Connie Loizos
Silicon Valley Editor
The Latest from Connie Loizos
Microsoft now more focused on ‘killing Zoom’ than Slack, says Stewart Butterfield
"I do feel like that preoccupation has shifted. I think Microsoft believes that in order to kill Slack, they're going to have to kill Zoom first."
VC Mark Suster: ‘The bet we’re making now is on founder skills,’ instead of customers or products
We recently caught up with longtime VC Mark Suster of L.A.-based Upfront Ventures, which last raised both an early-stage fund and a growth stage fund several years ago and, according to regulatory fil
SEC Regional Director Erin Schneider is joining us at Disrupt
If ever there was a time when working at the Securities and Exchange Commission was a dull affair, that’s no longer true. The federal agency that’s responsible for protecting investors and
SoftBank’s Marcelo Claure is coming to Disrupt next week
SoftBank has been on a tear in Latin America. The Japanese investment conglomerate just announced it has launched its second Latin America-focused fund with a $3 billion capital commitment from the co
Longtime VC, and happy Miami transplant, David Blumberg has a new $225 million fund
Blumberg Capital, founded in 1991 by investor David Blumberg, has just closed its fifth early-stage venture fund with $225 million, a vehicle that Blumberg says was oversubscribed — he planned t
Chamath Palihapitiya is coming to Disrupt
Retail investors love him. Venture capitalists envy him. But pretty much everyone writing checks these days is paying attention to Chamath Palihapitiya, whose star has been on the rise since the outse
Two years after launching, Inspired Capital has closed its second fund with $281 million
Inspired Capital, the New York-based early-stage venture firm that was founded in 2019 by entrepreneurs Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker, is today announcing the close of their second fund with $281
Political economist Neil Malhotra on why some in Silicon Valley turned on Gavin Newsom
Whether or not Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom survives Tuesday’s recall election may depend to some degree on a small but vocal group of Silicon Valley power players who’ve th
Tesla should say something
Last weekend, a reader wrote to this editor, politely asking why tech companies should speak up about the abortion law that Texas passed last week. “What does American Airlines have to do with abort
Some of the biggest names in private equity think this go-go market has another year or two (at least)
Earlier today, as part of a private event, this editor was afforded the opportunity to talk with some of the biggest names in the world of private equity, including Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein
Sequoia’s Pat Grady says it isn’t clear startups ‘should be accelerating’ right now — here’s why
Earlier today, we joined friend and former colleague Jon Fortt of CNBC in interviewing partner Pat Grady of Sequoia Capital, and it proved a wide-ranging conversation. You can check out the video belo
Talking shop with Twitter’s recent head of corp dev — and now VC — Seksom Suriyapa
Seksom Suriyapa was seemingly destined to land at a venture firm. A Stanford Law graduate, he worked at two blue-chip investment banks before joining the cybersecurity company McAfee as a senior corp
For VCs, the game right now is musical chairs
In many ways, there has never been a better time to be a venture capitalist. Nearly everyone in the industry is raking in money, either through long-awaited exits or because more capital flooding into
Bright Cellars lands more funding to personalize its subscription-based wines
Bright Cellars, a six-year-old subscription-based wine seller has, like many upstarts, evolved over time. While it once sent its club members third-party wines that fit their particular profiles, Milw
This Sequoia- and Henry Kravis-backed prediction market wants to turn opinions into money
More than 15 years ago, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, which was acquired by Nasdaq in 2008, and another since-sold exchange called HedgeStreet, both announced they intended to offer something calle
Prive has raised $1.7 million to build a more configurable e-commerce subscription platform
Prive, a months-old, San Francisco-based startup founded by two former Uber product managers, just raised $1.7 million in pre-seed funding to create what it describes as a far more customizable e-comm
Andreessen Horowitz just rolled out a $400 million fund that’s expressly for seed deals
Andreessen Horowitz has begun to announce new funds almost as routinely as some startups have begun announcing follow-on rounds. After announcing a third biotech fund in February 2020 that’s cur
The SEC and the DOJ just charged this startup founder with fraud, saying he lied to Tiger and others
Today, both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Manish Lachwani, co-founder of mobile app testing company HeadSpin, with fraud. The SEC says he violated a
Fika Ventures nearly triples its assets under management: ‘It’s definitely a crazy time’
Fika Ventures is a five-year-old, LA-based seed-stage fund that has been funding mostly business-to-business startups, as well as fintech companies and a sprinkling of healthcare IT startups — a
Stewart Butterfield and Bret Taylor are coming to Disrupt
When Salesforce acquired Slack at the end of last year for almost $28 billion, the deal seemed on its face to make sense, given that the coronavirus pandemic accelerated already growing demand fo