Strictly VC

Friday! [Performs 12-ounce curl.]   We’re so excited to see a bunch of you in less than two weeks at our last event of 2019. We have an amazing line-up of speakers, including Facebook‘s former chief security officer Alex Stamos, Kitchen United founder Jim Collins, Cyan Banister of Founders Fund, Steve Jurvetson and Maryanna Saenko of Future Ventures,and Silicon Valley’s most prominent banker, Michael Grimes of Morgan Stanley.  Thanks in advance to Sheera Frenkel of the Ne

Happy Halloween! Also, apologies for the very short edition today. It was a day full of calls, and we have to now escort an alien and emergency medical technician around the neighborhood, work for which we will be paid in Mars bars later. (Shh. They don’t know. They must never know.) Much more tomorrow.:) Top News Pinterest had some good news today . . .and some bad. Its shares dropped 19 percent in extended trading after it reported disappointing third-quarter results. (It

Tuesday! Top News WhatsApp sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group today, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents in a hacking spree whose targets included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials. Reuters has more here. A former Juul executive is reportedly suing the fast-growing company, saying he was retaliated against for raising concerns when Juul allegedly shipped out one million

Monday! Top News Google’s parent, Alphabet, today reported third-quarter revenue of $40.5 billion, a rise of 20 percent from the same period last year but a number that trails Google’s pace historically. Ad revenue rose to a record $33.9 billion, contributing to an overall profit of $7.1 billion, but that number, too, disappointed, given profits were 23 percent higher a year ago. The company cited the cost of new employees, but as the WSJ notes, Alphabet’s equity

And it’s Friday! [Throws frisbee into tree.]  Before we dive into the newsletter, one more bit of great news about our upcoming event (which we promise we’ll stop talking about soon): Michael Grimes, the star tech banker from Morgan Stanley at the center of Uber’s IPO (and Facebook IPO, and Slack’s and Spotify’s), has been persuaded to come and talk about direct listings, which we’re very excited about. If you’re as confused as we are about

Almost. Friday. [Closes computer. Crumples.]   We’re kidding! We are tired but we’re also more excited than ever about our November 13th event, having just visited the San Francisco gallery owned by our hosts, NextWorld Capital, whose current exhibit centers on the work of the hyper-realistic French sculptor Elisabeth Daynes. (It’s jaw-dropping, trust us. Her work is also on display right now at the California Academy of Scie

Wednesday! Woot! Top News That WeWork deal could fall apart yet, suggests a new Bloomberg report that states SoftBank Group will seek approval of its bailout package with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which has stymied SoftBank before. As the report notes: “SoftBank won approval from the panel to buy Sprint Corp. and U.K. chip designer ARM Holdings. However, the committee put conditions on its ownership of Sprint, and restricted i

Tuesday!! Top News SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son vowed tonight to “double down” on its investment in WeWork as he confirmed plans for a $9.5 billion rescue package that will provide up to $1.7 billion to WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann in exchange for cutting most ties with the company and will give SoftBank an 80 percent stake in the business. In a statement tonight in New York, SoftBank said it would “accelerate” WeWork’s path to profitabi

Monday! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. No column today (no time).  First! Apologies to James Cham of Bloomberg Beta for mucking up his name in Friday’s newsletter.   We also have news about our November 13th event, where two new additions to the program are investors Maryanna Saenko and Steve Jurvetson of Future Ventures, who are coming in their first appearance together to share where they’re shopping and to answer questions, including around their new firm’s 15-year

Friday! [Thwacks the ball.]  Hope you have a stellar weekend! If you haven’t signed up for our upcoming event on November 13th, don’t wait too long. Featuring former Facebook CTO Alex Stamos in conversation with NYTimes reporter Sheera Frenkel; Jim Collins of the GV-backed dark kitchen company Kitchen United in conversation with CNBC reporter Lora Kolodny; and renowned angel investor turned VC Cyan Banister, in conversation with this kid. We’ll have one more conversation to