In partnership with

Welcome back to Forests Over Trees, your tech strategy newsletter. It’s time to zoom-out, connect dots, and (try to) predict the future.

Here’s today’s plan:

• Tool of the Week — tools you’ll find useful

• Tech News Takes — digestible analysis and commentary

• F/T Shoutouts — sharing other cool stuff we’ve found

AI does LEGOs now

Plus: FTC delays click-to-cancel, OpenAI Poaches Instacart CEO

🛠️ Tool of the Week 🛠️

Do More. Spend less on SaaS.

Launch, grow, and scale your company faster with Notion.

Thousands of startups rely on Notion to move quickly, stay aligned, and replace multiple tools. Whether you're building a wiki, managing projects, or writing documentation, Notion is your all-in-one workspace.

Get up to 6 months of the new Plus plan + unlimited AI, for free!

To redeem your Notion for Startups offer, simply visit the Notion for Startups page and apply.

Get the offer

⚡ Tech News Takes ⚡

Microsoft wants to keep working with OpenAI

• What’s up: OpenAI is in “tough negotiations” with Microsoft over their partnership and restructuring plans, according to the Financial Times. Microsoft, which has invested $13B in OpenAI, is reportedly holding out on approving the startup’s new corporate structure. The debate is centered on how much equity Microsoft will keep. They’re also renegotiating their broader deal, with Microsoft potentially trading some equity for extended access to OpenAI’s post-2030 tech.

• So what: Microsoft continues to be in complete control of this relationship. First, they built up AI teams internally to compete with OpenAI. Next, they refused to write a metaphorical blank check for OpenAI compute resources, forcing Sam Altman to find compute elsewhere (ex. Stargate, the $500B project with Softbank). Now, with this latest negotiation news, OpenAI is forced to play ball to get their corporate structure changed, and Microsoft will probably get longer-term access to OpenAI’s models in case Microsoft’s homegrown ones aren’t competitive.

FTC delays click-to-cancel rule

• What’s up: The FTC is delaying enforcement of its “click-to-cancel” rule until July 14, giving companies more time to comply with the mandate that canceling subscriptions must be as simple as signing up. It was originally set to take effect May 14, but the agency voted 3–0 to delay enforcement, with two commissioners absent due to Trump’s controversial firings. The FTC says enforcement will begin in full on the new date but remains open to changes if issues arise.

• So what: As long as this is just a few months’ delay, it isn’t the end of the world… but I wonder about the cause for the delay… is it because the commission isn’t working as effectively while missing 2 of its 5 leaders? Is it because offending companies are lobbying to have the rule struck down? Either way, it’s concerning to see consumer protections being delayed and/or deprioritized.

AI does LEGOs now

• What’s up: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have released LegoGPT, an AI model that turns text prompts into fully buildable LEGO designs. Trained on over 47,000 structures covering 28,000+ unique 3D objects, LegoGPT predicts and places bricks step by step, ensuring no overlaps or floating elements. The system is free on GitHub, and users can even pair it with computer vision to generate builds based on their actual brick inventory. Outputs are verified for real-world stability.

• So what: If AI can do this for LEGOs, why not actual bricks? Getting AI to help design real-world structures could have a hugely positive impact on their cost and development time (what if we see similar efficiencies to what software is seeing? 10x gains, etc!?). I’d be surprised if there aren’t already companies working on it.

OpenAI poaches Instacart CEO

• What’s up: OpenAI has appointed Fidji Simo, former Instacart CEO and current board member, as CEO of Applications, overseeing the company’s user-facing tools and business operations. Sam Altman remains CEO of OpenAI and will continue driving towards safe superintelligence, while Simo will focus on scaling OpenAI’s application teams as the company grows.

• So what: This just speaks to how immense OpenAI’s opportunity is. Even being the actual CEO at Instacart (which just IPO’d a few years ago, is worth $10B, and paid Simo ~$48M in 2024) isn’t as enticing to Simo as leading one of OpenAI’s core business units. I still think OpenAI is in a tough competitive position long-term (as we’ve covered before), but I don’t blame Simo for jumping ship.

🌲 F/T Shoutouts 🌲

• Media crossover — Cool to see this Substack newsletter (Laid Off) getting love in the New York Times. It tells the stories of people that have gotten fired — good food for the soul in the middle of a chaotic tech job market.

• Interview with Ive — really interesting conversation between ex-Apple designer Sir Jony Ive and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Loved these quotes: “…what we make stands testament to who we are.” and “It’s very good to make things for each other… it makes you more worried about them than you, it makes you vulnerable, and it makes them grateful.”

The forest is growing.
Feel free to share this post.

If you have feedback…

If you want to advertise to our 16,000+ smart, curious readers,
reply to this email or send me a note.