Latest from Connie Loizos
23andMe, the personal genomics company, went public in early 2021 via a merger with a blank check company that valued it at $3.5 billion. Then its fortunes began to sink.…
Climate
Al Gore roasts corporations and politicians, comparing their climate crisis promises to ‘New Year’s resolutions’
Al Gore has enjoyed a very successful career, including as a U.S. senator, U.S. Vice President, U.S. presidential nominee, and even Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2007 for “informing the…
Investment powerhouse BlackRock is set to launch a massive AI-focused fund, exceeding $30 billion, in collaboration with Microsoft and the Abu Dhabi-backed investment outfit MGX, the FT reported today. According…
Insight Partners is reportedly on the cusp of closing on more than $10 billion in capital commitments for its 13th fund, per the FT. The FT report notes that two…
In early 2018, VC Mike Moritz wrote in the FT that “Silicon Valley would be wise to follow China’s lead,” noting the pace of work at tech companies was “furious”…
OpenWeb, a New York startup whose tools help publishers engage users, has a unique problem. Its co-founding CEO reportedly won’t leave, even though it announced a new CEO. According to…
You could argue whether Cybertruck owners crave attention, but attention they receive, often by critics poking fun at the vehicles. People seem to particularly delight at Cybertruck mishaps, as when…
Given everything you’ve already heard about AI, you may not be surprised to learn that Google is among other outfits beginning to use sound signals to predict early signs of…
Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging platform Telegram, has been in the headlines since his arrest at a private airport near Paris on Saturday, reportedly in connection with an…
Venture
VC Neil Mehta, who’s quietly nabbing prized SF property, plans a “Y Combinator for restaurants”
Neil Mehta, the VC behind the acquisition of a string of properties on San Francisco’s tony Fillmore Street, made waves earlier this week for reportedly throwing long-established local restaurants to…
A social media spat between billionaire tech investors is raising questions about the journalistic independence of three-year-old news outfit SF Standard, after a reporter representing the outlet reached out to…
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have acquired a screenplay called “Killing Gawker,” which presumably delves into billionaire VC Peter Thiel’s campaign to bury the media outfit for posting excerpts from…
In Puerto Rico, tax breaks enacted in 2012 aimed to juice the economy by encouraging mainland U.S. citizens to do business and live on the island, where they could apply…
Featured Article
All VCs say they are founder friendly; Detroit’s Ludlow Ventures takes that to another level
VCs Jonathon Triest and Brett deMarrais see their ability to read people and create longstanding relationships with founders as the primary reason their Detroit-based venture firm, Ludlow Ventures, is celebrating its 15th year in business. It sounds silly, attributing their longevity to what’s sometimes called “Midwestern nice.” But is it…
Vinod Khosla, the Sun Microsystems co-founder turned prominent investor, talks about how AI is changing tech and the risks of government regulation.
Government & Policy
FTC Chair Lina Khan on startups, scaling, and ”innovations in potential lawbreaking”
FTC Chair Lina Khan was the youngest person appointed to her position when she assumed the job in 2021. But once her term ends in September — after which she’ll…
Carta, a once-high-flying Silicon Valley startup that loudly backed away from one of its businesses earlier this year, is working on a secondary sale that would value the company at…
Venture
A venture capital firm looks back on changing norms, from board seats to backing rival startups
Last month, one of the Bay Area’s better-known early-stage venture capital firms, Uncork Capital, marked its 20th anniversary with a party in a renovated church in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood,…
When it comes to the world of venture-backed startups, some issues are universal and some are very dependent on where the startups and its backers are located. It’s something we…
Foursquare, the location-focused outfit that in 2020 merged with Factual, another location-focused outfit, is joining the parade of companies to make cuts to one of its biggest cost centers –…
Venture
Human composting and timber marketplaces: Talking ‘industrial’ VC with investor Dayna Grayson
While the venture world is abuzz over generative AI, Dayna Grayson, a longtime venture capitalist who five years ago co-founded her own firm, Construct Capital, has been focused on comparatively…
AI
xAI, Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival, is closing on $6B in funding and X, his social network, is already one of its shareholders
xAI, Elon Musk’s 10-month-old competitor to the AI phenom OpenAI, is raising $6 billion on a pre-money valuation of $18 billion, according to one trusted source close to the deal.…
Enterprise
Rippling’s Parker Conrad on the company’s new round, new SF lease and, also, its newest critic
Last week, TechCrunch broke the news that the workforce management software outfit Rippling was on the cusp of closing a new, $200 million round of funding at a hefty $13.4…
Featured Article
HR startup Rippling is in discussions to raise at a $13.4B valuation, up from $11.25B
Late-stage HR tech startup Rippling is raising new capital. The company’s new round, which has not yet closed, would inject $200 million into Rippling with another $670 million worth of shares being sold by existing stockholders, according to two people familiar with the deal. This will be Rippling’s Series F…
Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial, never-boring co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, as well as an angel investor, passed away last month at age 41 owing to “complications from a recurring brain…
Venture
IVP’s Eric Liaw talks Klarna controversy, sticky successions, and why the great valuation reset doesn’t really matter
When IVP recently announced the closing of its 18th fund, I called Eric Liaw, a longtime general partner with the growth-stage firm, to ask a few questions. For starters, wringing…
The VCs who long ran GGV Capital have settled on two new brands, roughly six months after announcing they would split their U.S. and Asia operations.
Featured Article
Bumble’s new CEO talks about her critical mission: to spice things up at the company
The bigger concern for Bumble is user fatigue. People aren’t downloading dating apps as enthusiastically as they once were, which means less subscription revenue.
Startups
Marissa Mayer’s startup just rolled out photo sharing and event planning apps, and the internet isn’t sure what to think
When Marissa Mayer co-founded a startup six years ago in Palo Alto, California, expectations were sky high for the former Yahoo CEO and early Google employee. When that startup, Sunshine,…
Venture
VC Arjun Sethi talks a big game about selling his company-picking strategies to other investors; he says they’re buying it
Arjun Sethi speaks with the confidence of someone who knows more than other people, or at least knows that sounding highly confident can shape perception. Either way, when he tells…
