👀 What To Expect

📡 Radar: markups and movement across the private market companies we’ve invested in and the ones we’re eyeing

🧠 Wisdom: insightful takeaways from what we’re reading and listening to because we love to share the wealth

🤖 Prompt: thoughtful AI prompts to test and fine-tune your AI skills

📣 Updates: portfolio, travel, and life updates

📡 Radar

💬 X marks the spot for xAI

xAI acquired X in an all-stock transaction, in a mega-move to leverage X’s data for xAI’s model for their “intertwined” futures according to Musk, valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion. Read more on TechCrunch

💸 OpenAI is raising a record-breaking $40B, led by SoftBank

SoftBank is spearheading the largest investment into a startup ever by investing $40B into OpenAI at a $300B valuation, signaling confidence in the company’s AGI potential and intensifying the global AI funding race. Read more on WSJ

📈 Scale AI eyes $25B valuation in new tender offer

The data-labeling powerhouse is reportedly planning a new tender offer that could push its valuation to $25B, underlining investor appetite for foundational AI infrastructure. Read more on Reuters

🧬 Isomorphic Labs raises $600M for AI-driven drug discovery

The Alphabet-backed DeepMind spinout secured major funding to accelerate AI-powered pharmaceutical research, signaling growing investor confidence in biotech-AI convergence. Read more on WSJ

🤝 Databricks and Anthropic sign landmark deal

Databricks will integrate Anthropic’s Claude models directly into its Data Intelligence Platform, deepening enterprise access to powerful AI tools and reinforcing Databricks’ push into generative AI. Read more on Databricks

🧠 Wisdom

🎧 Podcast Clip 

Naval Ravikant on Leverage:

“Code and media are permissionless leverage. You can build or write something once, and a million people can use it—while you’re sleeping.”

One of our all-time favorite soundbites on asymmetric advantage. Worth a re-listen anytime we’re thinking about scale. Listen here

📕 What We’re Reading 

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

A timeless reminder that winning in investing isn’t about IQ—it’s about behavior. We dog-eared the “Never Enough” chapter.

💬 Quote of the Week

“The goal isn’t to be fearless. It’s to learn how to dance with fear.” – Farnam Street

💬 Prompt

What can I help you with?

Act as a venture partner evaluating xAI’s recent merger with X. Break down the strategic implications of combining a real-time data firehose with a frontier LLM. How does this impact xAI’s defensibility against OpenAI and Anthropic? What downstream verticals (media, commerce, national security) are most likely to be disrupted?

📣 Updates

🛬 Where We’ve Been

We just returned from the HumanX conference in Vegas, followed by meetings with LPs and partners in New York and Philly.

📍 Where We Are

Chris is from Chicago—now, but he now splits his time between Tampa/St Pete and Chicago for tax and climate purposes. Although Rob is based in Dallas, we invest in tech, not oil.

🛫 Where We’re Going 

We’re planning a trip to Boston in late May. Let us know if you’re around and want to meet up or if there’s anyone you suggest meeting.

🤝 Get in the Room

Private investing for (almost) everyone*

We are a curated network of exceptional angels, VCs, family offices, founders, and industry experts investing in pre-IPO companies. We back sharp operators and high-leverage deals. We move fast. We bring value. We don’t miss around the edges. Deals don’t wait. Neither do we.

*Vibes and values must be aligned. Must be an "accredited investor."