Casper went to war with a popular mattress reviews site — then financed its takeoverIn April 2016, the mattress startup Casper sued three popular mattress review sites, claiming they drove business to Casper competitors without proper disclosure that these mattress brands paid sales commissions to the sites. The schemes, in Casper’s view, amounted to false advertising and deceptive practices because the sites promoted their reviews as unbiased but did not conspicuously disclose the relationships with the specific mattress makers they were recommending. In the booming world of online mattress sales, these reviews sites had accumulated massive power — often turning up high in Google search results for general queries like “mattress reviews” or brand-specific ones like “Casper reviews.” And without many showrooms to allow customers to try out these mattresses, online reviews carried even more weight. As a result of that power, Casper at times engaged with the sites. In 2015, Casper CEO Philip Krim had a months-long email conversation with one of the site’s founders, sounding like he was ready for Casper to play ball. [ Recode ] Dispatches on diversity: Uber, sexual harassment and venture capitalRacism. Sexism. Discrimination. Harassment. Those words often come up in questions pertaining to the state of diversity in Silicon Valley. 2017 has been a bombshell of a year in Silicon Valley, kicking off with former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s allegations of sexual harassment during her time at the company. Shortly after her expose, allegations against Binary Capital co-founder Justin Caldbeck and 500 Startups founder Dave McClure surfaced. Then came the lawsuit against UploadVR for “rampant” sexual behavior in the workplace and one against SoFi by a former employee who alleged he was wrongfully terminated for reporting the sexual harassment of female employees. [ Tech Crunch ] Deliveroo set to become unicorn with $385m investmentStateside investors Fidelity and T. Rowe Price have agreed to put money into the UK-based start-up as part of a deal which values the company at over $2bn (£1.48bn), according to Sky News. The investment means rumours of a Deliveroo IPO are likely to gather pace, given that the funds previously invested in Facebook and Snapchat before the companies went public. This means the company will finally be able to claim the crown of being a "unicorn", the term used to refer to companies valued at more than US $1bn. Push for Gender Equality in Tech? Some Men Say It’s Gone Too FarTheir complaints flow on Reddit forums, on video game message boards, on private Facebook pages and across Twitter. They argue for everything from male separatism to an end to gender diversity efforts. Silicon Valley has for years accommodated a fringe element of men who say women are ruining the tech world. Now, as the nation’s technology capital — long identified as one of the more hostile work environments for women — reels from a series of
high-profile sexual harassment and discrimination scandals, these conversations are gaining broader traction. Silicon Valley investor to offer free money to 3,000 random peopleThink there’s no such thing as free money? Think again. Big-shot Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman — known for his doomsday prepping and other off-the-wall ideas — is planning to give 3,000 randomly selected people free money for five years, as an expansion of a social experiment he started last year. The idea is called universal basic income, and it basically means a government, rich individual or other source gives everyone in a community enough money to live comfortably — regardless of whether the recipients work or not. Altman has championed the idea as a possible solution for when robots take our jobs, and the notion is picking up steam among other Silicon Valley techies, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Altman and his startup accelerator Y Combinator started a small study to test the idea a year ago, initially giving 100 Oakland families about $1,500 a month. Altman paid most of the bill himself. The International Unicorn Club: 106 Private Companies Outside The US Valued At $1B+China is home to 7 of the top 10 most highly valued unicorn companies located outside the US. Today’s global unicorn club is comprised of 214 private companies that are each valued at $1B+. Collectively, this cohort of the world’s most valuable private enterprises is worth approximately $745B. [ CB Insights ] How to announce a funding round Study: Startups that don’t set firm goals actually do better With $1M Seed, Zyper Will Help Brands Turn Gen Z Instagram Fans Into Stealth Marketers |