We don’t even have an employee handbook (but when we say something off color we threaten that we need one).


Wife vibes

Paul Graham

                    @paulg

                  Feb 26

                "Why is he so desperate to meet with you? I mean, no offense..."

— Jessica


Love this one!

cinesthetic.

                    @TheCinesthetic

                  Feb 26

                The Secret of NIMH (1982) feels almost mythic for an animated film. It was the first feature from Don Bluth after he left Disney with a group of animators to start his own studio, betting on darker, more detailed storytelling.


All of us, great and small. Thank you Dival!


Lol


I LIFT FOUNDERS UP AND DUMBBELLS AT HOME BRO!


QOTD "It's like the blind, leading the blind. Can we say that anymore? Anyway..."


You can even say “I love you” to other fund managers.

Eric Bahn 💛

                    @ericbahn

                  Feb 27

                Shoutout to @DStrachman, I just really really appreciate her. Also every founder should try to work with her. :)


Better together babe!


Omg so good


Or how to say it.

John Potter spirit/acc

                    @potterlab

                  Feb 26

                People will spends years hating on Peter Thiel and not learn how to spell his name


All the time!!!! Love maxxing!

Ginger

                    @Gboye_Rave

                  Feb 26

                Do y'all openly say "love you" in your friendships?


+creatine

clare

                    @sadderlizards

                  Feb 26

                300 mg caffeine and no breakfast


Me me me me me me me wants!


THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER


1517 grills hard. We ain’t playin’

Jonathan Unikowski

                    @jnnnthnn

                  Feb 25

                i once attended a yc founder backyard party and out of 60 people not one knew how manage a grill

i ended up being the only person who did know, and cooked for everyone

i also was the only person not in yc

read into this what you will


The new “I know you are, but what am I?”

Elon Musk

                    @elonmusk

                  Feb 25

                The side with the best sense of humor are the good guys. Grok ftw.


Eric is the best!


Dude dude. We are equally shitty!


I love you too!


Maui update: He's been home for almost 24 hours. Still not feeling good but no fever this morning and seems to be on the mend. We still need to understand if this is a one off bacterial colitis event or if there is more of an underlying cause but seeming to move in the right direction!


adorbs


Happy birthday to Jim O'Neill, a cofounder of the Thiel Fellowship! May you continue to make an impact that ripples through the ages in surprising and positive ways!


The trickle down takes time but the faucet is in an interesting position.

Brayton Williams ⏻

                    @BraytonKey

                  Feb 27

                At the Upfront Summit:

Founders: "More term sheets than ever."
VCs: "Can't close funds."

Something's off. Buckle up!


+creatine

The Notorious J.O.V.

                    @whotfisjovana

                  Feb 27

                2 coffees no breakfast


Omg this is amazing! If your group wants to publish this cookbook I’ll help distribute!


This is why I love when people send me cold emails:

"A fun fact about me specifically is I absolutely love bees. They're the cutest, physics defying, little chefs that are responsible for honey, many flowers, & fruit we get to enjoy on this planet, which is think is extraordinary."

Little Chefs!! That is the cutest way to describe bees I have ever seen!


This was midway through the email. Real easter egg!


That looks damn good!


Fuck yeah!

Adam Draper ⏻

                    @AdamDraper

                  Mar 3

                Founders, @BoostVC is investing heavily in New Bio and Longevity.

Please reach out if interested. $500k first check investments.


Thanks for coming! Was great to meet you and the boys :)


This is really good -- especially when it gets to the money part.

Zelda

                    @zeldapoem

                  Mar 4

                Average gundo founder telling you about their startup


I am so so sorry :(


After almost a month of my Maui-man having really bad symptoms and flare ups, he’s coming home today with a treatment plan. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Maui!


Glad you’re ok!!


Cutest thing ever! Chalk labels around plants at Lake Merritt in Oakland.


Founders get growing!

Kevin → Plant Daddy

                    @KevinEspiritu

                  Mar 4

                Dropped a new product line @epicgardening - Garden In A Box. Everything a beginner needs to take the intimidation factor out of getting a basic but very productive garden going - seeds, containers, trays, and most importantly the growing instructions + videos to max harvest 🔥


Come hangout with me and my in-house petting zoo.

olive

                    @olive_deez

                  Mar 4

                I want to become a VC, it seems like they just hang out all day


Rad

Celine Halioua

                    @celinehalioua

                  Mar 4

                Loyal’s very first team tattoo


LP value add for the win!

Michael P Gibson

                    @William_Blake

                  Mar 6

                The best investors in 1517 know how to set us up for success. Amy said I looked homeless w/ a hole in my bag and insisted she needed to sew it shut


1517 story in a nutshell

Dr. Julie Gurner

                    @drgurner

                  Mar 6

                Something common among the most successful people I work with:

They see something before anyone else sees it.
They know something to be true.

They are the first true believer, and they hang on to that belief, and build a whole world around it that shocks everyone.


Exactly this! You must find a place for energy to go.

When I was a charter school director, we had a boy who tagged the bathrooms. I told him that I would paper a wall for him to tag, and he never did it again.

A young lady dropped f’bombs in class and I asked her if she wanted to use my office as a place to swear. She was thrilled. The next day she came to swear in my office, she did, and was giddy about it. And she never needed to come back again and never did it in class again.

In neither of these cases was there punishment.  We found the right place for the behavior/energy to go, made it acceptable, and the energy neutralized itself.

Michael Strong

                    @flowidealism

                  Mar 6

                The best approach I ever found for dealing with behavioral issues was at a Montessori school that had a garden out back. Certain boys would get wound up and out of hand. Instead of detention or discipline, I would say: go dig a hole in the garden. Just go dig for a while.

After an hour of getting hot and sweaty and moving dirt around, they would come back inside calm and relaxed and ready to engage. The energy had somewhere to go. Instead, most schools force that physical energy into a desk and then punish kids when it comes out sideways. The approach creates the problem it claims to solve.


What is this and what is the recipe? And when can you come over and we bake them together? :)


Maybe?


I wasn't in the classroom as a teacher with them but I didn't hear from the teachers more!


I love grocery shopping for these reasons!

michelle

                    @michelleakin

                  Feb 21

                x.com/i/article/202534247690…

                        Michelle's Guide to Romanticizing Grocery Shopping (for people just getting into whimsy)
                        this guide was created for @HeidiPriebe1 but you can read it, too, whoever you are!

1. Mindset
Grocery stores are one of those places where people tend to be out for themselves. Not as bad as the


Be the first check, not the last!

Aditya Ranjan

                    @ad1tyaranjan

                  Mar 6

                I raised $100k with the kid I sat beside in Grade 9 math class
(@aravmathur23).

Today we're launching GrayPass.
(Check it out: graypass.org)

The internet treats identity like a one-time event:

log in -> trusted forever.

But if someone hijacks your session, they look identical to you.

GrayPass verifies identity continuously using behavioral signals like typing rhythm and cursor movement.

Think of it like a revocable brainprint.

Huge thanks to @1517fund and @DStrachman for backing two 18-year-old founders.

Also: build some cool shit with the random kid you sit beside in math class lol.


I did not want to like this article. I hate laundry!

michelle

                    @michelleakin

                  Mar 7

                x.com/i/article/202987462669…

                        Laundry as Breath Work
                        I started folding my husband’s t-shirts, mostly because the way he was doing it was driving me crazy.
And isn’t that the way so many of us find ourselves in personal growth arcs? We start out


lol Augie, you are never a distraction. You’re the main event!

Replying to @augierakow @Bryan_Barton @William_Blake @patrissimo


I call him “fucking Brad”

Nicki 🫧🪷

                    @nickimoraa

                  Mar 7

                As an adult I have learned that the most shocking and unexpected opponent in life is the person who owned your house before you.


1517 ice creamed with all of Dolores Park

Michael

                    @bigbodyl3o

                  Mar 8

                big shoutout to @DStrachman and @zeldapoem for a lovely time in dolores park ☀ 🍦


Two friends have gotten text messages from "me" when it was not me and not my phone number. If someone claims to be me and is trying to sell you something, it's not me.

Here is his experience, this is pretty sophisticated:

fishdan.com/how-i-didnt-get-…

Be careful out there!


You can do this with your neighbors too 💗

Kristen Rudd@kristenrudd
                  Mar 9

                This is your regular reminder that you can just adopt the single people at your church—college students; young, working people; widows in their 80s.

You can invite them to do stuff, to show up for their stuff, to have them over for meatballs and salad.

You can just do things.


Doing this at the next ice cream social

Eric Alper 🎧

                    @ThatEricAlper

                  Mar 9

                This is such a great Jeff Goldblum story


Fam, why are Costco berries so dang good?!

Don’t sleep on Costco berries — incredible.


Spring is for walking meetings in SF!

How I got 20K steps in today:

- walked to Bart (20 min)
- walked with a founder around Salesforce Park (1 hour)
- walked with an investor around Union Square (10 min) and went to a dog park with him and his dog (stupid fun)
- walked home from BART (20 min)


A huge upside to daylight savings for me is that I can get home later because it’s still safe to walk home.


Be the first check, not the last!

1517 Fund

                    @1517fund

                  Mar 10

                1517 writes the first check so that young people have the freedom and autonomy to build a better world.

We gave @ethanrthornton a $1k grant in HS to build. And build he did.

We're proud to be the first venture investors in @Mach_Industries.


Be the first check, not the last!


Michael @ 1517 puts a deal doc into Grok.

Me: Wait, wait, wait. Should you be doing that?!

Michael: Yeah, everyone does this.

Me: If all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you?


Status game people don't make it the long haul.

Zelda

                    @zeldapoem

                  Mar 10

                The best way to play status games is to forget about them entirely and show up as your authentic self


Exactly!


Troublemaker!


I see you!


The magic of hosting!

𐌕 🍂

                    @fwtimini

                  Mar 10

                It's amazing how much you can accomplish around the house under the threat of someone coming over.


My dad used to full blast the opening theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey on the weekends to wake us up when we slept too late.

When I pick him up from the airport for a visit, I will have to give this a shot.

Crisis of Conscience

                    @crisisofconsc

                  Mar 10

                When I was a teenager, my dad would pick me up from the mall with all four windows of his car rolled down blasting “Du Hast” by Rammstein at a volume usually reserved for a Metallica concert.

Anyway, I just did the same thing to him picking him up from the airport.


Thomas Sohmers was 14 when we invited him to a Thiel Summit.

At 16 years old he became our youngest Thiel Fellow.

At 27 he started Positron and we wrote his first check of $1M to work on AI infrastructure.

Be the first check, not the last.

Thomas Sohmers

                    @trsohmers

                  Mar 11

                Thrilled to have @positron_ai partnered with @Oracle, and honored to have Oracle's CEO @ClayMagouyrk feature us in their earnings call today. Together, we'll be delivering leading performance per dollar and per watt generative AI solutions to the world!


LPs love to ask what a GP's advantage is.

Mine is that my whole background in alternative education makes it possible for me to work successfully with 14 year olds so that when they start their first major company, we're the first call.

Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕

                    @DStrachman

                  Mar 11

                Thomas Sohmers was 14 when we invited him to a Thiel Summit.

At 16 years old he became our youngest Thiel Fellow.

At 27 he started Positron and we wrote his first check of $1M to work on AI infrastructure.

Be the first check, not the last.


I think through honest interaction, connecting them with peers and mentors, inviting them to events where they are not always the smartest fish in the pond can help with a dose of humility, etc.


I’m enjoying that my typos mean it was actually me who wrote it.

Valyrian Fire 🐉

                    @turtledumplin

                  Mar 11

                I’m at the age where I’m too lazy to correct my typos

If I message you “lets meed for lueh”

That’s your puzzle to solve now.


Live the dream!

Matt Castillo

                    @BayAreaREMatt

                  Mar 12

                Interesting compound for sale in Oakland!

7 unit co living community on a 14k lot called "Radish" is currently for sale near Temescal.

A group of friends currently lives there and the property consists of a 7 units comprised of 1, 2 and 4+ bedroom homes, a communal kitchen, office, gym and shared outdoor spaces.

The whole compound is being sold together and they are anticipating a sales price between 4 and 6M.

Link to the website in comments


Have a precious morning

positive side of X 🌞

                    @positivityofx

                  Mar 13

                There is a challenge where you put your hand near your dog like you're going to pet them but don't actually pet them. Someone tried it on their bird and it was adorable.


It was an honor to learn more about him and be with you in that moment💗


This is absolute horseshit

Raj Shamani

                    @rajshamani

                  Mar 13

                Burnout isn't caused by working too much. It's caused by working a lot with no visible proof that it matters. You can work brutal hours at something you believe in and not burn out. The exhaustion isn't from the volume. It's from the meaninglessness.


Aren’t we all!


I am always humbled by Dan's witnessing our work so fully and enthusiastically. We do things the 1517 Way and it's so lovely to see that it shows <3

Dan Gray

                    @credistick

                  Mar 15

                It's hard to find a better example of what venture capital should look like than @1517fund.

@DStrachman and @William_Blake have been the first believers in many of the greatest and gnarliest tech success stories. The source of their power is a philosophical rejection of lazy thinking.

Essentially, if the greatest entrepreneurs are outliers, patterns and credentials must therefore be irrelevant.

It sounds simple, but living that principle as an investor means sailing into headwinds. There's no simple narrative to sell LPs, the future is never clear, capital coordination is difficult, and your capacity cannot endlessly scale.

It's the harder path, but it's the only true path to greatness as a venture capitalist. Success is extremely idiosyncratic; there are no shortcuts.

You might reach this conclusion by studying the library of research on venture capital. Or, you could reach it much more quickly by just meeting a few of 1517's portfolio companies.


We love working with creative and wily dropouts and renegade scientists before anyone else will cut a check and then watching the masses catch up over time.

Be the first check, not the last!

Josie Zayner

                    @josiezayner

                  Mar 16

                My first check ever was from @1517fund They were patient with me even though I was a petulant scientist

In an era of soulless VCs trying to extract as much value as they can, 1517 creates

If you want to write your first check or  ask for your first check reach out to them


And the kid who starts a lemonade stand has a business.

Connor Boyack 📚

                    @cboyack

                  Mar 16

                The kid who learns to write a business plan at 13 has a roadmap.
The kid who writes a book report has a grade.


Time to start carrying your phone inside your tinfoil hat!

Zane Koch

                    @zanehkoch

                  Mar 16

                for a while i've had a slight fear that the bluetooth from my airpods could be frying my brain

this weekend i pulled the raw data from a $30m government study of 1,679 mice blasted with cell phone radiation and reanalyzed it

what i found was...not what I expected?
🧵


This is what our work at the Thiel Fellowship enlightened us to.

Dr. Julie Gurner

                    @drgurner

                  Mar 16

                Most people think the gap between "Good" & "Great" is just a small amount.

It is actually an ocean of difference.

Once you see it, you'll remember it forever.


I was trying to make a joke, clearly didn’t land lol


Being irrationally passionate is an advantage!

1517 Fund

                    @1517fund

                  Mar 16

                1517 works because @DStrachman & @William_Blake are irrational.

Homo Economicus extracts LP's $$$ via management fees. All very logical.

Michael & Danielle use theirs to throw nerdy sleepovers for gifted teens.

It's uber irrational + suboptimal. Which is why it works.

                      ALT  Health Ledger's Joker saying, it's not about money, it's about sending a message.


You’re an OG Marvin! So lucky to have met you through @ChadCazel


How I feel about Costco produce!

H*****Z

                    @Hz___143

                  Mar 16

                They're going to tell their grandchildren all about the party that they just left in the Costco parking lot. I can't stop smiling


I learned today that if you’re doing 9/9/6 without a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day, you’re doing it wrong.


Bring me your Rizzgyptians!

DedCatson

                    @DedWhaleson

                  Mar 16

                Replying to @equine__dentist
                RIZZGYPTIANS


I need one of these for pitch meetings.

𝕐o̴g̴

                    @Yoda4ever

                  Mar 16

                He's got his thinking cat on..🐕🐾🐈🎩😅


Yum!!! I also loved the podcast you shared!


Looks purrfect to me!

Ashlee Vance

                    @ashleevance

                  Mar 17

                My parent's cat situation is getting a bit alarming


I must have hearted a couple posts about animals passing over the rainbow bridge because now my timeline is full of dead animals 😓


So much strength and femininity. Love this speech!

M.A. Rothman

                    @MichaelARothman

                  Mar 16

                𝗜𝗡 𝗔 𝗦𝗘𝗔 𝗢𝗙 𝗢𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗜𝗦𝗘 — 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗛𝗜𝗧 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗟𝗬

I'll be honest. The Oscars are not exactly must-see television for me anymore. But someone sent me this — and I watched it twice.

Irish actress Jessie Buckley just won Best Actress. And instead of a political lecture, instead of a pin, instead of a land acknowledgment or a cause of the week — she talked about her husband. Her eight-month-old daughter dreaming of milk at home. Her Irish family whose flights were paid for by Ireland itself to be in that room.

𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘥. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝟤𝟢,𝟢𝟢𝟢 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶.

The room probably didn't know what to do with that.

Then she dedicated the award to motherhood itself — on Mother's Day in the UK — with words that belong on a wall somewhere: 𝘛𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦. 𝘐 𝘥𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘰𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗰𝗵. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘆.

Hollywood spent years telling women that ambition means leaving behind the things Jessie Buckley just stood on the biggest stage in her industry and celebrated without apology. A husband she adores. A baby at home. A family flown in from Ireland.

I don't know what film she won for. But I know I'll watch it now.

Well done, Jessie. 𝗚𝗼 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗯𝗵 𝗺í𝗹𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝘁.


During the day, fund manager extraordinaire.

By night, supreme bunny bonding handler.

My home is basically a petting zoo now.


That’s not just any researcher! That’s Albert, a 1517 founder.

Daniel Siegel

                    @danedisonsiegel

                  Mar 17

                just spotted two researchers getting wired off BCI in the tenderloin


I have only heard of the legend...yet to meet in person!


RAD!

Zoe (is building utopia 🚀) || bio/acc 🧬

                    @techno0ptimist

                  Mar 16

                Many good biology ideas never get tested because the researcher can't afford $2,000 in lab supplies.

At @PrimordiaGrants we aim to close that gap by funding tightly scoped experiments that can de-risk impactful ideas in 3-6 months. Apply now 👇


THE DREAM!


Thanks Sam!


Laying on grass and looking up at the sky is free therapy

𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉

                    @OrevaZSN

                  Mar 17

                I'm amazed at how many people don’t appreciate the sky. It’s literally a pleasure to watch the clouds, the stars, the sun, and the moon.


YES!


@bscholl @SimoneSyed


That’s professional fairy godmother :P

Zelda

                    @zeldapoem

                  Mar 19

                Replying to @zebriez
                Another two I really like: fairy godmother for @DStrachman & venture artist for @cyantist


Funny, we are in sync...was just showing someone this video last week.


I thought for a long time that my heart racing in the mornings was anxiety and then many years later connected it to sub clinical hypothyroidism. Better late than never.


And people wonder about how one develops “taste.”

James Lucas

                    @JamesLucasIT

                  Mar 20

                We grew up watching hand drawn Disney and now it's just gone. We don't talk about this enough.


How do I find out/get on the list for the next one?


Sweet!


You gotta be Lego-maxxing!

Zelda

                    @zeldapoem

                  Mar 22

                Saturday night, finishing up my concorde plane lego while eating home made brownie and watching a podcast with OPN, life doesn’t get better than this


All good things are happening here 💗

Matthew Graham

                    @mattyryze

                  Mar 23

                three weeks ago decided to foster a dog, now the foster dog is mine and I’ve fostered another dog, not really sure what’s happening here


Brilliant!


Consensus viewpoint science isn’t what we are going for


This is awesome! And we fund sci fi scientists at 1517 :) You're a rare MD-PHD!


When 1517 started, we didn't have a website, email address, or any presence. We tested the idea of the fund at LA Hacks and printed two t-shirts.

Gopi Rangan@gopirangan
                  Mar 24

                Some founders follow the path. Others feel their idea cannot wait.

@DStrachman and Michael Gibson from @1517fund invest in young builders chasing ambitious ideas.

@figma @sureventures

#deeptech #artificialintelligence #sci-fi #venturecapital #startups #entrepreneurship


I love people so much

Science girl

                    @sciencegirl

                  Mar 24

                Klangphonics is a three-piece band from Regensburg, Germany, incorporating the sound of a sewing machine


Priceless! How he code switches to husband mode.

King Randall, I.

                    @NewEmergingKing

                  Mar 23

                Boys should know how to grocery shop.

$150 budget. Family of four. Don’t miss nothing.

And yeah… if you don’t know what she meant on that list, you better call your wife 😂

(All wives are different — don’t take it personal)


In recent years I've seen an appalling amount of people not acknowledge service workers.

When someone brings you water:

Thank you!

When they serve you food:

Thank you!

When they clean up after your mess:

Thank you!

If you haven't learned manners, teach yourself! Or at least copy the other person you're dining with if they are displaying these behaviors. They matter. And you better bet that if you're doing business with someone savvy that they are watching for this too.

tyler hogge

                    @thogge

                  Mar 24

                Simple tests of character:

1. Returning shopping cart
2. Returning weights to the rack
3. Patience when a baby cries on a flight
4. kindness to service workers
5. Saying thank you always
6. Holding door for others
7. Picking up litter

What else?


Our thesis in a nutshell

Dalton Caldwell

                    @daltonc

                  Mar 24

                Don’t forget to support people trying strange new things. They won’t forget that you did.


Oh man...shots fired on this one.

꩜ Erica 444 U ♊🪽⭐ ꩜☯

                    @airwreckauraaa

                  Mar 24

                For my visual learners: be clear on exactly what you want.


Just do it

jenny lewis@jennylewis
                  Mar 24

                i’ll teach you how to do an
australian accent.
say this out loud exactly as it’s written
have you bean to spice lightly


Wish this has been part of the K-12 curriculum!


And the whole visual learner thing — it just hits different!


Beavers know that we are bringing manufacturing back to America!

positive side of X 🌞

                    @positivityofx

                  Mar 25

                A beaver caught on camera in America’s New Jersey hauling an entire tree and causing a traffic jam...🦫

                    Community note

                  This video is entertaining but AI-generated, not real footage from New Jersey. Inconsistencies like the beaver's tail suddenly appearing show it's fake. No news reports confirm the event. A real beaver crossed with a branch in Jan. 2026.

nitter.poast.org/NikTek/status/…

nbcphiladelphia.com/critter-corner…

facebook.com/fabiosa.daily/


Had an awesome call with Thomas, an ambitious 15 year old, in New Zealand.

He dares to be great!

Lee Knowlton

                    @leeknowlton

                  Mar 25

                Every single one of you sick degenerates is responsible for this.

Any 15 year old who dares to should be able to be like this.

Any 15 year old who dares to should be able to be a founder, to move to SF, to raise VC.

This is healthy and good and it’s the failure of society around him that more extraordinarily capable young people are persuaded against taking action by sick degenerate gatekeepers.


Can’t wait to use his product and help him get to his goal.

Customers are your accelerator!

Thomas Guthrie

                    @realthomasgu

                  Mar 24

                I’m putting my ego on the line for this.

$0 to $100,000 in 100 days.

Day 1 starts tomorrow.


Unshackling the youth!

Hubert Thieblot

                    @hthieblot

                  Mar 24

                pitch me your company in 3 word.


Had a first call with Rob last night. Fascinating work!

Sentinel Robotics

                    @rcanedesignwrks

                  Feb 28

                Project Sentinel is a ground-up reinvention of the remote weapon system, deployed against the $4.74B pest control problem no one has solved.

Every engagement generates non-cooperative adversarial data that doesn't exist anywhere else, millions of unique interactions against adversaries who learn, respond and adapt behavior in live time.

Every serious C-UAS company is training on the same fundamentally compromised data: cooperative targets, predictable behavior, simulated threats from financially incentivized pilots.

When these systems face real adversaries, the models will fail and people will pay the ultimate price.

We exist to ensure that future never arrives.

Phase 1 open for investment.
Get in touch to access the full presentation.


No better manager!


The Bay is being so weird right now. Either events are super casual or cocktail attire. Both are ridiculous.

Let's meet in the middle at smart casual and not be slobs or have to wear heals.


Y'all should talk!


I don't know who is giving out that mantra but yeah, bad mantras are how unquestioned bubbles are made. That said, I don't this this means that everyone gets money, it means that the bar goes up.


Let's go Positron!

Be the first check, not the last!

Thomas Sohmers

                    @trsohmers

                  Mar 24

                Great to have @positron_ai be part of the @Arm AGI CPU launch today, with us shipping Positron Atlas powered by arm later this year. Positron’s next-generation Asimov accelerator is designed from the ground up with Arm IP Inside, and our Titan Server built specifically around ARM AGI.


The host having good taste and the vibe they want to curate


This is where it's at!


You need Parm!

Be the first check, not the last!

parm🔬

                    @parmita

                  Mar 25

                Will Google solve disease in 10 years? Not without data.

We can commoditize drug design, and STILL not solve most diseases.

You need @precigenetics.


Paul is clearly not saying “please speak to me like I’m the dumbest golden retriever you’ve ever met” — works like a charm!

Paul Graham

                    @paulg

                  Mar 25

                Trying to make founders describe their products in simple everyday language is like trying to push together the north poles of two magnets.


that is lovely!


In Oct of 2019, Brian ran up to me at a VC panel talk at a bank event.

“We have to talk”

I connected Brian and Tyler, two wily scientists, to Nick on our team who is our resident space geek.

Shortly after, we wrote their first check to create GPS 2.0, way before deep tech was the talk of the town.

Be the first check, not the last!

Xona

                    @XonaSpace

                  Mar 26

                Proof on orbit + means of deployment = the world's first commercial satellite navigation constellation

Our $170M in Series C funding marks the start of scaled manufacturing for our in-house satellite at our new Burlingame facility to launch our entire constellation over the coming years.


It was far more creativity and curiousness!


Anita, the manager of the coworking space ran up to us in our office, “I think I’ve found one of your people!”

Alex had dropped out of school and was working on a company. We weren’t so keen on that company because it was something for campuses but we loved Alex (and Alfie, his old dog that would fart in our office).

But Alex came to us with a new idea, bringing laundromats into the 21st century.

Be the first check, not the last!


And they were potent!


See you there? Hoping that this is a riveting conversation!

Zelda

                    @zeldapoem

                  Mar 25

                Excited for this one! A conversation led by the San Francisco Ballet at the Saint Joseph's Arts Society:


Oddly, my ex-gardener started flirting with me over text.

He asked how I am the most beautiful woman in the world.

I told him he's gone mad because clearly Selma Hayek is the most beautiful woman in the world.

And now silence, peace, and order is restored.


He had rizz before rizz was a thing!


If you had rizz before rizz was a thing, you're the true rizzly bear!


Be crazy awesome!

Dr. Julie Gurner

                    @drgurner

                  Mar 26

                Every big achievement, requires being a little bit crazy in the best of ways.


Coming from one of them, that's a huge compliment!


I bet Selma is whip smart!


No -- they are nothing but professional!


Keep hope sacred!

The Hope Axis - Podcast by Anna Gát

                    @TheHopeAxis

                  Mar 26

                It’s strange how being a pessimist today makes you look serious, but having actual hope feels like something you have to constantly defend. We’ve become used to doom-scrolling that we’re accidentally squashing the positive naivete the young need to actually build a future.

In this @TheHopeAxis podcast episode, @DStrachman and @TheAnnaGat get into why community building is a faith-based activity and how to stop systems from killing off natural talent. If you're over the constant doom-and-gloom, watch this.


And she lived, happily ever after.

Agatha Chocolats@AgathaChocolats
                  Mar 26

                In six words or fewer, write a story about this photo.
#sixwordstory #WritingCommunity #cats


Much better than a few weeks ago. Still healing but out of the danger zone. Thanks for asking!


Coming right over!


My value added service is that if I visit your startup and you have a puppy, I will talk shop with you while we also do obedience training.


Sounds gouda!

Replying to @brookeleblanc @davidtphung @UseCorgi @trudythecorgi


Precious!


You know it!


Cat cafe, maker space, library vibes for 1517…been talking about this for years!

Wiz 👨🚀

                    @WizLikeWizard

                  Mar 28

                VCs are all the same 🤪


Be the first check, not the last!

Brycent

                    @brycent

                  Mar 28

                Invested in a founder pre-pre seed in 2025

Already up 35x on that investment

Best performing investment in my small angel portfolio thus far

Key takeaway: Be one of the first checks in!


Wouldn’t be 1517 without cats!


The new university should be libraries 💕📖

George Krachtopoulos@krachtopoulos
                  Mar 28

                Replying to @DStrachman
                Such places will become the new universities that are slowly emerging. Places that actually honor the principles of learning, exploration, and experimenting/building, since most educational institutions have drifted to credentials.


You gotta be library maxxing

zöda

                    @zodattack

                  Mar 28

                it’s so cool that there’s so many free weworks everywhere in nyc (public libraries)


Be the first check, not the last!

Brad Carry (VC & Podcaster)

                    @bradcarryvc

                  Mar 27

                POV: you invested $10 in Uber back in 2009


80 is the new 40

Neil Renic@NC_Renic
                  Mar 27

                Kids imagining life at 40 is the most depressing thing i've ever read


That will hopefully reverse


Why is this spot on? 🤣


lol this isn’t me :) I wish!


“Venture capital must not become as top-heavy as it is today. First-check firms provide the discovery of new opportunities. If the downstream market grows out of proportion with that discovery layer, everything begins to crumble.”

Dan Gray

                    @credistick

                  Mar 29

                Venture capital has outgrown its ability to competently manage capital.

The magic of VC is the interface between GP and entrepreneur; making judgements about ideas and people that stretch into the future.

The desire to scale VC into an asset class has undermined that discipline, as the structures that enable scale have obscured idiosyncrasy.

This has observable, measurable consequences. Slower innovation, weaker companies, and slipping returns. A growing desperation expressed in trying to extract more from less.

I sympathise with the honest techno-optimists who believe that more capital means greater acceleration. But that bullish sentiment is being exploited by rent seekers, enabling misallocation and technological stagnation.

In truth, venture capital can scale, but to remain productive it must be scaled proportionally along the right dimensions, without compromising the fundamental mechanics of capital coordination and liquidity.

1) Venture capital must not become as top-heavy as it is today. First-check firms provide the discovery of new opportunities. If the downstream market grows out of proportion with that discovery layer, everything begins to crumble.

2) Exits must not be delayed in order to absorb more capital. Going public is extremely beneficial for innovative companies, and has positive externalities for innovation generally. Private capital feels easier, but it is poison in the long-run.

With this in mind, I propose four pillars of scaling venture capital toward greater productivity, in the context of national capitalism — how states can wield capital for industrial growth:

The first pillar is to remember that venture capital is an exit business, not an endlessly printing markups business. Companies should be oriented towards an exit once they reach an appropriate scale and are sufficiently derisked. Historically, that has been somewhere between 6–8 years. It may be longer for others that require it (see: SpaceX), which is fine.

In practice, that means not wilfully shovelling growth capital into businesses that would otherwise be public. Which means finding a more productive purpose for that capital, which may be challenging for large, lazy allocators.

(Building on themes explored in a large body of research, cited in Hitting Escape Velocity.)

The second pillar is to ensure that the foundation of small and emerging managers is robust, producing a healthy stream of opportunity. This runs contrary to larger VC incentives and LP bias toward brand power, but the alternative is concentration that rots returns and consensus that rots innovation.

(Building on work by Martin Aragoneses of INSEAD and Harvard University’s Department of Economics, and Sagar Saxena of the University of Pennsylvania.)

The third is to ensure R&D intensive technologies have access to patient early capital that can carry them through to commercialisation. This helps prevent VC simply flowing down the path of least resistance to scalable software slop. Where venture capitalists do not quite have the courage to back novel “HALO” technologies from inception, they may need outside support.

(Building on research by Kyle Briggs of the University of Ottawa Department of Physics.)

The fourth is to provide access to well-structured mezzanine financing for companies with extreme setup costs, from nuclear plants to clinical trials. This gives early VCs the confidence to invest in these categories knowing there is downstream capital and liquidity when an IPO may be too distant and too risky.

(Building on work by Andrew Lo, of MIT’s Department of Financial Engineering.)

So, in the spirit of Kyle Harrison’s techno-solutionist commitment, here is how we may address those pillars…


Glad you were proactive here! Sending lots of healing love!


What’s your favorite album? Been rocking out to Random Access Memories this morning (Daft Punk) and it’s a total work of art. Start to finish just brilliant.


If you have finished a degree we make rare exception for people work on R&D science that could be commercializable. So likely the work wasn't a fit on the sci fi side for us.

Replying to @MLSophist @bigaxon @1517fund


SO GOOD


Let's get back to the future with Flux! Applications open through April 18th! All wily scientists and explorers welcome to apply.

Michael P Gibson

                    @William_Blake

                  Mar 30

                1517's angel check app is open. If you know anyone filing out the 5th decimal place for a PI in an academic lab who needs a jailbreak, we're the guys you're looking for: 1517.substack.com/p/flux-cap…


Onward and upward, apply to Flux by April 18th!

1517 Fund

                    @1517fund

                  Mar 30

                Don't let this be you.

Don't let your dreams just be your dreams.

Do what Shia LaBeouf couldn't & break free.

Build the future.

                        ALT  alt-text via LLM – "Meme featuring King Charles III wearing ceremonial military dress with a black uniform, decorative sash, medals, and ornate chains, posed against an ornate golden background during his coronation. Text overlay reads: "When your postdoc finally ends" above and "'Early Career Investigator'" below."


We're the first check, not the last!

Wily scientists and explorers, apply to Flux by April 18th


Talk to Haylee! She has thoughts here!


Kickass!

Brayton Williams ⏻

                    @BraytonKey

                  Mar 30

                The story of @BoostVC and @moltbook.

Fund 1 (2016) now at 4.61x DPI 🦞

Congrats @MattPRD and @benparr!!


Thank you! Great leadership!


More funds should support each other's wins! Especially us early birds!


1517 is ready to be your first check, not the last!

✅ Crazy scientist
✅ Wily builder
✅ Ambitious visionary

We want YOU to apply for Flux by April 18th!


Apply here (and tell your wily friends) by April 18th: 1517.substack.com/p/flux-cap…


NEVER LET THEM GO!!!

Caitlin Bolnick Rellas

                    @caitlinbolnick1

                  Mar 31

                I’m sure I’ll get dunked on this bc job is inherently transactional, but one of most surprising (and  disheartening) realizations over time has been that so many VCs are highly transactional/have no EQ (specifically w/ other VCs). We've all been on these TERRIBLE intro calls. So rare to meet a real one. You gotta hold em close.


We need to talk about this on your pitch call :)


No age limit!


Hanging out with friends fully by being unreachable with them and when out.

Dave

                    @GamewithDave

                  Mar 31

                People who actually experienced the 1990s:

What is something you miss from that decade that just isn't the same today


Went to a discussion about AI & art tonight. Could have listened to the artistic director of SF ballet, Tamara Rojo, for hours. She's brilliant.

One question that was asked is what artists might not be paying enough attention to in regards to technology today.

But the question was never flipped about what technologists might be getting wrong about art.

In short order, that which is made by the human hand, soul, and by the might of their craft is going to grow in magnitude and therefore in market dollars.

AI slop backlash and the human spirit revival could drive the greatest art movement (made my humans) we've ever seen and those artists are going to be filthy rich.

Then they become the real patrons and can stop begging for scraps from people who don't get it.


There be mischief afoot tomorrow. Watch out!


Take my money!

𝕬𝖑𝖊𝖐𝖘 𝕰𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖗𝖗@Alexfromsp13746
                  Mar 31

                Вышивка дорогие друзья. Хэнд-мейд, стежок за стежком длинными зимними вечерами.

                    Community note

                  This is not the persons original work/art. He should have cited the actual creator and not been intentionally misleading. The artist is Mike Garcia on threads.

threads.com/@bolshaya.kapu


You can just build things 💗

Give A Shit About Nature

                    @giveashitnature

                  Mar 31

                Tim Wong noticed the California pipevine swallowtail butterfly had nearly vanished from San Francisco.

So he did something about it.

He tracked down the one plant the caterpillars can eat — the California pipevine — got cuttings from the botanical garden, and built a backyard enclosure from scratch.

He started with 20 caterpillars and has now raised thousands. Every year since 2012 more butterflies have been spotted flying free in San Francisco.

Conservation doesn't require a big organization. It can start in your backyard too.

Planting the right native host plants (even in a pot or small patch) is one of the simplest ways to help butterflies like this.

What's one native plant you're growing this spring?


lol...I mean, I'd like to see Jesus filthy rich too.


When Innovations Academy, the charter school myself and an unschooling mom opened in 2008, started we couldn't find a social emotional curriculum that we thought was actually good (and nor were there many that existed and schools were slow to implement them).

Just when we thought that we might have to design our own, we were fortunate to serendipitously find the work of 8 to Great by MK Mueller and implement it in the classroom. Beautiful work!


She also wrote a book on the practice, I'm not sure if she's still working with schools but we were really grateful to work with her: amazon.com/Great-Positive-Ch…


Your customers are your accelerator (and VCs are not your customers)!

GEOFF 🧠💸

                    @geoffwoo

                  Apr 1

                the entire venture capital industry is built on a fundamental lie

VCs tell you they're risk takers who back bold visions

reality: they're sheep who follow consensus and pray for outliers to carry their returns

99% of partners have never built anything themselves
they pattern match to previous winners
they need 3 other VCs to validate before they'll move
they'll ghost you the second momentum slows

real builders know this
thats why the best founders take VC money but ignore VC advice

if you need a VC to tell you what to build, you're already dead

the game is: take their money, build what you know works, prove them all wrong


Schools charge a $50 application fee just to apply.

We charge $0 and we'll pay you $100K to move your research forward and get the most impactful education of your life. You literally have nothing to lose by applying to Flux.

1517 is ready to be your first check, not the last!

✅ Crazy scientist
✅ Wily builder
✅ Ambitious visionary
✅ No age limit
✅ No credentials needed

Apply for Flux by April 18th!


Apply to Flux by April 18th: 1517.substack.com/p/flux-cap…


Bingo!


Been full time on 1517 for over a decade :)


A good floofy butt is a thing of beauty!


application is open!


25,001 followers today. Cool beans! Thanks y'all!


yeah all organic as well. Thank you!


Be the first check, not the last!

Brayton Williams ⏻

                    @BraytonKey

                  Apr 1

                In Q1, @BoostVC invested in 19 (NINETEEN!!!) new Deep Tech companies 💰 (Not April Fools!)

7 of those we were the FIRST VC who said YES 🥇

Looking for more Deep Tech founders in Q2 looking for their first YES 🚀


Nada


We just can't stand the industry. We got into this to support people in shooting their shots...we know we are glorified middlemen.


charming!

Adriana Porter Felt

                    @__apf__

                  Apr 1

                someone at the office got me good


Punks gotta punk

James Lucas

                    @JamesLucasIT

                  Apr 1

                Best classroom April fools prank ever

This professor has a policy that if your phone rings in class, you must answer it on speakerphone, so the students arranged to have a friend call on April fools’ day...


And this is why those handcraft needlepoint women on twitter are going to be the family offices I'm pitching for Fund 6 a number of years from now.

broderick

                    @brodylame

                  Apr 1

                Replying to @DStrachman
                my appreciation for real art has own grown magnitudes since AI stuff has become the norm. Like i actually pay real money for handmade stuff or stuff that has unqiue covers because it speaks way more to me compared to how it used to.


dispatch your angels 😭

Juanita Broaddrick

                    @atensnut

                  Mar 31

                Video going viral of kids going to their pastor’s home asking for prayers after seeing something upsetting.


Our fund which will be funded by artists because they will all be filthy rich.


I am flabbergasted by the shenanigans of our founders and their penchant for tomfoolery.

SubRosa )✿( Magick @subrosamagick.bsky.social

                    @SubRosaMagick

                  Apr 1

                Be honest… does ANYONE actually use these words in real life? 🤣

Bamboozled
Flabbergasted
Discombobulated
Shenanigans
Cattywampus
Lollygag
Malarkey
Kerfuffle
Brouhaha
Nincompoop
Skedaddle
Tomfoolery
Flibbertigibbet
Pumpernickel￼


"I came across your account on X and honestly wasn't sure if you were legit at first because your whole feed is just you posting opportunities and ways to help people."

😂🤣😆☠


Can't wait to check it out!


individuals are great!


Alllllll the floof!


SF people being so SF:

“It's been a while and I would love to catch up. Do you have plans to be in SF? So I can catch you while you're here. Otherwise I'll have to plan a day trip to Oakland soon.”

Bro, Oakland isn’t a “day trip” — it’s a couple BART stops over.


It’s them telling you that they wouldn’t make the “trip.”


Effort is effortful! In SF itself it can take longer to go from the Presidio to the Mission.


One can mean no offense and still be offensive lol.


It’s a shame that the Bay can’t get its shit together. Everyone suffers for it.


It can be but this is also true of getting from the Presidio to the Mission at the wrong time of day.


Way to expand your horizons lol


One of our most wily investments!

Be the first check, not the last!

Eve Labs

                    @EveLabsAI

                  Apr 2

                Today we're announcing our thought-to-search system, morphism. This open-weights pipeline lets you decode your thoughts using only the broadly available @OpenBCI Cyton! Try it now:

huggingface.co/evelabs/morph…


I can’t even


They’ve never been to Rockridge, the Hills, Piedmont….thats like saying the Tenderloin is all of SF.


Optimization is why no one has any vibes.


Better late than never!


But couldn’t we just make the list and “award” people?

John Potter spirit/acc

                    @potterlab

                  Apr 2

                Starting a 30 over 30 list

Hit me up if you’d like to be featured and have a penchant for fraud


Make it rain!!!

Augustus Doricko

                    @ADoricko

                  Apr 3

                We’re going to save the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River from drought by making it rain and snow

Thanks for coming by @GadiNBC !


Smart!


You know what Fridays are great for? Starting your Flux application!

Send us your wily and weird ideas that you want to bring to life!

Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕

                    @DStrachman

                  Apr 1

                Schools charge a $50 application fee just to apply.

We charge $0 and we'll pay you $100K to move your research forward and get the most impactful education of your life. You literally have nothing to lose by applying to Flux.

1517 is ready to be your first check, not the last!

✅ Crazy scientist
✅ Wily builder
✅ Ambitious visionary
✅ No age limit
✅ No credentials needed

Apply for Flux by April 18th!


What if you filled out the application and it rocked your entire world?!


Let's go Liam!!

Liam Adams

                    @liamgadams

                  Apr 3

                yesterday @DStrachman told me to stop perfecting and just ship,

Ive been building CoDuck since august, the site works, ai generates real sites, previews spin up, backend is solid. I just keep finding reasons to not launch because I always tell myself it could be better.

that's done.

next 2 weeks i'm finishing the last few things and then i'm going live. posting every day, getting beta testers, letting real people break it.

and here's our new website :)


Yo, stop asking for permission and just apply!


Community scales and compounds over time.

10 years in is an institutional knowledge unlock between makers, founders, and our LPs (like OG Thiel Fellows).

They’ve been there, done that, and are paying it forward.

Auren Hoffman

                    @auren

                  Apr 3

                no single investor can help a portfolio company with everything. but a portfolio of 300 founders can help with almost anything. someone dealt with that exact situation last month. that community is gold


Your job is to under promise and over deliver.

No dice on a markup here. Wait until the priced round but include the progress in your quarterly narrative write up.

Mike Annunziata

                    @nunzi46

                  Apr 3

                One of the tougher things to do as an emerging manager is avoid marking your book to SAFE caps

Fundraising is hard, and you want to show LPs portfolio progress

It goes something like this:

2 months into raising, a company you seeded raises $5, $50, even $500M(!)

Maybe it’s an institutional lead, maybe it’s SPV capital

Press announces the cap as the “Valuation”…good air cover!

But the fact is, the dollars came in on a SAFE with a cap

What do you do?

Do you take the mark? Do you footnote it? Ignore it completely? Do you tweet about it and take a victory lap, but keep the mark flat?

Hard question!


He has risen!

Zelda

                    @zeldapoem

                  Apr 3

                What if we had a date at Hunky Jesus contest at Dolores Park on Sunday 👉👈


Research I can get behind!

Nicholas Fabiano, MD

                    @NTFabiano

                  Apr 2

                A short afternoon nap restores brain neuroplasticity.


OGs gotta OG

Tim Draper

                    @TimDraper

                  Apr 2

                Series A “winners” rarely become the real big winners.

Everyone's chasing the obvious picks:
-The one with the famous founder
-The company with the flashiest pitch deck
-The startup that's already getting press coverage

The real winners are quietly building.

At Series A:
→ Tesla was bleeding cash and Elon wasn't even involved yet.
→ Hotmail couldn't afford the servers for their free service - literally running out of infrastructure while users flooded in.
→ Skype was dealing with legal issues that made investors nervous.
→ Oklo faced regulatory nightmares that seemed impossible to overcome.
→ Coinbase was getting attacked from both sides. Purists said they were too centralized, banks wanted them gone.

These companies looked messy.

But they were solving real problems for real people, even if it looked
ugly doing it.


Of course he’s an orange boy !

Fahad Naim

                    @Fahadnaimb

                  Apr 2

                Picture this: you're half-asleep on a Lufthansa flight when the cabin lights suddenly flip on. Turns out a big orange cat had escaped its carrier and decided to go exploring. Passengers stayed super quiet, flight attendants grabbed flashlights at first, and everyone teamed up to gently catch the fluffy escape artist without freaking it out.
In the end, the cat was safe and the whole cabin handled it like pros.


I can tell you that the guy in the middle is both...his guitar playing, much like his physics jamming, is incendiary!


This is dumb and I'd wager that the more insecure an investor, the more likely they are to believe this.

Steph from OpenVC

                    @StephNass

                  Apr 3

                Founders who reply fast to text/emails are perceived as more likely to succeed.

You'll hear that from a lot from VCs.

Therefore, founders who are slow to reply are perceived… less likely to succeed.


Appreciate you!


“So, you’re like a VC with a heart!”

Visiting with an old friend and her brother who is a successful serial entrepreneur.


lol


Hence why I have a real lawn!


Let’s get through this together!


Want to really turn my whole place into a biodiverse feast so making the land really work matters!


Escape from captivity today!

Apply to Flux by April 18

Michael P Gibson

                    @William_Blake

                  Mar 30

                1517's angel check app is open. If you know anyone filing out the 5th decimal place for a PI in an academic lab who needs a jailbreak, we're the guys you're looking for: 1517.substack.com/p/flux-cap…


This is the type of R&D we love, apply!

Replying to @Chris_Kaminsk1 @William_Blake


This is why we can’t have nice things.


This is why I will walk an hour one way from the Embarcadero bart station to get to a demo day or a meeting.

Replying to @Seraph_Notitia @AnnaLeptikon


My godkids need room to run, we have veggie beds too!

Replying to @MsSlothrop @Seraph_Notitia @potterlab


We really need an “Alice” going to the moon. The memes would be spectacular.

Sakshi Narula

                    @mssakshinarula

                  Apr 5

                I love it when women go to the moon. What a picture 🥹


When YMCA blasts at the airport and you’re looking for your other dorks.


Go ahead dude!

Replying to @paramendra @Seraph_Notitia @AnnaLeptikon


My 12 year old mentee (started mentoring him at 10 and gave him a grant about 6 months ago to dig in on robotics) just started signing off on his emails with "Stay curious". He's going places!


I want to see that from an 85 year old lol


Go Alby Go! Excited to see him in Sydney, Australia at the Sunrise conference!

Alby Churven

                    @albysjourney

                  Apr 3

                AI gave people the ability to build anything.

But not something beautiful.

Introducing Clovr.
Create beautiful, ready-to-use frontends and UI from a prompt.


I dunno, I really think consent should be more of a thing with animals so stuff like this *looks cool* but I fear that it isn't cool for the animal.

Replying to @Patrick_Maksoud @sciencegirl


We all need to zone out sometimes

WeRateDogs

                    @dog_rates

                  Apr 7

                This is Brandy. She practices self-care by dissociating in the bathtub. 13/10 honestly no notes


Met a good number of families who homeschooled just for middle school years.

Michael Strong

                    @flowidealism

                  Apr 8

                Elementary school damages some kids. Middle school damages most of them. Little kids are still hopeful and optimistic. But middle school? Brutality, vulgarity, exposure to sex and drugs, bullying. Your sweet, innocent child you raised carefully, put in an environment with the worst elements you can imagine.

And you don't know about it. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it: parents pay the schoolmaster to teach their child, but it's the schoolboys who actually educate him. Peer pressure is massive. What your kid won't tell you about is what everyone else is doing. If you could listen in, you wouldn't want your child exposed to half of it.


It's time to flex your Flux! Applications open for 10 more days and might be the start of an epic journey!


They can just watch Mean Girls -- it's a documentary, lol.

There are plenty of things that can forge character, being bullied by 13 year olds unmercifully doesn't need to be one of them.


Naturally!


I think there are lots of times to experience these things. At the playground, in groups of children in general, in their own family, etc. Middle school can be pure lord of the flies (not enough adults to help in handling situations, parents who don't know what to do, etc) and I don't think one needs that intensity of a lesson to get the lesson.

When we started our charter school 20 years ago and had a social emotional curriculum and a no homework policy, parents wondered how their children would fair later and feared having "too nice" of an environment. The outcome was that they seemed to thrive in their high school environments even when they were vastly different from ours.


One thing that I learned from one of our founders who has a gaggle of kids is that much of the parent journey is untying the Gordian knot of what he is triggered by in his children because he didn’t have something better growing up himself.

Coping is really healthy and it’s hard to learn that maybe our young people don’t have to cope the way we did.


I also think humans don’t live long enough to understand that normal in a generation isn’t necessarily normal for humans. This is one reason I’m excited about longevity — it brings perspective.


This is my happy place


Spread those wings!

Cyan Banister

                    @cyantist

                  Apr 9

                We have an awesome surprise coming from @LongJourneyVC that will hopefully raise millions of dollars for inflection grants.

Inflectiongrants.com

Can't wait to see what you all think.

Every grant goes to a young person starting out in their life. It's a small amount of money, $2k but it's enough to make all the difference in the world. We track the outcomes and I can't wait to see all the butterfly 🦋 flaps down the road.

More soon!!


Just 9 days left to apply!

And, as weird as this is to say, actual humans on the 1517 team will read your application.

You (yes, you) are worth our eyeballs and not being filtered out by an algorithm.


Up, up, and away!

Got to sign a Xona satellite that will go to space today 💗

Be the first check, not the last!!

Xona

                    @XonaSpace

                  Apr 6

                The next era of navigation starts with you.

With 40+ open roles across engineering, product, production, and business, there's no better time to join Xona.

xonaspace.com/careers


Teens, are you accelerating on your math? Or stuck on a math problem you refuse to give up on?

Chiron (1517 portco) writes the smallest hint on your page - just enough to keep you thinking, without spoiling the math.

Check it out! Best used on an iPad/tablet:

apps.apple.com/us/app/projec…


Be the first check, not the last!

We were in the first round and mostly the first check of these high performers!

Pavel Prata

                    @pavelprata

                  Apr 9

                Look at @1517fund Fund I ($20M, 2015).

@William_Blake and @DStrachman left the Thiel Fellowship to back founders no one else would write a check to – too young, no degree, no pedigree.

As of January 2026: 9.65x TVPI, 4.41x DPI.

A few outcomes 👇

@loom (Seed, 2016 → ~$975M @Atlassian acquisition)

@LambdaAPI (~$4M early round → $5.9B Series E)

@DeepgramAI (Early seed → $130M raise at $1.3B, 2026)

@luminartech ($3.4B SPAC IPO, 2020 → Chapter 11, 2025)

@Atom_Computing (~$722M Series C-1 valuation, $272M+ raised)

@nTopology (~$398M Series D valuation, $135M+ raised, 300+ enterprise customers)

Net IRR: 38.86%, above Cambridge Associates' top-5% threshold for 2015-vintage funds (34.99%).

@1517fund is a reminder that early-stage outperformance often comes from underwriting founder intensity before the resume looks investable.


Loom was a 1X all on its own!

And yes the Luminar news has been incredibly disappointing :(

Replying to @UTEX_io @pavelprata @1517fund @William_Blake @loom


Do this for artists too!

Steph from OpenVC

                    @StephNass

                  Apr 9

                If a friend or family starts a small business, don't go there and expect a discount.

Go there, pay twice the price and tell your other friends.


Let’s go Xona!

Xona

                    @XonaSpace

                  Apr 9

                Xona CEO Brian Manning talks progress to deploying Pulsar on @tbpn

"We've designed our capability to be just a software update so that we can integrate in billions of devices out there today"


Are we crazy? Or crazy awesome?

Michael Strong

                    @flowidealism

                  Apr 9

                Kudos (and remarkable returns) to @1517fund for investing in young people, often teenagers, when everyone thought they were crazy.


Appreciate Hustle Fund team reposting. It takes strong character to celebrate another funds’ wins!


Shoot your shot with 1517, your dreams could be realized.

We have multiple front doors:

- Apply to Flux by April 18th
- Be in touch on our contact form
- Message one of us


Flux application here, apply by April 18th: 1517.substack.com/p/flux-cap…


We had such a 🔥 chat!

sracha

                    @srachasaucee

                  Apr 9

                If you don't hit a life crisis, it's coming for you.

My interview with @DStrachman, cofounder of 1517 Fund and Thiel Fellowship.

1:02 The terrifying role luck plays in success
8:16 The pursuit of excellence is exhausting
15:39 Finding her mission of bringing freedom & autonomy to young people
24:56 Why is it so hard to attain clarity of desire
25:31 People get threatened by others enacting on their desires
31:07 Is there an age deadline to being exceptional?
39:22 Incredible stories over the years ft. Shahed from Loom
45:23 How to survive uncertainty
50:33 The point is not to get what you want
52:40 How does it feel that this is your life


Such a wonderful interview, thank you!


Got to drop some wisdom here! Thank you for the deep dive, so fun to chat with you!


So excited that 1517 is going to space!

Xona

                    @XonaSpace

                  Apr 9

                signatures fly free ™


That you are!


Up, up, and away! Congrats to 1517 Fund II portco!

Xona

                    @XonaSpace

                  Apr 9

                Today we opened our satellite manufacturing facility—alongside @RepKevinMullin and partners across the space and tech ecosystem.

From this facility, we’ll produce and deploy a constellation of 250+ American-made satellites over the next five years—at a total cost lower than a single traditional GPS satellite on orbit today.


My fav after small/work talk is “so what are you irrationally passionate about?”

Bruno Faviero

                    @Bfaviero

                  Apr 10

                I forgot SF people open conversations with weird questions like “what’s bringing you joy lately”


Crazy? Or crazy awesome?

Kendra 🐙

                    @StretchGoat_

                  Apr 10

                Replying to @DStrachman

                      ALT  Why Not Both Take Both GIF


Bizarre flex.

Genuine human 1517 eyeballs will read your application (we read all of our “Get in touch” contact forms on our website too — some of our best teams have come through the front door).

You are worth a read and algorithms are a disservice to the time and energy you are putting into this.

You’re not a number at 1517, you’re a person with hopes and dreams and we treat that with respect.

Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕

                    @DStrachman

                  Apr 1

                Schools charge a $50 application fee just to apply.

We charge $0 and we'll pay you $100K to move your research forward and get the most impactful education of your life. You literally have nothing to lose by applying to Flux.

1517 is ready to be your first check, not the last!

✅ Crazy scientist
✅ Wily builder
✅ Ambitious visionary
✅ No age limit
✅ No credentials needed

Apply for Flux by April 18th!


These are crazy good — which is why I never buy them.

copper tone baby@momentofftruth
                  Apr 9

                Love these candies. Makes me feel like a shark chewing internet cables thousands of miles beneath the ocean surface.


Stories like this make the Bay Area, the Bay Area.

The respect, the humility, and the drive all stand out for both the adults and this teen. Not many places this could happen.

RetroBayArea

                    @RetroBayArea

                  Apr 10

                One of the first whiz kids of Silicon Valley. Los Altos, 1984.

I love this kid. His name was Tracey Cullinan and it makes me so beyond sad that he didn’t get to live out a full life and realize his full potential.


Get your morning started with Dave Matthews. You’re welcome!


It’s Friday, Friday, gotta start your app on Friday.

So you can complete Flux on your weekend!

Applications close April 18!


Sounds epic!


Be the first check, not the last!

So excited for Janett and Erika!

theguardian.com/business/202…


Happy tears, so sweet <3


Ohhhh yeah! (See DMs)


Incredible!

NASA

                    @NASA

                  Apr 11

                Replying to @NASA
                Welcome home Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy! 🫶

The Artemis II astronauts have splashed down at 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11), bringing their historic 10-day mission around the Moon to an end.


Incredible!


Very cool!

Andreas Klinger 🦾

                    @andreasklinger

                  Apr 10

                When I was a founder, every VC fund looked identical. Same landing page, same language, zero transparency into how they actually worked or what they actually believed. I couldn't figure out who was aligned with what I was building.

So we're doing something about it: we're open-sourcing our investor updates. Same document our LPs get, fully public, nothing redacted.

We hope by being transparent we can build trust with the best people to join our mission.

Future founders who will build generational companies right here in Europe and future community members who will support them.

We just published the first one. Let me walk you through it.

❤🔥🇪🇺


May it be so!!!


This is what life long learning looks like!

Lee Knowlton

                    @leeknowlton

                  Apr 11

                Just had my first violin private lesson.

4yo is doing piano with the teacher next door, so I thought why not.
Played as a child, but always with school/city/county orchestras, but we could never afford 1-on-1 lessons.

Hoping so badly to get to do a father-son duet someday!


Nikunj Kothari

                    @nikunj

                  Apr 11

                I was writing a (relatively) long essay on all my learnings of transitioning to a VC ~two years ago..

But, decided to whittle it down to a tight 11 bullet point list (some are cliches, but oh so true):

1. Get on the flight -don’t question it.

2. Deals often die on the weekends.

3. If it’s not wired, it’s not done yet.

4. Conviction is never found in the data room.

5. Naïvety is a virtue, not a weakness.

6. In early stage, pick two: founder, market, product -then believe that the third catches up.

7. The right deal at the wrong time is still the wrong deal.

8. In the land of hubris, constraints still reign king.

9. Slow no’s are worse than fast no’s. Way worse.

10. Your last deal should teach you more than your first.

11. Above all else, pick integrity.

---

If you are an experienced VC, please add more to this.

If you as a reader are curious about any of these, please ask questions.

Grateful to have this extremely privileged opportunity!


Investors love to tout that companies that send monthly/quarterly updates are better founders.

Our best founders don’t do that. They are building their companies, not doing paperwork to make me feel better.

None of the companies below sent quarterly updates. This doesn’t mean that founders shouldn’t, but it also doesn’t mean that it matters.

So how does 1517 continue to build conviction in teams (since we follow on and preempt rounds)? We have proactive reviews with them, to hear about progress and see where we can support them. No need for homework when we can just have a chat.


Rahul invested in 1517!

pc

                    @pavithran_pc

                  Apr 10

                Fundraising hack: drop "Rahul invested in us" at a party.

There are 56 Rahul's across 326 Indian VC firms. Everyone will assume it's the Rahul they know.

If you don't have a Rahul in your cap table, you're ngmi!!


One of the top founder traits we look for!

Kpaxs

                    @Kpaxs

                  Apr 10

                Here’s a cheat code: find something that fascinates you and then share your fascination.

The energy of genuine fascination is the most compelling force in human communication. More than eloquence. More than authority. More than charisma. A person who is visibly, unreservedly excited about something is magnetic.


A teacher and a a philosopher did this.

We were told when we first started that we should be a nonprofit since we were building a community, giving out grants (Deepgram started as a $1K grantee with 1517) and making investments.

The idea that you could serve a mission and make money seemed absurd.

But sometimes the answer is to shut out the noise and keep building.

Pavel Prata

                    @pavelprata

                  Apr 9

                Look at @1517fund Fund I ($20M, 2015).

@William_Blake and @DStrachman left the Thiel Fellowship to back founders no one else would write a check to – too young, no degree, no pedigree.

As of January 2026: 9.65x TVPI, 4.41x DPI.

A few outcomes 👇

@loom (Seed, 2016 → ~$975M @Atlassian acquisition)

@LambdaAPI (~$4M early round → $5.9B Series E)

@DeepgramAI (Early seed → $130M raise at $1.3B, 2026)

@luminartech ($3.4B SPAC IPO, 2020 → Chapter 11, 2025)

@Atom_Computing (~$722M Series C-1 valuation, $272M+ raised)

@nTopology (~$398M Series D valuation, $135M+ raised, 300+ enterprise customers)

Net IRR: 38.86%, above Cambridge Associates' top-5% threshold for 2015-vintage funds (34.99%).

@1517fund is a reminder that early-stage outperformance often comes from underwriting founder intensity before the resume looks investable.


Maybe efficiency isn’t efficient.

Also, we are proactive about setting up one on ones. Most investors don’t ask for them and generally talk to founders in a reactive state (“zomg competitor in the nEwS!!).

So maybe updates are “good” for reactive types, but reaction is late to the party.


And if the outlier founders don’t write updates, then the onus is on investors to step up to the plate and do some work.

Otherwise missed opportunities abound.


Dude is ngmi

Brycent

                    @brycent

                  Apr 11

                Best places in SF for late night food.

Legit starving lol


Best bet might be getting on a flight to NYC


Time to fly to NYC!


Dude should have u-turned and asked her to share why canasta is her favorite game.

Siqi Chen

                    @blader

                  Apr 11

                at dinner with my wife

couple next to us on a first date

date’s going well, she’s into it

then:

guy: “i’m really into this really complicated card game”

girl: “oh my god, is it canasta? i LOVE canasta!””

guy: “it’s called magic: the gathering.”

me (inside): ohhh nooooo …


Build up!!!

Jake Moffatt@jakeonrails
                  Apr 10

                Holy shit this slaps

San Francisco 2035:


Gn (laugh)

Paul Bronks

                    @SlenderSherbet

                  Apr 10

                Me: Why am I always broke?

Amazon: Your horse's Thomas the Tank Engine costume has been delivered.


I have a new favorite account

Will Quinn@willquinnart
                  Mar 28

                Daily bunny no.3271 doing a stage dive

                        ALT  A bunny in a band, wearing a leather jacket and ripped shirt, dives into a small crowd of punk rocker bunnies. On the outdoor stage at night, the bunny guitarist of the band is also visible


I’m from the east coast. Gotta go home and visit enough so I don’t waste away.


We love being the first check. The returns are great but the feeling of being belief capital is unmeasurable.

Dan Gray

                    @credistick

                  Apr 11

                While the majority of venture capital can be classified as "money chasing deals", @1517fund has consistently been the first money into their portfolio companies.

They've backed some of the most ambitious founders you might have heard of, including:

- @ADoricko seeding atmospheric rivers
- @trsohmers creating next-gen AI hardware
- @ethanrthornton scaling defense platforms
- @royanaieni building autonomous bio labs

The secret to @William_Blake and @DStrachman's success? They embrace the remarkable idiosyncracy of greatness.

No credentialism, no lazy thinking, no following trends. Just consistently looking for the most brilliant minds being applied to the most important problems.

"Danielle and Michael really are some of the greats because they are not "VCs"; rather, they are using the tools of venture capital to fulfill their mission on earth, which is to help young people build cool shit."
- @zeldapoem, founder of @nautilusquest


No matter what, stay strong! Sadly capital partnership is where we are most limited.


If only not writing updates were the keys to success.


There are always outliers!


Just messaged him :)

Replying to @Fitz_Doud @tomhyde_ @DavidDeutschOxf


Many of us, need a nudge to shoot our shot.

Who do you want to encourage to apply for Flux?

$100K investment to work on sci fi tech! We're ready to be the first check.

✅No age limits
✅No degree/credentials/work experience needed
✅No geographic restrictions
✅The stranger the better
✅Wily builder/crazy scientists encouraged

Applications are due April 18th! Link in comments.


Apply to Flux by April 18th: 1517.substack.com/p/flux-cap…


That's the plan!


Does somebody smell bacon? Because it's cookin' in here!

Dustin Burnham

                    @dustinthedad

                  Apr 11

                Braille was invented by Lewis Braille at 15.

The calculator was invented by Blaise Pascal at 18.

Newton developed calculus, gravity, and physics at 22.

Let’s take the handcuffs off of our young geniuses and let them cook. This is how we do it.


Shoot your shot!!!!!


Wheeeeeeee

gregorio catarino@gregcatarino1
                  Apr 11

                Shawn Braley


It’s good to be good but it’s better to be good and lucky.

blue@bluewmist
                  Apr 12

                the best thing you can do for yourself is actively increase your surface area for luck to hit you. go outside, try new cafes, museums, events, take a new route home, speak to people, ask questions, side quest.
the more you do, the more serendipity and synchronicity will find you.


Easy peasy!

Tracy Simek

                    @TracySimek

                  Apr 13

                Replying to @bluewmist @DStrachman
                Be involved, add value before you try to extract value, build and nurture relationships, be a good friend, be curious, be passionate about something!


Applications close on Saturday!

✅ Shoot your shot
✅ Help a friend to shoot their shot

Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕

                    @DStrachman

                  Apr 11

                Many of us, need a nudge to shoot our shot.

Who do you want to encourage to apply for Flux?

$100K investment to work on sci fi tech! We're ready to be the first check.

✅No age limits
✅No degree/credentials/work experience needed
✅No geographic restrictions
✅The stranger the better
✅Wily builder/crazy scientists encouraged

Applications are due April 18th! Link in comments.


Give us your flex on the Flux application! Due Saturday!

Michael P Gibson

                    @William_Blake

                  Apr 13

                Escape from the academic coal mine and breathe the fresh air of doing your own thing  -- apply to our 1517 summer program!


See you at Camp Hustle!

Haley Bryant 💛

                    @haleymbryant

                  Apr 12

                I was so jealous of the kids that went to sleepaway camp growing up.

A week sans parents, to make friends while playing, learning and talking late into the night while sitting under the stars.

12yo me would be happy to know that camping actually gets better as an adult (AC + no tents/bug spray/1st aid kits required).

Excited to go back to camp for a 5th year, and to spend 3 days playing bocce/cornhole, learning from the best VCs and founders, and talking late into the night with friends and new.

1 month countdown…hope to see you there!

🏕


If you’re seeing this, it’s a sign!

Apply to Flux with your strange ideas by April 18th.


BART celebrating Autism Awareness in the station over the loud speaker and then getting hit with the BART screech in the tunnel is not lost on me.


Exactly


Depends on progress but usually between 7 - 10% equity.


Copying is a form of flattery!

Too bad that they didn’t copy the “we don’t care what school you come from or if you ever went” part.

Apply to 1517’s Flux (the OG program) by April 18th.

Lan Jiang

                    @lanjiang653

                  Apr 13

                It’s time to apply for the 2026 f(Lux) Fellowship.

The best ideas for a new approach to an old problem sometimes show up in dorm rooms, campus labs, and late-night group chats. Raw, ambitious, and years ahead of what most people are willing to fund.

Last year, through the first f(Lux) Fellowship, we took a bet on 13 undergrads building at the edges of what's possible. They came from @UCBerkeley, @UWaterloo, @Stanford, @MIT, and @Harvard. Our fellows spanned freshman to senior, with nearly half international.

Four have founded companies, four are early or founding employees at startups, and multiple fellows who met through f(Lux) are now building together.

The fields reshaping our future – computational biology, AI infrastructure, advanced materials, aerospace and defense – do not respect departmental boundaries, and neither do the best people building in them. They’re the ones turning sci-fi into sci-fact.

If you’re an undergrad running experiments nobody assigned you to, building tools to unblock your own research, or working on something your professor thinks is too early… this Fellowship is for you.

You’ll receive a $15,000 non-dilutive grant, dual mentorship from the Lux investment team and portfolio, and two all-expenses-covered retreats: a kickoff in New York and a closing Fellows Summit in September.

No incorporation needed. No polish required. Just genuine obsession and a problem worth solving.
Applications due by May 26th, 2026: luxcapital.com/fellowship


Apply by April 18th! 1517.substack.com/p/flux-cap…


What do you want to make absurd?

Looking forward to reading your application this weekend!


We have had our names copied so many times. But nobody can copy us :D


I’ll take inception as a good thing. Just wish people copied the important parts.


An applicant writes “I thrive in the wild” and I love that!

✅ If you thrive in the wild
✅ Have ever been called feral
✅ Are crazy/crazy awesome

Apply to Flux by Saturday, April 18!


Twisted!

John Felix

                    @johnfelix123

                  Apr 13

                Hearing more stories of GPs dropping early LPs after success to “upgrade” their LP base in later funds.

If you do this, you suck.

Those early LPs took real risk on you and your success was only possible because of them.


Love the Good Will Hunting drawing.


Such a treasure

Danielle Baskin@djbaskin
                  Apr 14

                turned a bus stop bench into a solo jazz cup


I hope so!


5 days left to shoot your shot or encourage someone to shoot theirs!


5 days left to shoot your shot!

I want to be your first check, not the last!


Increase your surface area for luck! Apply to Flux!

✅ Applications due Saturday
✅ Our team will read your application, not a slop machine.
✅ You will know where you stand in the application pool
✅ We are ready to be your first check!

Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕

                    @DStrachman

                  Apr 14

                5 days left to shoot your shot!

I want to be your first check, not the last!


Love you!

Cats That Make You Go Awww

                    @CuteAdorableCat

                  Apr 15

                Cat put on a performance of a life time 👏


Keep going!


See you soon!

Replying to @caitlinbolnick1 @jakobdiepen @DiscipulusVent


Got a very non linear email...felt appropriate to respond in haiku:

1517
Death kiss to applications
Bright skies ahead


“The best part of being libertarian is that you never get into power” - Palmer Luckey at the Discipulus demo day


Walkin’ in a Gundo wonderland!

So good to see you! 💗💗💗

Replying to @ChadCazel @BlackwingVC @jakobdiepen @DiscipulusVent @William_Blake @Pete_DiSalvo_BW @PalmerLuckey


Thanks Panda Express!


She founders aren’t sure what to work on, I ask them about their passions from childhood. Sometimes it lights a spark.

Isabel🌻

                    @isabelunraveled

                  Apr 16

                Unironically: start doing what worked for you as a child and watch that same curiosity and endless presence return. Read the old books you used to love. Eat at the same times you used to eat. Research your childhood interests. Do sports. Your brain will start to light up again.


They are fun! Thank you!

Replying to @karanbhangui @ChadCazel @BlackwingVC @jakobdiepen @DiscipulusVent @William_Blake @Pete_DiSalvo_BW @PalmerLuckey


Ready to read your applications for Flux! 3 more days to apply!


Fear not, file for the extension!

Dr. Jen Wolkin | ADHD + Trauma Therapist

                    @drjenwolkin

                  Apr 15

                Good evening to everyone in the USA with ADHD who are just starting to do their taxes. I believe in you, and hope the urgency has finally kicked in. I extended 🤣🤦🏻♀. XO, Dr. Jen


Thanks Mat!


This carrots me up!

horse dentist

                    @equine__dentist

                  Apr 15

                “hmmmm yes the employees do need a celery raise”


Do it!

Jim O'Shaughnessy

                    @jposhaughnessy

                  Apr 15

                Our @osvllc 2026 Fellowship and Grants Program now has 5,619 applications from 166 countries!

Application deadline is April 30, 2026, so you still have time to apply.

Do it.

osvfellowship.com/map


It was a really good day!

Replying to @akalmans @joel_chakra @jakobdiepen @ADoricko @DiscipulusVent @PalmerLuckey @texheavy @fedpoasts


Now that I have two bunnies, 🐰 I have to say that it is really precious (but the bonding process did take time).

Science girl

                    @sciencegirl

                  Apr 15

                A man raised a grey rabbit who had never known another of its kind and was very lonely, its little heart heavy.

One day, the owner rescued a shy white rabbit and brought it home. From that moment on, the grey rabbit lit up, gently hugging and caring for its new friend


Gn

PmAmTraveller

                    @pmamtraveller

                  Apr 15

                "Sleep Well" by Mulgil Kim.


We are here to serve!

Replying to @henryhaske @ChadCazel @jjkaplowitz @BlackwingVC @jakobdiepen @DiscipulusVent @William_Blake @Pete_DiSalvo_BW @PalmerLuckey


Just 2 days left for Flux! Shoot your shot!

We're excited to read your application <3

Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕

                    @DStrachman

                  Apr 16

                Ready to read your applications for Flux! 3 more days to apply!


What I really want to say to people who are mimetically hijacked:

“It's not too late for you to become a person of substance, Russell."

(If you know this quote without looking it up, you are my people)


You won't have to tell them, but maybe help them to not make matters worse.


I don’t but Almost Famous is my favorite movie of all time and I watch every couple of years.


If you want to understand 1517 better, watch Almost Famous.

Mike is Lester Bangs and I’m Elaine.

DataScienceWeekly

                    @DataSciNews

                  Apr 16

                Replying to @DStrachman
                Lester with some bangers:

- The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool

- The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious


3.5 = 25

network with = love

Drew Fallon

                    @drewfallon12

                  Apr 16

                from a VC


So sorry Garry :(


Hugs!


1 Day left to shoot your shot!

$100K investment to work on sci fi tech! We're ready to be the first check.

✅No age limits
✅No degree/credentials/work experience needed
✅The stranger the better
✅Wily builder/crazy scientists encouraged
✅No deck needed

Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕

                    @DStrachman

                  Apr 11

                Many of us, need a nudge to shoot our shot.

Who do you want to encourage to apply for Flux?

$100K investment to work on sci fi tech! We're ready to be the first check.

✅No age limits
✅No degree/credentials/work experience needed
✅No geographic restrictions
✅The stranger the better
✅Wily builder/crazy scientists encouraged

Applications are due April 18th! Link in comments.


Follow your dreams or get an internship. You decide!

Gopi Rangan@gopirangan
                  Mar 24

                Some founders follow the path. Others feel their idea cannot wait.

@DStrachman and Michael Gibson from @1517fund invest in young builders chasing ambitious ideas.

@figma @sureventures

#deeptech #artificialintelligence #sci-fi #venturecapital #startups #entrepreneurship


adorable!

Taylor Day

                    @TABYTCHI

                  Apr 16

                Her little world is so big 🥹


Last day for Flux applications! Get yours in by midnight!


Not into it. Quotes are fine but that’s not even me.


Gm

Nature Unedited

                    @NatureUnedited

                  Apr 18

                At an aquarium in South Korea, after closing time, some clever little otter pups help their grandpa tidy up their toys. As a reward, he gives them ice cubes

                    Community note

                  The video shows sea otters at Toba Aquarium in Japan, not South Korea. aquarium.co.jp/en/ youtube.com/watch?v=qDMIAp


Sounds like our jam, shoot your shot!


Write up about Flux here: 1517.substack.com/p/flux-cap…

Application here: 1517.smapply.us/prog/flux202…


Last day to apply to 1517's Flux! Unlike other programs, we could care less about if or where you went to school.

What we care about is that you have the drive, ambition, and ability to get started on something great.

Shoot your shot! Can't wait to read your application!


See my pinned tweet...we're unearthing science with Flux but fund all kinds of work.


You got this!


Last half hour to apply!

Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕

                    @DStrachman

                  Apr 18

                Last day to apply to 1517's Flux! Unlike other programs, we could care less about if or where you went to school.

What we care about is that you have the drive, ambition, and ability to get started on something great.

Shoot your shot! Can't wait to read your application!


Love it!

Replying to @NileshArnaiya @1517fund @amschwarzy


So sorry Jacob :(


Glorious!

marqix ☆

                    @fwmarqix

                  Apr 18

                Hey guys I just found out today that I’m famous.

Not internet famous. Not locally famous.

Diner famous.

And as far as I’m concerned, that’s the only kind that matters.

I stopped by my usual spot this afternoon. Before I could even sit down, the waitress pointed at the chalkboard by the door.
I looked up.

There it was.

My name.

On a breakfast plate.

Apparently, I’ve been ordering the same combination for so long that other regulars started asking for it by saying, “Whatever that guy always gets.”

So the owner decided to just put my name on it and add it to the menu.

Scrambled eggs. Crispy bacon. Home fries. Sourdough toast.
Named after me.
Permanently.

I’ve achieved nothing in this life that will truly outlast me. No trophies. No plaques. Nothing hanging on any wall anywhere, but at a little diner two blocks from my house, there’s a breakfast plate with my name on it.

And every morning, people are ordering me with their coffee.

I tipped extra today.

I’m so happy.


Reading Flux applications! I always love watching makers and founders excitedly talk about their work! Thanks for applying (more soon next week)!!


Your feed is better with bunnies in it!

popular

                    @popularrabbit

                  Apr 20

                I need a beautiful name for this bunny!


9pm awaits!

love drops

                    @lovedropx

                  Apr 20


There's agency = taking action

And high agency = taking action + outside the noise


Gamer geeks, make it so!

Dustin Burnham

                    @dustinthedad

                  Apr 21

                Shot in the dark- I really want a copy of this game to play with my son.

It’s cooperative and player versus environment, so we work together instead of competing.

It’s out of print and of German origin. I’m happy to pay a finders fee and a used copy is fine.


We have a whole budget at 1517 just for ice cream

Lutaaya@JoshuaLutaaya__
                  Apr 20

                Never underestimate the ability of ice cream to make you feel better when you’re having a bad day as an adult


Adorable!

tina @ CoinDesk 💛

                    @cropcircle_art

                  Apr 20

                5 years ago, I went on a date with a guy who asked me if I’d ever heard of something called Ethereum.

Fast forward to today, we’re married and expecting our first baby in July.

Here’s to the next chapter, @CesarKuriyama ♥


Used to be chocolate but I have come to really appreciate a super good rich vanilla these days.


Good answer :)


Me too!

森山しなこ/Schinako🐇イラストとマンガ

                    @schinako

                  Apr 21

                チューリップが好き。子供のころ親指姫が大好きでした


Congrats to the new fellows!

Thiel Fellowship

                    @thielfellowship

                  Apr 21

                Welcome 2026 Thiel Fellows!

WHO ARE THEY?

Victor Boyd: Birmingham, AL - @VictorWBoyd
Cavalla is on a mission to get anything anywhere in under 5 hours. Starting by building autonomous forklifts, through to developing hypersonic highways.

Samuel Carvalho: Recife, Brazil - @samuelclcc
Praso is building the new infrastructure for wholesale commerce — powering procurement, credit, and workflow tools for SMBs across underserved areas in Brazil.

Nick Dobroshinsky: Sammamish, WA - @NDobroshinsky
EveryTicker is democratizing institutional-grade financial research across the entire U.S. stock market, including the thousands of smaller companies Wall Street ignores.

Ishan Gupta: Kanpur, India - @ishangpta
Juicebox is building an AI recruiter that helps companies make better hiring decisions. Agents that understand real skills and move hiring from guesswork to true meritocracy.

Antoni Kiszka: Strzyżowice, Poland - @antoni_kiszka
Derpetual is building the infrastructure to create a market for any asset — with leverage.

Milan Lustig: Cold Spring Harbor, NY - @HighPriestOfSWO
Opt32 is building modern compute infrastructure to put AI onboard objects in the physical world — from robots to cars and drones.

Galen Mead: Chapel Hill, NC - @g413n
Standard Intelligence is building aligned general learners, pretraining large models to actively explore and learn from the Internet.

Aubrey Niederhoffer: New York, NY - @needaubrey
Swoop is building the super app for Africa, starting with food delivery in Nigeria and expanding into financial services across the continent.

Harry O'Connor: Cork, Ireland - @HarryOC493
Sentient Machines is a research lab building foundational models for robotics that generalize across tasks and environments.

Alex Shieh: Salem, NH - @alexkshieh
The Antifraud Company is a fraud bounty hunter defending American taxpayers with AI and investigative journalism.

Claire Wang: Los Angeles, CA - @clairebookworm
Claire is building biologically accurate simulations of entire nervous systems, starting with C. elegans. Developing a simulated brain that researchers can communicate with helps lay the foundation for brain-computer interface (BCI) technology.

Kyler Wang: Portland, OR - @kylerywang
Action is an artificial intelligence company in stealth.


Get it!

seungkwon@seungkwonson
                  Apr 21

                Launching the Alive Prize. $100K to build what makes you come alive.

I've been fixated on a quote from Howard Thurman lately: "Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

We want to help more people find that feeling.

aliveprize.com/


Lunch break!

Bunnies

                    @Bunnies

                  Apr 20


My kinda breakfast!


My bunnies hop in circles when I bring them salads in the morning and it’s the most delightful thing ever.

森山しなこ/Schinako🐇イラストとマンガ

                    @schinako

                  Apr 22

                ある時から、うさぎさんが走り回って嬉しい感情を表してくれることを、星に見立てて描くようになりました💫


I have always wanted to see artist-in-residence positions at startups take off in the Bay! Everyone needs a bit of AIR!

shani 🌱 (sf)@sha_zng
                  Apr 22

                i want to be the artist-in-residence for a startup in sf. what could this mean?

- making art for/about your employees (i'm your in-house illustrator)
- newsletter art
-brand redesign (imagine having hand-drawn illustrations on your website)
-custom art for events (stationary, signs, name cards, live-event paintings)

tldr; looking for a 10-15 hr/week gig making art that allows me to collaborate with wonderful people. if you're excited by this, dm me with your vision!

(ft painting of a startup's core memories)


Momentous day! We now have 1,517 Medici Grantees.


Fun coincidence today...and added one more grantee and now we have 1,518 :) Glad I caught it in the moment!


Bunnies know that it’s time to start winding down for bed. Smart bunnies!

Why you should have a rabbit

                    @ShouldHaveRabit

                  Apr 22


Precious


Loving going through the Flux videos and applications. So many people are at the intersection of the arts and science and I LOVE THAT!

Pretty different types of applications from last year and I love seeing the evolving thinking over time. Pretty cool.


Invested in a 15, 16, and 17 year old this month!

sourcery

                    @sourceryy

                  Apr 23

                Thiel Fellowship Founding Director @DStrachman:

"I want to be funding 11 year olds."

" They're incredibly creative and interesting and can be starting earlier."

"The barrier to entry on getting started doesn't need to be when you're 18 anymore. It can be quite a bit younger."


gn new Thiel Fellows

Why you should have a rabbit

                    @ShouldHaveRabit

                  Apr 23


lol


Not for their ideas, for their startups because I was the first check into the company that makes them a billionaire.


It’s not bragging. It’s what my life’s work has been built off of. If I do well here, it means that the have done extraordinarily well.


Nope!


Already on it!


Ready!


And these are mostly grants for the super young ones.


People take a sentence and make it mean something it doesn’t. People also don’t like 11 year olds out performing their entire adult lives.