New rule reins in China’s flourishing self-publishing space
Despite China’s history of stringent media control, an industry of uninstitutionalized, individual publishers has managed to flourish on social media platforms like Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s Toutiao. These self-publishers are called “We Media” in the Chinese int
Human Capital: Alpha Global forms to unite Alphabet workers worldwide
You’ve just landed on the web version of my weekly newsletter, Human Capital. It’s where we look at the recent events of the week pertaining to diversity, equity, inclusion and labor in tech.
You can sign up here to get Human Capital delivered straight to your inbox every Friday at 1 p.
Institutional trust is the real meme
Hello friends, this is Week in Review.
Last week, I dove into the AR maneuverings of Apple and Facebook and what that means for the future of the web. This week, I’m aiming to touch the meme stock phenomenon that dominated American news cycles this week and see if there’s anything worth
Gillmor Gang: Back Then Now
Still figuring out what this newsletter is, I'm torn between aggregation and writing. The inputs vary from blog posts, Twitter threads, and the occasional video. Podcasting seems oddly muzzled by the acceleration of streaming. Blog posts are a misnomer; professional blogs represent the bulk of
Reddit co-founder on GameStop: 'The collective public cannot unsee this'
When Robinhood, a startup that promises to make finance accessible for all, temporarily limited trading on GameStop, AMC, and other memestocks, many retail investors were pissed that the fintech darling suddenly didn't live up to its name. The specific reasons may have been short-term and techn
Despite Brexit and COVID-19, Irish investors remain bullish
Ireland’s technology scene has come in leaps and bounds in the last decade, with a growing VC scene, plenty of startups and tech giants attracted by the nation’s favorable tax incentives and talent pool.
Google, Facebook, Slack, Microsoft and Dropbox each have a European headquarters si
The biggest exit for this L.A. venture firm may wind up being . . . canned water
Earlier this week, Science Inc, the 10-year-old, L.A.-based incubator and venture firm, rolled out a blank-check company onto the Nasdaq, raising $310.5 million for what firm founders Peter Pham and Mike Jones say will be used to take public a company in the mobile, entertainment or direct-to-consu
Daily Crunch: Robinhood raises $1B
Robinhood caps a wild week for new funding, Coinbase is going public and Johnson & Johnson reveals new vaccine trial data. This is your Daily Crunch for January 29, 2021.
The big story: Robinhood raises $1B
I know the newsletter has been dominated by Robinhood and stock market n
SoftBank earmarks $100 million for Miami-based startups
Miami, an emerging startup hub, has a new check-writer in town: SoftBank. The Japanese multinational conglomerate announced plans today to invest $100 million, drawn from across its funds, into Miami-based startups. Notably, SoftBank's $5 billion Latin America fund is headquartered in Miami, as
Report: WeWork could be getting SPAC’d soon, too
According to a new report in the WSJ, WeWork, the co-working juggernaut that saw its attempt at a public offering blow up in spectacular fashion in the fall of 2019, might become a publicly traded company by merging with a blank-check company.
Specifically, says the WSJ, the New York-based outfit h
Hear from Arlan Hamilton on finding the next big opportunities in tech at TC Sessions: Justice
I’m very excited to announce Arlan Hamilton, founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, will be joining us in a fireside chat at TC Sessions: Justice on March 3.
Backstage Capital has raised more than $12 million to invest in more than 150 companies led by people of color, women and/o
Apple’s Tim Cook warns of adtech fuelling a ‘social catastrophe’ as he defends app tracker opt-in
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has urged Europe to step up privacy enforcement in a keynote speech to the CPDP conference today — echoing many of the points he made in Brussels in person two years ago when he hit out at the “data-industrial complex” underpinning the adtech industry
Inspirit launches to bring Minecraft creativity to biology class
Aditya Vishwanath, the founder of Inspirit, wants to bring the creativity associated with Minecraft to the day-to-day schoolwork of students around the world.
“These students are coming from TikTok and playing Roblox games [that are] highly interactive and highly engaging,” he said. “Then, th
Urban-X launches its latest cohort as the world catches up to the accelerator’s climate thesis
Urban-X, the accelerator launched by the venture capital fund Urban US and BMW’s MINI subsidiary to invest in companies that primarily address sustainable and resilient living in the cities of the future, has launched its latest cohort.
This ninth cohort of companies are coming to market at a