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☆ After a record-breaking 2021, European investors and founders are ready to take it slow
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Our Big Tech team was constantly chasing the biggest stories, from alleged executive misconduct at Microsoft to injuries in Amazon warehouses. After a record-breaking 2021, European startups raised $16 billion in the third quarter — a 44% annual drop. The solo founder joined YC in January 2022, and has since raised millions from investors like Alexis Ohanian. The risk of debilitating muscle and joint injuries at Amazon warehouses is off the charts, workplace regulators have said. Amazon workers shared why they planned to vote against unionizing.

☆ Musk's yes-men: 5 experts break down why it's difficult to 'speak truth to power.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Like yesterday, we're continuing with some of the year's best stories from our VC and startups team. Why it's difficult to "speak truth to power." The top VC and startups stories of 2022:Union Square Ventures; 645 Ventures; Race Capital; Mindset Ventures; Marianne Ayala/Insider6. Former Amazon leaders have infiltrated the tech industry. After dominating the VC industry last year, crossover funds spent 2022 pulling back.

☆ Which Twitter alternatives have staying power — and which is the next Clubhouse?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

For the rest of the week, in addition to the day's top stories, I'll be highlighting some of the year's biggest investigations, features, and more from Insider's tech reporters. Today, we're taking a look back on everything from employee angst at Amazon to Thomas Kurian's three-year reign at Google Cloud. Which Twitter alternatives have staying power — and which is the next Clubhouse? See which Twitter alternatives could make it out alive. We gave readers an inside look at Kurian's Google Cloud.

Elon Musk's biggest fans: tech foundersLisa Blue/Philip Pacheco/Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/InsiderFrom the moment Elon Musk took control of Twitter, he has been moving fast, breaking things, and sparking outcry. This past week, he said he'd step down as CEO after a Twitter poll found most respondents wanted him to. For many Silicon Valley founders, Musk's approach to his Twitter takeover makes him a visionary. About 400 Pollen employees were camped out for five days to celebrate the UK-based events and travel company. But according to 31 former Pollen employees, the implosion was years in the making.

☆ It's time to revive the 'pink-slip parties' of the early 2000s
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

First: Remember "pink-slip parties"? Now, 20-some years later, pink-slip parties are being floated as a way to ameliorate the pain felt by recently laid-off tech workers. Pink-slip parties originated with the dot-com bubble burst, when laid-off employees would gather to commiserate, laugh, drink, and meet prospective hiring managers. Hemming began running regular meetups for laid-off tech workers — misery loves company, after all — giving them an opportunity to network. She shared her thoughts on everything from the current hiring landscape to the benefits of pink-slip parties for younger generations.

☆ As tech companies pull back on spending, big office holiday parties are on the chopping block
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Apparently, some tech workers are also missing their companies' holiday festivities — but not because they're bopping around in the Mountain West. As tech companies pull back on spending, big office holiday parties are on the chopping block. Cost-cutting is coming for startups — and big office holiday parties are first on the list. For startup founders and venture capitalists, the office holiday party is a December tradition. But this year, holiday parties in startup-land look a little different.

☆ It's Not ChatGBT's Time to Shine — yet. Here's Why.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Within weeks of taking over, he dramatically transformed Twitter's company culture and started major projects — seemingly with one foot already out the door. Although a successful future for any technology is not guaranteed, ChatGPT feels like a tipping point for generative AI. Roomba, an automatic vacuum cleaner, took multiple sensitive photos that were shared on social media. After short-video apps like TikTok became the dominant platforms for fans to listen to new songs in 2022, music-industry execs are now setting their sights on social media as the next big money-making opportunity. Here are 15 power players using social media to shape the music industry.

☆ Welcome to Elon Musk's Fan Club
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

We didn't think refreshing Elon Musk's Twitter feed was how we'd spend it. Today, we're taking you inside the latest club in Silicon Valley: Elon Musk's fan club. Welcome to the Elon Musk fan club. Cue Musk's Twitter takeover: slashing headcount, revoking benefits, and cranking up productivity. Elon Musk is being forced to choose a company.

☆ The perks of tech work are rapidly disappearing. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But we've got more to talk about today, including the disappearance of lavish tech industry perks, and which generation of workers are most likely to feel "tech shame." When Elon Musk purchased Twitter, one of the first things he did was take away perks related to wellness, family planning, productivity, training, and home offices. The disappearance of perks is a shift from the decade before, when perks helped companies differentiate themselves from competitors. We explain why the perks of tech work are rapidly disappearing. Musk made the comments before the closure of his Twitter poll, which asked users if he should stay.

You can get the latest on that and much more from our finance newsletter, 10 Things on Wall Street. It's a snappy weekday read with the biggest stories on the Street, plus the latest on hot-spot restaurants, industry parties, and so much more. On the agenda today:Up first: Senior real-estate correspondent Daniel Geiger is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the recent turmoil at Compass. With home sales dipping amid rising interest rates, Compass has cut workers and bled cash. In June, it laid off about 450 corporate staff, and in October, it let go of about half its 1,500-person tech team.

☆ Netflix has lost its golden touch. Here's why the streamer is so boring now.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Finance has long ranked employees, but it's been out of fashion in tech for nearly a decade. Netflix once made an explicit choice to invest in underrepresented communities, Paris Marx writes. Shows like "Orange is the New Black" and "GLOW" gave spotlights to women, queer people, people of color, and non-Americans. But, according to Marx, the company stopped prioritizing stories from underrepresented communities, and new players were throwing their hats into the streaming wars. Now, Marx writes that Netflix is filled with bland shows, half-assed reality TV, and hopelessly derivative movies.

☆ Many laid-off tech workers are bouncing back stronger than ever. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm almost certain that this prescient verse was talking about how over half the tech workers who got laid off recently are now earning more than what they made before, according to new analysis. Laid-off tech workers are actually finding jobs quickly. Because tech workers are typically college-educated, with specialized skills in high demand across many industries, their chances of finding new jobs are pretty good in any economy. But right now, those odds are unusually good — and many tech workers are bouncing back stronger than ever. Even though tech companies are doing terribly right now, a lot of businesses in other industries are fine.

☆ A tense all-hands meeting at Google leaves employees worried about layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Oh, and Insider released its inaugural Cloudverse list of the 100 top leaders building the next generation of the Internet. Insider's Hugh Langley reports on a tense all-hands inside Google, where employees once again pushed CEO Sundar Pichai to comment on the possibility of layoffs. Google employees have been worried about layoffs for a while, especially while pretty much all of the search giant's peers in Big Tech have cut jobs in recent weeks and months. Notably, employees used the all-hands to raise concerns over a new performance tool named GRAD. Swapping Big Tech for climate tech.

On the agenda today:But first: Ashley Stewart, a chief tech correspondent, is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at Salesforce's succession crisis. Salesforce's Marc Benioff. Jemal Countess / StringerOver the past week or so, at least six top executives from Salesforce and its subsidiaries announced plans to leave, Ashley Stewart, chief tech correspondent, writes. Company insiders attribute these departures to co-CEO Marc Benioff exerting increasing control over the company, adding that he's driven away his closest lieutenants while dialing up performance pressure on employees. The departures have created a crisis in leadership at Salesforce.

☆ Why marginalized content creators will likely be the most affected by tech industry turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But today, we're talking about another group of people who will be affected by the recent tumult: content creators. The chaos at social media companies is hurting the most vulnerable content creators. Tumult is sweeping Big Tech, with thousands of full-time employees affected by industry layoffs. But some of the biggest losers from the shake-up will be the content creators who have fashioned careers on social media. That's particularly the case for marginalized creators, says Duffy, who's spent more than a decade studying the working lives of digital cultural producers.

☆ Elon Musk is bringing in new faces for Twitter 2.0 — including his cousins and Bari Weiss
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The makeup of Elon Musk's Twitter is changing, and not just because the offices are now bedrooms. With the majority of the company's former staff having been laid off — or fired, or resigned — Musk has brought in some of his own picks to work at Twitter 2.0. There's more on the new faces at Musk's social media company below, so let's get to it. Elon Musk is bringing in new faces for Twitter 2.0. And these aren't the only new faces at Twitter — hundreds of people have applied for a chance to work at Musk's new company.

☆ A TikToker who 'consensually' doxxes people says it's easier than you'd think
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today, I am introducing you to a viral phenomenon that certainly wasn't on my 2022 bingo card: "consensual doxxing." Meet a TikToker who's gone viral for her "consensual doxxing" content. But one TikToker has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers who want her to expose their secrets. Kristen uses her platform to "consensually dox" users and reveal their birthdays using just social media — and has become a data-privacy educator by proxy. Users are often shocked by how easy it is for her to find out their information, Kristen said.

☆ Following Bret Taylor's departure, more top executives are leaving Salesforce
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Quick question: Have you gone "goblin mode" yet this year? I've got more on goblin mode below, but first, let's talk about Salesforce, which is seeing more executive departures this week. The news of Butterfield's departure comes just days after Salesforce announced co-CEO Bret Taylor is also leaving the company — though Butterfield told staff the moves were unrelated. Oxford Languages, the publisher of Oxford English Dictionary, named "goblin mode" the 2022 Word of the Year — beating out semifinalist "metaverse." A look at what "goblin mode" means.

☆ Big Tech CEOs are asking employees to step up — or step aside
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Across the industry, tech CEOs are asking their employees to step up — or step aside. It's not just Elon Musk: Major tech CEOs are asking employees to step up or risk getting fired. After taking over at Twitter, Musk notoriously asked staffers to work "long hours at high intensity" or quit. But other tech CEOs from firms like Meta and Amazon have also been turning up the heat on employees. Here's what more tech CEOs are expecting.

On the agenda today:But first: Jordan Parker Erb, the author of Insider's 10 Things in Tech newsletter, is taking us behind the scenes of Elon Musk's feud with Apple. Tim Cook and Elon Musk Justin Sullivan/Getty Images and Philip Pacheco/AFP via Getty ImagesThis week, Elon Musk, the world's richest man and new Twitter owner, declared "war" with the world's biggest tech company: Apple. At the heart of the issue was Apple's 30% App Store fee, our associate editor Jordan Parker Erb writes. Here's what went down:Sign up for 10 Things in Tech to get stories like these right in your inbox. Edited by Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, and Lisa Ryan.

☆ Big Tech workers who've been laid off finally get a vacation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

For some laid-off tech workers, that thought isn't confined to just daydreams — some employees told us that since they've been laid off, they've taken the opportunity to finally go on vacation. In Big Tech, getting laid off can mean taking a fancy vacation. While the typical US worker receives little to no severance pay when they get laid off, firms like Facebook, Snap, and Twitter have been relatively generous. Some laid-off tech workers have racked up few years of sky-high pay, frequent bonuses, generous stock awards, and now, decent severance — so some are thinking, "why not travel?" See where other "freed" tech workers are headed.

☆ Salesforce employees say they were blindsided by Bret Taylor's departure
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today's not a typical day for the staff at Salesforce, some of whom told us they were blindsided by co-CEO Bret Taylor's decision to step down. Below, we've got details on what Salesforce employees — including now-solo CEO Marc Benioff — are saying about Taylor's announcement. Salesforce employees were blindsided by Bret Taylor's departure. The sudden announcement left many at the company feeling blindsided, employees and others close to the company told Insider. Here's what workers told us about Taylor's departure.

☆ Finance influencers who hyped up FTX and BlockFi are facing angry fans
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In the case of finance influencers who hyped up FTX and BlockFi to their subscribers, the result is a lot of unhappy, skeptical former fans. As prominent crypto platforms topple, financial influencers face anger and skepticism. On YouTube, financial influencers have built loyal followings by sharing financial advice and actively promoting companies like FTX and BlockFi. As the companies crumble, those influencers are facing skepticism and backlash from fans. Apple's App store has become an imitation of its former self.Apple used to carefully curate its App store, helping developers gain visibility and customers find what they needed, writes Michael Gartenberg.

☆ Elon Musk has waged war on Apple, claiming the tech giant "hates free speech"
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

From Elon Musk's war with Apple to the rise and fall of a pharmacy startup, it's a packed edition. Elon Musk is going to war with Apple. The world's wealthiest man slammed the world's biggest tech company, questioning if Apple "hates free speech" and suggesting that it's threatening Twitter's presence in the App Store. According to a book, Cook swore at Musk after he asked to be the CEO of Apple. According to career site Indeed, tech companies Intuit, Google, and Apple offer the most flexibility in terms of where and when employees are expected to work.

☆ How Microsoft can double its ad business to $20 billion
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

As the ad industry braces itself for what's sure to be a challenging 2023, we're taking a look at what Microsoft will need to do to achieve its ambitious goal of doubling its advertising business to $20 billion. Microsoft plans to grow its advertising business to $20 billion. In an interview with Insider, Microsoft Ads chief Rob Wilk shared plans to double the size of the company's ad business. Were Microsoft to reach $20 billion in ad revenue, it would overtake Chinese tech and media giant Tencent to become the sixth-largest digital ad seller worldwide, based on Insider Intelligence's estimates. Gyasi Calhoun, a front-end software engineer and developer at Twilio, said there's perks to the job, but that the industry can be stressful.

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