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Twitter vs Musk: End of Act I.

After almost 10 months of back and forth, Elon Musk is finally the owner of Twitter. Yet, the drama is far from over. Calling himself the ‘Chief Twit’, Musk’s first order of business was to fire the social media company’s four top executives—CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett, and legal executive Vijaya Gadde.

But let’s not be too sad. Bloomberg estimates that Agrawal is eligible to receive a severance of roughly $50 million, while Segal and Gadde will receive $37 million and $17 million, respectively.

What next? Who knows?

In other news, Amazon’s muted earnings for the July-September quarter and a disappointing projection led its market value to fall under $1 trillion. However, Apple posted revenue of $90.1 billion for the same period, 8% above analysts’ estimates.

Meanwhile, Taiwan-based Gogoro plans to pilot its 6-second battery swapping stations in India. This will be the electric vehicle startup’s third operational pilot after Singapore and Indonesia. 

Oh, and India topped the list of countries expected to see the highest increase in salaries in 2023.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• The solo women travellers’ club
• D2C for edtech: Toppersnotes
• Are hybrid cars worth it?

Here’s your trivia for today: Which was the shortest war fought in human history?

Travelling

The solo women travellers’ club

For women solo travellers, travelling is not just about the destination but also about accumulating valuable experiences and creating everlasting memories—with freedom, choice, and confidence.

YS Life spoke to a few women travellers who have done solo trips to understand what drives them around the world, literally so.

Enter destination:

• Women travellers are opting for offbeat experiences—from Egyptian hammams, and hot air ballooning in Turkey to wine-tasting tours in Porto (Portugal) and rhododendron treks in Sikkim.
• High speed wi-fi, speciality work spaces, dorms, and, of course, scenic views are the top draws for women opting for long stays in hill stations.  
• The Hosteller, a chain of backpacker hostels across India, says it has a large base of solo women travellers and almost 10% of them are recurring clients.

<Top Deals of the Week>

Startup:  boAt Lifestyle

Amount: $60M

Startup: Kinara Capital

Amount: $24M

Startup: Devtron 

Amount: $12M

Edtech

D2C for edtech: Toppersnotes

Jaipur-based competitive test prep startup Toppersnotes turned profitable in August, within a year of raising its first institutional round. It has also doubled its monthly revenue to Rs 1.80 crore in the last six months.

Building blocks

• Last year in November, the edtech startup raised $1 million in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures. 
• The team says it has grown at 86% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) year-on-year and 11% m-o-m in 2022. 
• With a current monthly run rate of Rs 1.8 crore and ARR (annual recurring revenue) of around Rs 20-21 crore, the startup is projecting a revenue of Rs 20 crore for FY23, out of which they have already done Rs 9 crore in the first 6 months.

Mobility 

Are hybrid cars worth it?

Global mobility is witnessing a shift from fossil-fuelled internal combustion engines (ICE) to battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) in order to curb emissions. The transition from ICEs to EVs is no walk in the park since it incorporates new technologies and a complete overhaul of the powertrain.

Key takeaways:

• Hybrids have a complex powertrain construction making them very difficult to maintain as compared to pure ICE vehicles and as a result, also have a higher maintenance cost attached. 
• Hybrids are usually very conservative in their power delivery as compared to their ICE counterparts. This might dissuade performance enthusiasts from opting for a hybrid vehicle. 
• In India, mild hybrids attract 29% tax and strong hybrids attract 43% tax whereas fully electric vehicles are only levied 5% tax.

News & updates

• Screen war: During the days of DVDs, HBO and Netflix had a placid collaboration. But the shift to streaming TV replaced it with a fierce rivalry. The defining rivalry of the streaming-TV era began with an insult and a sneak attack. 
• It’s cryptic: Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange that has invested $500 million into Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter Inc, is creating a team to work on how blockchain and crypto could be helpful to Twitter.
• Liquid gold: The world’s largest oil companies continue to reap rewards from sustained high commodity prices as Exxon reported almost $20 billion in profit, its most lucrative quarter ever, while rival Chevron reported just a slight dip from the record haul it set in the prior quarter.

Which was the shortest war fought in human history?

Answer: The Anglo-Zanzibar War between the UK and the Zanzibar Sultanate in 1896, which lasted for 38-45 minutes.

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