👋 Hello friends,

Thank you for joining this week's edition of The Saturday Morning Newsletter. I'm Drew Jackson, and today we're exploring 10 articles, essays, companies, ideas, podcasts, videos, or thoughts that caught my attention this week for their potential to significantly impact our future.

Before we begin: The Saturday Morning Newsletter by Brainwaves arrives in your inbox every Saturday, a concise and casual digest of current events, optimistic news stories, and other interesting tidbits about venture capital, economics, space, energy, intellectual property, philosophy, and beyond. I write as a curious explorer rather than an expert, and I value your insights and perspectives on each subject.

Time to Read: 4 minutes.

Let’s dive in!

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#1: Actual Veggies

Description: Actual Veggies is a veggie burger brand.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Actual Veggies recently raised $7M in venture capital funding. Most imitation meats and veggie burgers don’t totally fill the need in the market, so Actual Veggies is producing an all-veggie burger, with no filler, preservatives, or ingredients besides vegetables. This transparency is a key selling point for customers looking for truly healthy alternatives.

#2: Magdrive

Description: Magdrive is a satellite propulsion startup.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Magdrive recently raised $10.5M in venture capital funding. Magdrive is developing a new, vertically integrated satellite propulsion system. Their system utilizes pulsed power technology, derived from metal propellant. Satellites can now perform high-cadence avoidance maneuvers in LEO and sustained rendezvous for satellite servicing.

#3: Floodbase

Description: Floodbase is a flood data and analytics startup.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Floodbase recently raised $5M in venture capital funding. Their proprietary satellite flood tracking databases enable better flood disaster response. Combined with their new type of flood insurance to help flood-vulnerable communities access financial support.

#4: Mote

Description: Mote developed a wood waste-to-hydrogen solution.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Mote recently raised $7M in venture capital funding. Mote’s approach is a form of Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS), converting agricultural and forestry waste into clean hydrogen, all while permanently sequestering the highest proportion of CO2. This method increases hydrogen production, enhances efficiency, and reduces emissions.

#5: Stax Engineering

Description: Stax Engineering is a startup capturing ship emissions at berth.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Stax Engineering recently raised $10M in venture capital funding. Their technology attaches to the ducts of at-berth vessels to capture 99% of all pollutants, purifying them into harmless gas. The ocean shipping industry contributes 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2025.

The New York Times: The Climate Fix: Nuclear Waste Finds Its Forever Home

A major problem people always bring up in relation to nuclear energy is the nuclear waste problem. Not-in-my-backyard arguments come up. It gets messy. Now, there may be a resemblance of a solution: Finland is set to begin the world’s first permanent underground disposal site for nuclear fuel—getting close to officially opening the plant.

The New York Times: Why NASA Is Trying to Go Back to the Moon

In President Trump’s briefing on the Moon in 2017, he gave the following 3 reasons for sending astronauts back to the moon: 1) it’s the next logical step for astronauts, 2) the US needs to get back to the moon before China gets there, and 3) more knowledge about the solar system can be gained from the moon.

Now in 2025, the Artemis program continues to push on, continually getting closer to the moon. Most, if not all of the rationale remains unchanged as Trump continues to push towards the moon—reaching new heights each week.

Pitchbook: Pandemic-Era VC Dry Powder is Still Piling Up

The amount of VC dry powder held in 3 - 5 year old funds have reached some of their largest amounts since 2008. Limited partners piled money into funds during the 2020 and 2021 boom. Since then, a prolonged downturn has left VCs with too much cash on hand and too few opportunities to deploy it. Everyone will be looking for opportunities over the next couple of years, potentially leading to markets artificially opening.

The Conversation: Are Our Thoughts ‘Real’? Here’s What Philosophy Says

Philosophers have been debating whether or not thoughts are real for ages. The two major parties of thought are that they are physically real or that they are something apart from the world. Does it matter? It's up to you; some people might think it’s important, but others might just lump it into the “fluff” of philosophy.

Take a break.

It’s been spring break this week - so I apologize for this being brief.

Every now and then, it’s worth taking a break.

The IT people I’ve worked with say that you should ideally be resetting your computer each day. We, as humans, tend to do that when we fall asleep each night.

But even more than that, we need more structured, more official time off every now and then.

It’s worth it (can speak from personal experience).

Every now and then our lives can get too stressful, too busy—too much.

Take a break.

See you Wednesday for Brainwaves,

Drew Jackson

Twitter: @brainwavesdotme

Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this content are my own and do not represent the views of any of the companies I currently work for or have previously worked for. This content does not contain financial advice - it is for informational and educational purposes only. Investing contains risks and readers should conduct their own due diligence and/or consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Any sponsorship or endorsements are noted and do not affect any editorial content produced.