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Snoop Dogg’s venture firm just closed its debut fund with $45 million

Snoop Dogg, the rapper, entertainer and businessman, can claim another small victory in a long string of career highlights. The venture firm that he co-founded a couple of years ago, Casa Verde Capital, has closed its debut fund with $45 million.

The money was raised in earnest last year, says managing partner Karan Wadhera, an alum of both Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities who joined the outfit in the summer of 2016 to take over the process of securing capital — as well as investing it along with fellow managing director Evan Eneman. We talked with Wadhera yesterday to get a better handle on the firm, which makes seed and Series A bets on ancillary businesses in the cannabis industry. Our chat has been edited for length. [ TechCrunch ]

Silicon Valley Is Having An Existential Crisis Over "Time Well Spent." But So Are We.

Across the tech industry, a reckoning is afoot. Faced with the consequences (harassment, misinformation, radicalization, polarization) wrought by the unprecedented scale of its platforms, Big Tech is — at least publicly — looking inward. Facebook is optimizing its platform to encourage something it’s calling “time well spent,” while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced two weeks ago the company would attempt “to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation.” And, facing a barrage of reportsdetailing how its algorithms have surfaced and promoted divisive, disturbing, and conspiratorial videos, YouTube has announced changes to improve its news experience. Taken together, these announcements make for something significant: a broad acknowledgment that something needs to change. [ Tech Crunch ]

Stitch Fix made a big addition to its business that won’t show up in its Q2 financial results

Stitch Fix posted another profitable quarter with revenue of $296 million that beat analyst expectations, but the most interesting company development received just a passing mention in the earnings announcement for the second quarter of its 2018 fiscal year. [ Recode ]

Everything you need to know about Randi Zuckerberg, the ex-Facebook employee and media mogul who hates being referred to as 'Mark's sister'

Randi Zuckerberg has authored four books, started her own media company, run multiple television shows, and performed on Broadway. She might even be eyeing her own talk show.

The eldest Zuckerberg has long been a vivacious personality in Silicon Valley, where she's lampooned the tech industry's hermetic culture and spoken out against the detriments of social media. But she is the first to admit that her career has long been overshadowed by that of her younger brother, Mark, who is the founder and CEO of Facebook. [ Business Insider ]

Making Room at the Table: An interview with Sallie Krawcheck

Sallie Krawcheck is one of my favorite entrepreneurs. I finally got to meet her last year after many years following her career as one of the most senior women on Wall Street. A 2002 Fortune Magazine cover put her face as the hope of trust on Wall Street with a headline: "The Last Honest Analyst." [ Pando ]

Virtue in the winding road: Reonomy forges a path to success

Much of startup-world news suggests tales of companies that are successful from Day Zero, hitting the ground running with near instantaneous product-market fit and never looking back. Or sometimes there’s the tale of a brief wander in the woods before finding the “It” product that then takes off on the fast train to Unicorn Station (see Instagram, Twitter, Slack). As investors, it’s great to back founders who can seemingly create something out of nothing and very quickly gain traction. Who wouldn’t want that? [ Primary.vc ]

This Stanford grad went from living in motels to working in VC — here's his unusual path and how he wants to help others like him

As an African-American, Frederik Groce, an associate at Silicon Valley's Storm Ventures, is a rarity in the venture capital world, where only 3% of all employees are black.
In addition to being an atypical VC, Groce had an unusual journey into the industry. He grew up poor, planned on being a lawyer, and didn't really have a firm grasp on what venture capitalists do until he interviewed for a position at Storm.
But his experience running a multimillion dollar business organization at Stanford impressed Storm Ventures.
Hoping to help other blacks who are either in the venture industry or hoping to break into it, Groce's helped form a networking group in Silicon Valley and plans to eventually expand it to Los Angeles and New York. [ Business Insider ]