A New Kind of Tech Job Emphasizes Skills, Not a College DegreeA few years ago, Sean Bridges lived with his mother, Linda, in Wiley Ford, W.Va. Their only income was her monthly Social Security disability check. He applied for work at Walmart and Burger King, but they were not hiring. Yet while Mr. Bridges had no work history, he had certain skills. He had built and sold some stripped-down personal computers, and he had studied information technology at a community college. When Mr. Bridges heard IBM was hiring at a nearby operations center in 2013, he applied and demonstrated those skills. [ NY Times ] How Lightspeed responded to Caldbeck's alleged behaviorWhen Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake told Lightspeed Venture Partners, an early investor in her company, that (then) Lightspeed partner Justin Caldbeck had sexually harassed her, the firm asked her to sign a non-disparagement agreement. Not signing, a source suggests, could have endangered her entire company's future. So she signed, and remained silent about her experience. Why it matters: Lightspeed today tweeted that it regrets not taking "stronger action" when it learned of Caldbeck's alleged behavior. Lake signed the non-disparagement clause while Stitch Fix was trying to raise money — which it eventually did in a round led by top-tier VC firm Benchmark. Lightspeed could have blocked that investment. [ Axios ] Other companies should look at themselves before judging Uber, says early investor Ashton KutcherUber has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons — an investigation into the $69 billion company's allegedly toxic culture resulted in 20 employees losing their jobs and, ultimately, the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick. Some have taken the changes at Uber as a positive sign that Silicon Valley is growing past its "tech-bro" image. But not Ashton Kutcher. The Hollywood star and early Uber investor thinks the ride-hailing company isn't being treated fairly. [ Business Insider ] The 10 Commandments of Startup Success with Reid HoffmanWhen Reid Hoffman — who is rightly called “the Oracle of Silicon Valley” by many tech giants — returned to the podcast, I figured it would be popular, but it exploded. Many of you have asked for the transcript of our conversation, so you can find it below. More accurately, it’s a draft script, so all words from Reid and other CEOs are accurate, but mine were modified substantially in the audio version. I added a lot of stories on the spot (maybe 20 minutes) that are likewise omitted. [ Tim Ferriss ] Blue Apron Aspires to Amazon.com-Like Valuation in U.S. IPOBlue Apron Holdings Inc. is used to pitching its pre-portioned meal kits as an alternative to shopping for groceries, eating out or ordering in. The past week and a half, the company has faced a new challenge: Convincing investors of its value during a roadshow for its initial public offering. Blue Apron aims to raise as much as $510 million, marketing 30 million shares of Class A stock for $15 to $17 apiece. The shares are expected to price Wednesday after the market closes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. [ Bloomberg ] Silicon Valley Accelerator 500 Startups Isn't Backing ICOs – YetLong known for backing exciting early-stage investments, the absence of 500 Startups from the nascent market for blockchain-based initial coin offerings (ICOs) is notable. An early investor in bitcoin entrepreneurs, 500 Startups backed both ChangeCoin, which was acquired by Airbnb, and Gyft, which later sold to First Data. Yet, even as investors that frequently back similar startups – including Union Square Ventures, Boost VC and DFJ founder Tim Draper – embrace the new investment vehicle, 500 Startups has been on the sidelines. [ Coin Desk ] VC Firm Homebrew Considering an ICO to Raise its Next FundHomebrew, a venture capital firm founded in 2013 by ex-Twitter and Googleexecutives, has mulled a nascent and controversial method of raising money for its next fund: an initial coin offering, or ICO. Rooted in blockchain technology, ICOs are a form of crowdfunding whereby companies sell their own digital currencies or "tokens"—similar to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum—as opposed to equity or stock. While there have been more than 30 ICOs already this year alone, so far only one VC fund worldwide has gone through with such a deal: Blockchain Capital, whose ICO in April raised $10 million. [ Fortune ] A machine-learning approach to venture capitalVeronica Wu has been in on the ground floor for many of the dramatic technology shifts that have defined the past 20 years. Beijing-born and US-educated, Wu has worked in top strategy roles at a string of major US tech companies—Apple, Motorola, and Tesla—in their Chinese operations. In 2015, she was brought on as a managing partner to lead Hone Capital (formerly CSC Venture Capital), the Silicon Valley–based arm of one of the largest venture-capital and private-equity firms in China, CSC Group. She has quickly established Hone Capital as an active player in the Valley, most notably with a $400 million commitment to invest in start-ups that raise funding on AngelList, a technology platform for seed-stage investing. In this interview, conducted by McKinsey’s Chandra Gnanasambandam, Wu explains the differences between the tech-investment landscape in China and the United States and describes how Hone Capital has developed a data-driven approach to analyzing potential seed deals, with promising early results. [ McKinsey Blog ] Apollo raises biggest buyout fund everApollo Global Management has raised $23.5 billion for its latest buyout fund, with a close set to come “imminently,” according to The Wall Street Journal. And Apollo could reportedly still add even more capital to that already massive pile before it becomes official.
|