DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Jensen Huang's 6 a.m. starts and 14-hour workday helped him turn Nvidia into a $2 trillion company
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Nvidia CEO has an engaged leadership style with 60 direct reports, which he says empowers others. AdvertisementRunning a $2 trillion company comes with early morning starts — just ask Jensen Huang. Huang works holidays but finds it relaxingNvidia CEO Jensen Huang. When I'm not working, I'm thinking about working, and when I'm working, I'm working. Got insights into what it's like working for Jensen Huang?

Persons: Jensen, Huang, —, Jensen Huang, Mohd Rasfan, Huang doesn't, workshy, Nicolai Tangen, Tangen, Nicolai, Huang's, Patrick Collison, I'm, Michael M, That's Organizations: Nvidia, Service, Financial Times, New York Times DealBook, Microsoft, Apple, Getty, Norges Bank Investment Management, Stripe Sessions, Big Tech, CNN, Forbes, Stanford School of Business, Stanford University Locations: AFP

☆ It's hard to compete with Elon Musk when recruiting AI talent, CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said Elon Musk's xAI is stiff competition in the recruiting space. The AI CEO said Musk's company offers the highest compensation at the moment. Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of the AI company Perplexity, said it can be difficult to compete with the Tesla CEO when recruiting. Musk launched his own AI startup, xAI, last year and Srinivas said it has since become one of the highest-paying companies for AI talent — on par with OpenAI. In January, Financial Times reported that Musk's AI venture was in talks to raise $6 billion at around a $20 billion valuation.

Persons: Aravind Srinivas, Elon Musk's, It's, —, Elon Musk, Tesla, Musk, Srinivas, OpenAI, Alex Heath, Perplexity, Heath, OpenAI's ChatGPT, xAI's, Patrick Collison, Collison, Srnivas, he'd, Mark, Fortune, X Organizations: Service, OpenAI, Street Journal, Financial Times, xAI, TechCrunch, Twitter, SpaceX, Musk .

☆ The Secrets to Charlie Munger’s Success
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Jason Zweig | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Charlie Munger in 2019 at his home in Los Angeles. Photo: Michael Lewis for The Wall Street JournalBusiness and financial leaders made frequent pilgrimages to Los Angeles to hear Charlie Munger ’s thoughts as he held court while peering through thick eyeglasses over high, rosy cheekbones. Among the attendees at his weekly “Friday lunch club” and periodic dinners were John and Patrick Collison , founders of the online payment firm Stripe; Bobby Kotick , chief executive of videogame company Activision Blizzard ; Pradeep Khosla , chancellor of the University of California, San Diego; Maria Pope , chief executive of Portland General Electric , Oregon’s largest utility; and Howard Marks , co-founder of investment firm Oaktree Capital Management.

Persons: Charlie Munger, Michael Lewis, Charlie Munger ’, John, Patrick Collison, Bobby Kotick, Pradeep Khosla, Maria Pope, Howard Marks Organizations: The Wall Street Journal, Activision Blizzard, University of California, Portland General Electric, Oaktree Capital Management Locations: Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland

☆ VCs Marc Andreessen, John Doerr among attendees at Schumer's next AI forum
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Technologists and advocates are again set to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss with Senate leaders the perils and promises of artificial intelligence. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, and John Doerr, chair of Kleiner Perkins, will be among the 21 attendees at the second AI Insights Forum hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., according to a spokesperson for his office. The session is a continuation of the Majority Leader's effort to get the chamber up to speed on AI to determine how best to approach AI regulation. For example, Future of Life Institute President Max Tegmark is also set to attend. Other tech leaders such as Micron Executive Vice President Manish Bhatia, Revolution CEO Steve Case, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez will be in attendance.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz, John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins, Chuck Schumer, Andreessen, Max Tegmark, Elon Musk, Manish Bhatia, Steve Case, Patrick Collison, Aidan Gomez, Derrick Johnson, Amanda Ballantyne, Satya Nadella, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman Organizations: Capitol, Senate, China, Life, Life Institute, Tesla, Space X, Micron, NAACP, AFL, Technology, Microsoft, Google, CNBC, YouTube Locations: coders, India

casey newton[CHUCKLES]:: And it would be so funny if the AI actually already was deceptive and was just like, oh, yeah, Kevin, you’ve already figured us out. But I also think it’s part of this sort of undercurrent of the conversation, especially around AI right now. Marc Andreessen — he is clearly so angry at all of the people who criticize technology, technology companies, tech investors. And he is just really, really going after that crowd with this piece. brent sealesYou know I don’t really know.

Persons: kevin roose Casey, casey newton What’s, kevin roose, casey newton, hasn’t, kevin roose I’m, I’m, KEVIN, casey newton Yes, Kevin Roose, ” casey newton, Casey Newton, Marc Andreessen, Casey, we’ve, kevin roose Totally, Claude chatbot, Claude, Anthropic’s, chatbot, Anthropic hadn’t, Anthropic, Kevin, — they’re, roose, Meta, it’s, I’ve, Bard, casey newton It’s, there’s, you’ve, casey newton Yeah, didn’t, Kevin — I’m, it’ll, Kevin —, Andreessen Horowitz, Uncle Marc, ”, “ you’re, Tucker Carlson, Jesus Christ, casey newton Well, kevin roose Oh, he’s, McCarthy, —, Nick Land, casey newton Totally, You’re, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, It’s, Marc Andreessen —, they’re, Nietzschean supermen, Nietzschean, Marc, casey newton Heck, Andreessen, Marc Andreessen decries, Marc Andreessen’s, CASEY, kevin roose That’s, you’re, Nat Friedman, who’s, Daniel Gross, John, Patrick Collison, Toby Lutke, Shopify, Aaron Levie, Brent Seales, — casey newton, There’s, Luke Farritor, ” brent seales, brent seales, that’s, Seales, haters, brent seales That’s, you’ll, casey newton Yep, brent seales —, brent seales We’d, brent seales They’re, They’re, Luke, Brent, brent seales Pliny, Elder, Jesus, brent seales What’s, casey newton Right, we’re Organizations: YouTube, The New York Times, Facebook, Google, Intelligence, America, AIs, Stanford, Communist, Netscape, Fox News, Communist Party, Technology, Venture, Twitter, acc, kevin roose Venture, Companies, Meta, University of Kentucky, British Locations: ”, Anthropic, China, Florida, California, United States, Europe, Romanian, interpretability, Valley, America, Silicon, Silicon Valley, Vesuvius, Rome, Greece, Herculaneum, Venice, Roman

☆ Stripe: 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Stripe put its technology at the center of the growing internet economy, helping the fintech become one of the highest-valued private companies in the world. The San Francisco-based company, which provides payment software for e-commerce businesses, has followed its mission of "increasing the GDP of the Internet" since its founding in 2010 by brothers John and Patrick Collison. The growth of e-commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic helped turbocharge the company's revenue, as well as the revenue of the hundreds of companies that handle their payments with Stripe, including Instacart, DoorDash, Shopify and Lyft. In January, Stripe expanded its long-time partnership with the biggest e-commerce seller of all, Amazon , and it now processes a significant portion of Amazon's total payments volume across its businesses in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, from Prime to Audible, Kindle, and Amazon Pay.

Stripe, the fintech company once valued at $95 billion by private market investors, will make a decision on its plans to go public within the next year, CNBC has confirmed. Co-founders and brothers John and Patrick Collison told employees on Thursday that they will set a goal of taking the company public or letting staffers sell shares through a secondary offering, The Information first reported. The tech IPO market has been frozen since late 2021 after two record-breaking years during the Covid pandemic. In July, Stripe cut its internal valuation by 28%, from $95 billion to $74 billion. Stripe is considering a direct listing or private market transaction and has hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to advise on the deal, CNBC has learned.

It came after Amazon said in November it was looking to cut staff, including in its devices and recruiting organizations. The company had 2,450 employees, according to PitchBook data, suggesting around 490 employees were laid off. In a letter to employees, CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer pointed to "a probable recession sometime in the next year" and rising ride-share insurance costs. Shopify: 1,000 jobs cutIn July, Shopify announced it laid off 1,000 employees, which equals 10% of its global workforce. Tesla: 6,000 jobs cut

☆ A CEO's apology is a make-or-break moment. Here's how to do it right.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

When a CEO or company messes up and trust is broken, the apology must be done right. Trust is the everyday currency of business, PwC's Wes Bricker says. CEOs must be aware that the way they apologize is just as important as the words "I'm sorry." In recent years, a corporation's or CEO's apology has taken on greater significance because customers and employees are often quick to demand that leaders take ownership and show transparency around their actions. Sucher said CEOs were receptive to a framework on how to apologize because "everyone messes up at times."

☆ The year that brought high-flying Silicon Valley back down to earth
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The tech industry, already dominant, only seemed destined to grow even bigger at the start of this year. The spread of the Omicron variant suggested a continued pandemic-fueled demand for digital goods and services, which had buoyed many tech companies. The result was a bloodbath unlike anything the tech industry has seen in the past decade. For years, Silicon Valley has held up its founders as visionaries who can see far into the future. “I do not think venture is cratering, or the tech industry is cratering as an industry.”But for now, at least, there appears to be no end in sight to the pain for Silicon Valley and those who work in it.

☆ Meet the VC firms that want to help immigrants found their own startups so they keep their talents in the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Immigrants play a vital role in the US tech industry, and many have founded successful companies. These VC firms and startup incubators can help immigrants on work visas found companies. But that opportunity simply isn't available to a certain key class of tech worker: The immigrants who are in the US on work visas like the H-1B. H-1B visas are sponsored by the holder's employer, meaning that if they lose their job — either voluntarily or as part of a layoff — they generally have to return to their home country within 60 days. Insider spoke with four firms that focus on investing in immigrant founders, which represent a mix of VC firms and startup incubators, about how to pitch them and which types of resources they could provide.

☆ Why corporate leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Evan Spiegel are all apologizing for the massive layoffs at their companies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Since the pandemic, the largest tech layoffs have been at Meta, Getir, Booking.com, Twitter, Uber, Better.com., Peloton, and Groupon, Layoffs.fyi data show. Now companies in tech are reversing some of the huge hiring that they did in the past couple of years, Lee said. Mark Zuckerberg, MetaFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks about "News Tab" at the Paley Center, in New York on October 25, 2019. In the memo he wrote: "Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. Jack Dorsey, ex-CEO TwitterTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington, DC, in 2018.

☆ Analysis: Silicon Valley's greatest minds misread pandemic demand. Now their employees are paying for it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN Business —In the early months of the pandemic, Facebook only grew bigger and more central to our lives. On Wednesday, however, Zuckerberg reversed course and laid off more than 11,000 employees, marking the most significant cuts in the company’s history. In a memo to staff, Zuckerberg coughed up some of the hardest words in the English language. The Federal Reserve maintained near-zero interest rates at the time, giving tech companies easier access to capital. And private and public market valuations for tech companies only seemed to go higher.

☆ Stripe and Meta's layoff memos are a lesson in accountability and empathy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Rachel Durose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Stripe's and Meta's memos are excellent examples of how leaders can handle layoff announcements. Similarly, on November 9, Meta cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a public, company-wide message about the impending lay-off of 11,000 employees. Why these memos are resonating with workersIn one case, employees at the human-resource platform Compt discussed Stripe's memo in their company Slack. Stripe's memo praises the laid-off workers, stating that they would make "fantastic additions at almost any other company." "This was handled, in my opinion, the best way possible," Amy Spurling, the CEO and founder of Compt, said of Stripe's memo.

☆ Here's a rundown of tech companies that have announced layoffs in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Sofia Pitt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Days after Twitter's new boss Elon Musk slashed half his company's workforce, Facebook parent Meta announced its most significant round of layoffs ever. Last month, Meta announced a second straight quarter of declining revenue and forecast another drop in the fourth quarter. The tech industry broadly has seen a string of layoffs in 2022 in the face of uncertain economic conditions. Lyft: around 700 jobs cutLyft announced last week that it cut 13% of its staff, or about 700 jobs. In a letter to employees, CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer pointed to "a probable recession sometime in the next year" and rising rideshare insurance costs.

☆ What the wave of tech layoffs tell us about the economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

What’s happening: Tech companies are announcing an alarming number of layoffs and hiring freezes. ▸ Lyft (LYFT) said last Thursday that it will lay off 13% of its employees, or nearly 700 people, as it rethinks staffing amid rising inflation and fears of a looming recession. But other companies won’t be immune to the softening demand from consumers and businesses that tech companies have noted. It doesn’t help that the uncertainty around the platform comes at a bad time for ad revenue-dependent tech companies. More potential supply chain woesThe threat of a US rail strike that could disrupt supply chains is still very real.

☆ The Stripe founders' memo explaining its layoff plan to employees is a remarkably candid look at why so much of tech is in freefall
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Its memo to employees highlights the economic headwinds other tech companies are facing. From Meta to Shopify, tech companies are navigating an uncertain future. It over-hired during the pandemic"We over-hired for the world we're in," the founders wrote. It failed to keep other costs in checkThe founders' wrote: "We grew operating costs too quickly. The open question facing Stripe and other tech companies is what that recalibration looks like, beyond simply cutting costs.

☆ A memo from Stripe's cofounders announcing sweeping job cuts is a lesson for companies everywhere on how to conduct layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Rachel Durose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Cofounders Patrick and John Collison break down what led to the decision and apologize to workers. Still, Patrick and John Collison, the cofounders of Stripe, laid off 14% of the payment company's workforce in one of the best ways possible. On the same day the Collisons shared their message with employees, Twitter sent an unsigned memo to its workers announcing sweeping layoffs and office closures. Why the memo is resonating with workersIn one case, employees at the human-resource platform Compt discussed Stripe's memo in their company Slack. Patrick Collison serves as CEO, while John Collison is president.

☆ Stripe to Cut 14% of Jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Peter Rudegeair | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said the company ‘overhired for the world we’re in.’Stripe Inc., one of the world’s most highly-valued startups, said Thursday it is laying off about 14% of its employees and blamed the harsh economic climate. Stripe, a payment processor to fast-growing Internet companies like Shopify Inc. and Instacart, was a big beneficiary of the pandemic-driven surge in e-commerce in 2020 and 2021.

Lyft confirmed its plans Thursday to lay off 13% of its workforce, equivalent to about 700 employees, as the broader downturn in once high-flying tech companies persists. An emerging trendStill, Lyft's announcement adds to the broader trend of hiring freezes and job cuts across the tech industry. Amazon announced Thursday it will pause hiring within its corporate workforce, citing the increasingly "uncertain" economy and the company's spate of new hires in recent years. The payments company Stripe announced Thursday it was cutting 14% of its workforce, equivalent to approximately 1,100 workers. The tech sector had come through a significant portion of the pandemic seeing roaring growth.

☆ Stripe plans to lay off 14% of workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Online payments giant Stripe plans to lay off roughly 14% of its staff, CEO Patrick Collison wrote in a memo to staff Thursday. Here's Collison's full memo:Earlier today, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison sent the following note to Stripe employees. We will pay 14 weeks of severance for all departing employees, and more for those with longer tenure. We'll accelerate everyone who has already reached their one-year vesting cliff to the February 2023 vesting date (or longer, depending on departure date). We'll cover career support, and do our best to connect departing employees with other companies.

☆ Lyft to lay off 13% of staff
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN Business —Lyft on Thursday said it will lay off 13% of its staff, or nearly 700 employees, as it rethinks staffing amid rising inflation and fears of a looming recession. In a memo to staffers on Thursday, a copy of which was shared with CNN Business, Lyft (LYFT) co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer said the layoffs will impact every part of the company, and pointed to broader macroeconomic challenges that led to the cuts. But a number of tech companies reported slowing growth in the September quarter, as customers and advertisers rethink spending. “We are not immune to the realities of inflation and a slowing economy,” Lyft’s founders wrote in the memo to staffers. Shares for Lyft are down nearly 70% so far this year.

☆ I made $200,000 last year ghostwriting tweets for superstar VCs. It takes me 5 hours a week. Here's how I found my clients and built a booming side hustle from scratch.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Ghostwriting tweets for venture capitalists is my side hustle. So I have a special CRM I use just for ghostwriting work, as well as a dedicated laptop, a dedicated phone, and a separate email address. VCs would deploy $10 million or $15 million a year into companies trying to raise $1 million or $2 million. My life as a ghostAs a ghostwriter, I never log in to a client's Twitter account. It's important to me that I do all of the ghostwriting work myself, as a side hustle.

Search resuls for: "Patrick Collison"

23 mentions found