Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz Are Secretly Backing This Cryptocurrency Hedge FundIt's a hedge fund savvy enough to have scooped up Bitcoin when it was free. One of its founders is the well-known CEO of AngelList, Naval Ravikant. It's backed by a roster of Silicon Valley's top venture capital firms, and boasts returns of more than 500%. And you've probably never heard of it. Meet MetaStable Capital, a stealthy startup hedge fund based in San Francisco that invests only in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Since its launch in September 2014, MetaStable has delivered such eye-popping performance that it apparently lets the numbers mostly speak for themselves; it shuns publicity and never announced its recent fundraising round. Still, Fortune has learned many of the details. In the spring, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund and Bessemer Venture Partners all invested in MetaStable, according to several of the VCs and other people close to the fund. [ Fortune ] Silicon Valley’s share of software jobs falls as new tech hubs riseNew software jobs are being created outside Silicon Valley and other tech centers faster than ever. Over the past five years, cities like Seattle, D.C., Detroit, and Austin, among others, have all seen rapid growth in software-related job openings, according to a new report from online job site Glassdoor. Meanwhile, San Jose, California’s share of all software-related jobs fell from 15.8 percent to 8.1 percent over the same period. [ Glassdoor Research ] Travis Kalanick Hires Former U.S. Attorney Haag as Lawyer Ex-Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick hired former San Francisco U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag and one of her colleagues at Orrick to represent him as the ride-hailing giant heads toward a trial in Waymo’s trade-secrets lawsuit over driverless technology. Haag held her post as Northern California’s top prosecutor from 2010 to 2015 under President Barack Obama, leading one of the largest regional outposts of the Justice Department and one of the most active in white-collar prosecutions. The other attorney Kalanick retained from the San Francisco-based law firm, Walt Brown, also specializes in corporate criminal defense. Orrick confirmed the hiring while declining to comment further. [ Bloomberg ] BetterWorks CEO Duggan Resigns Amid Sexual Harassment LawsuitBetterWorks Systems Inc. Chief Executive Officer Kris Duggan is stepping down as head of the startup he founded following a lawsuit alleging he sexually harassed and physically assaulted a former employee. Duggan’s demotion comes two weeks after he was named in a lawsuit by former employee Beatrice Kim alleging that he nurtured a work culture that was hostile toward women and that he sexually harassed and assaulted her during a company retreat. Duggan was set to
publish a book with John Doerr, a director at BetterWorks and chair of the venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, but the plans were put on hold by the publisher after the suit. WeTransfer Is Offering Laid-Off SoundCloud Employees $10,000 to Invent the Next SoundCloudEarlier this month, SoundCloud laid off 40 percent of its staff amid rumors of near bankruptcy, in an effort to remain independent. SoundCloud has since passed along the message through Chance the Rapper that the company is going to be fine, but they’re sticking with the layoffs and office closures to stay afloat. With 173 ex–SoundCloud staffers now free agents in the tech biz, WeTransfer already wants them. Recently, the president of the file-sharing service, Damian Bradfield, began individually poaching the former SoundCloud employees — whose names SoundCoud made public to help get them new jobs — with an intriguing offer to bail them out: $10,000 to invent the next SoundCloud. [ NY Mag ] James Altucher & Jason talk “Angel”: investor & founder guidebook to new wealth creationSlack just got a $5 billion valuation in a mega funding round led by SoftBank and AccelSlack is raising $250 million in funding led by Accel and Japanese internet giant SoftBank — the same company that'slooking to take a multibillion dollar stake in Uber. The Series G funding, reported by Bloomberg, puts the popular chat application at a $5 billion valuation, a big step up from the $3.8 billion valuation Slack had at its last funding round in April 2016. [ Business Insider ] How Much Money Is Your Startup Name Worth?About to name your company? You might want to take a look at the recent research by Chieng-Sheng Richard Chan, Ph.D., that shows what works for fundraising changes as your company ages. News is, cool names that are easy to pronounce win bigger early on. The researchers took a look at names that run through Microsoft Word spell check (linguistically fluent) vs. names that don't clear MS Word, but are still easy to pronounce on first viewing (phonetically fluent). An example would be Houzz, which just closed on a mighty $4B valuation. It doesn't pass MS Word spell check, but it's pretty easy to figure out how you want to pronounce it in an English language setting. [ Inc. ] Carlyle targets $15B fund as PE gold rush continuesAfter watching rivals like Apollo Global Management and KKR raise enormous buyout funds during the first half of the year, The Carlyle Group wants in on the fun. The firm is targeting $15 billion for its next US fund, according to Bloomberg, the latest 11-figure vehicle in what’s shaping up to be the most lucrative year ever for such mega-funds. [ PitchBook ] Stripe acquires Payable to help on-demand businesses manage 1099 tax reportingWith its Stripe Connect product, Stripe wants to make it easier for on-demand and marketplace businesses to not only process payments from their customers, but also make payments to contractors and vendors. In an effort to bolster the tax reporting tools available to them, the company has acquired long-term partner Payable. Payable operates a platform aimed at on-demand companies that simplified the process of onboarding and tracking payments to large numbers of contractors. But the most valuable piece of the business ended up being the company’s tax reporting, allowing businesses to easily generate 1099 tax forms for contractors. [ Tech Crunch ] |