Snapchat's first investor explains why the app is so confusing to useOne of the longstanding criticisms of Snapchat is that the app is confusing and not very intuitive to use. Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc., even went so far as to include a guide on how to use the app in its public offering paperwork with the SEC. The reason Snapchat can feel hard to understand happens to be the same reason it's popular with younger people, according to Snapchat's first investor, Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Ventures. In a comment on a recent
Medium post titled "Why Snapchat’s Design is Deliberately Confusing," Liew explained that Snapchat's design "is confusing to some because it breaks traditional metaphors and conventions for app design. Hence it is confusing to those who are expecting those conventions." [ Business Insider ] A Magic Leap investor says critics should stop ‘gloating’ and give augmented reality more timeSecretive augmented reality startup Magic Leap suffered another PR blow yesterday when Business Insider published a photo alleged to be a recent prototype of the company’s futuristic tech. The picture, showing a large and janky computer hanging from a person’s back and wired to a pair of glasses, seemingly confirmed reports that Magic Leap — which has raised $1.4 billion to date — was struggling to shrink its product to a consumer-friendly size. In a post about “fake tech” last December, columnist Phil Baker likened Magic Leap to Theranos. [ Re/code ] HOW UTAH BECAME THE NEXT SILICON VALLEYWomen’s March Organizers Met With Twitter’s Jack Dorsey And Facebook’s Sheryl SandbergOn February 10, behind closed doors in San Francisco, national organizers of the Women’s March on Washington met with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and other tech executives to discuss the ongoing role of social media in organizing demonstrations over issues like reproductive rights, immigration and civil rights, which some fear could be under threat from Donald Trump’s presidency. At a separate meeting earlier in the day, organizers also met Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. [ BuzzFeed ] Political strategist Bradley Tusk on his fast rise in Silicon ValleyBradley Tusk has long been known in political circles. He was once deputy governor of Illinois, working for the now-incarcerated former governor Rod Blagojevich. He also worked for Michael Bloomberg during one of his tenures as mayor of New York City and in 2009 ran Bloomberg’s successful, third re-election campaign. [ Tech Crunch ] Why I like to fund entrepreneurs with (a little) big-company experienceSimple initiatives that might take a week at a startup, like implementing a new CRM, could literally take all year at a large company. This is one reason so many entrepreneurs find it hard to work within a massive organization. But even if the thought of cubicle life makes you want to cry, I wouldn’t discredit the idea of working at a big company. It won’t make you a better founder, but it will better prepare you to manage and grow a business that has reached escape velocity. Where rustic India meets silicon India, life can take a deadly turn for young techiesOn Jan. 29, Rasila Raju OP was found dead at the Pune campus of Infosys, India’s second-largest information technology (IT) services firm. The 25-year-old software engineer, who hailed from Kozhikode in Kerala, had been strangled with a computer cable inside one of the boardrooms. [ QZ ] VC JOBS : |