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☆ An invite-only audio app has Silicon Valley and creators buzzing. But can it last?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Somewhere between Clubhouse and X (formerly Twitter), Airchat's feed of audio snippets transcribed by the app has sparked conversation. Already, the invite-only app has a channel dedicated to the creator economy titled "Creators" — including industry figures like Eric Wei (CEO of Karat), Lia Haberman (influencer marketing expert), and Brett Dashevsky (host of Creator Economy NYC events). Dashevsky, a self-described "avid Twitter user," said that Airchat is already displacing his average Twitter screen time. It wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone in tech or social media to see Meta double down on Threads' audio tools. But she added that she could see Meta brainstorming ways to promote Threads' audio tools, which could become a concern for Airchat.

Persons: Naval Ravikant, Brian Norgard, Airchat, Washington Post's Taylor Lorenz, George Santos, Eric Wei, Lia Haberman, Brett Dashevsky, Haberman, it's, Diana, Umana, Meghana Dhar, Meta, Dashevsky, I've Organizations: Naval, CPO, Business, Tech, Republican, Apple, Big Tech Locations: VCs, Washington

☆ This is the wildest coup in Silicon Valley history
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Michael Cogley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The wildest coup in Silicon Valley's history just took place over the last 48 hours. OpenAI booted CEO Sam Altman, nearly hired him back, then went with 2 other CEOs. Sam Altman has now been scooped up as an employee by Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest investor. Sam Altman had met with world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in London earlier in the month. But Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has not let a good crisis go to waste.

Persons: OpenAI, Sam Altman, Altman, —, Mira Murati, Emmett Shear, Greg Brockman, — Aaron Levie, ❤️ emojis, AngelList, Babak Nivi, OpenAI's, Rishi Sunak, Kamala Harris, Ursula von der Leyen, Alastair Grant, Ilya Sutskever, Adam D'Angelo, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, Mary, Gary Marcus, Sam, 👉, Gary, Satya Nad Organizations: Microsoft, Service, British, AI, Georgetown's Center for Security, Emerging Technology, usl Locations: London

☆ A tech investor was fired after making offensive remarks on the Israel-Hamas conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Shona Ghosh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Investor Kenneth Ballenegger was suspended from his firm Oyster Ventures after offensive posts on X.Ballenegger wrote on X that Israel should sterilize Gaza's population, among other remarks. AdvertisementAdvertisementVenture capitalist Kenneth Ballenegger has been suspended from the US investment firm he cofounded, Oyster Ventures, after making offensive remarks on X on the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to screenshots shared with Insider, Ballenegger wrote on Sunday: "After the war, Israel should handle Gaza like China handles Xinjiang. "Any employee's personal or political opinion does not reflect the values of Oyster Ventures or myself. The blowback over Ballenegger's comments also reflect ongoing tensions in the tech world.

Persons: Kenneth Ballenegger, Ballenegger, sterilize, —, Yashar Ali, Ballenegger's, Sophie Liao, Liao, I've, Bolt, Dealroom, Crypto, Paddy Cosgrave Organizations: Oyster Ventures, Service, Ventures, Summit Locations: Israel, Gaza, China, Xinjiang, San Francisco, Asia, Pitchbook

☆ Carbon accounting company Optera just raised a $12 million Series A with this redacted 7-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Carbon accounting startup Optera just a raised $12 million Series A round. We got a look at the 7-slide pitch deck the company used to raise the cash. US carbon accounting company Optera has raised $12 million in Series A funding. The Colorado-based firm, founded in 2006 as a boutique consultancy, helps big companies measure, track, and report their emissions. The round was led by existing investor Next Frontier Capital, with participation from Blackhorn Ventures, Mucker Capital, Overture, Engage, Massive, SaaS Ventures, Valo Ventures, AngelList, and Stout Street Capital.

Persons: Optera, Tim Weiss, Weiss, headcount Organizations: Frontier, Dell, Sonoma, Blackhorn Ventures, Mucker, SaaS Ventures, Valo Ventures, AngelList, Stout Locations: Europe, Asia, Colorado, verticals, Grove, Williams, North America

☆ I landed a job at Google right out of college. Here are 10 things I wish I knew before starting my career.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Charlene Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Charlene Lee is a former product manager at Google who wishes she had a guide prior to starting her first job. Today, I'd like to share some of the lessons I wish I had learned before starting my career, lessons that I now teach my team. It's your job to find a good managerOne of my best managers, Paul, spent a lot of time with me early in my career. Things changed when the next box, like writing a book, started conflicting with things that weren't on the list. The start of your career is the beginning of your journey, and I hope that this guide helps you with yours.

Persons: Charlene Lee, she's, Lee, Google's, I'd, would've, Paul, wasn't, I've, didn't, Paul didn't, It's, Jon, Jon wasn't, wouldn't, —, hadn't, Carissa wasn't, Marty, Dan Gilbert, Inbal, Ralph Waldo Emerson Organizations: Google, Jon's, AngelList, Duke University Locations: Asia, New York, China, Singapore, Shanghai, —

☆ Investors shut out of traditional funding rounds are scouring secondary markets to snap up shares in buzzy AI startups like Dataminr, Hugging Face, and Anthropic
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Leena Rao | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As the AI craze continues, investors are eager to buy shares of these startups on secondary markets. AI startup shares have been the top in demand sector every month this year, according to EquityZen. It seems that every week there's a new hot AI startup that's raising a big round. ForgeGlobal, a marketplace for secondary transactions of startup shares, is seeing similar excitement from investors in AI startups. Sequoia, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz and many others have been aggressively investing in AI startups.

Persons: Phil Haslett, Haslett, Avlok Kohli, Howe Ng, Ng, Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, Javier Avelos, OpenAI, Anthropic, Avelos Organizations: sixfold, SamBaNova Systems, Microsoft, Google Locations: secondaries, Sequoia, Caplight

☆ Microsoft M12 boss departs tech giant's VC arm to help turn London-based investor Systemiq Capital into the Sequoia of climate tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A founding partner at Microsoft's VC arm M12 has left to take up a GP role at a climate tech investor. Goldstein has joined Systemiq Capital and plans to turn it into the Sequoia of climate tech. One of the founding partners of Microsoft's venture arm M12 has left the company to join London-based investor Systemiq Capital, which he wants to help turn into the Sequoia of climate tech. Systemiq Capital, meanwhile, was spun out of advisory firm Systemiq in 2022 to allow it to thrive on its own, Goldstein said. The climate tech investor expects to reach final close on its second fund, worth $200 million, towards the end of 2023.

☆ I used ChatGPT to build a simple Chrome extension in 10 hours. Here's how I sold it for thousands on Acquire and what I learned about my fastest launch-to-exit ever.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Ihor Stefurak | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

He used ChatGPT to build a Chrome extension and sold it for thousands on Acquire. While it took 10 hours to build, Stefurak recommends using ChatGPT to help with certain projects. We crafted a Chrome extension and received $1,000 worth of pre-orders within 24 hours. I recommend using the AI chatbot if you're starting a simple project with JavaScript or Python. These models help enhance self-understanding and ultimately lead to better decisions and big overall improvements.

☆ Emerging venture fund managers had few banking options to begin with. After Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, where do they turn now?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Melia Russell | Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Silicon Valley Bank had long banked a class of startup investors known as emerging managers. He was able to quickly switch from Silicon Valley Bank with an email to his contact at AngelList. Novak is part of a contingent of investors who are shifting their banking strategy in the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank's failure. After Silicon Valley Bank's demise, the big banks have gotten more selective, the three investors said. The big banks like JPMorgan set account minimums for its private banking group, locking out emerging fund managers.

☆ From Facebook to Google to Amazon, these are the 40 tech companies most exposed as startups shut down and slash spending on cloud services
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

It's creating risk for tech giants like Meta and Google that provide startups with business servicesHere are the 40 tech companies that are the largest vendors to startups. Cost cutting can mean pulling back on services like cloud expenses and tech giants are among the most prolific providers of this software. Specifically, the money spent on cloud services from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google amounts to one of the most costly items on startup's budget. Tech giants Google and Meta dominate in the advertising category, while TikTok continues to gain popularity, the study found. Check out the 40 tech companies that are the biggest vendors among startups.

☆ A top money coach explains how women can feel more confident when doing business and salary negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Lawrence, the former head money coach at investment startup Ellevest, shared her negotiation tips. That translates to 11 fewer years of compensation growth and wealth building, despite women having longer life expectancies on average. Research the company you're applying toA preliminary step in any negotiation is arming yourself with information, Lawrence said. Job candidates should use websites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor get a sense of the base salary for the job they're applying to. For people in the startup world or at a company that is publicly traded, equity compensation is more common.

☆ Venture capitalists in New York City are ditching Patagonia vests for statement jackets and designer sneakers. Here's how 7 VCs are making personal style part of the job.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

New York's venture capital scene is rapidly growing as more West Coast firms move in. Several of New York's venture capitalists said they draw their style from the city's vibrant arts scene. But now, some venture capitalists don't necessarily see the merit in dressing like one another. Whether it's a leather skirt, a pair of sneakers, or a fleece vest, most venture capitalists told Insider that their work style boils down to one thing: personal power. Here are seven venture capitalists who take their style as seriously as their investments.

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, during a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022. Serious red flags around Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX emerged before the now-embattled cryptocurrency exchange even launched, according to an early would-be investor. Alex Pack, now the managing partner of New York-based venture capital firm Hack VC, said he met Bankman-Fried in 2018. Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO of FTX last Friday as the crypto company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In 2018, Bankman-Fried was a relatively unknown founder seeking a deal in the emerging crypto market.

☆ The 3 biggest mistakes job seekers make after a layoff, from someone who's been let go twice
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Layoff numbers remain historically low in the labor market, but shocks to tech and finance jobs have been ratcheting up throughout the year. He's consistently noticed that sudden job seekers tend to make three big mistakes as they hit the market. But, another big mistake to avoid is asking for help but not being clear about what you're looking for in your next job or company, Ko says. That could mean putting out a call saying you can do anything, as mentioned above, or it can be staying vague about what title or level of work you're seeking. "Telling me you're looking for any job in operations or marketing doesn't help me."

☆ Sharing your layoff on LinkedIn isn't an 'act of shame' anymore—and it could be a smart career move
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

"Years ago, it was like an act of shame" to publicly announce you'd been laid off, Ko, 37, says. Ko remembers going through several stages of grief during his "very painful" layoff experiences: shock, denial, depression, shame and anger. Highlight your wins and what you're looking forAs for what to say in your post, be clear about your best qualities and what you're looking for next. "People can't give you what you're looking for if you don't know what you're looking for." Cascella was also explicit in the job title she's looking for and what about the job excites her most.

☆ Silicon Valley's not-so-secret thing for turning everyone into millionaires is angel investing. Here's how they do it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Once only for the superrich, angel investing is now open to anyone with a few thousand dollars. With an estimated 360,000 active angel investors, it's become a favorite pastime in Silicon Valley. "It felt like gambling," David Spreng, a veteran venture-debt investor who's been angel investing as a side hustle for more than a decade, said. He wrote his first angel check shortly thereafter, a $1,000 investment in an electric-aircraft maker. The currency of Silicon Valley"Your currency, for lack of a better term, in Silicon Valley is you either started a company or you angel invest, right?"

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