Welcome to another edition of Business Twitter, where we collect the best tweets to come out of Silicon Valley so you don’t have to. This article is part of a newsletter — if you want a weekly Business Twitter roundup sent to your inbox every Friday, subscribe here.
This week: Sliced steak company Steak-umm shared its take on misinformation in America, one investor shared why Greenoaks Capital is the best VC firm you’ve never heard of, why New York cabs are suddenly cheaper than Ubers, and a list of startup investors waiting for founders to reach out.
1. Steak-umm on misinformation
Sliced steak company Steak-umm may have a rather goofy name, but their social media department means business. Companies have been stretching what it means for brands to have a social media presence, often sharing everything from political messages to memes. Steak-umm went a step further — this week, the company wrote a surprisingly enlightening thread on misinformation.
The thread begins: “Ok it's time to talk about societal distrust in experts and institutions, the rise of misinformation, cultural polarization, and how to work toward some semblance of mutually agreed upon information before we splinter into irreconcilable realities. (beefy thread incoming).”
Despite the seriousness of the topic, Steak-umm couldn’t resist sneaking in a few meat-related puns: “Distrust in institutions is complex. it's accelerated by people's access to infinite information, credible sources being paywalled, corruption, honest misteaks, or propaganda, but underneath it all is a cultural polarization dating back decades that won't be solved overnight.”
The thread concluded with the company’s real intention behind the tweets: “And remember, this whole thread was an ad so please buy our frozen meat. Steak-umm bless.”
2. Greenoaks Capital
Greenoaks Capital is notoriously publicity-shy, which is probably why you haven’t heard much about it — but when you’re as successful as this investment firm, you don’t need publicity.
Investor and software engineer Nihar Sheth shared a thread about what makes Greenoaks so remarkable.
“They've returned 51% annually since 2012 on the back of early bets on Coupang, Deliveroo, etc,” Sheth wrote. “They’re tech-focused, based in SF, and manage well over $15bn (exact AUM is not public) with a <15-person investment team.”
“They focus on privates, and are hands-on w/ portfolio companies,” he added. “Some current investments include Brex, ScaleAI (which they passed on before co-leading the Series E), Discord, Robinhood, Toast, Airtable, Cockroach Labs, TripActions, etc.”
One key factor in Greenoaks’ success, according to Sheth, is their willingness to switch strategies.
“They’re also not buy-and-hold-forever - they sell if their viewpoint changes,” Sheth wrote. “They sold most of their stake in Oyo Hotels for 15x their money after Softbank got involved, according to FT. You have to be willing to sell when the facts change. A lot of investors seem to have become "never sell" investors during this bull market - but you need to constantly cut the mediocre businesses out of your portfolio.”
3. Are taxis cheaper than Ubers?
Are cabs finally cheaper than Ubers? According to this tweet from Zaid Farooqui, a product manager at Cloudflare, the price for a New York taxi came out to less than an Uber ride, perhaps indicating that taxis could be making a comeback as the price of Ubers soar. In a screenshot, the price of an Uber was $35-$44, while a taxi cost only $13-$18. Farooqui’s only comment: “We’ve come full circle.”
In fact, prices for rideshare services in April soared 40% from the same time last year according to The New York Times. Uber and Lyft have made statements on the dramatic increase, saying that there simply aren’t enough drivers for the resurgence in customer demand after over a year of very few people taking cars anywhere.
Farooqui’s tweet was meant as little more than humorous social commentary, but was soon circulated all over Twitter, and even made it onto some Instagram meme pages. The moral of the story: Check cab prices before you hop into your Uber.
4. These VCs are looking for new startups
This week, investor, writer, and marketing startup founder Julian Shapiro shared a thread budding startup founders may find helpful: A list of venture capitalists looking to make some new investments. Shapiro received permission to publish the investors’ contact information, and added, “They look forward to it.”
Shapiro’s thread outlines investors, their Twitter handles, LinkedIn profiles, and a summary of their startup fields of choice. Investors include Austin Rief, Greg Isenberg, Brianne Kimmel, Sheel Mohnot, Nir Eyal, Sahil Bloom, and of course, Julian himself, among several more.
Julian also included some advice to founders when contacting the investors: “Don’t make investors work to pull the vision out of you. Share a concise explanation of: what you do, what's special about it, why now's the time, why it’s likely to succeed, what the big vision is, [and] who you are.”
