Google Search deemed a monopoly

Christian Woese & Melanie Gabriel
August 13, 2024 • Read time: 4 minutes

Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

In a move that echoes the wild growth-at-all-costs era, AI wearable start-up Friend just spent $1.8m of its $2.5m in funding on the domain name friend.com. They’re working on an “AI necklace” that’s always with you, listening to everything— think: a modern Tamagotchi. Is it just us, or is that a bit creepy? Their product better be good — famous tech reviewer Marques Brownlee recently called a similar AI wearable the worst product he has ever tested. Want to take a leap of faith? You can pre-order your “Friend” for $99, but we suggest reading the Terms & Conditions first. Was that $1.8m well spent? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Anduril raises $1.5bn

Defence tech start-up Anduril just closed a whopping $1.5bn round, bringing its valuation to $14bn. This comes only seven years after being founded by Palmer Luckey, former Oculus founder and a controversial figure himself. This sky-high valuation highlights the VC industry's growing appetite for defence tech, especially since Russia’s war with Ukraine. It follows the recent $487m Series C round of German defence firm Helsing, with venture investments in the sector growing massively, hitting $34.9B in 2023.

Google Search deemed a monopoly

A US federal judge ruled that Google’s search dominance violates competition law. Google pours billions each year into exclusive deals with browser developers and device makers to secure its default search engine spot—$20bn to Apple alone in 2022—effectively stifling competition. While Google plans to appeal, this case could drag on for years, potentially shaking up the industry—especially for Mozilla, which depends on Google for 80% of its revenue.

More leaders leaving OpenAI

OpenAI is facing another leadership shakeup. Co-founder John Schulman has left for rival Anthropic, co-founder Greg Brockman is on an extended leave, and product leader Peter Deng has also departed. This adds to the growing list of senior exits following November's leadership crisis, when CEO Sam Altman was briefly ousted by the board before being reinstated. Now, only two of the original 11 founders, Altman and Wojciech Zaremba, remain at OpenAI. While turnover is common at startups, the recent wave of high-level departures is raising concerns about Altman’s ability to retain top talent as power increasingly consolidates in his hands.

A world of memes

Food for thought

50% of a founder’s time goes to people-related topics

Many founders are surprised to find that after launching a minimum viable product (MVP) and securing venture funding, most of their time rapidly shifts to hiring, HR, and managing people: