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Elon Musk seems determined to remake Twitter in his own image — with some help from the men in his trusted inner circle. They are joined in Musk’s orbit by Alex Spiro, a trial attorney with a roster of celebrity clients who reportedly led the first round of Twitter layoffs. Bloomberg reported Wednesday night that Twitter is preparing to eliminate about 3,700 jobs, or roughly half its workforce. Musk's personnel decisions suggest a possible road map for the future of Twitter, one in which policies and internal rules are drawn at least in part from the views of Musk’s consiglieres. Sacks, Calacanis, Spiro and Birchall did not immediately respond to questions about the company’s future and the nature of their roles there.

☆ Andreessen Horowitz is 'betting heavily' on edtech for the next decade, says general partner Katherine Boyle. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Even with edtech funding down this year, A16z is still "betting heavily" on the space. Here's why general partner Katherine Boyle thinks edtech is worth betting on over the next decade. Andreessen Horowitz is still "betting heavily" on education-tech investing, despite signs that overall funding in the space is slowing. Global venture-capital funding to edtech startups has soared since 2019 and saw a marked jump during the pandemic. More recently, though, there have been signs that the rate of edtech investing is slowing down with market uncertainty: PitchBook estimates that total edtech funding for 2022 stands at $7.9 billion as of November 3.

☆ Startups, Investors Bet on Remote Work Future
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Even as more employers signal an end to remote work, tech startups and their investors are betting that it is here to stay, offering a range of digital tools designed to support a permanent workforce outside of the office. “Investors are super-pumped on remote,” Mr. Salam said. “Remote work is a durable phenomenon,” said Ravi Gupta, a partner at Sequoia who led the firm’s investment in Remote. Mr. Riggs said Frameable currently has hundreds of commercial customers, who rent its software with rates varying by the number of users. “I may be a bit biased, but I absolutely believe remote work is here to stay,” said Remote’s Mr. van der Voort.

☆ NBA Top Shot maker Dapper Labs lays off 22% of workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Ian Thomas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Dapper Labs had more than 600 employees before the layoffs, Gharegozlou wrote. Dapper Labs, the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) company known for creating collectible moments around NBA and NFL highlights, is laying off 22% of its company, according to an memo from its CEO. That helped Dapper Labs raise $250 million in a September 2021 funding round led by Coatue, which valued the company at $7.6 billion. However, as broader interest in NFTs has fallen, so too has the popularity of Dapper Labs' platforms. Dapper Labs also has a partnership with Endeavor-owned UFC and Spain's La Liga soccer league.

☆ Shopify's startup investments this year include millions into companies that focus on NFTs, Web3 apps, customer-engagement, and financial services
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

In its press release announcing the new funding, Wati said the investment was Shopify's first in a startup operating in Southeast Asia. The goal is to make Thirdweb's tools available to Shopify merchants who want to bring Web3 products and experiences to their online stores. Shopify recently participated in Gorgias' $30 million Series C round, which valued the startup at $710 million. According to the company, merchants using its technology report a 96% increase in sales on average. Flexport announced it had received a strategic investment from Shopify as part of its $935 million Series E on February 7.

☆ Logistics startup Flexport plans hiring spree, to double engineers in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 2 (Reuters) - Flexport, one of the most valuable logistics startups, is looking to add about 400 engineers to double its technical team by next year, a top company executive told Reuters. Flexport raised $935 million led by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and MSD Partners earlier this year at a valuation of $8 billion. Founded in 2013 by Ryan Petersen, Flexport enables buyers, sellers and their logistics partners to ship, store and trade goods on its digital platform. The expanded team will work on building the core product, and improve the tracking system and add more automation to the platform. Flexport currently has over 3,200 employees across the world, and now has a hybrid work policy, requiring employees to work for two to three days in the office.

☆ Twitter’s C-suite clears out as Musk cements power over the company
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

In less than a week since Musk acquired Twitter, the company’s C-suite appears to have almost entirely cleared out, through a mix of firings and resignations. Musk has also dissolved Twitter’s former board of directors. At the same time, Musk is also running several other companies, including as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Musk immediately fired four of Twitter’s top executives — CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Policy Head Vijaya Gadde. It’s unclear whether VP of Operations Lindsey Iannucci, the other two members of Twitter’s top leadership team, will remain with the company.

☆ Meagan Loyst, the 25-year-old founder of Gen Z VCs, is leaving her investing role at Lerer Hippeau to focus on the online community full-time
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meagan Loyst, an associate at VC firm Lerer Hippeau, is leaving to focus on Gen Z VC full-time. After investing in dozens of founders over the past two years as an associate at venture-capital firm Lerer Hippeau, Meagan Loyst is stepping away to focus on Gen Z VCs, the online community she founded. After getting flooded with responses, she set up a Slack channel to connect around 700 Gen Z founders and investors, and the group has continued to grow since. Through Gen Z VCs, Loyst plans to host networking events in major cities, much like the group's summits in Chicago and Los Angeles last month. She also intends to monetize her own online following as a Gen Z expert through her online newsletter, "The Gen Z POV," video content on TikTok and YouTube, and speaking at summits.

"Number one is that we want to be extremely supportive of free speech," Zhao said at the opening event of Europe's largest tech conference, the Web Summit, in Lisbon, adding that Twitter is "where people express their opinions". "It is an important free speech platform - that's the number one reason," he added. Binance said last week it is creating a team to work on how blockchain and crypto could be helpful to Twitter. "I'm a heavy Twitter user," Zhao said, adding Binance planned to be a long-term investor in the platform. Asked about other ideas Musk has for the platform, Zhao said: "Elon Musk is a very hard guy to predict."

☆ One of Wall Street's most exclusive clubs is about to add a few more members
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It's the most wonderful time of the year... for a select few at Goldman SachsIt's one of the most exclusive clubs on Wall Street, and it's ready to open its doors to an esteemed few. Goldman Sachs is preparing to announce its newest crop of partners in what is the closest thing Wall Street has to a coronation. But, as crazy as this might sound about a bunch of people on Wall Street, it's more than just another zero at the end of your paycheck. Under Solomon, the partnership class has been 69 (in 2018) and 60 (in 2020), down a reasonable amount from the class prior to when Solomon took over (84 in 2016). Here's some advice on how to manage work-life balance on Wall Street from a former rising star at Bank of America.

☆ How fintech super-connector Rex Salisbury went from A16Z's first fintech team hire to solo capitalist with a $20 million debut fund
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Salisbury's deal flow comes from a community of fintech founders he's cultivated over the years. That surprised Salisbury, the lone partner at new fintech firm Cambrian Ventures, given that he'd never met the OatFi founders before. Though, Salisbury defied the first-time fund manager's curse when he closed $20 million for his inaugural fund in June. "I want people to have gotten value in some sense before we invest, or even if we never invest," Salisbury told Insider. When Salisbury left the firm, he took a part of the brand with him.

☆ Crypto exchange Binance, Musk's co-investor, to help Twitter with blockchain
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Darrin Zammit LupiOct 28 (Reuters) - Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange that has invested $500 million into Elon Musk's buyout of Twitter Inc, is creating a team to work on how blockchain and crypto could be helpful to Twitter, the company's spokesperson said on Friday. As one of Elon Musk's equity co-investors to fund his $44 billion deal, Binance said it will brainstorm plans and strategies that could help Elon Musk run the platform. In November 2021, Twitter launched an internal crypto team to build features that involve such technologies. In text messages with confidants that were released as part of the litigation with Twitter, Musk discussed the possibility of placing Twitter on the blockchain, though he later appeared to decide such a move would not work. Binance's Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, is an active Twitter user with over 7 million followers on the platform.

☆ AI tech like Dall-E 2 will eventually kill smartphone apps, A16z VC Peter Levine says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Julie Bort | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The A16z venture capitalist Peter Levine told Insider that apps were heading for obsolescence. Tech like Dall-E 2 and Stable Diffusion that generates AI artwork will have more uses, he said. Peter Levine is best known as a general partner at the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. This, instead, would be a series of AI agents that generate what you ask for when you ask for it. The Andreessen Horowitz general partner Peter Levine.

☆ Andreessen Horowitz Went All In on Crypto at the Worst Possible Time
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Berber Jin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

As cryptocurrency prices soared last year, no investor bet more on the sector than Andreessen Horowitz. The storied venture-capital firm had developed a reputation as Silicon Valley’s greatest crypto bull, thanks largely to a 50-year-old partner named Chris Dixon who was one of the earliest evangelists for how the blockchain technology powering cryptocurrencies could change business. His unit was one of the most-active crypto investors last year, and in May announced a $4.5 billion crypto fund, the largest ever for such investments.

☆ 3 things not to do when pitching your startup to a VC, according to a partner at a $750 million crypto venture firm
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Marc Weinstein, a partner at VC firm Mechanism Capital, has cut 100 checks as an angel investor. The crypto venture firm grew from $500,000 to a peak AUM of $750 million in two years. But venture firms like Mechanism Capital say there are still tons of deals to be made. Founders who are 'catching the latest fad'The Mechanism Capital partner is focused on the team's backgrounds and what they've accomplished in the past. The firm, Weinstein included, looks for a certain level of consistency in their potential portfolio companies.

☆ Meet the wealthy ex-Goldman Sachs junior banker and hedge-fund manager taking over as the UK's new prime minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

We've got famous authors yelling at Jamie Dimon, rich Russians heading to your favorite all-inclusive, and more people complaining about Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse infatuation. The UK has a new prime minister — no, it's not the head of lettuce — and he comes from the world of Wall Street! Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister, officially became prime minister on Tuesday after meeting with King Charles. Sunak's early career reads like a typical Wall Street mogul:-Spend three years working as a junior analyst at a bank (Goldman Sachs). Grenada is proving to be an effective loophole for wealthy Russians looking to get US visas.

☆ Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup takes on mass producing spacecraft
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Los Angeles-based Apex Space, led by co-founders Ian Cinnamon and Max Benassi, wants to better produce spacecraft at scale. "The one element holding everything back is really on the satellite bus side. They enter an increasingly competitive space subsector of satellite bus manufacturing, with the likes of York Space, which recently reached a $1 billion valuation. But Cinnamon says the market standard is still "handmade" spacecraft that take years to evolve from order to design to delivery. "We're not designing a new satellite bus every single time.

☆ Crypto PACs backed by Sam Bankman-Fried, Scaramucci plan last-minute midterm ad blitz
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A network of political action committees supported by cryptocurrency industry leaders are planning a last-minute ad campaign in support of congressional candidates, according to one of the groups' chief strategists. Web3 Forward and Crypto Innovation, two super PACs financed by the crypto executives, are both expected to spend at least six figures on an ad blitz starting in two weeks, the strategist explained. During the primary season, Web3 Forward backed Democrats running for Congress, while Crypto Innovation supported Republicans, according to Federal Election Commission records. The spending by the crypto PACs will add to a flurry of cash flowing in what are expected to be the most expensive midterm elections ever. Former Trump White House communications director and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci donated $100,000 to Crypto Innovation in March, according to an FEC filing.

☆ Famed A16Z VC Peter Levine has donated $5 million to bring startup and company building to climate non-profits
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Julie Bort | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The cohorts will be vetted by the Honnold Foundation and the Çerçioglu will be open sourced. Flash forward to three-years after his surgery, Levine tells Insider that his recovery has been nothing short of a "miracle." The Levine Impact Lab has launched in partnership with the Honnold Foundation – a solar-technology non-profit founded by Levine's friend, renowned rock climber Alex Honnold. The idea is to bring Silicon Valley startup-like training to non-profits, particularly select organizations already involved and vetted by the Honnold Foundation. "Just because you're a non-profit versus a for-profit tech company, everyone runs into the same issues.

☆ Waymo says it plans to launch its self-driving service in Los Angeles
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Waymo said service will first begin with safety drivers behind the wheel and, later, with just Waymo employees as riders. “When we think about our next cities, Los Angeles jumps out,” said Waymo’s co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana in Wednesday's blog post. Alphabet -owned Waymo said Wednesday it plans to expand its self-driving ride-hailing service, Waymo One, to Los Angeles. The self-driving car industry has been slow to progress and live up to lofty promises, but that's especially true of Waymo. Waymo announced plans in March to remove safety drivers for fully-autonomous rides, but those are still only available to Waymo employees, the spokesperson confirmed.

☆ Influencers Are Getting Rich by Hawking Dubious Financial Advice
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

On TikTok and YouTube, "passive income" side-hustles have skyrocketed in popularity. On TikTok and YouTube, influencers are getting rich while spreading dubious financial advice for how to make money fast — and failing to give viewers a full picture of the risks involved. Followers can make hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars in passive income by renting out property, day-trading, or dropshipping, influencers say. Instead, creators sell courses that promise to teach people how earn money through passive income — helping them get rich while selling the dream of easy cash. These financial influencers are drawing in a lot of young people: A recent survey found that 34% of Gen Z consumers obtain financial advice from TikTok, while only 24% of this age group seek advice from financial advisors.

☆ Treasury management startup Payflows raises $5.5 million in round co-led by Coinbase-backer Ribbit Capital
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ribbit Capital has co-led a $5.5 million round into French startup Payflows, Insider understands. Payflows, which is still in stealth mode, is developing treasury management software. Payflows, a fintech startup focused on treasury management, has raised $5.5 million in a round co-led by US investing giant Ribbit Capital, Insider understands. Coinbase and Plaid-backer Ribbit co-led the round, four sources familiar with the deal told Insider. "We are excited to partner with amazing finance teams of top European scale-ups to build the next-gen treasury management software," she said.

Insider found 16 pioneers in the world of biotech venture capital who are shaping the industry. But new investors are joining the ranks of biotech venture capitalists every day, and they're bringing new ideas with them. Insider set out to identify the rising stars writing biotech's next chapter and ended up with a wide-ranging group of 16 investors shaping the industry. According to these people, the 16 names on this list represent some of the brightest minds in the VC world and are using their intellect to shake things up. Here are the 16 rising stars of biotech investing, according to investors, academics, and entrepreneurs.

☆ Marc Andreessen on the best investment advice he's ever received and 4 other money insights
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( David Rubenstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Marc Andreessen: From Warren Buffett, probably: Put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket. Marc Andreessen: People read about something in the paper, see it on TV, and take a flyer without deeply understanding it. Marc Andreessen: For most forms of investing, the mistakes are the investments you make where you lose money. David Rubenstein: If somebody wants to be a venture capital investor, what would you like them to know most about the art of` venture capital investing? Marc Andreessen: It's an alchemy of understanding people, understanding technology, understanding markets.

☆ The female venture capitalist creating billions in a new world of work beyond the office
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Rebecca Fannin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Worklife Ventures holds weekly meetings for its portfolio company founders to seek advice from successful Silicon Valley operators. You have to have an eye out for people and for new tools," Kimmel said. Worklife Ventures is betting on good returns from its 50 investments in startups, and with nine of them as unicorns, the stakes are high. With venture funds typically having a 10-year life cycle before investment returns are tallied, Worklife Ventures still has a ways to go. Join us October 25 - 26, 2022 for the CNBC Work Summit — Dislocation, Negotiation, and Determination: The World of Work Right Now.

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