Technology’s latest controversy? Earnings from a five-day, individual work week • TechCrunch

Welcome to Startups Weekly, in-depth commentary on the week’s startup news and trends from a senior reporter and equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox.

Let the curious among us rise up: technologists, it’s prediction time. This is my favorite time of the year. We should all sit and think.

Before what I think, here are some of my favorite divination pieces and texts Lolita Top by Kanas VC, Nigel Morris of QED Investors And Our own.

Well, with that, here’s what I think will happen next year: in-person, five-day work weeks for tech workers. Before you jump in with all the exceptions and asterisks, let me explain why I believe this is the case.

Throughout 2021, we talked about the pendulum swinging back toward employees, with mass resignations. Then, this year, The Great Resignation became the Great Reset, Employers laid off large percentages of their employees due to changing macroeconomic conditions. As we enter 2023, many predict the wave of layoffs could worsen — a prediction that has already come true with the latest round of cutbacks ahead of the holidays, including at AirTable, Blight and Comodo Health.

In many cases, power is shifting back to employers — meaning people who wanted to bring people into the office from the moment the lockdown began may finally be empowered to do so. I’m not saying every founder and executive is secretly collaborating, but I think the domino effect is important here. If your biggest competitor starts working from the office to increase productivity, you might be tempted too; At the same time, if you’re an early-stage startup lucky enough to be hiring, you can get the upper hand in recruiting if you tell employees you can work from anywhere.

My point of view is not mere speculation; I hear that from the founders. Many entrepreneurs, Some cite Elon Musk’s desire to bring Twitter employees back to work in person, say issues arising from remote work (be it productivity or collaboration) will force plans to bring back a more personal work culture in the new year. It’s a little exposed, a little realistic. One founder told me about drinks and fancy snacks because they’re not worried about losing talent—because quitters aren’t meant to start because one person has a mandate.

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There are a lot of things that make that feeling more complicated, especially when you think about how in-person work affects people with immunodeficiencies and those with families and caregiving responsibilities. While I don’t think 100% distributed companies will buy offices from day one, I think we’ll see more companies than you think start with a hybrid approach and more hybrid companies weigh more heavily than in-person operations. far away.

I know you all have thoughts on this since you were so unashamed Since telling me that on Twitter. Let’s finish with some of my favorite tweets:

Let’s stop all this work hustle and talk about other work hustles. As always, you can find me sub layer And Instagram, where I publish more of my words and work. In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about AI and open source — as well as gift guides for employees.

AI art apps are having a moment – ​​thanks to Lensa AI

Artificial intelligence is having (another) moment — meaning scrappy inventions are getting some well-deserved attention. This week, TC’s Sarah Perez The App Store saw a surge of AI art apps across the boardLensa seems to be jumping on from the success of AI’s viral avatar generators.

Here’s why it’s important: We’re going to see a lot of flash-in-the-pan stars and real power in this space in the coming months. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, helped create ChatGPT (responsible for all the fun prompts and responses you’ve been seeing all over TechTwitter). He said a great thing When describing technology but I think it can be scaled across all fields:

“ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but enough in some respects to create a false sense of greatness. It’s a mistake to rely on it for anything important right now. It’s a preview of progress; we have a lot of work to do in terms of reliability and authenticity.” Altman tweeted.

How open source is shaping Twitter’s future

TC’s Paul Sawers is one of the most thoughtful writers I know, and you’ll see what I’m talking about if you read his latest: “Distributed Discourse: How Open Source Is Shaping Twitter’s Future.” How algorithmic transparency, encrypted TMs, and content moderation are a recurring theme in Twitter’s present — and will certainly shape its next chapter.

Here is one Main part:

What if Twitter decides to go open source? Does the whole shoot apply, not just the recommendation algorithm or protocol – codebase, clients, everything? It’s definitely going to be a difficult process, especially with everything else going on with Twitter right now.

It’s an almost unprecedented move to see a $44 billion private company open up its entire crypto base to the world public. That’s not to say it won’t happen all the time, just because Kasturi has a form of making radical moves. Eight years ago, Musk tore up the patent playbook when Tesla promised that it would not sue any company that infringed on its patents “in good faith.” At the time, Musk said it would accelerate electric car adoption and the necessary infrastructure (e.g., charging stations), broadly aligned with open source.

Gift guide corner

Here are some fun and imaginative gift guides the TC staff put together this week:

A few tips

Saw it on TechCrunch

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas

Comodo Health, once tipped for an impending IPO, cuts staff as CFO departs

The FTC sued to block Microsoft from buying Activision

As AI pervades biotech, what are investors looking for in 2023?

Seen on TechCrunch+

Why the SPAC route makes sense for a turnaround

Right now. Now we are going to see many startups acquiring other startups

There are many reasons to be excited about Canada’s venture capital market

How to answer when a VC asks about your startup’s valuation

How much money do you need to raise for your startup?

So we’ve come to the end of our last chat about this wild, plot twist of the year. I’m not going to lie: the past 12 months haven’t flown by. Instead, every day in tech news is important and complex — if not exhausting and confusing — and has literally shaped the way I see the world. It’s still a work in progress, but I’d say 2022 is the year I finally build the right resources, confidence, and networks to finally realize that technology isn’t all rainbows and butterflies.

To brag for a second, I had some career highlights this year Interviewing Kevin Hart Fighting multi-millionaires on Twitter. I wrote about difficulties Rebuilding a startup and gave a window into a community-based enterprise Its community. I smiled How full circle technology is – Then I saw that my predictions were very old Every time. We made it a thoughtful show that tries to answer Equity Wednesday One big question at a timeInstead of all questions at once.

Startups Weekly is now read by tens of thousands — and it’s never been spicier!

I have never been impressed with how power and capital work in this world. Thank you to all of you who read and amplify our stories, to those who help push us to the rocks waiting to flip, and to all of you who tell us what angle we missed (and how to do it better next time). ) It’s also thanks to my amazing team at TechCrunch, for whom I can never say enough.

I’m going to be out of the office until the New Year, probably sipping cocoa, sneaking some Skyline Chili, and indulging in my mom’s sauna masala. I wish you a happy and safe holiday season and we’ll talk resolutions when we get back, okay‽

In the meantime, I’d love for you to follow me anywhere other than Twitter. I’m there sub layer, Mastodon And Instagram As @/natashathereporter.

Well, you say goodbye first. Not seriously. ok ok ok come on

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