Pirate Wires

Pirate Wires began as a single newsletter in the summer of 2020.⁠[1]

On 24 January 2024 Mike Solana announced that Pirate Wires had launched its own website as “an independent home for our community and work,” describing the company as “an American media company writing at the intersection of technology, politics, and culture.” By then it had grown into four verticals covering areas including business, science and local politics.⁠[1]

With the move Pirate Wires left Substack; SolanaSolanaSolana is a proof-of-stake (PoS) public blockchain designed for high throughput and low latency, with SOL as its native token; it was developed by Solana Labs and launched Mainnet Beta in March 2020. It is known for design choices such as its Proof of History clock and parallel execution, suffered several network-wide outages in its early years, and became one of the crypto industry’s focal points in events including the FTX collapse, U.S. SEC lawsuits, and the listing of Solana ETFs.Open the full entry praised Substack’s publishing tool and its commitment to free expression and said he is an investor in Substack. Existing free subscribers continued to receive their newsletters on schedule, and paid subscriptions continued at unchanged prices.⁠[1]

On 21 August 2025 Solana announced that “Pirate Wires is partnering with Substack, and is now available on their platform,” adding that the site and newsletters would look and function the same.⁠[2]

Pirate Wires describes itself as “new new media” that “lives behind a paywall, where it will remain.” Its verticals include The Industry, on the business and drama of technology; The White Pill, optimistic coverage of science and technology; Dolores Park, on San Francisco local politics; and the flagship Pirate Wires, with guest posts and features. Editor-in-chief Mike Solana writes a biweekly letter, and the company produces The Pirate Wires Podcast.⁠[3][4]

In February 2024 Solana was also chief marketing officer at Founders FundFounders FundFounders Fund is a venture capital firm founded in San Francisco in 2005 by Peter Thiel and his former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Run by partners who were entrepreneurs themselves, it argues that founders should keep more control and is known for betting on difficult technology projects in areas such as space, defense, and artificial intelligence. It was Palantir’s first institutional investor, has invested in SpaceX many times since 2008, and its other notable investments include Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, and Anduril; as of March 2026 it had raised nine early-stage funds and four growth funds.Open the full entry.⁠[5]

Pirate Wires: Official website: https://www.piratewires.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

X: Public account: https://x.com/PirateWires (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJfW0e_2ooi5HtGPoXVjDxg (opens in a new window).⁠[4]