no. 31: is linkedin really in?

apple duped partiful, why vcs are lighting up linkedin, and chick-fil-a drones.

hi all! this has felt like a very long week. clearly it was because i forgot to number this edition. next week i will be skipping a substack so you can re-read this one if you are missing me in your inbox next thursday. with that, let’s get into it.

mini-news roundup 🗞️

• emma chamberlain opens a coffee storefront in century city mall - i am a huge fan of everything emma does, including her claymation ads leading up to the opening. i can already bet that her coffee shop will be a huge success. every detail is strategic.

chamberlaincoffee

A post shared by @chamberlaincoffee

• apple fully copied all of partiful with their apple invites launch - two friends sent me this earlier today and i am ready to speak on it. i fear i knew this was going to happen. this isn’t good for partiful because they just wiped all beneficial functionality from their app. i also have found myself quite frustrated whenever i add a partiful event to my apple calendar, so i guess apple invites will my pain points for me. partiful has responded with a very tasteful dig at apple:

partiful’s dig on x @ apple.

head-to-head comparison.

• openai introduces a research agent - available with chatgpt pro for up to 100 queries per month, the ai agent competes with similar services from companies like google, which recently debuted a feature with the same name. meanwhile, openai on monday announced a new joint venture with softbank, starting with businesses in japan.

• spotify released its full-year earnings for the first time - the streaming giant reported its first-ever full-year of profitability on tuesday, with fourth-quarter revenue up 16% from a year earlier. the increase was driven by the addition of 11 million net premium subscribers, with active monthly users hitting 675 million.

• why does everything look infantilized? - i personally loved this substack and it captures a shift in cpg that has been happening over the last few years. what shift comes next will reasonably probably less bright?

• chick-fil-a’s quest to make fast food faster - chick-fil-a is reportedly employing innovative strategies like including the use of drones and 'game film' analysis through a specialized film studies unit. this is pretty absurd but yet on brand for them.

trends to watch 👀

linkedin is really in.

lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about linkedIn’s staying power. specifically, because i viewed a deck from a startup claiming to reinvent linkedin. i, of course, read it in-depth, but ultimately said “yeah that is never going to happen”. we have seen so much innovation in the social media landscape, but i am a big believer that linkedin could’ve been replaced by now if there was a real need for it.

approx user count has 1 billion users.

i have always viewed linkedin as a necessary evil. a serious and uninspiring platform — essential for job hunting but rarely a place for meaningful content or real engagement. but now, venture capitalists, founders, and operators have made linkedin their go-to platform, treating it as a hybrid social-media platform. pierre-jacques pierre-louis, managing director at harlem capital, stated,“i used to go to twitter for big reach, now I go to linkedin” — and he’s not alone.

for vcs, linkedIn has become an indispensable tool for networking, building personal brands, and uncovering investment opportunities. posts can garner thousands of impressions almost like tiktok. a study by milltown partners found that in 2024, 55% of top vcs posted on linkedin at least once a month, matching the 54% who posted on x. notably, the number of vcs posting daily on x has decreased significantly.

startup founders use linkedin for obvious reasons — to broadcast their latest funding round, and recruiters scout talent there more than anywhere else. i have a friend who validated my thought on how ghostwriting on linkedin is pretty common, especially for founders. while some of this is just a result of x suffering from erratic leadership and shifting algorithms, linkedin has always been a relatively stable, predictable place to build an audience.

reddit confirms no one wants another linkedin.

even if new platforms emerge, they’d have to overcome linkedIn’s deep-rooted ties. there really isn’t another place for people rebuild their entire professional history, industry connections, and a built-in audience for career-related content. the switching costs are simply too high. i personally do not post on linkedin, but i am open to the idea of being more active on it. linkedin is a necessary evil, one here to stay. the power of a preexisting network is just ultimately too hard to break. and i just don’t see us migrating away anytime soon.

and yes, you can connect with me on linkedin. as much as i don’t want to say it. it feels right. let me know what you think in the comments as always. see you back here in ~2 weeks.