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☆ Meet the Disney heirs rallying behind Bob Iger
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Roy O. Disney's grandchildrenRoy O. Disney had one son with his wife Edna Francis — Roy E. Disney, a long time Walt Disney Company executive. Roy P. DisneyRoy P. Disney told NYT that activist investors "must be defeated." AdvertisementIn a 2010 interview, Roy P. Disney said he worked as an investor based in California. Joe Scarnici/Stringer/Getty ImagesWalter Elias Disney MillerWalter Miller is the co-founder of the Walt Disney Family Museum, which opened its doors in 2009. Tamara Diane MillerTamara Miller spent four years as the President of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Persons: —, Roy, Walt Disney, Bob Iger, Nelson Peltz, Walt, Roy O, Disney, Edna Francis — Roy E, Roy E, Patricia Ann Dailey, Roy P, Disney Roy, George Pimentel, WireImage, Disney's, hasn't, Abigail Disney Abigail Disney, Ralph Orlowski, Burda Media Abigail Disney, she's, Abigail, Susan Disney, Susan Lord, Phillip Faraone, Tim Disney Tim Disney, Stefanie Keenan, Tim Disney, Diane Disney Miller, Sharon Disney, Diane Miller's, Ron Miller, Jennifer Goff, Tammy Miller, Joanna Miller, Walter Miller, Joe Scarnici, Stringer, Walter Elias Disney Miller Walter Miller, Joanna Sharon Miller Joanna Miller, grandpa, Joanna, Jim, Tamara Diane Miller Tamara Miller, Tamara Miller, Jennifer Miller, Goff Jennifer Miller, Goff Organizations: Service, Disney, Business, Walt Disney Company, Getty, New York Times, Burda Media, Yale, Stanford, Mouse, Bel, Harvard University, California Institute of, Arts, Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney Family Museum, Jim Hill Media, Walt Disney Family Locations: California, Munich, Germany, Columbia, Los Angeles

☆ An Airbnb cofounder's new startup wants to drop factory-made tiny homes into California backyards — see inside its $324,000, two-bedroom unit
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Brittany Chang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Samara, cofounded by Airbnb's Joe Gebbia, is selling modular accessory dwelling units. See inside its most expensive unit, a $324,000 two-bedroom tiny home. AdvertisementA new startup wants to drop tiny homes into your backyard. If the name doesn't ring a bell, you might recognize one of its cofounders, Joe Gebbia. Quite the opposite: It's manufacturing factory-built accessory dwelling units (ADUs), or tiny homes, that can be dropped into Californians' backyards.

Persons: Airbnb's Joe Gebbia, —, Oz, Ariana Grande, Ethan Slater, Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky Organizations: Service, Airbnb Locations: Samara, Mexico, It's California

☆ Former 'apprentices' and Trump Media cofounders file lawsuit claiming company execs tried to dilute their stake ahead of a potential merger
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Trump Media & Technology Group cofounders accused the company of conspiring to dilute their shares. The lawsuit could complicate an upcoming shareholder vote on a merger that would take the company public. The bid would see Trump's company, the parent company of his social media network Truth Social, merge with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition. The suit also claims that the Trump Media board planned to give new shares to "Trump and/or his associates and children," per The Post. The two-year attempted merger between Trump Media and Digital World Acquisition Corp has faced ongoing delays, partly due to SEC investigations into potential securities violations.

Persons: Trump Media & Technology Group cofounders, Andy Litinsky, Wes Moss, —, Donald Trump's, Trump, Moss, Melania Organizations: Trump Media & Technology Group, Service, United Atlantic Ventures, Washington Post, Trump, Business, Twitter, Securities and Exchange, Digital, Trump Media, UAV, SEC

☆ How Google lost its way
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Hugh Langley | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

Just two months after Google launched Gemini, its flashy new AI model, the company revealed that it had already built a better version. AdvertisementThen, days later, Google scrambled to explain why its image generation tool spit out racially inaccurate depictions of historical figures. Users have long bemoaned — and researchers recently found — a decline in the quality of Google Search results. The fact that Google is not far and away the self-driving-car leader, it's, like, a total joke," the former Google director said, adding that the problem of Google's lost supremacy is "maybe impossible to solve, frankly." Google now is reminiscent of the Steve Ballmer-era Microsoft, which missed the smartphone, search, and cloud waves and was overtaken by Apple, Google, and Amazon.

Persons: OpenAI, Sora, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai's, Pichai, —, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Lea Suzuki, Getty Brin, Page, Google, Googlers, Axel Springer, Diane von Furstenberg, Giovanni Giannoni, Michael Avrukin, Vuk Valcic, wouldn't, Patrick Mork, Eric Lehman, Lehman, ChatGPT, Caesar Sengupta, Sengupta, Alexa, Google's, Steve Ballmer, Satya Nadella, Hugh Langley, Lara O'Reilly Organizations: Google, Hollywood, Industry, San Francisco Chronicle, Business, Penske Media, Microsoft, Amazon, The New York Times, Oracle, YouTube, Apple, IBM, Meta Locations: Silicon Valley, Silicon, —

☆ Check out the 12-slide pitch deck adtech company Vibe used to raise $22.5 million to build 'the Google Ads of streaming TV'
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Founded in France in 2021, Vibe offers a self-service ad platform that aims to make it super-easy for smaller companies to get their ads next to premium TV content. Vibe was carved out from KMTX, which sold to fellow adtech firm Seedtag in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. "We said, OK, let's just build the Google Ads of TV," Querou told Business Insider. "The ad platform for SMBs on broadcasting and streaming TV is difficult to cover because it requires a lot of manpower to be able to address all these SMBs," Kamber said. Check out a redacted version of the pitch deck that helped Vibe nab $22.5 million in Series A funding from Singular, Elaia Partners, Sequoia's Scout fund, Motier, and other individual investors.

Persons: Vibe's cofounders Franck Tetzlaff, Arthur Querou, Querou, Vibe, It's, Raffi Kamber, Kamber Organizations: Vibe, Business, Google, Vibe's, Vibe nab, Elaia Partners, Sequoia's Locations: France, KMTX, Seedtag, adtech

☆ No, Sam Altman doesn't actually own half a billion dollars of Reddit stock
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Madeline Berg | Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Reddit filed for an IPO, revealing nearly 10% of its shares are owned by entities related to Sam Altman. AdvertisementLast week, not long after Reddit made moves toward a public listing, headlines began to appear about an unexpected figure: Sam Altman. For example, Hydrazine Capital II is listed as owning nearly 9.9 million shares of Reddit. But Altman, at most, owns 5% of Hydrazine Capital II's holdings, or 492,720 of its Reddit shares. AdvertisementThe various entities point to a side of Altman — Altman the investor — that has receded from view since he has become known to the public as OpenAI's CEO.

Persons: Reddit, Sam Altman, Altman, —, tech's, Reddit's, that's, he's, Chris Harvey, Altman — Altman, ADVs, Peter Thiel, Cruise, Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian Organizations: Service, Business, Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey, Apollo, Apollo Projects, SPV, SEC, Investors, University of Michigan, Helion Energy, Facebook, Google Locations: Altman

☆ The Google Gemini conspiracy theory
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google had to pull parts of its fancy Gemini AI model after it spat out inaccurate images and text. To catch you up: Google had to pull part of its fancy new Gemini AI model after it spat out inaccurate pictures, including depicting Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as Asian. One theory is that Googlers are too woke and their biases have infected what could be a powerful and useful AI model. AdvertisementIs this Google future? Probably not as profitable revenue as Google Search, but that's still a lot.

Persons: —, there's, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, it's, Mark Shmulik, Bernstein, Sundar Pichai, Pichai, that's Organizations: Google, Service

☆ Tiny home sensation Boxabl welcomes investors in as its founders plan to cash out $10 million
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Daniel Geiger | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

As the company has sought a financial lifeline by inviting more investors in, its cofounders are cashing out. The Tiramanis together previously sold off about $10 million of their shares in a 2022 fundraising round and have awarded themselves annual salaries of close to a million dollars each. "Maybe they're afraid that if they don't sell shares now they will walk away with nothing." A spigot of cash running dryBoxabl is seeking to raise $64 million in the share offering, an additional $10 million for the Tirmanis, and $1 million for other insiders at the company. AdvertisementAmong the insiders in the company seeking to sell shares in the funding round are Darryl and Lucille Maslak, the parents of Shawna Maslak, Galiano's wife.

Persons: —, Paola Tiramani, Galiano, Chad Cohen, Erik Gordon, Cohen, Darryl, Lucille Maslak, Shawna, Gordon Organizations: Service, Business, Scala Advisors, University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, Securities and Exchange Commission, University of Michigan Locations: North Las Vegas , Nevada, Canada

☆ Google's mission is organizing the world's information. Its 'woke' AI debacle prompted critics to say it's failing.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewSince its inception, Google has had a mission statement that is now practically enshrined as lore: "To organize the world's information and make it accessible and useful." Its AI, critics say, risks suppressing information instead by being too "woke." AdvertisementGoogle's AI troublesGoogle has more than 90% of the search market, giving it dominant control over the world's information flow online. Advertisement"The original mission was to index all the world's information. In a blog published Friday, Google vice-president Prabhakar Raghavan acknowledged some of the images Gemini generated turned out to be "inaccurate or even offensive."

Persons: —, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Gemini, Peter Kafka, Adolf Hitler, Elon, David Sacks, Critics, Sam Altman, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, Bilal Zuberi, Brad Gerstner, Microsoft —, Elon Musk, OB1CCZHan3, Prabhakar Raghavan, overcorrected, Raghavan Organizations: Service, Google, Business, Craft Ventures, Lux Capital, Microsoft, Elon Locations: Menlo Park, AFP

☆ Steve Jobs once said the best managers are 'individual contributors' who aren't interested in managing people
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Steve Jobs once shared some advice about how to hire the best managers in a 1985 interview. He said the best managers are "great individual contributors" who don't want to manage. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementApple's legendary cofounder Steve Jobs once shared some advice about the best managers, and he said they're usually the people who don't actually want to be managers.

Persons: Steve Jobs, —, they're, Jobs Organizations: Service, Business

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck former VMWare executives used to land $25 million for their 'mobile cloud' startup
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Highway 9 Networks, a cloud computing startup, has secured $25 million in round led by Mayfield. The startup offers a mobile cloud product that allows companies to deploy a private mobile network. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementThree years ago, Allwyn Sequeira and his Highway 9 Networks cofounders set out to embark on what the startup calls the mobile cloud. The startup is now coming out of stealth with a $25 million round led by Mayfield, with General Catalyst and Detroit Ventures contributing to the funding.

Persons: Mayfield, —, Allwyn Sequeira, Debashis Basak, Serge Maskalik, Sachin Thakkar Organizations: Service, VMWare, Networks, Mayfield, Catalyst, Detroit Ventures, Business

☆ 58 Black investors changing the venture capital industry with firms that fund diverse startup founders
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Daniel Acheampong and Yasmin Cruz Ferrine, Visible HandsVisible Hands cofounders and general partners Daniel Acheampong and Yasmin Curz Ferrine. Visible HandsNotable investments: Parfait, Athlytic, Dollaride, Hearth Display, Noula, WriteSea, Plot, TANGappWhat kinds of companies he invests in: Pre-seed and seed-stage companies across industries. Why he's on the list: Acheampong and Ferrine cofounded Visible Hands in May 2020 along with Justin Kang to address the ongoing systemic barriers to funding, social capital, and resources plaguing underrepresented founders. At Visible Hands, Acheampong oversees investment processes as a general partner and Ferrine's responsibilities include compliance, capital raising, and investment functions of the firm. Acheampong utilizes his years of experience as an associate at the private equity firm Summit Partners and an analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Persons: Daniel Acheampong, Yasmin Cruz Ferrine, Yasmin Curz Ferrine, Ferrine, Justin Kang, Acheampong, Goldman Sachs, He's, John Hancock, Deval Patrick's, She's Organizations: Summit Partners, Massachusetts Institute, Technology's, Tsai Center, Yale University, Brown Advisory, Investment, Kauffman Locations: Boston

☆ Disney star turned space CEO: Bridgit Mendler launches satellite data startup backed by major VCs
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Michael Sheetz | In Michaeljsheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Bridgit Mendler is no stranger to reaching millions of people — now she wants to change how satellite data reaches the ground. "The vision is a data highway between Earth and space," Mendler told CNBC. "Space is getting easier along so many different dimensions but still the actual exercise of sending data to and from space is difficult. Rather than build rockets or satellites, Northwood aims to mass produce ground stations. Also known as teleports, ground stations are the typically large and often circular antennas that connect to satellites in space.

Persons: Bridgit Mendler, The Beverly Hilton, Bridgit, —, Charlie, Mendler, Andreessen Horowitz, Griffin, Luthra, Lockheed Martin Organizations: The Beverly, Disney Channel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Law School, Federal Communications, Space Bureau, CNBC, Northwood, Founders Fund, Lockheed, Mitre Corporation, Space Locations: Beverly Hills , California, Waverly, El Segundo , California

☆ It seems some tech leaders are coming back to San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Some tech leaders are returning to San Francisco, The Wall Street Journal reported. San Francisco's commercial real estate market is also getting a boost from the AI boom. AdvertisementIt seems like San Francisco is luring some tech bosses back after a pandemic-induced exodus. Now, he plans to spend one week a month in San Francisco and is renovating a house in the city, The Journal reported. Meanwhile, San Francisco has grappled with a homelessness problem and shifts in crime patterns.

Persons: —, San, Keith Rabois, cofounders Henrique Dubugras, Pedro Franceschi, Howie Liu, Rabois, Elon Musk, Sam Altman Organizations: Street Journal, Service, The, Meta, PayPal, California Globe Locations: San Francisco, Miami

☆ AI isn't energy efficient right now. This ex-Arm VP has joined a new startup to try change that.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

"We're the first company to launch off the back of what is a Tsetlin machine," Hurley told Business Insider. "We are looking at processes which are 10,000 times more efficient than neural networks when we add hardware acceleration," he said. Literal Labs' technology is developed from Yakovlev and Shafik's patents. While this process requires less energy than neural networks, the wider market has yet to catch up with alternatives. And everyone is just so sucked into neural networks that nobody has been thinking about some of the other techniques."

Persons: Noel Hurley, Hurley, Mignon, it's, Alex Yakovlev, Rishad Organizations: Cambridge, Labs, Newcastle University, Business, Yakovlev, Literal Labs

☆ How a 25-year-old went from talking to 1,000 strangers in NYC to quitting her finance job and founding a social startup
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"Ultimately, I spent more time home alone doing nothing than ever before," Epstein, CEO of the still-in-beta social networking app Kndrd, told Business Insider. "I spoke to a thousand strangers" — many who also felt a lack of community, companionship, or friendship, she added. But while investors may want to see viral, overnight growth for an app like Kndrd, Epstein hesitates at that strategy. "And that means me reading applications and vetting the community members and making sure that we have people who are the strongest, most high fidelity people." In the future, Kndrd also plans to incorporate AI into its user experience — something on nearly every investor's mind right now.

Persons: Isabella Epstein, Epstein, Kndrd, Tina Mai —, —, Mai aren't, Kndrd cofounders Tina Mai, Devin Kasparian Bootstrapping Organizations: Business, Stanford University, Stanford Locations: New York City, NYC, Mai, Epstein's NYC

☆ Y Combinator-backed trading app Pluto Markets just raised $2.6 million with this 14-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Pluto Markets, a trading app backed by famed accelerator Y Combinator, has raised $2.6 million in fresh funds. The Danish fintech startup, founded in 2021, wants to upend the market for retail trading offerings in Europe. "Companies raised a lot of money to blitz scale across the EU but have now focused on their core markets. Unlike most fintech brokerages, Pluto secured an EU-wide investment license before it had raised $1 million in funding, having bootstrapped and stayed lean. You can check out Pluto Market's 14-slide pitch deck below:

Persons: Joakim Bruchman, Goldman Sachs, We've, Bruchmann, Pluto, Oscar Vingtoft Organizations: Business, Companies, Trade Republic, Saxo Bank, EU Locations: Danish, Europe, Denmark, France, Germany, Berlin

☆ China's chances of staging an economic rebound this year look slim
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

China faces severe real estate woes, deflation, and an exodus of global investors. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementThe world has yet to witness any post-pandemic rebound in China, and Wall Street expects little to change in 2024. The ongoing exodus of global investors is evidence the bear case is intact, and the country's real estate sector continues to look more and more precarious. AdvertisementThat in turn has cratered sentiment, as Chinese households have the majority of their wealth tied to real estate.

Persons: —, DataTrek, Nicholas Colas, Jessica Rabe, Mike Edwards, Weiss, haven't, Edwards, Tracy Chen, Chen, Caesar Maasry, Goldman Sachs, Maasry Organizations: Service, Wall, Tech, Baidu, US, Business, Brandywine, Supply, Seng China Enterprises, Bloomberg Locations: China, Beijing

☆ A year after bankruptcy concerns, Carvana is leaner and ready for its Wall Street redemption
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

Carvana over the last 18 months aggressively restructured its operations and debt amid bankruptcy concerns to pivot from growth to cost-cutting. Carvana puts each vehicle it intends to sell through a lengthy inspection, repair and sale preparation process. A Ford F-150 is prepped for a painting booth at Carvana's vehicle reconditing center outside Phoenix. The Wall Street Journal in December 2021 detailed a network of Garcia companies that do business with DriveTime, Carvana or both. Carvana sells such warranties or other service-related protections to customers, and DriveTime takes them over, giving Carvana a commission.

Persons: Michael Wayland, Ernie Garcia III, Ernie Garcia II, Garcia, Carli, Carvana, There's, Richard, Dick, Nixon, there's, Ernie Garcia, pathing, Rajat Gupta, Doug Guan, we've, CNBC Guan, Coldplay, Neil Diamond, Teresa Aragon, DriveTime, Duckling, Garcia II, Charles Keating's Lincoln, hasn't, – Organizations: CNBC PHOENIX, CNBC, Ford, Ford Motor, Nissan, State, Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings & Loan, Street Journal, DriveTime Locations: Tempe, Ariz, Tempe , Arizona, Phoenix, Carvana, Florida, reconditioning, Silicon Valley, Aragon, DriveTime, Drivetime

☆ Google cofounder Larry Page quietly bought a Puerto Rico island for $32 million, records show
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Google cofounder purchased Cayo Norte, a large private island in Puerto Rico, in 2018, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider. Cayo Norte sits about 20 nautical miles east of Puerto Rico and just northeast of Culebra, another island that forms an archipelago. Cayo Norte is known for its white sandy beaches, surrounding coral reefs, and preserving a refuge for endangered sea turtles. Google cofounder Larry Page bought Cayo Norte, an island in Puerto Rico. Page purchased the Lollik islands, which sit 23 miles east of Cayo Norte, in 2014 for $23 million, BI previously reported.

Persons: —, Larry Page, Page, Lucinda Southworth, Cristina Rosado, Southworth, Dan Shelley, Hugh Langley, Shelley, Louis Padrón, Richard Gautier, Wayne Osborne, Great Hans Lollik, Hans Lollik, Osborne, Lucinda Southworth C, Mary Ann Lucking, Lucking, Sergey Brin, Kimberly White, Sundar Pichai, Brin, Kitty Hawk Organizations: Service, Google, Business, Virgin Island Properties, US Virgin, BI, LLC, Area, Cayo Norte, SVI Investments, Virgin Islands Locations: Cayo Norte, Puerto Rico, Caribbean, US, Puerto Rico's Fajardo, Cayo, Culebra, SVI, Padrón, Virgin, Great, Conservation, Kimberly White Cayo

☆ Carlyle billionaire David Rubenstein is buying MLB's Baltimore Orioles: reports
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Carlyle Group cofounder David Rubenstein is fronting a group buying the Baltimore Orioles, reports say. Fellow private equity billionaire Michael Arougheti is also expected to be involved in the deal. AdvertisementFamed private equity investor David Rubenstein is reportedly planning to buy the Baltimore Orioles. Puck broke the news Tuesday that the Carlyle Group cofounder and Baltimore native is fronting a group expected to take a 40% stake in the Major League Baseball franchise. AdvertisementThe Orioles are owned by the Angelos family, who bought the MLB franchise in 1993.

Persons: David Rubenstein, Angelos, Puck, Michael Arougheti, —, Cal Ripken, Jr, Rubenstein, he'll, Peter Angelos, John, Carlyle, Josh Harris Organizations: Carlyle, Baltimore Orioles, Major League Baseball, Service, Carlyle Group, Baltimore, Ares Management, Orioles, MLB, Financial, National Basketball Association, Apollo Global, National Football League's

☆ Meet the OpenAI mafia: These 19 former employees left the AI juggernaut and founded startups that have collectively raised nearly $8 billion
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Riddhi Kanetkar | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, and Sam McCandlish, cofounders of AnthropicAnthropic's Dario Amodei, Jack Clark, and Daniela Amodei. Since then, the company has received billions in funding from both Google and Amazon in what some have termed an "AI arms race." CEO Dario Amodei, a former Google Brain researcher with a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience, has been writing about the cataclysmic potential of AI since 2016. Constitutional AI is partly the brainchild of two other OpenAI alums and Anthropic cofounders, Tom Brown and Jared Kaplan. Both Kaplan and Brown have worked on Anthropic's efforts to "red team" the company's flagship language model, Claude, probing for misuse possibilities.

Persons: Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish, Anthropic Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Menlo Ventures Anthropic, Amodei's, Anthropic, —, Anthropic cofounders, Brown, Kaplan, Johns Hopkins, Claude, AGI, I'm Organizations: Google, Menlo Ventures, Bloomberg, Johns, OpenAI Locations: OpenAI, GPT

☆ Invite-only Lapse wants to rival Instagram. It's about to raise a lot of cash to do just that.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Lapse, a buzzy social media app that wants to rival Instagram, is set to raise fresh funding, Business Insider understands. Based on the number of shares allocated, the company has raised approximately £24.48 million, $31 million. One London-based source familiar with the deal said Lapse was set to secure around $30 million. A look at the Lapse app. It aims to help satisfy the demand for more authenticity on social media.

Persons: Instagram, Jacob Andreou, Ben, Dan Silvertown, Plural's Ian Hogarth, Dmitry Tokarev Organizations: Business, Meta, Greylock Ventures, Facebook, Companies, Octopus Ventures, Redbus Ventures Locations: London

☆ Some of the best early-stage startup investors share a common trait that should be a lesson for Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In today's big story, we're looking at the best investors when it comes to early-stage companies. The big storyPicking winnersCaterina Fake, Cindi Bi, and Suleman AliInvesting can be a crapshoot, especially when it comes to early-stage companies. AdvertisementThe investors, profiled by BI's Ben Bergman, Samantha Stokes, Rebecca Torrence, and Leena Rao, have an incredible track record for early-stage investing. Silicon Valley can be known to have a herd mentality, especially when it comes to venture investors. And yet, some of the best early-stage investors have proven to have far better success going out on their own.

Persons: —, we've, Caterina Fake, Suleman Ali, BI's Ben Bergman, Samantha Stokes, Rebecca Torrence, Leena Rao, Joseph Aaron, cofounders, Tanja Ivanova, isn't, Chanos, Elon Musk, Jim Chanos, Tesla, Musk, Dan Ives, Goldman Sachs, Goldman, Brittany Hosea, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Philipp Schindler, Google's, Alyssa Powell, Michelle Obama, Betty White, Steve Harvey, Muhammad Ali, Benjamin Franklin, Al Capone, Calvin Harris, Charles Schwab, They've Organizations: Service, Business, Reuters, Getty, Elon, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Google, BI Locations: pant, San Francisco, Brittany, China, Davos, ChatGPT's

☆ Stability AI: Cofounder Sues Startup Behind Stable Diffusion for up to $300 Million
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tayab Waseem claims that he was a cofounder in Stability AI and that the company has reneged on its promise of a 10% stake in the London-based AI startup. Stability AI rose to prominence in 2022 when users flooded its Stable Diffusion program, generating images of everything from hyperrealistic portraits to fantasy landscapes. Stability AI raised an undisclosed amount from Intel in October 2023. Waseem joined Stability AI when the cofounders, Mostaque and Hodes, were launching a project called CAIAC, which used AI to combat COVID-19, Waseem told BI. AdvertisementAccording to the filing, Stability AI had not paid him a formal salary due to cash flow problems, instead promising him 10% in equity interest.

Persons: —, Tayab Waseem, Emad Mostaque, Cyrus Hodes, Mostaque, Mike Bloomberg, Waseem Organizations: Service, Business, Intel, Getty Images, Bloomberg, Court, Eastern, of Locations: London

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