Streaming TV is entering its franchise era, Flipboard plans to replace its social backend

Top News

Streaming TV appears to have entered its franchise era; Netflix plans spinoffs of the Addams Family, Peaky Blinders, and action movie Extraction, among others. - Link

Flipboard says it plans to replace its entire social back end with ActivityPub, and by April 2024 will let any Flipboard user follow any fediverse account. - Link

IBM plans to acquire data integration platforms StreamSets and WebMethods from Germany-based Software AG for €2.13B in cash, expected to close in Q2 2024. - Link

Amazon is in talks with Diamond Sports Group, the biggest US regional-sports programmer, about an investment and a multiyear streaming partnership. - Link

Deloitte is using AI to evaluate its staff's skills and map out plans to shift employees into more in-demand roles, as a part of plans to moderate hiring growth. - Link

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Startup Funding

Meltwater, a media monitoring startup leveraging AI and big data analytics techniques, receives a $65 million investment from Verdane, a Norwegian private equity firm that closed a $1 billion fund earlier this year. - Link

Tamara, a buy-now-pay-later platform for Saudi Arabian consumers and the wider GCC region, has raised $340 million in a Series C financing round led by SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments, with other backers joining including Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital, Impulse and others, joining existing investors such as Checkout.com. - Link

Product Demo & Launches

PONS.ai allows users to create AI-generated greeting cards with famous AI artists to better delight family, friends, and clients.

Pixplain, by Merlin AI, is an AI-powered browser extension that helps users capture screen areas with more clarity and interaction capabilities.

Advice of the Day

The Importance of Distribution

Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, emphasizes that while Silicon Valley often prioritizes creating "insanely great" products, successful companies recognize that excellent distribution is crucial. Dropbox, as exemplified by its founder and CEO Drew Houston, achieved prominence not solely due to its exceptional product but through effective distribution strategies. Houston highlights the significance of great distribution, citing Dropbox's use of both organic and incentivized virality to rapidly grow its user base. Despite initial challenges with user retention, particularly in conversion rates, Dropbox's team conducted usability tests, addressed issues, and significantly improved activation rates, propelling the company to a market cap exceeding $9 billion. The story underscores the critical interplay between a superior product and a well-executed distribution strategy in achieving business success. - Link

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This Week in Startups

E1866: Jason and Kelly Schricker introduce Founder University's contestants, including Abe (GolfGolf), Mircea (Cicada), Spencer (dotflo), and Shreyas (Clinic Assist). The event concludes with Jason making a $25K investment in one of the participating startups. - Watch

E1865: Kruze COO, Scott Orn, joins Jason to discuss best practices for early-stage startups to prepare for and execute successful board meetings. The two dive into the reasons VCs want governance through board meetings, what should be in a full board packet, the formal things investors look for, and much more!

E1864: Jerry Colonna joins Jason in person in San Francisco for a philosophical dialogue about the search for meaning as an entrepreneur, drawing on their multi-decade friendship. They explore Jerry's personal journey from venture capitalist to founder coach, the challenges leaders face as startups evolve, how Jerry helps entrepreneurs transition from founder to CEO, and much more! - Watch

E1863: Steve Ruiz, Founder of tldraw, joins Jason, discussing the origins and business plan of tldraw, including the viral success of Make Real. The conversation delves into topics such as "Open Core," demos of tldraw and Make Real, exploring multi-modal AI responses, questioning the creation of consciousness in AI, and concluding with insights into the future potential and integration of tldraw across various AI models. - Watch

E1862: Sunny Madra joins Jason in a discussion covering topics such as Google NotebookLM, Bard's Gemini upgrade, Google's branding challenges, Ars Technica's experimental test bed, and the evaluation of Mixtral's 8x7B model. The conversation also includes Sunny's demonstrations of creating an AI influencer using the Juggernaut XL model in Google Colab and showcasing Magnific's powerful image upscaler. - Watch

This Week in Startups Paid Partnerships

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