders: protect your teams.
VCs: do right by the people who made your return possible.
If this is what happens when things go right… why would anyone ever join your startup again? I've seen some great threads on this from @balajis @jordihays @haridigresses
Dave Pack retweeted
BREAKING NEWS: We just launched our newest products @eightsleep
✅Pod 5
✅Hydro-powered Blanket for 2x thermal coverage
✅Base with zero-gravity elevation & surround-sound w/ @hubermanlab content
✅AI that monitors your health while you sleep
Get yours👉eightsleep.com
Dave Pack retweeted
I’m back in the zero to one stage (after running a multi-hundred million dollar co for 6yrs 😅) & remembering how fundamentally different this is.
When you have a team and customers and a working business — you get pulled.
You wake up with a million requests from people and can only work on the top 1-3 things for the company at a time. You’re always on and responding to the world. Momentum just exists and you have to intentionally carve out time to think. The challenge is selection.
When you don’t have a team or product or customers and are trying to create something from nothing, you have to push.
If you don’t create work, there is no work. No one is calling you or needing you. You have to create momentum where there is none. You could spend endless time thinking. You have to force yourself to do. The challenge is creation.
Both stages are fun, but there’s something ultra special about building from nothing.
Excited to be back in the trenches again. 🤩
🚲 Lime’s IPO Rumblings & The Future of Micromobility
@limebike is making a big PR push amid speculation of a 2026 IPO. As someone who previously led global expansion strategy at Bird and, at one point, considered myself the world’s foremost expert on scooter depreciation (lol), I’ve had countless conversations as a paid expert on this topic.
I’m rooting for Lime—the success of micromobility is great for the planet. 🌍 However, venture-backed micromobility companies face the same fundamental challenges @WeWork did: they are capital-intensive businesses that create value but should be optimized for yield, not hypergrowth fueled by VC dollars.
The Scooter Profitability Problem
The #1 cost driver for unprofitable scooter businesses? Depreciation. (A combination of churn + vehicle wear and tear).
Companies touting EBITDA stats while ignoring this biggest expense remind me of WeWork’s infamous community-adjusted EBITDA. 🙃
How Governments & Micromobility Operators Can Win Together 🚀
For micromobility to work as a sustainable, mass-transit alternative, cities should consider:
1️⃣ Limiting licenses to 1-2 operators per city 🏙️
These businesses run on razor-thin margins. Oversaturation makes profitability nearly impossible.
2️⃣ Allowing advertising 📢
Most RFPs explicitly banned advertising on fleets. Why? No idea. But allowing it would significantly improve unit economics.
These steps would make micromobility:
✅ Affordable—Right now, pricing is too high for daily commuters. It's become a tourist activity.
✅ Accessible—More viability for low-income areas.
✅ Sustainable—Financially feasible for operators.
Look at @CitiBikeNYC . 🚴♂️ It works because:
🔹 It has an exclusive license in NYC.
🔹 It’s subsidized by Citi—hence, Citi Bike.
I want Lime to succeed, but I remain skeptical.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
#Micromobility #Lime #Scooters #UrbanMobility #Sustainability #PublicTransit
🚀 How to Stand Out as a Junior VC (Without Annoying Founders)
I recently saw a junior VC with a small follower count get 16. MILLION VIEWS on @X . How? She posted a simple pic of an air mattress with the caption:
💭 "Moved to SF with an air mattress and a dream."
The trolls piled on, VC Brags picked it up, and the post went viral. Rough first week, huh? 😅
As someone who's been on both sides—operator, junior & senior VC, and now a founder—I’ve had a few cringe-worthy realizations about my own past behavior. So, if you're a junior VC looking to actually stand out (in a good way) to founders, here’s my advice:
🎯 1. Recognize Your Privilege & Stay Humble
Being a VC is one of the best jobs in the world:
✅ You get paid well 💰
✅ You talk to industry experts all day 🎙️
✅ You attend amazing “networking” events 🍸
✅ Your hours are very reasonable compared to startup founders and high finance 🕰️
Remember: You’re not the main character. The founders are.
⏳ 2. Respect a Founder’s Time
🚨 Fundraising is a MASSIVE time suck. Every meeting, deck update, and follow-up takes energy away from building the business.
✅ Never cancel a meeting last-minute ❌
✅ Only ask for follow-ups if you’re genuinely interested ( >50% chance of getting IC buy-in)
✅ Don’t ask for materials just to show your boss you’re “working”
I regret every time I wasted a founder’s time just to look good to my bosses
👥 3. Bring a Partner in Early
If there is a startup that you know your firm will love based on the vertical, traction, or lead, get the right partner in on the first meeting. It saves the founder time, shows interest, and assuming the partner is legit, can really help you close a deal in a competitive process.
Ex: At my previous firm, I’d bring in Sam Kokin for ecommerce infrastructure companies and another partner in for fintech companies because of his American Express background.
🔥 4. Actually Add Value
🚫 Your 2 years at Bain does not qualify you to give product roadmap advice to the CEO of an AI freight startup. I don’t care how good of an idea they say it is, they are boosting up your ego so that you give them millions of dollars.
✅ Customer intros
✅ Exclusive research (self-written or from expensive databases)
✅ Critical hire intros (engineers, sales, etc.)
Example: Have a friend in REPE whose firm owns hotels? That intro could be gold for a hospitality startup. Founders remember real help.
🔄 5. Offer Meaningful VC Intros (When Passing)
If you pass on a company, making intros can hurt or help depending on why you passed. Do it only if:
✔️ It’s outside your sector
✔️ It’s not your check size or stage
✔️ You couldn’t get your partners over the line but you truly believe in the company (tell the founder that as well as your buddy at another firm)
⚠️ If you wait too long or waste their time first, they will despise you.
💡 What other advice do you have for junior VCs?
hashtag#VC hashtag#Startups hashtag#Fundraising hashtag#VentureCapital hashtag#FounderMindset hashtag#Investing
Let’s go @D_R_Farrell
Dave Pack retweeted
Fascinating that agent mode (a la OpenAI operator etc but UiPath back in the day) continues to mean replicating a human that clicks around on a website vs having machines talk machine to each other (API mode). Maybe that changes over time as agent-specific infra gets built.
I absolutely love when founders give out their playbooks on @LinkedIn and @X . A few months ago I saw an awesome post about how @austinh___ and his company @unifygtm used a fundraising announcement to generate a viral post and millions of pipeline.
At olive, we copied this playbook to a tee ⛳ to announce our new website and brand redesign. Full disclosure, our website has been live for three weeks 😂. We sent an email a few days before to our investors + friends list letting them know the announcement was coming, asking them to like + comment + repost along with suggestions on what to write, then sent them a calendar invite for the time of the announcement.
The results were incredible. In one day:
-6k impressions (about 6x average), 31 comments, 14 reposts, 53 reactions including from some target accounts
-5x average daily website visitors
-We broke the free product we use to track who visits our site! It assumed there was an error
-8 demos requested (4 new, 2 re-engagements, and 2 for potential partnerships with great companies we've been eyeing to work with)
We will definitely be doing this again!
100% @RickCarusoLA
Dave Pack retweeted
Even if you didn’t vote for real estate tycoon Rick Caruso in LA’s last mayoral election, you’re basically a moron if you don’t do it this time, since we’re going to have to rebuild the entire city.
Biked with @ericlutz_ to my parents to try and get medication and family photos in case our house was still standing. It’s one of a few houses not leveled on the street (castellammare area). The fires are still very active but firefighters are saving a ton of houses. Then drove through the palisades neighborhoods to do a few house checks. Will upload more photos and videos here. #Palisadesfire
