🔙 Adam Neumann Returns
Crypto's First Insider Trading, Sheryl Leaves Facebook, & Gucci RingTech
So, what happened this week in the Tech & Startup world? 🌍
The Grapevine Newsflash 🔥
11 tech & startup stories in 163 super short seconds.
☃️ Crypto Winter What? A16z has raised a $4.5bn fund to invest in the best and brightest crypto companies. Last week they also published their amazing ‘state of crypto 2022’ presentation which you can take a look at here. Trust me, it's good.
😞 Klarna Cuts 10% The Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later giant has laid off 700 staff as it warns of a ‘likely recession’. Interestingly somebody made a spreadsheet of all the impacted Klarna employees and included their LinkedIn’s, looking for new game-changing colleagues? Take a look here.
🤑 Not all Heroes Wear Capes The startup game might have changed recently, but there’s still stories coming out of the crazy time that was 2020-2021. Our favourite? A VC fund invested in Heroes, an Amazon aggregator, by sending money straight into their account without their approval. When Heroes tried to send the money back, the fund threatened Heroes & their employees. They’ve since settled a lawsuit.
🦹♂️ Crypto Crime A former Head of Product at OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace, has been arrested for the first-ever digital asset Insider Trading scheme. It is alleged that he used knowledge that particular NFTs would be featured on the OpenSea homepage to purchase, and then flip, NFTs often for multiple times his cost. It’s a sign that authorities will target those in crypto just the same as traditional industries.
😲 Sheryl Sandberg Leaves Meta. Wow. Whatever you think of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg is an absolute legend and has been a super #2 to Zuck. Watch her legendary TedX talk entitled ‘Why we have too few women leaders’ here. You can also find out more about why she left Meta here.
🛒 Stripe’s New Marketplace. The $90bn payments upstart has created a marketplace full of 3rd party tools to help businesses. Right now there are 50 apps, including Mailchimp, Xero, Dropbox, and Intercom. This is a super cool idea, as it might create a ‘one stop shop’ for business’s needs. Take a look here.
💍 Gucci’s Smart Ring? Gucci has released an $950 smart ring. What does it do? The ring is powered by Oura so it tracks your activity, sleep, heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Take a look here. Will anyone buy this? Probably not.
🧠 Get Smarter We’re always on the hunt for the next big thing. The one we’re enjoying at the moment is Brilliant which is essentially Duolingo for subjects like Maths, Data Science, Engineering, and Science. If like us, you remember nothing of what you learnt at school, give it a go.
🤖 WFH Bot! Dyson is working on a robot to help around the house. We’re typically pretty skeptical of this sort of product, but this actually looks awesome. Take a look at the sneak peak of their product here.
❌ The WFH Fightback Elon Musk is the latest CEO to cut down on remote work. In a succinct email to Tesla employees he said that everyone is expected to be in the office at least 40 hours a week or “we will assume you have resigned”. He also threw shade at other companies who allow remote work, asking “when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It's been a while”.
🔙 Adam Neumann is Back The infamous founder of WeWork has co-founded a new company, FlowCarbon. Staggeringly, he has raised $70m from well known investors like Andreessen Horowitz to build the blockchain-enabled carbon credit trading platform. You can flick through their ‘Lite Paper’ here.
🇺🇦 Supporting Ukraine 🇺🇦
We’re incredibly saddened at the current situation unfolding in Ukraine. We want to actively state that we stand by the people of Ukraine and are encouraging all our readers to donate via RedCross here.
£10 could provide a hygiene kit to a family of five, giving them supplies to stay healthy for a month
£20 could provide five blankets to families taking shelter
£33 could provide 40 chlorine tablets to ensure that families have access to clean, safe water
£72 could provide a thermometer to help treat those who have fallen ill
£210 could provide a fully equipped first aid kit, including supplies, to a first aider treating those wounded
If you also want to help in other ways (e.g. joining a protest, hosting Ukrainians or support the cyber defence) then check this link.
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Over & Out,
Nick & Louis, Dash The Cat, & Peter Kay