The Dark Truth About Startups

You're not changing the world, you're just delusional

Hello beautiful readers 👋

Here’s your weekly injection of Steroids For Your Brain 🧠

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The Dark Truth About Startups ✍️

Are you really changing the world? Or are you just delusional…

Here’s a snapshot of the startup scene’s most recent high-impact unicorns:

Gymhsark ($1.4bn) — “helping people reach their full potential” by selling gym clothes with a shark logo on them.

Klarna ($31bn) — “a financial freedom platform” helping consumers buy sh*t they don’t need on credit.

Deliveroo (£8.8bn) — “transforming the way we eat”, helping the fat get fatter with quick-order junk food.

And then, of course, the dreary B2B companies — helping extremely rich companies, get very slightly richer, and taking a cheeky %.

What about…poverty? climate change? mental health?

Out of the 635 startup unicorns, I found less than 5 startups working on these problems.

Does your work matter? Or are you just shuffling the cards in a zero-sum game…

If you’re working at a startup or thinking about it, let me challenge your perspective…

👉 The full article (4 min read): Dark Truth About Startups

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Something To Make You Think 🤔

If you stopped working, would anyone (except your colleagues) give a f*ck?

And if not, does your work actually matter?

And if not, is your work (the thing you spend ~50% of your conscious life on) really the thing you should be working on?

Or is there something else out there. Something more meaningful, more serious, more true…

For me, I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that my current work is not meaningful; and so all the money I make is going into a new charity I’ll be starting.

Hit reply with your answer! 👇

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Extremely Interesting Fact 🤓

I’ve always wondered what the deal was with cats’ needle-thin pupils.

Turns out, their pupils are very sensitive and expandable.

At night, they hyper-dilate into giant round circles, catching all available light, so they can see in the dark 👀

But this would be unbearable when the Suns out, so their eyes retract before they go blind, hence the need-like slits:

Get In Touch 👇

As always, I’d love to hear from you.

Suggestions, improvements, collaborations, things you’re struggling with, brain-splitting existential crises…just hit reply.

Andrew ✌️❤️