The story of how Elizabeth Holmes arrived at her infamous black turtleneck Steve Jobs-style look
This top Silicon Valley venture firm just made a contrarian move with its newest fundIn Silicon Valley, venture firms with a track record of success find themselves awash in money thanks to the growing number of institutions that want to invest more of their capital in tech. In March, an SEC filing showed that General Catalyst had closed a $1.375 billion fund, the biggest vehicle in its 18-year history. Battery Ventures also closed on two funds earlier this year that are the 35-year-old firm’s biggest to date. Sequoia Capital, meanwhile, is reportedly out raising $12 billion across a series of funds, a move that’s unprecedented for the firm — or any U.S.-based venture firm, for that matter. [ Tech Crunch ] Family Matters: How to Institute Family-friendly Policies at Your Early-stage StartupThe startup world is growing up! Ten years ago, the average age of a startup hire was around 25 (remember when Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that “young people are just smarter”?). But today, tech is a maturing industry - not just for the post-college set; especially since the financial crisis, it’s attracting the eye of experienced professionals who in years past might have gone straight to Wall Street or other traditional industries. With the average age of tech workers now hovering around 30, it should come as no surprise that an increasing percentage of the workforce has baby on the brain, and your company’s policies must necessarily follow suit. [ Primary.VC ] Walmart has quietly launched Jetblack, a ‘members-only’ personal shopping service for affluent city moms Code Eight, a stealthy personal-shopping startup incubated inside of Walmart, has rebranded itself as Jetblack, Recode has learned. In job listings, the service is described as a “members-only personal shopping and concierge service that combines the convenience of e-commerce with the customized attention of a personal assistant.” [ Recode ] The Theranos story got everyone’s attention because it involved all the ingredients for a classic drama—hubris, greed, big personalities, and fraud. The blood-testing tech startup’s rise and fall, from a $9 billion valuation and CEO Elizabeth Holmes posing for magazine covers to revelations that its technology didn’t work and being targeted with multiple federal and state investigations, is by now legendary. [ Fast Company ] Silverton Partners Aims To Boost Austin Startup Scene With New $108M FundAustin-based Silverton Partners is staying true to its home base. The 12-year-old venture capital firm—one of the most active in Texas—just closed on its fifth fund, raising $108 million in an oversubscribed round of funding. About 70 percent of that will go to Austin startups, estimates General Partner Morgan Flager. While he did not disclose the actual LPs, Flager did say that more than 90 percent of the capital came from institutional investors, including several top-tier university endowments and foundations. [ Crunchbase ] Full transcript: Kleiner Perkins Chairman John Doerr on Recode DecodeOn this episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, John Doerr, the chairman of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, talks with Swisher and Teddy Schleifer about his new book, “Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs.” [ Re/Code ] Decision Analysis in Venture CapitalShould Africa let Silicon Valley in?Interview with Kimberly Cargile co-founder of A Therapeutic AlternativeThe biggest news from Elon Musk’s Boring Company meeting in LAFounder Gym Opens The Door To Silicon Valley For Underrepresented FoundersE821 NewsRoundtable JeffBercovici Inc AlexKantrowitz BuzzFeed: FB, GoogleAI, Amazon, auto, longevityNews Roundtable! Jeff Bercovici, Inc. & Alex Kantrowitz, BuzzFeed: Facebook plays to regain trust, Google A.I. terrifies, Amazon fake reviews, autopilot dilemma, tech's global reckoning, & this week in startups that let you avoid death Meet the judges for the TC Startup Battlefield Europe at VivaTechHow customer service has powered the growth of ecommerce startup ThanklyBilly Zane & Ahmed Shabana at Parkpine Capital's Global Ventures Summit CNNAhmed Shabana and Billy Zane's CNN interview for Parkpine Capital at the Global Ventures Summit in Asia. Shared Housing Startups Are Taking OffThe Magic of Failure Kamran Elahian, Founder + Chairman, Global Innovation Catalyst, LLC American Heart Association Venture Capital Fund Sparks CriticismWith At Least $1.3 Billion Invested Globally In 2018, VC Funding For Blockchain Blows Past 2017 Totals |