The Sonos streaming player is DOA

Author

Lon Harris
March 14, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Apologies! Due to internal delays, we’re bringing you Thursday’s newsletter today! Catch up on Sonos scrapping its streaming device, Oracle’s bid for TikTok, and MoonPay’s latest nine-figure acquisition. Plus, in TWiST500 updates—OpenAI’s latest move against DeepSeek.

Top News

  • Sonos gives up on streaming device: The Verge reports that Sonos has abandoned plans for a new streaming video player, codenamed Pinewood. The project has been in development for months, and even reached the beta testing phase, but Sonos is taking it off the table “for now.” That leaves the company, best known for its speakers and home audio systems, without a major product to release in the second half of this year. Interim CEO Tom Conrad told employees the plan is to focus on improving their software for now.

  • Oracle may pick up TikTok: According to The Information, Oracle now ranks among the leading candidates to take over TikTok’s US operations. TikTok has used Oracle servers to store data in the US since 2022, simplifying the potential transfer process. Chinese owner ByteDance apparently wants to retain some kind of “hands-on role” in US TikTok, and apparently views Oracle as more of a local partner than a buyer. We’ll see if that satisfies President Trump and others in Washington that they no longer pose a national security threat…

  • MoonPay acquires Iron in “9-figure deal”: The Block compares the deal to Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge. It will allow financial services firm MoonPay to offer cross-border stablecoin payments via Iron’s API-focused infrastructure. As Iron already has built-in tools for protections against issues like money laundering and risk management, the acquisition allows MoonPay to quickly and safely expand its range of offerings. As everyday retail investors get increasingly excited about cryptocurrency, there’s a big opening for companies that can make the process easier to understand and engage with via conventional bank transfers, Apple Pay, and so on.

TWiST500

It seems that hardly a day goes by when TWiST 500 all-stars OpenAI aren’t in the news… and today is no different.

In a new policy proposal published this week, as part of President Trump’s AI Action Plan, the ChatGPT giant refers to its Chinese rival DeepSeek as “state-subsidized” and “state-controlled” technology. OpenAI proposes that the Trump administration consider outright banning AI models like DeepSeek, which receive direct support from the Chinese government.

It’s worth noting that a direct connection between the Chinese government and DeepSeek has not yet been firmly established. The AI company was spun off from a prominent quantitative hedge fund known as High-Flyer Capital Management, which has managed to not only survive but thrive under a regulatory environment that has crippled many other, similar Beijing funds. Additionally, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng addressed and met with Chinese government officials — including President Xi Jinping — back in February.

BUT ALSO OpenAI has been conducting a larger-scale media war against DeepSeek ever since the Chinese rival rose to international prominence in January. These latest attacks come after the public accusation that DeepSeek was created in part by distilling knowledge from OpenAI models, in violation of their terms of service.

So is this a notoriously pugnacious Sam Altman taking the fight to the next level? Or a serious allegation that must be taken into real-world consideration? That’s the decision facing President Trump, Crypto Czar David Sacks, and others in the federal government this week. - Lon


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This Week in Startups

E2096: This was an episode SO PACKED with fresh news, we needed 3 co-hosts. Jason, Alex, and Lon take on the return of Gawker’s Nick Denton, who now has “skin in the game” and lots of thoughts about EVs. Then there’s serious disagreement about Project Europe: an exciting moment for continental innovation, or just another Y Combinator riff? PLUS Anthropic’s huge revenue jump, Pokémon Go heads to Saudi Arabia, why are X and xAI still different companies, and much much more.

E2095: On a blockbuster TWiST that’s currently blowing up on social media, Jason and Alex welcome young coding whiz and (by now, likely former) Columbia University sophomore Roy Lee, who went viral after hacking his way around technical interviews at Meta, Capital One, and Amazon. Even after an Amazon exec dropped a dime on Roy, getting him in trouble with his alma mater, he still took the time to stop by the show and give us insight into his new company, InterviewCoder.

E2094: On a special futurist edition of TWiST, Alex welcomes not one but TWO insightful guests. FIRST UP, Zap Energy CEO Benj Conway tells him about the promising future of fusion power technology. THEN, Alex is joined by PolyAI CEO Nikola Mrkšić for a deep dive on how AI will soon revolutionize customer service via ultra-realistic human-like voice assistants.

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Angel University

Angel University is back! Jason and Mike, President at LAUNCH, are hosting our next live Angel.University workshop in person on Wednesday, April 23rd, in NYC. Jason will be teaching the strategies he’s used to invest $100M+ in 300+ startups over the past decade. Register at: angel.university.

Founder University

Applications are open for Founder University Cohort 10, a 12-week remote pre-accelerator program tailored towards navigating early-startup practices, building an MVP, and growing traction. Submit your application at Founder University— Cohort 10 will kick off Spring 2025!

LAUNCH Accelerator

Applications are open for the 34th cohort of the LAUNCH Accelerator; a 14-week program focused on fundraising and growth. We invest $125K in our accepted companies and help them raise their pre-seed or seed round. Submit your application at LAUNCH Accelerator.

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