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☆ What is your Plan B? Prepping for a money reset
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Chris Taylor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

With layoffs accelerating – especially in tech, with 140,000 last year and 58,000 so far this year, according to Crunchbase – your Plan B might not be just a theory anymore. To help you do that, there is the timely new book “The Great Money Reset” from Jill Schlesinger, CBS News business analyst and host of the “Jill On Money” radio show and podcast. In other words, the question is not whether a Great Money Reset is coming your way – it is when. “A Plan B doesn’t mean you have to chuck your whole career,” Schlesinger says. OVERHAUL YOUR SPENDINGThe amount you are spending, or not spending, is going to determine the number and quality of your Plan B options.

Insider has an exclusive copy of the pitch deck Kewazo used to raise $10 million. Kewazo's clients include the multinational construction firm Bilfinger and the industrial-services firm Altrad. Kewazo recently raised a $10 million Series A funding round, which was led by the US venture-capital firm Fifth Wall. The early-stage Boston investor Cybernetix Ventures, the Texas venture-capital firm Unorthodox Ventures, and the German construction-software company Nemetschek also took stakes in Kewazo. Insider has an exclusive copy of the pitch deck that Kewazo used to raise the funds.

☆ Venture capital for Black entrepreneurs plummeted 45% in 2022, data shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Dixon is one of many Black entrepreneurs who struggled to secure funding for their businesses and relied on venture capital financing earmarked for diverse founders. While Dixon and many others have ultimately succeeded, Black-led businesses and Black founders have historically faced disparities in securing VC funding. Overall, Black entrepreneurs typically receive less than 2% of all VC dollars each year while companies led by Black women receive less than 1%, according to data from Crunchbase. That drop is the largest year-over-year decrease Black entrepreneurs have seen over the past decade. "Venture capital is a very privileged and exclusive industry, and has always been that way.

☆ Gmail creator warns Google is 'only a year or two away from total disruption' because of AI like ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Gmail creator Paul Buchheit says Google is only one or two years away from "total disruption" due to AI chatbots. The engineer said advancements in AI like ChatGPT could make Google's search engine irrelevant. "Google may be only a year or two away from total disruption," Buchheit tweeted on Wednesday. "AI will eliminate the Search Engine Result Page, which is where they make most of their money. At the time, The Information had reported that Microsoft planned to use ChatGPT to power its own search engine, Bing.

☆ U.S. investors have plowed billions into China's AI sector, report shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Alexandra Alper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

According to the report, 167 U.S. investors took part in 401 transactions, or roughly 17% of the investments into Chinese AI companies in the period. Those transactions represented a total $40.2 billion in investment, or 37% of the total raised by Chinese AI companies in the 6-year period. According to the report, U.S. investor GSR Ventures invested alongside China's IFlytek Co Ltd (002230.SZ) in a Chinese AI company after the speech recognition firm was added to a trade blacklist. Silicon Valley Bank and Wanxiang American Healthcare investments group made investments in Chinese AI firms alongside China's Sensetime before the powerhouse in facial recognition technology was added to the same trade blacklist. Only one Chinese AI company that received funding from U.S. investors is involved in developing AI applications for military or public safety uses, according to CSET.

☆ Sequoia-backed grocery startup Getir pushes into the US after gobbling up European rival Gorillas in $1.2 billion deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Shona Ghosh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Getir has appointed its first US general manager after its $1.2 billion deal to buy rival Gorillas. The US market is smaller for Getir than the UK but expansion is a priority for 2023, Van Beveren told Insider. Its founder, Nazim Salur, previously told Insider that the firm would look to float in 2023, likely in the US. Retail analysts have previously told Insider the model can be profitable but requires efficiency. Van Beveren noted that Chaaya's appointment was indicative of a successful integration between the two businesses.

That was up from 10% in January 2022, but the pessimists were far outnumbered, with 71% of tech workers feeling positive. Many people spent Covid-19 lockdowns developing their digital skills, and plenty wound up switching from other sectors, like retail or education, into tech roles elsewhere. Professional and business services roles, which include engineering and “computer services,” were down 6,000 last month from November. Even so, employers’ broad appetite for tech skills could put something of a floor under wages — and prop up the appeal of tech roles in general — even as the economy slows. Experienced tech workers, rather than those new to the field, largely drove those pay gains, the jobs platform Hired found in research published in September.

☆ The 3 biggest reasons startups failed in 2022, according to a poll of almost 500 founders
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Knowing the biggest risks that most commonly cause new startups to fail could make the difference between whether your own business sinks or swims. And roughly 20% of new businesses fail within their first year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Luckily, some new research can shed some light on the biggest recent obstacles that have thwarted startups. Skynova, which makes invoicing software for small businesses, surveyed 492 startup founders in November 2022 and analyzed startup data from CB Insights for the new study that looks at the most common reasons behind startup failures in 2022. The study notes that 47% of startup failures in 2022 were due to a lack of financing, nearly double the percentage that failed for the same reason in 2021, based on CB Insight's data.

☆ Startup funding has tanked over the past year—and recession fears are to blame
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Startup investors are doing it, too. Venture capital investors are pumping the brakes on aggressive funding of startups, spooked by an uncertain economic picture, plunging tech industry stock prices and growing recession fears. Another prominent factor behind the steep drop: stock market turmoil causing tech startup valuations to plummet, freezing the market for IPOs and resulting in widespread tech layoffs, Crunchbase suggested in a blog post. Many investors expected inflation to be under control sooner, along with a slight rise in interest rates, Grabow notes. As a result, VCs have pulled back significantly on the aggressive funding trends of 2021, Grabow says.

☆ Layoffs at Amazon and Salesforce point to why January is often the worst month for job cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Shana Lebowitz | Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon just told staff it's cutting 18,000 roles, the largest layoff in the company's history. Compass has cut staff three times in eight months, but it's best to avoid multiple rounds of layoffs. For all the layoffs that swept corporate America in the final months of 2022, this month is poised to bring even more. January is historically the worst month for layoffs, according to data from the US government. Already, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has told staff that the company would broaden its job cuts to 18,000 employees, the largest layoff in the company's history.

☆ Singapore's venture capital scene looks set for a 'pretty decent' 2023, investment firm says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Singapore's tech start-up scene has grown in recent years, and the city-state ranked seventh in the latest Global Innovation Index 2022. Global venture dollars may have dropped in 2022, but Singapore's government-owned tech investment firm is optimistic about 2023. "2023 is probably going to be a pretty decent year for venture capital in Singapore," Hsien-Hui Tong, executive director of investments at SGInnovate, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" Wednesday. Unlike global markets more generally, the venture capital scene in Singapore is "still very active," Tong said. Global markets, on the other hand, tend to be at the "more mature" stages of Series B and C, where venture capital has "dried up a little bit."

☆ Europe's tech ecosystem nursed a hangover in 2022 as the post-pandemic party ended and VCs returned to fundamentals
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

VCs returned to slower capital deployment and due diligence processes after a record-breaking 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic and the last remnants of the era of cheap money led to reckless abandon in funding markets with tech startups raising capital at record rates, often at valuations untethered from reality. VC cash dried up considerably this year with investors pumping $16 billion into startups in the third quarter of 2022, a 44% annual decline. Numerous VCs told Insider the past two years had felt like an out-of-control celebration with many "now looking around at the aftermath and thinking about tidying up. " "The ecosystem is nursing its hangover after two years of a big party," Arne Morteani, founding partner at Kiko Ventures said.

☆ A top money coach explains how women can feel more confident when doing business and salary negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Lawrence, the former head money coach at investment startup Ellevest, shared her negotiation tips. That translates to 11 fewer years of compensation growth and wealth building, despite women having longer life expectancies on average. Research the company you're applying toA preliminary step in any negotiation is arming yourself with information, Lawrence said. Job candidates should use websites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor get a sense of the base salary for the job they're applying to. For people in the startup world or at a company that is publicly traded, equity compensation is more common.

☆ Southeast Asian venture capital firms expect to be pickier in 2023 than in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Venture capital-backed companies only raised $369 billion for the first three quarters of 2022, according to Crunchbase data. Malte Mueller | Fstop | Getty ImagesVenture capital firms in Southeast Asia will probably be pickier next year, with valuations plunging and economic headwinds slowing growth in 2022. Sequoia Southeast Asia raised a $850 million fund in June, East Ventures raised $550 million in July, and Insignia Ventures Partners raised $516 million in August. Indonesia-based e-grocery company HappyFresh ceased operations in Malaysia after seven years, while Grab discontinued its quick commerce service GrabMart Kilat in Indonesia. "The 15-minute model of quick commerce in Southeast Asia is very difficult because the unit economics are very negative.

The article was one of a series of reports this year by the news agency on Binance's financial compliance and relationship with regulators across the world. Reuters also asked representatives of the local Binance units and affiliates about their relationship with the main Binance exchange. In Italy, Binance's public corporate filings detail just the unit's capital base and its ownership by a separate Binance company in Ireland. The Italian company, Binance Italy S.R.L., has its listed address in a block of shops and apartments in the southern city of Lecce. Just two of the Binance units analysed by Reuters offer more substantial details in their filings.

☆ Tom Brady's NFT company, Autograph, has laid off dozens of people after severing ties with board member Sam Bankman-Fried
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tom Brady cofounded Autograph at the height of the NFT sports boom. Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried joined the board of the company last year. Insider has learned the company has laid off dozens of employee and cut ties with Bankman-Fried. Autograph, the buzzy NFT platform cofounded by NFL star Tom Brady, has laid off dozens of staffers after separately severing ties with former board member Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, Insider has learned. Bankman-Fried joined the board of directors last year several months after Brady and his then wife, Gisele Bundchen, invested in FTX.

Insider is keeping tabs on which creator economy companies are cutting back on staff. For more than a year, the creator economy was a red-hot industry flowing with new players, big deals, and massive investments. According to Crunchbase, funding for VC-backed creator economy startups topped $939 million in 2021. Those sunny days are coming to a halt, however, as creator economy startups grapple with a looming recession. Here are 24 creator economy companies that have laid off staff, as of December 2022:Note: Companies are listed in order of when layoffs occurred, with the most recent first.

☆ FTX's former US president is reportedly raising money for a new crypto startup after the crypto exchange's collapse
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Brett Harrison, FTX US's former president, is reportedly raising money for a new crypto startup. Harrison left FTX just weeks before it slid into bankruptcy amid allegations of misused customer funds. Harrison's attempt to raise money comes when many investors are weary of wading deeper into the crypto industry. Before working at FTX, Harrison worked at traditional trading firms, including Jane Street, where he once worked with Bankman-Fried, according to the report. Harrison's attempt to raise money for a crypto startup comes when many prominent investors have grown weary of wading deeper into the industry.

☆ Another tech bubble bursts: 2022 has been brutal for Silicon Valley workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +28 min

Gem: 100A maker of recruiting software, the startup cut a third of its workforce Nov. 1, The Information reported. HealthCare.com: 149The health insurance marketplace announced the job cuts Aug. 3, Miami Inno reported, citing state regulatory filings. Fabric: 120The robotics startup said July 13 that it was layoffing off 40% of them, TechCrunch reported, citing company confirmation. It affected about 300 people, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported, citing company confirmation. Policygenius: 170The online insurance company cut about 25% of its staff, Axios reported June 6, citing company confirmation.

☆ Meet a 26-year-old tech entrepreneur who says starting a company is 'an art and creative process'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The 26-year-old, Toronto, Canada, native co-founded her first company, Ranomics, at 18. She founded her second company, Locke Bio, a "Shopify" for pharmaceutical and other companies selling FDA approved drugs, at 23. For Tie, art and creativity is not exactly as on-the-nose as writing in iambic pentameter or dancing at Lincoln Center. "That's, I think, more of an art and creative process than something that is technical." Here's how the entrepreneur, now based in Los Angeles, has leaned into her creative, big-picture thinking to find success in fields like tech and science.

☆ A day in the life of a 20-year-old Gen Z venture capitalist in London's bustling startup scene
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But he said older VCs he's interacted with mostly tend to disagree and stick to emails when interacting with founders. Nathwani strayed into venture capital after finishing his A-Levels, as it looked like a good way to marry his interests in social impact and investing. He spoke with a few investors and a founder as part of his job as a summer associate at Social Impact Capital. He spent most of the morning working on an impact report for Social Impact Capital. 2:30 p.m.Nathwani used some time after lunch to do more work for Social Impact Capital and wade through his 30,000 unread emails.

☆ After FTX's collapse, VCs across industries are finally admitting to crypto's failures — and they're preparing for 'more blows to come'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Investors stuck to crypto startups they considered "safe bets," but FTX's failure challenges that idea. Crypto startups held yacht parties through the summer and into early fall at events such as NFT.NYC and Messari Mainnet. "The whole crypto space is a high-leverage space, and it's susceptible to cascading failures." The events of the past week are unlikely to whet risk-averse LPs' appetite for crypto, investors told Insider. Even so, several investors who have backed crypto startups told Insider that despite the industry's recent travails, they remain believers in the technology.

☆ Weight loss startups offer access to new drugs, but do they provide good care?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Darius Tahir | Kaiser Health News | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Now a wave of startups offer access to a new category of drugs coupled with intensive behavioral coaching online. These patients pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, to access new drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, along with online coaching to encourage healthy habits. (That price includes generic drugs, but not the newer GLP-1 agonists, like Wegovy.) The firms say they’re on the vanguard of weight care, both citing the influence of biology and other scientific factors as key ingredients to their approaches. Found said older generics like zonisamide are more accessible than the GLP-1 agonists advertised on social media and their own website.

☆ I left a top-floor job at Goldman Sachs for a tiny self-driving-car startup. Here's how I shook off the 'golden handcuffs' to land my dream job.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Kulkarni, a former Goldman Sachs investment associate, pivoted to a self-driving-tech startup. He started his career as an investment analyst and has a background in systems science and engineering and finance. As a third-year analyst at Goldman, I felt like that was the perfect time to take that leap of faith. And the whole idea of a boot camp is that it focuses on developing true functional skills to immediately join a startup. The first startup I joined wasn't the right cultural fitI definitely had a moment where I said: What?

☆ Tiger Global, Coatue, and other hedge funds tried to upend venture capital. It backfired and now they're 'licking their wounds,' VCs say.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

New investments by Tiger Global and Coatue fell 60% and 67%, respectively, this year. "They're licking their wounds," said Nihal Mehta, a founding partner at Eniac Ventures, whose portfolio includes the marketing-tech startup Attentive, a crown jewel of Tiger Global and Coatue's portfolios. Speaking to founders, Mehta hears crossover funds come up less and less in conversation, and partners at some crossover funds tell him they're pulling back from new deals, though crossover funds haven't disappeared altogether. Crossover funds found themselves with billions of dollars in deployed capital and few exits in sight. Last month, Tiger Global and Coatue both revealed they are seeking to raise new funds earmarked for early-stage startup deals.

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