Y Combinator says its companies are on target for $100B total valuationY Combinator Group president Sam Altman released its first annual letterThursday, with details on the status of the incubator and the companies it invests in. Among the numbers: • As of January, Y Combinator has invested in 1,470 companies led by 3,200 founders. It expects those companies to have a combined $100 billion valuation this year. • In 2016, 12.5% of founders funded were women and 11.6% were black or Latino. Altman writes "the percentage of women and people of color applying to YC is higher than the overall percentage of women and people of color starting startups" but the incubator would like to see those numbers higher still. "We still have a long way to go," he writes. • Overall, the incubator invested $27 million in its traditional winter and summer groups of startups last year and about $187 million in later-stage companies through its new Continuity fund. • YC's web forum, Hacker News, has about 350,000 daily users and 4 million page views per day. Just under 1 million users have accounts on the site, and they post about 1,000 article links and 6,000 comments every day. [ Fast Company ] A VC explains the one thing you should know about VCs: their Investment Thesis with Rory O'Driscoll (Scale Venture Partners)What do VCs look for? It’s not uncommon in Silicon Valley to see equally smart firms, equipped with the same information, picking very different outcomes: from passing on a deal, to offering a wide range of term sheets. Often, these differences simply come down to each venture firm’s investment thesis — the internal rules that guide the partnership’s investment decisions. We talk with Rory O’Driscoll about what components can make up a VC’s investment thesis, how Scale Venture Partners shaped its own, and why it’s one of the most important things you should know when talking to a VC. VC Mike Hirshland has some (very early) seed-stage investing adviceMike Hirshland has been a Boston-based investor for 17 years, first with the venture firm Polaris Partners and, for the last five years, at the firm he co-founded, Resolute Ventures, which has offices in both Boston and San Francisco. [ Tech Crunch ] The Quick And The Dead: The On-Demand Companies That Went SplatFrom Happy Home Company and Take Eat Easy to AUTOnCAB and BlackJet, these on-demand startups were in demand ... until they weren't. [ CB Insights ]How Silicon Valley Is Trying to Hack Its Way Into a Longer LifeThe titans of the tech industry are known for their confidence that they can solve any problem--even, as it turns out, the one that's defeated every other attempt so far. That's why the most far-out strategies to cheat death are being tested in America's playground for the young, deep-pocketed and brilliant: Silicon Valley. Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, has given more than $330 million to research about aging and age-related diseases. Alphabet CEO and co-founder Larry Page launched Calico, a research company that targets ways to improve the human lifespan. Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, has also invested millions in the cause, including over $7 million to the Methuselah Foundation, a nonprofit focused on life-extension therapies. [ Time ] Tiny Singapore to revamp venture capital rules as it angles for a piece of Silicon Valley’s pieSingapore, nicknamed the "little red dot," is eyeing a sliver of Silicon Valley's pie, aiming to attract venture capitalists to grow a stable of start-ups in the regional financial hub. Earlier this week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) introduced proposals to simplify the authorization process for venture capital funds. Under the current regulatory framework, managers of venture capital funds are treated like other fund managers. But the central bank noted that in part due to long lock-up periods, it likely wasn't necessary for venture capital funds to meet the same higher capital requirements as other fund managers. Additionally, the MAS proposed easing the licensing requirements for venture-capital-fund managers. Chia Tek Yew, head of financial services advisory at KPMG in Singapore, said he expected the MAS would fast-track the new regulations and that venture capitalists might start setting up shop in the city-state within six to 12 months. [ CNBC ] Mountain View used car startup that raised $150 million is winding down after sale fizzlesA failed sale reportedly has online used car selling startup Beepiwinding down the business and selling assets to reimburse some of the more than $150 million in raised. The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources in a report that said a merger with announced in December with Fair.com fell through, leading to the winding down of what had been a 300-person business valued at about $500 million at its peak. |