Meet the Kiwi taking on Tesla, Musk pushback grows in Washington
PLUS: OpenStar is hiring, world's first 'hybrid' reasoning model drops and what can founders learn from Mr Beast?
Happy Hump day! If there is such a thing!
Just to make it a little easier, we’re releasing our newsletter today free to all subscribers so you can have a peek behind the paywall and see what you’re supporting. There’s a bunch happening both at home and abroad today so let’s crack straight into it!
Here’s the rest of your Daily Shot round-up:
The Founder Taking on Tesla: Meet Tama Toki of Aotea Energy
Pushback growing against Musk following mass email
Event: Get your tickets for PWR Lunch with Simon Pound
Kiwi tech surveying world's largest oil pipeline
OpenStar is hiring, senior team heads to fusion industry event in Washington
Anthropic releases world-first ‘hybrid’ reasoning AI model
Got news? Good stuff? Just want to say hi? Drop us a note: hello@caffeinedaily.co. We honestly love our inbox.
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Pushback growing against Musk following mass email: We may finally be discovering where the edges of Elon Musk’s loosely defined authority after he sent a mass email to federal employees asking them to list five accomplishments or risk losing their jobs. Several agencies including the Pentagon, FBI, and State Department have directed their staff to not reply to the email. Their push back is carefully couched in language like ‘hold off on replying’ and ‘we are seeking more clarity’ to avoid directly calling out the world’s richest man but it’s the first time we’ve seen real cracks in the formerly unified front. The cracks are deepening however, as 21 DOGE employees resigned this week after refusing to dismantle critical Federal programmes.
It’s also worth remembering that DOGE is technically only supposed to run until July next year and Musk has already been slightly sidelined by the administration in court filings showing he is not technically in charge of DOGE but merely a special adviser, though this latter technicality is likely to shield him from conflict of interest charges. Regardless, I wonder how long before Trump strategically distances himself from some of Elon’s less popular moves. If you want more info, AP has live updates running constantly or just check literally any news source because whether we like it or not, he’s the biggest thing on Earth right now.
Event: Get your tickets for PWR Lunch with Simon Pound: Great opportunity here to pick the brains of a great friend of Caffeine. Pwr lunch is hosting an inspiring discussion with creative, strategist and business founder, Simon Pound. Simon recently launched New + Improved, a groundbreaking venture studio that has created a new model for innovation, startups and founders.
In the first Power Lunch for 2025, Simon will share his experiences and learnings as a business owner and founder. You'll also have an opportunity to ask Simon questions. Get your tickets here.
Kiwi tech surveying world's largest oil pipeline: Hamilton-based NZAero has been quietly building some of the most impressive and bespoke aviation tech around for decades and they recently acquired the contract for surveillance of a major US oil pipeline. The nearly 30,000km pipe runs from the (recently renamed) Gulf of Mexico through the US and into Canada and is the world’s largest. The company is delivering two of its custom E-350 Expeditions to fly at an altitude of 200 meters along the network, identifying hazards and helping to prevent damage. The Chief executive of NZAero Stephen Burrows joined Emile Donovan on RNZ Night’s for a chat this week and it’s well worth checking out. Selfish plug here but I am also on RNZ Night’s on Tuesday’s and it’s a wonderful time. Check out the interview with Stephen here.
OpenStar is hiring, senior team heads to fusion industry event in Washington: Great job opportunity here for anyone on the job market and with some IT skills under their belt to join one of the most exciting startups in the country. OpenStar is seeking an IT Systems Manager which it says will “play a pivotal part in shaping, maintaining and improving the technology infrastructure that supports OpenStar's mission.” They encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply, even if your skills don't perfectly align with the description so definitely take a punt because having visited their facility myself, I can tell you it seems like an amazing place to work. Meanwhile the established team are largely over in Washington DC for a Fusion Industry Association conference taking place over the next couple of days. The event is a gathering of government, industry, regulatory, and science representatives, where pivotal conversations take place so excited to see what comes of it. Job listing here.
Anthropic releases world-first ‘hybrid’ reasoning AI model: If there is one clear sign that the AI arms race is heating up, it’s the speed with which new models are releasing and the latest from Anthropic is a doozy. ‘Claude 3.7 Sonnet’ can both give real time answers and take it’s time to ‘think’ for as long as necessary/desired to give a more nuanced or fleshed out answer to a difficult problem. As AI models start to run into barriers around scale, cost and compute, reasoning models are seen as a way for the field to advance. Reasoning models also have a fascinating feature where they can show their working, essentially ‘thinking’ in plain view so you can follow the chain of logic which leads to the answer. These glimpses into the machine mind can sometimes be frightening, as Anthropic’s own testing last year showed models are now capable of strategically lying to users. Read the full post outlining the improvements to Claude 3.7 here.
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Mr Beast’s Business Philosophy
I find Mr Beast fascinating, impressive and slightly disturbing in equal measure. His smile never reaches his eyes, he permanently looks like he’s posing for a thumbnail picture and overall gives a vibe that’s he’s a machine built for the express purpose of making view counts go up. However it’s hard to argue with the incredible success he’s achieved. Trying to get noticed on Youtube is a little like writing a message in a bottle, putting it out to sea and hoping someone finds it - while the sea is already full of other bottles with other messages. Yet Mr Beast built a billion dollar business empire there.
Therefore any aspiring founder could do worse than listening to his insights and luckily he sat down for a lengthy podcast interview on Diary of a CEO recently which I highly recommend having a listen to.
He hardly needs any introduction but for those of you who whose algorithms managed to miss him, Steve Bartlett’s 'The Diary Of A CEO' podcast is one of the most popular on the planet. Founded with the mission of providing an unfiltered journey into the remarkable stories and untold dimensions of the world’s most influential people, experts and thinkers, it’s a great listen even when the guest is someone you’ve never heard of or vehemently dislike - honestly those are the best ones.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co