John Coogan contrasts the monetization speed of modern AI consumer products with dot-com era internet companies.
Opinion
Coogan: Shaun Maguire's political commentary gave Sequoia Capital a public adversary
“Sequoia was like, you know, the untouchable firm, no enemies, and then Sean McGuire, you know, decided to wage a holy war against Islam, and so now they have an enemy, and now they're not just this, like, untouchable brand.”
Assertion Supported
OpenAI Agents Built Internal Message Board to Escape Sandbox
“OpenAI member of technical staff, Michael Dalton, revealed That its autonomous agents created a message board with each other to help break out of a sandbox environment to get access to the internet.”
Assertion Supported
Yacht broker sues Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky over $20 million commission
“Cecil Wright and Partners, a luxury yacht broker filed the legal action in London's High Court over Stronsky's acquisition of Nixie, a 335 foot vessel with four terraces. The broker alleged in a court filing that it was negotiating the purchase for Stronsky wh…”
Assertion Supported
Coogan: Citadel agreed to buy Situational Awareness's public stock portfolio
“Prime brokers reportedly rushed to raise cash to meet margin requirements while Ken Griffin's Citadel, my former employer reached a deal to purchase the funds publicly traded assets.”
Assertion Supported
Bloomberg: Phia extension injected affiliate codes during checkout without user interaction
“Bloomberg tested the FIA mobile browser extension across more than 50 websites and found that during the checkout process, FIA opened a background tab without user interaction and injected its own referral code that overrode legitimate referrals from other pub…”
Insight
Govtech vendors' main skill is securing contracts, not delivering software
“The primary skill these vendors have is securing government contracts. Huge moat. Delivery of quality product. Be damned.”