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☆ Nearly $40 billion of startup value later, here's what the members of the Square mafia have been up to since leaving the fintech giant
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Former Square staffers have gone on to launch startups worth nearly $40 billion cumulatively. Insider tracked 15 members of the "Square mafia" to see what they're up to these days. The "PayPal mafia" was perhaps the most infamous company that spawned the founders of tech giants like YouTube, Yelp, Tesla, and LinkedIn. Facebook and Oracle also have their own mafias of former employees that have produced iconic tech companies like Salesforce, Asana, and GoodRx. Insider tracked 15 ex-Square employees in their current ventures, ranging from launching multibillion-dollar public companies to running high-profile VC firms.

☆ From writing malicious code to creating deepfakes, generative-AI tools like ChatGPT are being used for harmful purposes. Here's how founders and VCs are thinking about policing them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In the past few months, some have raved about the capabilities of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Startups policing themselvesSome startups have taken it upon themselves to ensure their products aren't being used for the wrong purposes. In 2020, Resemble AI, a company that can generate voices using AI, released Resemblyzer, an open-source package that can verify speakers and detect fake speech. Despite their bad rap, the majority of deepfakes are used for marketing or entertainment, rather than malicious purposes, Riparbelli told Insider. But already, US government officials are collaborating with AI startups to form partnerships and fund research around these concerns, Ahmed told Insider.

☆ WWE’s Vince McMahon Settles With Ex-Wrestling Referee Who Accused Him of Rape
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Joe Palazzolo | Ted Mann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Vince McMahon , the executive chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., has agreed to a multimillion-dollar legal settlement with a former wrestling referee who accused him of raping her in 1986, according to people familiar with the agreement. Mr. McMahon’s settlement with Rita Chatterton, completed last month, averts a public legal fight over her allegations as Mr. McMahon pursues a possible sale of the company.

☆ 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:

☆ Check out the exclusive pitch deck food waste startup Mill used to raise $100 million from Google Ventures and others
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The startup has already raised about $100 million from investors like Google Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon, and Prelude. "There's a lot of parallels to the story of Nest," Rogers said. However, because Mill handles the entire process from homes to farms, it faces many challenges not found in other food waste startups, Rogers said. And although the company's coffers are well-stocked in a tough market environment, Rogers told Insider that he's always open to conversations with investors. Here's an exclusive look at the 7-slide pitch deck Mill used to raise $100 million from Google Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon, and Prelude:

☆ Gen Z loves the flip phone
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Now, Gen-Z’s latest “vintage” obsession is the flip phone – that mid-1990s era phone that has suddenly become oh so popular with millennials. “I’m team flip phone revolution,” singer Camila Cabello tweeted Thursday, posing with a TCL flip phone, vintage. Maybe I can write the theme song guys 💪💪💪💪 pic.twitter.com/yOJgCdAgNq — camila (@Camila_Cabello) January 13, 2023“I found a little 90s, Matrix-y flip phone,” Cameron said. “At parties people will say, ‘oh my goodness, is that a flip phone?,’” Palazzolo said. And yes, new Nokia flip phones are still available – the Nokia 2760 Flip is sold at Walmart from prepaid brands such as Verizon for $19.99.

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☆ Buzzy healthtech startup Vial slashed an entire division weeks before a $67 million raise from General Catalyst. Insiders say they had no idea the layoffs were coming.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Vial let go of its entire site network division, 40 to 50 people, last October, Insider has learned. Just a month after the October cuts, the healthtech startup announced a $67 million funding round. Ahead of the deluge of tech layoffs that have plagued the beginning of 2023, one healthtech startup quietly slashed dozens of jobs late last year, Insider has learned. In October, Vial, which helps biotech companies run faster and more efficient trials, laid off an entire division. As of December 2022, Vial had 125 employees, according to Pitchbook.

☆ Stock futures are little changed after Nasdaq's third-straight winning day
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Stock futures were quiet on Tuesday evening as Wall Street looked to build on what has been a positive start to 2023 so far. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 19 points, or less than 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed. The moves come after the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.01% on Tuesday to clinch its first three-day winning streak since November. There is some evidence that when rates start to decline from the Federal Reserve, better markets are ahead.

☆ Hot AI startup Scale AI, valued at $7 billion, has laid off 20% of its staff. Insiders say employees found out when they were locked out of their computers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Scale AI laid off 20% of its workforce this morning, Insider has learned. Scale AI has raised more than $600 million from investors like Tiger and Y Combinator and was valued at $7 billion. Buzzy artificial intelligence data-management startup Scale AI, which was last valued at $7 billion in 2021, laid off 20% of its workforce Monday morning, Insider has learned. Founded in 2016 by Alexandr Wang and Lucy Guo, Scale AI was a member of the prestigious accelerator program Y Combinator's summer 2016 cohort. However, the job cuts at Scale AI – once a Silicon Valley darling – seem to suggest otherwise.

☆ After a very quiet 2022, these are the five tech startups that could go public in 2023, according to bankers and tech market experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In a bleak market, some startups are turning to sellsides or letting go of IPO lawyers. Many companies that were looking to go public are now pausing IPO efforts due to falling public and private valuations, according to five investors, bankers, and tech market experts Insider spoke with. This year hasn't been a total wash for the tech IPO market. Some expected Mobileye's IPO to open the public market floodgates. Here are five companies that could end the 2022 IPO winter, according to people close to the tech markets who spoke with Insider.

☆ In recent years, investors have poured billions into the burgeoning region of central and eastern Europe. Here's why they're so excited about this startup hotbed.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

VCs have flocked to central and eastern European startups for their efficiency and technical talent. Central and eastern Europe includes countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine, according to the World Atlas. The promise of central and eastern Europe starts with a surplus of strong engineering talent, Vaswani said. "Eastern Europe is the former Communist Bloc, and during communism, one of the dangerous things for the communist regimes were humanistic subjects," Bartos said. Additionally, central and eastern European startups are often more capital-efficient due to lower personnel and living costs, an advantage that founders like Jendruszak have leveraged firsthand.

☆ 71 top VCs landed on Insider's 2022 list of investors to watch. Here's what they're looking for in startups to back in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | Stephanie Palazzolo | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Despite a tumultuous market for startup investing, VCs still landed top deals at hot startups. Behind these successes were the smart and savvy rising-star VCs working to transform the industry. Here are some of the rising stars of venture capital who are names to watch in 2023. Insider asked the VCs we named in last year's rising-stars list and the general public to nominate this year's most promising venture investors. For instance, OMERS Ventures' Chrissy Farr made the jump to healthtech investing after working as a journalist covering the venture industry for CNBC.

☆ Here are the 34 tech companies most likely to be snapped up by private equity firms like Vista and Thoma Bravo in 2023, according to bankers and market data
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Ben Bergman | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

With a stock price down 45% in the last year, though, it may soon find itself on the other side of the table. But it has $732 million in cash on hand, with zero debt, and analysts are projecting 16% revenue growth. This year, though, Varonis has come back to earth — its stock price has sunk over 57% in the last 12 months. However, with strong projected 2023 revenue growth of 18.6%, Zuora remains a strong target for PE firms. Its stock price has been hammered, going down about 40% this year and making it the subject of mergers-and-acquisitions chatter.

☆ Woodlands Preservation Emerges as Issue in President Trump’s Personal Income Tax Filings
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Peter Grant | Joe Palazzolo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A $21.1 million tax deduction involving former President Donald Trump’s Seven Springs estate has become a point of contention in Mr. Trump’s tax returns. In 2015, then-businessman Donald Trump pledged to preserve more than 150 acres of woodland on his Westchester County, N.Y., estate, enabling him to take a big charitable deduction on his federal taxes. That $21.1 million tax deduction involving his Seven Springs estate now has emerged as a point of contention in Mr. Trump’s taxes, according to the House Ways and Means Committee, which voted Tuesday to make six years of his tax returns public.

The Internal Revenue Service’s audits of Donald Trump‘s tax returns were thinly staffed and unusually deferential to Mr. Trump’s tax advisers, according to a nonpartisan report from congressional tax specialists. At times, only a single IRS agent was assigned to examine Mr. Trump’s complex tax returns, with insufficient support from specialists, according to the report by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, which provided the information to the House committee that voted to release the former president’s tax information.

Representatives of former President Donald Trump have criticized the decision of Democrats to make his tax returns public. The Internal Revenue Service’s audits of Donald Trump’s tax returns were thinly staffed and at times unusually deferential to Mr. Trump’s tax advisers, according to a nonpartisan report from congressional tax specialists. At times, only a single IRS agent was assigned to examine Mr. Trump’s complex tax returns, with insufficient support from specialists, according to the report by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, which provided the information to the House committee that voted to release the former president’s tax information.

☆ VCs say hybrid work, generative AI, and niche collaboration tools will be some of the top future-of-work trends that dominate 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Insider talked to VCs about the rising trends they say will revolutionize the way we work and live. Insider spoke with 15 venture capitalists about the trends and verticals they think are most likely to revolutionize the way we work and live today. Therefore, startups that will thrive going forward are those that embrace a mix of in-person and remote work, known as hybrid work, Thacker and other VCs said. An increase in workers caregiving for aging or sick family members is also supported by flexible work, the CRV general partner Kristin Baker Spohn said. "A lot of employees, whether it's the Great Resignation or the pandemic, found themselves changing the way that they work."

☆ Here are the 34 tech companies most likely to be on the holiday shopping lists of private-equity firms after valuations plunged this year, according to bankers and private data
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Ben Bergman | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

Insider has compiled its annual list of rising stars of venture capital for 2022. Here's a glimpse into the makeup of this year's rising stars list, by the numbers. After a record breaking year for venture capital in 2021, a tech recession came for startup land, and few companies were left unscathed. For the first time, there are more women on the list then men, which shows that more women are being brought into the pipeline of the traditionally male-dominated venture capital industry. Learn more about Insider's 71 rising stars of venture capital, by the numbers:

We asked readers, last year's rising stars, and industry leaders to name the top rising star VCs of 2022. After a record breaking year for venture capital in 2021, the tech and startups industry faced a much more tumultuous economic climate in 2022. And many young enterprising venture capitalists were able to source lucrative deals in top startups and wow their peers as up-and-coming stars in the industry. For the first time, there are more women on the list then men, which shows that more women are being brought into the pipeline of the traditionally male-dominated venture capital industry. Read on to see 2022's rising stars of venture capital, organized alphabetically by the investor's name.

☆ 27 women in venture capital who made partner or higher at firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Melia Russell | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

But more firms made moves to close the gender gap in 2022, hiring and promoting female partners and general partners. PitchBook data indicates that the share of women in decision-making roles at venture firms held steady year over year, with women representing 16% of general partners at firms with over $50 million in assets. To toast their success, Insider is recognizing the women in venture capital who made partner or general partner for the first time in 2022. You can read more on Europe's new female partners here. Let us know who we missed — investing partners or general partners only, please — by contacting Melia Russell at mrussell@insider.com

☆ How 2 friends at Bain spotted a big compliance risk in the crypto industry — and raised $2.8 million from CRV and Y Combinator to help fix it
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Argus, which makes compliance software for crypto funds and trading firms, has raised $2.8 million. After FTX's fall, crypto firms are focused on compliance but worried about costs, Argus' CEO said. To prevent insider trading, Argus checks employee trades against a list of restricted assets, looking for overlap. Although other startups, such as ComplySci, also offer financial compliance software, Rapaport says that Argus distinguishes itself through its focus on crypto, where compliance procedures are relatively new terrain. "And so they're probably not thinking, 'Can we bring on a new compliance software?'

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the 12-slide pitch deck the artificial-intelligence startup Durable used to raise $6.25 million in seed funding
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Durable offers solo entrepreneurs sales, marketing, and finance tools through its platform. The startup recently landed $6.25 million from investors like Altman Capital and Torch Capital. Here's a look at the 12-slide pitch deck it used to raise its latest seed round. Durable targets solo entrepreneurs, or people who start and run their own business independently, without a cofounder or other employees. Here's an exclusive look at the 12-slide pitch deck Durable used to raise $6.25 million in seed funding from Altman Capital, Torch Capital, Dash Fund, Infinity Ventures, and South Park Commons:

☆ Upollo wants to stop account sharing and repeat free trials. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck it used to raise $2.75 million in seed funding from Index Ventures and others.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Upollo aims to convert account sharers and repeat trial users into paying customers. Here's an exclusive look at the 19-slide pitch deck the startup used to raise its seed round. Most companies attempting to stop account sharers or repeat trial users build their software in-house, Meyer said. But they focus more on preventing the use of fraudulent credit cards for free trials, rather than stopping account sharers and repeat trial users themselves, Meyer told Insider. Here's an exclusive look at the 19-slide pitch deck that Upollo used to raise $2.75 million in seed funding from Index Ventures:

☆ 23 of the most promising B2B marketplaces of 2022, according to investors
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

We asked top venture capitalists to name the most promising B2B-marketplace startups of 2022. That's meant a new receptiveness for alternative hiring approaches like labor marketplaces, Jenny He, the founder and general partner at Position Ventures, told Insider. So B2B marketplaces for both tangible goods and labor became an innovative method to combat these issues. Insider asked top investors to nominate the most promising B2B-marketplace startups they'd come across, both within and outside their portfolios. Here are the 23 most promising B2B-marketplace startups of 2022, according to VCs, listed from least to most capital raised:

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