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| |  Image Credits: Nigel Sussman | | Los Angeles could update its nickname to the “City of Angels and Partners,” given its status as the nation’s fourth-richest startup hub. TechCrunch editor Jonathan Shieber is LA-based, so when we wanted to ask local investors about the future of the region’s startup ecosystem after the pandemic, we had someone on the inside. As a hotspot for COVID-19 infections, Los Angeles “potentially has a lot to lose in the current economic downturn,” he wrote. In the meantime, “when it comes to venture capital, Los Angeles is a city on the rise.” Here’s who he spoke to: - Mark Suster, managing partner, Upfront Ventures
- Kara Nortman, partner, Upfront Ventures
- Will Hsu, Mucker Capital
- Dana Settle, Greycroft
- Karan Wadhera, Casa Verde Capital
- Brendan Wallace, Fifth Wall
- TX Zhuo, Fika Ventures
Thanks very much for reading; be safe and have an enjoyable weekend. Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Nigel Sussman | | In today’s edition of The Exchange, Alex Wilhelm admits four new members to his exclusive $100M ARR club: Snow Software, A Cloud Guru, Zeta Global and Upgrade. “It’s all well and good to get a $1 billion valuation, call yourself a unicorn and march around like you invented the internet,” says Alex. “But reaching material revenue scale means that, unlike some highly valued companies, you’re actually hard to kill.” Read more | | | |
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| |  Image Credits: Ann Schwede / Getty Images | | I like to think myself capable of changing my mind when presented with new evidence, so I was glad to run this guest post in which the author explained why he now supports remote work. “While it's tempting to call this a pivot, those who have worked with me would probably describe it more accurately as a flip-flop,” said Drift CEO David Cancel. After shifting his employees to working from home, he offers three basic principles that guided his thinking, but reminds us that there is no standard roadmap: “It’s improv.” Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Suphanat Wongsanuphat / Getty Images | | A new national security law extends Beijing’s ability to restrict the civil liberties of Hong Kong residents who live at home or abroad. Investors are paying close attention, especially now that the United States has announced it may raise trade tariffs and restrict HK immigration in response. Reporter Catherine Shu reached out to investors who back startups in the Special Administrative Region to find out how they’re advising their portfolio companies. “Much remains uncertain,” she found. Read more | | | |
| |  | | In an episode of Extra Crunch Live earlier this week, Jeff Richard and Hans Tung of GGV Capital spoke about the lack of diversity in VC, how the global capital scene is weathering the COVID-19 era and other topics of the day. “When it comes to useful bits of information, this was perhaps the most useful Extra Crunch Live discussion in which I've participated,” said host Alex Wilhelm. Based on the conversation, he concluded that the current moment is helping investors better identify which companies “are now perhaps unfundable.” Watch or listen to their entire chat, or click through for the highlights. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Treedeo / Getty Images | | “Lawmakers seem set on changing the law of the land, but they can't change the laws of mathematics,” writes Zack Whittaker as he evaluates the latest attempts in the U.S. Senate to end “warrant-proof” encryption. If legislators require tech companies to build in these backdoors, most messaging apps — along with emails and your banking data — could be decrypted without your permission by police and by hackers. “There's no secure way to give one access and not the other,” says Zack. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Sophie Alcorn | | Dear Sophie: What is going on with recent USCIS furloughs and Trump's H-1B ban? I handle recruitment for several tech companies. Is immigration happening? Who can I hire? —Frustrated in Fremont Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Ariel Skelley / Getty Images | | Natasha Mascarenhas interviewed the executive team at Minneapolis-based Bread & Butter Ventures to find out more about the Twin Cities’ startup ecosystem and the opportunities therein. The new firm focuses exclusively on three local industries: enterprise software, agriculture and food, and health care. As GP Mary Grove said, “would you rather invest in an agtech company in Silicon Valley or in Minneapolis?” Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Kevin Schafer / Getty Images | | Legislation proposed this week by Democrats in the U.S. Congress would inject $1.5 trillion into infrastructure improvements, affordable housing, renewable energy and other areas. Stonly Baptiste, co-founder and partner at venture capital fund Urban Us, said the Moving America Forward Act jibes closely with his firm’s thesis: “that upgrading cities and related infrastructure is key to fighting the existential threat of climate change and improving lives.” Jonathan Shieber spoke to a few investors to get their thoughts and found widespread support, even if some are hoping for an even more ambitious timeline plus additional spending. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Kim Kulish / Getty Images | | After news broke that Dell may be considering selling VMWare “as a way to deal with its hefty debt load,” Ron Miller and Alex Wilhelm pulled apart the company’s financials like they were cotton candy. Dell owns 81% of VMWare, but with a market cap close to $39 billion, it’s “worth less than the company it controls,” they found. If they’re right, Dell could retire much of that by selling its stake — VMWare’s market cap is almost $62 billion. Read more | | | |
| |  | | Lucas Matney is calling it: the first wave of consumer AR “is now over, with a few exceptions.” In what can only be described as a post-mortem, he recounts the many missteps and bad assumptions that doomed a cohort of companies that should have already transformed how we live, work and play — if their predictions and promises were to be believed. “A key error of this batch was thinking that an AR glasses company was hardware-first, when the reality is that the missing value is almost entirely centered on missing first-party software experiences,” he writes. Read more | | | |
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