How a ghostwriter makes $200,000 a year crafting tweets for superstar VCs

Happy Wednesday, folks! Jordan Parker Erb here.

Today, we're talking about what may be my new dream job: ghostwriting tweets. We spoke with one tech founder who moonlights as a ghostwriter for prominent VCs, and rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars — sometimes for a single thread.

Below, we've got an inside look at the lives of Twitter ghosts, a job that, in one ghostwriter's case, is "60% shitposting."

Buckle up, it's a fun one.

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1. Top VCs are paying ghostwriters big bucks to craft tweets for them. Twitter is Silicon Valley's most important social club, and some investors are shelling out thousands of dollars to ghostwriters who can make them look good — all in 280 characters or less. One ghostwriter shared his story with us.

• This person — a founder of a tech startup — started ghostwriting as a side hustle, taking five hours out of his week to come up with original tweets. Last year, he brought in $200,000 with the lucrative side gig.
• VCs, on their hunt for the next superstar startups, must establish themselves on Twitter, and write the kind of content that will get the attention of young founders. That's where the ghostwriter comes in.
• For anywhere between $100 and $100,000, he writes what he hopes will become "banger" tweets, securing the VC attention from founders (and of course, a big paycheck for himself).

Inside the lucrative career of a ghost tweeter.

In other news:

2. Mark Zuckerberg is making a classic Silicon Valley mistake. Zuckerberg is making a big, risky bet on the metaverse. It's the same kind of ambitious move Marissa Mayer made at Yahoo — and one that never paid off. Here's how Meta is beginning to mirror Yahoo. In other Zuckerberg news, the Meta CEO just unveiled a new VR headset, which The Verge says is a major step forward for the company.

3. A leaked internal survey shows how Amazon engineers feel about their pay. For the first time this year, Amazon asked engineers about their pay-satisfaction at the company. While employees in tech-adjacent roles are largely happy with their pay, about a third of the group expressed dissatisfaction. What we learned from the survey results.

4. Some Amazon Prime Day deals may not be what they seem. A new study shows that some deals happening during the company's major sale event might actually be price hikes in disguise. Here's what to look out for while shopping.

5. Several fast-food restaurants have cut ties with ghost-kitchen startup Reef. Burger King, Popeyes, and Jack in the Box have all dropped their partnerships with Reef as the SoftBank-backed startup continues to face operational issues. Everything we know about the chains' severed ties with Reef.

6. After recalling nearly all of its EVs, Rivian lost $2 billion in market value. In just a single day, electric-vehicle startup Rivian's market value went tumbling to $27.81 billion. Get the full rundown here.

7. Amazon is cutting some robotics projects in a reorganization of its research efforts in the field. Last week, the company shut down Scout, which had designed a small home-delivery robot. Warehouse robotics startup Canvas, which it bought for over $100 million, is the latest casualty.

8. A huge livestreaming convention has landed Twitch in hot water. Some people who attended TwitchCon, an event by the Amazon-owned streaming platform, are calling for a boycott after witnessing serious injuries, poor organization, and accessibility issues. More on the calls to boycott Twitch.

Odds and ends:

9. Review: The Tesla Model Y vs. Kia EV6. Insider's transportation reporter tested out each of the electric SUVs, and discovered that he'd rather buy the $41,000 EV6 over the $66,000 Model Y. He explains why.

10. These are the 65 deals to score during Amazon's Prime Early Access sale. While truly good deals can be difficult to find, Insider's reviews team put together a list of dozens of goodies to pick up before the sale ends. From iPads to robot vacuums, here are the best deals.

What we're watching today:

• The Samsung Developer Conference is happening today in San Francisco and online.
• World Summit AI starts today in Amsterdam.
• Microsoft Ignite takes place through Oct. 14.
• The two-day Shopify Unite event kicks off in Toronto.

Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.