Oct 23, 2025

This AWS outage was a literal nightmare96 h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {font-family: Arial, sans-serif !important;} body, table, td, p, a, span {font-family: Arial, sans-serif !important;} sup { font-size: 100% !important;vertical-align: .5em !important;mso-text-raise: -1.5% !important;line-height: 0 !important; } ul { margin-left:0px !important; margin-right:10px !important; margin-top:20px !important; margin-bottom:20px !important; } ul li { margin-left: 0px !important; mso-special-format: decimal; } ol { margin-left:0px !important; margin-right:10px !important; margin-top:20px !important; margin-bottom:20px !important; } ol li { margin-left: 0px !important; mso-special-format: decimal; } li.listItem { margin-left:15px !important; margin-top:0px !important; } .paddingDesktop { padding: 10px 0 !important; } .edm_outlooklist { margin-left: -20px !important; } .embedImage { display:none !important; }   Read Online This AWS outage was a literal nightmare   Lon Harris October 23, 2025 Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes     Top NewsAmazon outage hits smart beds: One of the more surprising impacts of this week’s massive AWS outage? Smart bed failures. Eight Sleep’s line of internet-ready mattress systems were impacted by Monday’s server outage at Amazon’s largest data cluster, Northern Virginia’s US-EAST-1. Users on Reddit, X, and elsewhere complained about mattresses that got stuck at hot temperatures or awkward, inclined positions. CEO Matteo Franceschetti apologized on social media for the situation, and vowed to “outage-proof” the Eight Sleep experience moving forward. (The new system allows the Eight Sleep app to communicate with mobile devices via Bluetooth when they can’t connect to Central Control.) VideoShops raises $42M: Brand deals lie at the center of the entire “creator economy,” but they’ve largely been exclusive to the top creators who dominate their respective platforms and drive the most traffic to clients. VideoShops opens the field to more entrants, and simultaneously disrupts the “affiliate marketing” space that can so often lead to spotty results and frustrations for both brands and aspiring spokespeople alike. Creators build out their own profiles listing favorite brands (for now, it’s limited to the beauty and wellness verticals) and sharing the links with their audiences. They then receive a cut from anyone who buys their recommendations through their portal, without having to constantly share new URLs, sending fans all over the internet in hopes of collecting a chunk of revenue share. The startup launched over the summer and has over 50,000 creator seller storefronts so far, with more than 500,000 products being hawked by 3,500 creator/merchants. They’ve got $42 million in seed funding in the bank. Crusoe raises $1.4 billion: According to the Financial Times, the AI infrastructure provider and datacenter developer raised fresh funds from a variety of investors, including Mubadala Capital and Valor Equity Partners, bringing its valuation to a healthy $10 billion.. CEO Chase Lochmiller explained that it’s not just OpenAI dedicating billions to compute and infrastructure ahead of what we can only presume will be mass AI adoption: “OpenAI has been the most public with… large announcements, but this is not a trend that’s isolated to them. We are seeing it across the ecosystem.” Crusoe has brought in a total of $3.9 billion in funding since its 2018 launch, and has a number of new datacenters — including a 1.8 gigawatt campus in Wyoming and some natural gas-powered locations in Alberta, Canada — in the works. TWiST 500 The Trump administration apparently plans to take equity stakes in some quantum computing companies in exchange for federal funding. Of course, this is not a first for President Deals, who previously grabbed the US government a 10% stale in Intel back in August, and has also explored investments in rare earth minerals companies, such as MP Materials and Lithium Americas. The argument this time around is the same: as with state-of-the-art chips, Trump views advancements in quantum computing as integral to US national security, and a critical segment of the economy. According to the Wall Street Journal, a number of quantum startups are currently in talks with the US about the investments, including IonQ, Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum, Quantum Computing, and Atom Computing. Other quantum companies are theoretically going to get a crack at accessing these funds as well. None of the listed quantum firms can currently be found in the TWiST 500, though we’re going to certainly give them some consideration. But there ARE a number of fascinating companies in the quantum space on our list. Here are a few! BlueQubit: The SF-based startup comes from a group of Stanford alumni, and is working on “quantum software as a service” (QSaaS). This allows companies that don’t have the architecture set up for quantum computing to nonetheless access the technology via emulators or “quantum processing units” (QPUs). The company raised $10 million in seed funding last year. QuEra: In quantum computing, the basic unit of information is known as a quantum bit, or “qubit..” QuEra develops systems that use neutral atoms, which are controlled and trapped by lasers, as their qubits. They’ve already pioneered using the qubits in an analog mode, and plan to one day offer a hybrid analog-digital quantum system. The concept is attracting attention from some major players; they grabbed a major investment last month from Nvidia’s venture capital arm, NVentures. Alice & Bob: The Paris-based startup (see? they do exist!) is developing “cat qubit quantum architecture.” (It’s a reference to the famous philosophical concept of Schrödinger’s Cat, explaining how a single piece of matter can occupy “two states” at once.) The qubit is designed to be “fault tolerant,” meaning that it corrects some errors at the hardware level, but not all. This radically simplifies the design of the overall machine, while still allowing for enough precision to, you know, compute. The company raised a $104 million Series B earlier this year, and plans to release a “useful” quantum computer by 2030. – Lon A message from DevStats Check out DevStats today and get 20% off, plus access to their dedicated Slack channel. Just go to https://www.DevStats.com/twist. This Week in StartupsE2197: Legendary investor Elad Gil joins us for the full episode this week! Jason, Elad, and Alex dig through the news that Amazon (internally) plans to hire fewer humans and build more robots, and try to guess just how many people will lose their jobs to machines and what we’ll do about it (if anything). PLUS Anthropic’s Dario Amodei responded to JCal’s bestie David Sacks, AI wearable makers Sesame emerged from stealth, and much more. E2196: We’ve got a special Tuesday ep this week, in which Alex sits down with Magic School founder (and former school principal!) Adeel Khan. Though much of the media focus has been on students using AI to cheat on their homework, Khan argues that AI tools can make teachers much more effective, while keeping students more engaged and even inspired. He walks us through the promise and challenges of designing a virtual assistant teacher. PLUS a fascinating Gamma pitch from On the Fly Energy and Eric Glyman from Ramp joins us for a round of Founder Q&A! E2195: Is AI a bubble, or is the market just extremely frothy? Jason suggests implosion is not imminent, and we’re merely going from macchiato levels back down to a flat white. Hear his reasoning on a brand-new TWiST. PLUS… Alex and Lon join for a discussion of AI slop and why people are so bad at recognizing it, and a preview of Jeremy Strong’s already-iconic performance as Mark Zuckerberg in the hotly-awaited “Social Network” sequel. TWiST Partner OffersSquarespace: Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to http://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you’re ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Sentry: Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users get 3 months free of the Business plan which covers 150k errors. Go to sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST Pilot: Focus on your product, let Pilot handle your bookkeeping. Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. Head to https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year. Founder U is Coming to the MENA Region!Our 12-week pre-accelerator—designed to help early-stage founders build and grow—kicks off this fall in Saudi Arabia. The first cohort launches in Riyadh on November 3rd, followed by in-person and virtual sessions throughout the program. Founders in MENA: this is your chance to turn your idea into a business and get world-class insights on building a successful startup. Apply today: https://mena.founder.university/SF Live-Work Space Now Available Need a flexible living and working environment in San Francisco? This thoughtfully designed loft-style residence at 787 Bryant St., the heart of the vibrant SOMA district and the city’s creative hub, is now available for rent or purchase. Check the listing for more details. 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