Uber may sell stock to investors at a price lower than its $68.5 billion valueInvestors are fighting for a cheap slice of Uber. The company is courting three sets of investors who want new or larger stakes by buying shares from existing investors, according to The New York Times. That may look like a boon, given the company looks like a bonfire right now, but all the offers would involve Uber for the first time selling a large number of shares at or below its latest valuation. The company has most recently been valued at $68.5 billion, or £53 billion. Uber's board has so far voted to move forward with two of the three proposals. The first is from an investor coalition led by Dragoneer Investment Group, whose portfolio includes Spotify. General Atlantic, which has invested in Airbnb and Snapchat, is also part of the group. The group has offered to buy shares from existing investors at a discount. [ Business Insider ] Coinbase becomes a cryptocurrency unicornUS-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has raised $100 million in a Series D funding round, bringing the company's valuation to $1.6 billion, and making it a fintech unicorn. The round — which was led by Institutional Investment Partners, with participation from Battery Ventures, Draper Associates, Spark Capital, and others — brings the company's total raised to date to $217 million. The latest raise means Coinbase now accounts for 10% of all venture capital invested in blockchain technology startups, according to CoinDesk data. The money will go toward expanding its customer support and engineering teams, Coinbase said. [ Business Insider ] Quip CEO Bret Taylor: It's our 'moral obligation' to retrain workers Bret Taylor has certainly been around the Silicon Valley block. He began his career at Google, was CTO of Facebook, founded a couple of startups, and is now at Salesforce after it acquired his latest company, Quip — a tool for online document and project management. Axios recently caught up with Taylor to chat about everything from the future impact of automation to changes in workplace tools. [ Axios ] Cat Hernandez, Talent Partner at Primary Venture Partners Benchmark: We should have sued Kalanick soonerThe saga between the powerhouse venture firm Benchmark and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick continues. Following last week’s lawsuit revelation, Benchmark penned a public letter to Uber employees explaining why it is taking legal action against Kalanick, who remains on Uber’s board and controls two other, empty board seats. [ Tech Crunch ] Big Deals: VC-Backed Fintechs See Spike In $50M+ FinancingsIn the first half of 2017, VC-backed fintech companies raised $8B across 496 deals — as we highlighted in our Q2’17 Global Fintech report. If the pace of investment continues, deals and funding to VC-backed fintech companies could hit a new high in 2017. David Sacks: Cryptocurrency fulfills the 'original vision' we tried to build at PayPal
Read Benchmark’s Letter to Uber Employees Explaining Why It’s Suing Former CEO Travis KalanickVenture capital firm Benchmark has a lot more to say about its lawsuit against former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. The early Uber investors wrote a nearly 1,000-word letter to Uber employees on Monday to explain its decision to start a legal battle with Kalanick. “We know that many of you are asking why Benchmark filed a lawsuit against Travis last week,” the letter reads. “Perhaps the better question is why we didn’t act sooner.” [ Fortune ] In Belgrade, Yes Belgrade, an Unlikely Path to a Tech HitBranko Milutinovic left war-ravaged Serbia, only to return and create a soccer game that's been downloaded more than 170 million times. When Branko Milutinovic was growing up in Belgrade, air-raid sirens routinely cut short pickup soccer games with friends. "If you heard a siren you had about five to 10 minutes to get to a shelter," says Milutinovic, now 34. "You’re watching from the window and seeing rockets coming up and coming down, then things explode. It was like in the movies." [ Bloomberg ] Here’s the healthy way to compare yourself to other peopleA comparison habit can wreak psychological havoc, generating envyand leading to depression, so common wisdom has long warned against it. Writer Mark Twain once said, “comparison is the death of joy,” and philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti told admirers, “I never compare myself with anybody, but I learn from everybody, including presumptuous idiots.” Yet comparison is cultivated culturally and starts early, in families and at school, continuing through adulthood. It’s a habit that’s particularly hard to break. So if you can’t quit, try turning the habit to your advantage by learning from comparisons. [ QZ ] JASON CALACANIS ON THE 4 QUESTIONS INVESTORS MUST ASK FOUNDERS, WHETHER YC HAVE SCALED THEIR PROCESS SUCCESSFULLY & WHY EARLY FOUNDER LIQUIDITY IS GOOD NOT BADJason Calacanis is arguably one of the world’s greatest angel investors, as he says he has “got lucky” 7 times and counting with a portfolio that includes the likes of Uber, Thumbtack, Evernote, Tumblr and more incredible companies. Jason has also previously been a scout for Sequoia Capital, where he made the original Uber investment. On the operational side, Jason was previously a Sequoia Founder with Weblogs, sold to AOL for a reported $25-40m. Today he is the Host of This Week In Startups and Founder of The Launch Festival, bringing entrepreneurs together with potential investors. You can buy his fantastic new book, Angel here! |