Building in public, IPO watch, and what to do about Europe
Despite some startups breaking through, Europe is not being transformed, shaken up, and reborn through new corporate formation and growth.
Welcome to Cautious Optimism, a newsletter on tech, business, and power.
Our economic calendar for the week can be found here; it’s going to be a busy week for SaaS earnings. Now, to work!
📈 Trending Up: X’s value … buildings weapons in Asia … bullshit … clarity on how Libra died … BYD .. no, really … OpenAI’s ability to not get sued … tariffs …
Remember that old chestnut that you should never underestimate the bandwidth of a family sedan trundling down the highway with a trunk full of hard drives?
📉 Trending Down: Russia’s currency and economy … religious harmony … the chance that Pete Hegseth becomes Secretary of Defense … high bandwidth memory availability in China … Russian roots … a level playing field? …
Building in public (or how to do startup updates)
Howard Lerman, previously of Yext, is building Roam. It’s a bit like a hybrid Zoom and Slack, but with a neat UI that tickles my brain. If Lunch Hacks — the parent LLC to Cautious Optimism; oh yeah, we’re in the empire business — ever needed internal software, I’d probably choose Roam.
Anyway, Lerman, whom I know a bit and like, posted his company’s November investor update on LinkedIn. Including the fact that while the company is scaling well and has cleared the $1 million ARR milestone, Roam had a “soft end to the month.” Every startup has good and less-good months. Most don’t want you to know it. Lerman, however, is building in public and sharing the data. Ten points.
“In a few decades, Graham argues, society will be split between ‘writers’ and ‘write-nots’”
IPO watch
Nothing is on the schedule for this week, though ServiceTitan is expected to try and list this month. But if you are so inclined, there’s an updated Turo S-1/A you can read here.
In the third quarter, the car rental startup saw its revenues rise to $269.3 million, up from $245.7 million in Q2 2024, and $257.09 million in the year-ago quarter. The company remained profitable in the quarter with $9.5 million worth or GAAP net income; however, that figure was down from the sequentially preceding quarter and the year-ago period.
And how are WeRide and Pony.AI performing now that both Chinese self-driving companies are public?