The little red bubble with the scary number proves it: Managing your email is a pain in the ass.

This week, a new service arrived on the scene to alleviate your inbox-iety:

• It’s called Hey, and it’s from the brains behind Basecamp. 
• For $99 a year, Hey comes with bells and whistles that are supposed to make Gmail look like a VCR (hello, email screening… goodbye, pixel-tracking spies).

Hey definitely turned heads — Casey Newton called it a “genuinely original take on messaging.”

Then the star turn took a dark turn

Basecamp execs say Apple is shaking them down — threatening to remove Hey from the App Store unless it begins offering an in-app subscription.

In case you’re wondering why: Apple takes up to a 30% cut of the revenue from in-app purchases and subscriptions.

This ain’t a new gripe

In Europe, new antitrust investigations of Apple bubbled up thanks in part to a complaint from Spotify, and Tinder’s parent company has aired grievances, too.

David Heinemeier Hansson, Basecamp’s cofounder and CTO, had been banging the antitrust drum on Twitter. And at Bloomberg, Tae Kim said Apple’s getting what it deserves.

But the crowd ain’t unanimous

Consider these takes:

• Investor Zak Kukoff: “Software Companies Come Out Against Giving 30% Of Revenue To Platform. Also, sky is blue. More news at 11”
• And here’s our Adam Ryan: “Call me nuts, but Apple has the right to own their distribution. Of course, they have to allow competitors to be in their platform, but charging a fee to reach their enormous audience seems right. Don’t want the fee? Build your own audience.”

Not every business can — or should — be worth billions. 

That’s the philosophy behind Indie.vc. As Marker told it, founders Bryce Roberts, Mark Jacobsen, and Tim O’Reilly, all veterans of Silicon Valley, became disillusioned with the MO of traditional venture capital. 

They decided to stop chasing unicorns and focus on “real businesses.”

They’re venturing outside the box

In a typical VC deal, a promising business gets millions, and the venture capital firm gets a stake. Over the years, the industry has prioritized high-risk, high-reward investments. Yet the chances of one of these enterprises becoming the next Uber is less than 1%. 

Indie.vc takes a different approach. Startups receive around $100k to $1m and don’t have to give up a board seat. The company prioritizes businesses looking to become independent, saying they “aim to be the last investment our founders need to take.”

So far, it’s working 

Over 5 years, Indie.vc has funded 34 companies with an average growth rate of 100% the first year, and 300% in the second. Its mortality rate is 10%, compared to the 44% among VC-backed companies in general. 

It’s also led to a more diverse profile. Half of the startups Indie.vc has funded are run by women, and 20% are Black-led.

When Angelica Nwandu founded The Shade Room, which covers entertainment news, she said she didn’t even consider pitching to traditional VCs. 

But after receiving funding from Indie.vc, she achieved profitability and says she grew her subscriber base considerably (The Shade Room has 19m+ followers on Instagram).

Did quarantine put a damper on your love life? Chill, babe. Turns out there’s been more bread baking than babymaking.

A new report from researchers at the Brookings Institution predicts a declining birthrate, which could yield significant economic losses.

It’s all just a little bit of history repeating

When times are tough, people tend to put, um… a lid on it. With the average annual cost of infant child care surpassing in-state tuition at many 4-year public universities, bringing a child into the world is a very calculated risk.

During the 1918 flu pandemic, American women didn’t put off having babies… they just had fewer of them.

And during the Great Recession, which lasted roughly 2007 to 2009, states that showed the steepest job losses also showed the greatest reduction in birth rates between 2008 and 2011. The US as a whole saw a 9% dip in births — that’s 400k — between 2007 and 2012.

Thanks to the coronavirus crisis that tanked the national economy, Brookings estimates a 300k – 500k dip in American births. And by one estimate, 40%+ of jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic may be gone for good.

Even if you hate kids (you monster), the numbers don’t lie

The loss of 500k births could amount to economic losses of $5T within the next few decades.

Move over, Lil Huddy. TikTok’s got a new crush – Xi Jinping, leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

Gen Z users are flexing their satirical skills with pro-China videos, hoping to turn TikTok’s China ties into more views and fewer restrictions.

As usual, sucking up is the secret to success 

The video app has been accused of censoring content the Chinese government dislikes, so users decided to embrace TikTok’s ever-ambiguous algorithm. 

Make content Beijing would approve of, the thinking goes, and you get views galore instead of censorship. 

These virtual love letters feature the Chinese flag, the country’s national anthem, and hashtags like #ilovechina and #noticemexinjinping.  

Others are buttering up China to reverse shadow bans or the removal of their videos. One user posted a clip with all the pro-China trappings, captioning it “#ilovechina (ok but fr tho can I get comment privileges back).”

ByteDance calls BS

Despite all the buzz, there is no conclusive evidence that the lovefest actually pays off. A spokesperson for the company was quick to disavow the theory, calling it “ridiculous.” 

Nothing can prepare your thirst for the horror that is Liquid Death Mountain Water

Here’s a scary movie concept for you: A group of teenagers head into the mountains for a weekend of drinking regular water in plastic bottles — but their plans take a gruesome turn when they are hunted by an aluminum can of mountain water dead-set on extinguishing their thirsts and recycling their souls. 

Sound up your alley? Then you need to try Liquid Death. 

Their mineral-rich canned water travels straight from the mountain to your mouth, and they donate 5 cents from every can to help end plastic pollution. Get 10% off when you use code LIQUIDDEATH at checkout.