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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
"What we are opposed to is building a regulatory regime that guts our government and pulls out safeties so that the system can't withstand itself and it collapses and therefore the wealth in the system is aggregated to only a few and we become an oligopoly society like Russia," he said. Stephen DeBerry. VCs for Kamala/Zoom
Persons: Stephen DeBerry, VCs, Kamala, Zoom Locations: Russia
We asked top venture capitalists to name the most promising US startups so far in 2024. VCs named portfolio companies as well as startups that they have no financial ties to. Go to newsletter preferences Thanks for signing up! download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementThere's an adage in venture capital that great companies are born out of hard times.
Persons: VCs, , Uber Organizations: Service, Business
Executives from Google, Netflix, and OpenAI are throwing a fundraiser for Kamala Harris. Go to newsletter preferences Thanks for signing up! download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . Then came a series of events that shows Kamala Harris still has friends in high-tech places. It started with LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman declaring his support for Harris the same day that Biden ended his campaign.
Persons: Kamala Harris, , Donald Trump, Reid Hoffman, Harris, Biden, Reed Hastings, Kamala Organizations: Google, Netflix, Service, LinkedIn, Business Locations: Washington ,, Silicon Valley
Anu Duggal, a founding partner of Female Founders Fund, launched the event during the pandemic to assuage some of the loneliness founders felt. AdvertisementEmily Middleton and Anu Duggal of Female Founders Fund share a laugh onstage during their opening remarks. Yumi Matsuo StudioSince its pandemic beginnings, Camp FFF has evolved into a rare and necessary sanctuary where female founders can connect and sometimes commiserate. Yumi Matsuo StudioIn the tasting room, guests set down cups of cold brew and picked up notebooks before taking their seats. Anu Duggal of Female Founders Fund traded the venture capital uniform of a Patagonia fleece vest for a flamingo-pink pantsuit.
Persons: , Candace Bushnell, Anu Duggal, Lydia Fenet, Emily Middleton, Yumi Matsuo, Middleton, ChatGPT, Poppy Harlow, Kyle Leahy, Glossier's, Emily Weiss, Leahy, Taylor Swift, Matsuo, Arey, Allison Conrad, Melanie Goldey, Amanda E, J Morrison, Julie Products, Hayley Barna, Barna, Birchbox, Christie Horvath, Horvath, Stephanie Horton, Marina Organizations: Service, Fund, FFF, Business, Tally Health, Google Locations: Southampton , New York, Patagonia
Eyes closed, she listened as the Mercato Partners cofounder Greg Warnock stepped into the living room of his houseboat. Before starting Mercato, Warnock bought a large stake in a chemical-distribution business and made his first few millions in the acquisition. For an aspiring investor in Silicon Slopes, Mercato Partners seemed the place to be. They say the complaints from female Mercato employees are emblematic of religious and social norms that place women in the home. Mercato Partners no longer promotes Savory Fund or Prelude on its website following an organizational shake-up.
Persons: Powell, Elizabeth Moore, Greg Warnock, Moore, Warnock, Melia Russell, Jim Dreyfous, Paul Ahlstrom, Mercato, Emma Jackson, Elizabeth Moore's, Lake Powell, Mr, Staci, McCubbins, feely, David Bateman, Bateman's, Josh James, James, machismo, David McNew, Alan Hall, Jackson, wouldn't, Matthew Ashton, something's, massages, Melissa Walred, Walred, Greg, There's, gleeful Warnock, he'd untangle, Joe Kaiser, Ryan Sanders —, Savory, Warnock's, Davis Warnock, Davis, Victor Charlie, Larry H, TMRS, Staci McCubbins, Rosalie Chan Organizations: Mercato, Business, Lambda, Mercato Partners, BI, Opportunity, Thermal, vSpring, Beehive State, Getty, Pelion Venture Partners, Miller Company, Missouri State Employees, System, Nationwide Insurance, Family Insurance, Los, Employees, Association, Saudi Aramco, Google, Facebook Locations: Utah, Mercato, Lake, Coachella, Powell, Beehive, Silicon Slopes, Salt Lake City, Cottonwood Heights, Tibet, Missouri, Texas, Los Angeles, Saudi
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
In today's big story, we're looking at how new AI tools are helping workers bluff their way through interviews . Some people have built homemade AI tools to help interviewees, releasing them online for free. A startup developing AI-powered tools for job seekers, Final Round AI offers an AI résumé builder, a cover letter writing service, and a mock interview tool. He's not the only one looking to AI to change the interview process. Others say banning AI chatbots in interviews is like prohibiting calculators during math tests — if workers can use the tech in their jobs, why not in the interview process, too?
Persons: , I'm Jordan Parker Erb, Dan DeFrancesco, Alo, They're, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Rob Price, Michael Guan, He's, Rebecca Zisser, Rob, BI's Melia Russell, Melia, Guan, Jerome Powell, William McChesney Martin, Powell, Chip Somodevilla, Joe Biden's, Howard, Alan Howard's, Brevan Howard, Tyler Le, Francisco's, Leonid Shteyn, execs, Joe Arden, Joe Biden, Harvey Weinstein, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, Annie Smith, Amanda Yen, Lisa Ryan Organizations: Service, Business, Reserve Bank, Markets, Getty, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Apple, of America, Paramount, NATO, Prosecutors Locations: Silicon Valley, Washington , DC, U.S, New York, London
Read previewLast year's dearth of capital for startups forced many founders to stretch their cash runways. Efficiency is a hallmark of any good business, but Tom Loverro, an investor at 44-year-old Bay Area venture capital firm IVP, thinks startup founders should step off the brake pedal. The venture capitalist who rightly predicted a "mass extinction event for startups" over a year ago now says the worst is behind us. "We're on the cusp of a Great Reawakening for startups," Loverro wrote in a LinkedIn post. Given that the cloud software market is stabilizing and venture funding is available again to the best-in-breed startups, Loverro is telling startups with sound unit economics to increase their cash burn to speed up progress.
Persons: , Tom Loverro, Loverro, shutdowns, Darwin, Ball, That's, Uber Organizations: Service, IVP, Business, Autonomy, TechCrunch, LinkedIn Locations: Stockholm
She's now selling her startup to WakeCap, a Saudi Arabia-based company that has contracts with many of the kingdom's construction megaprojects such as "desert cities." Instead, Eisnor exited early, selling her startup to help it scale faster. WakeCapBuilt toughFor nine years, Eisnor had a front-row seat at a tech rocketship, Waze, the Israeli-born maps and navigation company. "There is a reality in construction software that a lot of the names that you might know, they're going to be hovering around, say, $10 million in ARR. Eisnor is staying on as chief strategy officer, and Crews by Core's chief technology officer, Gene Gutnik, now leads tech for the combined company.
Persons: Ann Eisnor, Crews, Eisnor, I'm, Caterina Fake's, Hassan Albalawi, Albalawi, Kajima, , WakeCap's Albalawi, they're, Gene Gutnik, WakeCap Organizations: Service, Business, NFX, GV, Google, McKinsey & Company, Autodesk, Core, Core's Locations: Saudi Arabia, United States, Saudi, Silicon, Silicon Valley, Israeli, hyperscale, WeWork
Fearing the dreaded technical interview, Kyle hit the books harder than a high school junior studying for the SAT. It turns out Silicon Valley is engaged in a raucous debate over the use of artificial intelligence in technical interviews. Those in favor say banning chatbots in technical interviews is like prohibiting calculators in math tests. AdvertisementThe technical interview is open bookPeople close to the interview process say companies are already changing their tests to avoid cheating. Big Tech's reluctanceIn Big Tech, companies are so far opting out of chatbots in technical interviews.
Persons: , Kyle, Tammy Han, Santosh Sankar, Cristina Cordova, Ram Sriharsha, doesn't, Zeta, Kevin Hopkins, Aline Lerner, Lerner, Yossi Kahlon, Kahlon, Mang, Ng, Amanda Richardson, Akmen, Richardson, Tigran Sloyan, Sloyan, Natan Fisher, he's, Rahul Vohra, Stephen McCarthy, Fisher Organizations: Service, Business, Software, Dynamo Ventures, San Francisco Chronicle, Hearst Newspapers, Getty, Zeta, Engineers, Google, Big Tech, Meta, CoderPad, Spotify, LinkedIn, Founders Locations: Silicon, chatbot
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
Shruti Gandhi has a simple rule for meeting founders: She only takes the meeting if she wants to invest. Being the solo general partner of her firm, the early-stage outfit Array Ventures, also means she can get deals done quickly. Over the past five years, she's returned most of her maiden $7 million fund to limited partners at a net multiple of almost four. For founders, by foundersThe founders Gandhi has backed like working with her because of her technical chops and hands-on approach. We will back you if you raise a fund,'" Gandhi said.
Persons: Shruti Gandhi, Gandhi, Nikhil Teja Kolli, Kolli, she's, wasn't, Dumbledore, Harry Potter, Champ Bennett, Zimperium's Zuk Avraham, Mehul Nariyawala, Google —, Doktor Gurson, Gurson Organizations: Ventures, Business, PayPal, IBM, Columbia University, True Ventures, Samsung, Google, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Rad Locations: India, Poughkeepsie , New York, She's
Early-stage investing is a delicate dance. It demands an understanding of markets, a knack for recognizing potential, and sheer tenacity to weather the cyclical storms of the startup world. Now in its fourth year, our Seed 40 list illuminates the women who have mastered this craft. They are on the front lines, locking arms with visionary founders to transform ideas into full-fledged businesses, often putting money and support behind those builders before others see the opportunity. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.
Organizations: Business
Behind most startup founders is an early-stage investor who saw their potential, nurtured their ambition, and backed their ideas. The end of a record bull run in tech rebooted the startup landscape, and now early-stage investors are embracing the change. Founders have gone back to basics, staying lean and mean from the start and harnessing tailwinds of the artificial intelligence boom. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
Organizations: Business
Steve Bowsher, In-Q-TelSteve Bowsher, president and CEO of In-Q-Tel. He made an early bet on Palantir, blowing the doors open for Silicon Valley techies to go after federal contracts. The son of a federal employee who grew up devouring spy novels, Bowsher has always been interested in the work of the government but actually cut his teeth in Silicon Valley. After graduating from Stanford, he worked for three startups and spent eight years at venture fund InterWest Partners. By combining Silicon Valley's swashbuckling ethos with a government agency's mission-driven mentality, Bowsher has helped shepherd some of the biggest defense tech success stories of the past two decades.
Persons: Steve Bowsher, Bowsher Organizations: Magazine, Stanford, InterWest Partners Locations: Menlo Park , California, Silicon Valley
MokSa.ai uses general-use models and customizes them to detect suspicious activity at store locations. The company also pays college interns in India to watch footage for suspicious activity and annotate it — a process called data labeling. The dashboard shows reports of suspicious activity at a glance. MokSa.aiThe Android of the surveillance marketBefore MokSa.ai, Kolli worked as a quality manager at a company producing parts for high-speed rails. While these two tout their abilities to detect suspicious activity and send alerts, they both require customers to use their cameras and sensors.
Persons: , Nikhil Teja Kolli, Kolli, Jay Farner, MokSa.ai, MokSa.ai Kolli, Shruti Gandhi, Gandhi, It's Organizations: Service, Business, Array Ventures, Quicken Loans, The Fund, Ventures, Royal Ozarks Locations: Kansas, India, Detroit
Lieb, having a background in semiconductors and not server management, reached out to his fellow Y Combinator founders for support. After a year and a half of advising at the accelerator, he's stepping up as a group partner, Y Combinator tells Business Insider exclusively. It was never released, but many of the ideas would later come back in the form of Google Photos. From there, he reached into the Y Combinator alumni network to find other promising upstarts. David Lieb, second from left, speaks to a group of Y Combinator founders.
Persons: David Lieb, Lieb, Alex Polvi, Combinator —, Garry Tan, Jared Friedman, Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Sam Altman, it's, Y Combinator, " Lieb, Dan Lieb, Y, Xoogler, Patrick, John Collison's, Mixpanel, Jake Mintz, Forbes, Kevin Systrom, Flock, Andy Huibers, Mary, 72m2YgJZq8 — David Lieb, Ryan Peterson, He's Organizations: Apple, Business, Investors, Google Locations: Cloudkick, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Flexport
The full-blown mania in artificial intelligence is bringing tech workers and startups back to San Francisco. Last June, the startup accelerator moved its headquarters from Mountain View into its new digs at the Pier 70 shipyard. Y Combinator partners record an episode of the Lightcone podcast in a production studio complete with professional cameras and lighting fixtures. Y CombinatorRemoving 'friction'For 17 years, Y Combinator set its base in Mountain View. The new San Francisco outpost was born from a desire to get founders in person again post-pandemic.
Persons: , Jared Friedman, hasn't, Y Combinator Friedman, Y, Friedman, Carlos Avila Gonzalez, Bart, Lindsay Amos Organizations: Service, Volkswagen, Business, Chase, San, Rail, San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area, YC Locations: San Francisco, Mountain View, San, bayside, View, Mission Bay, Bay, North Beach
In January, the legal startup DoNotPay sent more than $1 million to employees and investors in its first-ever dividend. He got the idea from one of his own angels, Sahil Lavingia, whose startup Gumroad issued a dividend last year. The expectation is that when a company sells or goes public, employees will cash in their shares for untold riches. Last year, the digital commerce startup Gumroad paid a dividend of $1 million across employees, investors, and thousands of crowdfunding backers. Cash rewardsBrowder said he wanted to offer a dividend to reward those employees and investors who bet on the startup early.
Persons: Joshua Browder, Browder, DoNotPay, it's, Sahil Lavingia, Josh Seidenfeld, Cooley, Steve Huffman, Spencer Platt, Seidenfeld, Lavingia, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, Dylan Field, Scott Belsky, Daniel Dines, Balaji Srinivasan, Cash, there's Organizations: Business, Big Law, Employees, Founders Fund, Adobe Locations: San Francisco
And so last fall, Collin kicked off a search for a new board director, to fill in her knowledge gaps. Now, Collin says she will step down as chief executive of Front after her hunt for a board director took an unexpected turn. She will move into an executive chair role on April 15, when O'Connell takes up the mantle as chief executive, Front tells Business Insider exclusively. Known for her sharp wit and radical candor, Collin started the business out of college in her native France. Advertisement"We're at a scale now where the CEO can't come in and sort of wave the proverbial magic wand and make things happen," said Mohammed Attar, Front's chief product officer.
Persons: Mathilde Collin, Collin, Dan O'Connell, O'Connell, Garry Tan, Paul Buchheit, Jack Altman, Kyle Vogt, Cruise, Jeff Lawson, Mohammed Attar, , Josh Stein, Stein Organizations: Service, Business, Dialpad, Front Locations: San Francisco neighborhood, France, Dialpad
Cyera is a cybersecurity startup founded in 2021 by two veterans of The Israel Defence Forces. It is raising funding that values the company at as much as $1.55 billion, three sources told BI. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementCyera, a New York-based data security startup founded in 2021, is raising a new funding round that values the company at as much as $1.55 billion, three sources familiar with the matter told Business Insider. The startup is raising $150 to $200 million in this latest round, according to multiple sources.
Persons: Douglas Leone, Organizations: Israel Defence Forces, Sequoia Capital, Service, Accel, Business Locations: New York
Now, Defense Unicorns, a startup that creates open-source software for national security systems, has announced it raised $35 million in a round of funding led by Sapphire Ventures and Ansa Capital. The world of open-source software for the military is small, making the opportunity much greater. TestifySec, a tiny startup building open-source software for the Department of Homeland Security, raised a $6 million seed round last fall. This year, Defense Unicorns says it will use the initial round of funding to go on a hiring spree. Defense Unicorns will compete for talent in artificial intelligence with tons of other startups.
Persons: , Jai Das, Rob Slaughter, Das, siphoning, Slaughter, it's, Lockheed Martin Organizations: Service, Sapphire Ventures, Unicorns, Business, Defense Unicorns, Ansa, Department of Defense, Air Force, Lockheed, Department of Homeland Security Locations: Chicago
Meet Boston's new power venture capitalist
  + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com   time to read: +10 min
A changing of the guard is underway at Boston-based venture capital firm Underscore VC. The venture capitalist, wearing a cherry red cardigan and Apple Watch, cracked open a notebook and set it beside an iced coffee. Underscore VCLyman's Facebook credentials could have given her a ticket to many venture firms located down the road in Menlo Park. "The thesis is that if you get the right people around the business at the right time, it'll change the trajectory of the business," Lyman said. As Lyman steps up, so does UnderscoreUnderscore is moving into its next phase during a reckoning for venture capital.
Persons: Lily Lyman, , Mike Greene, Marley, Lyman, Greene, she's, Michael Skok, John Pearce, Lyman —, Lily, they're, Skok, Alessandra Henderson, Pamela Aldsworth, Jeff Bussgang, Hi Marley, Gordon Ritter, Kevin Bacon, There's, Ritter Organizations: Service, Harvard University, Facebook, House, Apple Watch, Elektra Health, JPMorgan, New England Venture Capital Association, MIT, Allston Venture Fund, Harvard, Boston's, Capital Partners, OpenView Venture Partners, SEC, Old, Capital Locations: Boston, Old, Menlo Park
Sam Blond has left Founders Fund after 17 months with the firm. Blond's departure from Founders Fund is the second in as many months after Keith Rabois left. AdvertisementSam Blond, the Founders Fund partner who brought sales expertise from his years at Brex and Zenefits, has left the firm, he announced on X. He's the second partner to depart Founders Fund this year after Keith Rabois made a return to Khosla Ventures in January. In 2022, Founders Fund took part in 84 rounds that totaled about $6.6 billion.
Persons: Sam Blond, he's, Keith Rabois, , I've, Blond, Forbes, Rabois, Axios Organizations: Fund, Service, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Brex, Institutional Locations: Brex
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