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.
First of all, hello to all the new Startups Weekly subscribers who joined us after last week’s newsletter. I’m glad you all still they resonate with a comeback story. Second, here are some basics on what to expect.
I start most of these newsletters with a mini-essay about what matters most to me, sometimes pointing towards one of my longer pieces of the week or just to share some additional thoughts at the end of the news cycle. I then jump to three highlight topics of the week, with additional reading for those who want to dig deeper. I end with notes on the tech blogosphere, TC events, and if you look hard enough, personal anecdotes that often have to do with coffee and food. Ok, now onto the aforementioned essay!
It all started with a sound. More specifically, a filing with the SEC by Sound Ventures, the venture firm of actor and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher, confirmed plans to create a venture firm focused on artificial intelligence. Bloomberg estimates that the new investment vehicle it could add around $200 million dollars at closing.
While Kutcher’s firm has been around a long time and seen enough hype cycles not to be easily swayed one way or another, the presentation piqued my curiosity. Are we going to see more celebrity-led venture firms jump on the AI bandwagon? Especially since cryptocurrency, the old darling of the hype train, has floundered and struggled in recent months?
If you ask me, I bet we won’t see the same rush of celebrities looking to promote AI products on their Instagram stories the way they did. [insert coin offering here]. It’s complicated, and I could be completely wrong. Read my full take on TC+: “Will AI receive the same celebrity-driven hype that crypto once did? It’s complicated.”
In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about egg inflation, prickly integration, and breaking tradition. As always, you can follow me on Twitter either instagram to continue the conversation. I’m also writing on my personal blog, if you’d like to follow along with the other 1,835 people who come hang out and be too wordy.
egg inflation
One of my favorite hobbies is going to the supermarket, so you can imagine that I am very attentive to the changing prices of eggs these days. Fortunately, there is a starting angle to tell us more. TC’s Christine Hall wrote about how higher egg prices have opened up more demand for alternatives. If you’re like me and only know Just Egg, this story is enlightening for many reasons.
Here’s why it matters, Hall tells me: “There was no definitive yes or no on stepping on the accelerator [alternative egg startups] get more product out there. I was hoping someone would say, yes, startups should try it, or no, this is a passing thing and they should wait. So maybe this kind of environment presents a very tricky opportunity, pun intended.”
Image Credits: Paolo Farinella/Getty Images
figma about it
The DOJ is preparing to file a lawsuit to block the $20 billion Adobe-Figma deal announced last year on the grounds that it is anticompetitive, according to early Bloomberg reports. If the DOJ is successful, it could be devastating to tech companies large and small who were taking notes on what a mass exit could look like.
Here’s why it’s important: It’s not a surprise, but rather a confirmation of some initial concerns. At the time of the announcement, the deal was largely seen as Adobe eliminating one of its biggest rivals in the design world. Right away, people like TC’s Ingrid Lunden sounded some alarm bells about the future dominance of Adobe, as a platform and tool leader in the space.
Additionally, Ehab Bandar, founder of design consultancy Bigtable.co, told TechCrunch in September that “designers, and especially cross-functional teams, hate switching software. Any new tool would need to excel at so many things that Figma is currently doing that it’s hard to imagine any new competitor emerging from woodworking.” Others saw a possible liquidity event as an opportunity to usher in a new generation of creative designers and perhaps entrepreneurs.
Image Credits: Haje Kamps/TechCrunch
monitoring
Remember when the IPO market was a bonanza met with a party and a stampede of nerds? We’re following up on past public market talk with our latest episode of Equity, titled Scooters and Social Media Companies Are Surprising IPO Candidates. Come for our analysis, stay for our anger over the term “proficorn.”
Here’s why it’s important: Both Reddit and Lime are reportedly considering debuting on the public market this year, which caught their beloved hosts by surprise. We’ve been focusing much more on Stripe, which is considering an exit in the next 12 months, and Instacart, which has delayed its IPO before. The growing list of potential candidates tells us that some companies believe they are doing well enough that the Nasdaq isn’t a scary acronym. FTX only, now.
Image Credits: TechCrunch
Etcetera etcetera.
Spotted on TechCrunch
Confidential US Military Emails Leak Online
Modernizing 911 calling with Found’s Michael Chime
SignalFire founder says his venture capital firm lost employees who “thought we were too cheap” in previous years
Elon Musk suggests that Twitter could open its algorithm “next week”
Spotted on TechCrunch+
Launch Pad Teardown: Uber’s $200,000 Pre-Seed Pad of 2008
Is ocean conservation the next climate technology? 7 Investors Explain Why They’re All In
$100 million venture round is running out
5 Questions Emerging Managers Should Ask Before Selecting LP
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