Instagram Threads reaches 130M+ monthly users, Cloud infrastructure saw its biggest revenue growth ever in Q4

Top News

Instagram Threads reaches 130M+ monthly users, says Meta, up 30M from Q3, and continues to grow steadily. - Link

Cloud infrastructure saw its biggest revenue growth ever in Q4, growing to $270B, up from $212B in 2022. - Link

Juno, an app being released on the Vision Pro, uses YouTube’s embed API to load videos in a web view and provides controls for playback. - Link

Meta stock rises 20%+, adding ~$200B to its market cap, the biggest single-session market value addition, eclipsing Apple and Amazon's gains in 2022. - Link

Niremia Collective, a Silicon Valley–based venture capital firm, closes its fund with $22.5M focused on well-being technology. - Link

LinkedIn Marketing enables businesses to advertise to over 774 million professionals. Helping startups of any size achieve their goals and grow their business. Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at https://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups. Ad

Advice of the Day

Navigating the Idea Maze

Marc Andreessen, general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, suggests successful entrepreneurship involves balancing thorough pre-planning and adapting to change. This approach requires entrepreneurs to start with a detailed plan and be prepared to adjust and evolve continuously based on real-world feedback and discoveries. The key to success lies in viewing the journey as a series of hypotheses to be tested and being ready to pivot when initial assumptions are proven wrong. This process highlights the importance of adaptability, learning, and resilience in the uncertain and dynamic environment of entrepreneurship and innovation. - Link

Startup Demo of the Day:

PROCESIO is an automation tool that helps users create web forms, collect information from users, and streamline processes with its Forms & Tasks Designer feature. The feature includes a drag-and-drop interface, customization options, field validation, task assignees, and approvals to automate workflows.

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

E1990: 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

E1888: Sunny joins Jason for the 100th demo on the show. The episode includes demos of MultiOn, Paid Leave, Consensus, and Depth Anything. Sunny also showcases AI advancements posted by Barsee on X. This episode is dedicated to the memory of Aaron Swartz. - Watch

E1887: Aileen Lee talks with Jason about her journey in the male-dominated tech world and overcoming challenges as a woman. They discuss her role in popularizing the term "unicorns" for successful startups. The conversation covers the effects of the ZIRP era on the Unicorn Club, changes in VC trends, and insights into US unicorn founders. They explore key traits of successful startup founders and predict future unicorn status. - Watch

E1886: David Weisburd, Elizabeth Yin, Zach Coelius, and Jason Calacanis explore the current state of venture funds. Despite a slow market, venture funds are growing in size. The conversation touches on the performance comparison between smaller and larger funds, focusing on Hustle Fund's quantitative approach to evaluating startups. The group also discusses the resurgence of the Bay Area and the increase in the number of unicorns, although liquidity has decreased. The session concludes with a rapid-fire segment highlighting top recent investments. - Watch

This Week in Startups Paid Partnerships

LinkedIn Marketing enables businesses to advertise to over 774 million professionals, helping startups of any size achieve their goals and grow their businesses. Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at https://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups.

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Lemon.io connects businesses with top-tier developers for projects of any scale. Enhance your development team with skilled professionals and get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://lemon.io/twist/.