This venture firm just produced one of the first detailed equity research reports on Snap Inc.Connie Loizos Goodwater Capital — a two-year-old, consumer-tech-focused venture firm is today taking the wraps off a detailed snapshot of pre-IPO Snap, parent of the disappearing-message app Snapchat. In doing so, the San Mateo, Ca., firm hopes to differentiate itself from its venture peers while also seizing on an underserved opportunity: producing research that helps Wall Street understand tech companies — before their own banking analysts do the job. [ Tech Crunch ] The people who brought you Snapchat present a different view of the world through the lens of a camera. [ Fast Company ] Airbnb Wants to Spend Some of the $3 Billion It’s Sitting OnAirbnb Inc. is on a mission to be more than a home-sharing platform. It wants to be a flight booker, an itinerary planner and a vacation-home manager. To become a global travel behemoth, Airbnb is considering a combination of acquisitions and partnership deals to quickly grow its portfolio, according to three people with knowledge of Airbnb's plans. The company's targets are in luxury tourism, airfare aggregation, group payments and guest-management, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Airbnb hasn't authorized them to speak publicly. Airbnb is also focused on doing deals in China and India, the people said. [ Bloomberg ] Craigslist Is Ugly, Janky, Old School…and UnbeatableInside Silicon Valley’s mad race to sell your crap better. [ Backchannel ]Facebook is about to launch a standalone TV appFacebook is coming to your TV. The world's largest social network will release a standalone app for televisions soon, the company announced on Tuesday. The new app will let Facebook users watch videos from their friends and their "liked" pages on TV, as well as watching the top live videos. Facebook also said that it will recommend videos based on ones you've already watched. The app's existence was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. [ Business Insider ] A New Angel Investing Platform Connects Deep Technology And Science Startups With CapitalThere are two stories that have come across my radar in the past year that have reinforced many of the things that frustrate me about tech startups and venture capital: the well-known story of Stanford-dropout Elizabeth Holmes and the implosion of life-sciences startup Theranos over the grand promises of life-changing (but not peer reviewed) science that is looking likely to be bogus; and the lesser-known story of Dr. Carol Lynn Curchoe quietly shutting down biotech startup 32ATPs over an inability to find investors willing to back a hard-science startup at its earliest incarnation. [ Forbes ] Over $50M For Flower Delivery Startups In The First Weeks Of 2017Flower delivery startups are booming in 2017. Three different flower delivery startups have raised significant rounds within the first six weeks of the year, including two $20M+ rounds, as newcomers jockey to strengthen their positions in a field crowded with old-school players like 1-800 Flowers. On January 30, LA-based startup The Bouqs announced a $24M Series C, which increased the company’s total funding to $44M and propelled it to the top of the flower delivery pack. Roughly a week later, on February 7, Amsterdam-based Bloomon raised a $23M Series B, bringing total funding to $27M. The week after that, on February 13, UK-based Bloom & Wild raised a $4.7M Series B, to reach $8.6M in total funding. With these 3 deals, investors have poured over $50M into the flower delivery space within the first month and a half in 2017. We used our CB Insights company comparison tool to showcase the flower delivery startups competing to offer new ways to buy and deliver bouquets. [ CB Insights ] Pet Projects of the New BillionairesAs I sat down for lunch at a restaurant in Los Angeles, I placed a copy of “Valley of the Gods,” by Alexandra Wolfe, on the table, and a waitress walking by stopped to peer at the cover. “Oh, that looks like an interesting book,” she said. “What’s it about?” “It’s about Silicon Valley,” I began. “It follows this young kid, John Burnham, who gets paid $100,000 by this weird billionaire guy, Peter Thiel, whom you’ve probably heard of; he’s a big Trump supporter and spoke at the Republican National Convention?” — a blank stare from the waitress. “Anyway, Thiel pays him (and a bunch of other kids) to forgo college so Burnham can mine asteroids, but he doesn’t actually end up mining the asteroids and. . . .” [ NY Times ] How Ben Thompson built Stratechery into a one-man publishing empireBen Thompson has established himself as one of the smartest analysts and clearest thinkers on the media and technology industries. And he has built an interesting, rather unique business, self-publishing his Stratechery blog and subscription-based email newsletter from Taiwan, where he lives. [ Re/code ] |