Zak Konarska

Betting on #Fintech. If #StarWars were a stock I'd buy. Running is a favorite.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@DebraG_Robins This is likely a nuisance animal removal company. Imagine that one lodge of beaver can flood a neighborhood or part of a farm. There might be 1 company trapping all of the nuisance beaver in that area. This is not the recreational hunt that this post seems to present.

[Josh Kale @JoshKale]

This is big... Anthropic just announced a model so powerful they won't release it to the public out of fear over the damage it will cause 😨

Claude Mythos Preview found thousands of zero-day exploits in every major operating system and web browser...

The numbers are hard to believe:
> $50 to find a 27-year-old bug in OpenBSD, one of the most security-hardened operating systems ever built

> Under $1,000 to find AND build a fully working remote code execution exploit on FreeBSD that grants unauthenticated root access from anywhere on the internet

> Under $2,000 to chain together multiple Linux kernel vulnerabilities into a complete privilege escalation exploit

For context: these are the kinds of findings that previously required elite security researchers working for weeks.
Anthropic engineers with no formal security training asked Mythos to find exploits overnight. They woke up to working code the next morning.

The results were so impressive Anthropic assembled Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, and seven other organizations into Project Glasswing:

A $100M defensive coalition. They're not releasing this model publicly. Instead, they're racing to patch the world's infrastructure before models like this proliferate.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@dieworkwear @HTownAnDown1 Thus is the way of fashion…

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

I love this tweet. I love even more that it is pinned.

[Hiten Samtani 🗞️ @hitsamty]

📣dads on the fence: If you're a well-adjusted (ish) guy in their late 20s-early 40s and are hesitant for whatever reason - financial, lack of self-belief, whatever - about having kids, and you want to have an unfiltered, no-judgment conversation to talk through it, please DM. I cannot quite articulate how incredible it is, and I want to evangelize it in an open, honest and detailed way if it helps you. Promise to keep confidential.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

Learning Estonian "Ei Vistii" with #ArtMatti | #SomethingsBurning with @... https://t.co/Zi7lioxNHW via @YouTube

The expression @AlexHormozi has been searching for.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@commbankerguy Interesting that you are halting all together vs. slowing down, increasing equity, etc.. I like it.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@dieworkwear @SaviRoman But Derek, you didn’t include the Old Fashion and the uncorking fee…

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@dieworkwear I think Tom C. looks cool here. A case of breaking the rule well.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@sweatystartup You’re talking to a man that has the words ‘risk’ and ‘hedge’ in his bio 😂

Not so dangerous.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

This is a great expansion on the original thread.

Being from the Midwest, I am constantly asking myself ‘when will I be in New York next?’ And then realizing I’d better just find a Brooks Brothers outlet and call it good enough.

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

Let's run through this argument. 🧵

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

This month marks the final, definitive closure of the Garland Shirt Factory. If you're interested in American manufacturing, I want tell you its story. 🧵

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@robjeansguy I think it depends on scale and the level of intent in the customer. If it’s a broad shopping newsletter I would say pictures. If most of your readers care about your business story then a text only update from the founder is extremely personal.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@sweatystartup Number 5 is 100% true. Idk how people end up being surprised by the issues that come with waiting to have kids.

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@RoryOReilly @mikulaja @sytaylor Hardcover. #Flex

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@jefielding You have a limit to the number of notes you can include with 3rd degree connection requests. I believe it’s 5 per month.

So if you are, hypothetically, spamming 100 VCs at once you would want to pay for Premium 🙃

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@BowTiedDaddy Yes, but also I’m like really tired right now…

4 and 1 year olds. I believe you wholeheartedly, can’t wait for those moments but don’t want to wish this part away either.

[Jevgenijs Kazanins @jevgenijs]

A random midnight thought, but…perhaps, it’s time to retire the term “Fintech” because the lines have blurred? What makes a financial services company a “fintech” these days?
✔️ Are Visa $V and Mastercard $MA fintechs? Absolutely!
✔️ Is JPMorgan $JPM a fintech? They spend $17 billion on technology and still process more merchant payments than Stripe and Adyen combined.
✔️ Are former peer lenders, LendingClub $LC, SoFI $SOFI and Zopa, still fintechs? All of them became banks
✔️ What about Fiserv $FI? They own Clover, so must be a fintech!
✔️ Square $SQ has a banking charter, offers bank accounts to merchants, and originates more small business loans than Chase. Still a fintech?
✔️ What about "the original fintech", Capital One $COF? They are about to buy a network, so must still be a fintech.
✔️ How about Klarna? It's a bank. And has been a bank since 2017.
Thoughts?

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@NotThatTimD @jevgenijs We are a fintech for as long as we are holding the bag 🤠

Once we exit… we’d like to valued as a responsible banking entity

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@nikabokah @rohitdotmittal He’s also working during that time and likely has stock options

[Zak Konarska @zkonarska]

@mikulaja Of all the things… this might be the best thing. Absolutely wild.