First, a history lesson

There’s an iconic moment in the iconic show, One Tree Hill, when one of the characters gets to tell Nick Lachey to STFU. (If only we were all so lucky!!)

I think about this line a lot when someone has an opinion that is so monumentally stupid, so pointless, so asinine that I wish I could tell them to butt out, just like I would to Nick Lachey.

I’m a Sam Altman hater

Have I ever said that in this newsletter before?

So when a friend shared this snippet with me from an answer Altman gave at an impact summit, I was like, yes. I am happy to continue being a Sam Altman hater. I have chosen wisely.

But I’m not here in your inbox just to dunk on Sammy for this, frankly, fucking stupid POV. Because I’m not that kind of lady, you understand?

I’m here because I think it’s about time we talked about TESCREAL.

TESCREALism

(Sorry, I’m about to give you some homework.)

TESCREAL is an acronym that encompasses quite a few popular and influential ideologies in Silicon Valley: Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, Longtermism. Lots of -isms!

→ Read: Tech Capitalists Don’t Care About Humans. Literally.

I definitely recommend reading the full interview transcript and the screaming into a pillow, but here’s the gist:

Translation: People are tools for creating value. They are nothing more than stepping stones for the ultimate end-goal, which is…creating maximized value.

And colonizing Mars or whatever.

Look, I can’t claim to understand completely. Because I think it’s bonkers and it clashes with my worldview so completely that I think I’m blue-screening. But I’m sharing this because it provides some necessary context for why leaders like Altman would say something so…dehumanizing.

Because many tech leaders with billions of dollars and outsized influence don’t actually care about the human experience—they’re more interested in the transhumanist one. Their idea of a utopia doesn’t center humans; it centers technology.

(And our governments are buying into the hype, too! Not to be all charlie-day-red-string.jpg, but consider for a sec how JD Vance and Peter Thiel are connected. I could keep going, but I won’t, for your sake.)

So who, then, is thinking about the humans? Sorry friends, I think it’s us.

As always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring independently wealthy heiress. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

Oops! All cheaters

These two C-suite execs at Astronomer — the CEO and the Chief People Officer — were caught being a little too friendly by a, wait for it…

Kiss cam at a Coldplay concert.

Their reactions (immediately panicking and covering their faces) led people to believe these two might be more than coworkers, if you catch my drift. And that’s not exactly a great look for two married people.

Twitter tweet

I have two questions regarding this situation:

1) Could AI have prevented this?

2) Who’s going to tell HR?

Wait, sorry — I do have one more question.

At a Coldplay concert? Really?

The indignity of it all.

As always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

2 guests, 1 bad founder deep dive

New episodes released monthly 🍵 

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

#1: There ain’t no party like a Cluely party because a Cluely party gets shut down before starting

Rage-bait virtuoso Chugin Lee (founder and CEO of Cluely) planned to throw an after-party for a Y Combinator event. It got shut down for having too many would-be attendees blocking traffic. 

“It would have been the most legendary party in tech history. And I would argue that the reputation of this story might just make it the most legendary party that never happened,” he reportedly told TechCrunch.

But Amber, that’s not really bad behavior! Why did you include it here?

Good question. Because I simply cannot stand this company and its characters. But hey, maybe this is my Old Man Yells At Clouds moment 🤷

it me

🍵 🍵 🍵 

#2: Automating people out of jobs is gonna be great for everyone because just trust me bro

The founders of Mechanize, an AI startup, have the lofty goal to “get to a fully automated economy,” which IMHO is really stupid. But I’m not a VC investor, so what do I know!! 

Anyway, they joined the Hard Fork podcast and had a lot of nothing to say about the social consequences of trying to replace human workers  :) :) :)

Here’s a lil snippet:

Replacing jobs = higher standard of living. Got it. Makes perfect sense.

🍵 🍵 🍵 

#3: Kid-tested, CEO approved

The CEO and co-founder of Scale AI, Alexandr Wang, is waiting to have kids until brain Neuralink-type implants are consumer-ready so his children can tap into AI and become the next generation of superhumans/computers. 

Hey, Trump was right about one thing.

🍵 🍵 🍵 

#4: Live, laugh, love your job

Lucy Guo,  cofounder of Scale AI and newly minted billionaire, thinks work-life balance is kinda overrated, actually.

That’s all for now. And as always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

2 guests, 1 bad founder deep dive

New episodes released monthly 🍵 

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

Last year, the founder of the social media app, Telegram, was arrested in Paris as part of an unprecedented case against a tech founder.

Which side are you on: Free speech, or #FreePavel?

#2| So long, and thanks for all the crimes

Founders Behaving Badly · Episode

open.spotify.com/episode/6bkUmohe5gx2NjTIUuwN1t?si=a158db1dafc8421e

Subscribe for new episodes monthly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

P.S. This podcast is lovingly produced by my talented friend Dillon Young from Lifetime Value Media and Customer Value Labs, chillest CS pro in the biz. Go check him out!

Y’all, I closed on a new house (!) the day this silly little post dropped, and I’ve been go-go-going since then. BUT this kind of petty ~beef~ is my bread & butter, so here it is 1 week later….

🍵🍵🍵 

Last week, the CEO of Common Room accused Clay of blocking them from sponsoring an event.

“We were the only vendor they targeted,” she claimed, before laying out all the reasons why the folks at Clay ostensibly feel threatened by Common Room’s product.

It was a nice bit of positioning & messaging with a salt bae sprinkle of engagement/rage bait, until…

The CEO of Go Nimbly called BS in the comments.

So the CEO of Common Room apologized and “edited” the post. But, dear reader, the edited post is the one I shared the screenshot of. Do YOU see a different interpretation than “Clay screwed over Common Room and we’re being targeted because they’re jealous :(“

Oh well! At least you succeeded in (checks notes) tarnishing your reputation!

Full disclosure, I do not know this CEO personally, and I’ve never met her. Buuuut I did once work at one of their competitors, and I’ve seen them do this stirring the pot thing before. It’s not a cute look!

As a comms professional, I’d recommend tightening up the PR. But as a gossip lover…keep it up, girly!

As always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

Discover the Trends Shaping Tomorrow

Art, music, sports, entertainment, movies, and many other subjects—these elements define who we are as a society and how we express ourselves as a culture. Take a deep dive into the topics shaping our shared norms, values, institutions, and more.

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Subscribe to the Founders Behaving Badly Podcast

2 guests, 1 bad founder deep dive

New episodes released monthly

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

Short one today, and not even bad behavior. I just love a good ratioed post!

🍵🍵🍵 

Does anyone else think reading is totally pointless?

Take it away, Will!

While I have you here, I’ve got 2 quick questions

1. Did you catch episode 1 of the Founders Behaving Badly pod? If not, go listen here!

As always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

Subscribe to the Founders Behaving Badly Podcast

2 guests, 1 bad founder deep dive

New episodes released monthly

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

AllHere was once an up-and-coming ed tech startup with a well-respected founder, lots of hype, and the funding to prove it. Until the lies caught up to them.

#1 | 92 customers in a trench coat

Founders Behaving Badly · Episode

open.spotify.com/episode/5UqSccFHXUpC4hTzjEVemY?si=dVNqprMBScyJ5gvkFeeJxw

Subscribe for new episodes monthly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

P.S. This podcast is lovingly produced by my talented friend Dillon Young from Lifetime Value Media and Customer Value Labs, chillest CS pro in the biz. Go check him out!

Stay up-to-date with AI

The Rundown is the most trusted AI newsletter in the world, with 1,000,000+ readers and exclusive interviews with AI leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Demis Hassibis, Mustafa Suleyman, and more.

Their expert research team spends all day learning what’s new in AI and talking with industry experts, then distills the most important developments into one free email every morning.

Plus, complete the quiz after signing up and they’ll recommend the best AI tools, guides, and courses – tailored to your needs.

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A lil birdie sent me something in the mail and I’m soooo excited about it!!! Thanks to Amanda Nielsen at Thot Leader Labs for the shirt, it feels so ✨typically me ✨

(so excited about getting it that i forgot to take a pic before i threw it in the wash so i can wear it asap)

Nightmare group chat 📵

An article from Semafor revealed earlier this week that billionaires & Silicon Valley elites are in an exclusive Signal group chat from hell (my opinion) organized by venture capitalist and human embodiment of “well, actually…,” Marc Andreessen. 

The point of this chat? 

Soooo basically it’s a small group of powerful people having conversations they don’t feel comfortable having in public spaces – you can only imagine what that means – and quietly but effectively using their influence to shape larger sociopolitical shifts (aka popularizing alt-right ideologies and technofascism.)

🫠🫠🫠

And idk if I can rightly blame these group chats for making neo-monarchist Curtis Yarvin a thing, but I will anyway because that guy straight up SUCKS.

I’m so glad these folks finally have a safe place to share their shitty ideas about politics and culture!

Speaking of Marc Andreessen…

Marc has revealed which role is safest from an AI takeover, and it’s – drumroll, please! –

His job!

Yep, Marc believes that being a VC is so specialized and nuanced that AI simply can’t replace his expertise.

ok girl, whatever you say

AI takeover for thee but not for me~

Fresh from the tip line

An anon reader sent in a juicy tip this week, and it’s so well written I’m just going to share it with y’all unedited:

Ok girl, buckle up. Today/yesterday, this fellow Stephan Roussounis called out a guy called Alex Lawford on LinkedIn for posting a hate comment under his company. I think Stephan's company helps international students find opportunities in the UK to stay with local families short-term and learn the language and culture, etc. This Alex guy left a comment on his Facebook post, calling the program 💩 and said that he was helping destroy the country. 

So Stephan obviously called him out, explained that the program isn't what Alex thinks it is, and even if it was, racist much? (Turns out Alex has a history on X posting anti-migrant, Muslim, immigrant content which he might've deleted by now.)

Alex lost it and started DM-ing anyone commenting under Stephan's post, and he started answering every single comment defending what he said, bringing stats (no source) of the correlation between immigration and high housing prices. (again, correlation, not causation). 

Anyway, shit went south in the comments and ultimately Alex apologized for making the comment and asked Stephan to remove the post.... Bad move on Alex's part to post hate comments using his public profile, as the founder of a large marketing company, The Difference Group.

You’ve been a bad, bad boy Alex. Tomatoes for you 🍅🍅🍅

And major snaps to Stephan for standing his ground and calling this BS out. 

Are young male founders okay??

This week, I had the displeasure of seeing two absolutely bonkers posts from young founders recruiting (??) employees (???) to work (????) for them. 

1. Josh Jung shared that Corgi buys every new hire a full-size mattress so they can sleep at the office. Awww, you shouldn’t have! (No, really. You shouldn’t have.)

2. Chungin Lee of Cluely wants to hire 50 full-time growth interns for the summer and have them all live together, make TikToks, and spam your LinkedIn DMs. 

I just know that house will smell like Old Spice and Taco Bell onions.

Fellas, idk your situation, but can I recommend talk therapy and a really good lawyer who can handle those inevitable upcoming lawsuits?

As always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

How Smartcat Scaled Outreach and Cut Costs

Smartcat’s sales team needed a better way to qualify leads and book demos. By partnering with Synthflow, they deployed Voice AI Agents that increased call engagement, revived cold leads, and reduced booking costs by 70%. The result? More deals closed, and reps focused on what matters most—selling.

Explore the full case

Before we jump in, I want to recommend a newsletter you might like if you’re curious about the nefarious influence of tech billionaires: The Nerd Reich.

Also, you’re invited to join me + the ladies of Blame It On Marketing for a live tea party (read: gossip sesh) next week!

🍵🍵🍵 

Jack Dorsey thinks intellectual property is overrated

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, tweeted (X’d?) “delete all IP law.” Elon Musk, human sperm bank, quickly tweeted his agreement. (of course.)

Twitter tweet

Surprise! Billionaire startup founders who are most likely to benefit from making IP ✨open source✨ want to steal original work so they can smush it together with your data and create products they can sell back to you and collect even more profits.

Dorsey was challenged by IP professional and former RFK Jr. running mate (literally what is this timeline we’re living in?!), Nicole Shanahan, who pointed out that IP law helps separate human-created works from AI-created works.

To which Jack responded:

Twitter tweet

Cool!

Additional reading:

• Jack Dorsey Says Intellectual Property Law Shouldn't Exist, and Elon Musk Agrees: 'Delete All IP Law'

• Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk call to delete IP laws, but artists are pushing back

Elon Musk is trying to breed a legion of children

First of all, sorry for making you read and process those words. I think I speak for all of us when I say: GROSS.

The Wall Street Journal released a report with details about how Musk is using his money and power to control the lives of the 14 (confirmed!!!) children he has fathered, along with their mothers. Payment agreements, NDAs, the whole nine yards.

This report also hits on details of Musk sliding in influencers’ DMs and “offering” up his sperm…..

….

……..

………………..

One thing you should know about Elon is that he’s a pronatalist. Basically, he believes that having more babies (Western babies, obviously) will save humanity. But in reality, it reeks of eugenics.

Additional reading:

• The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies—and Their Mothers

• Why Elon Musk and JD Vance Are Obsessed With You Having More Babies

• Elon Musk, Father of 14, Said He Wants to Have a 'Legion-Level' of Kids 'Before the Apocalypse': Report

🍵🍵🍵 

Dishonorable mentions:

• Adam Robinson and RB2B are still up to their usual shenanigans. TBH, I don’t even follow the beef, but it seems to come around like clockwork every few months. Anything for engagement, eh?

• Jeff Bezos shot his fiancée Lauren Sanchez, Katy Perry, and some other women into space for 11 minutes in a PR stunt for his space travel company, Blue Origin.

As always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

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Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

🦝 Hello little corporate gossip raccoons, I have missed you! 🦝 

I’ve been out of commission onboarding clients, getting the flu, and selling my house to move to Massachusetts (yes, I needed spellcheck to get that right).

I’ll be a certified Masshole very soon! Do you think they’ll accept me as one of their own, or can they smell my Southern desperation to be liked?

Only time will tell…

🍵🍵🍵 

It’s a hard-knock life for soul-driven entrepreneurs

Who can resist the call of the wild?

Not Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, who moved to southern Sweden from Copenhagen (where they ran a rooftop restaurant) to start a forest resort.

The resort, Stedsans, was known for its magical setting, locally sourced food, and relaxed atmosphere – including a wild spa.

Now it’s known for its two owners being tax dodgers who went on the lam to Guatamala, leaving behind “over 150 barrels of human shit.” What a twist!

Turns out these two entrepreneurs had racked up tons of tax debt to both the Danish and Swedish governments and it was cramping their style :( 

In a statement on the Stedsans website, Flemming and Mette explained that it was just too dang hard to be soul-driven entrepreneurs AND pay their taxes at the same time

makes sense to me!

But we haven’t seen the last of these two yet! This intrepid couple has already set up a new business in Guatemala.

Where do you think they’ll flee to next? 🗺️ 

Dishonorable mentions:

• Billy McFarland insists Fyre Festival 2 is absolutely, definitely still happening even though there’s no confirmed location or list of performers. 

• An “AI startup” founder was caught lying about his product, claiming results came from AI when they actually came from manual workers – among other things. 

• Christine Hunsicker, founder and CEO of CaaStle, a fashion tech company, was accused of falsifying and mispresenting company financials. 

🍵🍵🍵 

Also let’s not forget that Elon Musk, human meme, sad edgelord, gamer poser, and certified loser, is systematically and recklessly dismantling necessary U.S. government institutions because he somehow doesn’t have anything better to do.

And, as always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

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Learn how to make AI work for you

AI won’t take your job, but a person using AI might. That’s why 1,000,000+ professionals read The Rundown AI – the free newsletter that keeps you updated on the latest AI news and teaches you how to use it in just 5 minutes a day.

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Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

Did you know that I also write The Segment with my buddy Dillon Young?

Since the biggest news in B2B tech this week was the shocking allegations of corporate espionage between Rippling and Deel, we teamed up to bring you this special crossover issue. Let’s spill!

The Segment

A weekly newsletter for customer-facing baddies who wanna talk shop and dish dirt about the latest in tech news.

Subscribe

🍵🍵🍵 

Deel’s unlucky day

St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t so lucky for Deel, a unicorn-status global HR platform. Why?

Oh, nothing major – just a new lawsuit alleging the company engaged an employee of a competitor, Rippling, to spy on its employer and conduct some light corporate espionage.

Totally normal stuff.

The official lawsuit document is a whopping 49 juicy pages of accusations against Deel, alleging “a calculated and unlawful corporate espionage scheme, orchestrated by Deel, a global, multi-billion-dollar technology company.”

(And that’s just part of the introduction!)

Welcome to the cutthroat world of HR tech

Who knew the competition between HR SaaS companies was so fierce? Not us.

But apparently the space is crowded and full of legacy companies like SAP, ADP, and Workday. 

(Chances are you’ve used one or more of these to fill out applications for jobs you never heard from again 🫠)

During the global pandemic, when companies had to shift their people operations to handle remote employment, HR tech saw a bit of a boom. But now, 5 years later, the market has slowed down for these platforms and created much fiercer competition. 

Deel and Rippling are, for all intents and purposes, neck-and-neck in the all-in-one HR platform race. 

• Deel was last valued at $12 billion, while Rippling was last valued at $13.5 billion

• They’re both listed as having 1k-5k employees according to LinkedIn

• And they are interested in winning the same customers

it’s giving enemies!!

These two were destined to be enemies, just like the Capulets and Montagues 💔

Two households HR platforms, both alike in dignity

Even though Rippling and Deel have a history of directly competing with each other, things have gotten a little more heated in the past few months.

Near the end of last year, Rippling caused waves (or… ripples?) on LinkedIn after creating a game of Snake to call out Deel’s so-called “misleading claims” in their marketing. The subtext (but not really subtext) was that Deel sells snake oil.

The game wasn’t the main issue. That was just a bit of clever – if totally petty – marketing. The bigger problem?

The day after releasing the game, Rippling’s CRO, Matt Plank, accused Deel’s Head of Sales, Chris Lee, of submitting a contact request form for Rippling and saying something rude.

In the call-out post, Matt posted a screenshot of the submission – effectively sharing what should be private information. 

The spy who Slacked me

And here we are, 4-ish months later and the rivalry has escalated to new heights!

Rippling’s case against Deel alleges the following:

• Deel collaborated with a Rippling employee to spy on their employer.

• During this employee’s time at Rippling, Deel’s spy used Rippling’s systems to spy on Deel customers evaluating its competitor.

• The corruption goes all the way to the top, involving Deel's leadership (including Philippe Bouaziz – Deel’s Board Chair, Chief Financial Officer, and the father of the CEO).

Did we mention that this alleged spy wasn’t even in sales or marketing? Oh no, they were in…wait for it…payroll operations.

So how did Rippling ultimately catch the bad actor?

It all came down to monitoring Slack and using a clever little honeypot trap.

The folks at Rippling noticed that their payroll operations employee was unusually interested in learning about marketing and sales activity in Slack – especially information regarding their competitor, Deel.

So they devised a scheme to create a fake Slack channel and then invited Deel executives in private communication to view the channel, as it may have embarrassing details about their company in it. 

And can you guess who searched for this channel – even though they shouldn’t have known about it?

Yup, the alleged spy.

At this point, Rippling brought in an independent solicitor to seize the spy’s phone via court order, but according to reports the spy ran into the bathroom and refused to come out. Eventually, this person fled the scene.

Via Rippling’s press release:

A room of comedy writers couldn’t come up with this!!

Deel maintains its innocence

Don’t think Deel is sitting idly by and letting Rippling get away with these accusations. 

In a statement to The Register, a spokesperson for Deel dismissed the lawsuit, saying:

Personally? We’re really looking forward to that, too 👀 

And, as always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

Subscribe to the Founders Behaving Badly Podcast

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Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

Ahoy, mateys!

If you have 1) a Costco membership, 2) a child, 3) a penchant for cheesy corn puff snacks, you’ve probably seen and/or bought these before:

Ah, pirate’s booty – fun to eat and say!

Today’s story is about Robert Ehrlich, founder of Pirate’s Booty, and real life (almost) land pirate. 

Welcome to beautiful Sea Cliff, a small incorporated village in New York, situated on Long Island. 

Last week, Robert Ehrlich, Sea Cliff resident, did something (almost) unimaginable: He showed up at Village Hall with a gaggle of cronies and declared himself Mayor.

Source: Facebook

If you’re thinking “there’s no way that’s legal” – yes, correct. 

Ehrlich says he used a NY state law called the Citizen Empowerment Act to form a new village-within-a-village: the Incorporated Village of Sea Cliff Residents.

Ok Robert, giving us Russian nesting doll energy!!!🪆🪆🪆 

It’s this “new” community that he has self-appointed himself the mayor of. 

BUT, the Citizen Empowerment Act  – which does let citizens dissolve a government through a petition – needs at least 10% of the population to sign on to the idea.

(side note: that percentage seems kind of low, right?)

It doesn’t mean you can just waltz into a government building, harass staff, and demand your own office!

The punchline, though?

Sea Cliff has a village election coming up tomorrow…and the current mayor is running unopposed. 

If you’re curious about Ehrlich’s platform (??), check out his video pitch in this NY Post article — definitely worth a watch if you need a good chuckle.

And as always,

Allegedly 💋 

🍵🍵🍵 

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn or frolic through my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

The Segment

A weekly newsletter for customer-facing baddies who wanna talk shop and dish dirt about the latest in tech news.

Subscribe

👆️ I also write that there newsletter about news every tech worker should know 👆️ 

Stay up-to-date with AI

The Rundown is the most trusted AI newsletter in the world, with 1,000,000+ readers and exclusive interviews with AI leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Demis Hassibis, Mustafa Suleyman, and more.

Their expert research team spends all day learning what’s new in AI and talking with industry experts, then distills the most important developments into one free email every morning.

Plus, complete the quiz after signing up and they’ll recommend the best AI tools, guides, and courses – tailored to your needs.

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Work-life balance?

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said “I don’t know her.”

The New York Times got eyes on an internal memo from Sergey to Google employees working on Gemini (you know, an AI tool that might replace them someday) encouraging the team to “turbocharge” their efforts. 

He advised employees that they should be in the office at least every weekday (ok, fair) and that 60 hours a week is the “sweet spot” of productivity (excuse me?).

I think Bridget speaks for everyone here: 

go follow her on LinkedIn

In the same memo, he called out folks for working less than 60 hours a week and others for putting in “the bare minimum to get by.”

The bare minimum-ers, he pointed out, aren’t just unproductive, but also bad for team morale :( 

But Sergey did generously concede that working more than 60 hours a week could lead to burnout. What a mensch 🙏

AND DON’T WORRY!!

Sergey himself was able to take some time away from his busy office schedule to attend the Vanity Fair Oscars after party. Phew!

Dishonorable mentions:

• Matt Sauerhoff, founder of fitness center The LIV Method, was caught in HD yelling and swearing at popular celebrity chef Eddie Huang after being confronted about letting his dog go off-leash in public. 

• Kroger’s long-time CEO, Rodney McMullen, resigned suddenly on Monday after the board learned about “certain personal conduct” that was “inconsistent with Kroger’s Policy on Business Ethics.” No news on what that personal conduct was yet… 👀

• In a classic Billy McFarland move, the Fyre Festival founder announced a Fyre Festival 2 (2 Fast, 2 Festival) that would take place on Isla Mujeres…but local authorities say they have “no knowledge of this event.” We will not be hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray again, Billy!

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn or frolic through my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

The Segment

A weekly newsletter for customer-facing baddies who wanna talk shop and dish dirt about the latest in tech news.

Subscribe

👆️ I also write that there newsletter about news every tech worker should know 👆️ 

Yes, the world is getting another podcast and I hope you’ll accept it with arms wide open. 

Trailer:

"Allegedly" - Founders Behaving Badly Trailer

Founders Behaving Badly · Episode

open.spotify.com/episode/4AlSxOKjMUiRCH5Feu2ngw?si=CFvPAm15R9S_YHdX4l6QJw

P.S. who wants to be a guest?

Accomplish More. Juggle Less.

When you love what you do, it can be easy to take on more — more tasks, more deadlines, more hours – but before you know it, you don’t have time to do what you loved in the beginning. Don’t just do more – do more of what you do best.

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Today’s issue features a gossip trifecta:

• Justice being served

• A public dragging

• The return of a scammer

Blood

Elizabeth Holmes – founder of health tech startup Theranos, deep voice aficionado, and prison BFF of former Real Housewife of SLC, Jen Shah – lost an appeal to have her 2022 fraud conviction overturned.

To recap Ms. Lizzie’s hijinks: 

• Claimed that Theranos had developed a “revolutionary blood analyzer” that could run any blood test from a drop of blood (it couldn’t)

• Led investors to believe the Theranos analyzer was running accurate blood test results (it wasn’t)

• And despite this, she convinced investors to give her hundreds of millions to back the company (girl boss!)

Sweatshops

On Monday, Y Combinator, a popular startup accelerator and VC firm, posted a demo from Optifye.ai (catchy name 🙄) that caught a lot of backlash and was ultimately taken down.

According to its profile on the YC website:

The demo in question showed a badly scripted convo between a factory boss, a line supervisor, and a line worker.

Twitter tweet

The fictional boss calls the supervisor about a low-performing worker spotted by Optifye’s AI-powered security cameras. The demo (and company) quickly got called out for being a Sweatshop-as-a-Service, among other things.

But others noted that this type of work surveillance software isn’t new – and it’s already being used and has a market fit. The disconnect probably comes from the fact that Americans generally dislike the idea of being surveilled by AI at work.

According to TechCrunch, neither Y Combinator or Optifye have responded to requests for comment. 

IDK much about YC but dang, y’all really aren’t gonna stand by your investment?

I mean, I personally think it’s a creepy dystopian Big Brother-y nightmare, but aren’t YOU the ones who promoted it in the first place?!

Millionaire tears

Billy McFarland is back, babyyyy!

Fyre Festival 2 is officially in the works, set to be held May 30-June 2 on Isla Mujeres in Mexico.

ICYMI, the OG Fyre Festival took place in 2017 and was marked by such tragedies as gross sandwiches, soggy mattresses, and not enough toilets. 

The spectacle went viral partly because of the hype around the event (including celebrity promotions) and partly because of the schadenfreude of watching rich kids get scammed for tickets up to $12k.

General access tickets for Fyre Festival 2 start at $1,400 per person. Ja Rule appears to be sitting this one out. 

As always,

ALLEGEDLY 💋

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

The Segment

A weekly newsletter for customer-facing baddies who wanna talk shop and dish dirt about the latest in tech news.

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Accomplish More. Juggle Less.

When you love what you do, it can be easy to take on more — more tasks, more deadlines, more hours – but before you know it, you don’t have time to do what you loved in the beginning. Don’t just do more – do more of what you do best.

BELAY’s flexible staffing solutions leverage industry experience with AI systems to increase productivity without sacrificing quality. You can accomplish more and juggle less with our exceptional U.S.-based Virtual Assistants, Accounting Professionals, and Marketing Assistants. Learn how with our free ebook, Delegate to Elevate, and leave the more to BELAY.

Download now

Remember when we were kids and we had to learn the difference between inside voice and outside voice? 

I think some people could use a few lessons like that, but for inside thoughts vs. outside thoughts. Because as much as I am pro being open and vulnerable on social media, some thoughts should stay ✨ inside thoughts ✨.

Case in point: this post from James Langridge, co-Founder of Zenbundance.

[insert iCarly interesting.gif here]

This definitely could have – nay, should have – been an inside thought.

(IMO the only boobies we should be talking about on social are these.)

As others pointed out on LinkedIn, this post is sadly representative of just a smidgen of the disrespect women face in business spaces every minute of every hour of every day at work. 

And even worse, LinkedIn’s community policies don’t restrict this kind of post even though multiple people reported it as offensive. Cool cool cool. 

BUT if one good thing came out of this dumpster fire of a post idea, it’s the comments dragging the OP.

Anyway, this is as good a time as any to remind folks that you can have a thought without typing it out on a social platform and hitting “publish.”

Or, as Dorinda Medley, former cast member of Real Housewives of New York, would say:

Wise words 🙏

Make inside thoughts inside again!

And as always,

Allegedly 💋 xoxo

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

The Segment

A weekly newsletter for customer-facing baddies who wanna talk shop and dish dirt about the latest in tech news.

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🛑 Content warning: antisemitism, racism 🛑

Yesterday, LinkedIn user benyamin shared a post about some pretty shocking behavior on X from some of the folks behind the company Superwave.ai.

Here’s a screenshot of the folks associated with Superwave on LinkedIn as of 2/4/24 so you can know our players:

The two that will come into play in this story are Kyle and Axel.

A peek at their X timelines shows a history of very bad tweets. (Screenshots provided by two separate sources.)

For reference, I’m told this user is Alex Salazar:

Either way, the URL in the profile implies association with the company. Plus, this screenshot appears to back that up:

So, what did they allegedly* say?

*according to screenshots — I’ll let you make the call.

Exhibit A:

Gotta admit I’m not 100% sure what this means…

Exhibit B:

uhhhhhh

Exhibit C:

Exhibit D: 

🙅‍♂️🙅‍♂️🙅‍♂️

Exhibit E:

🤢🤢🤢

Back to the LinkedIn post from Benyamin…

The OP started the post with: “Does anyone at Superwave have anything to say about the ‘CRO’ of Superwave dropping some truly insane stuff on twitter” and tagged the 3 people I showed earlier.

And one of them replied to…clarify?

When pressed by another user, Axel responded with the following:

And…

So, there’s that! Those were certainly things you could’ve said (and Axel did!). 

I think Shae speaks for all of us regarding the tweets:

COD = Call of Duty

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

I also got a tip about the Co-CEO of different company, TheySaid, who posted this last week:

Unfortunately, the original post was edited so I don’t know what it said at first, but this comment claims it was a defense of Elon’s actions.

Y’all…can we agree that the memeification of Nazi salutes is, like, not a good look for your brand? 

And also that being a Nazi is bad? 

Just a thought!

As always,

ALLEGEDLY

xoxo 💋

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

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(I don’t actually know if you’re supposed to drink it ice cold tbh 🥛 )

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been accused of falsifying bank statements and audit reports to defraud a company and its investors of $60 million dollars. 

*stares directly at Alexander Beckman and Valerie Lau Beckman*

Let me set the scene:

GameOn (also called ON) is a privately held AI chatbot provider. According to its LinkedIn page, ON is “known for seamlessly powering generative AI experiences used by some of the world's largest and most well-known brands” – in case anyone was wondering.

In 2014, Alexander Beckman founded GameOn to revolutionize chatbots or whatever.

In 2016, Valerie Lau enters the scene as an attorney working with GameOn. We haven’t started any funny business yet.

In 2018, Alexander starts to get a little naughty. This is when the alleged fraud begins. 

An indictment from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California outlines accusations of:

• Lying about non-existent revenue to seem more successful

• Inflating bank balances – like claiming to have $13 mil in the bank when they only had $25.93

• Exaggerating (or lying about) customer relationships

• Impersonating real people to fake emails and signatures

• Knowingly sharing phony audit reports

That’s not even enough to get UberEats for lunch!!

(I imagine it helped that Valerie Lau, after moving around a few law firms, joined a VC firm in 2021 that made it way easier to forge false documents.) 

Between 2018 and 2024, GameOn raised a whopping $60 million from investors – with an estimated $4 million of those funds heading right into the pockets of Alexander and Valerie.

What did they use the money for?

Allegedly it went to buying residential properties, paying for private school (I mean tuition is crazy these days), paying off credit card bills, and covering the cost of their wedding venue. 💒

The kicker? during this time GameOn reportedly missed payroll or paid employees late several times. Figures!

But of course it gets worse…

Beckman officially left GameOn/ON in July of 2024 due to internal pressure and the fact that $11 million seemingly went missing. Unfortunately, this also resulted in a mass layoff affecting approximately 60 employees when the company decided to cease operations.

If convicted, these two lovebirds could face up to 30+ years in prison on 25 counts of theft and fraud. 

And in case I didn’t make it clear: all of this info = ALLEGEDLY.

xoxo 💋

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

You know when you get an idea and you’re like “I am 100% cooking with this, I’m a genius and I won’t hear otherwise?”

I imagine that’s how Andrew D’Souza, Founder and CEO of Boardy, felt when he came up with the #MakeLinkedInFunAgain campaign that went live on Monday.

Here’s what happened (and why people got upset with Boardy):

First, wtf is Boardy?

Boardy is an “AI super connector” (??) that, I guess, recommends people you should connect with on LinkedIn after chatting with you for a while on the phone. The company just raised a $8M seed round.

(No one asked for my opinion on the product but thanks, I hate it.)

Moving on… 

Andrew had the idea to send an email campaign called #MakeLinkedInFunAgain to…

Actually, to be honest, I’m still not sure what the purpose of this was.

The idea was to pretend to connect users to Donald Trump, I guess? So they used an AI prompt that interpreted a user’s profile photo and generated a message impersonating Trump.

Exhibit A:

The results were mixed, to say the least.

Quite a few women pointed out that using AI to send unsolicited messages about their appearances is really weird and creepy. 

There were also reports that the difference between messages men received vs. women was stark. Emails to men were more likely to note their accomplishments, while the messages to women focused on appearances.

Others pointed out that sending a message like this on the day of the inauguration – a very politically charged day – was just bad form.

Some folks also argued that this isn’t exactly a responsible use of AI or a smart way to build trust with consumers. This post from Kacie Jenkins at Sendoso is a great nuanced take.

(I mean…you know how much people love AI-generated messages that add 0 value, creep you out, and then ask you for a favor.)

After just a few hours of going live, Andrew issued an apology on LinkedIn, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to work overtime to rebuild brand equity – even with their fans. 

What can we learn from this, kids?

• Always approach campaigns with empathy for the user

• Include diverse voices and experiences at your decision-making table

• If you have a ✨ brilliant offbeat idea ✨ that you’re super duper excited about…maybe sleep on it!

P.S. I ran this campaign by ChatGPT for initial feedback and even it didn’t think this was the best move. 

GPT was like “are you sure about this??”

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.