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☆ How one rising Miami VC raised more money for his first fund. Other emerging investors haven't been so lucky.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Evans is the founder of Exceptional Capital, which launched in 2022 among the many emerging VC firms that sprouted during the fundraising boom years. Before pursuing a life in venture capital and tech, Evans hoped to make it to the NFL as a linebacker at the University of Michigan. And then in 2022, Evans decided to launch Exceptional Capital and invest as a solo VC. Exceptional CapitalBecause he's been able to increase the size of his fund, Evans has been able to expand his team. "I could see that for Marell as well, just his work with Exceptional Capital and kind of his determination there."

Persons: —, Marell Evans, Evans, he's, Dave Brandon, Brandon, Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz, Horowitz, A16z, Okta, Owen Van Natta, Hustling, Melissa Morano Aurigemma, Graham Stoddard, Andrew Van Nest, I've, Cody Coleman, Coleman, what's Organizations: Service, Exceptional, Business, NFL, University of Michigan, NCAA, IBM, Facebook, Vision, SV Angel, A16z, Exceptional Capital Locations: Miami, Michigan, San Francisco, Okta, Silicon Valley, SoftBank, —, Bessemer

Behind most startup founders is an early-stage investor who saw their potential, nurtured their ambition, and backed their ideas. The end of a record bull run in tech rebooted the startup landscape, and now early-stage investors are embracing the change. Founders have gone back to basics, staying lean and mean from the start and harnessing tailwinds of the artificial intelligence boom. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.

Organizations: Business

Early-stage investing is a delicate dance. It demands an understanding of markets, a knack for recognizing potential, and sheer tenacity to weather the cyclical storms of the startup world. Now in its fourth year, our Seed 40 list illuminates the women who have mastered this craft. They are on the front lines, locking arms with visionary founders to transform ideas into full-fledged businesses, often putting money and support behind those builders before others see the opportunity. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Organizations: Business

Steve Bowsher, In-Q-TelSteve Bowsher, president and CEO of In-Q-Tel. He made an early bet on Palantir, blowing the doors open for Silicon Valley techies to go after federal contracts. The son of a federal employee who grew up devouring spy novels, Bowsher has always been interested in the work of the government but actually cut his teeth in Silicon Valley. After graduating from Stanford, he worked for three startups and spent eight years at venture fund InterWest Partners. By combining Silicon Valley's swashbuckling ethos with a government agency's mission-driven mentality, Bowsher has helped shepherd some of the biggest defense tech success stories of the past two decades.

Persons: Steve Bowsher, Bowsher Organizations: Magazine, Stanford, InterWest Partners Locations: Menlo Park , California, Silicon Valley

Reddit went public on Thursday after raising $748 million in its IPO. CEO Steve Huffman and Sam Altman and his network of investment firms are some who profited the most. Reddit is the most recent tech company to debut in the public markets as Wall Street watches to gauge the dormant IPO market. The company, founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, had been rumored to go public over the past several years. However, the market has been shaky for the past two years, causing several companies to put off pursuing IPOs because of less-than-desirable macro conditions.

Persons: Reddit, Steve Huffman, Sam Altman, Alexis Ohanian Organizations: Business

☆ AI-powered devices could drastically change how we interact with technology. But will they catch on?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"The key isn't hardware but the user experience it enables," Khosla, whose firm Khosla Ventures, is an investor in Rabbit, told Business Insider in an email. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. At the same time, I don't think the average consumer wants to carry around multiple devices," S. Somasegar, a managing director at Madrona, told Business Insider. That's where we're at," he told Business Insider. Ginsberg said he's excited about the Humnane Pin because AI voice assistants have finally become powerful enough to be useful for average consumers.

Persons: Vinod Khosla, Khosla, Navin Chaddha, Ai, Somasegar, Bernstein, Nielsen, Zachary Ginsburg, Ginsberg, Marc Benioff, Sam Altman, Lachy Groom, Avi Schiffmann, it's, Chaddha Organizations: Khosla Ventures, Software, Business, Mayfield, Microsoft, Calm Ventures, Bond Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Harvard Locations: Humane's

☆ Big-name investors are betting AI gadgets could change the way we interact with tech
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. What's on deck:This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. The big storyAI (literally) in your pocketTech workers are criticizing Humane's hotly anticipated Ai pin. AdvertisementIn fact, heavy hitters like legendary investor Vinod Khosla believe that AI devices will completely change how we interact with technology. Humane's Ai Pin, which can project text onto users' hands and translate voice messages, didn't get a warm welcome when it launched late last year .

Persons: —, Oompa, I've, Willy Wonka, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Humane's, Vinod Khosla, Samantha Stokes, Vishal Persaud, Khosla, Ai, didn't, Tim Cook, Salesforce's Marc Benioff, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Franck Robichon, Paul Krugman, shouldn't, we're, Wells, Bank of America's Merrill, Bitcoin, Tyler Le, maven, Alexei Navalny's, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Jordan Parker Erb, George Glover Organizations: Service, Business, Humane, Khosla Ventures, Rabbit, Bank of America's, Wall, The New York Times, WW, SEC Locations: Franck, Wells Fargo, New York, London

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck former VMWare executives used to land $25 million for their 'mobile cloud' startup
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Highway 9 Networks, a cloud computing startup, has secured $25 million in round led by Mayfield. The startup offers a mobile cloud product that allows companies to deploy a private mobile network. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementThree years ago, Allwyn Sequeira and his Highway 9 Networks cofounders set out to embark on what the startup calls the mobile cloud. The startup is now coming out of stealth with a $25 million round led by Mayfield, with General Catalyst and Detroit Ventures contributing to the funding.

Persons: Mayfield, —, Allwyn Sequeira, Debashis Basak, Serge Maskalik, Sachin Thakkar Organizations: Service, VMWare, Networks, Mayfield, Catalyst, Detroit Ventures, Business

☆ 58 Black investors changing the venture capital industry with firms that fund diverse startup founders
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Daniel Acheampong and Yasmin Cruz Ferrine, Visible HandsVisible Hands cofounders and general partners Daniel Acheampong and Yasmin Curz Ferrine. Visible HandsNotable investments: Parfait, Athlytic, Dollaride, Hearth Display, Noula, WriteSea, Plot, TANGappWhat kinds of companies he invests in: Pre-seed and seed-stage companies across industries. Why he's on the list: Acheampong and Ferrine cofounded Visible Hands in May 2020 along with Justin Kang to address the ongoing systemic barriers to funding, social capital, and resources plaguing underrepresented founders. At Visible Hands, Acheampong oversees investment processes as a general partner and Ferrine's responsibilities include compliance, capital raising, and investment functions of the firm. Acheampong utilizes his years of experience as an associate at the private equity firm Summit Partners and an analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Persons: Daniel Acheampong, Yasmin Cruz Ferrine, Yasmin Curz Ferrine, Ferrine, Justin Kang, Acheampong, Goldman Sachs, He's, John Hancock, Deval Patrick's, She's Organizations: Summit Partners, Massachusetts Institute, Technology's, Tsai Center, Yale University, Brown Advisory, Investment, Kauffman Locations: Boston

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The government of Venezuela accused neighboring Guayana Sunday of granting illegal oil exploration concessions in territory the two nations are disputing. The comments Sunday came after Guyana said Saturday that it has satellite imagery showing Venezuelan military movements near the South American country’s eastern border with Guyana. Venezuela has been laying claim to the mineral-rich Essequibo region, which covers about two thirds of Guyana’s surface area. But for more than 60 years Venezuela has accused the commission of cheating it out of the Essequibo region. Several top American administration and military officials have visited Guyana in recent weeks as a show of support.

Persons: Guayana, Vincent, Robert Persaud, Irfaan Ali, Nicolás Maduro Organizations: ”, ExxonMobil, Argyle, US Center for Strategic, International Studies, Venezuelan Locations: CARACAS, Venezuela, Guyana, Essequibo, Caribbean, St, Brazil, Punta Barima, Netherlands, U.S

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — ExxonMobil said it plans to explore for oil and gas in a disputed area off South America’s coast where the Venezuelan military had previously expelled two U.S. oil companies. The president of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, told reporters that the concessions were granted by Guyana and that the company is committed to its operations despite the country’s ongoing tensions with Venezuela. In 2019, ExxonMobil was forced to abandon exploration activities after a Venezuelan military helicopter tried to land on a seismic vessel. The latest push by ExxonMobil comes as Guyana and Venezuela prepare to meet for a second time to try and diffuse the dispute over the Essequibo region. Essequibo is a mineral-rich territory that accounts for two-thirds of Guyana and lies near big offshore oil deposits.

Persons: Robert Persaud, Alistair Routledge, ” Organizations: ExxonMobil, Venezuelan, Associated Press Locations: GEORGETOWN, Guyana, America’s, Venezuela, Essequibo, ExxonMobil Guyana, Venezuelan, Texas, U.S

AbridgeAbridge CEO Dr. Shiv Rao. AbridgeHQ: PittsburghTotal raised: $62.5 millionWhat it does: The medical scribe startup uses large language models to document patient-doctor interactions in electronic medical records. What makes it promising: Easing administrative burdens for providers is top of mind for investors as growing burnout drives more clinicians out of the healthcare field. Abridge is using AI to tackle one of the most time-consuming, burnout-inducing processes in healthcare — clinical documentation.

Persons: Abridge, Shiv Rao Organizations: Abridge, Pittsburgh

☆ Marcelo Claure and Paul Judge bought SoftBank's diversity fund. Now they're trying to raise $200 million for it.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewFormer SoftBank executive Marcelo Claure and serial entrepreneur and investor Paul Judge are in the throes of raising a new $200 million fund. The past year has been transitional for the fund since Claure and Judge bought the $100 million fund from SoftBank. Since then, there haven't been any new investments, but the two are poised to capitalize on the success of the first fund and are raising the second Open Opportunity Fund. He said that limited partners' interest has been positive overall since the Open Opportunity Fund's first fund has had so much success. AdvertisementJudge said that he expects the first Open Opportunity Fund to continue to deliver "top quartile" returns to its investors over the next five to seven years.

Persons: —, Marcelo Claure, Paul Judge, It's, Claure, haven't, SoftBank —, I've, Judge, George Floyd's, Masayoshi, Shu Nyatta, Stacy Brown, what's Organizations: Service, Business, Opportunity Fund, Opportunity, Fund, Mastercard, Vista Equity Partners, Ventures, Sprint, Bicycle Capital, TechCrunch Locations: SoftBank, Atlanta, America

☆ 'Powerful' storm dumps heavy rain over East Coast with 59M under flood alerts
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-18 | by ( Angela Yang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The East Coast is reeling from the impacts with almost 700,000 people across New England and New York without power as of 1 p.m., according to PowerOutage.us . "The associated heavy rain will create mainly localized areas of flash flooding, with urban areas, roads and small streams the most vulnerable," the weather service said. In New York City, a travel advisory is in effect due to flooding conditions on roads, power outages and high winds on bridges. In New York City, a travel advisory is in effect because of flooding conditions on roads, power outages and high winds on bridges. By the end of today, every single state on the East Coast will have experienced at least 2 inches of rain.

Persons: There's, Eric Adams, Sean Smith, Warden Stefan Pratt, Yasmeen Persaud Organizations: Charleston, Big Apple, NYC Emergency Management, New, New York City Emergency Management Office, Danbury Emergency Management Office, Boston's Massachusetts College of Art, Amtrak, Central Maine Power, Hillsdale Fire Department, NBC News, LaGuardia, Boston Logan International Airport, Boston Logan International Locations: Elmsford , New York, New England, New York, Florida, Carolinas, Charleston, Gainesville , Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, Maine, New York City, Manhattan, In Connecticut, Danbury, Providence , Rhode Island, Boston, New Jersey, Hillsdale , New Jersey, Glendale, Moretown , Vermont, Brookhaven Calabro, Shirley , New York, Canada, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Indiana, Lake Erie, Ohio, West, Sierra Nevada

COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber speaks during the Transforming Food Systems in the Face of Climate Change event on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit at Dubai Expo on December 1, 2023. "We delivered world first after world first," the UAE summit presidency said in a further social media update. And we have language on fossil fuels in our final agreement." Many believed the COP28 summit could only be considered a success if it resulted in a deal to phase out all fossil fuels. COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber sparked a backlash earlier this month after he claimed there is "no science" behind calls for a phase-out of fossil fuels.

Persons: Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Ludovic Marin, Licypriya Kangujam, Sean Gallup, Wopke Hoekstra, Alok Sharma, Sharma, CNBC's, Simon Stiell, We're, John Kerry, Selma de Montgomery, Avinash Persaud, Mikhail Gitarskiy, Sultan al, Jaber, he'd, Al Organizations: Food Systems, Dubai Expo, Afp, Getty Images, UAE Consensus, UAE, United Arab Emirates, Getty, Russian, BBC, Abu, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co Locations: Dubai, UAE, United Arab, United Arab Emirates, Pacific, Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, Asia, North America, Paris, United States, China, Denmark, Barbados, Moscow, Abu Dhabi

☆ Venezuelans approve takeover of oil-rich region of Guyana in referendum
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( David Shortell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Venezuelans voted by a wide margin Sunday to approve the takeover of an oil-rich region in neighboring Guyana – the latest escalation in a long-running territorial dispute between the two countries, fueled by the recent discovery of vast offshore energy resources. The area in question, the densely forested Essequibo region, amounts to about two-thirds of Guyana’s national territory and is roughly the size of Florida. Venezuela has long claimed the land, which it argues was within its borders during the Spanish colonial period. It dismisses an 1899 ruling by international arbitrators that set the current boundaries when Guyana was still a British colony, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has cast the referendum in anti-imperialist sentiment on social media. Still, the escalating rhetoric has prompted troop movements in the region and saber-rattling in both countries, drawing comparisons from Guyanese leaders to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Persons: Nicolas Maduro, Irfaan Ali, Robert Persaud, Maria Corina Machado, Maduro, ”, Phil Gunson Organizations: CNN, Guyana –, Venezuelan, Electoral Council, Guyanese, Court of Justice, International Crisis Locations: Guyana, Essequibo, Florida, Venezuelan, Venezuela, British, The Hague, Ukraine, Guyanese, Caracas

☆ A formfitting blazer and Chelsea boots, or jeans and high-top sneakers? Here's how the 2023 rising stars of VC put together their 'power outfits.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | Ben Bergman | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Many of this year's VC rising stars told Business Insider that their go-to power outfits included apparel like tailored sport coats or Chelsea boots, and more casual pieces like hoodies and well-fitting jeans. Very few investors are wearing collared shirts with their jackets, opting instead to pair it with a t- shirt and jeans. Nmachi Jidemna told Business Insider that for her everyday wear, her go-to was "usually a structured blazer with a relaxed pair of jeans." Lori Harvey (left) and Heidi Klum (right) wearing red outfits. Black flowy trousers, black turtleneck, and chunky black boots."

Persons: that's, Laura Bock, Nmachi Jidemna, Javier Grevely, Ralph Lauren, Tobi Coker, Janelle Teng, Patron's Amber Atherton, Jason Yeh, Ashley Paston, Justin Williams, VCs, Mahati Sridhar, Grady Dick, Michelle Farsi, Pear, Vivien Ho, Lori Harvey, Heidi Klum, Valentina Frugiuele, Bauer, Griffin, Luci Fonseca, RTFKT, Brandon Hoffman, JL, Sarah Wu, Emerson, Fiona Huang, Demi Obayomi, Natalie Borowski, Daisy Wolf, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: Business, Wellington Management, Converse, Seae Ventures, Getty, GV, Nike, Sunset Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures Locations: London, Chelsea

☆ From bouldering to silent meditation retreats: Here's how this year's rising stars of VC are keeping their wellness on track while hunting down deals
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Madeline Renbarger | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

And these rising stars of the VC world are at the forefront of the trend, with many adopting various wellness routines. Business Insider asked this year's rising stars to name their best wellness hack that keeps them at the top of their game. Find ways to get movingMany rising stars in VC have a relationship with exercise that goes beyond an obligatory hour at the gym or a forced jog around the block. "It's amazing how taking just 10 minutes out of my day helps set the pace and structure for the rest of the day so well," she told Business Insider. she told Business Insider.

Persons: Base10, Justin Williams, Fiona Huang, Huang, Laura Bock, Amanda Herson, Taylor Brandt, Luci Fonseca, It's, Vivien Ho, VCs, journaling, Ashley Paston, Ahmed Mirza, who's, Amber Atherton, Brandon Hoffman, Tobi Coker, Wellington Management's Javier Grevely, Natalie Borowski, I've Organizations: Business, Seae Ventures, Ventures, Headline, Base10 Investors, Meritech, Sunset Ventures Locations: New York, Eastern, Brooklyn

☆ A Venezuelan vote on an oil-rich region of Guyana raises concerns of a South American military conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( David Shortell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The area in question, the densely forested Essequibo region, amounts to about two-thirds of Guyana’s national territory and is roughly the size of Florida. The recent discovery of vast offshore oil fields in the region has heightened the stakes of the dispute. Venezuelans in Caracas take part in a rally during the closing of the campaign for the Essequibo referendum, on December 1. It owns the congress of Guyana,” Maduro told supporters last week. Matias Delacroix/APOn Wednesday, Brazil announced that it was increasing its military presence with “defensive actions” along its northern border with Venezuela and Guyana.

Persons: Nicolas Maduro, Miguel Gutierrez, Shutterstock, Robert Persaud, Venezuela doesn’t, Matias Delacroix, ” Maduro, Maria Corina Machado, Maduro, ”, Phil Gunson, Irfaan Ali, Paul J, Angelo, Wazim Mowla, Adrienne Arsht, Vladmir Putin’s, Bharrat Jagdeo, “, ” Jagdeo, ” Gunson Organizations: CNN, Quarterly, Court of Justice, UN, International Court of Justice, ExxonMobil, AP, International Crisis, Venezuelan, Foreign Relations, Caribbean Initiative, Atlantic, America, Crisis Locations: Guyana, Essequibo, Florida, Venezuela, British, Venezuelan, Caracas, Ukraine, Guyanese, The Hague, Guyana's, Paris, Guiana, Georgetown, AP Venezuela, ”, Demerara, Brazil, Crimea, that’s

2023 was a tumultuous year for the venture capital industry. This year, Business Insider asked the most important VCs across the US to name the most promising VCs in their cities. Business Insider also asked the general public and last year's rising stars who they thought should make the cut. And just like last year, more of this year's rising stars are women than men, indicating that more women are being brought into the pipeline of the traditionally male-dominated venture capital industry. Scroll to see 2023's rising stars of venture capital, organized alphabetically by the investor's name.

Organizations: Silicon Valley Bank, Tech, Business

☆ Countries at COP28 approve climate disaster fund deal details in early breakthrough
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A man wearing a thawb walks past flags of nations participating in the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference the day before its official opening on November 29, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Countries at the U.N. COP28 summit on Thursday agreed on deal details for a disaster fund to help nations reeling from damages caused by the climate crisis. So far, the pledges to the fund include $100 million from Germany, $100 million from the United Arab Emirates, $17 million from the U.S. and $10 million from Japan. High-income countries, which account for the bulk of historical greenhouse gas emissions, have long opposed the creation of a loss and damage fund to compensate low-income nations. Avinash Persaud, special climate envoy to Barbados, said that the deal reflects "a hard fought historic agreement."

Persons: Friederike Roder, Roder, Avinash Persaud Organizations: United Arab Emirates, UNITED, EMIRATES, United Arab, Bank, Global Citizen Locations: Dubai, United Arab, COP28, United Arab Emirates, COP27, Egypt, Germany, U.S, Japan, Barbados

As Open AI employees celebrated the return of CEO Sam Altman with a five-alarm office party , OpenAI software engineer Steven Heidel was busy publicly rebuffing overtures from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Heidel was one of more than 700 OpenAI employees who's threatened exodus halted a would-be mutiny at one of Silicon Valley's most important AI companies. He was previously a scientist at Facebook AI Research and worked as a member of Google Brain under supervision of Prof. Geoffrey Hinton and Ilya Sutskever. Alec Radford: Radford was hired in 2016 from a small AI company he founded in his dorm room. Tao Xu : technical staff, worked on GPT4 and WhisperChristine McLeavey : technical staff, with contributions to music-related productsChristina Kim : technical staffChristopher Hesse : technical staffHeewoo Jun : technical staff, researchAlex Nichol : technical staff, researchWilliam Fedus: technical staff, researchIlge Akkaya: technical staff, researchVineet Kosaraju : technical staff, researchHenrique Ponde de Oliveira Pinto : technical staffAditya Ramesh : technical staff, developed DALL-E and DALL-E 2Prafulla Dhariwal : research scientistHunter Lightman : technical staffHarrison Edwards : research scientistYura Burda : machine language researcherTyna Eloundou : technical staff, researchPamela Mishkin : researcherCasey Chu : researcherDavid Dohan : technical staff, researchAidan Clark : researcherRaul Puri : research scientistLeo Gao : technical staff, researchYang Song : technical staff, researchGiambattista ParascandoloTodor Markov : Machine learning researcherNick Ryder : technical staff

Persons: Sam Altman, Steven Heidel, Marc Benioff, Heidel, Altman, Mira Murati, Murati, Brad Lightcap, Lightcap, Jason Kwon, Kwon, Wojciech Zaremba, Geoffrey Hinton, Ilya Sutskever, Alec Radford, Radford, OpenAI, Peter Welinder, He's, Github Copilot, Anna Makanju, Andrej Karpathy, OpenAI's, Michael Petrov, Petrov, Greg [ Brockman, Miles Brundage, Brundage, John Schulman OpenAI, Srinivas Narayanan, Scott Grey, Grey, Bob McGrew, Research Che Chang, Lillian Weng, Safety Systems Mark Chen, Frontiers Research Barret Zoph, Peter Deng, Jan Leike Evan Morikawa Steven Heidel Jong Wook Kim, Tao Xu, Christine McLeavey, Christina Kim, Christopher Hesse, Heewoo, Alex Nichol, William Fedus, Henrique Ponde de Oliveira Pinto, Aditya Ramesh, Hunter Lightman, Harrison Edwards, Yura, Tyna, Pamela Mishkin, Casey Chu, David Dohan, Aidan Clark, Raul Puri, Leo Gao, Yang, Giambattista Parascandolo Todor Markov, Nick Ryder Organizations: Business, BI, OpenAI, Khosla Ventures, Facebook, Research, Google, Tesla, U.S . Department of Energy, Oxford University, Safety Systems, Frontiers Research Locations: Albania, Canada, OpenAI

☆ VCs didn't care about OpenAI's weird board structure. It was all about investing in Sam Altman and its 'transformative' tech.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

OpenAI's venture capital investors weren't thinking about its mission to serve "humanity" by developing artificial intelligence. After Altman's ouster, Vinod Khosla, an early investor in OpenAI, came to his defense despite the criticism. OpenAI's complex and unique corporate governance structure meant that VCs could invest in the capped profit entity, but never earn any influence over the nonprofit board of directors, all of whom were either cofounders or appointed outside AI experts. The board structure and its governance are all likely to change as part of the deal to bring Sam Altman back as CEO of OpenAI. The purpose of the newly formed OpenAI board – consisting of current board member D'Angelo, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor – is to vet and potentially appoint an expanded board of up to nine people, and that Microsoft and Altman want board seats, The Verge reported.

Persons: Sam Altman, OpenAI, Altman, VCs, Sam, Altman's, Vinod Khosla, Yunus, Khosla, Wesley Chan, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Tasha McCauley, who's, Joseph Gordon, Levitt, Helen Toner, Adam D'Angelo, Karthee Madasamy, it's, David Sacks, D'Angelo, Larry Summers, Bret Taylor – Organizations: Business, Tiger Global Management, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Microsoft, FPV Ventures, Rand Corporation, Georgetown's Center for Security, Emerging Technology, MFV Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Ikea, Bosch, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Bertelsmann Foundation, Carlsberg Foundation, Craft Ventures Locations: OpenAI, Silicon Valley, Hollywood

☆ Everyone is going bankrupt
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . WeWork, the real-estate company that cosplayed as a tech startup, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. AdvertisementAdvertisementBut one Wall Street veteran believes WeWork will be the first of many companies to succumb to a similar fate. 3 things in marketsANGELA WEISS / Getty ContributorCan the stock market keep this momentum going?

Persons: —, AFTRA, Tesla, Brooks Kraft, It's, WeWork, David Trainer, Jennifer Sor, Insider's Vishal Persaud, Katie Notopoulos, Adam Neumann, we've, ANGELA WEISS, Jeff Gundlach, OpenAI's, Google's Bard, Min, Uber, Travis Kalanick's, Matthew Tortoriello, Sherrod Brown, Malte Mueller, Dan DeFrancesco, Naga Siu, Hallam Bullock, Lisa Ryan Organizations: Service, SAG, Hollywood, Tech, Google, Brooks Kraft LLC, Getty, Wall, P, Bank of America, Wall Street, Nasdaq, ExxonMobil, Tesla, Apple, Brooks, Amazon, YouTube, NFL, News Corp, Sony Locations: French Montana, New York City, San Diego, London, New York

A loss and damage fund would be the first United Nations mechanism dedicated to helping countries that have suffered irreparable climate-driven damage from drought, floods and rising sea levels. "There was a lot at stake at this meeting," Avinash Persaud, special envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados and the country's representative on the U.N. committee, told Reuters. Developing nations argue that rich countries responsible for most of the historical CO2 emissions causing climate change should be obliged to pay - something the United States and other rich nations refused to accept. Mohamed Nasr, Egypt's lead climate negotiator and representative on the committee, told Reuters such pledges would be crucial to the overall COP28 negotiations. If rich nations fail to follow through, he said, it could reopen decades-old fights that have derailed past climate deals - with poorer nations demanding "compensation" from rich nations for causing climate change, or refusing to agree to cut emissions faster without substantially more financial support from rich countries.

Persons: Rula, U.N, Persaud, Jennifer Morgan, Mohamed Nasr, Nasr, Valerie Volcovici, Kate Abnett, Christina Fincher Organizations: Abu Dhabi Sustainability, REUTERS, COP28 Finance, Bank, United, Reuters, U.S . State Department, European Union, Climate, Thomson Locations: UAE, Abu Dhabi, United Nations, Dubai, Barbados, United States, U.S, Egypt, COP28, Germany, Europe's, Berlin

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