Having spent two days in SF end of last week some notes on the sense in the valley:
– VCs are a lot more conservative about sending term sheets to entrepreneurs seeking funding
– Valuations are the main discrepancy, not necessarily innovation
– Expecting several start-ups to perform down-rounds or simply go bust
– User growth aren’t (only) valid funding variables – must have revenues and several arguably positive unit economics (for the first time in a while)
– Sectors of interest right now: Transportation (space, high-speed train, autonomous cars, ride sharing), genomics, p2p/shared economies, SaaS services, web security, health tech, AR/VR
– “Temporary money” (Mutual funds, Hedge funds etc) are leaving the VC space again
– The number of 16 year old’s with a drivers license have decreased with 43% between 1983 and 2014 main reasons being: (i) too busy, (ii) not wanting to own a vehicle and (iii) ease of getting a ride with someone else or through Uber like services.
Tech
– The tech bubble is bursting, or at least wimps WSJ
– Fiat, Chrysler and Alphabet (Google) in autonomous car agreement WSJ
– Google connects BigQuery, Drive and Sheets enabling strong analytics performances in the latter two services TechCrunch
– Swedish DigiExam raise USD 3.5M Series A round TechCrunch
– Inside of one of the most secretive Silicon Valley companies – Palantir Buzzfeed
– SpaceX successfully lands its second rocket on droneship WSJ
– Hyperloop will host its first press monitored test run May 10th in Nevada Hyperloop
– Sweden’s ten most spoken about fintech companies DiDigital
– Klarna to offer offline payment solution competing with Square, iZettle etc. WSJ
– Warburg Pincus (PE fund) enters Genomics space with USD 100M funding TechCrunch
Media
– Facebook lose VR executive WSJ
– Spotify updates its app layout TrustedReviews
– Soundtrack Your Brand (Spotify Business) sings global deal with McDonald’s and launches in the US Reuters
– Telia’s zero rating agreement with Facebook spark net neutrality discussions SR
Google and Apple lose significant market value after last weeks earnings reports.
Apple lost about USD 65 Bn (!!!) in market cap since its earnings call until Friday (May 6th) closing.
Please comment or ask further questions on any of the topics as I truly appreciate the discussions around them all 🙂
