Ask for the check you want

April 30, 2023

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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.

Tech’s guiding principles these days aren’t too hard to find: discipline, focus, and cash conservation. But I’ve always found those same approaches to be especially in conflict with what it means to be an early-stage founder presenting his vision: You must have Elon Musk-level ambition, big dreams, and the ability to sell a company to investors. before there are real metrics behind it.

In a way, it’s the investor’s job to see the reason for saying yes anyway. In other ways, the recession is causing early-stage founders to turn professional earlier and earlier; Philosophically, it looks more like the late-stage company unveiling its C-Series than the boisterous preseed.

I’ve noticed little things about how early-stage founders have changed their pitches, which suggests that paychecks these days are less about the messiah and more about monetization.

Read the rest of my column on TC+: “Founders change their tune.”

In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about AI attribution, company layoffs, and modern entrepreneurship. As always, you can follow me on Twitter either instagram to continue the conversation. If you feel like supporting me extra, subscribe to my substack very free.

In fact, we are starting to see AI being a factor in tech layoffs.

Layoffs happen almost daily during this news cycle – I covered the Chief and Clubhouse layoffs within an hour of each other – but the reasons behind each reduction often lack specificity. Dropbox surprised me. CEO Drew Houston, who laid off 16% of staff this week, cited “the AI era of computing” in connection with the layoffs. “We have believed for many years that AI will give us new superpowers and completely transform knowledge work. And we have been building towards this future for a long time, as this year’s product portfolio will demonstrate.” he said.

Here’s what you should know: I hope there will be more layoffs in the workforce that are partly attributed to artificial intelligence. Not a New Version: The concern I hear most often around AI is its ability, or intent, to replace everyone’s jobs. To break that pattern is to get a lot of snapshots: Harvey AI, backed by Sequoia this week, is the buzz at all the tech dinners for her pitch to empower lawyers.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

venture is down

TC’s Mary Ann Azevedo broke the news this week: “Fintech-focused venture capital firm Anthemis Group lays off 28% of staff as part of restructuring.” She reports: “Anthemis declined to provide any further details on the progress of its strategy, instead pointing me to this blog post from co-founder Amy Nauiokas. In the post, Nauiokas writes that the firm aims to “translate the 2022 reckoning in the private markets into a lasting change in early-stage investment structure and method.”

Here’s what you should know: We don’t see company layoffs often, although I have a feeling many are ghosts these days. The reductions will continue, and perhaps stronger this time. Last JuneBackstage Capital laid off most of its staff, with now there are only two people left in the venture company.

Image Credits: PM images (Opens in a new window) / Fake Images

A modern version of an entrepreneur

About equity this weekI interviewed Ankur Nagpal of Ocho, the founder of the business owner-focused fintech, as well as Teachable and Vibe Capital. we talk about everything of the temperature of the solo GPs and how building in public has impacted his trajectory.

Here’s an excerpt we got minutes after recording: “A great CEO…you have to be a mild sociopath. And there are a lot of things that I just struggled with when it came to being CEO, because it would go against my values as a person,” Nagpal said.

Bright multicolored balls arranged randomly on blue background of pink strings, used in the Betterdata post

Image Credits: fake images

Etcetera etcetera.

A strange parallel: Instacart Co-Founder and Former CEO Apoorva Mehta raised $30 million for his new healthcare company, WSJ reported last year. That news makes it even more interesting that current Instacart CEO Fidji Simo co-founded a healthcare clinic, according to fortune. According to TechCrunch, what an uncanny parallel between the past and present leadership of a grocery delivery startup! Jokes aside, maybe it’s a nod to what Amazon tried to do with Whole Foods and One Medical, Instacart edition.
Big apologies: who I missed in Boston last week. I was ready to jump on stage, but then food poisoning, from a coffee shop that shall remain unnamed, took hold of me. I heard it was a hoot though, so check out the TC+ recap posts coming your way soon.
Programming note: If you’re reading this in a browser, get it in your inbox too! Subscribe here and share it with your friends.
Of course: It is already interruption season. reminder that there is a ticket for every budget and function.
And finally, I have a shameless plugin: Scoops make me! If you hear about a venture firm or startup winning, rising, failing, or oh, I don’t know, firing an executive due to internal events, tell me. I love see first releases and term sheets too. Happy to talk about anonymity and explain more of my process and what I’m looking for. You can tell me things on Signal at +1 925 271 0912. No pitches please.