The Saturday Morning Newsletter #55
Stoicism, Dealmakers, Jobs, Mantles, Clouds, 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 15 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!
Description: BETA Technologies is a developer of electric aircraft.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Beta Technologies recently raised $300M in venture capital funding. BETA is innovating in two main segments: vertical takeoff electrical aircraft and conventional horizontal takeoff electrical aircraft. With less than an hour of charge time in between flights, their technology offers a compelling alternative to traditional flight services.
#2: Orbital Paradigm
Description: Orbital Paradigm is a builder of space reentry capsules.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Orbital Paradigm recently raised $1.5M in venture capital funding. The Company’s technology enables reentry vehicles to be highly autonomous and small mass at the scale required for the expanding space economy. This is especially important for technologies that need to be put into space and safely returned, like space pharmaceuticals.
#3: Tobe Energy
Description: Tobe Energy is a developer of green hydrogen.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Tobe Energy recently raised $1.8M in venture capital funding. Tobe is creating the next generation of electrolysis technology, with no waste heat byproducts and exotic materials required. This sector has become increasingly important as America brings manufacturing home, so Tobe is perfectly positioned to capitalize on this growth.
#4: ReOrbit
Description: ReOrbit is a startup developing sovereign satellites for governments.
Why Is This Company Interesting? ReOrbit recently raised $53M in venture capital funding. ReOrbit provides a modern business model approach to the national satellite problem. They allow sovereign entities to have full control over the critical infrastructure for their satellites, ensuring national security concerns aren’t violated. Governments can own their own data and safeguard their operations from bad actors.
#5: Nuclearn
Description: Nuclearn is building AI tools to modernize nuclear plant operations.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Nuclear recently raised $10.5M in venture capital funding. Their AI is purposely built for nuclear energy, simplifying the most time-consuming tasks and providing backend automation to handle many critical tasks. The technology is secure, adaptable, and optimized for this hypercontrolled environment.
Earth Day: 5 Myths About Wind Energy
Here are the myths they work to dispel in this article:
Wind isn’t “woke” - 70% of wind power is in Republican-dominated states
Offshore wind doesn’t kill whales (according to current research)
Wind isn’t expensive - the initial install is quite expensive, but operating costs are extremely low
Wind farms take up space, but the surrounding land can be used for other use cases
Wind is an efficient energy source
Solar Power World: H1 2025 New Electricity Capacity Mix
A review of the data released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that solar and wind accounted for 91% of new US electrical generating capacity. Solar accounted for 75%, and wind made up the other 16%. This is a great trend for renewable proponents, which shows the open market continues to choose renewables over fossil fuels.
The New York Times: Unusual Climate Case Accusing Oil Giants Is Dismissed
The lawsuit against fossil fuel companies responsible for hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico in 2017 was dismissed. The case accused the oil giants of racketeering, which the judge said mainly applied to organized crime. However, there will inevitably be appeals, so there may still be hope for the plaintiffs.
The New York Times: We Take Clouds for Granted
As global temperatures rise, scientists project we may see fewer of the lower cooling clouds, but the same amount of high, warming ones. This perpetuates a feedback loop of making the Earth warmer and warmer. To put data into the qualitative analysis, clouds within affected regions are shrinking at around 1% each decade, which doesn’t seem like much, but in addition to everything else, it adds up.
Space: US In Danger of Losing Moon Race to China
A Senate Commerce Committee hearing this week discussed how any potential failures in the Artemis program will result in the US losing the race to the moon to China. China has been making recent progress, so experts are worried that the country that gets to the moon first will be able to write the rules—and we might not be the first.
The New York Times: Quakes on Mars Reveal New Features of the Planet’s Interior
A new paper published this week found that the innermost part of Mars’s core is not liquid, but solid (like the Earth’s). The planet’s mantle is estimated to be full of ancient debris. This helps us understand further the potential dynamics of space colonization on Mars and Mars-like planets in the future.
The New York Times: This Economy Might Be a New Normal
Over the last couple of months, job growth has slowed down. The Fed would normally slash rates when this occurs to hopefully decrease the chances of a recession. The White House seems to be the only answer. We haven’t added many jobs compared to previous years, signalling that the job market is stalling. There’s a labor supply problem, not necessarily a demand problem, meaning there’s been a downshift in labor force growth largely due to reduced immigration.
Mergers & Acquisitions: How Dealmakers Are Getting Smarter About IP
The IP discussion has traditionally been limited to the integration phase of the M&A process, however, IP is moving into the center of strategic conversations. As more companies rely on IP (especially AI-focused companies), IP becomes an enabler of deal and post-deal success. Now, this isn’t every transaction, but for those transactions that do include IP, it’s valuable to know the changing dynamics.
Forbes: 6 Books Unlocking The Philosophy Of Stoicism
I’ve been trying to get through some Stoicism recently, so this article is slightly selfish but also useful if you’ve been interested in the topic before. Here are the book recommendations it provides:
How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life - Massimo Pigliucci
The Daily Stoic - Ryan Holiday
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - William B. Irvine
Letters from a Stoic - Seneca
Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy - Suzanne Bobzien
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Axios reports that Howard Lutnick wants the U.S. government to get a cut of university patent revenue and commercial revenue derived from those patents.
This could significantly disrupt the startup ecosystem. Universities are getting money from patents from scientists, but the government isn’t getting anything. In Lutnick’s eyes, the government is giving the research money, so they should get a cut of the proceeds.
I agree with the Axios analysis that this seems to have blown the issue out of proportion. If the government continues to get involved in the R&D process, it will only get further bogged down, more than it already is.
If anything, we should be trying to remove constraints people are feeling when they go to protect their intellectual property.
However, this isn’t the mindset of most administrations. They want an ROI on their spend, usually in the form of national health or national security, or in this case, actual dollar return on investment.
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.