The researchers getting rich off Anthropic secondaries are cheering for the thing that would make them ordinary employees again. Right now they are paid like NBA free agents because they are the labs’ most visible moat. The frontier labs are struggling to hold a durable, ownable edge: models get copied, undercut, or matched by cheaper and open rivals within months. So the real advantage lives in a few hundred people who know how to push the frontier, and who can also leave, raise billion-dollar, double tranched seed rounds, and compete directly. That is why the labs are paying them not to leave. with secondaries as retention payments, mission / fear, etc... Pharma shows where this can end up. In a drug company, the value does not belong to the scientist. The scientist can be paid well, but not hundreds of millions over three or four years, because the durable value sits in the patent and the FDA approval. The researcher who discovered the molecule can quit tomorrow, but the company still owns the asset. A regulatory moat would do something similar for AI labs. It would move value from the person to the institution. Regulation is a wall against three threats at once: competitors, open source, and the labs’ own researchers. The researchers getting rich off secondaries today are, by cheering the regulated future, voting to end the exact leverage that made them rich.

Almost Heaven. 🇺🇸

In five years, we’ll be asking human customer service agents if we can speak to an AI

It’s been a minute. 2015–2018 - Exited FreeCharge. Spent time learning and investing. - Pondered about: Why can't trust be rewarded? Started with $1M of personal capital. - Launched CRED to reward people for paying credit card bills on time. 2019–2025 - Built a system run by a team that values ownership, judgment, and craft. - Grew from 0 to 17M members by aligning incentives with behaviour. - Built several products during COVID lockdowns. - Raised $900M from global investors. Did 4 ESOP buybacks. - Made Indiranagar and IPL ads slightly more interesting. - Received a full stack of regulatory licences. - Lost 35 kilos. - Scaled from 0 to ~$325M ( ~₹3,200 crore) in annual revenue across payments, lending, insurance, commerce, wealth, and credit cards. 2026 - First profitable quarter (yet occasionally asked what our business model is) - Raised another $900M from Meta in primary and secondary capital. - Announcing our 5th ESOP buyback. Today CRED is ready for its next phase. I am stepping back and @miten steps in as interim CEO, partnered with an incredibly talented team. He has been heading strategy and finance and suffering me since 2020. I’m stepping away from the operating role and will continue as a shareholder. My commitment doesn’t change. Just the role. Extremely grateful to our members, partners, regulators, and investors who made this possible. And to our board, Shailendra, Micky, Saurabh for their extraordinary conviction. Team CRED, I’ll still expect you to be a 10x version of yourselves. As for me, I’ll be joining Meta to lead WhatsApp globally. Meta comes in as a minority investor in CRED. No access to member data. While it’s come very far, the delta between WhatsApp today and its full potential is massive. I look forward to working with Mark, Chris, and the leadership across Meta for the next step in WhatsApp’s journey. Will, thank you for scaling something the world relies on quietly, and for making this transition smooth. Onwards.

New York Democrats posting Father’s Day content

.@FareedZakaria with a blistering indictment of California’s government in this week’s op-ed. He blasts failures in housing, homelessness and Hollywood and makes the argument that the status quo isn’t working:

Stanford grads walk out as Google CEO Sundar Pichai takes the stage as commencement speaker. No mention of AI, unlike other uni speakers getting booed down this year. Story for @sfgate shortly

I haven't been this excited about a company since I invested in SK Hynix. I hope you enjoy the read. $CRDO