The Paradox of Starting a Startup

Hey everyone,

Welcome to your Sunday Space, where I distil the best ideas, resources and principles each week for you to mull over.

With CES happening this past week, there’s been a cascade of incredible product announcements in tech across multiple industries.

There’s much to cover today, so let’s get into it.

I always want to improve, so I’d love to hear your feedback. If you have any thoughts, reach out on X or vote in the poll at the bottom of this email.

IDEAS
The Paradox of Starting a Startup

To start a successful startup, one needs to balance two contradicting points of view simultaneously:

1. Reality—the odds of success are less than 10%.

2. Optimism—The belief that you can succeed against the odds.

These diametrically opposed viewpoints (and their accompanying emotions) are inescapable, no matter how good your product or marketing strategy is.

Balancing them is the key to success. This is the paradox of starting a startup.

RESOURCES
What I Consumed this Week…

…From around the web

Apple Vision Pro available in the U.S. on February 2nd

This is Apple’s biggest product launch since the iPhone. I think this is Apple’s chance to make VR/AR (which many believe is the “final computing platform”) mainstream despite Meta and Sony’s efforts.

Trademark Apple highlights include:

• The high price point of $3,499 positions their product as ultra-premium.

• Innovations like Eyesight, visionOS and dual-M1/R1 chip design.

• It’s not VR or AR, it’s “Spatial Computing.”

• An iconic product ad.

The Rabbit r1 is an AI-powered gadget that can use your apps for you

Announced on the anniversary of the iPhone, in a style reminiscent of Steve Jobs’ iconic presentation, the Rabbit r1 took the internet by storm this week.

It’s powered by RabbitOS — “a personalised operating system through a natural language interface.” At its core is their custom AI foundation model, which they have called a “Large Action Model” (LAM).

The crazy part:

• The device turns human direction and intention into action without needing a smartphone or apps.

  • Order a book on Amazon without going to Amazon or generate an image in Midjourney without needing the Midjourney Discord server.

• And, all this for $199…

It’s no wonder that they sold out a batch of 10,000 devices in 24 hours.

The innovation is not without its doubters, myself included. Any device replacing the iPhone is hard to imagine.

Besides that, the innovation and imagination coming from AI and hardware is truly inspiring.

And some other CES highlights:

• Getty and Nvidia bring generative AI to stock photos

• Nvidia’s newest chips are designed to run AI at home

• Google Cloud launches new generative AI tools for eCommerce

• VW integrates ChatGPT into their vehicles

• Walmart unveils new generative AI search

SEC approves first spot Bitcoin ETFs

This had to get a mention among all the CES announcements.

The first submission and proposal for a Bitcoin ETF was made in 2013 by the Winklevoss twins. That was shut down instantaneously and launched the decade-long fight to get Bitcoin in front of Wall Street investors.

The approval is a watershed moment for Bitcoin. I truly believe it has now cemented itself as an asset worthy of its spot in any diversified portfolio.

…From X

…From YouTube

Paired well with this tweet/Xeet/whatever they’re called now.

TOOLS
Perplexity.ai

Perplexity is a new type of search engine. In fact, they call themselves an “answer engine” rather than the former term that Google owns.

Instead of 10 blue links, Perplexity provides instant answers to your query that are summarised using sources from around the internet. The great thing is that its sources are cited within the answer, so users can verify the response.

In addition to getting context-specific answers in chat, users can engage in thoughtful conversations with Perplexity by using follow-ups in the thread or their new Copilot function, which fine-tunes queries.

I’ve recently started using it, and, like when I first used ChatGPT, I’m obsessed with the user experience of conversational, answer-driven search.

I highly recommend using Perplexity if you want to optimise your internet browsing and search.

THOUGHTS
Quote I’ve been pondering since the
iPhone Launch Anniversary

READING
In case you missed it

This week, I wrote about OpenAI’s groundbreaking launch of the GPT Store.

• The GPT Store aggregates and categorises “GPTs” created by the developer community for public use.

• GPTs are AI Assistants—custom versions of ChatGPT trained by the developer for a specific use case.

• The launch is being touted as the Apple App Store equivalent for AI.

Although OpenAI has revolutionised consumer AI like no other company, I don’t think the GPT Store will be as big of a deal as people make it out to be.

In the end, those who win will be the ones who choose to do the difficult task of making their GPTs more than a slightly fine-tuned ChatGPT knock-off.

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Thanks for reading,

— Luca

P.S. A story I love revisiting from time to time that proves no one in the world (not even the most successful people) knows what they’re doing…