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May you find love, peace, harmony and a CAC/LTV arbitration ratio beyond your wildest dreams. — Christine and hi
The ukbusinessupdates.com Top 3
- New way to save for a rainy day: Banking for startups, SaaS startups to be precise, is popular, and Mary Ann brings us the story of Arc, a W22 Y Combinator graduate, who brought in $20 million in Series A capital because of his approach to borrowing, saving and spending. She writes that Arc offers a way to “turn future earnings into upfront capital.” And startups are on board. Since the company came out of stealth earlier this year, it now has more than 1,000 customers.
- One Meta, two Meta, three Meta: Horizon Worlds, Meta’s virtual reality social platform, says “Bonjour” and “Buenos días” to France and Spain, respectively, Ivan reports. Meta was also rolling out new Reels features on Instagram and Facebook today, Aisha writes, and the company is partnering with DoorDash to test delivery of Facebook Marketplace items, Lauren reports.
- As seen on Shopify: If you’re a creator looking to partner with independent companies and earn some extra cash, or a merchant looking for a new sales and marketing channel, Shopify’s new “Shopify Collabs” offering will oblige you, Aisha writes.
Startups and VC
Some people have wondered how Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, lost investors $1 billion and faces jail time, while Adam Neumann, who founded WeWork, lost $11 billion but then raised $350 million for his latest startup. The answer is pretty clear – Neumann, despite burning 10x more money, was not convicted of fraud. Natasha M and Anita watch the tech industry react to Adam Neumann’s a16z-backed return to real estate. Also, this one made us giggle with amusement.
By chance Natasha M — the Equity team put together an omnibus collection of six conversations that nuance the wave of technology layoffs. It’s a great reminder of both some great episodes of Equity and some ways to think about layoffs in a macroeconomic context.
Okay, fine, here are a few more:
How should web3 companies approach fundraising during a recession?
Image Credits: Stephen Swintek (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Most web3 startups are in the same leaky boat: they haven’t reached the product market yet, hiring tech talent is difficult at best, and many of the same investors who were eager to take their calls a year ago are ghosting them today. .
Thirsty travelers who know where to look can still find water, according to Jenny Q. Ta, CEO of GalaxE.
In a guest post from TC+, she offers suggestions on how to approach angels, accelerators, and traditional VCs, along with some thoughts that can help web3 entrepreneurs determine their level.
“Don’t let fear rule you. This too shall pass, but don’t waste the moment.”
(ukbusinessupdates.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams move forward. You can register here.)
Big Tech Inc.
Indian telecommunications providers began blocking VideoLan’s website in February. You may know them as the developer of the popular media player VLC. manish contacted company president and lead developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf, who said that by continuing to block the website, the country is leaving its citizens with no choice but to “use shady websites running hacked versions of VLC. With this ban, they are bringing thus endangering their own citizens.”
If you love to salivate at photos of new cars, Polestar will give your engines a boost with photos of its new electric vehicle roadster, Polestar 6, which features a hard convertible and recycled polyester upholstery. Jaclyn reports. Sorry, but you have to wait four years for this.
- Knock KnockWalmart’s last-mile delivery service, Walmart GoLocal, today announced a milestone of more than 1 million deliveries in its first year, Sarah writes. Next target? To reach 5,000 pick-up locations by the end of this year.
- Oops, hackers have done it again: DigitalOcean has revealed that some of its customers’ email addresses have been exposed as a result of a recent “security incident” at Mailchimp, carly reports. This new revelation comes just months after Mailchimp had another breach.
- It only takes one snowball to start an avalanche: Alex predicted we were getting close to some nice IPO filings, and Digit Insurance delivered today, announcing that it filed a $440 million IPO, manish reports.
- Who’s calling?: We went from Mailchimp emails to Signal phone numbers. carly writes that the company says a breach at Twilio has exposed nearly 2,000 of its customers’ phone numbers and SMS verification codes.
