Sam Blum
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samblum.bsky.social
Sam Blum
@samblum.bsky.social
4.4K followers 470 following 1.3K posts
Sr. Writer at Inc Magazine. Tech, startups, billionaires, outsiders, investigations. Written for Rolling Stone, Vox, etc. Real G's move in silence like lasagna. 🍝

Proton: Sam_Blum1905@proton.me

Signal: Sammblum.89
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samblum.bsky.social
Tony Soprano AI
CommanderAl Raises $5 Million Seed Round to Bring Al-Powered Sales to the Waste Management Industry
November 5, 2025 at 5:03 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Women don't like the vehicle
The Wild Wacky Action Bike in action
October 16, 2025 at 6:09 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Alright hear me out: Pino D'angio Day. Everyone gets a voucher for a free Aperol Spritz and gets to wear a scarf.
Art from the iconic Italo Disco record Ma Quale Idea by Pino D'angio.
October 13, 2025 at 1:19 PM
samblum.bsky.social
It's unclear if this child is talking about one of his lead investors, Sam Lessin, who is married to Jessica Lessin—EIC of the Information.
A tweet from the profile of Jason Levin in which he brags about something dumb.
October 8, 2025 at 3:09 PM
samblum.bsky.social
I want everyone to know that it's 2025 and LinkedIn bros are putting out bounties to find girlfriends
’m officially putting a $2,500 bounty on finding my girlfriend. Dead serious. I’ve been taught to always hire people smarter than me. Well, I need someone smarter than me to solve this one. Because if business has taught me anything, it’s that the right partnership changes everything. Here’s what I’m looking for: Someone nurturing. She pours into others, loves to host, and asks great questions. A woman who brings me into her world. New experiences. Different perspectives. The kind of person who makes Tuesday night feel like an adventure. Someone I respect. Her opinions, work ethic, and ability to problem-solve. She’s got a growth mindset. As my friend Kevin Berliner says, “If you don’t grow together, you die.” And yes, beautiful. The kind of spirit that stops my sentence mid-thought. But she’s also chasing something bigger than both of us. Faith matters. What I bring to the table: Protection — not just physical, but emotional, financial, and spiritual. I listen. Really listen. Not waiting for my turn to talk. A community of brilliant humans doing interesting things. From entrepreneurs to doctors to that guy who makes the world’s best tacos. All good, loving people. Zero drama. Life’s too short for games. A happy, healthy family that’ll adopt you immediately — Sunday dinners, loud laughter, and family vacations.
October 7, 2025 at 7:10 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Here we have a handy data viz showing the no. of AI startups vs the total no. of startups at YC in recent years.
A graph showcasing the number of YC startups focused on AI vs. total startups in recent years.
September 30, 2025 at 1:12 PM
samblum.bsky.social
I was today years old when I learned that a Senior Editor job at the Free Press pays up to $180,000 while a Biz and Tech Editor job listing pays....up to $230,000
A tired Ben Affleck smoking a cig
September 26, 2025 at 2:49 PM
samblum.bsky.social
😤 😤 😤
Increasingly, it seems like the old media model, in which the networks that broadcast live sport could do double duty as aggressive excavators of those same sports’ ugly truths, has passed. From now on, sports coverage is divided between two camps. On one side are the insiders, the broadcasters, the image-fluffers, fabulously well resourced and operated for mutual benefit in partnership with the sports world’s most powerful entities; on the other are the outsiders, the journalists, the critics, perpetually strapped for cash and digging for revelatory nuggets around a sporting-corporate PR machine that’s built to withstand the apocalypse. Where it once tried to keep a foot in both camps, ESPN now stands irrevocably on the side of the powerful: a company that once set the news agenda in sports is now just another sweaty social media setup fishing for quick clicks. With occasional noble exceptions, whatever sports “content” it produces from this day forward will be necessarily soft-focus and unchallenging.
September 24, 2025 at 4:45 PM
samblum.bsky.social
A study in contrasts between @garbageday.email and the BBC. How the BBC got Antifa is actually kind of perplexing. Legacy media is going to stumble badly through this one.
The unfired bullet casings had other phrases written on them, including, "Hey fascist! Catch! ⬆️, ➡️, ⬇️⬇️⬇️,” "O bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,” and “If you read this you are gay lmao." The first message is a reference to the satirically fascist video game Helldivers 2, the arrow combination triggering the most powerful bomb attack in the game. The second message is a reference to an Italian antifascist folk song, which has gotten renewed interest online and offline after its use in Netflix’s Money Heist. “Bella Ciao” is also used in the video game Far Cry 6. The third is just boilerplate edgelord speak, given extra layers of irony by the much more online jokes on the other casings. The markings on the bullets described by authorities indicate that the suspect, Tyler Robinson, was steeped in online culture and included references to the Antifa, or the anti-fascist, movement. A fired shell casing was inscribed with “notices bulges OwO what’s this?” - a reference to a “copypasta” - a piece of text that is repeated over and over again, often to troll people online. Authorities say one unfired casing had the words “Hey fascist! Catch!” and an up, right and three down arrows. The three down arrows alone could be a common symbol used to represent the anti-fascist movement. As a whole, the sequence of arrows could reference a gaming cheat code - although this remains unclear, and authorities have not yet released images of the casings. A second casing had the lyrics to a song “Bella Ciao” inscribed on it. The song honours WWII-era partisans of the Italian resistance who fought Nazi Germany. The third unfired casing was inscribed with the words “If you read this, you are gay lmao” - again an apparent reference to online trolling humour. Antifa is a loose collection of far-left activists who have been active in the US over the last decade, at street protests and other events. They often oppose Trump's policies and far-right groups.
September 12, 2025 at 8:50 PM
samblum.bsky.social
We published this story 30 mins ago. Just now, I got word from a detective in Boise that the gas station clerk stopped another scam.
Avalon just called us. She stopped another $6000.
September 11, 2025 at 4:21 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Anduril's new UK marketing campaign looks like something the National Front might have promoted in the 1980s.
Tube station ads saying "Employ British Workers" and "Build in British Factories" A double decker bus that says "Defend British Interests"
September 10, 2025 at 12:39 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer says today’s BLS numbers are fake. (There is zero evidence it is fake).
WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer issued the following statement after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its preliminary annual benchmark revision to nonfarm payroll data, revealing that job growth was revised down 911,000 through the 12-month period ending in March 2025 - one of the largest markdowns in decades: "Today's massive downward revision gives the American people even more reason to doubt the integrity of data being published by BLS. Considering these reports are the foundation of economic forecasts and major policy decisions, there is no room for such a significant and consistent amount of error. It's imperative for the data to remain accurate, impartial, and never altered for political gain.
September 9, 2025 at 2:51 PM
samblum.bsky.social
"Blueskyism is an ideology that I have made up and will now expound upon in this essay which I am announcing as my seminal treatise on Blueskyism...."
Nate Silver
September 5, 2025 at 2:56 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Tim Robinson in a hot dog suit
September 4, 2025 at 4:45 PM
samblum.bsky.social
I just had the same thing happen again where I casually waved to someone thinking he was a co worker because I vaguely recognized him, and then realized after it was this guy:
September 3, 2025 at 6:19 PM
samblum.bsky.social
How much are we willing to bet that the richest man in the world is behind the newly formed American Fart Party?
Campaign register on FEC.gov shows American Fart Party.
August 25, 2025 at 5:11 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Tech bro: We're probably gonna start building AI data centers in space that orbit Jupiter.

Theo Von: Daaaaamn, bruh, Jupiter? You're hella smart. That's sick.

Tech bro: I mean, probably not, we have no idea wtf we're doing tbh.

Theon Von (nodding): Bet, for sure. That's like, sick though.
An exchange between Sam Altman and comedian Theo Von.
August 19, 2025 at 4:47 PM
samblum.bsky.social
All signs point to one galactic business brain behind the MS NOW rebrand.
Allan Johnson of Peep Show plugging his consulting business "consultio/consultius."
August 18, 2025 at 2:57 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Cybertruck owners are an odd bunch
A Cybertruck with “girl dad” written on the back of it
August 6, 2025 at 3:27 PM
samblum.bsky.social
I just want everyone to know that both these dogs are named Frank.
Two adorable boxers named Frank.
August 5, 2025 at 7:38 PM
samblum.bsky.social
This kind of reply (to a story, GASP, not about Epstein and Trump) will be studied by scientists for thousands of years.
A reply to a piece of mine criticizing it as a distraction because it's not about....Jeffrey Epstein. Weird!
July 23, 2025 at 3:36 PM
samblum.bsky.social
According to LinkedIn, Coldplay has officially achieved unicorn status after outing the Astronomer CEO’s affair
in • 2nd Itamment, University of So.. 8h • Edited • © + Follow Coldplay is worth $350M. But after this week it may be $1B. I honestly didn't even know Coldplay was still a band but now I do. In this new age of the internet, where watching a chimpanzee eating a bag of donuts while driving a speedboat can go viral, Coldplay knocked it out of the park. The amount of free advertising they've gotten is truly Astronomical. See what I did there? adversin side, ae trong kialso got alot of free This could be one of the greatest wealth transfers of all time. Coldplay easily gained a $1B while Astronomer may have lost a billon. Not sure. According to various reports, Astronomer was valued over a billion and the CEO's shares were worth somewhere around $50M. But beyond the bedroom and boardroom and the lives that were forever changed (and ruined), this is a fascinating business case to me. The business lesson? Don't bring your sidepieces to Coldplay concerts.
July 21, 2025 at 1:41 AM
samblum.bsky.social
The final boss of 5 o’clock meal time
A chonky white calico cat with her arms draped over the arms of a chair
July 14, 2025 at 8:00 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Area man is dumb, finds out the hard way.
Ukraine war: President Trump expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin. “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin,” he said. “He’s very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
July 9, 2025 at 2:09 PM
samblum.bsky.social
Is it strange that the guy who told me on Monday that investors suck the soul out of your company was by Tuesday afternoon rumored to be raising $1 billion?
Surge hasn’t taken any outside investment. When asked about the prospect of taking on investors, Chen shrugs, saying: “Who knows what will happen in the future?” But the future came fast on Tuesday, when Reuters reported that Surge was in talks to raise $1 billion in funding at a valuation of $15 billion. No specific investors were named in the report, and a Surge spokesperson declined to comment on the news. It was a surprising report, given Surge is known for bootstrapping. And Chen generally has a negative view of what happens when startups take investment: “You move slow. You have a lot of politics. You have a lot of bureaucracy,” he says. By bootstrapping so far, Chen believes Surge has avoided a classic startup pitfall, which he describes as becoming “a bloated and mission-less company.” His mentality eschews some of tech’s traditional thinking. Chen says for a lot of founders, “their end goal is simply to raise as much money as possible. For them, startups are just kind of this status game where their goal is to just get a headline on TechCrunch. It’s to tell their friends.”
July 2, 2025 at 7:49 PM