Inside Juicero’s Demise, From Prized Startup to Fire Sale The shuttering of the much-ridiculed Silicon Valley startup was the culmination of unsustainable costs, slow sales and unflattering media reports. [ Bloomberg ] Uber's new CEO resigns from the NYT's board Dara Khosrowshahi, the new CEO of Uber, has resigned from the board of directors of the New York Times Company, which operates the newspaper, according to a new SEC filing. Khosrowshahi joined the board in 2015. Clean slate: The filing states that he's stepping down "in light of his new role and increased responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer of Uber Technologies, Inc." His resignation will also help dispel some concerns over potential conflicts of interests as the news publication continues to cover Uber. [ Axios ] Volvo acquires car valet startup Luxe to boost its digital services businessAfter a pivot and months of speculation about the future of car valet and concierge startup Luxe, the company has finally found a home. Today, automaker Volvo Cars announced that it is acquiring the startup’s platform, technology, key staff and other assets, which it will use to put some fuel into its own digital services strategy. [ Tech Crunch ] A Stanford professor’s advice on surviving the a**hole at your startupIf you’ve never worked for a complete jerk, consider yourself lucky. Roughly one in five people polled say they’ve experienced bullying in the workplace, according to a 2017 study commissioned by the Workplace Bullying Institute. The study — which is actually pretty fascinating — concluded that 61 percent of the time, the bully is the person to whom an employee reports directly. Bullies are also men 70 percent of the time, while 66 percent of the time it’s women who are targets of bullying. [ Tech Crunch ] The 14 most valuable startups in the USEarlier this summer, we created a list of the five most valuable startups in the US and it was a massive hit. But why stop at five? It's not exactly a secret that Uber and Airbnb sit at the top of the rankings, and the next few in line aren't going to blow anyone's mind, either. But further down the list, there are a few extremely valuable private companies that have been flying under the radar. We've put together a rundown of the most valuable VC-backed US-based companies, created using current data from the PitchBook Platform. [ PitchBook ] Female founders are most likely to come from these schoolsStanford University has cultivated more founders of VC-backed startups than any other institution in the world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has also been home to the greatest number of female founders, according to data from the most recent PitchBook Universities Report. Since 2006, 146 VC-backed companies have been founded or co-founded by females who attended Stanford; Harvard and UC Berkeley come next in line with 115 each. [ PitchBook ] Khosla Ventures adds two women to investment team — Kristina Simmons and Kanu Gulati
Using Silicon Valley Tactics, LinkedIn’s Founder Is Working to Blunt TrumpReid Hoffman, who founded LinkedIn, is funding groups to create a bulwark against Mr. Trump’s agenda. Whether his start-up approach is effective is unclear. Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has made a half-dozen or so investments in recent months with a specific aim: to counteract the influence of President Trump. The venture-style investments include starting a new group, Win the Future, whose self-described goal is to make the Democratic Party relevant again. He also invested $1 million in Cortico, a start-up that encourages online discourse between people with opposing political views. And he invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into Vote.org, which has a goal of getting all eligible Americans to vote; Higher Ground Labs, a start-up for progressive politicians; and the Center on Rural Innovation, which is working for economic improvements in rural areas. “My approach to political investing is the Silicon Valley approach,” Mr. Hoffman, 50, said in an interview. “Find and back powerful entrepreneurs.” [ NY Times ] |