Pals, Platforms, Propellant

📣 Updates

🤠 Where We’re Going

Rob and Chris will be in Austin next week meeting with investors and partners. Let us know if you’re in Austin and want to grab dinner on June 4th.

📡 Radar

🔍 Perplexity Labs Launches with Eyes on Enterprise

Perplexity launched “Labs,” a premium feature that allows Pro users to generate reports, spreadsheets, and dashboards directly from prompts—turning a search engine into an enterprise command center. It’s a clear signal the company is moving beyond consumer Q&A and into business intelligence territory. LFG Ventures has direct cap table access for the upcoming primary round—our second investment in the company. Perplexity

📲 Elon is Teaming up with Telegram

xAI is investing $300M to integrate Grok into the messaging app, giving it instant distribution to over 1B global users. This move builds on xAI’s recent momentum as it ramps up efforts to embed its assistant across platforms. TechCrunch

🧠 $600M Says the Brain is the Next Platform

Neuralink raised $600M at a $9B valuation, bringing fresh capital into its brain-computer interface vision. The round is expected to accelerate human trials and push the company closer to commercial viability. With FDA approval already in hand, Neuralink is entering a new phase—less science project, more platform bet. We are participating in this raise and expect to close mid June. TechCrunch

🧑‍💼 Anthropic Board Upgrade

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings joined Anthropic’s board of directors, bringing major consumer tech experience to the table. Meanwhile, CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI could replace up to 50% of entry-level white collar jobs in just five years. He pointed to the increasing ability of AI systems to execute complex, multi-step tasks once thought to require human oversight. Business Insider

🚀 Starship Breaks Apart, But Valuation May Climb

SpaceX’s 9th Starship test ended in fiery fashion as the vehicle broke apart on reentry due to a propellant leak. Still, the mission hit key milestones and showcases SpaceX’s move-fast-and-launch-again approach to iteration. Despite the recent launch setback, demand for SpaceX continues to soar—and rumors suggest a secondary tender process could open in the coming weeks. Space

💬 Prompt

Where should we begin?

Give me 3 unusual skills I could learn in 30 days that would make me more interesting at a dinner party.

🧠 Wisdom

🕰️ Time

How do you perceive time and experience?

🤜🏽🔥🤛🏽 Culture

A page out of Ray Dalio’s Principles that captures the essence of why Rob and I evolved our friendship into LFG Ventures.

👁️‍🗨️ Perspective

Great perspective from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits.