The amazing life of Uber's new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi — from refugee to tech superstarOn Sunday, Uber's board offered the top job at the company to Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Expedia. The job, should he accept it, represents just another milestone for the 48-year old Khosrowshahi, who has lived an extraordinary life of both hardship and influence. He is now firmly in the spotlight as he takes over the Valley's most valuable startup – worth more than $60 billion –and one that's been under a microscope due to its meteoric growth and its well-chronicled troubles. [ Business Insider ] Marc Benioff, Ashton Kutcher, and even Michael Jordan poured millions into a startup that helps programmers make Google money from home
If you're a software programmer who wants to command a Silicon Valley salary, you typically need to live in or near Silicon Valley. Gigster wants to change that. The 4-year-old Silicon Valley startup pairs companies in need of software developers with freelance programmers from around the world who are looking for work. For companies large and small, Gigster offers a way hire a freelance software-development team all at once. For tech workers, the company's service helps them find well-paid work on a variety of projects across a range of esoteric fields. Gigster already counts eBay and IBM among its customers, but it's aiming to lure in other big companies and connect them with its pool of freelancers. It now has a bunch of new funding to help it reach that goal. [ Business Insider ] Product Hunt's founder has his own VC fundRyan Hoover, founder of popular tech leaderboard and forum Product Hunt, is raising a small venture capital fund called "Weekend Fund." Details: Hoover's fund already has secured just over $3 million, according to an SEC filing. It already has made at least one investment, a source tells Axios, though it's unclear if there are more. He has met with several startups over the last several weeks. Hoover declined to comment. Angel-led VC: Hoover's fund is part of a new initiative by AngelList, which acquired Product Hunt last year, called Angel Funds. Similarl to AngelList syndicates, Angel Funds are managed on the back-end by AngelList, but the managing angel investor gets to decide the investments without getting approval for each deal from his or her backers.
Peter Thiel backs offshore human testing of experimental herpes vaccinePeter Thiel and a group of libertarians are funding an offshore human clinical trial of a herpes vaccine, skirting FDA regulations and sparking a heated debate over U.S. safety rules. The tech billionaire and Trump advisor has reportedly poured $7 million into the experimental trial being held on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts without any oversight from the FDA or monitoring from a safety panel known as an institutional review board (IRB). [ Tech Crunch ] Investors Go Where Trump Won’t: To Immigrant Entrepreneurs. A new crop of venture capitalists is specifically backing companies that have international founders.These are tense times for foreigners who want to live and work in the U.S., due to President Trump’s aggressive remarks and stringent policies about immigration. But skilled immigrants who want to start companies in the U.S. are finding support in a group of venture capitalist investors who aim to ease their challenges. Such assistance can be crucial to immigrant entrepreneurs because the U.S.—unlike Canada, France, Singapore, and the U.K.—lacks a so-called startup visa. In July, the Trump administration delayed an Obama-era rule that would have helped international founders stay in the U.S. for up to five years and has indicated it plans to rescind it. In its absence, several VC firms that explicitly invest in companies created by immigrants are filling some of the gaps. Though these firms, which include Unshackled Ventures, One Way Ventures, and One VC, were not created in direct response to Trump’s actions, their focus on aiding immigrants is particularly timely and vital now. “As immigration issues pop up, we’re seeing VCs answer the call and offer immigration counsel [to their portfolio companies],” says Jeff Farrah, vice president of government affairs at the National Venture Capital Association, a Washington, D.C., trade group. SUSAN FOWLER’S UBER POST WAS THE FIRST SHOT IN A NEW WAR AGAINST SILICON VALLEY SEXISM Last Tuesday, California state Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced a bill that will amend the California civil code to tackle an on-going pattern of sexist conduct in Silicon Valley — specifically the sexual harassment in the venture capitalist-entrepreneur context. The bill is a direct reaction to a story published in June in which two dozen women entrepreneurs spoke to the New York Times about being harassed by venture capitalists. “There is such a massive imbalance of power that women in the industry often end up in distressing situations,” said Susan Wu, an entrepreneur and investor, to the Times. The bill—SB 224—is the latest in a long chain of events that began with a blogpost by a female Uber engineer in February. Susan Fowler’s damning account of working at the company—meticulously documented and described in the coldest of terms—precipitated an internal investigation into Uber, resulting in the firing of 20 employees. Shortly after, a female data analyst and another female engineer who worked for Uber also came forward with their stories. Among others, these incidents added to the pressure that resulted in founder Travis Kalanick stepping down as CEO. [ The Verge ] The Most Active Investors In Baby And Kids TechCalifornia-based early-stage seed fund 500 Startups leads the way as the most active investor in baby and kid tech since 2013. With technology catering to every age group, startups focusing on products and services geared toward babies and kids have seen an increasing amount of investor interest over the last several years. Specifically, the baby and kids tech space saw records highs in deals and disclosed equity funding in 2016, totaling $1.2B over 176 deals. In 2017, the category is on pace to set yet another record in deal activity, with 185 deals expected by year-end based on the current run rate. [ CB Insights ] E758: Blockchain Peter Smith on scaling cryptocurrency wallet to 16m+ users; Etherium, bitcoin, ICO Meet the 'Visa Whisperer' of Silicon ValleyImmigration lawyer Todd Heine shuttles back and forth between Seattle and San Francisco’s Silicon Valley. His area of expertise is the O-1 visafor “Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement.” All his clients are tech entrepreneurs, a grateful former client once called him the “Visa Whisperer.” Heine, 36-years-old, has an O-1 visa success rate of 99% and averages processing 100 visas per year. He recently managed to zip an O-1 visa through in three days from the day it landed on USCIS’s desk, breaking his previous record of eight days. [ Forbes ] Magic Leap settles bitter legal battle with executives who started its Silicon Valley officeMagic Leap has settled with former executives Gary Bradski and Adrian Kaehler, two computer vision experts who became embroiled in a legal battle after they left their jobs at the billion-dollar Miami-area smartglasses startup. Litigation in California's Northern District court between the three parties was settled in a "confidential agreement" last week. Details about the settlement are not public. [ Business Insider ] How Silicon Valley Can Cut The Cord Of White SupremacyGoogle and VMware are teaming up with a $2.8 billion startup to get an edge in the cloud wars with AmazonHere’s what could happen tomorrow in the first hearing of Benchmark versus Travis KalanickDuring Obama Era, VC Investment Toed One Party’s State LinesMasters of Scale Episode 5- The Next Silicon Valley |