Venture

VC leading Bolt’s hoped-for $450M deal confirms he’s offering ‘marketing credits’

Ashesh Shah, the founder and CEO of The London Fund is, as you might imagine, bullish on Bolt. The London Fund is a UK venture firm with “over $1 billion in cash and assets” in AUM that is leading a proposed $450 million raise for Bolt, a one-click checkout startup that has been embroiled in […]

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Selling a startup in an ‘acqui-hire’ is more lucrative than it seems, founders and VCs say

While the best startups are doing well, even in this tough venture capital market, others are struggling to raise new funding. If they can’t raise and haven’t become self-sustaining businesses, their best bet is to get acquired, even if it’s for a fraction of their last valuation. The alternative would be to run out of

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Rippling’s Parker Conrad says founders should ‘go all the way to the ground’ to run their companies

HR startup Rippling has grown into a company valued at $13.5 billion with more than 3,200 employees. Despite that size, its founder and CEO Parker Conrad still approves every expense report over $10 and is still the one who does routine HR tasks like running payroll. That’s because doing such tasks means he’s using his

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A16z offers social media tips after its founder’s ‘attack’ tweet goes viral

On Friday, the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz tweeted out a link to its guide on how to “build your social media presence,” which features advice for founders on things like “how to find your people” and “how often to post.” The timing of the tweet was ironic given the social media frenzy on Friday after

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From Lauri Moore to Vic Singh, venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs

When Keith Rabois announced he was leaving Founders Fund to return to Khosla Ventures in January, it came as a shock to many in the venture capital ecosystem — and not just because Rabois is a big name in the industry. It was surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move

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Maybe Friend wasn’t crazy for spending $1.8M on a domain after all

When AI companion startup Friend revealed it had spent $1.8 million on buying the www.friend.com domain name last week, it set off a debate around what exactly branding is worth, and how startups should be spending cash. Founders of other companies like Loom and Public came forward to share stories of their own quests to

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