Welcome back. This week, meet Jacqui, our first Community Fellow, read our take on Masa & Moratoriums, and see what’s coming up on the events calendar.
WELCOME JACQUI, OUR FIRST COMMUNITY FELLOW
You may have already met her at one of our recent events. Jacqui started her career as a co-founder, and that early-stage experience has shaped everything she's done since. By day she's an ML PM at Capital One. Before that she shipped AmEx's first-ever checking and debit product. She also co-hosted the New York AI Users Group.
She's joining F&O because she wants to give back to the startup community in a real way, not just attend events. That's exactly the kind of person we want more of in this community. Outside of work, she enjoys museums, horses, and electronic music. We’re excited to have her involved, and we’ll have another Community Fellow join her soon.
UPCOMING EVENTS
We hope you get to join us at one of our next NYC events:
F&O Oktoberfest
Thursday Sep 24 6:30-8:30 PM
Watermark
It’s that time of the year again - we’ll swap our rooftop social for a waterside beer garden to honor the tradition of Oktoberfest. Join us for Brez’n & Beers at Watermark later this month.
Rooftop Social
Thursday Oct 1 6:30-8:30 PM
Lower East Side
Join fellow founders and operators for rooftop drinks and conversations on GTM, AI-Native Services, and more. Curated group, limited capacity.
Founders Breakfast Club with Rho
Thursday Oct 8 8:00-11:00 AM
West Village
Coffee, croissants, matcha, and co-working with your fellow founders & operators, and our friends from Rho. Stop by to chat or co-work.
MASA & MORATORIUMS
It’s UN General Assembly Week - when Midtown gets clogged up, and delegations buy out hotels, members clubs and event spaces for their receptions. And it’s Climate Week. To honor the occasion, we continue our data center coverage today.
A fascinating aspect of the ongoing buildout is, it’s hit a point where both the bears and the bulls can point to credible signals. Over the summer, the US has moved beyond 500+ moratoria for data centers - 500+ communities that have voted to halt data center development, many of them in states like Ohio, Michigan, and New Jersey.
At the same time, NScale and Softbank Energy just filed to go public. Softbank’s IPO plans are shifting, and it might actually push back its IPO. One mind-boggling number from its prospectus: 8.8 GW of contracted data center capacity clash with 0 GW of currently operational capacity (and 800 MW currently under construction). Again, plenty of material here for both bulls and bears. Masa(yoshi Son) is always one to push the envelope and pursue big bets.
This debate will continue into the Midterms and beyond. If the skepticism towards data centers in the US continues running high, we’re likely to see companies push to Europe and other geographies to build out additional capacity. Or perhaps in the US it will be less of a stop, but rather, a more complex game where communities realize the leverage they have, and just start to negotiate harder on the terms for development - which is where Mark Cuban lands. The next phase of the buildout will depend on whether developers can offer communities credible terms on power, water, noise and local benefits
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
Here are community members currently hiring or looking to jam:
Want to be featured in a future edition? Let us know.
See you soon,
Stephan, Jacqui & the F&O Team