The perception in Silicon Valley is that every investor would love to be in business with Peter Thiel. But the venture capital fundraising environment has become so difficult, that even Valar Ventures, one of the VC firms he helped found, has raised a much smaller fund this year compared to previous ones. Thiel set up […]
Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet announced on LinkedIn that she is leaving the company at the end of the month for health reasons. Starting today, Techstars co-founder and board chairman David Cohen will become CEO. Gavet became CEO in 2021 and wrote on LinkedIn that she “would not exchange the last 3.5 years of hard work
Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet is out Read More »
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs Read More »
Oyo, the once high-flying Indian budget hotel chain, has withdrawn its IPO application from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the second time in a fresh blow to its already diminished ambitions. The Gurugram-headquartered startup, which at its peak commanded a valuation of $10 billion, pulled the plug on its IPO plans
Oyo, once valued at $10 billion, shelves IPO plans for second time Read More »
Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund has established a new fellowship program aimed at introducing top engineers and technologists to venture investing, a move that could help the firm identify less obvious sources for VC talent. The American Dynamism fund launched in 2023 with the broad aim of supporting companies building in the nation’s interest across
a16z’s American Dynamism team launches program to introduce technical minds to VC Read More »
Zen Educate, an online marketplace that connects schools with teachers, has raised $37 million in a Series B round of funding. The raise comes amid a growing teacher shortage crisis both sides of the pond, with a recent report from ADP Research Institute noting that the global pandemic exacerbated the existing supply/demand imbalance due to
Longtime New York-based seed investor, Contour Venture Partners, is making progress on its latest flagship fund. The firm closed on $42 million, raised from 64 backers, for Contour Venture Partners Fund V, according to an SEC filing from May 17. The firm is targeting $90 million for its fifth flagship fund and started fundraising in
SeekOut, an 8-year-old recruiting startup that uses AI to find candidates, has cut about 30% of its workforce on Thursday, TechCrunch has learned. “Lately, we have been spending roughly $2 to earn $1, and this last fiscal year, we incurred significant cash burn,” SeekOut’s CEO Anoop Gupta and CTO Aravind Bala wrote in a letter
SeekOut, a recruiting startup last valued at $1.2 billion, lays off 30% of its workforce Read More »
Founder-market fit is one of the most crucial factors in a startup’s success, and operators (someone involved in the day-to-day operations of a startup) turned founders have an almost unfair advantage in finding that fit. Data shows that a lack of expertise and business acumen in founders contributes to failed VC investments. The same principle applies
On Monday, Melinda French Gates resigned from the philanthropy organization she ran with ex-husband Bill Gates. That she left is less surprising than that she stayed as long as she did. The couple divorced in 2021. In August 2021, the charity organization told CNN that it was doing a two-year trial period to see if
I’m rooting for Melinda French Gates to fix tech’s broken ‘brilliant jerk’ culture Read More »
