Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and co-host of Equity Natasha Mascarenhas. To receive this in your inbox, subscribe here.
“San Francisco is back!”
“He never left.”
“He’s been dead a long time.”
They’re all takes, none particularly good, but they all hint at a degree of personal importance that you of all people know when the heart of a city beats in a way that should count.
To me, San Francisco, for all the transience and frustration it is known to be associated with, feels like it never left. It is too simplistic to believe that cities can abandon our lives, disappear from culture or lose relevance. I’m not saying San Francisco hasn’t had a legitimate mass exodus with empty shops and office buildings; that’s something that happened. But people are slowly coming back: According to Vox, citing data from LinkedIn, “Over the last 12 months, San Francisco has seen the second largest increase in the working population of any area in the United States.”
It has been felt. It feels good to eavesdrop on conversations and hear people talk about the future, to see bookstores packed until closing, and to have a full calendar of networking events and happy hours. I’m constantly meeting people I only know through Twitter direct messages and meeting people, an “I’ve lived here” milestone I’ve only dreamed of. Maybe it’s just the way I’ve been experiencing San Francisco, but it seems like the social energy around us is less arrogant, more present. Like, yeah, there’s a huge cycle of hype around AI and I think people are flocking to Hayes Valley for some reason, but because of the few founders I’ve had coffee with lately? They seem more focused on building than covering themselves with TechCrunch’s previous product. Maybe I’m just lucky, but I feel like the sci-fi that’s back feels more grounded, less boastful.
It makes me think: cities never leave our lives, they just teach us lessons about cyclical moments, transient friendships, and how fickle community can be.
If you like this newsletter, you should check it out my personal blog too! In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about pitch deck teardowns and artificial intelligence. As always, you can follow me on Twitter either instagramwhere unfortunately I don’t post about the demise of this city.
A Pitch Deck Teardown to Get You Started
It never hurts to remember that it’s important to eat vegetables, and that’s my lazy introduction to Haje Jan Kamps‘ latest Pitch Deck Teardown on Spinach.io. heh. As a reminder, this series includes a tour of startup pitch decks that includes areas of strength, where there could be improvement and clever analysis all the time.
Read the full analysis here and remember: If you’d like your own presentation deck teardown to appear on TC+, here’s more information. Plus, check out all of our Pitch Deck teardowns and other pitching tips, all collected in one helpful place for you!
Image Credits: Mohd Hafiez Mohd Razali/EyeEm (Opens in a new window) / Fake Images
monitoring
As with every hype cycle, accountability and transparency are needed. CT Dominic Madori Davis he’s written a couple of stories looking at how the rise of artificial intelligence is affecting historically underfunded minorities. There is good news, and there is bad. Let’s start with the good: First, female-founded AI startups are seeing a surge in VC funding. Hell yes. At the same time, the work is not done: bias continues to show up in all of AI, from the investments VCs are making to the products founders are building.
Here’s why this is important, in the words of Davis: “Diversity discussions are more important than ever as AI enters a new golden age. Every new technology that appears seems to be accompanied by some heartbreaking consequence. Until now, AI has contributed to racist job recruitment tactics and slower housing approval rates for blacks. Self-driving cars have trouble detecting dark skin, making black people more likely to be hit by them; in one case, bots identified black men as criminals 9% more often than white men, which would be put in a new light if justice systems were ever to [began] AI adoption.
Image Credits: salhkilic/Getty Images
Etcetera etcetera.
- Z5 Capital, a US-based startup-focused venture firm, plans to raise a $25 million fund, according to SEC filings.
- Green Bay Ventures, a venture capital firm started by NEA co-founder Dick Kramlich and his partner Anthony Schiller, has closed $90 million for a new investment vehicle, according to SEC filings.
- I heard at a happy hour in San Francisco: “You know, some people think that Adobe is a start-up.”
- If you missed Startups Weekly last week, check out my latest issue here: “Dear Founders, Returning to the Office is a Numbers Game.”
- TechCrunch is coming to Boston on April 20. I’ll be there with my favorite colleagues to interview top experts in a one-day founders’ summit. Reserve your pass ASAP! Speakers include Techstars’ Kerty Levy, Construct Capital’s Dayna Grayson and NFX’s James Currier.
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Chat next week,
