Jessica Lessin built a business to prove information doesn’t have to be freeThe news business treats its content as “free until otherwise proven it should be paid for,” The Information CEO Jessica Lessin says — and that’s totally backward. On the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka, Lessin argued that news publishers can and should charge for news. Her site, which launched in late 2013, charges $400 a year for deeply reported tech and business news. [ Re/Code ] Bloomberg U.S. Startups BarometerChelsea Clinton's Husband Joins Silicon Valley Firm Social CapitalThe investment firm Social Capital has hired Marc Mezvinsky as vice chairman as it expands beyond traditional venture capital. Mezvinsky will take responsibility for helping the firm forge ties with governments, companies and other investors, founder Chamath Palihapitiya said Thursday in a blog post on Medium. Based in New York, Mezvinsky started in April, a firm spokeswoman said. [ Bloomberg ] Uber Threatens To Fire Engineer At Center Of Self-Driving Lawsuit By Google's WaymoUber has threatened to fire Anthony Levandowski, one of its top self-driving engineers, if he does not cooperate with an investigation into allegations that he stole trade secrets from Alphabet's Waymo, his former employer, before joining Uber, a court filing has claimed. The ultimatum became public in a legal filing from Levandowski's lawyers late Thursday evening. [ BuzzFeed ] Japan's Sharp to invest $1 billion in SoftBank's 'Vision' Tech FundSharp Corp said on Thursday it would invest up to $1 billion in SoftBank Group's planned $100 billion Vision fund and that it aims to tap advanced technologies through the investment. Taiwan's Foxconn, the parent of Sharp, has also said it intends to invest in the fund, as well as Apple Inc and chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. [ Reuters ] VCs Hunt for a Food Delivery Business That’s SustainableOver the last year, meal-delivery businesses have mostly served up pessimism. Several have closed their doors, the most recent being Maple, a venture-backed New York startup that shut down last week. Others, including Munchery Inc., Postmates Inc. and Zesty Inc., have cut workers. Sprig Inc., which is backed by Accel and other venture capitalists, is burning through $850,000 a month and is seeking a buyer, said people familiar with the matter. [ Bloomberg ] What I Learned On A Long Walk With Uber’s CEOA couple years ago, when I started working on a book about Uber, I was fairly confident it was going to be a good story. I knew it already was a revolutionary example of how a startup could embrace previously unheard of technology (smartphones and attendant app stores) and go global at a never-before-seen pace. I knew there was controversy aplenty to keep the story lively. And I knew in Travis Kalanick Uber had a central character that would hold readers’ attention and then some. [ Fortune ] Menlo Ventures raises new $450M fund to back early consumer, enterprise and ‘frontier technologies’Silicon Valley VC Menlo Ventures has closed a new $450 million fund to invest primarily in early-stage “consumer, enterprise and frontier technologies”. The funding brings the firm’s total capital to more than $5 billion under management, while Menlo Ventures says the fund was oversubscribed with both new and existing limited partners. [ Tech Crunch ] Here's What Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Other Influential Tech CEOs Studied in SchoolFor new college students, choosing a major can feel like a decision that shapes one's life trajectory. But a degree in computer science is no guarantee that you'll create the next billion-dollar startup, and a philosophy degree won't necessarily keep you from starting a business. AMERICA’S RICHESTSELF-MADE WOMEN What We’re Changing in Our Accelerator after #500BAM Domino’s is crushing it online so a startup got $15 million to help pizzerias fight backStaten Island, New York is not known for tech startups. Luckily for Ilir Sela, it is known for its pizza. The Staten Island resident got his start by building websites for local pizza shops owned by some friends and family. After years of bootstrapping, he recently raised $15 million for his startup Slice, which aims to help pizzerias convert from phone orders to digital orders, and battle back against the digital dominance of Domino’s along the way. [ Re/Code ] Triangles is a network looking to help women take the first step into entrepreneurshipThe stats around diversity in the wider global tech ecosystem are still poor, with stories of bro-focused company cultures rife and reports, such as this analysis of how VCs talk differently about men and women who pitch them, emerging with seemingly depressing regularity. In the face of all this, however, women in the community have been working hard to make it easier for other women to join in. From Girls in Tech to Springboard Enterprises, the homegrown Girl Geek Academy and Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine, it seems there has never been more support for women looking to launch their own startup. [ Startup Daily ] Japan's SoftBank invests $1.4 billion in India's PaytmJapan's SoftBank Group has invested $1.4 billion in the parent of India's Paytm, giving the digital payments start-up a boost as it looks to expand its user base and maintain its market lead in Asia's third-largest economy. A source familiar with the matter said SoftBank had bought $1 billion of new shares in Paytm parent One97 Communications, equivalent to a 14.2 percent stake, and a further $400 million of existing shares. SoftBank and Paytm declined to give details. [ Reuters ] Watch a teenage Mark Zuckerberg find out he got accepted into HarvardThank god for fathers and their video cameras. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to give the commencement address at Harvard next week, and on Thursday he posted an absolutely fantastic throwback video that his dad took in what we believe was 2002. The video shows a young Zuckerberg sitting on his bunkbed, wearing plaid pajama bottoms and nervously opening an email that would confirm his admittance to Harvard. [ Re/Code ] |