Opata Chibueze

Apple announced that Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple s board of directors and John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple s next chief executive officer effective on September 1, 2026. The transition, which was approved unanimously by the Board of Directors, follows a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process.

Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a smooth transition. As executive chairman, Cook will assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world.

Just in time for Ternus to usher in a new era for Apple and a revamped Siri in the age of AI at WWDC, in its 50th year.

I've seen a couple of influencer platforms around ecommerce, but very little or non exist for backing founders - closest is probably https://gigastar.io/. So I've been toying with an idea and finally built a rough version at kovant.club (bigger current concept at https://kovant.club/home).

The core concept is a closed club where founders get distribution without upfront cash, and influencers earn a royalty on the actual lifetime value of customers they refer for up to 2 years. If the startup wins, the influencer wins big. If not, they still get 1/10x of the delivered value. The key is an SDK that tracks every referral's LTV over time primarily scoped to 3 months (still working out the maths).

The signal is intentionally high: founders would need a 60%+ score on something like https://www.build-check.com by @german_merlo1 and must also be referred by an existing influencer/founder.

Would love to get your honest takes. Of course it doesn't work for all influencers/founders but I feel it will genuinely help a lot of founders who have real value to offer.
Two questions I have for PH founders: