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☆ Exclusive: Buzzy generative AI-powered search engine Perplexity AI taps NEA to lead funding round at a $150 million valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AI search engine startup Perplexity AI is raising a funding round led by NEA, Insider has learned. The deal aims to raise between $20 and $25 million at a $150 million post-money valuation, according to sources. The fundraise continues the trend of large rounds and valuations in the buzzy generative AI space. AI search engine startup Perplexity AI is in talks to raise a funding round led by NEA, according to three people with knowledge of the financing who were not authorized to speak publicly. Perplexity AI cofounder and CEO Aravind Srinivas declined to comment.

☆ These are the 13 healthcare startups that have already laid off employees in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Digital health startups are laying off employees in droves to cut spending in a tough market. These are the 13 healthcare startups to slash staff so far in 2023. Digital health layoffs have been on the rise since last year. Thirteen digital health startups have already cut staff less than two months into 2023. Here are the digital health startups that have cut staff so far in 2023, as of February 28:Have a tip about digital health layoffs that you want to share?

☆ $7 billion startup Carta has been embroiled in multiple lawsuits with former employees. Allegations in legal documents depict a CEO who can be retaliatory and volatile.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Carta, a Silicon Valley darling valued at more than $7 billion, has been embroiled in multiple lawsuits with former employees that named Henry Ward, its CEO and cofounder. Meanwhile, the company is separately suing Jerry Talton, the chief technology officer whom it fired and who was deposed as a witness in the Kramer case. Carta alleges he made secret recordings of company executives and shared them with former female employees who were in legal disputes with the company. And now that the Kramer case has been settled, the complaints from other employees included in the lawsuit may never see the light of day. Lawyers for Talton are expected to file an answer to the company's lawsuit by March 15.

☆ Investors and techies gather in San Francisco to bathe in generative A.I. hype sparked by ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

They were there to discuss the latest craze capturing the attention of the tech world: generative artificial intelligence. The underlying AI software powering ChatGPT, a kind of machine-learning technology known as a "large language model," isn't new. As Bessemer Venture Partners' Sameer Dholakia told audience members, generative AI could change "the lives of billions of people." Blackwell credits OpenAI and ChatGPT with showing people what's possible with generative AI, shining a spotlight on the industry at large. But for one day in San Francisco, generative AI was more than just a tool.

☆ These are the 12 healthcare startups that have already laid off employees in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Digital health startups are laying off employees in droves to cut spending in a tough market. These are the 12 healthcare startups to slash staff so far in 2023. Digital health layoffs have been on the rise since last year. Twelve digital health startups have already cut staff less than two months into 2023. Here are the digital health startups that have cut staff so far in 2023, as of February 15:Have a tip about digital health layoffs that you want to share?

☆ Billionaire investor Marc Andreessen warns remote work is 'not a good life' for young workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marc Andreessen said remote work has "detonated" the role of office relationships in people's lives. The billionaire said during a summit that young remote workers are "cut off from everything." It's not the first time Andreessen has addressed the rise of remote work. Last year, he said remote work could cause an "earthquake" in how we live. In 2021, he said in a blog post that remote work was "a consequence of the internet that's maybe even more important than the internet."

☆ Here's a look at 14 fintech startups that are tackling healthcare's money problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A new wave of startups are tackling financial issues within the healthcare space. Here are 14 fintech-healthtech startups that have raised money from VCs. "If you're thinking about building fintech that really helps the average consumer, a big piece of the wallet is healthcare spend," she told Insider in an interview. From the employee-benefits platform Budgie to the wellness credit card Ness, Insider has compiled a list of startups building at the intersection of fintech and healthtech. Check out Insider's list of 14 startups at the intersection of fintech and healthtech.

☆ Twitter suffers 'massive outage' under Elon Musk leaving users unable to tweet, message and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Twitter users on Wednesday were suddenly unable to tweet, direct message, or use other features. The ability to tweet, retweet, quote tweet and direct message on Twitter, each core functions of the platform, stopped for many users on Wednesday. By Wednesday afternoon Pacific Time, tweeting and likes were functioning again for many users, while the ability to direct message and retweet was still out. Fortune reported that Musk message earlier on Wednesday. A former Twitter executive previously told Insider how Twitter was likely to degrade over time, not simply implode all at once.

☆ Check out the bare-bones pitch deck that AI-powered text editor Macro used to raise $9.3 million from Andreessen Horowitz
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It raised $9.3 million in a round of seed funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Investors have bought into the idea with a $9.3 million seed round, led by Andreessen Horowitz's Kristina Shen and Zeya Yang. When Macro set out to raise a seed round, Andreessen Horowitz's name floated to the top of the list of dream investors. Macro wants to become the "default" app for handling documents, Beckerman said, without scrambling the Microsoft file format on which millions of people rely. Read the pitch deck that Macro used to convince Andreessen Horowitz to leads its $9.3 million seed round.

☆ WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann suggests tenants in his apartments will plunge their own clogged toilets because they'll feel like owners
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Adam Neumann said renters in Flow apartments will plunge their own toilets. Neumann spoke at a conference about how Flow wants to create a sense of ownership for renters. During the conference, Neumann said the goal of Flow was to make the resident feel valued. "If you're in an apartment building and you're a renter and your toilet gets clogged, you call the super," Neumann said. Neumann said during the conference he wanted Flow apartments to provide an "elevated experience" and a "community" to tenants.

☆ TripActions Rebrands as Navan, Adds ChatGPT to Expense Reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

TripActions, a business-travel software startup, plans to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT capabilities across its online platform, an effort aimed at seizing market share by making expense reports easier to use. That way, the expense report is generated during the trip as expenses are incurred, Mr. Cohen said. “Generally, software in the business-to-business space is designed to serve the company,” rather than the employees, Mr. Cohen said. “Using AI helps you create the kind of software that I’m talking about,” Mr. Cohen said. PREVIEWSAP Concur has also begun using AI in its travel and expense software, which can “tap decades of expense data and experience tracking to identify hard-to-detect spend issues and anomalies,” said Charlie Sultan, president of Concur Travel.

☆ Exclusive: Carta settles lawsuit with former female executive who claimed gender discrimination and illegal retaliation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Carta, facing allegations of discrimination and retaliation, had been scheduled to go to court in February. A lawsuit brought by former Vice President of Growth Emily Kramer alleging gender discrimination and illegal retaliation was settled on February 6 in California Superior Court, according to a court filing. While the Kramer case has now been settled, Carta is still involved in other legal disputes and facing complaints of gender discrimination. Carta's "No assholes policy"According to the lawsuit, Kramer was recruited by Carta CEO and co-founder Henry Ward in 2018 to serve as Carta's head of marketing. As part of her job, Kramer led the company's high-profile campaign to raise awareness about the gender equity gap in Silicon Valley.

☆ Elon Musk is changing Twitter so much, even investor Marc Andreessen is getting upset and complained to him directly
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Issues with how Twitter looks and operates have been frequent since billionaire Elon Musk took over. Investor Marc Andreessen invested in Musk's takeover and is said to have complained directly to him. Twitter CEO Elon Musk is pushing so many changes to the social media site so fast that high profile users, Musk fans, and even some of his investors are complaining. Representatives of Twitter and Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to requests for comment. "Musk knows it's bad right now, but it's going to get better over time," a person familiar with Twitter said.

☆ The 15 billion-dollar healthcare startups facing a make-or-break year in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Billion-dollar healthcare startups could take a hit to their valuations if they fundraise this year. These are the 15 highest-valued healthcare startups that could be hit by the market contraction. Throughout the year, 85 healthcare companies hit valuations of $1 billion or higher worldwide, according to CB Insights. Of the 15 startups with the highest valuations in healthcare, 11 companies haven't announced funding rounds since 2021. Here are the 15 highest-valued healthcare startups to watch.

☆ Inside digital health's reckoning, where once-hot startups are suddenly scrambling for cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Analysts and CEOs told Insider more than half of healthcare startups will shut down by 2024. Healthcare startups looking to stay afloat have been laying off employees left and right. The online pharmacy Truepill burned through its cash as it struggled to fill prescriptions efficiently, two former employees told Insider. A spokesperson for Truepill told Insider in an email that the company's burn rate was in line with its projections. Courtesy NOCDWhile the broader economic pressures will hurt many startups that can't raise, it may help others, experts told Insider.

☆ Take a look at all the photos from Insider's celebration of Wall Street's rising stars
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

David Haber, left, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, chatted with Marco DeMeireles, who left The Chernin Group last year to launch venture firm Ansa Capital. Crystal Cox/InsiderHaber was featured on our 2019 list after he sold his lending startup, Bond Street, to Goldman Sachs. DeMeireles was featured in 2021. Read more here.

☆ Elon Musk says it's easy for him to get investment support because he has an 'extremely good' track record
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk said his "extremely good" track record made getting investment support easy, per AP. Musk said he had "no ill motive" by tweeting his "funding secured" tweet in 2018, AP reported. During a trial over accusations that Musk committed securities fraud, he said: "It is relatively easy for me to get investment support because my track record is extremely good," per AP. Recently in court, Musk testified that he had "no ill motive" and his "intent was to do the right thing for all shareholders," AP reported. Musk said in court on January 24 he could have sold enough SpaceX stock to fund a Tesla buyout.

☆ Exclusive: 3 of Carta's top executives filed complaints about gender discrimination and retaliation in a matter of months
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Three former employees filed complaints alleging gender discrimination at Carta. In a statement she told Insider that she was not fired and did not leave the company due to any gender discrimination issues. "I do not feel that I experienced any gender discrimination or any unfair or sexist treatment during my employment at Carta," she said in the statement. Shortly after Johnson's firing, Carta's chief technology officer, Jerry Talton, filed a complaint with Carta's board expressing concerns about her termination and about larger issues of gender discrimination and retaliation at the company. Carta's internal investigationFollowing Talton's complaint, Carta hired the white-shoe law firm Paul, Weiss to investigate the claims, a person familiar with the matter said.

☆ I Outsourced My Memory: How to Remember Everything You Have Read Online
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

No matter what or how much I read online, my mind can't help but forget it shortly after. Because of this, multiple studies found that participants who read offline performed better in comprehension, concentration, and recall than participants who read online. In the three weeks I spent with the app, I found it was effective at helping me remember things, but it comes with a catch: Using a memory tool like this has the potential to make your biological memory worse over time. While Heyday's browser tool behaved like a memory assistant, its website felt like a snapshot of my online memory. But given the mounting volume of text we read online, perhaps we have already passed the point of no return.

To identify the most important VCs in LA, Insider surveyed more than 75 local investors. Nearly 4,000 venture-backed startups hoping to be the next household-name company called LA home in 2022, according to Telstra Ventures. VCs closed 1,311 deals in LA worth $23 billion in 2022, trailing only the Bay Area and New York, according to PitchBook. To identify the most important VCs in LA, Insider surveyed more than 75 local investors and sought input from its editorial team. Here are 2023's most important VCs in LA, organized alphabetically by the investor's first name.

☆ EQRx promised to deliver cutting-edge drugs at half the cost of rivals. A cofounder shares why the once buzzy biotech is walking away from that mission
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After years of touting the idea of radically lower drug prices, EQRx has walked away from that plan. Cofounder Alexis Borisy said it was due to the FDA not OK'ing drugs based only on Chinese data. EQRx suddenly sounded like a typical biotech company, talking of "market-based pricing" that would "maximize value for shareholders." EQRx's stock is down over 75% since its record-breaking SPACAlexis Borisy, EQRx Chairman, and CEO Melanie Nallicheri. An unclear future for 'radically lower drug prices'EQRx CEO Melanie Nallicheri EQRxIn November, EQRx said it wouldn't pursue radically lower pricing for its first two drug candidates, both cancer therapies.

☆ I quit the NFL to trade Pokémon cards. I was making just as much playing football, so I decided to do something I love.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Nathan Rennolds | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Martinez, 29, retired from the NFL in November 2022 to trade Pokémon cards. I first got involved with Pokémon cards when I was 6. We ended up doing a box break on Whatnot, and we turned $50,000 worth of Pokémon cards into $108,000 in that first show. That's what I try to tell the team — you're in control on that screen. cards, sports cards, shoes, and clothes.

☆ Football and Finances: NFL's Ndamukong Suh teaches kids money smarts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Chris Taylor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

That would be Ndamukong Suh, 36, an American football star who strikes fear into the hearts of opposing teams. Some NFL players and other well-paid professional athletes run into money troubles after their playing careers end. But Suh did fall into a typical money trap early in his career, spending more than he should have. Personally I made the mistake of going out to nightclubs and spending $25,000 to $50,000, versus taking that money and investing it." It is his hope that beyond the current target cities, the money smarts initiative with Intuit will go global.

☆ Crypto tokens were once considered a fast track to riches for Web3 startup founders. Now some aren't bothering to launch them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Crypto tokens were once a quick way for Web3 founders to cash in. Just over a year ago, Web3 startups regularly raised money by selling their own cryptocurrencies directly to the public. But now, the crypto crash has made it an inauspicious time for them to launch tokens. Common has since postponed its token launch indefinitely. Georgen said that his aspirations to launch tokens weren't primarily motivated by cashing in.

☆ This a16z-backed startup wants to make it easier for designers to create interactive, animated graphics. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck Rive used to raise $10 million from Two Sigma Ventur
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rive offers designers and developers a tool to create animated, interactive graphics. Brothers Guido and Luigi Rosso cofounded the graphic design startup in 2016. Currently, design processes are inefficient, with engineers forced to rebuild mockups that designers create in tools like Figma, Guido Rosso told Insider. To that point, Rive also offers open-source libraries to load and run Rive graphics across a variety of destinations, including apps, games, and websites. Here's an exclusive look at the 10-slide pitch deck Rive used to raise $10 million in Series A funding from Two Sigma Ventures:

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