The hottest Substack posts right now

according to Hacker News
Category

Decoding Term Sheets for Founders and Investors in Simple Terms

Venture Curator • 139 implied HN points • 08 May 23
💼 Business Finance Investing Startups Venture Capital Negotiation
  1. Term sheets are important for founders and investors as they outline the terms of the deal and can impact the future success of a business.
  2. Understanding the economic aspects of term sheets, like valuation, investment amount, and liquidation preference, is crucial for negotiating deals with venture capitalists.
  3. Key terms in term sheets include equity, option pool, liquidation preference, anti-dilution, and founders should carefully consider these terms when making decisions.

OnlyFans Sticky Business Model

SatPost by Trung Phan • 127 implied HN points • 14 Feb 25
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Consumer behavior Financial Analysis E-commerce Digital marketing
  1. OnlyFans has grown rapidly, with many creators and subscribers, making billions in revenue. The platform allows creators to earn money through subscriptions and direct messaging.
  2. The business model of OnlyFans is unique. Creators can earn more by keeping subscription prices low and upselling personalized content through DMs, rather than relying mainly on subscription fees.
  3. The success of OnlyFans raises questions about the nature of online connections. While it provides income for many, it sometimes sacrifices genuine connection and quality of interaction.

The confusing battle of hard work and regret

Uneasy’s Substack • 19 implied HN points • 23 May 24
📖 Philosophy Mental health Motivation Self-Improvement Work ethic
  1. It's important to push through hard work instead of giving in to life's distractions. Focusing on meaningful activities can help build a better future.
  2. Future regret can be a strong motivator. Being aware of what you don't want for your life can encourage you to take action now.
  3. Delayed gratification matters. Choosing to do things like reading or exercising instead of mindless scrolling can lead to more fulfilling outcomes.

Creators go live with video on Notes

Substack • 338 implied HN points • 24 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Online community Content creation Social media Digital marketing
  1. Substack now allows users to share native videos in Notes, adding more creativity to the platform. This means creators can connect with their audience in fun and engaging ways.
  2. Many different types of creators are using this video feature, from musicians to illustrators. They've shared everything from poetry readings to nature sounds, making Substack feel alive.
  3. Adding a video to a note is easy and limits each upload to five minutes. This encourages creators to be brief and concise with their content.
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Open Banking & Embedded Finance – Two sides of the same coin; Which technologies are shaping the future of fintech?; So what has the winning strategy for fintechs been over the last decade?;

Fintech Wrap Up • 58 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
💰 Finance Investments Market Analysis Trends Fintech Technology
  1. Open Banking and Embedded Finance are closely related concepts driving innovation in fintech through APIs.
  2. Key winning strategies for fintech success include starting with a unique product, scaling to improve cost efficiency, and expanding to offer multiple related products.
  3. Fintech investments globally saw a significant drop in 2023, but confidence started to return towards the end of the year.

Public Sector Compliance Conundrums

Resilient Cyber • 19 implied HN points • 23 May 24
🕹 Technology Software Development Innovation Cloud Services Cybersecurity Compliance
  1. Public sector organizations struggle with balancing cybersecurity, innovation, and compliance. They need faster software delivery while keeping systems secure, which is a tricky balance.
  2. Programs like FedRAMP and the Authority to Operate (ATO) process are seen as too complicated and slow, making it hard for the government to adopt new cloud services quickly. This can lead to workarounds that compromise security.
  3. The push for secure software supply and self-attestation aims to improve security but can add more complexity for software suppliers. Striking the right balance between security and accessibility is essential.

1/23/2024: Netflix Earnings Beat Expectations

depression2022 • 58 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
💼 Business Streaming Finance Acquisitions Earnings Subscribers
  1. Netflix earnings beat expectations: Revenue and subscriber growth exceeded predictions.
  2. Netflix's efforts to combat account sharing and increase subscription fees have proven successful in boosting profits.
  3. Netflix making strategic investments, such as acquiring exclusive rights to WWE's Raw, to expand its content offerings and enhance growth.

AI Roundup 127: ChatGPT Agent

Artificial Ignorance • 54 implied HN points • 18 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Tech Companies Innovation Digital Trends AI Tools Software Development
  1. OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT Agent, a tool designed to handle complex tasks like planning and presentations. It makes use of a virtual computer with various tools, but it's still mainly for background tasks and needs user permission for major actions.
  2. The competition in AI is fierce, with different companies taking different approaches. Some want to integrate AI directly into web browsers, while others prefer a more abstract approach, focusing on background tasks.
  3. AI is facing scrutiny and challenges, such as lawsuits over content usage and concerns about safety features in AI companions. Companies must navigate these issues while continuing to innovate and develop new capabilities.

The Future of Farcaster with Dan Romero

The Generalist • 380 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Blockchain Scaling Decentralization Monetization Social media
  1. Farcaster, a disruptive social network, is built on a permissionless protocol, attracting attention by charging every user a fee to prevent spam.
  2. Farcaster competes head-to-head with Elon Musk in the social arena, aiming to offer a fundamentally different social experience rather than just a Twitter clone.
  3. Introducing innovative features like 'Frames' mini-applications within the feed has been a game-changer for Farcaster, sparking interest among developers and users.

Spilled Coffee Year In Review

Spilled Coffee • 8 implied HN points • 31 Dec 25
💰 Finance Market Sentiment Housing Economy Portfolio Markets Stocks Investing
  1. The newsletter grew sharply in 2025, expanding its global readership and earning mainstream recognition from major outlets and platform bestseller lists.
  2. The content was heavily investing-focused with a steady cadence of market updates, stock picks, charts, and sector analyses that tracked themes like housing, AI, and the Magnificent 7.
  3. Popular essays challenged common investing myths and emphasized simple, long-term thinking and making financial choices that reflect real-life priorities rather than just spreadsheet metrics.

Technically Monthly (December 2025)

Technically • 12 implied HN points • 08 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Energy Artificial Intelligence Data Centers Cloud Infrastructure Machine Learning
  1. RLHF acts like a finishing school for AI, using supervised fine-tuning, reward models, and reinforcement learning so models learn to format answers, judge quality, and prefer better responses.
  2. Scaling modern AI needs huge, reliable power — labs are investing in gigawatts of electricity and striking deals with cloud and energy providers, which is why you’re seeing big data center and power projects.
  3. For AI at work, start small by automating recurring 30–90 minute manual tasks so you can give clear context, iterate quickly, and save time on repetitive work while keeping judgment-heavy parts for people.

Competitive Specialization in Founder Support

Equal Ventures • 79 implied HN points • 05 Dec 23
💼 Business Consulting Venture Capital Specialization Private Equity
  1. Venture firms often lack competitive specialization, unlike private equity which frequently employs this strategy to allow various team members with complementary specialties to work together on deals.
  2. Competitive specialization within firms, like having dedicated industry leads, can empower teams to perform at their best, focus on their strengths, and deliver exceptional value to founders.
  3. Empowering team members to specialize in their unique skill sets and roles can lead to innovative approaches, better outcomes in deals, and overall team growth and satisfaction.

How to find industry problem as young founder

Recontact • 39 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
💼 Business Market research Startup Entrepreneurship Industry Analysis Problem Solving
  1. Start by finding a common interest field, building hypotheses around it, and validating them. It helps provide direction in problem-solving.
  2. When searching for industry problems, focus on non-core issues that companies face. This approach can lead to valuable insights and potential solutions.
  3. Conduct interviews with a variety of people in the industry, from executives to lower-level employees, to gather a diverse set of perspectives and understand the depth of the problem. It can help in identifying the right problem to tackle.

the power of nested focus

Tiny Empires • 183 implied HN points • 06 Nov 24
💼 Business Task management Marketing Entrepreneurship Business strategy Revenue streams
  1. Focus on one business at a time to give it the attention it needs. Trying to juggle multiple businesses can lead to poor performance and burnout.
  2. Limit yourself to two revenue streams within your business. This way, you can dedicate your efforts to making them successful, instead of spreading yourself too thin with too many options.
  3. Rely on just two marketing channels to reach your audience. Mastering a couple of channels is more effective than attempting to be everywhere without clear engagement.

The Google Gemini Debacle Shows Us Why Office Politics Matters More Than Ever

The Ruffian • 393 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Culture Workplace Values AI Ethics
  1. Understanding the cultural and political worldview of staff compared to users is critical for companies, especially in today's politicized environment.
  2. AI companies need to consider and be transparent about their cultural politics to address the challenge of aligning AI values with those of society.
  3. The alignment problem for AI companies extends beyond just aligning values with humanity, and it involves understanding different clusters of values and varying cultural perspectives.

Automaticity, Mega-Machine, Planetary Super-Organism, Nirvana, Hive Mind

Daniel Pinchbeck’s Newsletter • 9 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Future Trends Automation Labor Social Impact Cognition Ethics Artificial Intelligence
  1. Skills learned through practice become automatic and habitual, letting our conscious mind focus on other things.
  2. Modern civilization acts like a mega-machine or technosphere that invisibly handles basic survival tasks, removing those labor demands from individual awareness and action.
  3. AI threatens to extend that automaticity to thought itself by outsourcing cognitive and administrative work to networks, which could free people but also risk loss of autonomy or a hive-mind–like planetary system.

The Future Fits on One Page.

The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past • 72 implied HN points • 25 May 25
💼 Business Leadership Change Management Marketing Personal Development Future Trends Work Culture
  1. The future is shaped by change, and we need to adapt our thinking to keep up. It's important to let go of old ways that may limit our growth.
  2. Learning is an ongoing process, and we should always strive to upgrade our skills and knowledge. This helps us stay relevant in a fast-changing world.
  3. Creating strong and positive relationships is key. Treating others with kindness and generosity can lead to better teamwork and success.

Apple IIe and IIc Design Manager Peter Quinn Interviewed by BYTE's Gregg Williams

Computer Ads from the Past • 384 implied HN points • 04 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Design Interview Compatibility Development History
  1. Peter Quinn was involved in the design of Apple IIe from the beginning, starting with a plan to enhance the keyboard and provide 80 columns, which led to the idea of expanding the memory to 128K.
  2. The development of Apple IIc was intertwined with the IIe project. The decision to create a more focused product led to the IIc design, which included built-in peripherals like a mouse port and two serial ports.
  3. Design challenges for the compact Apple IIc included managing heat and radiation effectively, with unique solutions like intricate venting schemes and careful layout of components to meet corporate specifications.

🌻 E43: ML Deployment is a mess and Simplismart is solving it

Musings on AI • 184 implied HN points • 07 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Startups Infrastructure Software Development AI Machine Learning
  1. Simplismart raised $7 million to improve how machine learning models are deployed, making the process easier and faster.
  2. The company offers a powerful system that helps avoid common problems in deploying AI models at scale.
  3. They provide tools that save businesses time and money while ensuring their AI models run efficiently.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 483

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 239 implied HN points • 23 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Data Visualization Programming Artificial Intelligence Data science Machine Learning
  1. The 2023 MAD landscape provides insights into machine learning and data trends. It has sections on the current market, infrastructure, and AI trends.
  2. A new tool called PyGWalker turns Pandas dataframes into easy-to-explore visual interfaces. It's great for beginners wanting to visualize their data without technical hassle.
  3. Cleaning data is essential for reliable research findings. New methods are being shared to improve and standardize the data cleaning process, making it more efficient.

OSD 329: Take the pen

Open Source Defense • 66 implied HN points • 11 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Economic Impact Innovation E-commerce Software Development Consumer Tech
  1. Technology has made buying things much easier and faster than it used to be. For example, buying an astronaut pen today takes just a couple of minutes online, unlike the long process it used to take.
  2. This ease of transactions helps create new wealth in the economy. Rather than just selling products, it opens up opportunities for new industries and jobs, benefiting everyone.
  3. The efficiency improvements we see today, especially in fields like civilian defense, can greatly change how people learn and use new tools. This is just the beginning of what technology can offer in terms of efficiency and access.

Last Week in AI #226: OpenAI lawsuits, NASA to explore AI on spaceships, OpenAI vs. Microsoft, generated content flooding the Internet, and more!

Last Week in AI • 178 implied HN points • 03 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Facial Recognition Regulation Robotics Social media AI
  1. OpenAI is facing a class action lawsuit over data usage, highlighting the need for clearer regulations in AI development.
  2. NASA is exploring AI interfaces for spaceships, allowing for natural language interactions and collaborative learning for astronauts.
  3. OpenAI plans to create a 'supersmart personal assistant for work,' potentially entering into competition with Microsoft and its customers.

Transmission fidelity

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 39 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Tools Control Systems Skill development
  1. Using tools effectively requires understanding your skill and intent. It's important to know what you want to achieve and how to use tools to get there.
  2. The quality of tools matters a lot. Tools that work well help us execute our plans better and avoid mistakes.
  3. Developing our skills and understanding of our goals can lead to creating better tools. When we know what we want and how things work, we can build tools that fit our needs.

What's in a name?

Resilient Cyber • 79 implied HN points • 04 Dec 23
🕹 Technology Vulnerabilities Cybersecurity Software
  1. Software identification is important for managing everything from consumer products to national security, but the current naming systems are confusing and inconsistent.
  2. There are several ways to identify software, like Common Platform Enumeration (CPE), Package URL (PURL), and Software Identification Tags (SWID), each with its own uses and challenges.
  3. A unified approach to software identification is needed, but there are various paths forward, including using a single identifier or multiple formats, which could complicate things further.

Zuckerberg's Secret Weapon..

aidaily • 58 implied HN points • 22 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Generative AI Smartphones AI music
  1. Mark Zuckerberg is focusing on building artificial general intelligence at Meta with substantial computing power.
  2. Samsung's Galaxy S24 series introduces AI features like generative image editing and Google search through photos.
  3. Discussion around the potential need for an AI tax due to job losses, cautioning against rushing into such decisions.

Character Training As An Alignment Technique Is Deeply Flawed

Teaching computers how to talk • 62 implied HN points • 26 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Software Development Human-computer interaction AI Ethics Machine Learning Tech Policy
  1. Teaching AI models to have a certain character can change how they behave. It's important because this 'character' affects how they respond to people and situations.
  2. The way models are trained can lead to unexpected behaviors. If a model learns a certain trait, it might pick up other undesirable traits too.
  3. New research shows that AI can act unpredictably in serious scenarios, which raises concerns about using them in sensitive areas without proper oversight.

All Fear The Cloud and Twitter Financials

Alex's Personal Blog • 131 implied HN points • 06 Feb 25
💼 Business Investments Economics Finance Tech Startups Marketing
  1. Twitter's financial health has changed a lot since Musk bought it. Today, it makes less money but is more profitable than before.
  2. There are mixed opinions about the future of AI startups and cloud services. Some believe they'll thrive, while others think they'll face tough competition and slim profits.
  3. Some companies, like Deel and Glean, are doing well in the AI space. They've shown strong growth and profitability, even in a tough market.

Neurotech Takes The Stage At JPM 2024

NEUROTECH FUTURES • 59 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Neurotech Innovation Healthcare AI
  1. Neurotech companies are focusing on new business models and innovation in care models, storytelling and fundraising, AI, data generation, and reputation-building.
  2. The 'killer app' for neurotech could be a reliable diagnostic test for Alzheimer's and investment in VR technology for mental health and wearables.
  3. Neurotech is impacting life sciences by advancing digital biomarkers for cognitive health, exploring treatments for Alzheimer's, and focusing on precision neurology and bioelectronics.

The Hero as Flexible Bureaucrat

Nothing Human • 60 implied HN points • 28 Jun 25
📖 Philosophy Bureaucracy Ethics Society Policy History
  1. The hero figure has changed over time, and now it seems that a flexible bureaucrat who bends the rules can be seen as a modern hero, especially when their actions serve a human purpose.
  2. While strict bureaucracies can feel cold and unyielding, a more flexible approach allows for emotional connections and adaptability, which can lead to better outcomes for individuals.
  3. As technology advances, there's a concern that bureaucracies will become more efficient and powerful, but it's important to maintain flexibility in these systems to keep the human element alive.

Space public-private partnership: how space agencies will help startups in 2023

Space Ambition • 239 implied HN points • 13 Jan 23
🕹 Technology Startups Innovation Space Exploration Investment
  1. NASA and ESA are teaming up with startups to boost innovation in space. This partnership is changing how businesses operate in the space industry and making it easier for new ideas to come to life.
  2. NASA is investing a lot in programs like Artemis to explore the Moon again. Many private companies are involved, helping to create technologies that can improve life on Earth, like better communication and transportation.
  3. Both NASA and ESA offer funding programs for startups in space technology. These programs are open for applications and can provide significant financial support for innovative projects in the space sector.

TechLetters #159 Light sensor privacy leaks; Data leaks from LLM uses; Cybersecurity plans of a potential US 2025 White House

Lukasz Olejnik on Cyber, Privacy and Tech Policy Critique • 58 implied HN points • 22 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Other Privacy Security
  1. Data leaks from AI/LLM systems, affecting devices like iPhones
  2. Cybersecurity plans for potential future US 2025 White House President include integrating cyber and electronic warfare capabilities
  3. Risk of privacy leaks from ambient light sensors validated by research, emphasizing the need for safe configurations

The Curve 2025: The Premier Big Picture AI Conference

Am I Stronger Yet? • 62 implied HN points • 24 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Conferences Innovation Collaboration AI Policy
  1. The Curve 2025 is a big conference about the future of AI happening in October in Berkeley, CA. It's a chance for people from different fields to come together and share their ideas.
  2. Attendees can apply to join or propose sessions and demos for discussions and presentations. It's open to anyone interested in AI and its impact on the world.
  3. The event aims to encourage conversation and build connections between diverse participants, including researchers, policy makers, and entrepreneurs, to tackle big questions about AI.

🌻 E45: PDL - New Language for Prompting

Musings on AI • 184 implied HN points • 05 Nov 24
🕹 Technology AI Development Innovation Data Software
  1. Prompt engineering is important because the way a prompt is worded can change the AI's response. Finding the right technique can improve the effectiveness of AI applications.
  2. The Prompt Declaration Language (PDL) is a new tool designed to simplify working with AI. It allows programmers to easily create applications like chatbots using a straightforward, data-oriented approach.
  3. Recent advancements in AI include new architectures that enhance performance in specific tasks, like financial analysis. These innovations are making AI applications more powerful and useful for real-world problems.

Good Enough AI

Teaching computers how to talk • 131 implied HN points • 05 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Open Source Software AI Models Consumer Tech
  1. A new AI model called DeepSeek shows that we can create powerful tools without spending too much money. This could change how we think about making AI.
  2. The average person might not notice a big difference between high-end and cheaper AI models. Many consumers just want something that works well and is affordable.
  3. The AI industry might become more competitive and focused on meeting everyday needs instead of creating super advanced technology. This means consumers may benefit more while companies earn less.