The Latest from Danny Crichton
USV has been aggressively selling off shares in Coinbase in run up to IPO
Coinbase’s S-1 publicly dropped this morning, with much anticipation. My colleague Alex Wilhelm has the high-level details, but there was one major wrinkle for the crypto trading darling: two of its
The Equity podcast is growing
Equity is celebrating its fourth birthday in a few weeks and closed 2020 with its biggest quarter to date. To celebrate and say thank you to our wonderful listeners who tune into us each and every sin
Select Star raises seed to automatically document datasets for data scientists
Back when I was a wee lad with a very security-compromised MySQL installation, I used to answer every web request with multiple “SELECT *” database requests — give me all the data and I’ll fig
VCs are chasing Hopin upwards of $5-6B valuation
Virtual events platform Hopin is hopin’ for a mega valuation. According to multiple sources who spoke with TechCrunch, the company, which was founded in mid-2019, is running around the fundraise cir
Lightspeed’s COO David Baga leaving to join pay advance startup Even as CEO
David Baga is going to be getting a new paycheck, which is fitting, all things considered. Even, an “on-demand pay” startup that ‘evens’ out paychecks for workers to give them financial stabil
South Korea’s prime minister has joined Clubhouse
After garnering an estimated 8 million downloads since its launch, Clubhouse’s popularity continues across the world and even outside of its original tech-focused seed community. The latest news com
Gridware is building early-detection sensors for power grid failures and wildfires
Like corporate financial accounting, the power grid never draws headlines when things are going well. No journalist writes “The power remains on,” or discusses the extensive work it takes to maint
DuPont and VCs see lithium mining as a critical investment for the electric future
“Mining” has become synonymous with crypto the past few years in the tech industry, what with Bitcoin piercing the $50,000 barrier and GPUs and ASICs worldwide scrambling to hash functions
The creator movement is entering prime time, and so is Circle with a fresh $4M
The creator movement has exploded in the last few years as platforms ranging from Substack to Clubhouse have made it easier than ever to reach an audience of willing readers and listeners. Yet the key
Dating juggernaut Match buys Seoul-based Hyperconnect for $1.73B, its biggest acquisition ever
In a large win for the Korean startup ecosystem, dating powerhouse Match Group announced this afternoon that it would buy social networking company Hyperconnect for a combined cash and stock deal valu
PSA: Most aggregate VC trend data is garbage
“Seed rounds are up!” “Seed rounds are higher valued than ever!” “There were 10% less VCs investing in seed rounds last year!” !!!!!!!!! We’ve all seen these stories, and we’re fine co
Blair launches $100M facility to fund ISAs for students
Income-share agreements, or ISAs, have been gathering force as an alternative financial model for students, particularly at non-traditional schools like coding boot camps and trade schools. We’ve do
WeWork is apparently doing better, not that SoftBank wants you to talk about that
SoftBank’s earnings always leads to a bonanza of news. One storyline that has dominated the company’s earnings over the past few years that has all but disappeared though is WeWork. The co-working
SoftBank kills half the performance incentive for its Vision Fund execs
SoftBank reported earnings today, including the performance of its $98.6 billion Vision Fund. The numbers were enticing, given the recent exit of DoorDash, which returned billions to SoftBank and repr
SoftBank and the late-stage venture capital J-curve
SoftBank had some good data to report overnight with its third-quarter earnings, which covers the last quarter of 2020 through December 31. The company’s first Vision Fund reported large gains drive
CHIPS Alliance hires new director to push open-source chips ecosystem into next gear
Over the past two decades, there has been a complete revolution in software engineering driven by the rise of open source. Proprietary tools and libraries have widely given way to open-source librarie
SoftBank files for a double scoop of SPAC
The SPAC mania continues unabated, with new SPACs being filed with the SEC on an almost hourly basis at times. SoftBank, the Japanese telecom conglomerate which has also been running the gigantic Visi
Carta’s startup liquidity service CartaX conducts first transactions on its own cap table
As startups have stayed private longer and liquidity has become harder to secure for early employees and investors, more and more shareholders have looked for ways to unload their shares to others. Al
Lightspeed and Levchin bet on Balance to bring B2B payments into the digital world
Consumer payments is by no means a solved problem (I’ll trigger one hundred blockchain people if I say otherwise), but it sure as heck is a pretty improved one. Checkout is a breeze with modern tool
Omnispace raises $60M to fuse satellites and 5G into one ubiquitous network
5G has been on a tear the last few years as wireless operators and smartphone manufacturers have made a marketing push touting higher bandwidth and lower latency for users. Yet, for all the attention