Aug 5, 2025 5 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ Tesla Board Yields

More Stories: Google Roasts Apple, Dribbble Fires Its Star

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

What do you get when one empire bends the knee, another drops a diss track, and a design playground turns into a birthing ward? Just another Tuesday in the innovation circus.

BOARD

Musk Wins Again: Tesla Board Yields, Hands Over $29B

👀 What’s the move: Tesla’s board just handed Elon Musk a new $29 billion stock award—96 million shares vesting over two years—on the condition he stays on as CEO and courts don’t reinstate his voided 2018 pay package. While smaller than the original plan, this award would still boost Musk’s Tesla stake from 12.7% to over 15%, reinforcing his control and cementing the largest active compensation deal in corporate America. It’s a clear, calculated move by the board: better to anchor the chaos than lose the captain.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This isn’t just a pay package—it’s a loyalty contract wrapped in a legal hedge. After months of Musk's political landmines, cross-company distractions, and open threats to walk, Tesla’s directors blinked first. They're betting their robotaxi future on a man who's already split across five timelines—and codifying that bet with equity, not trust. If the Delaware courts don’t reverse, Musk walks away with control, a clean cap table, and a five-year lock-in.

⛵ Key takeaway: Musk didn’t win compensation—he won the boardroom. And the rest of us just bought a ticket to the sequel of the 2018 drama.

TOGETHER WITH AIRTABLE

Airtable AI Plays for Smarter Workflows

Our AI Plays are your go-to guide for building smarter, faster workflows across every team. Whether you're customizing status summaries, tracking competitive features, or creating campaign briefs, our plays help you unlock what’s possible with Airtable.

Explore the AI Plays 👉

SMARTPHONE

Google Roasts Apple’s “Coming Soon” Siri in Pixel 10 Ad

👀 What’s the move: In a Pixel 10 teaser, Google torched Apple’s year-long Siri delay with a deadpan voiceover and Snoop Dogg soundtrack. The jab? If your AI is still “coming soon” after 12 months, maybe it’s not coming at all. The ad mirrors Apple’s iconic aesthetic — just to flip it on them.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This isn’t just marketing shade — it’s a strategic role reversal. Apple used to set the bar for product polish; now it’s fumbling AI rollouts and getting sued over vaporware features. Google’s seizing the narrative before iPhone season, positioning Pixel as the actually intelligent choice.

⛵ Key takeaway: If your AI roadmap fits better in a trailer than on a timeline, don’t be shocked when your rivals use it as their punchline.

CREATIVE CONTENT

Dribbble Just Fired Its Own Poster Child

👀 What’s the move: Dribbble banned legendary designer Gleb Kuznetsov—12,000 shots, 100K monthly fans, 15 years of clout—for dropping his email to a client. His sin? Bypassing Dribbble’s new policy: no off-platform deals unless Dribbble gets its cut. Now he’s planning a rival platform, backed by the very outrage Dribbble provoked.

💡 Why it’s not boring: Dribbble, once the digital gallery for designers to inspire and be inspired, is going full Etsy-for-Hires. The shift: if you use Dribbble to land clients, you must process payment through them or face exile. The platform that built careers is now cannibalizing them in pursuit of monetization. The irony? They nuked their most influential user to protect a cut of revenue he likely never needed from them.

⛵ Key takeaway: When a community product starts charging tolls at the exits, don’t be surprised when someone builds a new road.

STARTUP SPOT

🎨 Dribbble
“Design‑first platform, now marketplace‑centric.”
Platform for showcasing design work (“Shots”), portfolios, job hiring & community networking → Bootstrapped, profitable, 16M+ users; pro subscriptions, team accounts & job board monetize creative talent.
→ Founded 2009 by Dan Cederholm & Rich Thornett in Walnut Creek (remote team); acquired Creative Market in 2020; 339 employees as of 2022. 2025 policy pivot enforces 3–3.5% cut of client revenue for all non‑advertiser designers; sparked high‑profile bans and backlash, rival “Canvas Collective” emerging in response.

🧾 Harvey AI
“Legal work, agentic and generative.”
GenAI platform tailored to law firms: document review, drafting, contract analysis, litigation research & workflows → Built custom case-law models with OpenAI, plus Anthropic & Google model access for elite legal use.
→ Founded 2022 by antitrust litigator Winston Weinberg & DeepMind veteran Gabe Pereyra; launched via OpenAI Startup Fund, Sequoia B led Series B → raised $300M Series E in June ’25 (led by Kleiner Perkins & Coatue) at a $5B valuation. ARR accelerated from $50M to $75M by April, hitting $100M by Aug with 500+ clients.

💰 Bullish
“Institutional-grade crypto, going public.”
Regulated digital asset exchange offering tight spreads, custody, spot and derivatives for institutions → serves U.S., Germany, HK, Gibraltar; owns CoinDesk with ~4.9M monthly users.
→ Founded 2021 as Block.one spin-out; backed by Peter Thiel & BlackRock; filing targets a U.S. IPO at $4.2B valuation to raise up to $629M, ticker BLSH on NYSE; institutional demand from ARK & BlackRock for ~$200M in shares. Held $3B+ in liquid assets incl. 24,000 BTC/12,600 ETH and $418M in cash/stablecoins; regulated by GFSC and audited by Deloitte; full‑reserve model offers transparency and trust in institutional crypto infrastructure

BAY AREA MEMOS

Legal AI startup Harvey hits $100 million in annual recurring revenue and a $5 billion valuation.
Crypto exchange operator Bullish, backed by Peter Thiel, is seeking to raise up to $629 million in its upcoming IPO.
Google agrees to pause non-essential AI workloads during peak hours to reduce strain on the power grid.
Wall Street focuses on AI and PC sales growth as AMD prepares to release its second quarter earnings report.
Data operations platform Pantomath raises a $30 million Series B round led by Insight Partners and appoints a new CEO.

TOGETHER WITH US

AI Secret Media Group is the world’s #1 AI & Tech Newsletter Group, boasting over 1 million readers from leading companies such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Our Newsletter Brands: