Hi Everyone. This is Take Off, your personal tech news barista. We'll whip up frothy, piping hot insights that'll give you that extra jolt you need to tackle the market.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• WeWork Won't Work? 🏢

• Carbon+AI = Funded Startup 🫧

• Asteroids ☄️

• Trending Tools ⚒️

WeWork Won't Work? 🏢

There are two things that give us PTSD:

• Frosted Spiky Hair circa 2001

• Any news related to WeWork

Good news and WeWork are two words that usually don’t go together and that is exactly what happened this week.

Their interim CEO made an announcement on the earnings call that the company might not be able to continue functioning.

Looking Back

The company was the darling of Silicon Valley backed by none other than Softbank’s Vision Fund and boasted a valuation of $47 billion at its peak.

However, a closer look at the financials of the company gave outside investors the heebi-jeebis as they realized the company’s entire business model was to burn a lot of money to then raise even more money.

They also didn’t meet floor-to-floor with Adam Neumann, WeWorks’s founder who saw the company as a visionary tech company when all the company did was buy up real estate leases.

The only thing that WeWork and a tech startup had in common were their kitchens stocked with Kombucha.

P.S. Did you know Neumann trademarked the term “We” and had WeWork pay him $5.9 million for it.

What’s Happening Now

Nothing good, for sure. WeWork did manage to IPO in 2021 by merging with a SPAC at $7.4 billion but its market-cap fell to ....* checks notes*…. $390 million as of yesterday.

Here are some numbers on (NYSE:WE):

• The company has lost over $15 billion since 2017.

• They’ve lost over 98.5% of their IPO valuation.

• The current stock is trading under $1 at about $0.18.

Their plan to reduce costs and optimize real estate holdings is like trying to save a sinking ship with a leaky bucket.

Meaning: It's not working!

WeWork has always had more red flags than those stalker exes and WeWonder, Is this finally going to be the end of the company?

P.S. There’s a miniseries on AppleTV+ called “WeCrashed” starring Jared Leto detailing the fall of the once gargantuan startup.

Carbon+AI = Funded Startup 🫧

You know how peanut butter and jelly are perfect for each other?

Well, AI and carbon removal are the new dynamic duo on the tech scene, and they’re turning out to be quite the power couple!

Over the last two years, more than $400 million has been invested in this blossoming romance. There are dozens of startups, each raising $10 million or more.

Carbon Tracking Software

Know the first step in removing/reducing our carbon footprint? It’s tracking it!

The following startups are kinda like FitBit, but for Earth’s emissions. And they’re hot on funding.

• Sylvera raised a $57 million Series B to apply machine learning to assess carbon projects that capture, remove or avoid emissions.

• Pachama pulled in a $55 million Series B last year for its reforestation projects.

The Grid and Buildings

Even drones, buildings, and oceans are getting in on this “carbon-AI” action!

• Saildrone, from California is sending unmanned boats to monitor how much carbon the ocean absorbs.

• Arloid Automation in London is using AI to make buildings energy-smart.

• BluWave-ai, from Ottawa, is balancing cost, availability, and the carbon footprint of energy sources in real-time.

AI has promised to be next revolutionary technology that mankind will witness and carbon removal is the revolution that we all need.

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

Cruise and Waymo win robotaxi expansions in San Francisco. Expect a lot more cars without humans if you’re in SF. 🚕 

Alibaba’s quarterly revenue beats despite China’s sputtering economy. The company saw its strongest quarterly growth in almost two years. 📈 

Slack’s biggest redesign ever tries to tame the chaos of your workday. Seems like the company is now trying to solve a problem they created themselves. 💬

 ⚒️ Trending Tools ⚒️

💡 YC Idea Matcher - Submit your idea and get a list of similar ideas that YCombinator has invested in before.

💹 Hercule - AI powered investment analysis and decision making.

🤝 Spinach.IO - Get instant meeting summaries, including action items.

🌐 Framer - Generate a website in minutes from your prompts.

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