At $45 Billion Price, SoftBank Talks Enflame Uber Tensions Three weeks ago, Benchmark partners Matt Cohler and Peter Fenton flew into Sun Valley, Idaho for a private meeting with Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, according to three people told about it. On the outskirts of the annual Allen & Co. media confab, the group tried to hammer out a deal for SoftBank to buy shares in Uber from existing investors including Benchmark. That proposed deal has become the latest source of tension at Uber. The transaction on the table around that time:
SoftBank would purchase Uber shares from existing shareholders at a price that would value the company between $40 billion ($27 to $28 a share) and $45 billion ($31 to $32 a share). Additionally, SoftBank would invest $1 billion at the latest preferred valuation of around $70 billion and get some board seats. [ The Information ] Snapchat would let Google finally conquer the $72 billion TV ad market and stop Facebook in its tracks As Business Insider's Alex Health reported on Thursday, Google has looked into buying Snapchat for as much as $30 billion. Who knows whether this deal would ever happen? But in the meantime, it's worth examining what such an acquisition would do for Google (besides keeping Snapchat away from Facebook). At top of the list: a marriage of Snapchat and Google's mega global video platform YouTube could help Google make a serious bid for the biggest prize in advertising — the $72 billion TV market. [ Business Insider ] Slack’s Ali Rayl on supporting 5 million daily active usersIn your startup’s early days there are two inputs connecting customers to your brand: the product experience and the support experience. The latter not only shapes impressions, but also serves as the primary pipeline for product feedback. And if you’re going to keep customer support running smoothly as you scale, it’s critical to think deliberately about the experience well before heaps of customers come rushing through the door. [ Intercom ] Backstage Capital launched with a mission: to support underrepresented founders and to invest in 100 of them by 2020.Almost two years after getting off the ground, the venture firm is halfway to that goal. Last week, Backstage Capital invested in its 50th company, adding to a roster of portfolio companies nearly all from traditionally underrepresented founders. The milestone is significant for the firm, but also for venture capital as a whole. The firm is one of few out there that uses its money—about $5 million in two funds—to make diversity its top priority. While other firms tout their diversity numbers, they're not explicitly pushing to diversify tech with every investment. [ Mashable ] It's not just Zuckerberg — Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield is a big fan of universal basic incomeBooming tech salaries and the resulting wage gap have put the greater San Francisco area at the center of conversations about income inequality in the United States. It's even become a central issue for a certain not-running-for-president billionaire, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In particular, Zuckerberg is an outspoken advocate for a universal basic income, which would guarantee all citizens a monthly stipend to cover basic expenses like food and rent. A Google Executive Does Cartwheels After Kari Clark gave birth to her second child in 2015, she decided it was time to finally master a cartwheel. “When you have a baby you have to become open to embracing new habits,” she says. “I had always exercised, but suddenly I wanted to get really serious about my health.” Ms. Clark, a 39-year-old product manager for Google Accessories in New York, says despite three years of CrossFit she still couldn’t do a pull-up.... [ WSJ ] In the future, highly skilled people will be bringing home fatter paychecks, but they’ll rarely be home long enough to spend them. For a glimpse of the future of work, especially the high-paying kind, look at finance and high-tech companies. Some of the biggest offer high employee salaries combined with lavish perks like free meals at work, luxury shuttle buses for commuters, and extras such as dry cleaning picked up and dropped off at people’s desks. This might look like the fruits of corporate beneficence. In fact, alongside email and other digital technologies, perks like these aim to maximize efficiency and working time, enabling employees to work as many hours as possible without needing to take time off to travel outside for food or errands. While this approach is currently seen as an anomaly, long-term economic trends will force other companies to adopt a similar model—a future of high pay combined with high hours of work. [ Fast Company ] Bitcoin breaks $3,000 to reach new all-time highBitcoin has reached a record high valuation of $3,000 per coin to complete a rollercoaster week that begin with the long-awaited split of the cryptocurrency. A number of exchanges, including popular destinations Coinbase and Kraken, valued a single bitcoin at over $3,000, an all-time high that is up $485 on the valuation one month ago. Earlier this year, Bitcoin surged to surpass $2,000 for the first time in May going on to almost reach $3,000 in June only for the valuation to crash. [ Tech Crunch ] |