Venture Pulse

Peter Thiel to Donate $1.25 Million in Support of Donald Trump

Peter Thiel, true to his reputation as the most contrarian soul in Silicon Valley, is doubling down on Donald J. Trump. The only prominent supporter of the Republican candidate in the high-tech community, Mr. Thiel is making his first donation in support of Mr. Trump’s election. He will give $1.25 million through a combination of super PAC donations and funds given directly to the campaign, a person close to the investor said on Saturday. [ NY Times ]

How troubled cleaning startup Handy paused the clock and revamped its workaholic culture

In November 2015, Rebecca Greene spent two weeks working nonstop on a big undertaking: revamping Handy's culture. Handy launched in 2012 with a simple promise: busy professionals could book home cleaning services from an app, and the company would match that demand with workers who wanted to clean houses. Greene, vice president of growth at the home-cleaning startup, joined in 2014 and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the first women on Handy's executive team in summer 2015. She had watched the company grow rapidly and secure millions in funding. [ Business Insider ]

Can Uber Conquer Latin America?

Last month, 10 managers for Uber’s Latin American operations huddled around a table in the company’s Mexico City office and worried about the future. “Unlike everyone on this call, he hasn’t been a GM,” one general manager groused. They were referring to Jeff Jones, the chief marketing officer for Target who had just been named as Uber’s new president, in charge of its global ridesharing business. As one of the GMs pointed out, Jones came from a retailer that conducted nearly all of its business inside the United States. Uber’s future depends on international growth—especially in Latin America. Andrew Macdonald, who oversees all of Uber’s operations in Latin America and Asia, reassured his subordinates. He said he had already invited the new boss to tag along on his hectic international travel schedule and that it was their job “to make sure he doesn’t come in with too U.S.-centric a view of the world.” [ Bloomberg ]

Palantir says it didn’t racially discriminate against Asian people

Palantir Technologies has come out and said that it did not discriminate against Asian people, Fortune reports. This comes after the U.S. Department of Labor sued the company for alleged racial discrimination against Asian people in its hiring and selection process. According to the DOL’s suit, Palantir allegedly used a hiring process that discriminated against Asian applicants for software engineering roles, “routinely eliminated” qualified Asian applicants in the resume screening and telephone interview phases and hired a majority of people from its discriminatory employee referral system. 
[ Tech Crunch ]

 
 
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