The Saturday Morning Newsletter #49
Suicide, Clothes, Weather, Tipping Points, Motors, and More
👋 Hello friends,
Thank you for joining this week's edition of The Saturday Morning Newsletter. I'm Drew Jackson, and today we're exploring 16 articles, essays, companies, ideas, podcasts, videos, or thoughts that caught my attention this week for their potential to significantly impact our future.
Before we begin: The Saturday Morning Newsletter by Brainwaves arrives in your inbox every Saturday, a concise and casual digest of current events, optimistic news stories, and other interesting tidbits about venture capital, economics, space, energy, intellectual property, philosophy, and beyond. I write as a curious explorer rather than an expert, and I value your insights and perspectives on each subject.
Time to Read: 6 minutes.
Let’s dive in!
#1: Planted Solar
Description: Planted Solar is a developer of hardware and software for solar developers.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Planted Solar recently raised $12M in venture capital funding. Planted’s platform enables smarter solar development through the integration of terrain, field automation, and powerful software. The current conventional ground-mounted deployment of solar is holding it back, so Planted ventured to develop a new solution.
#2: Spaceflux
Description: Spaceflux is a developer of space awareness technology.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Spaceflux recently raised $5.4M in venture capital funding. Their platform employs telescopes, analytics, and other proprietary technologies to track and characterize satellites, debris, and other space objects. Their solution allows interested parties (governments, businesses, etc.) to monitor critical space assets precisely in real-time.
#3: Conifer
Description: Conifer is developing electric motors.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Conifer recently raised $20M in venture capital funding. Conifer is developing its motor to be free of rare earth elements, which dramatically reduces its costs and limits its supply chain risks. Additionally, their motor offers higher efficiency and power while being half the size.
#4: Sourgum
Description: Sourgum is a waste and recycling services technology developer.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Sourgum recently raised $12.5M in venture capital funding. The recycling industry needs modernity, simplicity, and sustainability. They’ve developed an app to make haulers’ jobs easier. You can get subscriptions on demand that are flexible to your needs, enabling an easier recycling and waste solution.
#5: Zero Industrial
Description: Zero Industrial is a developer of thermal energy storage systems.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Zero Industrial recently raised $10M in venture capital funding. Their goal is to decarbonize industrial heat using commercially available thermal energy storage systems at industrial facilities. Their mission is to eliminate the combustion of fossil fuels for heat and steam production at industrial facilities.
Utility Dive: Why the Nuclear Energy Renaissance is Real and Necessary
Erik Funkhouser, executive director of the Good Energy Collective, writes his opinion piece, arguing that the global resurgence of interest in nuclear energy points to a deeper paradigm shift globally. In his words, “nuclear has emerged as a uniquely qualified solution to stubbornly intractable problems at an oddly opportune moment.”
House Oversight Committee: Congress Must Act to Advance Nuclear Energy
The subcommittee heard from professionals about small and micro nuclear reactors and how their development and deployment will advance the use of safe, clean, and reliable nuclear energy. Members of the committee emphasized the importance of expanding nuclear energy because of its efficiency and low cost.
AP News: UN Says Renewables Hitting Global Tipping Point for Even Lower Costs
Two new UN reports argue that global renewables have passed a positive tipping point, where solar and wind will become even cheaper and widespread. Despite this, UN officials still affirm that the switch to renewable energy is not happening fast enough.
BBC: Government Raises Maximum Price for Wind Energy
The UK government has increased the maximum price it will pay for electricity generated by wind energy. This isn’t finalized, as the government works on an auction system. But, the terms of the deal could be a fixed price for up to 20 years at record highs.
New York Times: Trump Wants You to Believe Climate Change Isn’t Dangerous
The best studies have found that climate change will endanger the health and livelihood of most Americans. The Trump administration is taking steps to overturn these findings, with the goal of unraveling several regulations that have begun to make an impact on America’s contribution to climate change. A key element is to redefine what it means for air pollution to cause harm.
Spaceflight Now: NASA Probes to Study Space Weather
SpaceX launched the TRACERS satellites this week. Their goal is to understand and eventually predict how energy from our sun impacts the Earth and our space and ground-based infrastructure. I love space weather and will be talking about it more in-depth in an upcoming article (hint hint).
Pitchbook: The Incredible Disappearing Sub-$5M Round
In 2015, venture capital rounds less than $5M accounted for around 60% of the total number of rounds raised. Now, in 2025, that percentage has dropped below 40%. This signals venture capital firms are hesitant to give out low amounts of capital and/or founders are waiting longer to raise early rounds.
The New York Times: The Tariffs Kicked In. The Sky Didn’t Fall. Were the Economists Wrong?
Long story short, the models correctly predicted slower growth and higher inflation due to tariffs, but they aren’t at the full levels that economists predicted. To quote the article, “the annual growth numbers will probably creep their way back up close to normal, but even if that happens, the GDP will still lag what it would have been.”
Forbes: 10 Philosophy Books to Challenge And Inspire Your Thinking
Philosophy can help open your eyes to new ways of thinking about the world around you. Here are the top 10 books one editor recommends to understand new perspectives:
Poetics by Aristotle
Afropessimism by Frank B. Wilderson III
Intention by G.E.M. Anscombe
Confessions by Augustine of Hippo
Bodies that Matter by Judith Butler
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Republic by Plato
The Conversation: A Philosopher Looks at Clothes
Throughout the history of philosophy, clothing has gone under the radar as a subject to be discussed. Kate Moran, in her new book, highlights the significant role clothing plays in life. Clothes serve three basic purposes: protection, modesty, and decoration. It’s interesting to consider each of these facets of clothing from a philosophical lens.
New York Times: The Perverse Economics of Assisted Suicide
The UK is considering joining more than 12 other countries in making assisted suicide legal.
Given the declining fertility rate in those countries and across the world, the population pyramid is becoming inverted in many places. This poses a threat to welfare systems.
If birth rates do not recover (and they aren’t supposed to), eventually we need to switch back to the ancient model of private care for the elderly, where children and grandchildren house, feed, and care for them. Currently, welfare is barely holding on, so we might reach this inevitability soon.
Regulations governing assisted suicide have become lax in many regions, leading some young people to choose state-facilitated death. This showcases a problem with our system: the state is tasked with both paying for the support of the old and disabled, while also being able to regulate their dying.
Encouraging citizens to accept a legally assisted suicide may seem like a cost-saving measure at a time when the financial burden of care is at its highest.
Now, I’m not here to argue one way or another, just to open your eyes to an interesting quandary so you can think about where you stand in all of this.
See you Wednesday for Brainwaves,
Drew Jackson
Website: brainwaves.me
Twitter: @brainwavesdotme
Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this content are my own and do not represent the views of any of the companies I currently work for or have previously worked for. This content does not contain financial advice - it is for informational and educational purposes only. Investing contains risks and readers should conduct their own due diligence and/or consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Any sponsorship or endorsements are noted and do not affect any editorial content produced.