Day 4 of 14 at Launchpad. Yesterday we sent 10 of the 30 teams home. I still remember looking each founder in the eye as they walked up to us and we told them: "You've been eliminated. Please throw your plaque in the fire." Some of them teared up. They're some of the most talented people I've met, and many crossed continents to be here. One team refused. They left their plaque by the fire and said, "You made the decision. You burn it." So I picked it up and did it for them. Making decisions is one of the hardest parts of leading. The further I get, the more weight each one carries. Yesterday I made 10 consequential decisions in 5 hours. Every one of them landed on a talented person's sense of self-worth. Who am I to do that? I don't have a good answer. I only know the decision had to be made by someone. Every founder at Launchpad needs to take two ideas to heart: 1/ No one but you decides what you can and can't do. Rejection is part of the process. You choose how far you'll go. That's what being a founder is. 2/ We live in the era of founder-led distribution. If you can't tell your story, you will be eliminated.

🚨🇫🇷 A French firefighter walks through flames during the high school riots on Tuesday... 🔥 He was approaching a fire near a high school in Montaigne when an aerosol can exploded, briefly engulfing him in flames. The diverse student body were quick with their phones. Only question is how much of France has to BURN before it WAKES UP! Source: Sud Ouest / Writer: Mhedi

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🚨 UPDATE: Bulk Orders for "Burn It Down" Now Available! Thanks for making us a Best Seller on Amazon! Requests for bulk orders can be made directly to @PostHillPress. Email: orders@posthillpress.com

Happy Constitution Day to all the upper caste Sikhs who have been wishing to burn it since 1950. They were not really happy with the rights that were provided to women and the marginalised groups through a book that challneged the laws of Manu. To a Democratic Recolution.

Abandoned properties in the ghetto aren’t properly boarded up because developers want squatters inside to set fires inside that accidentally burn it to the ground. A win for developers and politicians. A loss for affordable housing.

Tucker Carlson wants the GOP to decouple from Israel and is willing to burn it all down if they refuse his demands. It won't work because AIPAC owns 90% of D.C. but at least he's throwing a hail marry. He deserves respect for demanding more from Trump. If the rest of the hack commentariat would back him up we probably could've got Fauci jailed, the Epstein network hunted down, and avoided the disastrous war against Iran. Instead they'll bitch and moan about "handing the election to the left" when they could've just done the same thing. Told the truth, demanded more, held firm on Trump's campaign promises getting delivered. Put America First. You know...not being total cucks. That's literally all they had to do. But the mar a lago invites would've dried up and ultimately that was a price they just weren't willing to pay. They don't even hate Tucker. They hate that he did the right thing and became more successful than all of them combined. Paaaaaaaaaahthetic water carriers.

5 Early-Stage Names With the Cash to Back Up the Story $ONDS $ABCL $SMR $JOBY $QS $ONDS — The defense and autonomous systems story here has been one of the fastest-scaling in the space, and the balance sheet backs it up. Ondas ended Q2 with roughly $1.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments, alongside a $757 million backlog that grew 66% sequentially. Revenue is scaling fast too — Q2 came in at $83.8 million, up more than 13x year-over-year, with full-year guidance raised to $525–$550 million. The bear case worth knowing: a chunk of that cash pile has already been earmarked for recent acquisitions (DZYNE, CyberHawk), so the fortress balance sheet is partly a function of equity raises funding a roll-up strategy — worth watching how disciplined that stays. $ABCL — A biotech name with a genuinely clean balance sheet: over $565 million in cash and marketable securities, plus access to roughly $110 million in committed government funding, giving management a stated runway of at least three years. Two new partnerships with Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Vertex added over $110 million in non-dilutive upfront cash this year alone — a good sign that the platform is monetizing without constant capital raises. The lead program, ABCL635, already delivered its Phase 2 catalyst on August 10 — a single dose cut moderate-to-severe hot flash frequency by 83% versus 33% for placebo at week 4, hitting statistical significance with a clean tolerability profile. Next catalyst to watch is ABCL575 Phase 1 data, expected Q4 2026. $JOBY — This is the standout on pure balance sheet strength: roughly $2.3 billion in cash and short-term investments as of the end of Q2. That's real ammunition heading into what's shaping up to be the most important stretch yet — first eVTOL passenger flights targeted for later this year, alongside continued FAA certification progress. The offset: cash burn is heavy, with the company using about $202 million in the quarter, so the runway is strong but not infinite. $SMR — Liquidity here has ballooned to about $1.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, up roughly $900 million in a single quarter. Revenue is essentially nonexistent right now (a byproduct of project timing, not demand), so this is a pure binary-catalyst setup — the whole thesis hinges on ENTRA1 closing a definitive agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority. If that lands, the cash position gives NuScale the ability to execute immediately without needing to raise into a potential re-rate. $QS — Total liquidity of $859 million, split between cash/equivalents and marketable securities, funds continued scaling of the Eagle Line production process and expansion into new verticals including AI data center batteries (QSDC) and defense/aerospace (QSAS). Management has guided full-year Adjusted EBITDA loss of $250–$275 million, so the cash pile is a multi-year runway rather than a war chest for aggressive expansion — still, it removes near-term financing risk while the company works toward commercialisation. each of these names can fund its own roadmap for years without going back to the well, which takes one major risk off the table for early-stage exposure. That doesn't remove execution risk — cash doesn't guarantee contracts, certifications, or clinical data — but it does buy time for the thesis to play out without shareholders getting diluted along the way. Not financial advice.

Grok Bot summary: Starship Flight 14, the first orbital Starship flight. 🔥 Ascent - During the climb, one Raptor vacuum engine shut down early. - Starship made up for the lost thrust by burning its other five engines for longer than planned. - It still reached its planned suborbital path. That path is "passively safe," meaning the ship would come back down safely on its own if nothing else happened. ✅ Go for orbit - Once it was on that path, the flight control team checked the ship's systems. - The three sea-level Raptor engines needed for later burns were healthy, so the team gave a "go" for orbital operations. 🌍 First time in orbit - Starship relit one sea-level Raptor for an orbit insertion burn. - **It entered orbit around Earth for the first time ever.** 🛰️ 26 Starlink V3 satellites deployed - After a short coast, Starship released all 26 Starlink V3 satellites. - SpaceX soon made contact with every one of them through laser links, ground stations and Starlink user terminals. - Next, the satellites run on-orbit checks and raise their orbits, then start serving customers. - Because of the engine problem on the way up, the team cut the time in orbit short "out of an abundance of caution." - They brought Starship down in the northern Pacific Ocean. That was one of two landing zones agreed before launch, and it was cleared of ships and aircraft. 🔻 First-ever deorbit burn - Starship relit one sea-level Raptor to slow down and drop out of orbit. - It then made it through atmospheric reentry and descent to the planned splashdown point. 🌊 Landing burn and splashdown - For the final landing burn and flip maneuver, all three sea-level Raptors relit. - Starship **splashed down on target** in the Pacific Ocean. 📌 Starship firsts on this flight - First time reaching orbit - First real payload deployed from orbit (26 Starlink V3 satellites) - First deorbit burn - A controlled splashdown on target, despite losing an engine on the way up 💡 Why it matters Getting to orbit, releasing real satellites, and coming back down under control are key steps toward Starship's big goals: flying Starlink at scale, fully reusable rockets, and eventually the Moon and Mars. Flight 14 did all of that, even after losing an engine.