🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #180

It's Monday! Time to set the tone for an awesome week!

#AshneerGrover - Ex Shark Tank India Judge Ashneer Grover has trademarked his name. Now he's like the celebs, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, who've done the same. Guess this means he's all about building his brand, but some people are just making fun of it online, saying it's pointless.

#Dunzo - Dunzo, a Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery startup, has faced challenges securing fresh funding. Kabeer Biswas, the present CEO at Dunzo, has been in discussions with investors about his plans to step down from his role.

#Indian_Education_System - Indian universities are struggling to keep up with the demands of AI education, with experts citing a mismatch between curriculum and industry needs, limited focus on hands-on projects, and a lack of emphasis on research and innovation. It's time for a shift!

#AreYouABot - Users are complaining how excessive use of Captchas / Cloudflare challenges have made large portions of the web unusable.

#AI-powered profiles - A lot happened over the weekend in this space. Firstly, if you recollect in our post earlier, we had mentioned how Meta is planning on rolling out AI-Generated and managed profiles on all their platforms. And when they did, user’s did not like it one bit. Now, word is that, due to lots of backlash and hate, Meta has started un-rolling these. They are now being taken down while Meta introspects. In this link, you will find examples of these AI profiles.

Zepto Eyes India IPO
Zepo is preparing for an IPO and is reportedly in talks to file draft documents by March or April 2025. If successful, Zepto would become the first independent quick commerce firm to list on India's public market.

HUL To Acquire Skincare Startup Minimalist For Rs 3,000 Crore
HUL, a giant FMCG company, is about to acquire Minimalist, a Jaipur-based skincare startup, for $350 million, making it one of the largest deals in the skincare industry!

India Cracks Down On VPNs
Cloudflare & others pulled from India's app stores due to gov't intervention, citing new 2022 regulations requiring VPN providers to store customer data for 5 yrs, sparking major pushback from industry players.

Apple To Pay $95 Million For Illegally Recording Siri Users
Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant Siri routinely recorded private conversations. The settlement refers to "unintentional" Siri activations that occurred after the "Hey, Siri" feature was introduced in 2014.

Tesla's 2024 Numbers: A Mixed Bag
Tesla, the pioneer EV company in the US, just released its production and delivery numbers for 2024. They produced 1.77M cars, a 4% drop from last year, and delivered 1.79M vehicles, 1% less than 2023. But they did have a record 4th quarter for deliveries and energy storage!

United Adds Spacex's Starlink In-flight Wi-fi, Testing Begins Next Month
Starlink bags its first Airline customer. United Airlines in USA. The service promises to be as fast as on-ground internet, allowing passengers to stream, play games and work during flights. Testing starts next month and the first passenger flight will be in the spring, with a goal to equip the entire regional fleet by the end of the year.

Google Gemini - A summary of all the changes that Google’s AI / LLM underwent in 2024

Fancy | A growing library of fancy, fun, animated react components & microinteractions to make the web fun again. Free & Open Source.

Benchjs | Browser-based JavaScript benchmarking tool.

WebAssembly: What’s New
Learn about WebAssembly, a compiler that allows applications written in any language to be deployed on any device, and its growing adoption in the tech industry, including its potential to replace traditional containers and integrate with Kubernetes, as well as its security aspects and future prospects, including standardization and expanded language support.

Navigating Large Codebases: The Importance Of Consistency
Working with large, established codebases (~5M lines, 100-1000 engineers, 10+ years old) requires unique skills. The cardinal mistake is inconsistency. Resist the urge to implement features in isolation, instead, prioritize consistency by embracing existing code and patterns, even if they're imperfect. This approach protects against surprises, slows codebase decay, and enables future improvements. Consistency is key to maintaining a healthy, long-term codebase.

Former Loom Founder's Quarter-life Crisis - Loom's Founder On Identity Crisis After Selling Company
What does one do when they sell their company for $60 million? Former entrepreneur's struggles after $60M exit, oscillating between robotics fascination and crippling insecurity, amidst relationship breakdown and Himalayan mountaineering adventures.