Apple is developing two foldable iPhones, Plex launches its movie rentals store

Top News

Apple is building at least two iPhone prototypes that fold widthwise; the devices are in early development and not set for production in 2024 or 2025. - Link

Streaming media company Plex has announced its expansion into a movie rental storefront, offering movies from top studios, including WB, Paramount, MGM, Lionsgate, and A24. - Link

Snap plans to unify user experience across Spotlight and Stories by using ranking mechanisms and recommendation engines. - Link

With a month away from the Digital Markets Act (DMA) deadline, WhatsApp is preparing to roll out third-party chat support. - Link

Beamer, a Colorado-based company developing tools for businesses to reach users through their apps, acquires Userflow, a user onboarding software startup, for $60M. - Link

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Advice of the Day

You Cannot 80/20 Everything

Mark Zuckerberg recounts a debate with co-founder Dustin Moskovitz about manually parsing course catalogues for each school to ensure data accuracy. This approach established Facebook's reputation for reliable and relevant data, which was important for its initial college-focused user base. Zuckerberg shares that while the 80/20 rule — achieving most results with a fraction of the effort— is useful, it's not universally applicable. He emphasizes the need to excel in certain areas and to set high-quality standards to make a product stand out. - Link

Startup Demo of the Day:

Coze is a no-code AI bot builder. Users can build bots powered by LLMs and publish them to messaging apps like Discord, Telegram, or Slack. Use cases include a news bot that curates content based on your interests and a customer service bot that learns to serve your clients better over time.

Founder University is a 12-week pre-accelerator program run by Jason/LAUNCH for builder founders. We're investing $25k in 20-30 companies from Cohort 7. Apply at founder.university/letsbuild.

This Week in Startups

E1893: Jason, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit and Ron Biscardi of iConnections, discuss Reddit's history, potential IPO, and insights into venture capital and the future of iConnections. Alexis shares his experiences and advice for startups, while Ron talks about market dynamics and globalization in VC, emphasizing the importance of relationships with LPs and GPs. - Watch

E1892: Eric Migicovsky, from Beeper, discusses the company's mission to provide a universal chat app, challenges with Apple's iMessage ecosystem, and his vision for open messaging protocols. The episode highlights Beeper Mini's release and blockage by Apple, Migicovsky's experiences with platform restrictions, and speculation on future tech development. - Watch

E1891: Jason gives an update on the late-stage VC market and then Sahand Dilmaghani talks about founding Terra Kaffe and the benefits of the Terra Kaffe machines over pod machines. He explains what makes a super-automatic machine produce good coffee and discusses expanding the product's use in offices, schools, and homes. - Watch

E1890: Michael Kim and Jason discuss Fund of Funds, investor attraction in pre-seed and seed startups, and the rise of "micro VCs." The conversation covers alpha, beta, and quality indices, investor networks, current market trends, and the shift where seed is the new series-A. The episode ends with insights into founder demographics seeking investment. - Watch

E1889: Jake Gutstein joins Jason to discuss the creation of Zest, from the initial concept to product development. They explore Zest's transition to full-time operations, fundraising, and insights from user research. The episode also covers the product launch, fundraising approach, and experiences with the Launch Accelerator program. It concludes with a glimpse into Zest's future plans and goals.- Watch

This Week in Startups Paid Partnerships

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