Venture Pulse

Why Your Startup's Founding Team Needs A DesignerEllevest CEO Sallie Krawcheck learned that design is a data-gathering process, not just making things look nice.

I’m not a designer. Neither is my company’s cofounder, Charlie Kroll, but when he suggested hiring a chief design officer for Ellevest, the digital investment platform for women that we launched this year, I listened. I’d spent a career in the corporate world before turning entrepreneur, whereas Charlie has a startup background. I had always thought of good design as making things look nice, but have learned it’s much more than that—especially if you’re starting a business that aims to change individuals’ behaviors, not just capitalize on their existing ones.
[ Fast Company ]

AT&T to Buy Time Warner in $85.4 Billion Cash, Stock Deal

AT&T Inc. agreed to buy Time Warner Inc. for $85.4 billion, forming a telecommunications and media empire that will own many of the movies and TV shows it pumps through to subscribers of its wireless, internet and pay-TV services. The cash-and-stock deal values Time Warner at about $107.50 a share, the companies said Saturday in a statement, 20 percent more than Friday’s closing price. Time Warner shareholders are to receive $53.75 per share in cash and $53.75 a share in AT&T stock. [ Bloomberg ]

China's Local Governments Are Getting Into Venture Capita

China’s next billion-dollar startup could have backing from an investor with more money than Warren Buffett and a knack for promoting spicy duck-neck delicacies. The Hubei provincial government is armed with 547 billion yuan ($81 billion) earmarked for investments that can diversify a job base dependent on steel, mining and cars. And the bureaucrats in the heartland region along the Yangtze River are letting professionals do the work -- allocating the money to investment houses Sequoia Capital LLP, TCL Capital and CBC Capital. [ Bloomberg ]

How Snapchat’s Sponsored Lenses Became a Money-Printing Machine

As all good Snapchat users know, the app’s lenses are nothing short of extraordinary. With just a tap of the screen, Snapchat will transform your selfie into something instantly hotter, cuter, wittier. You train the camera on yourself, activate the lens feature, and you’re suddenly adorable, with puppy ears and puppy nose. Swipe, and waterfalls burst from your eyes. Tap again and you’re sporting an on-trend floral crown. [ Backchannel ]

Silicon Valley’s New-Age AltSchool Unleashes Its Secrets

Since its founding in 2014, with backing from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Andreessen Horowitz, and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, the San Francisco startup has opened eight of its new-age AltSchools in the Bay Area and New York City. It sees these as mini educational labs where it’s working to create a new kind of personalized educational for the 21st century, and now, the company is sharing its philosophies with the outside world. This morning, it announced that three outside schools will use its platform: Berthold Academy in Reston, Virginia; The Greene School in West Palm Beach, Florida; and Temple Beth Sholom Day School in Miami Beach, Florida.  
[ Wired ]

 
 
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