Trump’s Election Boosted Demand For Palantir Shares, Investor SaysThe market for stock in Palantir Technologies, the Silicon Valley data analysis company that does much of its business with the federal government, was in the doldrums for much of 2016. But since the election of Donald Trump — whose closest tech adviser is Palantir chairman Peter Thiel — demand seems to have picked up, one investor and middleman in that market has told BuzzFeed News. “Since the election, we’ve seen an uptick in interest in owning Palantir shares,” said Jared Carmel, a managing partner of Manhattan Venture Partners, a boutique investment bank and fund manager that arranges trades in startup shares, and which owns a stake in Palantir. Palantir’s elevated stature was on display this week when its CEO, Alex Karp, joined the tech industry’s biggest players in a pilgrimage to Trump Tower. Others in the room were top brass from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook — public companies each valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Karp’s Palantir, which is privately held, has a relatively small valuation of $20 billion. [ BuzzFeed ] Breakdown of Palantir Technologies funding : [ Total : $2.03B ] Let Me Point out to you How Ridiculous the Trump Tech Meeting WasA room full of some of the top tech leaders in our country: Apple, Facebook, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Amazon, Tesla and so forth. It’s a breath of fresh air to see that Marc Benioff, who has become a beacon for protecting the rights of our most vulnerable citizens, is not in attendance. [ Both Sides of Table ] GitHub Is Building a Coder’s Paradise. It’s Not Coming CheapThe VC-backed unicorn startup lost $66 million in nine months of 2016, financial documents show. Though the name GitHub is practically unknown outside technology circles, coders around the world have embraced the software. The startup operates a sort of Google Docs for programmers, giving them a place to store, share and collaborate on their work. But GitHub Inc. is losing money through profligate spending and has stood by as new entrants emerged in a software category it essentially gave birth to, according to people familiar with the business and financial paperwork reviewed by Bloomberg. This Is Your Life in Silicon ValleyYou wake up at 6:30 a.m. after an Ambien-induced sleep. It’s Friday. Last night at the Rosewood was pretty intense — you had to check out Madera and see if there is any truth to the long-running Silicon Valley rumors. You were disappointed, but at least you did get to see a few GPs from prominent VC firms at the bar. Did they notice you? Did you make eye contact? You remind yourself that they are not real celebrities — only well known in a 15-mile radius to
the TechCrunch-reading crowd. Planning For Next Year For the past few weeks I have been going from Board Meeting to Board Meeting reviewing, discussing, debating, and, ideally, approving the 2017 plans for the companies that I work with. [ AVC ] VENTURE CAPITAL JOBSVenture Capital Intern at Creandum, San Francisco, USUI Designer at Liaoyuan, Boston, USVenture Capitalist at Whoogle, Mountain View, US.Business Angel at Whoogle, Mountain View, US.Full stack Engineer at Liaoyuan, Boston, US.External Affairs Coordinator at Tech:NYC, NYC, US.Administrative Assistant at Canvas Ventures, Menlo Park, US. |