Plenty of people would give everything to be an early employee at seven-year-old Uber. But Uber employees who’ve been with the ride-share company for at least a few years have discovered a considerable downside to their ride with the transportation juggernaut. They can’t afford to quit. Startup employees have to exercise their options within 90 […]
A New Way to Fund Unicorns Starts to Look Less Magical
If you haven’t heard of a fairly new twist on investing called special purpose vehicles (SPVs), you probably aren’t an institutional investor or a wealthy individual with direct ties to either a venture firm or a high-flying startup like Pinterest or Postmates. But don’t worry if you’ve missed the opportunity to invest in one. Investors […]
StrictlyVC: March 24, 2015
Hi, everyone! (Web visitors, click here for an easier-to-read version of this morning’s email newsletter.) —– Top News in the A.M. Here are the many companies that presented yesterday at Y Combinator‘s first (of two) demo days. Mattermark, the venture analysis company, looks at 10 of the fastest growing startups in the batch here. Facebook […]
FirstMark Capital: Health Care Investor?
FirstMark Capital, the early-stage, New York-based venture firm, is best-known for its consumer investments, including Pinterest, the mega-successful online bulletin-board network whose newest, $225 round of funding valued the company at $3.8 billion. (FirstMark participated in its $500,000 seed fund in early 2010.) Lesser known is FirstMark’s newer, self-imposed mandate to fund more healthcare IT companies, […]
Venture Heavyweights Sit Back as Deal Sizes Soar
It’s been a banner week for a number of Internet companies. Last Wednesday, social network Pinterest acknowledged closing on a $225 million round that valued the company at $3.8 billion. Shortly thereafter, AllThingsD reported that Snapchat, the messaging app, is now weighing a $200 million investment round that would value the company at $3.5 billion. And just yesterday, NextDoor, […]