Meet the 21st batch of 500 Startups companies500 Startups’ next batch of accelerator companies is launching now that its previous demo day has wrapped up, this time seemingly having a bit of a wider focus than we’re accustomed to seeing coming out of the firm. This batch, which contains 31 companies, focuses on a range of topics, like VR, healthcare, financial technology and even drones. Around 43 percent of the founders in the program come from international regions, something that tends to be a bigger focus for 500 Startups as it picks its startups to go through its accelerator. As these companies go through the program, 500 Startups tends to help its companies with growth and marketing — which it uses to differentiate itself among other programs. There’s also an automotive track this year, hosted by General Motors. [ Tech Crunch ] In the Era of Alternative Facts, Steve Ballmer Finds a Hunger for Real DataWhen former Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer rolled out a new government data site last month called USAFacts, he worried no one would show up. Instead, so many people have taken an interest he's planning its next expansion. "Before we launched, I didn't know if we'd have anybody," said Ballmer, a spreadsheet devotee who recognizes not everyone shares his affection for figures and charts. "Numbers are numbers -- some people like them, some people don’t. The concept is both very exciting and a little dry." Recordings of VCs talking about investments shows why women founders have such a hard timeFounders pitching venture capitalists rarely get the whole story. Rejections are almost never a firm “no.” Instead, replies are couched in flattery (“I really like the progress you’ve made“) or walk the line of rejection without ever crossing it (“Let us know when you’re raising your Series A”). It’s seldom that someone outside investors’ inner circle gets an unvarnished look at deliberations. Researchers at Sweden’s Luleå University of Technology got that view. It’s not pretty. In a peer-reviewed study published in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice this February, the researchers observed seven Swedish government venture capitalists (two women and five men) deliberate over 125 venture pitches. Researchers recorded two years of private, face-to-face discussions and then analyzed the 210 pages of transcripts. The applicant pool was 79% male and 21% female with comparable levels of experience and education. [ QZ ] Marc Andreessen Evaluates People, Not TechThis week on our Masters in Business radio podcast, we sit down with Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz,which he describes as a venture capital firm that's in the business of evaluating people, not technology. Andreessen and his partners sift through 2,000 ideas a year. They review pitches twice a week, winnowing the referrals down to 300. Their challenge is to cut that down to just 30, or about 1.5 percent of the total. The firm has investments in about 500 companies. [ Bloomberg ] Humans have been fascinated with unicorns for centuries. Now they’re all over cosmetics, pool floaties, and bagels. What’s driving our current obsession? [ Fast Company ] Uber says it accidentally underpaid drivers in New York CityUber has come out and said that it accidentally underpaid drivers in New York City over the past two and a half years, The Wall Street Journal reports. On Friday, Uber announced a nationwide change to how drivers see their earnings. While going through that process, the company realized it had been underpaying drivers in New York, TechCrunch has learned. [ Tech Crunch ] FanDuel investor Pentech raises new £88M fund for more early-stage startupsYou know it’s spring when VC funds start to announce their new fund raises. But it’s buoying to see a new mid-sized fund appear, which over the years has been highly geared toward early-stage startups just starting out on their journey. Pentech has closed its third fund, saying it was oversubscribed at £88 million, surpassing the original target fund size of £70 million. The new fund, which is double the size of Pentech’s previous fund, will invest in early-stage software companies across the U.K. at Series A and pre-Series A. LPs include the British Business Bank under its Enterprise Capital Funds program — and existing Pentech investors. [ Tech Crunch ] The prospect of Occupy Silicon ValleyApple and Google are now valued higher than the GDP of all but America's two largest cities, according to a new BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research report. There is a growing concentration of wealth among a small number of tech companies that are mostly based in the same geographic regions (Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest). And that could ultimately lead to social unrest, particularly when juxtaposed against Trump-era economic nationalist. From the BAML report, which is titled Occupy Silicon Valley. [ Axios ] Blockstack – A New InternetThe founders of our portfolio company Blockstack are ambitious. What they have built and are announcing today is effectively a new Internet, powered by the blockchain. [ AVC ] The Technical Advisor for Silicon Valley on HBO: Ed McManusEd McManus was the technical advisor for season three of Silicon Valley on HBO. He came in to talk about what his experience working on the show [ YC Blog ] |