Weekly Wrap: Netflix Founder Reed Hastings Steps Back :o + really? An FTX Reboot??
Plus: A Happy Discord & Gas Marriage; Google's AI Plans + Layoffs; Coinbase halting ops in Japan; Sequoia raises 5th Seed/PreSeed fund; MySpace co-founder raises $32M for gaming startup and more
Recap this week we featured 3 Podcast Guests:
S2, Ep 4 Matt McGuire is fighting the $3T Global Counterfeiting w/ Nano Tech
S2, Ep 5 Kenny Totten + Allfly are helping you fly well with others
S2, Ep 6 Marinella Pinate & Zumma are Democratizing Personal Finance for Latin Americans
Netflix added 7.66m subscribers in Q4, far more than the 4.57m expected.
Despite this Founder Reed Hastings is relinquishing his role as co-CEO to become executive chairman.
Coinbase is halting operations in Japan
Coinbase was granted a license to operate in Japan sometime in June 2021
Due to market volatility, it has undergone several layoffs.
Gas is a social app that allows users to share compliments with one another.
It has been acquired by Discord.
Gas is popular among teens, and is designed to spread positivity through polls and prompts, in contrast to the anonymous negativity of apps like Yik Yak.
A $32 million seed round for former MySpace dude Chris DeWolfe’s next gaming biz defies 2023 trends
Oil giant Shell USA is set to acquire electric vehicle charging company Volta for $169M. The latter is based in San Francisco.
From the Mind & Mouth of JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon @ WEF
Says Frank Acquisition Was ‘Huge Mistake’
Remote work ‘doesn’t work’ for bosses, young workers, or ‘spontaneity’
Jamie Dimon calls bitcoin a 'hyped-up fraud'
Fossil Fuels needed for at least next 50 years
The U.S. Department of Justice arrested Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national and founder of Bitzlato.
The DOJ laid charges against Legkodymov for crypto money laundering valued at $700M.
Wait is that Fredo from The Godfather? Fredo, you broke my heart
Startup employees are finding it difficult to sell their stocks in the secondary market as the bid-ask spread has increased to 22%, per Forge Global.
The metaverse fashion startup, House of Blueberry, announced it raised $6M Seed. Makers Fund led the round, and Everblue Management participated. The company plans to use the funds to expand its partnerships, grow its audience, and develop new products.
A U.S. SEC’s proposed rule, which aims to rectify the lack of transparency and conflict of interest issues in venture capital investing, has received backlash from venture firms.
VCs argue that the rule would make it difficult for them to support portfolio companies, especially for those who are more deeply involved in a startup.
Sequoia Capital, a storied venture capital firm, announced this week that it has launched a $195 million dedicated seed fund, its fifth.
The vehicle will be used to back founders across the United States and Europe
The capital will also be used to invest in future cohorts or its Arc program
Arc is an internal Sequoia initiative that invests between $500,000 and $1 million into rising founders across the world and that’s currently accepting applications.
Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia have launched the second cohort of their women-focused accelerator program dubbed Sequoia Spark Fellowship.
The initiative was formed to encourage women to become entrepreneurs.
The second cohort consists of 12 women entrepreneurs
Running startups in climate tech, health tech, SaaS, Web3, and D2C
Sequoia India highlights that the first batch of the cohort consisted of 15 startups and has raised cumulative funding of $51M.
Upcoming Events:
January 24th Founders Pack: Winner Takes All Pitch on Stonks.com
Features 5 companies
Pitching 3 judges.
Founders stake $100 on their pitch, winner takes all
The Founders can all raise /book meetings from their pitch on Stonks.com
12 noon PST/3Pm EST
https://stonks.com/founders-pack/jan2023?r=3ac9d5d2-ba25-425a-8faa-e1bd72e86437
Google is increasing its AI efforts to compete with OpenAI, and plans to announce over 20 new AI projects this year.
Some of the projects include: an image generator, a code generation tool, an upgraded version of the AI Test Kitchen app, a tool for creating android apps, a tool for summarizing videos, a wallpaper maker for Pixel smartphones, a green screen mode for YouTube and a "Shopping Try-on" feature.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly met with Google founders to discuss the company's AI plans.
Google is working to speed up the approval process for its new AI products to ensure that they are ethical and fair. re: THE NEW YORK TIMES
And… Google Parent Alphabet to Cut 12,000 Jobs Amid Wave of Tech Layoffs
Tech companies have eliminated more than 37,000 positions so far this year according to Layoffs.fyi data.
Some of the layoffs have impacted companies in the AI space.
If the trend continues, the job cuts would be on track to surpass the 154,000 tech layoffs that occurred during all of 2022.
FTX could reboot :o
John J. Ray III, its new CEO, tells the WSJ that he’s looking into the possibility of reviving the bankrupt crypto exchange as he works to return money to customers and creditors
JJR3 explained that accusations of criminal misconduct aside
“Some” customers have praised its technology (who?)
He suggested that there would be value in rebooting the platform.
“Everything is on the table,” Ray tells the Journal. “If there is a path forward on that, then we will not only explore that, we’ll do it.” 👀
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