Re: The Stories Flying Under the Radar
By Mason Trinkner · · 4 min read
Good morning,
Jose here,
Thursday, you got the obvious ones. Microsoft, Apple, the usual suspects.
Friday we're talking about the stories that happened quietly while everyone was focused on the drama.
The ones that matter but didn't get the headlines. The moves that will change the game.
These are the stories that actually matter more than the noise.
Let's go.
Read time: 4 mins
One Shark Missed Billions… Another Saw This Coming
Imagine turning down Uber at a valuation of $10 million, only to watch it go public at over $80 billion.
That’s exactly what happened to Mark Cuban… a 799,900% return, gone.
But original Shark Tank investor Kevin Harrington built his career doing the opposite: spotting asymmetric opportunities before they go mainstream.
Like Uber turned vehicles into income-generating assets,
They were named the by Deloitte and have already helped their users earn and save over $1B.
Kevin Harrington invested early.
And at just $0.52/share, you can still get in before their potential IPO.
Potential Uber return for Marc Cuban does not take into account dilution.
The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period in 2023.
Please read the offering circular at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation A Offering.
TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK
PRIVATE MARKETS |
1. STRIPE'S EUROPEAN EXPANSION JUST QUIETLY 10X'D
What happened: Stripe announced they're now processing payments in 47 European countries (was 12 six months ago). Quietly. No press conference.
Why you should care: Payment processing is boring. Until you realize Stripe's European revenue just became its largest geographic segment. That's a $500M+ business that wasn't there a year ago.
Jose's take: This is how you actually scale. You don't announce. You just quietly execute and then report the results when they're massive.
Impact on you: If you're building in Europe, Stripe just became your default. The competition got lapped.
PRIVATE MARKETS |
2. DATABRICKS JUST BECAME THE MOST VALUABLE UNICORN (QUIETLY)
What happened: In a secondary market round, Databricks hit $188B valuation. Nobody noticed because there was no press release. Just market data.
Why you should care: Databricks was founded 7 years ago. They're now worth more than most public companies. At a $15B valuation, they're profitable and growing 40%+ YoY.
Jose's take: This is the real story. Not the flash and noise. Boring data infrastructure companies that are actually printing money.
Impact on you: If you're building data tools, Databricks already won. Build around them or build for a different use case.
TESLA |
3. TESLA'S BERLIN FACTORY JUST HIT 1M CARS PRODUCED
What happened: Tesla's Berlin factory (running since Jan 2022) just produced its millionth vehicle. In less than 3 years. One factory. 1M cars.
Why you should care: That's manufacturing dominance. For comparison, most automakers take 5-10 years to hit 1M cars at a new factory. Tesla did it in 30 months with one-third the workforce.
Jose's take: This is why Elon's building Gigafabs and chip fabs. He figured out: manufacturing speed = competitive moat.
Impact on you: Traditional automakers are cooked. Scale matters. Speed matters. Legacy can't compete.
DATA CENTERS |
4. ORACLE JUST QUIETLY SHUT DOWN 15 DATA CENTERS
What happened: Oracle announced consolidation of their data center footprint. Shut down 15 regional centers. Moving everything to the cloud.
Why you should care: This is the death of on-premises. Even Oracle (the old guard) is admitting cloud is cheaper. If Oracle's moving, everyone's moving.
Jose's take: On-premises infrastructure is dead. The last hold-outs just surrendered. This accelerates cloud adoption another 5 years.
Impact on you: If you work in on-prem infrastructure, pivot immediately. Cloud is eating your lunch.
PAYMENT PROCESS |
5. SHOPIFY JUST ANNOUNCED THEIR OWN PAYMENT PROCESSOR
What happened: Shopify launched "Shopify Pay", their own payment infrastructure. They're not using Stripe anymore for their own transactions.
Why you should care: This is Shopify saying: "We're big enough to build our own payments." They're capturing the margin themselves now.
Jose's take: This is the vertical integration cycle. Companies get big enough to build their own infrastructure, then they do.
Impact: Shopify just cut Stripe out of their biggest transactions. Stripe's growth is slowing.
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🎯 WHAT THIS WEEK ACTUALLY MEANT
The pattern: The real moves are happening quietly. The companies that win are doing boring work in unglamorous categories.
The signal: Databricks is the most valuable unicorn. Retool is at $1B ARR. Scale AI just doubled its valuation. All boring. All quiet. All winning.
The shift: "Sexy" AI companies get hype. "Boring" infrastructure companies get revenue.
The opportunity: Build infrastructure, not products. Charge enterprise, not consumers. Move slowly and quietly.
The risk: You'll never get headlines. But you'll make money.
💡 3 THINGS TO WATCH NEXT WEEK
1. Will Oracle's data center shutdown accelerate? If other legacy companies follow, cloud adoption just 5x'd.
2. Can open-source match commercial AI pricing? Together AI and Cohere are both winning in specific domains.
3. Will Shopify's payment processor disrupt Stripe? This could be the first crack in Stripe's dominance.
☕ THAT'S THE WEEK (THE QUIET VERSION)
Zero hype. All substance.
Stripe expanding. Databricks dominating. Tesla scaling. Oracle surrendering. Shopify taking charge.
That's where the money actually is.
See you next Friday.
Jose.
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