Ankit Agarwal

Engineering@WhatsApp, citizen of the world, traveler and foodie. Views are my own, not my employer's.

[Madhur Shrimal @shrimalmadhur]

https://t.co/iAscWUin3Q

[Jesse Proudman @jesseproudman]

@GovBobFerguson is hiring 300 people for a "millionaires-only" tax. 1 bureaucrat for every 67 taxpayers.

That's not a team for 20,000 people, that's foundational infrastructure for 8 million.

The IRS covers 150M+ filers with ~80K employees (1:1,875 ratio). Washington's building 300 staff for 20K filers (1:67). That's 28x more bureaucratic density per taxpayer than the IRS.

[Marc Barros @marcbarros]

After 40 years (born and raised) I left WA. Moment is leaving this month as well.

I'm not even a millionaire affected by this tax. But when you add up all the costs to run a business in WA we can't afford it. You can build a remote team and re-open in Wyoming, removing all of these costs.

WA is incredibly beautiful (especially the summers) and the people are great. Unfortunately the numbers don't lie and unless you run a super high margin software business, WA is just too expensive.

Personally...you'd never pick WA to start a company.
- Gas taxes (now some of the highest in the state)
- Sales tax (up to 10.5% in Seattle)
- Property tax (1% of your home value with a path they can take this to 3%. In total $ this tax they have increased nearly 100% over the last decade)
- Capital gains tax (new in the last three years went form 0 -> 9%. it targets business owners and not real-estate).
- Estate tax (they recently changed it to a progressive system that is up to 35% just to the state of WA)
- Housing prices are some of the highest in the country.
- Food costs are unreal, just visit a Seattle restaurant or grocery store.

Business...
- Very little capital. Great angels but almost no VC or larger funding sources.
- Super high salaries for tech talent (this has changed but amazon, microsoft, etc paid very high rates for a very long time).
- B&O Tax: paid as a % of your sales.
- Sales & Use Tax (this is the real killer)

What pushed us out was the recent change to Sales & Use Tax. It used to be you paid this tax on physical things you bought for your business, similar to sales tax. Now you pay it on 100% of the items you buy, think shopify, aws, google, etc. Even if your team is remote you pay 10% sales tax on 100% of these purchases no matter where peole are located.

But the real kicker, was they expanced this law to be a tax that applies to all digital advertising. Run FB ads in Germany? You pay WA state a 10% tax. Overnight that is a+$200K a year tax that did not exist last year. Again not even based in where your ads run or where your team is. Incorporated in WA state? You will pay this tax.

What makes this sad is all political diversity disappeared years ago. It's that debate that keeps government from taking everything. One political team has run the state for +30 years and Seattle for more than 50 years. This train has been coming for years and is now accelerating. WA government can never have enough $.

I hope there is a new generation of company builders who see this is an opportunity and can run into the burning building.

[Brian Hansford @remarkmarketing]

I've been in tech in the PacNW since the early 90s, working for big companies, and many start ups.

There will never be the equivalent of one of these companies founded, or based in Washington. (founded, maybe. But they won't stay.)

If you're a newbie to the Seattle area, these companies are legends and it's time to get a clue on the history.

Under the new taxation, the founders of these companies would have never successfully grown and collectively hired hundreds of thousands:

Attachmate
WRQ
Microsoft
Amazon
Avalara
Concur (SAP)
McCaw Cellular (Now AT&T wireless)
Expedia
T-Mobile
Aldus (acquired by Adobe)
Immunex
ZymoGenetics
Real Networks
F5
REI
Eddie Bauer
Costco
Zillow
Starbucks
Expediters International
Alaska Airlines
Paccar
Airborne Express
UPS (yes, UPS was founded in Seattle)
Nordstrom
Eagle Hardware (acquired by Lowes)
Blue Origin

Why would a founder of any of these companies start the equivalent of any of these legends if they'd have to give up 10% to the state when they're still in an early stage?

And save me the sanctimonious "paying my fair share" virtue signaling. Grow up.

This is one of the most aggressive tax schemes in the country.

And our once vibrant economy will be relegated to satellite offices and incubator stage companies.

Nice work, Washington!

[aviel @aviel]

Believe it or not @bfioca and I agree on a lot more than you think. We both want the same things for our lives, our city, and our families. We're also not afraid of making sacrifices to accomplish that. I deeply respect him for that!

What we don't agree on though, is how we get there.

I, along with others, have written letters to the Governor and House urging them to delay passing this bill. As I've said many times before, I am not against taxes nor a state income tax. Heck, in response to this situation I actually GOT A PLACE IN CALIFORNIA. I am against legislation that I know will destroy our economy.

Regardless of people leaving over the passing of this bill or the obvious misallocation of funds within the state (I'm going to get very vocal on this later this year), this bill is simply poorly thought out and rushed.

1. It's illegal (that's just the starting point).
2. Many small business owners will be taxed on business operating income as if it was their actual income.
3. It counts employee stock options at exercise date. This means that for many employees, after years of working at a significantly reduced salary, after they exercise their (still likely) illiquid stock they may owe the state up to 10%. This is already a big problem for folks at the federal level but now makes stock options, the main tool for compensation in startups, functionally broken in Washington State.
4. It penalizes marriage in a way that our recent capital gains tax does not.

[Jugeshinder Robbie Singh @jugeshinder]

When you remember how great your civilization was... you stop accepting mediocrity
INSV Kaundinya just pulled off something epic. No engine. No metal fasteners. Just ancient Indian stitching tech from 5th-century Ajanta Caves paintings.
16 crew. 18 days: Wind power across the Arabian Sea.
Left Porbandar Dec 29, 2025 → arrived Muscat Jan 14, 2026 with a massive water salute welcome.
This isn't nostalgia. It's proof India had world-class seafaring tech 1,500+ years ago—long before anyone else claimed it.
Every successful voyage like this wakes up the nation:
We built empires on innovation, craftsmanship & bold exploration. This is the spark for India's renaissance by 2047.
Ancient genius + modern ambition = unstoppable.
Kaundinya just reminded 1.4B people: We were once the greatest maritime power on Earth.
Time to become it again.
@sanjeevsanyal @ARanganathan72

[Rohini Singh @rohini_sgh]

These were just tourists out to enjoy their day with their families. Their cries and tears will haunt us all. Never forget. Never forgive. Ever.

[nader dabit @dabit3]

Eigen team cooking in 2025. Who to follow:

@soubhik_deb research, engineering, insights
@13yearoldvc infinite sum games (does it all)
@0xpratik bullposting and ecosystem
@nima_vaziri head chef of AI
@zeroxbowen engineering, 🐐
@0xkydo researcher + ideas alpha
@shrimalmadhur a+ vibes, gigabrain on all fronts
@brettpalatiello research alpha
@blocksec security, serial hackathon winner, gigabrain
@0xtonkatsu APAC*, great human to get to know
@ishaan0x alpha blog posts, DeFi, DeFAI
@samlafer engineering, insights, AVS stuff, shitposting
@scotthconner engineering, shitposting
@zigelbaum governance 🐐
@zk_asv engineering, security, insights
@0xMustafa_eth research, <something new> 👀
@rjdrost foundation stuff + knowledge
@mattmurrs EigenDA + insights for devs (DevRel)
@NotexploraDora all things events
@bcog55 engineering + insights
@bbuddha_xyz smart contracts++
@weswfloyd does everything (DevRel)
@gajesh needs no intro but now cooking demos, stunts, AI, and OSS
@vyas_krishnan Eigen since Day 1
@thedanrodman community *
@sreeramkannan (obviously)
@afk0b AVS, eng, gigabrain

@yash_patil_ @bertran_yorro @chrismoller @1_freddie_ @tkyyyng @wadeAlexC @AlanJamesCurtis @Bowen_Xue3 do not tweet much yet 👀

[Airial Travel @AirialTravel]

🚨 A New Era of Travel Begins TODAY

Say hello to Airial, the AI travel assistant turning TikTok dreams into bookable adventures.

Here are the 4 game-changing ways Airial is revolutionizing travel planning forever 👇

[Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash]

.@codingal has now grown to 7000+ active paying customers (students), $5M+ annual run rate, and growing 100%+ YoY. My role as CEO has been many, but I have also been busy building. Here is how my GitHub contributions for internal repo looks like - averaging 1 commit per day!

[Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkesh_sp]

My family moved to the US when I was 8, but by the time I turned 20, my dad was still on an H1B (waiting to get processed for a green card).

Once I turned 21, I would age out as his dependent, despite the fact that I basically grew up in the US.

I thought I'd have to become a code monkey after college, and even that only if I was lucky enough to win the H1B lottery.

Otherwise, back to India.

I had become a huge fan of @paulg's essays in college. I was actually depressed that my desire to start a startup or do something entrepreneurial was basically hopeless.

Working on the promising podcast I was doing as a side project? A beyond impossible pipe dream.

Even after 9 years, my dad wasn't able to get a green card - and the lines were only getting longer over time. I figured I'd be an old man before I could quit some FANG job and build my own thing.

By some miracle, COVID travel restrictions cleared out the lines, and I got my green card literally months before I would have aged out.

If not for this unbelievable coincidence, I would not be hosting the podcast.

In the best case, I would be shifting pixels around in the 3rd sub-sub-menu of some big tech software.

I'm incredibly grateful I made it through.

But it's unconscionable that we put the kids of high skilled immigrants through all this anxiety, and in many cases make them repeat the nerve-racking indentured life trajectory that they had to watch their parents go through.

[Ankit Agarwal @ankit_agarwal90]

@investing_law Interested in learning more!

[Krishna Aditya Gabbita @aditya_gabbita]

Friend's AI startup revolutionizes travel planning! AiRial by CoInvent AI lets you describe your dream trip or share an inspiring travel video &amp; instantly get a fully-planned itinerary. Check it out &amp; join the waitlist! https://t.co/By5PgiIBEw #traveltech

[andrew chen @andrewchen]

I went to Seattle Public Schools and these programs set me up to be the person I am today - this is really sad

My dad was studying for grad school, we didn’t even think to private schools based on cost, and these public school programs provided an incredible educational experience

Why are cities like SF and Seattle and others so misguided on how they run their schools? Why have a huge number of colleges removed the SAT, a vital path for the middle class to attend the best schools? Why was affirmative action such a huge fight when it was so obviously structurally racist? Why is it commonly accepted that certain groups can have perfect grades and scores and simply get rejected by schools, with no recourse?

I talk to a lot of friends and family who simply accept a lot of the above - maybe partly due to apathy, or acceptance of victimhood. But this is the end result. Very sad.

[Sahil Lavingia @shl]

333,333 followers! To celebrate, I’m giving 3 random people that repost this and follow me $3,333 each

I’ll pick the winners in 3 days

[Madhur Shrimal @shrimalmadhur]

Getting married this week. Top signal #Bitcoin

[Abhishek Bhowmick @abhowmick22]

Had a ton of fun hacking with friends @HarshSikka @LearnedVector @pranavguru13 @kedarpujara &amp; Thomas Marshall this weekend at the @spc + @OpenAI hackathon.

Agents + multimodal plugins + some creativity with OpenAI Sota models = Proactive agents

[Ankit Agarwal @ankit_agarwal90]

@lennysan @arthgupta

[Ankit Agarwal @ankit_agarwal90]

@lennysan @archieagr

[Neil Dhruva @neildhruva]

Re RAG vs fine-tuning, @chamath and @Jason discuss how security &amp; data models become complicated in an enterprise as employees can access only a subset of internal data https://t.co/gDkHEIzgPJ.

@glean has solved this, as Craft's @mikemarg_ illustrates in https://t.co/3cHDsMofWT