DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ 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

☆ 2023 has been an AI feeding frenzy, here are the startups that attracted the most investment this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Despite an overall slump in startup funding, 2023 saw a scramble among investors to pour money into AI and machine learning startups. And the company's star still appears to be rising, despite a messy leadership struggle that recently spilled into public view. Meanwhile OpenAI's perennial rival Anthropic attracted multi-billion dollar investments from both Google and Amazon to fund a competing AI model known as Claude. At the same time legacy companies from John Deere to accounting firm PwC played up their AI bona fides to capitalize on the hype. The list doesn't include startups who have not publicly released the amount of their funding rounds.

Persons: OpenAI, Anthropic, Claude, Databricks, John Deere, PwC, Fresh Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Alpha, Technology, Monogram, Sigma, Lambda, Helsing, Metals, Eagle Eye, Amelia, Asimov, Farmers Business, Harbinger, Prins, Silo, Mistral, Alto, AMP, Management Software, Universal, Coro, Kodiak Robotics, Aerospace, Defense, Sana, Corti, Kyte, Mitra, Tech, Boss Digital Technology, Halcyon, & $ Locations: PitchBook

☆ 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

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

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

☆ AI startups struggle to not become OpenAI's 'roadkill:' 'When you step on the court with Jordan, you don't try to beat him at his game'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

More than 300 AI founders and investors gathered earlier this week in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood for the 2nd Cerebral Valley AI Summit, co-hosted by the independent journalist Eric Newcomer and AI gaming startup Volley. Some called it an " extinction event for other AI startups ." "OpenAI can bully everyone, they can bully the talent, they can bully the competition, they can bully the term sheets. "When you step on the court with Jordan, you don't try to beat him at his game. During his panel, Warner was asked about those who took to social network X, formerly Twitter, to proclaim the death of nascent AI startups.

Persons: Eric Newcomer, —, OpenAI, Alex Pall, That's, they're, Andrew Hoh, Reid Hoffman, Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, Khosla, Jason Warner, Warner, it's, He's, he's, Poolside, Jordan Organizations: Summit, Business, Mantis Venture Capital, Microsoft Locations: San Francisco's Hayes, Paris

☆ If you get sued for an AI-generated creative work, OpenAI says it will protect you while Anthropic says you're on your own
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

At its first ever developer's day conference earlier this month, OpenAI tried to tackle the situation head on by announcing Copyright Shield. That's a promise that OpenAI will pay the legal fees of its business customers in the event they're sued for something they made using its products. "We can defend our customers and pay the costs incurred if you face legal claims around copyright," said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in his keynote speech. But OpenAI rival Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI researchers and backed by billions of dollars from investors like Google and Amazon is taking a different approach. But to the extent that liability does exist, Anthropic says it's the person using the product that bears the blame.

Persons: Anthropic, it's, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Janel Thamkul, Thamkul, Erika Fisher, Fisher, I'm, they've, Darius Rafieyan Organizations: New York Times, Business, Google, United States Copyright, Sega Enterprises, Accolade, Sega

☆ At a seaside resort outside San Francisco, there's a secret haven for startup founders to overcome loneliness and pain: 'There's very few people you can be honest with'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Author and executive coach Carole Robin, speaking at a Leaders In Tech retreat. With Leaders in Tech, Robin set out to create a space for founders to practice vulnerability, free of the need to always be crushing it. The Leaders In Tech Retreat provides a world away from the relentless stress of Silicon Valley. 'If you really knew me'Participants meet in groups of 12, carefully selected to ensure no one is paired with a competitor or potential investor. "If you really knew me, you would know that I'm, I'm worried about whether or not my marriage is going to survive my startup."

Persons: Joe —, —, Joe, they'd, hadn't, helming, Carole Robin, Robin, they're, Obi Felten, Oliver Hospitality, I'm, Felten Organizations: In Tech, Stanford Business School, Tech, UC Berkeley, Entrepreneurs, Google, Lodge, Menlo Locations: San Francisco, Tomales, Silicon Valley, Marconi, Marshall , California, Pacific, Felten's

☆ Inside a secret haven for startup founders to overcome loneliness: 'There's very few people you can be honest with'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

☆ At unicorn startup Carta, a culture of absolute fealty to an erratic and vindictive CEO, employees say
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

Both men remained valued employees at Carta, with the sales representative even getting promoted just weeks after the alleged "helicopter penis" incident, according to former employees. CEO Henry Ward cofounded Carta, originally called eShares, in 2012 as a service for startups to digitize their paper stock certificates. Today Carta helps startups track their investors, employees manage their equity awards, and venture capitalists administer their funds. The lawsuit says that 10 days after Rogers filed her complaint, Ward "began treating Ms. Rogers in an aggressive and demeaning manner during several meetings." Many of the employees who have spoken out publicly about Carta and Ward have found themselves embroiled in expensive legal battles.

Persons: Lisa Whittaker, Whittaker, Jerry Talton, David Kim, Andrea Lamari, Kim, Henry Ward, Andreessen Horowitz, Ward, Henry, Alex Kurland, Carta, Peter Thiel, Simon Cowell, Talton's, Suzanne Elovic, Elovic, Lamari, Jeff Perry, Perry, salespeople, JT Goodman, Goodman, Goodman didn't, Jeff Perrry, Allie Rogers, Rogers, Rodgers, Rachel Mayes, Ward doesn't, Mayes, Jeff, Jeff Perry countersued, Orrick Herrington, Sutcliffe, Kleiner Perkins, Ellen Pao, Amanda Sheets, Sheets, Pushback, Lindauer, Whitaker, Whittaker wasn't, Barbara Byrne, Byrne, Talton, Joe Osnoss, Osnoss, Heidi Johnson, Johnson Organizations: Carta, UBS, Gold Club, Lightspeed, California Civil Rights Department, Meritech, YouTube, Win, York Stock Exchange, San, San Francisco Superior, San Francisco Superior Court, Barclays, Lehman Brothers, Montana Human Rights Bureau Locations: San Francisco, Brazil, Silicon Valley, California, Palo, Iranian, Lindauer, Silver, Montana

Several venture capitalists call New York home and are writing checks to startups of all stages. The city's prominent sectors like finance and media are also prevalent in its VC activity. Insider compiled a list of New York's top VCs, based on recommendations and investment data. The Big Apple's venture capital scene is as strong as ever. This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers.

Organizations: Street Locations: New York

☆ Exclusive: Carta is suing yet another former employee to prevent the release of damaging recordings of its executives and board members
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tech unicorn Carta filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California in August against its former Chief Product Officer Heidi Johnson, demanding she turn over secret recordings of the company's top executives and board members. It's the second time the company has gone to federal court in order to prevent the release of what it says are damaging recordings. In court documents reviewed by Insider, Carta states that Johnson was fired in November 2022 for having a "polarizing" management style and for taking unauthorized leave. Shortly after her termination, both Johnson and Talton filed complaints with the company's board raising issues about her firing and the conduct of CEO Henry Ward. Additionally, Carta is seeking monetary damages from Johnson for breach of contract with the amount to be determined at trial.

Persons: Carta, Heidi Johnson, It's, Johnson, Andreessen Horowitz, Jerry Talton, Talton, Henry Ward, Lindaur, Emily Kramer Organizations: Northern District of, Lightspeed, New York's Southern, Carta Locations: Northern District, Northern District of California, Silicon, New York's, New York's Southern District, Carta

☆ 'Flat is the new up:' As three tech unicorns go public, it's less a call to arms and more a shoulder shrug
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But instead of a full-throated battle cry to go public and prosper, Silicon Valley got more of a shoulder shrug. Instacart shares are down more than 23% from their trading debut, hovering just above their IPO price of $30 per share. Earlier today Arm was trading below its $51 per share IPO price, meaning that even the privileged insiders who got access to shares before the general public are under water. Klaviyo is trading slightly above its IPO price of $30 per share but is still down 6% from its opening trade. He says he wouldn't be surprised if IPO markets don't return to normal until 2026 or 2027.

Persons: Klaviyo —, Rowe Price, Howe Ng, Ng, it's, Peter Hebert, Brian Hirsch, wouldn't, David Kaufman, Thompson Coburn, JP Morgan, Nihal Mehta, haven't, Mehta, Instacart, Klaviyo didn't Organizations: Federal, Fidelity, Apple, Pepsico, BlackRock, Lux Capital, Tribeca Venture Partners, JP, Morgan's, Eniac Ventures Locations: Silicon, York

☆ As Instacart goes public, it's no victory lap for founder Apoorva Mehta
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Mehta was replaced as CEO of Instacart in July 2021 following a messy dispute with some of the company's largest investors. Instacart Founder Apoorva Mehta in his 2003 yearbook photo from Westdale Secondary School. The app started gaining momentum and Mehta put out ads on Craigslist for shoppers to do the grocery runs for him. Whole Foods reportedly broke the news to Mehta and a fellow Instacart executive on an early morning call. In a sworn affidavit, Mehta denies that he misappropriated any trade secrets and says he's since cut ties with Singh.

Persons: Apoorva Mehta, Mehta, Safeway Mehta, Hamilton Public Library Mehta, Bing Gordon, Kleiner Perkins, Gordon, he'd, Garry Tan, Tan, Garry, Andreessen Horowitz, catapulting Mehta, Forbes, Instacart, Mike Moritz, Fidji Simo, Simo, That's, Mehta's, he's, Tejasvi, Singh, Sam Bankman, NextMed, it's Organizations: Instacart, Safeway, Westdale Secondary, Hamilton Public Library, The University of Waterloo, Amazon, NPR, Electronic Arts, YC, TechCrunch, Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Forbes, Foods, Costco, Kroger, Facebook, Sunrise Locations: India, Libya, Hamilton , Ontario, Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, wallowing, Sequoia, Mehta's, Marin County

☆ 'The scholar, the pragmatist, and the rainmaker:' How three Bloomberg Beta VCs bet on AI before it became a buzzword
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Bahat brings this same radical directness to Bloomberg Beta, the early-stage venture capital fund housed within the larger Bloomberg empire that he's run for the past decade. And Bloomberg Beta was making investments in generative AI as far back as 2015, before the term "generative AI" even existed. "It felt like we were just waiting for the right moment," said Cham, Bloomberg Beta partner and de-facto chief technologist, "where the rest of the world would see it." Bloomberg Beta made the decision early on to publish its entire operating manual on GitHub, including sensitive information about average check size and investment criteria. Kieran Snyder, the founder of generative AI startup Textio which Bloomberg Beta invested in in 2015, has a shorthand for describing the role of Beta's three partners.

Persons: Roy Bahat's, Bahat, James Cham, Karin Klein, Shivon Zillis, Elon Musk's, Cham, ChatGPT, VCs, Bloomberg Beta, Dan Doctoroff, Mike Bloomberg, Doctoroff, Bahat's chutzpah, Bloomberg —, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Tade Oyerinde, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel's Founder's, Roy didn't, Oyerinde, Kieran Snyder, who's, Apple Lisa, Klein, Karen, Snyder, Roy, Zilis Organizations: Port Authority, World Trade Center, IGN, Bloomberg Beta, Bloomberg, LinkedIn, Elon, Beta, Apple, New Locations: New York, Silicon Valley, East, California

☆ Customer data, transactions, financials: Still reeling from the market implosion, VCs are demanding to see numbers to back up founder pitches
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Founders say VCs are increasingly demanding detailed data and visibility into their startups before considering a deal. But some in the industry say that for early stage startups, a reliance on data can create an illusion of certainty. Half a dozen early stage startup founders tell Insider that gone are the days when a good idea and flashy pitch deck were enough to close a deal. He described it as looking for "the golden playbook for investing in early stage startups." For his part Hasan says that when speaking to potential investors, he views an obsession with financials and data as a red flag.

Persons: Miguel Guerrero, Guerrero, He's, Fahad Hassan, Hasan, Keyvan Firouzi, Firouzi, Jason Calacanis, it's, Dorothee Grant, Avante Price, James Cham, Cham, Hassan Organizations: IRL, Activant, Stanford, Carta, Investors, Bloomberg Beta Locations: New York

☆ Elon Musk threatens to sue the Anti-Defamation League, claiming it is 'trying to kill' X, formerly known as Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The hashtag #BanTheADL began trending after a meeting between X CEO Linda Yaccarino and ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Musk appeared to support the effort, claiming ADL is intentionally trying to sabotage X. The ADL has documented a rise in hate speech on X following Musk's acquisition last year. AdvertisementAdvertisementIn a series of posts on Monday, Elon Musk said X, formerly known as Twitter, may have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Musk claimed that the ADL is "trying to kill" the platform by "falsely accusing" him and it of being anti-semitic.

Persons: Linda Yaccarino, Jonathan Greenblatt, Musk, Elon Musk, Joseph Greenblatt, Keith Woods, Musk's Organizations: ADL, Anti, Defamation League, Twitter, @ADL

Adept: a machine learning research labNiki Pezeshki is a general partner at Felicis Ventures. FelicisStartup: AdeptRecommended by: Niki Pezeshki, FelicisRelationship: No financial interestTotal funding: $415 million, according to the companyWhat it does: Adept is a machine-learning research and product lab aiming to build AI technology that can automate human tasks as varied as running software and browsing the web. Why it's on the list: "Fresh off a massive round of funding, Adept is poised to deliver artificial general intelligence that truly benefits working people," Pezeshki said. "So much software is repetitive tasks, and Adept is creating an AI that will enable workers to increase productivity and focus on more creative tasks."

Persons: Niki Pezeshki, Pezeshki Organizations: Felicis Ventures, Felicis

☆ Inside Otter University: How Travis Kalanick's sales boot camp for young techies went off the rails
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Meghan Morris | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

"It seemed like a cool, innovative new company," Lam said. Starting in early 2022, the company poured millions of dollars into an experimental sales boot camp called Otter University. She joined the company in 2020 as Otter's head of sales enablement and helped dream up the idea of a sales boot camp a year later. Two former OtterU employees said that Law and another Otter executive urged managers to join their teams for late-night drinks following team dinners. But the late nights and free-flowing alcohol struck some OtterU employees as inappropriate for the workplace, especially when managers had to deal with hungover teams the next day.

Persons: Brian Lam, messaged, Travis, Lam, Uber, It's, Kalanick, voraciously, they're, Otter, wasn't, salespeople, Cory Epstein, Phoebe Law, Law, people's, –, Kalanick's Uber, Otter's, Kate, Samul Beal, I'd, Beal, didn't, terminations, he'd, OtterU, I'm, grads, Salespeople, Guido Gabrielli, Keith Dunphy, Dunphy, Bram van Staalduinen, Phoebe Law's, Debra Glaser, Jen Zablotny, there's, Ordermark, Burger, Meghan, Darius Organizations: Texas, Otter, Storage Systems, Microsoft, Otter University, Law, Adobe, SAP, Houston, OtterU, hungover, NCR, Google, Brands, Houston Rockets Locations: Korean, Houston, Toronto, LA, Las Vegas, Miami, Seoul, South Korea, Houston ., OtterU, Otter, Canada

☆ What does Elon Musk's 'Burnt Hair' perfume really smell like? We asked our newsroom to do a blind test of the new fragrance.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Elon Musk's Boring Company launched a $100 perfume called "Burnt Hair" in October. Last October, he added "perfume salesman" to his list when he began selling a scent called "Burnt Hair" to the world. The unisex fragrance is sold through The Boring Company, where it was originally listed for $100. Upon sniffing Burnt Hair directly from the bottle he concluded that it actually smelled better than most perfumes. "It's pretty gross…It does smell like burnt hair."

Persons: Elon, Elon Musk, Musk, it's, Boring, Madeline Renbarger, Nathan McAlone, Darius Rafieyan, Rafieyan, Taylor Rains, Meghan Morris, Maddie Berg, who'd, Brad Davis, Tim Levin Organizations: Elon Musk's Boring Company, SpaceX, The, Company, Twitter, The Boring Company, eBay, Boring Company, Boring, Aviation, Transportation Locations: Colorado

M12, Microsoft's venture firm, is offloading some of its portfolio on secondary exchanges, sources say. The fund's shares in startups are taking haircuts of between 30% and 70%, three people said. Microsoft's corporate venture capital fund, M12, has been offloading some of its $1 billion portfolio on secondary exchanges, five people familiar with the matter told Insider. One of the people familiar with the sales said M12 sold one large position this month at a 50% discount. A secondary sales boomSecondary sales are becoming more common in the market in general.

Persons: there's, PitchBook, Ashley Stewart, Ben Bergman, bbergman, Darius Rafieyan Organizations: Microsoft, Vertical Aerospace, Google, Investors, Tiger Global

☆ The Gatsby of Silicon Alley: Meet the 27-year-old Google employee who's throwing tech's hottest parties
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Despite throwing events attended by thousands, Andrew Yeung has never made a cent off his parties. They've all gathered at the personal invitation of a 27-year-old Google product lead named Andrew Yeung. The terms of his visa stipulate that he can only derive income from his day job at Google. And there was nothing bigger in his father's mind than a tech job in the United States. It was the first Andrew Yeung party.

Persons: Andrew Yeung, techies, who's, Yeung, revelers, He's, hasn't, he's, Connor Roach, Benjamin Franklin, Yeung doesn't, Cliff Lerner, it's, Melissa Glazar, Lior Cole, I've, Cole, Glazar, Lerner, Keyser, didn't, Connor Roach Yeung, Monica, Sunny Yeung, Andrew, Sunny, he'd, Andrew doesn't, It's Organizations: Junto, Google, Cornell, CCP, Yeung's, Party, SXSW, The University of Toronto, Facebook, Art Basel, of Homeland Security Locations: Brooklyn, Belarusian, cabanas, Gowanus, New York, Austin, Miami, LA, phoniness, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Hong Kong, United States, Central Park, Basel, Canada, Toronto

Adonis: AI revenue collection for healthcare providersBen Ling, the founder and a general partner at Bling Capital. Bling CapitalStartup: AdonisRecommended by: Ben Ling, Bling CapitalRelationship: InvestorTotal funding: $22.9 million, according to PitchBook. What it does: Adonis uses AI to automate and create intelligent revenue-collection software between healthcare providers such as doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. "They are trending to significantly exceed revenue expectations in 2023 and is considered one of the fastest growing healthcare software companies in the United States. As a result, Adonis is overseeing the processing of billions of dollars of claims and impacting revenue outcomes for thousands of the nation's providers," Ling said.

Persons: Adonis, Ben Ling, Ling Organizations: Bling Locations: United States

☆ Industry Ventures just raised $1.4 billion for one of the largest venture capital secondary funds ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Industry Ventures is one of the largest players in the VC secondary market, where shares of startups are bought and sold. Industry Ventures, a pioneer in the venture capital secondary market where shares of startups are bought and sold, has raised $1.4 billion for its latest flagship secondary fund, according to an SEC filing. The last time the industry saw a fund of this size was when StepStone Group closed its $2.3 billion secondary fund in 2021. "Everyone is gonna have to have a secondary strategy," said Ken Sawyer, co-founder of Saints Capital, another major player in the VC secondary market. This latest fundraise by Industry, which is backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management among others, could be a sign of increased interest in the VC secondary market.

Persons: Industry Venture's, Ken Sawyer, Sawyer Organizations: Industry Ventures, Industry, SEC, StepStone Group, titans, Insight Partners, Tiger Global, Saints Capital, Goldman Sachs, Management

☆ Tiger Global pulls back on raising new capital and focuses on returns, amid brutal fundraising environment
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

At the same time the company continues to raise money for its latest venture capital fund. For years, Tiger Global, Chase Coleman's $50 billion investment fund, went on a fundraising tear, raising billions of dollars in fresh capital and dominating the venture ecosystem in the process. This includes the firm's flagship hedge fund as well its crossover fund, created in 2021, which combines Tiger's public and private investments into a single strategy. Between July 2022 and July 2023 the Tiger Global fund, the Tiger Global Crossover fund, and the Tiger Global Long Opportunities fund, through their US and Cayman Islands feeder funds, raised about $53 million in total. A spokesperson for Tiger Global declined to comment for this story.

Persons: Chase, Carlyle, TCV, Tiger Organizations: Tiger, SEC, Tiger Global, Apollo, TPG, Insight Partners Locations: Cayman Islands, PitchBook

Search resuls for: "Rafieyan"

25 mentions found