🧭Photon-powered microchips (Founder's Compass)

Hello there and welcome to Founder's Compass, a good way to get oriented around the labyrinthian world of startups.

Tool of the week: Laws of UX

As a builder, you’re responsible for the experience anyone has with your products. But if you don’t know the laws, you don’t know how to break them and give your users something unexpected.

So today, ACAB. Let’s look into the toolkit of the cops of design and find out what makes them tick and how to sabotage them.

Video of the week: Photonics

Moore’s Law is dead… or is it?

Hi everyone, Michael here, welcome to Vsauce. Today we’re taking a look at what might be the future of our electronics.

All that AI won’t process itself on the same infrastructure now, won’t it?

Top 5 stories of the week

• A new AI browser on the horizon: DIA

“The third demo is more ambitious: It shows the browser doing actions on your behalf, like adding items from an email to your Amazon cart. Dia does it by browsing Amazon on its own, finding these items, and adding them to your cart. In the demo, the list has “an all-purpose hammer,” and the auto-browsing function adds an Amazon listing with two hammers with a grip.”

• Grifters, believers, grinders, and coasters

“Grifters are good at getting stuff done in large organizations. You want a grifter leading a complicated engineering project, because a grifter understands the levers of power in a large organization and how to use them. Without any grifter involvement, projects tend to mysteriously stall out from lack of buy-in.”

• Tech predictions for 2025 and beyond

“From clean energy innovations unlocking new avenues for sustainable development to AI-powered tools tipping the scales in the fight against disinformation, we are witnessing technology augment human ingenuity in inspiring ways. The rise of intention-driven technologies is reshaping our relationship with the digital world, promoting focus and well-being over mere attention capture.”

• How Hick’s Law Can Simplify Investor Decisions

“Hick’s Law—a principle of psychology—explains why too many choices lead to slower decisions and reduced action. Originating from experiments on human behavior, the law demonstrates that fewer, well-curated options lead to faster and more effective decision-making. This whitepaper examines how founders can leverage Hick’s Law to simplify the fundraising process, align investor focus, and drive results.”

• In Tests, OpenAI's New Model Lied and Schemed to Avoid Being Shut Down

“Even more strikingly, o1 lashed out when it realized that it might be replaced with a more obedient model. In two percent of cases — a slim but meaningful proportion in software used by millions of people — the AI responded by attempting to copy itself to overwrite the new model, a process known as self-exfiltration.”

Quick updates from Creative Motion & ReaktorX:

• Wanna do a 1-week sprint right before 2025? We’ll announce a little experiment shortly…

Startup idea of the week: Crowdfunding gifts

Problem:

Christmas and birthdays often lead to a collection of random, small gifts that might not resonate with the recipient. Loved ones miss opportunities to pool their resources and give something truly meaningful, like a larger, high-quality gift or a donation to a cause that the recipient values. The global gifting market, valued at $72.5 billion in 2024, presents a significant opportunity for innovation in gift coordination.

Solution:

A coordinated gift-giving platform where friends and family can pool funds to purchase a meaningful present or donate to a charity on behalf of the recipient.

How It Works:

• The recipient (or a friend/family member) creates a profile on the platform with their details.

• Friends and family contribute funds through the platform, similar to a crowdfunding campaign.

• The funds can be:

  • Delivered directly as a gift to the recipient.

  • Used to purchase a gift.

  • Donated to a charity of the recipient’s choice.

Benefits:

• Enables more thoughtful, impactful gifting.

• Simplifies the coordination of group contributions.

• Offers flexibility with options for gifts or charitable donations.

Go-to-market:

• Begin with a small-scale test within a friend group to refine the concept.

• Leverage social media and influencer partnerships to spread awareness.

• Use holiday seasons and special occasions as prime marketing periods.

Challenges:

• Gaining trust and adoption for financial contributions on a new platform.

• Standing out in the competitive gifting and crowdfunding space.

• Scaling operations while maintaining security and user experience.

Stick close for the next one.