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☆ Watch CNBC's full interview with Craft Ventures Co-Founder David Sacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWatch CNBC's full interview with Craft Ventures Co-Founder David SacksDavid Sacks, Craft Ventures co-founder and partner, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to discuss recent legal rulings in the Big Tech space including this week's Supreme Court ruling in favor of Big Tech, Montana's decision to ban TikTok and more.

☆ Banning TikTok at a state level 'doesn't make sense', says Craft Ventures' David Sacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBanning TikTok at a state level 'doesn't make sense', says Craft Ventures' David SacksDavid Sacks, Craft Ventures co-founder and partner, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to discuss recent legal rulings in the Big Tech space including this week's Supreme Court ruling in favor of Big Tech, Montana's decision to ban TikTok and more.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil, which helps businesses automate paperwork, used to raise $5 million from Craft Ventures and Alphabet's Gradient Ventures
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It raised an additional $5 million for its Series A round from Craft Ventures and Gradient Ventures. Insider has an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil used to raise the new funds. Three years ago, he set out to raise fresh capital for his startup, Anvil, which helps businesses create documents from data. In 2020, Craft Ventures heard Ng's pitch and passed. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil used to raise an additional $5 million:

Greg Becker, who was the longtime CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, pictured last year. "Looks like Silicon Valley Bank is in some deep shit," Uncommon Capital general partner Jamie Quint tweeted. Startup founders scrambled to get their funds out of Silicon Valley Bank after its collapse. Andreessen Horowitz announced this week that it will continue banking with Silicon Valley Bank "for the foreseeable future" but is crafting a longer-term plan to diversify. Even so, he added, "I think we'd be supportive, as they stabilize, for them to be one of many partners that our founders bank with."

☆ Here's how a serial founder and former US diplomat raised $25 million to create a crypto superapp — and why it's gotten backing from investors like JetBlue and the Winklevoss twins
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Kresus, which is building a crypto superapp, has raised $25 million led by Liberty City Ventures. Traina's company, Kresus, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Liberty City Ventures, the company's first round of financing, to bring that vision of a crypto superapp to fruition. JetBlue Ventures, Craft Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Gemini cofounders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss also participated in the round. That track record helped win over Liberty City Ventures, whose portfolio includes the Web3 companies Animoca Brands, BlockApps, BitGo, and The Sandbox. James Lang, a managing director at Liberty City, told Insider that the quality of Kresus' team stood out among similar companies he'd reviewed.

☆ Amazon's VC arm leads $20 mln funding at entertainment firm Superplastic
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 15 (Reuters) - Entertainment company Superplastic said on Wednesday it had raised $20 million in a funding round led by the venture capital arm of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) as it looks to expand its universe of digital characters. The latest cash infusion, a Series A extension, takes Superplastic's total funding to $58 million, the company said. Other investors that participated in the funding round include Craft Ventures, Google Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Kering, Sony Japan, Scribble Ventures, Kakao, Animoca Brands, Day One Ventures and Betaworks. Superplastic sells toys, apparel and non-fungible tokens in collaboration with brands, including Gucci, Fortnite, Mercedes-Benz, Tommy Hilfiger and celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Post Malone and The Weeknd. Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi MajumdarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 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.

☆ Elon Musk reportedly dismissed his Twitter takeover buddy David Sacks during a meeting that was 'too technical' for him
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk dismissed David Sacks from a meeting he said was "too technical," The Verge reported. "David, this meeting is too technical for you," Musk said, according to an anonymous engineer who attended the meeting and spoke to The Verge. Sacks, Musk, and a spokesperson for Twitter did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication. Despite Musk deeming the meeting "too technical" for Sacks, the anonymous engineer appeared to doubt Musk's own technical understanding. "I was writing C programs in the '90s," Musk told the engineer when she attempted to explain the company's data-center efficiency.

☆ Pitch Decks That Advertising Tech Startups Used to Raise Millions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Business Insider | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

Check out these pitch decks that they've used to sell their vision and raise millions from private equity and VC investors. Blocking ad fraudAdtech startup Lunio, announced a $15 million Series A funding round in September 2022. In May 2022, the software-as-a-service startup raised a $30 million Series B round, led by Insight Partners. Marketing in the metaverseAnima, an augmented-reality startup, raised a $3 million funding round from investors in Janury. He raised $50 million in Series D after closing a $34 million Series C last year, bringing its total raised to $100 million.

☆ After Twitter users voted to oust Elon Musk as CEO, he wants to change how polls work
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —When Elon Musk polled Twitter users about whether to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account, he quickly followed through on the majority’s wish to do so. But since a clear majority of Twitter users voted for Musk to step down as Twitter CEO in another poll on Sunday, Musk has remained conspicuously (and uncharacteristically) silent. After one Twitter user said, “Blue subscribers should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls,” Musk responded, “Good point. There is no successor.”CNBC reported Tuesday that Musk is “actively searching” for a new Twitter CEO, citing anonymous sources. The most obvious potential candidates for a new Twitter CEO are the Musk lieutenants who have been helping to run the company since his takeover.

☆ Main Street is buying stocks while Wall Street sells: What gives?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But not all traders are on the same ride — the large, institutional investors on Wall Street have shuffled away from markets while Main Street’s retail investors are still strapped in. But despite this year’s lackluster market, investors bought $800 billion of Exchange Traded Funds which are baskets of stocks typically purchased by retail investors. However, Main Street is holding on to its stocks while Wall Street is running for the hills. One simple explanation is that institutional investors are responsible for vast amounts of money that belong to other people. “Respect, for retail investors, is in short supply,” wrote Azalea Micottis at Informa Financial Intelligence, in a recent note.

☆ Elon Musk voted out as CEO of Twitter by poll he created
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Washington CNN —A Twitter poll created by Elon Musk asking whether he should “step down as head of Twitter” ended early Monday morning with most respondents voting in the affirmative. But Tesla shares were up 5% in premarket trading after the poll results were revealed. After taking over Twitter, Musk dissolved the company’s board and its C-Suite emptied out. As the sole board director and owner of the company, Musk can appoint the next CEO – and also tell that person what to do in the role. Shortly after Musk posted his latest poll, Calacanis posted a poll of his own asking who should take over as Twitter’s next CEO: himself, Sacks, or Calacanis and Sacks together as co-CEOs.

☆ Here’s who Elon Musk could pick to be Twitter’s next CEO
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —Elon Musk may soon be on the lookout for a new chief executive to run Twitter. There is no successor.”If Musk were to look for a new Twitter CEO, he’d likely have many willing takers. Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder, CEO of Block and friend to Musk, has previously said he would not return to run the social network. The most obvious potential candidates for a new Twitter CEO are the Musk lieutenants who have been helping to run the company since his takeover. Who is insane enough to run twitter?!?

☆ Why tech insiders are so excited about ChatGPT, a chatbot that answers questions and writes essays
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Lately, Zwingmann has been generating lecture notes using ChatGPT, a new chatbot that's quickly become the latest fad in tech. ChatGPT automatically generates text based on written prompts in a fashion that's much more advanced and creative than the chatbots of Silicon Valley's past. Five days after OpenAI released ChatGPT, Altman said that the chat research tool "crossed 1 million users!" ChatGPT is essentially a variant of OpenAI's popular GPT-3.5 language-generation software that's been designed to carry conversations with people. While ChatGPT is free, OpenAI sells access to its underlying language and related AI models for businesses to use.

☆ SpaceX, Tesla, and Boring Company execs are helping Elon Musk at Twitter, records reveal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Ever since, he has enlisted high-ranking executives and engineers from his other businesses, including SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company, to help out at the social media company, according to internal records obtained by CNBC and conversations with recent Twitter employees. Musk has also enabled partners from investment firms who participated in the Twitter buyout access to work within the social media company. In his testimony, Musk characterized Tesla employees' work for him at Twitter as "just a voluntary thing." He also said: "This was sort of an after-hours, just if you're interested in evaluating the -- helping me evaluate Twitter engineering, that would be nice. In addition to Tesla employees, Musk has also enlisted execs and employees from SpaceX, the reusable rocket and satellite internet services company he founded in 2002, to help him at Twitter.

☆ Check out the pitch document martech startup Primer used to raise $12 million from Elon Musk's top advisor, Salesforce Ventures, and others
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Elizabeth Pham Janowski | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marketing tech startup Primer wants to help business-to-business marketers make sense of fragmented data sources. The company just raised a $12 million Series A round, led by Craft Ventures. Primer's tools allow marketers to apply filters across all these datasets to search for more targeted audiences. With Primer's tools, companies are able to hone in on hyper-specific audiences — like women founders with stores on Shopify, or brand managers who work in the media industry. Scroll down for key slides from the Notion document that Primer used to raise its funds.

☆ Meet the members of Elon Musk's inner circle said to be helping him fix Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Picked from Musk's inner circle of allies, friends, and ex-colleagues, these are the people reportedly helping him fix Twitter. Three days after Musk's acquisition, Krishnan tweeted that he was temporarily "helping out" Musk after the takeover. Sources told Insider he was listed on Twitter's company directory as a staff software engineer and was assigned a company email address. Bloomberg reported that Birchall played a key part in securing the financing for Musk's Twitter purchase. Over the past week, Musk's right-hand man has also been among the team strategizing inside Twitter, per The Washington Post.

☆ The 6 most interesting quotes from the podcast hosted by Elon Musk's friends that Twitter staff were reportedly told to listen to amid layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some Twitter staff were told to listen to a podcast hosted by Elon Musk's associates, Platformer reported. A Twitter VP reportedly told staff it would provide insight into why layoffs were necessary. David Sacks and Jason Calacanis — two of Musk's close associates who have stepped in to help him at Twitter — also cohost the show. 'Just helping a friend'During the podcast, Sacks and Calacanis attempted to clarify their new roles at Twitter. It later emerged that they were likely practical jokers pretending to be laid off Twitter staff.

☆ Twitter reportedly ready to cut about 3,700 employees
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter employees are expecting a 50% overall reduction in force after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took the reins of the social network last week. Gracias is a long-time investor in Musk's other companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, and was a Tesla board member. A calendar item for the reduction in force related meeting was made widely visible, possibly accidentally, to employees at Twitter on their internal systems. As CNBC previously reported, Musk quickly brought many trusted advisors and employees from his other companies into Twitter to advise him on next steps after the deal closed last week. After acquiring Twitter for $44 billion last week, Musk is scrambling to improve margins, including by slashing headcount and operating expenses and finding new ways to generate revenue.

☆ 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.

☆ A 'magic' new AI tech has become the hottest thing in Silicon Valley, VCs said. Here's why everyone's watching 'generative artificial intelligence.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The field of generative AI, or AI that can create content, has recently exploded in popularity. Generative AI's rise to popularitySimply put, generative AI refers to artificial intelligence that can create content. Tech advancements over the past few years — specifically transformer and diffusion models — have made generative AI possible. AI models refer to the training and deployment of algorithms on a dataset. "I don't see generative AI today through its early use cases demanding any of those budgets quite yet."

☆ How security questionnaire startup SecurityPal raised $21 million from investors like Craft Ventures and a GP at Andreessen Horowitz without a pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

SecurityPal helps companies complete security questionnaires using automation and human analysts. The startup raised a $21 million Series A round from Craft and a16z investors without a pitch deck. Hamal is the founder and CEO of SecurityPal, a security questionnaire startup that recently raised $21 million in Series A funding from Craft Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Martin Casado, and other angel investors. SecurityPal aids companies in filling out security questionnaires using a combination of automation and human security analysts. Hamal told Insider that the round came together from inbound investor interest and without the use of a pitch deck.

☆ Twitter says an Elon Musk ally is trying to 'flip Twitter the bird' and dodge legal requests over his involvement in the $44 billion deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-30 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is arguing that Sacks and his companies could have key details on Elon Musk's decision to back out of his purchase. Twitter said the motion to quash the subpoenas "serves no apparent purpose beyond satisfying Sacks' desire to flip Twitter the bird." 'Off-the-cuff'In the podcast Twitter references, Sacks appears to mock the social media company's legal team. Twitter's initial subpoena referenced several of Sack's tweets, including one in which he provides a checklist for the next CEO of Twitter. Most recently, Musk's legal team is attempting to amend its initial counterclaims against Twitter's lawsuit.

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