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☆ Lucy Guo's second act: After the 29-year-old left Scale AI, she has the 'itch to build' something new
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-23 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

But Lucy Guo, the 29-year-old cofounder of data labeling startup Scale AI blurs the line between the two archetypes. Yet this is the persona many have come to know since Guo left Scale AI in 2018. But, midway through the program, they pivoted again, this time to what would eventually become Scale AI. Lucy GuoThe idea of Scale AI came from a suggestion by one of their YC roommates, who proposed creating an "API for humans." Advertisement"The itch to build"After Scale AI, Guo decided to apply her learnings to a new entrepreneurial opportunity: investing.

Persons: —, Lucy Guo, Billie Eilish, Charlie XCX, Guo, she's, Adam D'Angelo, Alexandr Wang, Alex, Wang, Guo's, Cruise, Dave Fontenot, Kylie Jenner's lipsticks, Jake Paul's, Passes Organizations: Service, Business, Fry's Electronics, Carnegie Mellon University, Thiel, Facebook, Multicoin, Bond Locations: Miami, Fremont , California, San Francisco, China, hackathons, Quora

☆ Felicis Ventures leads $10 million round in AI startup MemGPT at a $70 million valuation, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

MemGPT helps users "build LLM agents with long term memory and custom tools." Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementMemGPT, a toolkit for developing AI agents, has raised a $10 million round at a $70 million valuation, Business Insider has learned. MemGPT helps users "build LLM agents with long term memory and custom tools," according to its associated GitHub page. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: MemGPT, — Organizations: Service, Felicis Ventures, Business

☆ The startup landscape for deals is drastically changing
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're looking at how the startup landscape is drastically changing thanks to the entrance of private-equity firms and the rise of acquihires . Private equity is filling the gap left by a frozen IPO market and corporates unwilling or unable to cut deals, writes Business Insider's Melia Russell. Perhaps most importantly, a PE deal means equity holders get cash immediately, unlike an IPO that has some holding periods. Acquihires where the brains behind buzzy AI startups sell themselves (instead of the entire company) to bigger players are in vogue, writes BI's Ben Bergman and Sri Muppidi. Depreciation costs to massive GPU chip investments pose a huge risk for AI companies .

Persons: —, You've, Alyssa Powell, Insider's Melia Russell, shivers, Samantha Lee, BI's Ben Bergman, Sri, acquihires, they'll, VCs, it's, Taylor Swift, Tyler Le, Fisker, Zuck, Elon Musk's, Mark Zuckerberg, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Biden, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, Amanda Yen Organizations: Service, Business, SV Getty, Tech, guardrails, Character.AI, Getty, UBS, Mega, Revenue Locations: Europe, New York, London

☆ 'These are not normal;' A new type of dealmaking for AI startups is rattling Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-10 | by ( Ben Bergman | Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Google unnerved Silicon Valley last week when it agreed to pay $2.5 billion to license Character.AI's technology, hire its two superstar cofounders and 20 percent of employees. The deal came after AI developers Adept and Inflection both effectively sold themselves to Amazon and Microsoft, respectively, in recent months. It was only last year Character.AI raised $150 million in venture funding, which valued the company at $850 million. Its appeal as a chatbot that uses AI to make virtual characters that interact with users seems decidedly niche. Related storiesMost of the founders and investors Business Insider spoke to for this story say Google has little interest in Character.AI's actual product.

Persons: cofounders, Brent Queener, Kyle Sanford, Character.AI, Iris Sun, Noam Shazeer, Daniel De Freitas, Jack Selby, Peter Thiel's, Steve Brotman, Shazeer, De Freitas, PitchBook's Sanford, they're, Roy Bahat, Arvind Jain, Cameron Lester, Lester Organizations: Service, Microsoft, Bonfire Ventures, Business, Apple, Big Tech, AZ, Biden Administration, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Alpha Partners, FTC, DOJ, New York Times, Google, Madrona Venture, Bloomberg Beta, Jefferies

☆ Venture capital's new reality check: 'A ton of people looking to get out everywhere'
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-09 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

PitchBook forecast in a May report that venture firms would raise less than $200 billion in 2024, a 48% drop from the industry's peak in 2021. "They may not see any carry dollars for a long time, maybe into full deployment to the next fund," the growth-stage principal said. AdvertisementBut this type of internal competition, including deal theft and sabotage, has always existed, the growth-stage principal added. 'A ton of people looking to get out everywhere'As the market continues to correct itself, more turnover is likely. "I know a ton of people looking to get out everywhere," the growth-stage principal said.

Persons: —, Michael Moritz, Combinator, they're, Will Champagne, it's, Ellis, Rebecca Zisser, VCs, Junior VCs, there's, Champagne, I'm, inbounds, I've Organizations: Service, Business, TechCrunch, Venture, Bay Area, Big Law, Kirkland, Haize Labs, Area, Junior

☆ Sequoia's Michael Moritz says Trump's Silicon Valley supporters are making a 'big mistake'
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-05 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewWhile some Silicon Valley investors and startup leaders are going red hoping for a more "tech-friendly" White House, Michael Moritz, a storied Sequoia Capital investor, believes that does not reflect the Valley overall. "Fortunately, at least in Silicon Valley, Trump will not prevail," Moritz wrote in a Financial Times opinion piece, which was also posted on LinkedIn. Like the rest of the nation, Silicon Valley is deeply divided over whom to support in the upcoming presidential race. In his piece, Moritz chided Trump supporters in Silicon Valley. Moritz added that Trump had historically not performed well among Silicon Valley voters.

Persons: —, Michael Moritz, Trump, Moritz, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Doug Leone, Shaun Maguire, Roelof Botha, Andreessen Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Fund's Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Chamath, Vance, Sen, JD Vance, Palmer Luckey, Elon Musk, VCs, Kamala, Harris, Vinod Khosla, Reid Hoffman, Mark Cuban, Ron Conway Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn, Business, Google, PayPal, Democratic, Republican, Tech, Trump, VR, Bloomberg, PAC, Street Journal, Netflix, Harris, Politico Locations: Silicon Valley, Sequoia, Park City , Utah, Silicon, Palo Alto , California, Newport Beach , California, Washington ,, Francisco, San Jose

☆ Sybill raised a $11 million Series A to build an AI assistant for sales reps. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck it used.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-30 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AdvertisementSybill helps sales reps by recording every sales call and generating transcriptions and summaries for future reference. By consolidating information from these interactions, Sybill helps sales reps gain a clearer understanding of the customers' budget, stakeholders, and timeline. With Sybill, sales reps can automatically sync information, providing sales leaders with real-time visibility into deals. AdvertisementOther AI sales tools include Gong, an AI-powered revenue intelligence platform that raised $582.9 million, according to PitchBook. The company helps sales leaders forecast revenue and improve team productivity, targeting enterprise customers like ADP and Snowflake.

Persons: —, Gorish Aggarwal, Aggarwal, Nishit Asnani, Soumyarka Mondal, Mehak, salespeople, Sybill, They're, Slack, Gong Organizations: Service, Stanford, Business, Greycroft Capital, Neotribe Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Enterprise, Balto Software Locations: Salesforce, Avoma, Sybill

☆ Multi-agent systems are the next big thing in AI. Here's why VCs at NEA, Mayfield Fund, and Foundation Capital are excited.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-29 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Startups are building AI agents that collaborate to fill out forms, dial customer service reps, and order food delivery. These "multi-agent systems" are the next hot thing, according to investors from NEA, Mayfield Fund, and Foundation Capital. Multi-agent systems are distributed systems of multiple specialized AI agents that work together toward a collective goal. AdvertisementIn contrast, multi-agent systems are built on top of LLMs and are designed to execute a task from start to finish. AdvertisementMayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha is optimistic — AI agents will serve as teammates to workers.

Persons: —, Spike Jonze's, that's, OpenAI's, NEA's Madison Faulkner, Devin, Warren Hui, Nitta, Satya Nitta, Ashpreet Bedi, Faulkner, Mayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha, …, It's Organizations: Service, NEA, Mayfield Fund, Foundation Capital, Business, Soul Ventures, Nvidia Locations: Italy, PitchBook, Japan

☆ Openness in AI is necessary to promote fair and competitive markets, said FTC's Lina Khan
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-25 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"These conditions have allowed, in some instances, the biggest technology companies to get a layup in the AI space," Khan said. In particular, Khan called for AI models' weights to be publicly available. In the age of AI, Khan said both consumers and enterprises are uncertain of their data's protections when using foundation models. "We only focus on deals that have problems…it's a narrow set of deals that satisfy a narrow set of criteria." In March, Microsoft paid $650 million in a licensing deal to Inflection AI, an emerging OpenAI rival, to use its AI models and hire most of its employees.

Persons: —, Lina Khan, Khan, We've, you've, Jonathan Kanter, Kevin Dietsch, Kanter, execs Organizations: Service, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Big Tech, Microsoft, Google, Business, Meta, Antitrust, Department of Justice, DOJ, Apple, Tech, New York VC, YC, Amazon Locations: OpenAI, America

☆ Here's the Pitch Deck Startup Vitable Health Used to Raise $16 Million
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-19 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Vitable Health aims to make healthcare more affordable for hourly employees at small businesses. Joseph Kitonga, the founder and CEO of Vitable Health, saw this problem firsthand through his parents' small business, where only 10% of employees opted for health insurance. The average health insurance premium of $500 per individual and over $1,000 per family is simply too costly for blue-collar hourly employees, said Kitonga. This realization led to the creation of Vitable Health, an affordable digital health plan for small businesses. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, Joseph Kitonga Organizations: Cherryrock Capital, Service, Vitable, Health, Business

Andreessen and Horowitz are the latest and most prominent members of the startup investing community to publicly support Trump. Up until now, there have been pockets of vocal Trump support within Silicon Valley, including conservative provocateur Peter Thiel, the pugnacious hosts of the All-In podcast, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Most of the VCs Business Insider spoke to were unanimously against Kahn. "If it is Biden vs. Trump officially, I think many '"never Trumpers" will go with Trump," said a Bay Area VC.

Persons: —, Andreessen Horowitz, Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, Donald Trump, Sen, JD Vance, Peter Thiel's, Steve Case, Andreessen, Horowitz, provocateur Peter Thiel, Palantir, Joe Lonsdale, Elon Musk, who's, Joe Biden, Vance, Trump, IT'S JD VANCE, WE, MAGA, he's, Bradley Tusk, Chuck Schumer, Tusk, Lina Khan, That's, what's, Kahn, Lina Kahn, Khan, Biden, they're, David Hornik Organizations: Service, The Little, Business, Trump, Wall Street, Founder's Fund, TECH, Democratic, Biden, FTC, SEC, Bay, Republican, Sequoia Capital, Lobby Locations: America, Silicon Valley, New York, Delian, San Francisco, Silicon, There's

☆ Exclusive: AI coding startup Anysphere is raising a new funding round with at least a $400 million valuation from A16z
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-16 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A16z is investing in Anysphere at a valuation of at least $400 million, sources say. Anysphere's investors include OpenAI Startup Fund, Sequoia Capital, and BoxGroup. AdvertisementAnysphere, a startup creating an AI code editor called Cursor, is raising a new funding round with at least a valuation of $400 million from A16z, Business Insider has learned. Founded in 2022, Anysphere last raised $8 million in seed funding at a valuation of $56.5 million, according to PitchBook data. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, Anysphere, Nat Friedman, Arash Ferdowsi Organizations: OpenAI, Sequoia Capital, Service, OpenAI Startup, Business Locations: Anysphere, A16z

☆ Here's the immigration firm that is helping "extraordinary" AI engineers qualify for an H-1B alternative visa
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The US issues just 140,000 employment-based visas and 85,000 H-1B visas a year. The O-1 visa has eight criteria; applicants must meet three out of eight to qualify. "A lot of it is a storytelling exercise about yourself to meet the criteria of the O-1," Wehden said. AdvertisementGabriel Petersson, a Midjourney engineer and high school dropout, initially considered an H-1B visa before realizing it required a college degree. While 85% of the company's petitions have been for O-1 visas thus far, it also supports green card applications.

Persons: —, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Lisa Wehden, Wehden, Lisa, Justin Bieber, Plymouth's, Gabriel Petersson, Petersson, Minn Kim Organizations: Service, Plymouth, Business, Immigrants, Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, Immigration, Employers, O1, Institute for Progress, Schmidt, Emergent Ventures, Talent Mobility Fund Locations: Plymouth, America

This week, the 28-year-old venture capital firm debuted a new pair of funds totaling $2.3 billion, a substantial sum during an abysmal time for the industry's fundraising efforts. The European-born firm is structured in a way that investors across continents invest out of the same funds. The new funds include $800 million to invest at the early stage and $1.5 billion to invest in growth. Those figures are slightly down from the firm's last fundraise, when it collected $900 million for an early-stage fund and $2 billion for a growth fund. That year, Index saw seven portfolio companies go public at a market cap of more than $1 billion, including Roblox and Robinhood.

Persons: —, Nina Achadjian, Sofia Dolfe, Ishani Thakur, Vlad Loktev, Erin Price, Wright, Andreessen, Mark Goldberg, He's, Ethan Kurzweil, Kristina Shen, Mike Volpi, Greycroft Organizations: Service, Ventures, Business, San, Labs, Bessemer Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures Locations: San, West Coast, San Francisco, Index's London, New York, London, Europe

☆ 5 hot spots where San Francisco's startup founders, VCs, and tech workers hang out
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-08 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Here are five "third places" where San Francisco's founders, VCs, and tech workers are gathering. GroundfloorGroundfloor Sri MuppidiFounded in 2021, Groundfloor is a brightly lit community space located in the heart of San Francisco's Mission neighborhood. The space also doubles as a social space. AdvertisementThe Center SFThe Center SF The Center SFThe Center SF is a community hub located in a large Victorian house. The community space is funded entirely by donations.

Persons: —, Francisco, Ray Oldenburg, Sean Ang, Ang, Elizabeth Young, Max Wolff, they've, Zack Wexler, San Francisco Baybay Organizations: Service, Tech, San Francisco, Business, Groundfloor, Club, San, San Francisco Standard, Visitors Locations: San, Hayes Valley, Muppidi, Francisco's, Groundfloor, San Francisco

☆ Software security startup Chainguard is raising a new funding round at a $1.1 billion valuation, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-08 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

It will be valued at $1.1 billion in a new funding round, sources say. AdvertisementChainguard, a startup that boosts the security of customers' software supply chains, is raising a new funding round at a $1.1 billion valuation, Business Insider has learned. The latest fundraise would triple the startup's valuation from its last funding round, a $61 million Series B last November that valued it at $411 million, according to PitchBook data. Founded in 2021, Chainguard's investors include Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital, Amplify Partners, The Chainsmokers' Mantis VC, and Banana Capital. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: — Organizations: Sequoia, Spark, Service, Sequoia Capital, Banana, Business

☆ How Rak Garg became Bain Capital Ventures' youngest partner at just 27 years old in less than 3 years
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-02 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

After spending two years building products at Atlassian, Garg quit his job to start his own company. However, through his efforts to start a company, Garg met Enrique Salem, a board member of Atlassian and partner at Bain Capital Ventures, the multi-stage venture fund managing over $10 billion in assets and a unit of Bain Capital. In response, Garg helped start Atlassian Access, a new identity management product that scaled to thousands of customers. AdvertisementBecoming BCV's youngest partner in under 3 years"I didn't know anything about venture," Garg said. "We are very high-touch in how we work with these companies," Garg said.

Persons: —, Garg, Enrique Salem, Salem, Rak Organizations: Service, Business, Bain Capital Ventures, Bain Capital, BCV, UCLA, Atlassian, Viso Trust, BCV Labs Locations: Atlassian, Delhi, Bay, ideating

☆ AI startup Abnormal Security is set to be valued at $5 billion in new funding round, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-01 | by ( Ben Bergman | Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Abnormal Security uses AI to guard users from cyber threats across email and apps. It is set to be valued at $5 billion in a fresh funding round, according to two sources. The company was valued at $4 billion in a 2022 funding round led by Greylock Partners. AdvertisementAbnormal Security, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to guard users from cyber threats across email and apps, is set to be valued at $5 billion in a fresh funding round, according to two sources familiar with the deal. The company has raised a total of $374 million in venture funding.

Persons: — Organizations: Security, Greylock Partners, Service, Insight Partners, Menlo Ventures, The Syndicate Group, Business

☆ VCs clamor to invest in the red-hot early-stage round for AI safety startup Haize Labs
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-29 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewHaize Labs, an AI safety startup, is raising an early-stage round that investors are clamoring to invest in, Business Insider has learned. However, for hot startups, there can be more investor demand than a startup can accommodate, as with Haize Labs' round. One source indicated that Haize Labs received term sheets with valuations ranging from $30 million to over $100 million. Haize Labs is building automated red-teaming and stress-testing algorithms to identify risks in AI models and agents. AI safety has increasingly become a concern, especially as AI usage increases among both consumers and enterprises.

Persons: —, Leonard Tang, VentureBeat, OpenAI, Sama, Steve Li, Richard Liu, Tang Organizations: Service, Business, Haize, Haize Labs, Soma, Google, Netflix, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Washington Post

But, not all AI startups are created equal. AdvertisementBusiness Insider surveyed nine VCs who invest in AI startups at firms like Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, and Sapphire Ventures. Startups building AI's "picks and shovels" are a better bet than yet another LLMStep aside, OpenAI and Anthropic. In contrast, unstructured data encompasses various formats such as text documents, images, audio files, emails, social media posts, and videos. Some AI investors say they're shying away from point solutions—think online payment processing or project management—in favor of full-stack solutions.

Persons: —, Harvey, Navin Chaddha, Chip Hazard, they're, Kahini Shah, there's, Rak Garg, Garg, Shah, Lauri Moore, Moore, Chaddha, Capital's Moore, she's Organizations: Service, Accel, Business, Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, Sapphire Ventures, Google, Meta, Mayfield Fund, Flybridge Capital Partners, Obvious, Investors, Obvious Ventures, Foundation, Dig Ventures Locations: Mayfield, Hazard, Flybridge

☆ Sequoia-backed security startup Vanta will see its valuation soar past $2 billion in new funding round, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Ben Bergman | Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

It will be valued at more than $2 billion in a new funding round, Business Insider has learned. AdvertisementVanta, a startup that helps companies comply with security standards, is set to be valued at more than $2 billion in a new insider funding round, multiple sources told Business Insider. Vanta was last valued at $1.6 billion in a 2022 funding round led by Craft Ventures on October 12, 2022, according to Forbes. CrowdStrike Holdings, Atlassian Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, Workday Ventures, Acrew Capital, Pioneer Fund, ASDF Ventures, Zag Capital, Sequoia Capital, Frontline Ventures, Y Combinator and LAUNCH Fund also participated in the last round. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, Vanta Organizations: Sequoia, Craft Ventures, Service, Business, Forbes, CrowdStrike Holdings, Atlassian Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, Acrew, Pioneer Fund, ASDF Ventures, Zag, Sequoia Capital, Frontline Ventures Locations: Acrew Capital

☆ Decagon raises $35 million from Accel and A16z to build AI customer support agents. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck it used.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-18 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

AI startup Decagon builds AI agents to automate customer support for enterprise customers. Founded in July 2023, Decagon uses generative AI to automate customer support for enterprise customers. The company has emerged from stealth and raised $35 million in funding for its seed and Series A rounds. Accel led the company's $30 million Series A, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, A*, and Elad Gil. A16z led the company's $5 million seed round.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, —, Jesse Zhang, Ashwin Sreenivas, Zhang, Elad Gil, A16z, Decagon, Aaron Levie, Howie Liu Organizations: Accel, Service, Decagon, Business

☆ The Oakland A's are leaving the city, but a new baseball team is trying to fill the void. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck the Ballers used to raise $2 million.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-17 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewOakland was once home to three major sports teams: the Golden State Warriors, Oakland Raiders, and Oakland Athletics. The Oakland Ballers raised $2 million from 53 individual investors. Before founding the Ballers, Freedman was a serial entrepreneur in the human capital and education sectors. "We're a minor league team in a major league market," Freedman said. Check out the 15-slide pitch deck the Ballers used to raise $2 million:

Persons: —, Paul Freedman, Freedman, Bryan Carmel, " Freedman, Carmel, Michael Fitzgerald, Gagan Biyani, Biyani, Kara Nortman, Angel City, Alexis Ohanian, Serena Williams, Natalie Portman, Williams, Venus, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy Organizations: Service, Golden State Warriors, Oakland Raiders, Oakland Athletics, NBA's Warriors, NFL's Raiders, Las, MLB's Athletics, Business, Oakland, Pioneer League, MLB, Education, A's, Maven, Area, cofounding Angel City Football Club, Angel, TGL Locations: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Oakland, Ireland, Ballers, Los Angeles, Ohanian

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