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☆ Ex-Andreessen Horowitz VC says Twitter helped build his career but he's leaving because of Elon Musk's chaotic leadership: 'It turns out that social networks are harder than rocket science'
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Benedict Evans said he's leaving X, formerly Twitter, after 16 years of using it to help build his career. X has faced an onslaught of criticism since Musk took over last year. After all, Musk has been promising self-driving electric cars for the better part of a decade, Evans wrote. Evans is far from the first person to threaten to leave the social media site since Musk took over. When the billionaire first took Twitter private last year, several celebrities took to the platform to announce their departure.

Persons: Benedict Evans, he's, X, Musk, —, Andreessen Horowitz, Elon Musk's, Evans, Ron DeSantis, Tesla, Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Insider's Lara O'Reilly Organizations: Elon, Service, Twitter, Defamation League, SpaceX

☆ VCs Marc Andreessen, John Doerr among attendees at Schumer's next AI forum
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Technologists and advocates are again set to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss with Senate leaders the perils and promises of artificial intelligence. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, and John Doerr, chair of Kleiner Perkins, will be among the 21 attendees at the second AI Insights Forum hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., according to a spokesperson for his office. The session is a continuation of the Majority Leader's effort to get the chamber up to speed on AI to determine how best to approach AI regulation. For example, Future of Life Institute President Max Tegmark is also set to attend. Other tech leaders such as Micron Executive Vice President Manish Bhatia, Revolution CEO Steve Case, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez will be in attendance.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz, John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins, Chuck Schumer, Andreessen, Max Tegmark, Elon Musk, Manish Bhatia, Steve Case, Patrick Collison, Aidan Gomez, Derrick Johnson, Amanda Ballantyne, Satya Nadella, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman Organizations: Capitol, Senate, China, Life, Life Institute, Tesla, Space X, Micron, NAACP, AFL, Technology, Microsoft, Google, CNBC, YouTube Locations: coders, India

casey newton[CHUCKLES]:: And it would be so funny if the AI actually already was deceptive and was just like, oh, yeah, Kevin, you’ve already figured us out. But I also think it’s part of this sort of undercurrent of the conversation, especially around AI right now. Marc Andreessen — he is clearly so angry at all of the people who criticize technology, technology companies, tech investors. And he is just really, really going after that crowd with this piece. brent sealesYou know I don’t really know.

Persons: kevin roose Casey, casey newton What’s, kevin roose, casey newton, hasn’t, kevin roose I’m, I’m, KEVIN, casey newton Yes, Kevin Roose, ” casey newton, Casey Newton, Marc Andreessen, Casey, we’ve, kevin roose Totally, Claude chatbot, Claude, Anthropic’s, chatbot, Anthropic hadn’t, Anthropic, Kevin, — they’re, roose, Meta, it’s, I’ve, Bard, casey newton It’s, there’s, you’ve, casey newton Yeah, didn’t, Kevin — I’m, it’ll, Kevin —, Andreessen Horowitz, Uncle Marc, ”, “ you’re, Tucker Carlson, Jesus Christ, casey newton Well, kevin roose Oh, he’s, McCarthy, —, Nick Land, casey newton Totally, You’re, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, It’s, Marc Andreessen —, they’re, Nietzschean supermen, Nietzschean, Marc, casey newton Heck, Andreessen, Marc Andreessen decries, Marc Andreessen’s, CASEY, kevin roose That’s, you’re, Nat Friedman, who’s, Daniel Gross, John, Patrick Collison, Toby Lutke, Shopify, Aaron Levie, Brent Seales, — casey newton, There’s, Luke Farritor, ” brent seales, brent seales, that’s, Seales, haters, brent seales That’s, you’ll, casey newton Yep, brent seales —, brent seales We’d, brent seales They’re, They’re, Luke, Brent, brent seales Pliny, Elder, Jesus, brent seales What’s, casey newton Right, we’re Organizations: YouTube, The New York Times, Facebook, Google, Intelligence, America, AIs, Stanford, Communist, Netscape, Fox News, Communist Party, Technology, Venture, Twitter, acc, kevin roose Venture, Companies, Meta, University of Kentucky, British Locations: ”, Anthropic, China, Florida, California, United States, Europe, Romanian, interpretability, Valley, America, Silicon, Silicon Valley, Vesuvius, Rome, Greece, Herculaneum, Venice, Roman

☆ ChatGPT can now respond with images and search the web
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

OpenAI, the company behind the viral chatbot, has officially launched real-time internet browsing for ChatGPT, three weeks after reintroducing the beta version of the capability — but it has been a significantly bumpy ride. But one of OpenAI's goals has been to expand ChatGPT's data — and search engine capabilities — into the here and now. In March, the company experimented with a ChatGPT web-browsing plugin for a limited number of users. The company has been slowly rolling out the feature again, after allowing site owners to opt out of the web crawling. Two of the foremost competitors in that race are OpenAI with ChatGPT and Google with its competitor, Bard.

Persons: OpenAI, Bing, OpenAI's, ChatGPT, Bard, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: UBS, Google, Sequoia Capital, CNBC

☆ Slowing down on AI will cause preventable deaths — and that's a form of murder, says Marc Andreessen
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Billionaire investor Marc Andreessen posted a mammoth 5000-word techno-optimist manifesto on Monday. Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder," wrote Andreessen. Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder," wrote Marc Andreessen. "Our enemies are not bad people – but rather bad ideas, "Andreessen wrote. Andreessen and Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider, sent outside regular business hours.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, —, Andreessen, Elon Musk, Sam Altman —, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: Service, Forbes

☆ Marc Andreessen is getting raked over the coals for calling social responsibility the 'enemy'
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

VC Marc Andreessen wrote a lengthy missive this week, titled "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto." AdvertisementAdvertisementIt wouldn't be a Marc Andreessen essay if the internet didn't lose its mind over it. Rather, technology, he wrote, can solve for "any material problem" under the sun and herald a new era of "abundance for everyone." The backlash to Andreessen's essay was swift. He runs one of the biggest venture capital firms by assets and perceived importance.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, —, Kara Swisher, Andreessen, Ben Collins, Andreessen's missive, Dorothea Baur, Cameron Moll, he's, Gary Marcus, Marcus, what's, Aravind Srinivas, A16z, Collins, Andreessen Horowitz, Del, Johnson Organizations: Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook, Backstage Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, Venture Locations: Silicon Valley, Del Johnson, Silicon

☆ Exclusive: Drone startup Aerodome flies out of stealth with $6.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-13 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

After seven months in stealth, Aerodome recently closed a $6.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and 2048 VC. Sidhu is currently a reserve officer for the Redondo Beach Police Department and was a full-time officer for two years. Competitors to Aerodome include Motorola, Dronesense, and Skydio, but those companies are more focused on software than the all-in-one package Aerodome is offering. Aside from responding to crime, Sidhu also says Aerodome will also eventually be able to detect wildfires and alert authorities moments after smoke appears. Aerodome has a contract to roll out a trial with Redondo Beach Police Department next month and Albuquerque Police Department in December.

Persons: Rahul Sidhu, Andreessen Horowitz, Jake Paul's, Jamie Siminoff, Nikita Bier, Bier, Sidhu, Kenaniah Cerny, COVID, Aerodome Organizations: Aerodome's, SPIDR Tech, Versaterm, Redondo Beach Police Department, Motorola, Albuquerque Police Department Locations: York

Instead, he's a co-founder of a $400 million food delivery company. Tsao launched the company, Caviar, with four of his best friends from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012. Building "Groupon for food" didn't work, "so we were like, 'Let's be the Uber for food.'" 'We just blew up'At the time, most of today's food delivery apps didn't exist yet. Five college friends founded Caviar in 2012, at a time when GrubHub and Seamless were the only major online food delivery businesses.

Persons: Shawn Tsao, he's, Tsao, Jack, Uber, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, Abel Lin, Andy Zhang, Richard Din, Jason Wang, —, Munch, Groupon, didn't, Postmates, DoorDash, Andreessen Horowitz, Wang Organizations: University of California, CNBC, Investors, Tiger Global Management Locations: Berkeley, Francisco, U.S, Miami

Oct 4 (Reuters) - Headway, a healthcare tech startup that connects patients and in-network therapists, has raised $125 million in Series C funding, the company told Reuters. Insurance company Health Care Service Corporation also joined the round. Based in New York, Headway's platform connects patients with therapists and psychiatrists who can provide care covered by insurance. The company makes money by taking a cut of the payments that therapists on its platform receive from insurance companies. The pandemic prompted more people to turn to mental health services to deal with stress and burnout.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, Andrew Adams, We've, Adams, Will Reed, Krystal Hu, Tom Hogue Organizations: Reuters, Spark Capital, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz . Insurance, Health Care Service Corporation, Thomson Locations: New York, U.S, San Francisco

☆ Our crisis of loneliness, the new bet investors are going after
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Not long after founding the startup, Gaon shared his vision with famed venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. It was notable to Gaon at the time that Andreessen — "one of those investors who's known for seeing where the market is going" — appeared to have pinpointed loneliness as its own market. That moved her parents, Cindy and Anne Jordan, who had sold their first healthtech company years before, to found the Arizona company Pyx Health. "The loneliness crisis is bigger, and more urgent, than anything I've worked on before," Nyborg wrote in a blog post. Inspired debuted a thesis in 2020 that identified loneliness as a key focus for the firm to invest in.

Persons: Benjamin Gaon, Boaz Gaon, Benny, Gaon, Marc Andreessen, Andreessen, Wisdo, —, Anne Wojcicki, Marius Nacht, Andreessen Horowitz, Vivek Murthy, Betsy Hoover, Bumble, Rylie Sarabia, Cindy, Anne Jordan, policyholders, Dawn Owens, it's, Owens, Julie Rice, Elizabeth Cutler, Rice, Peoplehood, Phil Levin, Levin, Culdesac, Renate Nyborg, I've, Nyborg, Hugo Amsellem, He's, Ava, Catalyst, Nate Tepper, Tepper, Adam Besvinick, Frances Haugen, Hoover, Alexa von Tobel, von Tobel, David Spinks Organizations: Pyx, Labs, verve, Investors, Pyx Health, TT Capital Partners, New, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capita, AI Fund, NEA, AIs, Looking Glass, Anonymous, Glass, Facebook, Bloomberg Locations: Arizona, Minneapolis, New York, Ava, France, Peoplehood, Hopscotch

"I'm very, very lucky because I wouldn't have had the courage to go and do that acquisition, but I give all the credit in the world to Dave Clark," Petersen said. "There's a perfect complement of skill sets," Petersen told Forbes in June 2022. Petersen told Clark he should engage with Shopify's team, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations. Clark, Petersen and Wagers met in Texas in mid-August to fine-tune the forecasts. Flexport told CNBC that an employee's politics are not relevant in personnel decisions.

Persons: Dave Clark, Ryan Petersen, he'd, Petersen, Clark, excoriated Clark, we've, Clark wasn't, Jeff Bezos, It's, Flexport, Clark overspent, Flexport's, He'd, Sanne Manders, Dave, Shopify, Tobias Lutke, Lutke, Shopify's, glanced, didn't, Fund's Trae Stephens, Michael Ronen, SoftBank, Andreessen Horowitz, Bob Swan, Samyukta Lakshmi, Kenny, Stuart Leung, pare, Leung, —, Lindsey Wasson, Clark's, Stephens, Peter Thiel, Trump's, Petersen's, Sen, Joe Manchin, Chris Ferro, Ferro, Parisa Sadrzadeh, couldn't, Amazon, Sadrzadeh, Burak Yolga, Yolga, Nelly Organizations: North, Amazon, Twitter, CNBC, UPS, FedEx, Milken Institute Global Conference, Bloomberg, Getty, Forbes, Deliverr, Shopify's, Anduril Industries, Intel, Intel Corp, U.S ., Clark, Republican, Founders Fund, Democratic, Street Journal, Flexport Locations: Phoenix, Silicon, Clark, Beverly Hills , California, U.S, Flexport, Deliverr, Miami, Flexport's Bellevue , Washington, Bengaluru, India, Flexport's, Asia, U.S . West Coast, Texas, Ohio, Arizona, Thiel's, West Virginia, Seattle, integrations

☆ Exclusive: Carta is suing yet another former employee to prevent the release of damaging recordings of its executives and board members
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tech unicorn Carta filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California in August against its former Chief Product Officer Heidi Johnson, demanding she turn over secret recordings of the company's top executives and board members. It's the second time the company has gone to federal court in order to prevent the release of what it says are damaging recordings. In court documents reviewed by Insider, Carta states that Johnson was fired in November 2022 for having a "polarizing" management style and for taking unauthorized leave. Shortly after her termination, both Johnson and Talton filed complaints with the company's board raising issues about her firing and the conduct of CEO Henry Ward. Additionally, Carta is seeking monetary damages from Johnson for breach of contract with the amount to be determined at trial.

Persons: Carta, Heidi Johnson, It's, Johnson, Andreessen Horowitz, Jerry Talton, Talton, Henry Ward, Lindaur, Emily Kramer Organizations: Northern District of, Lightspeed, New York's Southern, Carta Locations: Northern District, Northern District of California, Silicon, New York's, New York's Southern District, Carta

☆ Europe is minting red hot AI startups like DeepL and Synthesia. Meet 15 of the most prolific investors backing the region's breakout stars.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Tasmin Lockwood | Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz has poured cash into the AI-voice-intelligence startup ElevenLabs and the Nordic AI startup Sloyd. Some of Europe's most prolific AI investors are national funds and startup accelerators. London's Phoenix Court, the parent company of the VC firm LocalGlobe, took the top spot for total investment value — with $713 million poured into AI startups since 2020. MMC Ventures, also in London, followed suit with $628 million in investments in AI startups. Insider has profiled 15 investors at these firms who have spearheaded investments into European AI startups, in no particular order.

Persons: ChatGPT, Andreessen Horowitz, LocalGlobe Organizations: Venture, Lightspeed, New, Nordic, Court, MMC Ventures Locations: French, New York, Europe, London

☆ Flexport fires CFO, HR chief departs weeks after sudden ouster of Dave Clark as CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Three weeks after Flexport founder Ryan Petersen fired Dave Clark as CEO and returned to run his supply chain software startup, the company has ousted its chief financial officer, and its human resources chief has resigned, CNBC has learned. Flexport informed CFO Kenny Wagers last week that he was being let go, according to people familiar with the situation. Clark and Petersen worked as co-CEOs of Flexport starting last September, and Clark took over as the company's sole CEO in March. Stuart Leung will become Flexport's Chief Financial Officer and report to Ryan Petersen, CEO, effective immediately. WATCH: Flexport CEO Petersen on company's plan to reinvest profits

Persons: Ryan Peterson, Ryan Petersen, Dave Clark, Flexport, Kenny, Stuart Leung, Leung, Petersen's . Petersen, Clark, Jeff Bezos, Petersen, Peter Thiel's, Jennifer Boden, Boden, Darcie Henry, Michael Brown, Stuart, Jennifer, " Petersen, Henry, Teresa Carlson, Tim Collins, Kelly Cheeseman, Andreessen Horowitz, SoftBank, it's, excoriated Clark, — CNBC's Rohan Goswami Organizations: Flexport Inc, CNBC, Amazon, Fund, Restructuring, Founders Fund Locations: San Francisco , California, U.S, Flexport, Shopify, Andreessen

☆ SoftBank-backed Improbable slashes losses by 85%, says pivot to the metaverse has paid off
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Herman Narula, co-founder and CEO at Improbable, speaks during a session at the Web Summit in Lisbon. Virtual reality startup Improbable said Wednesday that it reduced losses by 85% in 2022, a year that saw the company pivot its focus to powering new "metaverse" experiences. Improbable CEO Herman Narula said the company had reported its "best financial year" on record which reflected how its bet on the metaverse had paid off. Improbable said that part of the reason behind the company's reduction in losses was a dramatic reduction in the cost of running mass-scale virtual events. The year also saw Improbable divest two of its games studios, Inflexion Games and Midwinter Entertainment, and sell off a business unit focused on servicing defense clients.

Persons: Herman Narula, Critics, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: Inflexion, Midwinter Entertainment, Companies House Locations: Lisbon, British

OpenAI's ChatGPT can now "see, hear and speak" — or, at least, understand spoken words, respond with a synthetic voice and process images, the company announced Monday. Users will also be able to share images with ChatGPT and highlight areas of focus or analysis (think: "What kinds of clouds are these?"). The big feature push comes alongside ever-rising stakes of the AI arms race among chatbot leaders such as OpenAI, Microsoft , Google and Anthropic. Experts have raised concerns about AI-generated synthetic voices, which in this case could allow users a more natural experience but also enable more convincing deepfakes. OpenAI acknowledged those concerns in its Monday announcement, saying that synthetic voices were "created with voice actors we have directly worked with," rather than collected from strangers.

Persons: OpenAI's, OpenAI, Bard chatbot, Bing, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Sequoia Capital

☆ As Instacart goes public, it's no victory lap for founder Apoorva Mehta
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Mehta was replaced as CEO of Instacart in July 2021 following a messy dispute with some of the company's largest investors. Instacart Founder Apoorva Mehta in his 2003 yearbook photo from Westdale Secondary School. The app started gaining momentum and Mehta put out ads on Craigslist for shoppers to do the grocery runs for him. Whole Foods reportedly broke the news to Mehta and a fellow Instacart executive on an early morning call. In a sworn affidavit, Mehta denies that he misappropriated any trade secrets and says he's since cut ties with Singh.

Persons: Apoorva Mehta, Mehta, Safeway Mehta, Hamilton Public Library Mehta, Bing Gordon, Kleiner Perkins, Gordon, he'd, Garry Tan, Tan, Garry, Andreessen Horowitz, catapulting Mehta, Forbes, Instacart, Mike Moritz, Fidji Simo, Simo, That's, Mehta's, he's, Tejasvi, Singh, Sam Bankman, NextMed, it's Organizations: Instacart, Safeway, Westdale Secondary, Hamilton Public Library, The University of Waterloo, Amazon, NPR, Electronic Arts, YC, TechCrunch, Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Forbes, Foods, Costco, Kroger, Facebook, Sunrise Locations: India, Libya, Hamilton , Ontario, Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, wallowing, Sequoia, Mehta's, Marin County

☆ Instacart closes up 12% in Nasdaq debut, after first-day rally sputters
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Ari Levy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Instacart shares rose 12% in their Nasdaq debut on Tuesday after the grocery delivery company's long-awaited IPO. The stock initially popped 40% to open at $42, but closed at $33.70 as investors locked in their initial gains. At $11.2 billion, Instacart is valued at about 3.9 times annual revenue. Food delivery provider DoorDash , which Instacart named as a competitor in its prospectus, trades at 4.1 times revenue. Uber's stock trades for less than three times revenue.

Persons: Instacart, Andreessen Horowitz, Rowe Price, company's Uber, Fidji Simo, CNBC's Deirdre Bosa, It's, Brandon Leonardo, Maxwell Mullen, Apoorva Mehta Organizations: Nasdaq, Software, Kroger, Costco, Sequoia, Fidelity, Target, Walmart Locations: Tuesday's, U.S, Amazon

☆ Instacart prices IPO at $30 a share, valuing grocery-delivery company at about $10 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Ari Levy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Instacart, the grocery-delivery company that saw its business boom during the pandemic, priced its long-awaited IPO at $30 a share on Monday, and will become the first notable venture-backed tech company to hit the U.S. public market since December 2021. There were 22 million shares sold in the initial public offering, with 14.1 million coming from the company and 7.9 million from existing shareholders. Instacart co-founder Apoorva Mehta owns shares worth over $800 million, and is selling a small portion of them in the IPO. The company said co-founders Brandon Leonardo and Maxwell Mullen are each selling 1.5 million, while Mehta is selling 700,000. Former employees, including those who were in executive roles as well as in product and engineering, are selling a combined 3.2 million shares.

Persons: Instacart, Andreessen Horowitz, Rowe Price, Apoorva Mehta, Mehta, Fidji Simo, Simo, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Brandon Leonardo, Maxwell Mullen Organizations: Nasdaq, Kroger, Costco, Sequoia, Fidelity, Target, Walmart, Facebook, JPMorgan Locations: Amazon

☆ Web3 music platforms are combining new tech with Web2 features to give artists better compensation and 'create dope consumer experiences'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Diana Umana | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Web3 music platforms are changing the industry, giving artists better payouts and ways to reach fans. Orin FleurimontThe importance of direct-to-consumer offerings for music artists has never been more evident. It also uses familiar terminology throughout its platform and in marketing, similar to what one would find on traditional music platforms. The benefit of this hybrid approach is clear: In April, when much of the Web3 music space faced uncertainty, Even closed its $2.2 million seed round. Safeguarding security and enhancing educationWhile integrating Web3 and Web2 experiences on music platforms offers promising benefits, there are drawbacks and areas for improvement.

Persons: Tanerélle, Orin Fleurimont, Web3, Mag Rodriguez, Weston Rich, Rodriguez, Eric Bellinger, Shaun, Snoop Dogg, Tayla Parx, Bobby Shmurda, Andreessen Horowitz, Sound.XYZ, David Greenstein, Pablo Sáez David Greenstein, Brett Shear, Christopher Lee, Erin Leydon, Lee, merch, Vérité, IYK, Jamie Kim, Audius Organizations: Service, Spotify, Apple, PTC, Investments, IYK, IRL, Atlantic Records, NFC Locations: Wall, Silicon, Web3, Sound.XYZ

☆ Sequoia and Andreessen get hosed on their 2021 Instacart investment, after a 75% plunge in valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Ari Levy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

That's more than 75% below where Sequoia and Andreessen invested in early 2021. At that time, Instacart sold shares at $125 a piece for a $39 billion valuation. The 400,000 shares it purchased in 2021 are a small sliver of the 51.2 million shares it owns. Neither Sequoia nor Andreessen participated in that round. Even if Instacart's IPO can't lift its valuation anywhere near its Covid-era peak, it's likely that Sequoia, Andreessen and other venture firms are hoping it helps lift public investor enthusiasm for new tech stocks.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, Instacart, Andreessen, Covid shutdowns, Nick Giovanni, Sequoia's Mike Moritz, Rowe Price, It's, haven't, VCs, DoorDash, hasn't, there's, isn't, Valiant Peregrine Organizations: Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Federal, Consumers, Nasdaq, Sequoia, Valiant, D1 Locations: Sequoia, IPOs, U.S, Instacart, SoftBank

☆ Sequoia and Andreessen to take a huge hit on their 2021 Instacart investment, after a 75% plunge in valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Ari Levy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, Instacart, Andreessen, Covid shutdowns, Nick Giovanni, Sequoia's Mike Moritz, Rowe Price, It's, haven't, VCs, DoorDash, hasn't, there's, isn't, Valiant Peregrine Organizations: Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Federal Reserve, Consumers, Nasdaq, Sequoia, Valiant, D1 Locations: Sequoia, IPOs, U.S, Instacart, SoftBank

☆ The former head of Meta's failed stablecoin project admits he was too 'idealistic.' Now David Marcus's new startup plans to work within the system.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Bradley Saacks | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

With an ultimate goal to be the go-to currency for the global financial system, it was, in hindsight, too ambitious, Marcus admits now. "If you're dependent on one centralized stablecoin to do global payments, it's a problem as we've experienced firsthand," he said. Why Meta's crypto project failedIn 2019 Meta unveiled plans to create a digital currency pegged to hard currencies including the US dollar. With his new startup, Lightspark, Marcus plans to hypercharge the global payments system is simpler, or at least less grandiose. Users will swap their local currency for bitcoin and then have it converted to the local currency of whichever country the capital is needed in.

Persons: David Marcus, Meta's, Libra, Diem, Marcus, Meta, that's, Mark Zuckerberg, he's, Christian Catalini, Marcus's, Catalini Organizations: PayPal, Visa, Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta, bitcoin, Facebook, JPMorgan, Bloomberg Locations: Manhattan, Los Angeles, Bahrain

☆ Real-estate crowdfunding is a house of cards. PeerStreet's bankruptcy reveals why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Like many PeerStreet investors who spoke with Insider, Mincher has a strong résumé. Another form of crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding, works a bit like the stock market without the onerous and expensive process of initial public offerings. The PeerStreet investors who spoke with Insider said the outcome of this case could determine whether they stick with real-estate crowdfunding. Others, such as Fundrise, have moved away from crowdfunding in favor of a model for private real-estate investment trusts, similar to the BREIT later offered by Blackstone. Fritton, the former Patch of Land CEO, said Fundrise's fund model was the wave of the future for real-estate crowdfunding.

Persons: Michael Burry, Christian Bale, Burry's, Crowdfunding, Burry, Andreessen Horowitz, they're, Braun Mincher, PeerStreet, who've, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein, Brew Johnson, he's, Braun, Mincher, —, it's, Michael Burry Astrid Stawiarz, Ian Ippolito, Ippolito, John McNellis, PeerStreet Ippolito, McNellis, El, Marc Andreessen, Phil McCarten, Silverstein, wouldn't, Sean Quinn, Doug Lyon, Lyon, that's, Jason Fritton, Kirk Brett, there's, Brett, iFunding, CrowdStreet, Nightingale's Elie Schwartz, Nightingale, Schwartz, Yieldstreet, Fritton Organizations: CNBC, Main, PeerStreet, Facebook, McNellis Partners, Funding Trust, Fairfield University, Magnetar, Adler, Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice, Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, Investors, Blackstone Locations: Delaware, El Segundo , California, crowdfunding, There's

The new round, led by T. Rowe Price, could mark the last round of private funding as the data company gears up for the public market. Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA.O), another beneficiary of the AI boom, and credit card firm Capital One Financial (COF.N), also participated in the latest funding round. AI, the latest buzzword in the technology space, has captivated the interest of investors from Silicon Valley to Wall Street. Its latest valuation is over 13% more than the $38 billion the San Francisco-based company was worth after its last fundraise in 2021. The company has raised $4 billion since inception.

Persons: Rowe Price, Ali Ghodsi, Ghodsi, Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Morgan, Weeks, Databricks, Niket, Krystal Hu, Dhanya Ann Thoppil Organizations: Nvidia, Reuters, Fidelity Management & Research, Tiger Global, Thomson Locations: Silicon Valley, Wall, Francisco, Bengaluru, Hong Kong

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