When Should You Sell Your Startup?When should you sell your business? There is no universal to this answer because the question is multifaceted and unique to each company. But we can answer another related question. Given a declining growth rate, when is my company’s value maximized? Startups strategic value lies within their ability to grow. The faster a company can grow, the more valuable it is. This relationship is remarkably linear. Silicon Valley Would Rather Cure Death Than Make Life Worth LivingSILICON VALLEY IS coming for death. But it’s looking in the wrong place. After disrupting the way we love, communicate, travel, work, and even eat, technologists believe they can solve the ultimate problem. Perennially youthful Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced last year a $3 billion initiative to obliterate human disease. Among his many crusades, Paypal co-founder and Trump advisor Peter Thiel aims to end mortality. (“Basically, I’m against it,” he has said.) Alphabet has a whole company devoted to curing this most intractable of inconveniences. [ Wired ] Why your startup idea isn’t big enough for some VCs Venture Capital functions with a power law where the majority of a fund’s returns come from a small percentage of investments. Because of this, VCs need to know if a single investment can return the entire fund. As Bill Gurley famously said “Venture capital is not even a home run business. It’s a grand slam business.” This is where the Return The Fund (RTF) analysis comes into play. [ Medium ] The SEC and DOJ just dropped their inquiries into Hampton CreekThe SEC and the Department of Justice, which had launched preliminary inquiries into the vegan food company Hampton Creek last summer, have officially closed their inquiries, according to founder and CEO Josh Tetrick. He informed the company’s 160-plus employees of the status change this morning in an email that you can find below. Tetrick called the news “the expected result by our leadership, board and investors.” [ TC ] Uber Group’s Visit to Seoul Escort Bar Sparked HR ComplaintA woman who dated Uber CEO Travis Kalanick for three years, Gabi Holzwarth, says she was with Mr. Kalanick when he and a team of five Uber employees visited an escort-karaoke bar in Seoul in mid-2014. At the bar, women sat in a circle, identified by numbered tags. Four male Uber managers picked women out of the group, calling out their numbers, and sat with them, she says. About an hour later, she and Mr. Kalanick left. A year later, a female Uber marketing manager who was in the group
told Uber’s HR chief that the outing had made her uncomfortable, according to Ms. Holzwarth, who says she spoke to Mr. Kalanick about the complaint. Ms. Holzwarth also discussed the matter with the female Uber manager via instant message, which The Information has viewed. [ Amir Ifrati / The Information ] Meet a Real Unicorn: The First Black Partner at 500 StartupsA venture capitalist is a person who invests in a business venture, providing capital for start-up or expansion. The majority of venture capital (VC) comes from professionally-managed public or private firms who seek a high rate of return by (typically) investing in promising startup or young businesses that have a high potential for growth but are also high risk. VC firms typically invest in business sectors such as IT, bio-pharmaceuticals, clean technologies, semiconductors, etc. VC JOBS : Analyst Program at AngelList, San Francisco, USSenior Associate at Founder Collective, SF, US.Business Development Partnerships Manager at 500 Startups, SF, US.Venture Partner - Investor Relations at venture/science, SF, US.Office Coordinator at Thanx, San Francisco, USCustomer Service & Support Specialist at Casetext,SF, US.Partner Success Manager at WePay, Redwood City, US.Senior Data Scientist at WePay Redwood City, US.Consumer Product Manager at Checkr, San Francisco, US.Investigations Associate at Checkr, San Francisco,US.Data Scientist/Machine Learning Engineer at Casetext, San Francisco, US.Growth Hacker at Casetext, San Francisco, US.Director, Head of Platform and Community - New York Life Insurance Co, NY, US. |