Oh hi!

It’s that time of year again, where I hang out in a cafe eating some gluten-free carrot cake that has been strangled by an entire tub of unflavored Philadelphia cream cheese (“frosting” to no one, I assure you) and write to you all about my feelings.

Or, something like that.

Also, Elon Musk is on a collision course with humanity, but hell, at least there aren’t any real-world consequences, right?

Also ALSO, I went to the dentist for the first time since the pandemic started, we’re going to the autumnal beach today for holy week here in Argentina, and I maintain laser-focused on the desperate hunt for someone to make me a dumpster fire emoji.

As you were!

Dumpster Fires

I’m doing a really good job not making this entire section about Elon.

Peter Kalmus @ClimateHuman

Earth on track to be unlivable. Story, page 3. You can’t make this up

sam greisman @SAMGREIS

Britney pregnant, JLO and Ben engaged again, all the cute boys are wearing baggy clothes. The mid 2000s are back baby!

Read

The White Darkness: A solitary journey across Antarctica. Oldie but goodie.

A Lake in Florida is suing to protect itself.

Your smartphone is still ruining your life. As you were.

Dunbar’s Number, Iceland, Instagram, the Myth of Scarcity, & Creating a Rule of Life.

Humans seem to have a natural limit to the number of meaningful relationships they can have. Furthermore, these relationships are layered: most people thrive with about five people in their closest layer, then the next layer holds about 10 people — one step lower than our closest relationships.
After that, the layers go from five, then 15, 50, and then finally, 100 people. So, about 150 people max in our lives with whom we have a meaningful relationship.
This is so interesting to me, especially in our social media-obsessed world. Are we able to not only give our best focus to those 150 people in our lives, but do we even know who they are? 150 sounds like plenty of people, but when you start counting friends, family, extended family, neighbors, coworkers, fellow students, and interactions with waiters, mail carriers, flight attendants, cashiers, and store owners? It makes me wonder what happens when we prioritize our relationships found primarily through the screen.

A digital morning walk in an English village.

Startups

There is a new Midas list! Congrats, y’all!

“Women still struggle to access VC funds, says Vogue Business. What needs to change?” Everything, Vogue Business. Everything.

Flutterwave: The African Unicorn Built on Quicksand. Fraud, perjury and insider trading? All in a day's work. A glimpse at the dark underbelly of Africa's biggest fintech superstar. Yikes.

The next big thing will start out looking like a toy. Crypto investor Chris Dixon, from the 2010 archives. (Thanks to Alex Konrad for the great feature from which this gem came: How Chris Dixon’s Dive Down The Crypto Rabbit Hole Made Him The World’s Top Venture Capitalist.) And on that little public spat with Jack Dorsey?

Dixon now provides a more measured take to Dorsey and any other tech leaders who question the decentralizing potential of Web3. “My response would be, ‘hey, great, come join us and help us figure out those problems,’” Dixon says. “As opposed to sort of throwing grenades from the sidelines, which is what I feel happens.”

The awesome Maren Bannon & January Ventures posted a full-time investor role! I knew her when! Run don’t walk!

Maren Bannon @Maren_Bannon

We’re a 100% female owned VC fund and just posted our first full time investing job opening. So far, 80% of the applications have been from men. Where are all the women who want to break into VC??

Smile

Congrats to one of the least-slept women in venture capital for yet another win.

Christine 📴 en vacances @CChangs

Some news! 🚀 Super excited to be launching Tribal Ventures, through which we'll be investing in early-stage startups who are aligned with our mission to make it easier to be an entrepreneur in emerging markets. Fintech and DeFi in these geographies is…lnkd.in/eCPfR6Sb

Christine C. on LinkedIn: #donedeal #vcfund #venturecapitalTribal, a B2B payments and financing platform for emerging markets, has launched a venture fund to invest in early-stage fintech companies. Tribal Ventures...lnkd.in

And to Janine, the other one!

Janine Sickmeyer @myfriendjanine

Coming into the week with a TECHCRUNCH feature ✨💪🏼 @OverlookedVentures was highlighted as a new fund raising in a @TechCrunch article that just dropped ⬇️ techcrunch.com/2022/04/11/a-l…

And still, Kyiv Forever.

The jeweler, with whom I now have to go interact, tried to gaslight me over the sizing of my new rings so I’M FEELING TENDER.

Send me confidence of a billionaire bro staking a full 19.2% of his net worth on a company to just piss everyone off?

Hearts,

Claire

P.S. Currently hiring for the creation of a dumpster fire emoji. (FOR GENERAL USE).

Claire Diaz-Ortiz’s Newsletter

currently hiring for the creation of a…