Connie Loizos
Silicon Valley Editor
The Latest from Connie Loizos
ValueBase, backed by Sam Altman’s Hydrazine, raises $1.6 million seed round
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes AI can help usher in “unbelievable abundance,” but he says he wants to ensure that such abundance is shared. Toward that end, Altman has embraced a theory of
Is venture funding already back?
Despite continuing talk about a possible recession, slumping tech stocks and a slowdown in the world of startup investing, the business of funding was positively humming last week.
Fifth Wall, focused on real estate tech and managing $3.2B, looks to eat up even more of its market
Brendan Wallace’s ambition is beginning to seem almost limitless. The LA-based venture firm that Wallace and co-founder Brad Greiwe launched less than seven years ago already has $3.2 billion in
‘Most active investor’ FJ Labs closes on $260M across two new funds
Fabrice Grinda says he never intended to run a venture firm. He just really (really) enjoyed angel investing. In fact, by late 2013, when he was on the verge of selling the global classifieds marketpl
Opportunistic investors are giving up on aging pre-IPO companies, shows a new report
It’s a tough time to be a richly priced company that didn’t go public when the getting was good. Not only are there fewer later-stage players with the resources and appetite to support suc
Cowboy Ventures goes bigger with $260M across two new funds, including an opportunity fund
Cowboy Ventures, the now-10-year-old, Bay Area-based seed-stage focused fund founded by renowned investor Aileen Lee, has closed on two new funds totaling $260 million in capital commitments. The outf
A $32 million seed round for Chris DeWolfe’s next gaming biz defies 2023 trends
A $32 million seed round may seem like a throwback to frothier times, like … 2021. But that’s how much PLAI Labs just raised in a deal led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). It’s a lot o
A lot of fintechs ‘have to fix their business models,’ say VCs who invest in fintech
In recent years, working for, or banking with, a traditional financial institution was decidedly uncool. Far cooler was working for or banking with one of the many fintech startups that seemed to thum
That Microsoft deal isn’t exclusive, video is coming and more from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman sat down for a wide-ranging interview with this editor late last week, answering questions about some of his most ambitious personal investments, as well as about
A peek into the future as Sam Altman sees it
Late last week, in a rare sit-down before a small audience, this editor spent an hour with Sam Altman, the former president of Y Combinator and, since 2019, the CEO of OpenAI, the company he famously
Sequoia Capital’s Alfred Lin in his first public interview since the implosion of FTX (video)
Last night, at an industry event hosted in San Francisco by this editor, venture capitalist Alfred Lin of Sequoia Capital sat down for a one-on-one conversation about the evolution of his storied inve
Veteran enterprise VC Peter Wagner on the opportunities for AI startups
Artificial intelligence, they say, will either vastly improve our lives or take away our jobs. For veteran venture investor Peter Wagner, it’s a little more nuanced than that.
Carta, previously sued for gender discrimination, is now suing its former CTO
Carta, the 11-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit whose core business is selling software to investors to track their portfolios, has sued its former CTO, Jerry Talton, who the company says was fired
VCs are pushing startups — will their investors tighten the thumbscrews, too?
Over the last decade or so, many venture capitalists have built vast personal fortunes. Some of the money has been made through investments in companies that have outperformed. But much of their wealt
Katrina Lake is back as interim CEO of struggling Stitch Fix, 17 months after stepping down
Can Katrina Lake save Stitch Fix? The founder of the nearly 13-year-old, subscription-based online personal shopping service is going to try, returning today to her role as CEO 17 months after steppin
What to look for in a term sheet as a first-time founder
We recently sat down with three VCs who shared tips on spinning up an investing network from scratch and negotiating your first term sheet.
How to spin up an investing network from scratch as a first-time founder
Building an investor network from scratch sounds daunting, particularly if you aren't part of a circle where talking to potential investors is easy.
Persistent Jack Sweeney brings back @ElonJet (but delayed) to Twitter
More than a week after being banned from Twitter, Jack Sweeney, the University of Central Florida sophomore who has been a pain in the side of Elon Musk for at least the past year, has a new account o
Sequoia’s Carl Eschenbach, who led deals for Zoom and Snowflake, to run Workday as co-CEO
Carl Eschenbach, a longtime enterprise software executive who joined Sequoia Capital in 2016 and went on to lead a number of lucrative deals for the venture firm, is going back to an operating role. A
Three counterintuitive 2023 predictions about Musk, SBF and even Kraft
Bradley Tusk — who spent his early career in Democratic politics and later became a consultant and lobbyist for private companies battling regulators — spends much of his time these days a