The Tell NY Dispatch: Moonshots, Matchdays & Media  

If You Read One Thing

״Silicon Valley’s Elite Financial Advisers Say This Era of Wealth Is Different״ (WIRED)

We’ve written before about how startup storytelling is changing, and this WIRED piece is another reminder of just how much the landscape has shifted.

The article follows the wealth advisors helping employees from companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic navigate the massive liquidity events created by today’s AI and IPO boom. But the part that caught our attention is how quickly extraordinary has become ordinary in tech.

If the last 18 months have shown us anything, it’s that the AI boom has fundamentally reshaped the way the industry thinks about growth and capital. Mega-rounds from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Safe Superintelligence, Thinking Machines, and countless others have pushed fundraising into territory that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. The ripple effect has been felt across the entire ecosystem. Rounds that once would have dominated headlines and defined a company’s trajectory now barely register against the backdrop of billion-dollar raises and eye-watering valuations. We are experiencing a new reality where capital remains important, but increasingly isn’t enough on its own to make a company stand out.

When we’re working on funding announcements today, we often find ourselves doing the opposite of what PR teams did a few years ago: trying not to make the amount raised the centerpiece of the story. That doesn’t mean the funding itself has become unimportant. In many cases, the raise is still what earns the headline, the interview, or the initial interest from reporters. But once you have that attention, the amount alone is rarely enough. We’re looking for the bigger narrative. What trend does this company represent? Why is this problem suddenly important? Why is this team uniquely positioned to solve it? The funding validates momentum, but it’s the story behind it that determines whether people keep reading.

You’ll notice that the companies breaking through today aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest rounds, but the ones whose story would still be compelling even if you removed the funding number from the headline. The raise opens the door. The narrative is what makes the company memorable.

👉   Read the full article here: https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-valleys-elite-financial-advisers-say-this-era-of-wealth-is-different/

The SpaceX Factor

It’s hard to remember another company that has dominated the conversation quite like SpaceX. Over the past two decades, SpaceX has done something remarkable: it turned a long list of “impossible” ideas into reality. Reusable rockets, dramatically lower launch costs, private space missions, and a launch cadence that once seemed unimaginable. It proved what can happen when world-class talent, an ambitious mission, and, admittedly, a lot of money, are pointed at a problem most people assumed couldn’t be solved.

What is also interesting is that now, we are witnessing an entire generation of founders, operators, and engineers who were trained inside arguably one of the most influential organizations ever built. Many of them are now leaving with something equally powerful: experience, credibility, deep networks, access to capital, and the confidence that comes from helping achieve what others thought was unachievable.

One of the companies we’re working with, Revel, has recently appeared in both The Information and Business Insider, highlighting the growing wave of startups founded by former SpaceX leaders and engineers. Its founder and CEO, Scott Morton, joined SpaceX as an intern and spent nearly a decade at the company, eventually leading software engineering for Starship before founding Revel to help modern industrial companies build, test, and operate complex physical systems more efficiently.

To us, that’s what makes the SpaceX IPO so exciting for the technology ecosystem. Other than the headlines, valuations, and market speculation, it’s a signal for what the next generation of technology companies might look like.

👉 Watch Scott on TITV: Inside OpenAI’s IPO Filing, Former SpaceX Engineer on IPO, Apple’s AI Siri Upgrade  

👉 The Information: SpaceXMafia Eagerly Track Mega IPO, Hoping for Industrywide Liftoff  

👉 Business Insider: A SpaceX alum says wealth managers tried to woo him with swag and handwritten letters before the IPO  

Winning the World Cup (of Attention)

There isn’t a brand in the world that wouldn’t love to be part of the World Cup conversation. When billions of people are paying attention to the same event, it’s only natural for companies to look for a way in. The challenge is that too many brands default to the obvious: expensive sponsorships, hospitality packages, ticket giveaways, or a few forced social posts that try a little too hard to sound like they’re “in on it” – although, to be fair, we’d happily accept the tickets too.

Earlier this month, Boston welcomed tens of thousands of Scotland supporters as the city hosted one of the tournament’s biggest celebrations. One of the companies we are working in, a Scottish Legal AI company named Wordsmith, turned this exciting home event into a clever local campaign. The company ran a full-page ad in The Boston Globe and a billboard thanking Boston for the hospitality, while jokingly apologizing for helping drink the city’s bars dry. It also sent bottles of Scotch whisky to local law firms as a tongue-in-cheek peace offering and invited Bostonians to record farewell messages to Scottish fans. 

Major cultural moments create a rare opportunity for startups and, honestly, for any type of company. Journalists, customers, and social media are all focused on the same story, so there’s a lot of thinking that goes into finding the most creative, authentic (and clever!) connection between the moment and your brand.