Explorer of universes. Previously founded Golden & Heyzap. Early $ into Linear Mercury Gusto Astranis Solugen Ironclad Benchling Boom Stoke and many unicorns.
1/ My team and I at Golden have been working diligently for the last two years to map out 10bn+ fascinating topics in high detail. Today we are officially launching, announcing a $5m seed round from
@a16z
@foundersfund
, GigaFund and others
thread below ->
1/ I’m proud to announce that
@Golden
has raised a $40m Series B led by a16z crypto to build the decentralized protocol for knowledge:
Blog post:
& nutshell thread concerning incentives, tokenization, data NFTs, anti gaming, mechanics and use cases👇
I don't think people give enough credit to
@naval
to opening startup investing to other people [eventually anyone in the long run].
Venture hacks was the crack in the dam.
Angel List built the network.
Angel List syndicates to SPVs to Rolling Funds.
Whatever next?
Factual accuracy is going to be crucial for a positive AI future.
@Golden
has just launched a
@OpenAI
ChatGPT plugin which integrates the Golden Knowledge Graph and Query Tool into ChatGPT.
Let's see what it does and how it works...
1/ Back in 2017 I embarked on a journey to go build a database of all knowledge. Today, we're announcing that
@golden
raised $14.5m Series A backed by
@a16z
@DCVC
@TheGigafund
Harpoon Ventures and others with
@pmarca
joining the board. More below 👇
1/ If you want to find out what is in the Y Combinator S19 batch,
@Golden
has compiled (using public signals) a near complete list of truly exciting companies.
If we are missing any or you want to help improve the data you can edit the topics.
If you would like to learn more about Naval Ravikant's recent thinking, we compiled everything we could find: please correct if we have any mistakes or missing anything.
We have a V0 landing page up at
We are making good progress on the whitepaper and prototyping a test build atm.
Let us know your thoughts or if you have whitepaper skills...
Investigating taking Golden web3 and building out the decentralized knowledge store. Let me know if you are interested in working on the project or even just commenting on the potential mechanics.
For anyone wanting to know which non stealth companies were in the latest YC batch, we compiled on Golden a full list of Y Combinator W19 batch if we have any mistakes please edit the page/data. Some very interesting companies in the batch.
1/ I’d like to share a fun little demo we have been hacking on
@golden
We attempt to answer factual questions in a more accurate way using the Golden Knowledge Graph by providing a retrieval enhancement to GPT-3.
Golden Retriever:
Thread👇
1/ We're launching
@Golden
Open!
Golden Research Engine is now publicly open.
You can request any entity/topic-based data and our research engine will find it for you.
Also access to Query Tool, Lists, Pipelines, Import CSV now open.
👇
I've been told by my 2 visa lawyers that H1B transfers [same title to title] now are extremely difficult and have 60% RFE [request for more evidence], slow time scales and high rejection rates. We now have illiquidity in the skilled H1B workforce in the US.
I'd like to announce that
@Golden
has been acquired by
@ComplyAdvantage
. This takes us on a new mission of using the knowledge graph to fight financial crime.
Comply Advantage is an AML (anti-money laundering) company which performs KYC (know your customer), KYB (know your
0/n: Science and engineering twitter: far UVC 222nm lighting has potential for rapid, retrofittable, cheap, effective, human safe, multi situation deployment to stop spread of COVID-19. However, there are questions I have in order to figure out its applicability. Here goes...
gamestop, $400m market cap and crashing, 200 stores, what would you pivot it to be at this point: sandboxVR sites? gaming merch/swag? VR gyms? meditation sites/float tanks? ice cream stores? coffee shops (+gaming)? vr cat cafe? 1h love hotels? amazon 4star store? 5 star store?...
11/ Right now we are in the testnet phase and giving points to users who are contributing through various means: submitting, validation, code, security etc.
Once we take the token live, we will airdrop up to 1% of the tokens to the initial community.
This year has showed us, for future election security we need 100% transparent voting systems with cryptographically secure voting + open source systems so that zero people can argue with the outcome.
1/ We may have to shift our conversation from UBI to UBO, where O for ownership. Ownership mechanics are very different from purely receiving income...
Investigating taking Golden web3 and building out the decentralized knowledge store. Let me know if you are interested in working on the project or even just commenting on the potential mechanics.
Just remember if you really really really want to, you can build anything in 2021.
Take that finger to the keyboard, the pen to paper, the wrench to the bolt and that iron to the resistor.
Everyone has a 'silence threshold'. Mine was broken this weekend.
Time for the bay area (tech and non tech) to unite around
@garrytan
around the quest of having a growing and sustainable living; safe for your kids, work and pleasure.
This is a lot more than saving a city or an
This YC batch is the biggest acceleration signal I have seen for a while.
It's incredible how much GDP, growth and human capability that will come of this batch.
This is a real gear shift and litmus test for AI, AI copilots and general automation.
We can do it. We can build the vaccine. We made the atomic bomb, landed on the moon, went supersonic, teleported particles and saw the limits of logic with godel's theorem.
Nanoelectric components with the ballistic resonance effect will be coming our way in the future, thermal to mechanical resonance from internal energy only. Heat speakers, heat sink chargers, heat motors, new thermal camera lenses for mobile phones etc.
Morphogenetic engineering - a field of research that explores the modeling and building of “self-architecturing” systems and focuses on the programmability and controllability of self-assembling agents.
1/ Google's gmail predictive writing experimental auto language tab complete in email is going to change communication forever. It is hidden in the settings in the new gmail under 'Enable experimental access' then 'smart compose'
Incredible.
I backed Relativity Space on April 2016 in their seed round.
4 years later.
Now, Techcrunch reporting Relativity Space is raising a $500M round at $2.3B valuation.
H1B holders are effectively trapped in their jobs if they want to stay in the US. What was a simple 1 day task to switch is now a $6k process to get right over potentially 1 year. Anti innovation. Are others seeing this?
If you do not have any respiratory symptoms, such as fever, cough, or runny nose, you do not need to wear a medical mask. When used alone, masks can give you a false feeling of protection and can even be a source of infection when not used correctly. ➡️
I worked at a desk in the office for 12 years straight only to find out work from home is actually pretty amazing.
- 1 hour commute turns into work or play
- Rent cost turns into cost saving or home improvements
- Lunch becomes family time which unlocks actually more work time
Golden has been nominated for a Product Hunt Golden Kitty Award 2019 in the AI & Machine Learning category. ⛳️
If you'd like to support us on our mission to map human knowledge, please help us win.✍️
Here is the voting page: 🏆
Rolling funds are taking off.
Just in the same way SaaS changed web companies, Angel List have cracked a much better way to connect capital (LPs) to innovation (startups) via insight (GPs).
Well worth understanding as this will likely change venture forever.
VCs are in the business of backing innovation, but it's rare to see innovation in the venture fund model itself.
We unpack the legal structure – a series of Delaware limited partnerships – and software behind
@AngelList
's Rolling Venture Funds.
Very excited about the upcoming YC demo day being online. There are biotech cos in the batch saving real lives and companies making our future brighter. Make sure to tune in to the online demo day if you have the rsvp.
I highly recommend reading this
I had
@naval
on my board for a number of years: it was one of the most rapid learning phases of my life.
While I don't agree with 100% of the ideas, I think there is much truth in most of them, so read every word.
Worth compiling a list of proof-of-Xs. For example:
proof-of-who: digital signature
proof-of-what: cryptographic hash
proof-of-when: blockchain timestamp
There's also proof-of-location, proof-of-space, etc. Each such proof expands the scope of the ledger of record.
Got more?
2/ Golden’s mission is to collect, organize and express 10+ billion topics in an accessible way, presented in neutrally-written and comprehensive topic pages using AI and UI to automate the process where possible.
1/ Brilliant article by
@balajis
Some additional points, there is another way to look at 'inherited systems' in terms of systems that are zero, negative sum or winding down from previously positive.
10/ If you want to find out more about what we are going to do in detail check out , also don’t forget to follow
@golden
to keep posted on our updates and give editing a shot by signing up here
@judegomila
It might take a while for the data to become clear, but I think it's totally reasonable to say that Twitter has saved lives, possibly thousands.
'A bad plan is better than no plan' in Thiel's words, why?
Counter factuals in startups are always important to discover and use to triangulate factuals.
Without a plan at all, you cannot get any data as to what is wrong with your plan and iterate your plan. I.e. never making
Q: Best advice for a pre-product/market fit startup?
One of my favorite pieces of advice on this topic comes from Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong: “Action produces information. Just keep doing stuff.”
He borrows this from Paul Graham who said: “Startups are like sharks. If
Extremely impressed with Circle Medical. I just picked up the app, booked a video based medical call, 10 mins later, was on the phone to a doctor. 10 mins later, issue diagnosed and prescription ordered. 2 hours from T0 the meds are ready to pickup. Just now need that last mile..
When I backed Ginkgo Bioworks in 2014 I had no idea it would NASDAQ IPO for 10s of billions of $.
My favorite outcome being the stock ticker name 'DNA'
What new thing should we know about that will be big in 10 years time?
[Old 2012 post below]
@NickPinkston
@tlbtlbtlb
@judegomila
@snowmaker
Here's a prototype that I worked on this weekend.
I will be sharing the design & schematics soon. Right now all it's off the shelve, but probably the UPLA filter needs an enclosure (probably 3D printed)...
If anyone wants to seriously build a better alternative to turbotax (with full bank integration, transaction detection/classification, ML/fuzzy classifiers, gmail crawling for auto import of docs etc, better flows than TT) Let me know. I will fund you if you are doing it right.
I know a founder who has worked on his startup for 5 years, not paid himself and struggled to have enough money for food, has almost zero $ in their bank account for 7 years, refuses to give up, working part time on minimum wage delivering food to make the bills and finally GPT
Of the O1/H1B employee visas I ever applied for on behalf of employees. They have gone on to create 10x more jobs for US citizens and innovate the market.
When building a startup you must put your heart, soul, mind, blood, sweat, tears, arms, legs, back, energy and any other things you got to give into it.
Great to see
@golden
up on screen at the
@Microsoft
Build Conference.
Factual accuracy in AI matters even more than before.
Microsoft is so back in the game.
5/ There has never been a more important time than now to build a global ledger of facts, with mechanisms allowing for corrections based on new data about our universe and new models allowing for better explanations.
Hectocorns
When thinking of what would be coined for a $100bn val startup...
Given Decacorn for $10bn startups from the Greek déka, decided to go with Hectocorn from hekatón for 100.
Alternatives welcome.
Today I hit 14 unicorn investments and 1 decacorn from early stage.
If we don't do correct lockdown we will be looking at millions of cases. Then 10s of millions, then 100s of millions. Don't be a spring breaker, be a covid breaker.
It took three months to reach 100,000 cases of COVID-19 Coronavirus worldwide. The second 100,000 only took 12 days. That’s what exponential growth looks like.
1/ For 3 years,
@Golden
was building the web2 attempt at superseding wikipedia and only a small community was around to build it [in the hundreds].
We switched to web3 protocol approach and there are now 12,000 people (and growing) entering data into the system as we speak.
AMC and Gamestop should merge. Offer up gaming merc inside the cinemas and cut the gamestop store retail location cost out completely. Also may as well throw in GoPro while your at it. Rebrand the entire thing GO.
1/ YC standard deal -> $500k
14 years ago,
@immad
and I got $30k for doing YC
We negotiated 2x normal amount ($15k) sitting on a sunny pavement with PG
We got into YC months early but used all our budget on visas ($20k) and accom ($3k/mx3)....
Volcom teamed up with Stab to install a 30-meter floating docking anchored in the middle of an A-frame peak in Bali, Indonesia to demonstrate how surfers can easily run and hang loose on perfect waves rather than paddling. It's called "The Dock"
8/ In order to make money while doing this we have released an advanced query tool to query the Golden data set, provide fine-grained alerts and allow companies to figure out how to make decisions. & check out an example output here
1/ I've gone back & forth a lot on whether ad-based search business models will survive.
I think they wont.
If search user intent can be directly hooked into GPT like functions (realtime data, knowledge, functions, explanations, generation, etc): the ad model is going to die.
4/ We have set out to use various techniques to help bring leverage and automate solving the problem including: topic prediction, taxonomic detection, summarization, event detection, cross linking, structure data detection and ultimately the writing of prose using AI.
6/ It turns out that if you want to record 'facts' about the universe it's useful to take something and make a statement about it relative to something else.
For example, [Elon Musk] [is CEO] [SpaceX]
This is called a 'triple' containing a subject, a predicate and an object...
Product market fit is a bit like a spaceship traveling through the universe looking for a deep gravity well. Sometimes you can slingshot off a small star to move a little faster in the search but really your looking for a blackhole: the draw is so large you just get pulled in.
1/ Listen in on my interview with Harry Stebbings of 20VC. We talk mental models, investing, mapping knowledge, algorithms for investing and understanding. I have to say, I enjoyed this immensely.
@twentyminutevc
@golden
This tweet is to double check a shadow ban check on twitter my twitter for tweeting about threads and other things.
Like if you can see this.
Would be great tech for partial shadow bans :> i.e. ban everything but the serinus canaria domestica :>