Sequoia is raising a new fund that could top $6 billion, as pressure from SoftBank’s mega-fund increases on Silicon Valley VCsCall it the SoftBank Effect. According to sources close to the situation, the high-profile venture capital firm Sequoia Capital is in the early of raising a third global growth fund that could range from $5 billion to $6 billion. Sources said a numbers of other funds in Silicon Valley are also considering fundraises of this magnitude or even higher, prompted, in part, by the pressure to have larger pools of capital to deploy in the wake of SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund. [ Recode ] 57 startups became unicorns this year and seven lost their hornsThe unicorn club gets new members by the week. This year alone, 57 startups around the world attained unicorn status with a valuation of $1 billion or more, according to data from venture capital tracker PitchBook.nd Shazam, which Apple purchased for $400 million. [ Recode ] The Information’s Person of 2018: Masayoshi SonLast year, we chose Snap CEO Evan Spiegel as our person of 2017. We anticipated, correctly, that the public-market debut of Snap would bring much more attention to the young company and its co-founder. This year, we’ve chosen SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son to be the person of 2018—the person we think will have a greater news profile and bigger impact on the global tech industry in the coming year. But we’re choosing him as much for the direct role he’ll play as for what his rising profile symbolizes. [ The Information ] Coinbase Looks at Insider Trading After Offering Bitcoin CashCoinbase Inc., one of the most popular U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges, is investigating allegations of insider trading on its platform in the hours before the company announced it would enable purchases of the bitcoin spinoff known as bitcoin cash. [ Bloomberg ] Between memorable Twitter threads and constant push notifications, 2017 might have kept you tethered to your phone. But there were also many books that came out this year that contain valuable lessons about business, careers, leadership, and productivity. So if you’d like to unplug and reset before diving into 2018, take a look at some of our favorite business books of the year. Stitch Fix Investors Sing Blue Apron BluesThe market is quick to draw lessons from past mistakes. Sometimes, however, it learns the wrong ones. That may be the problem plaguing Stitch Fix, the personalized online styling service that reported its first earnings as a public company yesterday. The startup, whose shares had risen 65% since its IPO last month, reported earnings of 4 cents a share and revenue of $296 million—nipping analysts’ expectations of 3 cents a share and revenue of $295 million. [ WSJ ] Looking Back At Softbank’s Big YearWhile venture capitalists vie to fund massively scalable businesses, they tend to view their own industry as size-constrained. Common wisdom is that with a limited supply of successful startups, greatly inflating the amount of available capital to invest in them leads to asset bubbles. Women In Venture Capital: Breaking More Glass CeilingsIt feels like a tipping point is fast approaching for women in the business world. Women-owned businesses have increased from a quarter of all firms in 1997 to nearly thirty-six percent as of the US Census Bureau’s 2012 Survey of Business Owners. Growing at a rate 1½ times the national average, the 9.8 million women-owned businesses bring in over $1.4 trillion in revenue annually. Sole-proprietorships account for almost ninety percent of those businesses, with women entrepreneurs starting an estimated 1,288 new firms per day in 2014. And yet, the more progress we make, the clearer it is how far we have still to go. While the trend lines show progress in many sectors, there are several key areas where the percentage of female participation is still vexingly low, including angel investing and venture capital. Masha Drokova, a business owner and angel investor based in San Francisco, is trying to change that. Originally from Russia, Drokova launched her career in politics, then pivoted towards business when she founded her own social media agency. After finding success marketing for a variety of Russian companies, she started her next venture, public relations consulting for tech firms . Though successful in Russia, she moved her company to New York when she saw a market opening in the US for Russian-speaking PR consultants. With her agency bringing in significant revenue, she had the freedom to jump into the arena of angel investing. [ Forbes ] China ride-hail giant Didi Chuxing has raised $4 billionChinese ride-hail behemoth Didi Chuxing just raised $4 billion, the company announced on Wednesday. Before this round, the company raised upwards of $15 billion. Participants in this round included Softbank and Mubadala. Didi would not disclose the current total funding. This round valued the company at around $56 billion. The company most recently was valued at $50 billion. After Didi acquired Uber’s China operations in August of 2016, it expanded its international footprint through investments in companies like Brazil’s 99. [ Re/Code ] TechCrunch Shanghai 2017 - Venture capital and blockchainLessons learned from running an international accelerator program in AustraliaRunning Techstars Adelaide, the first accelerator for Techstars in Asia Pacific, has been an incredible learning experience and introduction to the Australian startup ecosystem. Before I arrived in Adelaide, I’ll be the first to admit that most of my knowledge of Australia’s startup scene was limited to Atlassian, a few Techstars portfolio companies, and a handful of notable VC firms. What I’ve discovered over the past year is that Australia is teeming with great opportunities and incredible incentives for startups, making this country a very attractive location to build and grow a business. [ Startup Daily ] ICO Insight #3, featuring Homesidekick, Heidi Pease, Adam Draper, Ky Trang HoThe philosophy that could have stopped Silicon Valley’s crisis of conscience before it startedOnce upon a time, the Esalen Institute, just south of Big Sur, California, was a prime destination for radical thinkers. In the 1960s, beat poet Jack Kerouac wrote verse and prose odes to the local scene at the hot springs retreat overlooking the sea. Philosopher Alan Watts talked Zen and Eastern thought to visitors. Psychologist Abraham Maslow illuminated his hierarchy of needs. Psychiatrist Fritz Perl developed Gestalt therapythere, while mythologist Jospeh Campbell elucidated human narrative. Hunter S. Thompson—who’d been a caretaker at the predecessor spa, the Lodge—strode about high and naked, having made it as the first gonzo journalist. [ QZ ] Your Ad Here: How Fast-Growing Startup GumGum Is Using Image Recognition Technology To Change Online Advertising, Sports Sponsorships And MoreUber has hired former Orbitz CEO Barney Harford as its first-ever COOThis Real Estate Startup Uses Data Science to Predict Home Listings Before They HappenHow Heartland startup communities can think outside of techCarbon is raising $200 million to bring 3D printing to more manufacturersGene therapy developer Orchard Therapeutics raises $110 millionCaveat Entrepreneur: When Passion is a ProblemThis is a short warning to entrepreneurs. Founders often start a company based on their passion for something. That’s fine as long as they are also solving a problem or otherwise addressing the needs of a clearly defined target market. The advice that is dispensed too often these days is to pursue your passion, do something you love. That’s all well and good as long as your passion intersects with a problem that customers will pay you to solve. But don’t start a business for the sole purpose of pursuing something you’re passionate about. That’s called a hobby. Hobbies are great, but don’t pitch me on investing in yours. [ Phil Nadel, Founder, Forefront Venture Partners ] |