The Weekend by The Information Staff

Every Saturday

The Weekend

By The Information Staff

Know what happens when Silicon Valley logs off—the trends and people shaping culture, technology and everything in between.

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Recent Editions

Taking Stock of Sequoia’s Miserable Year

Taking Stock of Sequoia’s Miserable Year

By Jon Steinberg · May 6, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.You won't find many venture investors who are shedding tears for Roelof Botha. As only the fourth person to lead Sequoia Capital over the past 51 years, Botha now occupies a seat at the very highest echelons of the trade. But despite his lofty perch, little has gone easy for Botha since he was handed the reins... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.You won't find many venture investors who are shedding tears for...

Revenge of the Social Media Clones

Revenge of the Social Media Clones

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 29, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.While we wait around for another bank to collapse (First Republic, we hardly knew ye), the opposite is happening in social media. A thousand new apps are blooming! With Bluesky and Lemon8 and Mastodon and T2 soaking up attention, it feels like 2008 again in the Valley—except that all the coding is being done by GPTs... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.While we wait around for another bank to collapse (First Republic, we...

A Steady Hand in Choppy Seas

A Steady Hand in Choppy Seas

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 22, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.There are a lot of moments I love in Margaux’s latest cover story—an intimate portrait of TikTok chief operating officer V Pappas. Among them is a small detail about the signage found outside TikTok’s Los Angeles office. As visitors approach the building, they’re told to go left if they want to access the company... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.There are a lot of moments I love in Margaux’s latest cover...

Why Parker Conrad Won’t Read This

Why Parker Conrad Won’t Read This

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 15, 2023 7:00am PDT

Why Parker Conrad Won’t Read This

Why Parker Conrad Won’t Read This

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 15, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.While I hope everyone carves out some time this weekend to read Abe’s fascinating cover story about the tech hero-turned-villain-turned-hero-again Parker Conrad, there’s one person I know will not be reading it: Conrad himself.As the Rippling CEO admitted to Abe during a lengthy interview in Vermont earlier this... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.While I hope everyone carves out some time this weekend to read Abe’s...

Crime Data vs. Lived Reality

Crime Data vs. Lived Reality

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 8, 2023 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Hi, welcome to your Weekend. This week, Annie brings us the story of a family-run startup arming young women with a new kind of safety device: The Birdie. Invented by two sisters whose children had been sexually assaulted, the emergency alarm attaches easily to bags or belt loops and screeches like a smoke detector when it’s activated.... Hi, welcome to your Weekend. This week, Annie brings us the story of a family-run startup...

Fear and Longing in the AI Wars

Fear and Longing in the AI Wars

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 1, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! This is Abe filling in for Jon, who returns as Weekender-in-Chief next Saturday.If the cars, brain implants and spaceships don’t pan out, Elon Musk has a promising future as a fear-monger. His was the leading name attached to a widely discussed open letter published this week that urged a halt in artificial... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! This is Abe filling in for Jon, who returns as...

How (and Where) VCs Take Their Coffee

How (and Where) VCs Take Their Coffee

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 25, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!We all have our spot: The one cafe within a 5-minute walk (or a 10-minute drive, if you work in L.A.), where you can grab a quick meeting, sidle up to an acquaintance or eavesdrop on a stranger. It’s the kind of place where you feel like you’re being productive, even when you’re really procrastinating. My... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!We all have our spot: The one cafe within a 5-minute walk (or a...

The Best of Times (for AI), the Worst of Times (for Your Bank)

The Best of Times (for AI), the Worst of Times (for Your Bank)

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 18, 2023 8:14am PDT · 1 comment

The Best of Times (for AI), the Worst of Times (for Your Bank)

The Best of Times (for AI), the Worst of Times (for Your Bank)

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 18, 2023 8:14am PDT · 1 comment

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Deep breath, everyone. The last 10 days have been a doozy. First came the Great Regional Bank Panic of 2023, which essentially wiped out the previous weekend for anyone operating in the startup ecosystem. In the cover story below, our team recorded the stories of two dozen tech leaders, including... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Deep breath, everyone. The last 10 days have been a doozy. First came...

How to Run a Modern Media Company: Bank Crash Edition

How to Run a Modern Media Company: Bank Crash Edition

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 11, 2023 7:17am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!I do not envy news media executives, who have difficult jobs in the best of times. This week was not the best of times, as our CEO Jessica Lessin could tell you. While captaining a newsroom going full-throttle to cover the cataclysmic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Jessica was also scrambling to ensure that The... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!I do not envy news media executives, who have difficult jobs in the...

It's Wunderkind Week

It's Wunderkind Week

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 4, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Ever since Covid lockdowns began three years ago, young people have seemed a bit adrift. I see it at home with my two daughters, 13 and 11, who still can’t break some of the annoying screen habits they formed during the pandemic. I see it with their public school peers in San Francisco, many of whom are still climbing... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Ever since Covid lockdowns began three years ago, young people have...

The Keys to Josh Kushner's Venture Kingdom

The Keys to Josh Kushner's Venture Kingdom

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 25, 2023 8:43am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The tech industry is not a zero-sum game. It can foster many winners, all at once—as the last decade showed. But it’s also noteworthy when one darling of Silicon Valley rises just as another falls. That’s been happening this winter, with the anointing of OpenAI and the simultaneous humbling of Stripe. As my... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The tech industry is not a zero-sum game. It can foster many winners,...

One Year of War: How Ukrainian Tech Companies Have Persevered

One Year of War: How Ukrainian Tech Companies Have Persevered

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 18, 2023 7:00am PST

One Year of War: How Ukrainian Tech Companies Have Persevered

One Year of War: How Ukrainian Tech Companies Have Persevered

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 18, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!While the tech press was freaking out over Microsoft’s new AI search capabilities this week (present company included), a war in Ukraine lurched toward an awful anniversary. This Friday marks one year since Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded the country, extinguishing hundreds of thousands of lives and permanently... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!While the tech press was freaking out over Microsoft’s new AI search...

A Quarter-Million Reasons to Not Trust Your Company

A Quarter-Million Reasons to Not Trust Your Company

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 11, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!When you're a tech company, life comes at you fast. Just last year around this time, things were looking mighty flush for both big firms and smaller startups. Evidence for this can be found in the sizable number of brands that splurged on multimillion-dollar Super Bowl ads in 2022: 18 of them, by our count. Now, can... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!When you're a tech company, life comes at you fast. Just last year...

Silicon Valley's Latest Invention: The Supplement Stack

Silicon Valley's Latest Invention: The Supplement Stack

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 4, 2023 7:00am PST

Greetings, and welcome to your Weekend!Today’s newsletter really ought to come with a surgeon general’s warning: “Consuming dozens of unregulated health supplements may not actually be awesome for your health.” It’s hard not to shake your head at the sheer number of nascent and untested substances that some of our tech-industry peers are... Greetings, and welcome to your Weekend!Today’s newsletter really ought to come with a surgeon...

Ban It, Divest It or Regulate It? Washington Looks for an Answer to TikTok

Ban It, Divest It or Regulate It? Washington Looks for an Answer to TikTok

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 28, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Interesting dinner table discussion this week: My 13-year-old daughter, hearing about Nancy Scola’s cover story on TikTok’s war in Washington, offered her prediction for what would happen if the U.S. took the drastic step of banning the app.“Every teenager in America would refuse to come out of their rooms,” she... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Interesting dinner table discussion this week: My 13-year-old...

Citizen Andreessen Is Still Looking for His Rosebud

Citizen Andreessen Is Still Looking for His Rosebud

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 21, 2023 7:00am PST

Citizen Andreessen Is Still Looking for His Rosebud

Citizen Andreessen Is Still Looking for His Rosebud

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 21, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!“I am very bullish on the future of the news business,” wrote Marc Andreessen in 2014, predicting 10x to 100x growth for the journalism industry over the next 20 years. “But as Tommy Lasorda said: ‘Nobody said this f—king job would be all that f—king easy.’”Andreessen was half right, anyway: The last decade hasn’... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!“I am very bullish on the future of the news business,” wrote...

He Helped Conceive Instagram. Can He Strike Gold Again as a Novelist?

He Helped Conceive Instagram. Can He Strike Gold Again as a Novelist?

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 14, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!If there’s an unintended theme for this week’s stories, it’s the comeback, the second act, the immune response to a contagion.In the case of Josh Riedel, it’s the story of a young tech employee who lands at the seminal startup of the early 2010s, Instagram. He devotes his whole life to the company, watching in awe as... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!If there’s an unintended theme for this week’s stories, it’s the...

The Pied Piper of Defense Startups

The Pied Piper of Defense Startups

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 7, 2023 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to the first Weekend of 2023!You have to hand it to Josh Wolfe. The co-founder of Lux Capital has spent the past two decades zigging while many in the Valley have zagged. This week’s cover story by Margaux focuses on the rise of defense tech as a booming startup sector in Silicon Valley. It’s a space Wolfe and Lux have owned for... Hi, welcome to the first Weekend of 2023!You have to hand it to Josh Wolfe. The co-founder of Lux...

In Praise of Real (Not Tweetable) Conversations

In Praise of Real (Not Tweetable) Conversations

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 31, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to the last Weekend of 2022!Because everyone’s feeling nostalgic for auld lang syne (rough translation: before everything sucked), we wanted to reflect on some lessons from the recent past. So this week, the team asked some of the smartest people in tech about the conversations that stuck with them the most from 2022. My... Hi, welcome to the last Weekend of 2022!Because everyone’s feeling nostalgic for auld lang syne...

On Jasper! On YouTuber! On ChatGPT! A Special Holiday Edition of Weekend

On Jasper! On YouTuber! On ChatGPT! A Special Holiday Edition of Weekend

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 24, 2022 7:00am PST

On Jasper! On YouTuber! On ChatGPT! A Special Holiday Edition of Weekend

On Jasper! On YouTuber! On ChatGPT! A Special Holiday Edition of Weekend

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 24, 2022 7:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your holiday Weekend!If you haven’t already slipped into a ’noghole (a bottomless tumbler of eggnog paired with an endless scroll of Netflix Christmas movies), we have a fascinating sampler of stories for you to indulge in this week.There’s Arielle’s dispatch from the red-hot AI scene in Texas, where a 6-foot-8-inch Kansan came up... Hi, welcome to your holiday Weekend!If you haven’t already slipped into a ’noghole (a bottomless...