28 black founders and investors making an impact in tech
In honor of Black History Month, we've compiled a list of 28 founders and VCs who are making an impact in the tech industry. [ PitchBook ]
Silicon Valley’s future looks exactly like the past
Sometimes I like to think about which is scarier to a peon like me: Silicon Valley or the government. The government has nukes, but Silicon Valley could probably build its own nukes, season them with the blood of young boys, and then sell them to the government at profit. Donald Trump is really, really, painfully, horrifically bad, but Peter Thiel is definitely scarier and probably on more cocaine. At least Trump is bound by laws, kind of! But the most frightening difference between the two is that Silicon Valley appears to strike fear and silence in its workers and the government doesn’t. [ The Outline ]
Jerry Colonna Makes Founders Cry
This coach helps CEOs make money by making peace with their demons. [ Backchannel ]
Max Levchin has a plan for doomsday that doesn’t involve a bunker: “Be a nice guy
Doomsday preparedness is all the rage in Silicon Valley, where the tech elite are buying luxury underground bunkers, access to gassed-up helicopters, or, in the case of Peter Thiel, New Zealand citizenship.
But serial entrepreneur Max Levchin, one of Thiel’s Paypal cofounders, has an alternate strategy for surviving the apocalypse: “My plan for prepping for all natural and semi-natural forms of disaster is to just be a nice guy,” he said during an event at Quartz’s New York headquarters on Feb. 27. [ QZ ]
Uncanny Patty
Impossible Foods has created something extraordinary: a vegan burger catered to the most voracious of carnivores. It is the next chapter in America’s proud and disgraceful history with the burger, our most important cultural export. It promises to do a lot of good — but is it any good?
Lux Capital Closes $400M Fund For 'Hard Tech,' Taps New Partner Renata Quintini
Josh Wolfe relishes investing in startups that the rest of the venture capital community shun as risky or too weird. "We want people to agree with us — just three or four years later," he says. And for the better part of two decades, that approach has worked for Wolfe's VC firm, Lux Capital.
Now investors want more of Wolfe's "unconventional science." Lux Capital announced on Tuesday it's raised a $400 million fifth fund, bringing its assets under management to more than $1 billion. As part of the new fund, partner Renata Quintini is joining the firm from Felicis Ventures. [ Forbes ]
Tech Startup Market Sinks to Lowest Point in Three Years
The post-election rally that’s lifting U.S. public markets has left at least one group by the wayside: private technology startups.
Since last year’s peak in mid-December, startup deal-making has fallen 37 percent, according to the Bloomberg U.S. Startups Barometer, which tracks fundraising, initial public offerings and acquisitions. The index is at its lowest point since April 2014. [ Bloomberg ]
In Video, Uber CEO Argues With Driver Over Falling Fares
When Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick takes an Uber, he prefers a black car, the high-end service his company introduced in 2010. On this particular night in early February—Super Bowl Sunday—Kalanick is perched in the middle seat, flanked by two female friends. Maroon 5’s “Don’t Wanna Know” plays, and Kalanick shimmies. He clutches his smartphone as the three make awkward conversation. The two women ask when his birthday is, and marvel that he’s a Leo. One of his companions appears to say, somewhat inaudibly, that she’s heard that Uber is having a hard year. Kalanick retorts, “I make sure every year is a hard year.” He continues, “That’s kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it’s easy I’m not pushing hard enough.” [ Bloomberg ]
In liquid biopsy race, Freenome lands $65 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz
Freenome, a two-year-old liquid biopsy diagnosis platform that detects the cell-free DNA sequencing of cancer, has raised a huge Series A round — $65 million — led by Andreessen Horowitz, which also led the company’s $5.5 million seed round less than a year ago.
Other investors in the deal include GV, Polaris Partners, Innovation Endeavors, Spectrum 28, Asset Management Ventures, Charles River Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Allen and Company and earlier backers Data Collective and Founders Fund. [ Tech Crunch ]
Why It’s So Hard to Build the Next Silicon Valley.
