Five Things Tech: Moderation, WeWork, Founder, Solar, Federation

Good morning! Read this now!

As an investor, I obviously want the valuation of a company to increase. And I admire founders who grow their companies and create value and make customers happy - those people deserve a good exit. And then there are those people who are really good at telling stories, at selling a vision to their investors and then don’t follow through on the promise while focusing on telling more stories - until at the end the startup is bankcrupt and lots of dreams are shattered. One of those people is the founder of WeWork, who got a golden handshake a while back and now probably could’t care less about the fate of his former company, the other will probably spend the rest of his life in jail. That’s a good reminder that greedy founders focus too much on their advantages and neglect everybody else.

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His Job Was to Make Instagram Safe for Teens. His 14-Year-Old Showed Him What the App Was Really Like.

Content moderation is so complicated and I think that companies will continue to fail in doing this.

(LINK)

The definitive account of how WeWork went from a $47 billion valuation to a basket case in just 6 weeks

As WeWork just announced that it will file for bankcrupcy next week, it makes sense to revisit this story about WeWork falling apart moments before the planned IPO.

(LINK)

Confessions of a Middle-Class Founder

This article resonates with me as I have seen so many founders whose dreams where shattered in the last few years due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

(LINK)

Solar panel advances will see millions go off grid, scientists predict

I assume it would make more sense to keep those homes connected to the grid (and add plenty of batteries), but it’s amaing to see solar technology advance so quickly.

(LINK)

Why Mozilla is betting on a decentralized social networking future

I have been rooting for decentralized systems since I started to play around with Linux more than 25 years ago. And I think the new concept of federation will make decentralized social networks and content distribution possible.

(LINK)

That’s all for Five Things Tech this week!

— Nico