1460
Alana Levin
@alanadlevin #1460
Investing @variant, writing at https://backoftheenvelope.substack.com/
4412 Follower 201 Following
Cerebras S1 feels like required reading for a pulse check on the AI industry
Some notable stats
- Revenue grew from $25M in 2022 to $79M in 2023
- First 6mo of 2024 have revenue of $136M
- 87% of revenue came from 1 (!!) customer
- That customer is G42, an AI holding co established in 2018 and based in the UAE
- Cerebras itself was founded in 2016; didn't start generative revenue until 2019
- Cerebras had an operating loss of $42M for the first 6mo of 2024. With only $91M cash on the balance sheet, and having raised 6+ rounds of private financing, almost feels like going public is a last resort
- Last private valuation was $4.25B (in 2021). Will be interesting to see where the public markets price it
Some notable stats
- Revenue grew from $25M in 2022 to $79M in 2023
- First 6mo of 2024 have revenue of $136M
- 87% of revenue came from 1 (!!) customer
- That customer is G42, an AI holding co established in 2018 and based in the UAE
- Cerebras itself was founded in 2016; didn't start generative revenue until 2019
- Cerebras had an operating loss of $42M for the first 6mo of 2024. With only $91M cash on the balance sheet, and having raised 6+ rounds of private financing, almost feels like going public is a last resort
- Last private valuation was $4.25B (in 2021). Will be interesting to see where the public markets price it
New Essay: What Credit Card Networks Can Teach Us About Stablecoin Opportunities
https://www.backoftheenvelope.xyz/p/what-credit-card-networks-can-teach
https://www.backoftheenvelope.xyz/p/what-credit-card-networks-can-teach
New Essay: Toward a More Connected Internet
full piece: https://www.backoftheenvelope.xyz/p/why-an-interoperable-internet-is
full piece: https://www.backoftheenvelope.xyz/p/why-an-interoperable-internet-is
Thread on lossless products and interesting stuff that can be built https://x.com/AlanaDLevin/status/1833981961863373123
New Essay: Scenic Routes in Ride Shares https://www.backoftheenvelope.xyz/p/scenic-routes-in-ride-shares
New Essay: Early Stage VC is an Idea Marketplace
https://www.backoftheenvelope.xyz/p/early-stage-vc-is-an-idea-marketplace
https://www.backoftheenvelope.xyz/p/early-stage-vc-is-an-idea-marketplace
On a flight and US Open won't load so this is how we make do
Has been a big day so far
- Finished a draft of a new piece
- Cooked chicken
- Finished a draft of a new piece
- Cooked chicken
Midtown is actually a great part of NYC
Hypothesis on the payouts stuff: giving 5 people $100 or 10 people $50 will inspire more interesting content than giving 100 people $5
Hanging out at the airport with some time to kill
AMA
AMA
My most fun experiences on Farcaster so far have been when it's leaned into being a dev-first platform
Finding new product experiences and being able to try them in-feed is magical. I'm excited for those products to keep broadening: embedded AI toys, collaborative content creation (e.g. like stitching on TikTok but for content on Farcaster), and more
Finding new product experiences and being able to try them in-feed is magical. I'm excited for those products to keep broadening: embedded AI toys, collaborative content creation (e.g. like stitching on TikTok but for content on Farcaster), and more
Project idea: virality DAO
- LLM generates a set of tweets to post to X each week
- Token holders up/down vote the set of tweets
- Those tweets get posted
- Any revenue generated from viral impressions goes to a treasury and/or contributors
First-order product is entertainment and contributing to a (potentially) viral brand. A bonus byproduct is earning a share of the revenue
- LLM generates a set of tweets to post to X each week
- Token holders up/down vote the set of tweets
- Those tweets get posted
- Any revenue generated from viral impressions goes to a treasury and/or contributors
First-order product is entertainment and contributing to a (potentially) viral brand. A bonus byproduct is earning a share of the revenue
Request for Cast Action: processes the text of my cast and suggests the most relevant channel (and maybe the one likely to get me reach)
What are the coolest apps, actions, and/or frames ppl have found from the Warpcast Explore tab?
PSA: Post Malone dropped a country album and it’s very good
“The market will regulate itself”
The market:
The market:
Taking a moment this morning to reflect on the crazy caliber of talent and mission-driven projects in Variant's early stage portfolio
- Gevulot
- Blackbird
- Morpho
- Blockaid
- Reservoir
- Pluto
- Hyperlane
- Alluvial
- Farworld
- Turnkey
- and many more (including a few unannounced heavy hitters)
Many of these are hiring. If you're looking for your next thing - hit me up or check out the job board on our website
And if you're building something of your own, hit us up too - we always love meeting early stage entrepreneurs :)
- Gevulot
- Blackbird
- Morpho
- Blockaid
- Reservoir
- Pluto
- Hyperlane
- Alluvial
- Farworld
- Turnkey
- and many more (including a few unannounced heavy hitters)
Many of these are hiring. If you're looking for your next thing - hit me up or check out the job board on our website
And if you're building something of your own, hit us up too - we always love meeting early stage entrepreneurs :)
A must read/watch if you're a developer
Tons of helpful perspective on crypto security best practices
Tons of helpful perspective on crypto security best practices
Michael Ovitz autobiography is so good
Number of times Microsoft has mentioned "AI" in its annual filings, by year
2017 - 4
2018 - 18
2019 - 21
2020 - 24
2021 - 25
2022 - 26
2023 - 69
2024 - 100
2017 - 4
2018 - 18
2019 - 21
2020 - 24
2021 - 25
2022 - 26
2023 - 69
2024 - 100