Venture Capital Episodes

Chris was in town again! So we asked the great Charlie O'Donnell of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures to come over to my kitchen to talk about the tech news of the week. But Charlie also gives us his analysis and history of the New York Tech scene, and the state of venture and tech generally, coming out of these Covid years.

Why a dumb agent string bug may break some big named websites soon. Is Circle about to become the biggest pure play crypto company to hit public markets? Spotify buys basically the only remaining pieces of the podcast puzzle missing from their toolbelt. And the interesting raise from a company buying up YouTube back catalogs.

Turns out Super Bowl ads really do move the needle. Another day, another crypto bug, this one could have let you create unlimited ether from thin air. See what I did there? Could we see a digital Euro by the end of next year? A couple of super interesting raises. And the curious case of the missing Nvidia graphics card.

Weirdly, this turned into a sort of education on VC and startup investing episode?

Moxie Marlinspike is stepping down as CEO of Signal, and Brian Acton is stepping up. For now. Y Combinator is getting more generous with the investment it makes in its cohort companies. Carriers aren’t pleased with Apple’s iCloud Private Relay service. And another day, another headline like: the Associated Press is getting into NFTs.

The great Andrew Chen of a16z joins us to discuss his new book: The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects. This an indispensable guide to get that "rocket-ship" action going for whatever product or company you're working with.

We have two special guests this week! The first is Sonal Chokshi, Editor in Chief of a16z and showrunner of a16z podcasts. We’ll be getting her perspective on the launch of FUTURE, which we discussed last week. ​Second, as the major social platforms (save for YouTube!) have launched their social audio offerings, we’ll get the latest updates and analysis from Kaya Yurieff of The Information who recently published “The Week Social Audio Went Mainstream”

Chris Fralic of First Round Capital was involved in funding such companies as Ring, Hotel Tonight, Warby Parker, Rec Room, and as you’ll hear today, Roblox. But in addition to being a legend, as you’ll hear, Chris is just an all around good dude...

Stripe, by some measures, has become the most successful Silicon Valley startup of all time, with their recent raise. Airtable too has an impressively interesting raise. Facebook wants to find you a vaccine appointment. The US is looking to overhaul its cybersecurity missile shield. And checking in on the whole Jack Ma situation. Sponsors:MintMobile.com/rideExpressVPN.com/techmeme Links:Stripe valuation soars to $95bn after latest fundraising (Financial Times)Airtable Tops $5.7 Billion Valuation On Growing Enterprise Sales And A Soaring Cloud Market (Forbes)Facebook aims to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19 (CNET)Massive Facebook study on users’ doubt in vaccines finds a small group appears to play a big role in pushing the skepticism (Washington Post)White House Weighs New Cybersecurity Approach After Failure to Detect Hacks (NYTimes)China Lays Plans to Tame Tech Giant Alibaba (WSJ)Clubhouse announces accelerator program for creators on its platform (The Verge)

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Is Andreessen Horowitz about to spin up its own media platform? Anthony Levandowski gets a pardon and Jack Ma resurfaces. Netflix is about to start printing money, and they’re about to give you a “shuffle play” button. And why Ben Thompson thinks Intel is in even more trouble than everybody thinks. Sponsors:Grammarly.com/techmemeTovala.com/ride Links: Andreessen Horowitz Looks to Launch Opinion Publication as Its Media Ambition Grows (The Information)The Unauthorized Story of Andreessen Horowitz (Newcomer) Donald Trump pardons ex-Waymo, Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski (Engadget) Jack Ma Emerges for First Time Since Ant, Alibaba Crackdown (Bloomberg) Brave becomes first browser to add native support for the IPFS protocol (ZDNet) Netflix shares rise on strong subscriber growth, considers share buybacks (CNBC) Netflix’s ‘Shuffle Play’ feature will roll out to all users worldwide this year (TechCrunch)Intel Problems (Stratechery)Twitter Thread on the Intel stuff

The first ever interesting raise omnibus episode! Links:Hipcamp, ‘Airbnb of the Outdoors,’ Raises $57 Million (The Information)Local news app News Break raises $115M (TechCrunch)Perfect Corp., developer of virtual beauty app YouCam Makeup, closes $50 million Series C led by Goldman Sachs (TechCrunch)Veo raises $25M for AI-based cameras that record and analyze football and other team sports (TechCrunch)Graphcore raises $222M for its ultrafast AI chips (SiliconAngle)AI chipmaker Graphcore raises $22M at a $2.77B valuation and puts an IPO in its sights (TechCrunch)Fintech startup Oxygen raises $17M in Series A round (SiliconAngle)AMP Robotics raises $55 million for AI that picks and sorts recyclables (VentureBeat)WeLink raises $185M to deliver high-bandwidth wireless internet to the home using 5G (TechCrunch)

Connie Chan, from Andreessen Horowitz, talking about: Live, Social, and Shoppable: The Future of Video Sponsors: VistaPrint.com/techmeme TinyCapital.com

For years, I quoted Josh Constine on this show because he was one of the breaking news-iest folks over at TechCrunch for years. Well, now he’s gone the well worn TC to VC route, and is a principal at SignalFire. I noticed Josh had his name on a SignalFire report looking at the creator ecosystem, not as some sort of weird outlier, but as an actual, mature economy. It’s the best breakdown I’ve seen of the creator economy overall… as we say extensively, currently the fastest growing category of sta...

Palantir’s S-1 filing gives us our first look under the hood of their business. Apple is bringing AR content to Apple TV+. A big name in 3D printing is going public… and guess how? A new digital networking speed record. And Elon Musk is going to demo his brain/computer interface technology on Friday. Sponsors: Masterworks.io, select PODCAST, then enter: RIDE TinyCapital.com Links: Palantir files to go public, lost about $580 million last year (CNBC) Apple Plans Augmented Reality Content to Bo...

Microsoft has some AI tech that can catch bugs 99% of the time, Y Combinator is going to be more picky about who it invests in, macOS is getting a smarter battery management system for your laptop, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency CognitoHQ.com Links: AI spots critical Microsoft security bugs 97% of the time (VentureBeat) Changing policy, Y Combinator cuts its pro rate stake and makes investments case-by-case (TechCrunch) Google's fast-growing Meet ...

This is the promised interview with Angela Strange from Andreessen Horowitz. I told you about it on the weekend longreads segment yesterday, so no more need to explain it: let’s talk about why soon, every company could be a Fintech company. Sponsor: Tinycapital.com

Google releases all the things at once, everyone is mulling over Jack’s decentralized Twitter idea, one last tech IPO of the year, should seed investors just say yes to every deal, why you should know the Canva story, and why Cousin Greg playing Adam Neumann is my Christmas dream come true. Sponsors:PixelUnion.netGiveWell.org/ridehome Links:FTC Weighs Seeking Injunction Against Facebook Over How Its Apps Interact (WSJ)Google is bringing spam detection and verified business messaging to Message...

How are things in Masa Son’s world post-WeWork? How long until Uber will be profitable? How is the new Surface Pro X to use? Why is iOS aggressively quitting background apps? And why data scoring companies are maybe worse than credit score companies. Sponsors: SVB.com/next Metalab.co Links: SoftBank imposes new standards to rein in start-up founders (Financial Times) WeWork Isn’t the Only Stumble for SoftBank’s Vision Fund (WSJ) Uber Books Another Quarterly Loss as Revenue Climbs (WSJ) MICR...

Steve Case is obviously an internet and technology legend, as the founder of America Online. But as I said when I did a segment about it this week, I’ve always been fascinated with his Rise of the Rest Tour and Fund because, look, the whole basic principle of the project is to try new things, try to find new ideas and new people in new places. So after doing the segment on the new Rise of the Rest Fund II, I reached out to Steve to learn more about what he’s been learning as he’s been barnstorming the country to try to find exciting new companies outside of the major tech hubs.

IS the new iOS release finally bug free? Add podcasts to your Spotify playlists, WeWork officially “delays” its IPO, which gives us a reason to examine why the Unicorn IPO Parade has mattered, and This Week In Elon Musk is all about achieving orbit. Sponsors: PixelUnion.net LinkedIn.com/ride Links: Apple Releases iOS 13.1.2 and iPadOS 13.1.2 with Fixes for Camera, iCloud Backup, HomePod Shortcut, and Flashlight Bugs (MacRumors) Spotify users can add podcasts to playlists (Engadget) HP’s Spec...

Adam Neumann out as WeWork CEO, Facebook acquires CTRL-Labs to deliver computing controlled by your brain, Kik officially shuts down its app, and is Microsoft preparing to let users control and monetize their own data? Sponsors: Metalab.co AirMedcareNetwork.com/tech code: tech Links: WeWork CEO Adam Neumann to step down amid controversy and retain chairman role (CNBC) Facebook to Buy Startup for Controlling Computers With Your Mind (Bloomberg) KIK CHAT APP SHUTS DOWN AS COMPANY GOES “ALL IN”...

Next gen chips from Intel, the real HQ2 for Amazon is in India, the controversy around Apple blocking ad tracking on kids apps is a real case for King Solomon, and Ben Thompson makes a compelling bull case for WeWork. Sponsors:Pixelunion.netRead the Blog Post from BRD: Here Links:Intel Launches Comet Lake-U and Comet Lake-Y: Up To 6 Cores for Thin & Light Laptops (AnandTech)Dell unveils new XPS, Inspiron, and Vostro models with Intel Comet Lake processors (VentureBeat)Exclusive: Alibaba postpo...

Y’all know Dan Frommer. Veteran tech journalist. We’re gonna do a WWDC preview here today, but before that, Dan has his own, excellent newsletter, the new consumer! Sign up for it in the show notes! Link to the free and paid editions. Because this is the beat Dan covers so well, before we get into the WWDC and Apple stuff, a lengthy discussion of the whole consumer unicorn startup space, that I don’t think we cover enough. https://newconsumer.com/ Sponsors: Rhone.com/ride promocode RIDE at check...