In House of Murdoch, Sons Set About an Elaborate OverhaulSince taking over two years ago, James and Lachlan Murdoch seem determined to rid the company of the old-guard culture on which their father built his empire. [ NY Times ] Silicon Valley’s SecretDinner at Meredith Ackley’s house is like stepping into a dream. The walls are painted pink and purple. There’s a heated patio and arching branches over the backyard. The sun beams through the windows, music plays and three beautiful girls dance with their mother in the kitchen. The missing piece of the fairytale is Ackley’s husband, Eric Salvatierra. It’s been four years since he called to say his last “I love you.” [ CNN Money ] A Rare Path: From Venture Capitalist to Hair-Coloring KitsWhen Amy Errett decided to leave her job in venture capital to start Madison Reed, an online business selling hair-coloring kits for home use, a few of her colleagues were skeptical. “They’re like, ‘Is this just another e-commerce thing in some crazy market that nobody cares about?’” Ms. Errett said. [ NY Times ]
Startups Rarely File for Bankruptcy. Could that Change?Plastc, a company that raised millions from crowdfunders with the promise of revolutionizing payments, has shut down. On its own, this is not notable. Young startups with big dreams and piles of crowdfunding cash fail all the time. But this one isn’t just ceasing operations. According to a notice posted to the company’s website, it is “exploring options” to file for bankruptcy. Two things to note: "Pretty taboo in the valley" There is an increasing willingness of venture-backed companies to go through bankruptcy. [ Fortune ]Haystack's Semil Shah: "I still believe venture investing is an apprenticeship business" Tech investor and writer Semil Shah was just named to the Forbes Midas Brink List, Forbes’ shortlist of up and coming VCs. Semil runs Haystack, a fund that has invested in over 70 companies, including Instacart, DoorDash, Hired, Hashicorp, Giphy, Envoy, OpenDoor, eShares, Airmap, Clara Labs, and Managed By Q. He is also a Venture Partner at GGV Capital. Despite several recent and large deals to companies such as Instacart, Olacabs, and Airbnb, the on-demand category has continued to face strong headwinds in Q1’17 after a sluggish end to 2016. For the second quarter in a row, both deal and dollar funding activity to the sector has declined. The on-demand sector raised approximately $1.6B over 50 deals in Q1’17, which amounted to the lowest quarter in both funding and deal terms since Q1’14. [ CB Insights ] A stock market behemoth is looking to invest millions in new startupsOne of the top stock exchanges in the US has launched a new venture investment program to find the creme de la crème in the fintech space. Nasdaq announced the launch of Nasdaq Ventures, which will aim to find innovative financial technology firms with which they can collaborate, on April 20. [ Business Insider ] How Google eats a business wholeGoogle’s Featured Snippets are not only often wrong, they’re also damaging to small businesses that depend on search traffic. [ The Outline ] How Greylock VC Asheem Chandna Keeps Racking Up Billion-Dollar OutcomesWhen AppDynamics was acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion just days before the app performance company was set to go public in January 2017, one of the biggest shareholders was Asheem Chandna, representing Sand Hill Road venture capital firm Greylock Partners. Bespectacled, slight of build and soft-spoken, Chandna projects as someone who could be mistaken for a professor on the nearby campus of Stanford University, where he goes to jog and hike. But Chandna had played a major role in AppDynamics' path to multi-billion exit—including a transition from its founder to CEO. AppDynamics wasn't a fluke for Chandna or Greylock. The investor, who moves to #28 on the Midas List in 2017, was also an early investor in two $10 billion market cap enterprise companies in Palo Alto Networks, which went public in 2012, and Arista Networks, which went public in 2012. Another, Sourcefire, was acquired for $2.7 billion by Cisco for $2.7 billion in 2013. Two of his active portfolio, Rubrik and Skyhigh Networks, are valued north of $100 million; add up Chandna's investments and he's returned 10x the capital he's bet on startups back to Greylock, for a combined market capitalization of more than $33 billion. [ Forbes ] Sheryl Sandberg’s new book isn’t just a memoir on grief, it’s a critical guide to reclaiming lifeOn March 10, 2014, my mother, my sister-in-law, and I walked up the stairs to tell my brother’s four daughters that their father had died. Though he had been sick for two years, the news came as a total shock. We each went for one child, enveloping them completely in the hope that our embrace would shield them from the horror of what we were saying. It did not. Their primal screams remain etched on my brain. [ QZ ]The Celebrity Techsplainer of Beverly HillsWhen Chris Rock streams to Facebook Live or the Edge wants in on the farm-to-table space, Abe Burns is their man. |