Good afternoon, everyone.
We have another West Coast edition of Feed Me today, including a conversation with the SF Standard team on their buzziest new hire and M&A deal, and then Madeleine Mogul takes the wheel on the Water Cooler section.
In the Feed Me chat, we’re interviewing one of the most interesting people in San Francisco, Substack CEO Chris Best.
Today in Feed Me: Bar Oliver is opening on the West Coast, the founder of Uber opened an LA members’ club, Erewhon’s bestselling beauty product is a brand I’ve never heard of, Nancy Silverton’s new project, why womenswear brand Oddli hosted a pop-up in SF, Michael Moritz’s chocolate investments, an AI company is opening a spa, Miranda July is hiring an intern in Echo Park, Infatuation gets a paint job, a new hotel in LA that one person described as a “yassified Souplantation,” the Port of Los Angeles had the busiest month in its existence, and The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has generated some very entertaining reviews.
THIS WEEK ON THE FEED ME JOB BOARD
💄 rhode is hiring a Senior Manager of Influencer Marketing. “In this senior-level role, you’ll lead major priorities across organic influencer marketing, gifting, creator affiliate partnerships, community and key brand moments.” ($110,000-$140,000)
☕ Morning Brew is hiring a Markets Creator. “This person will host recurring video and audio segments on markets; earnings reactions, Fed days, ‘what actually happened’ explainers.” ($100,000)
📱 Hailee Steinfeld’s Beau Society is hiring a Social Editor. “This is a highly hands-on role for a strong creative thinker, writer, and editor who understands platforms, knows how to speak to an audience, and is excited to build something from the ground up.”
“San Francisco is a city of hilarious contradictions and absurdities.”
I’ve admired The San Francisco Standard team for years, but my respect for them leveled up when seven people from their team (or around 7% of their company) came to Feed Me’s party at Bar Part Time in the Mission earlier this year. Last month, the paper (co-founded by Griffin Gaffney and billionaire / longtime Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz) acquired Patrick Heij’s mock news site, Marin Lately, and relaunched it as a new standalone satire publication run by Heij, San Francisco Currently.
The SF Standard team isn’t done with big news for 2026: This morning, the paper announced that 21-year-old New York Times bestseller Theo Baker is joining the Standard as their senior Silicon Valley reporter, covering AI and the people building it. I caught up with all the SF Standard boys – Griffin, Theo, Patrick, Mike – for this West Coast Edition of Feed Me.
Griffin, you acquired Marin Lately, which covers the greater Marin County area. What does it mean to expand the SF Standard’s coverage north of The Bay?
GG: While I’d love to say we’re opening a satellite office with a ferry commute, we’ve actually re-launched Marin Lately as San Francisco Currently. While it has San Francisco in its name, it’s taking on the tradition of many San Francisco-named publishers in using the entire Bay Area as its playground.
I’m quite impressed with the avid following Patrick built in Marin — and, frankly, Marin-like suburbs around the country where we also have paid subscribers — and they shouldn’t worry too much, as Patrick will certainly still be satirizing life across the bridge.
Griffin, it seems like SF Standard really appreciates humor. You’ve had job listings for comedians, you’re acquiring a satirical news startup, you’ve searched for cartoonists and gossip interns. What role does fun play in the SF Standard’s business?
GG: Many of the best publications use humor as a way of engaging their readers, and because San Francisco is a city of hilarious contradictions and absurdities, I couldn’t think of a better time and place for us to be experimenting with humor as a way of driving the business. Our resident comedian, Sophia Garrow, recently interviewed both of California’s gubernatorial candidates and got many millions of views on her work; San Francisco Currently is growing its paid subscriber base organically, and our cartoons are among the best performing content on our site. That’s all great for the brand and the business.
Theo, you had a big year — graduating Stanford, getting on the NYT bestseller list. What made you know this was the first full-time newsroom job you wanted to take postgrad? What was it about the SF Standard that was appealing to you? Did you ever consider going independent on Substack?
TB: I view my mission at The Standard as an extension of the work I did in reporting my book, How to Rule the World: chronicling the attitudes and pretensions of the people who shape our technology, and therefore all of our lives. It’s wonderful to be joining an ambitious startup news organization that sees the value in both hard-hitting accountability journalism and the cultural anthropology so desperately needed to make sense of these strange times. I considered a range of options including going independent but ultimately joining The Standard seemed like the clear choice: I strongly believe in the mission of local journalism with national impact—at a time when this has grown rarer and rarer—and am thrilled to work with such a top-notch team in developing this forthcoming news column into a must-read for the AI era. Very bullish on the future of The Standard and very excited to be a part of it.
Patrick, what advice do you have for other operators of newsletter startups and blogs? How did you know it was time to get acquired?