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☆ Here's the exclusive 14-slide pitch deck that Veriti used to raise a $12 million Series A for its AI-cybersecurity platform
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Veriti uses AI to strengthen companies' cybersecurity defense. But even with multiple security tools, the coverage can be incomplete, and that's where Veriti comes in, Veriti CEO Adi Ikan said. Investors are also interested in Veriti's mission of finding holes in companies' cybersecurity coverage. Veriti says that its technology works with other popular cybersecurity tools in the market from Microsoft, Crowdstrike, and others. See the pitch deck that Veriti used to raise its $12 million Series A round.

☆ Fired startup CEO says he was tarnished as the 'LSD CEO' for accusing investors of anti-Asian bias, and now he's suing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Iterable's former CEO Justin Zhu said he was removed due to racial bias, not his use of LSD in 2019. "The 'LSD CEO' label is deliberate, but it's a wrong characterization," Zhu told Insider. "While Andrew is half Asian American, I don't think his experiences — better, worse and similar — change what I went through," Zhu told Insider. One particularly tense encounter with investors took place in June 2020, Zhu told Insider, during an unusual meeting in person during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zhu's attorney, Charles Jung, told Insider that the goal of the lawsuit was to shed light on legal protections that allow workers to report their experiences of bias.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried said it's 'not who I am' to shun the press. But legal experts say his recent interviews could come back to haunt him.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In new media appearances, Sam Bankman-Fried openly mused about his culpability in FTX's crash. Bankman-Fried told Sorkin at one point that "I didn't knowingly commingle funds," between FTX and his other company, the hedge fund Alameda Research. "Like, I wasn't spending any time or effort trying to manage risk on FTX," he told the "Good Morning America" anchor. Greg Joseph and Stanford Law professor David Mills, who Semafor reported last month represent Bankman-Fried, didn't respond to Insider's email for comment Thursday evening. Representatives for FTX did not respond to a request for comment, and Bankman-Fried did not respond to a Twitter DM seeking comment.

☆ Check out the pitch deck Dandelion Energy, a green-energy company that began at Google's research division X, used to raise $70 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Dandelion Energy came out of a project that started years ago at X, Google's research effort. Dandelion Energy could provide a way for homeowners to defray these costs. In 2015, Dandelion Energy started as a project of what was then known as Google X, now just X, Google's research arm. Dandelion Energy has raised a total of about $136 million, according to PitchBook, from investors including LenX, the venture division of the homebuilding company Lennar, according to the company. Take a look at the pitch deck Dandelion Energy used to raise $70 million in new funding.

☆ Olaplex is hit with a new lawsuit as the hair care brand faces mounting scrutiny
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Alex Bitter | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Hair care brand Olaplex is facing a lawsuit over its stock price drop since its 2021 IPO. Olaplex gained popularity on TikTok and other social media as a hair care routine product. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyLast fall, hair care brand Olaplex was riding high. It is seeking to represent a potential class of as many as "thousands" of investors who bought Olaplex stock after it went public, according to the complaint. The Olaplex spokesperson said that No.

☆ Corporate America is bracing for a rise in activist investing. Meet the 13 lawyers on speed-dial when companies and investors fight for boardroom control.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Law firms including Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP and Schulte Roth & Zabel are go-tos for activist investors looking to change how companies do business. Kai Liekefett, who co-chairs Sidley's shareholder activism practice, last year successfully defended cloud company Box Inc. in a proxy fight by Starboard. Liekefett has also defended clients against major activist investors including Carl Icahn and Trian Partners. He has advised clients against major activist investors including Trian, Carl Icahn, Starboard Value and the billionaire Paul Singer. Lawrence Elbaum and Patrick Gadson, Vinson & ElkinsPatrick Gadson (L) and Lawrence Elbaum (R), co-heads of Vinson & Elkins' shareholder activism group.

☆ This is what kind of legal trouble FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried could now face, based on details from the crypto exchange's latest bankruptcy filing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

FTX's bankruptcy filing shed new light on potential legal trouble for the crypto exchange and its former execs. New CEO John J. Ray III delivered a blistering assessment, calling FTX's implosion " a complete failure of corporate controls." Read some of the most incendiary parts of the bankruptcy filing and what experts say it all might mean. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. "The appointment of the Directors will provide the FTX Group with appropriate corporate governance for the first time."

☆ The 13 most promising early-stage artificial-intelligence startups of 2022, according to VCs investing in companies building technical infrastructure and developing tools
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Venture capitalists investing in AI identified the promising startups at earlier fundraising stages. These 13 AI startups are making tools that try to help companies make better use of data. Kim-Mai Cutler, a partner at Initialized Capital, said VCs are seeing potential in the startups able to develop new applications. Top VCs shared with Insider their picks for startups in their earlier stages that they see as demonstrating the most potential. Here are the 13 most promising AI startups of 2022, according to VCs, listed from least to most capital raised:

☆ FTX is just the tip of the iceberg. Meet 16 lawyers whose bankruptcy battles, from Revlon to JCPenney, are setting them up for a boom in business
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Despite the economic downturn, just 312 corporations filed for bankruptcy this year as of October. Here are 16 lawyers who may benefit as more companies negotiate with lenders and restructure their debt. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday after questions were raised about its capital, leading customers to flee the exchange. Despite the high-profile nature of FTX's bankruptcy, such filings actually fell to a new low in 2022. As of end of October, there were just 312 corporate bankruptcy filings, down from 410 filings in 2021, and 640 in 2020, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

☆ 'Bulldog' lawyer Thomas Lauria Lauria predicted a crypto 'liquidation boom' well before Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX filed for bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Jack Newsham | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Thomas Lauria runs the bankruptcy team at White & Case where clients have included Hertz and Johnson & Johnson. But Lauria told Insider that the ability of crypto companies to reorganize will depend on whether they have any real assets. Notably, when Lauria represented Hertz in its Chapter 11 case during the coronavirus pandemic, even its unsecured creditors were repaid in full. So I'm not sure that what's happening in crypto right now is really going to be a reorganization boom, but really probably more of a liquidation boom. About $10 billion of Hertz debt, when they filed, was related to financing in connection with their US fleet.

☆ An Equinox sales manager got treated to an Angels game for 'a job well done' after emailing his team a racist, misogynistic meme, lawsuit claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A sales manager at an Equinox gym shared a racist pornographic meme at work, a former employee said. As September drew to a close, a sales manager at an Equinox gym in Irvine, California, emailed his supervisors and colleagues about their monthly sales targets. The email, according to a new discrimination lawsuit against the luxury fitness chain, contained a meme with a pornographic image. Varga and Torrao are still employed at Equinox, Piccolo's attorney Michael Willemin, a partner at Wigdor LLP, told Insider. Equinox representative Bank did not respond to an inquiry about whether Varga and Torrao had been disciplined over the email.

☆ 19 top venture capitalists to know that invest in AI and machine-learning startups like Hugging Face and Databricks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Matthew Lynley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

In 2021, VC-deal activity in AI tech shot up to $118 billion, according to PitchBook data. Investment journeys have validated some long-term AI VCs over the past decade. In 2022, VC investments in AI and machine learning amounted to $48.2 billion as of June 30, according to a recent PitchBook report. Last year, VC deals in AI and machine learning amounted to $118 billion, a roughly 80% increase from 2020, according to the report. Here are 19 venture capitalists to know who specialize in AI and machine learning:

☆ As Big Law looks to tech to help draft legal briefs and log billing hours, top firms like Orrick and Shearman & Sterling are using AI to fast-track work on M&A deals
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Top Big Law firms like Shearman & Sterling, White & Case, and Orrick use artificial intelligence. AI tools by companies like Thomson Reuters, Litera, and Evisort are helping firms manage M&A work. Shearman & Sterling uses a wide variety of AI tools for different uses — one of the firm's go-tos for deals due diligence is Kira, a tool owned by Litera, a document-technology company that works with law firms. Even more said that over the next five years, they expected most M&A work at their firms to be supported by AI. The company uses tools such as Brainspace and Relativity, Janet Sullivan, the firm's global director of practice technology, said.

☆ Amazon has changed how warehouses work in America. Some unions are using it as a chance to organize.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Amazon has said warehouse workers can take breaks for activities like using the bathroom, talking to coworkers and managers, and grabbing snacks. A worker on an Amazon warehouse floor can be tasked with packing hundreds of boxes an hour. A worker on an Amazon warehouse floor can be tasked with packing hundreds of boxes an hour. But the Amazon Labor Union, a new union led by current and former Amazon workers, said its Staten Island victory had energized other workers. "There's one Amazon facility that's being built right behind the Victorville facility as we speak," he said.

☆ How the Warehouse Boom Changed the Way America Looks, Lives, and Works
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

As the US emerged from the Great Recession, cheap real estate and the rise of e-commerce collided to create a warehousing boom. Now warehouse boomtowns shoot up in places like California's Inland Empire, Pennsylvania's Lehigh County, and Columbus, Ohio, and the number of warehouse workers has nearly tripled in a decade. Here, Insider explores how the rise of warehouses and warehouse work has changed the US and its citizens as we became a Warehouse Nation. A surge in warehouse workUsing data and on-the-ground reporting, Insider looked at the opportunities and hidden costs of the rise of warehouse work. Read more from 'Warehouse Nation'A look from Insider at how the warehouse boom has reshaped America.

☆ How the warehouse boom devoured America's workforce
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

It all happened so fast, we never got a chance to ask the most fundamental question: Is the sudden and dramatic shift to warehouse work a good thing? Has the explosion in warehouse jobs, taken as a whole, left us better off than before? As my colleague Katherine Long outlines in her story about musculoskeletal disorders, warehouse work is dangerous. "Warehouse workers," he says, "are the assembly-line workers of contemporary capitalism." That experience has given him hope that warehouse jobs, like their assembly-line predecessors, could wind up being a source of both personal pride and economic advancement.

☆ Meet the 2022 Supreme Court clerks: 38 lawyers who could be tomorrow's politicians, judges, and influential strategists
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Jack Newsham | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's ClerksSupreme Court Nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. In the interim, Murray has had several different jobs, most recently as an associate professor at Columbia University Law School, where he focused on "constitutional law, election law, and race and the law, among other topics." Michael F. QianQian is no stranger to a SCOTUS clerkship, having worked in the chambers of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from 2019 to 2020. She previously worked at the law firm Hogan Lovells, where she was on a team that helped a Colorado prisoner with an appeal to the Supreme Court. Before clerking for Judge Jackson, Salmanowitz clerked for Judge Paul Watford on the Ninth Circuit.

Elon Musk could be facing up to $100 million in personal legal fees after renewing his offer to buy Twitter. Both Twitter and Musk employed over 50 lawyers in the months leading up to the trial. A lot of the cost, of course, is going straight to the lawyers and major firms Musk and Twitter employed. He added that hourly billing is unlikely to be how Musk and Twitter were solely charged in this case. Are you legal professional involved in Musk vs. Twitter or someone with insight to share?

☆ Vishal Garg wants you to understand why he's still Better's CEO, even after getting ridiculed for brutally laying off 900 people via Zoom
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-03 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Vishal Garg, the CEO of Better, spoke out nine months after laying off hundreds of people over Zoom. "I would regularly tell my team that I think I'm the right founder for this company," Garg said. For his younger employees, Queens might be known as a hip borough with diverse populations and menus. But to Garg, Queens was something to be embarrassed by, leading him to pour even more energy into his work. Now at the helm of a slimmed-down Better, Garg is firmly looking forward to the future, SPAC or no SPAC.

☆ Meet Michael Klausner, the Stanford law professor who is the biggest critic of the SPAC deal craze — and believes its crash was 'completely predictable'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Many SPAC deals announced last year have been having a hard time closing. Now, the dismal fates of dozens of SPAC deals announced during last year's SPAC frenzy seem to vindicate his analysis. And others this year, like men's grooming brand Manscaped, SeatGeek, the live event ticket search engine, and business news outlet, Forbes, have all scrapped their SPAC deals to go public. Klausner has been paying attention to SPAC deals for a few years. Of the 275 deals announced in 2021, 240 have closed, according to Dealogic data.

☆ See the exclusive 22-slide pitch deck that AI company 4M Analytics used to raise $45 million in Series A funding
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

4M Analytics uses AI and other tools to create its 'Google maps' for underground utilities. 4M Analytics, which uses technology and resources like artificial intelligence, satellite imagery and records to locate underground utility infrastructure, has raised a total of more than $45 million in Series A funding. The latest was an extension of its Series A round — led by Insight Partners and ITI Venture Capital Partners — which raised some $30 million. "We saw the market of subsurface utility engineering and the manually intensive processes of creating maps," Malka said. 4M Analytics' technology to create these underground maps does not use sensors — it uses just satellite imagery, records, and a data engine to identify utility infrastructure underground, according to the company.

☆ 7 therapists and lawyers offer keys to navigating the stresses of Big Law
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-01 | by ( Casey Sullivan | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Employees can use legal protections under the ADA and FMLA to seek help for mental health issues. Insider recently chronicled the stresses of Big Law life. As part of this, we spoke with lawyers who have suffered from depression and, after having taken time to address their mental health issues, have continued to lead successful careers. Beyond legal protections, companies can also work with their employees to offer arrangements that suit their needs, she said. Through the course of our reporting, several lawyers offered actionable pieces of advice that readers could find useful to think about when approaching work.

☆ Lawyers Open up About Depression and Suicide, Saying It's Key to Saving Others
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-30 | by ( Casey Sullivan | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

His doctor had prescribed him antidepressants, but he was starting to realize that his mental health issues needed additional care. They said that doing so could alleviate the struggles of others, and that it's important for law firm attorneys to understand they aren't alone. He also co-founded the Lawyers Depression Project, a support network of some 900 legal professionals around the world, an endeavor he has found meaningful. "I didn't feel like I could keep surviving in an environment that played into the worst aspects of my own mental health," Alexander said. For lawyer-specific inquiries, you can find confidential, live assistance through Lawyer Assistance Programs offered through your state bar, as well as through the Lawyers Depression Project.

☆ SPACs are running out of time to close dozens of deals with startups that hoped to go public. Here's why they're being delayed and may not get done.
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-22 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

SPAC mergers announced last year have yet to close and are up against the clock. In 2021 alone, they raised nearly $163 billion, and 275 merger deals were announced, according to data from Dealogic. Several SPAC mergers are now in limbo, among them embattled mortgage startup Better.com, fintech company Aspiration, and crypto startup Bullish, which all announced their SPAC mergers more than a year ago. Those price tags are no longer reliable as they've become outdated, adding an extra challenge to securing financing to close deals during a downturn, experts said. Deadlines to close SPAC mergers can vary depending on the lifespan of the blank-check company in question, but typically range from a year to two years.

☆ A law firm built investor networks for women-led startups that have gone on to raise more than $85 million. Here's how.
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-14 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Davis Wright Tremaine is training women founders and creating networking opportunities. The law firm's programs "sought to provide us with a holistic overview of the social impacts of careers in tech, and the practical considerations that were important for success," she said. The law firm's programs linked founders to investors, helping to forge valuable connections for when her company strategizes for growth, Hosey said. The initiative was launched by Lynn Loacker, a partner at the firm and a longtime mergers-and-acquisitions attorney who now works full time on the firm's programs for women entrepreneurs. Helen Adeosun, the CEO of the home-care-training platform CareAcademy, participated in the firm's Women in Entrepreneurship Bootcamp and closed a $9.5 million series A round in 2020.

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