Welcome to Digital Native!
I’m Rex. By day, I’m building Daybreak and working with Pre-Seed and Seed-stage companies; by night, I’m writing Digital Native about tech and startups.
Every Wednesday morning, you’ll get a piece straight to your inbox.
What to Expect:
At its heart, Digital Native is about how people and technology intersect; the things that interest me are the ways that humans use technology to communicate, to collaborate, to create. We’re fortunate to be living in a time of rapid innovation, and it feels like the pace of change is only accelerating.
10 Digital Native pieces to get you started:
To give you a taste of what to expect, below are 10 of our most-read pieces:
1) 10 Charts That Capture How the World Is Changing
These 10 charts embody some of the most interesting and important shifts of our time, from loneliness to ChatGPT, tech valuations to office occupancy. Each chart is accompanied by a brief explanation.
2) The Second $100B AI Company
We make the case for why the next $100B AI company—after OpenAI—will probably be a consumer AI company. Contending categories include online video, shopping, and gaming.
3) The “Why Now” for Healthcare
This piece argues that we’re seeing a unique convergence of shifts in healthcare—in technology, in policy, in culture. We look at “regulatory capture” and how telehealth and AI are creating openings for innovation.
4) LLMs for Dummies
Large language models have taken the world by storm, but how do they actually work? This piece digs into their mechanics, then explores what applications of LLMs will start popping up.
5) The “Egg Theory” of AI Agents
What does instant cake mix have to do with AI product design? We look at how new products make the trade-off between all-out automation and human augmentation—in other words, examining how much the user should be involved.
6) 25 Predictions for 2025
I make predictions for what’s to come in the New Year, ranging from Waymo to the TikTok ban, from humanoid robots to digital clones. This is Part I, and Part II is here.
7) How Duolingo Grew Its TikTok to 6.6M Followers
If I had to crown one company the king of TikTok, I’d go with Duolingo. Duolingo is a master of virality. I sat down with Zaria Parvez, the 24-year-old mastermind of Duolingo’s TikTok, to learn how companies should leverage TikTok and drive viral moments.
8) The 10 Forces Shaping Commerce
A deep-dive into some of the biggest trends shaping commerce—we look at everything from Ozempic to overstock, health & wellness to AI personalization.
9) Weapons of Mass Production
What the Industrial Revolution was to physical production, the AI Revolution is to digital production. We argue that we’re about to see the floodgates of production open, and that the winning companies for this era focus on the creation process.
10) Two Roads Diverge: The Splitting of Venture Capital
Venture is splitting into the artisans and the asset managers. We explore this split, and look at how Daybreak fits into the mix.
You can also join the Digital Native Discord community to talk tech and startups:
