VC Twitter was abuzz this week with YC's latest list of the top 102 companies that have gone through the program, ranked by valuation. Stripe and Airbnb top the list, while Lambda School and ZeroDown round out the bottom. TechCrunch organized the list by sector (see above) - enterprise software dominates with 52% of companies, followed by fintech with 15%. A vast majority (71%) of the companies are headquartered in the Bay Area. 

Quick reminder to follow our recruiting Twitter account, @vcrecruiting, if you're interested in seeing more VC jobs! There's a limited number of roles we can include in the newsletter, and this account lets us share more jobs & internships as soon as we find them. 

news 📣

🏢 WeWork delays IPO. WeWork officially withdrew its S-1 filing after weeks of speculation and the departure of former CEO Adam Neumann. The company's new co-CEOs said the move was driven by a desire to "focus on our core business," though WeWork "look[s] forward to revisiting" an IPO down the line. WeWork is reportedly looking to sell several startups it recently acquired, including Managed by Q, Meetup, and Conductor.

🎤 TechCrunch Disrupt comes to SF. TechCrunch hosted its annual conference this week, with speakers including Snap's Evan Spiegel, Salesforce's Marc Benioff, and Product Include's Ellen Pao. 20 startups competed for the coveted Startup Battlefield champion title (you can read more about the five finalists here). After two days of pitches, the crown went to managed cloud platform Render, a competitor to Heroku and AWS. 

📈Direct listings meeting. TC Disrupt had competition as SF's top tech event, as more than 100 startups joined high-profile VCs at an invitation-only event about direct listings (get a refresher on direct listings vs. IPOs here!) Speakers included execs from Spotify and Slack, which both went public via direct listings, as well as Benchmark's Bill Gurley and Sequoia's Mike Moritz. Sequoia portfolio company Airbnb is expected to pursue a direct listing next year. 

📷 Instagram launches Threads. Instagram launched its new DMs product, Threads, as a standalone app this week. Threads feels very similar to Snap, with a camera-first interface, but it can only be used to message IG users who are on your Close Friends list. A somewhat controversial component of Threads is the "auto status" feature, which uses data from your phone like location and movement to give updates like "at home" or "on the move."

🛴Bird raises $275M. E-scooter startup Bird (a CRV portfolio company!) announced a $275M Series D this week at a reported $2.8B valuation. CEO Travis VanderZanden said that improving unit economics was the company's "top priority" this year - Bird's new custom scooters, which now comprise 75% of the fleet, have positive unit economics. 

We all remember Kristen Bell's (extremely relatable) meltdown over meeting a sloth. Airbnb is bringing this joy to everyone with a new group of Experiences focused on animals. The company has partnered with World Animal Protection to craft ethical excursions featuring more than 300 different species. You can browse the full list here - some of our favorites include skateboarding with Guinness World Record-holding bulldog Otto in Lima and camping with an elephant community in Thailand. 

what we're following 👀

Sydney Thomas from Precursor Ventures on what it's like to break into VC.

Why is cannabis delivery startup Eaze laying off employees and replacing its CEO? 

How the New York Public Library is getting people to read books on Instagram. 

A fascinating profile of Haley Sharpe, an Alabama teen who is semi-famous on TikTok. 

Friendshop is a group buying platform for makeup and beauty products -  you can get up to 30% off by placing orders with your friends. The company is hiring campus ambassadors to help spread the word about Friendshop, and is specifically looking for students at USC, UCSB, UCLA, UCSD, Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and ASU. Learn more and apply here!

We're Friendshop users & fans - this isn't an ad, and we aren't Friendshop investors. 👍

puppy of the week 🐶