March 11, 2022 Edition 696 Keeping Our 50,000 NYC Tech Industry Readers Informed and Connected __________________ — 1. Employees of NYC’s Better.com found out this week that they were being laid off by seeing a severance check in their Workday account — the company’s payroll app. An estimated 3,000 of the company’s 8,000 employees in the U.S. and India are being let go. (TechCrunch) 2. NYC’s Alfred…

Part 2: NFTs, non-linear viewing, facial recognition, personalization, and trans athletes. — NFTs Look, sports business and tech people love NFTs. LOVE. Deloitte says there could be over $2 billion in sports-related NFT sales this year. Money is now, as described in this nice Vox piece, a hobby and dude-centric personality aid. However, there’s a tinge (maybe more of a twinge) of skepticism…

Part 1: Private equity cash, skyrocketing valuations, real word venues, and metaverse dreams. — Sloan was celebratory this year, with good reason. Covid is winding down (kinda), teams are valued exponentially higher than they were 10 years ago, and cash is everywhere. …

Stu is the co-founder and managing partner of Core77, a New York-based publishing company focusing on the design industry. — What’s your favorite wall decoration in your home? There are two posters in my office from the National Park Service with a vintage feel. They’re silkscreens, one’s from the Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood, and the other’s from the Grand Canyon, and I like them a lot. My kids like them too.

February 28, 2022 Edition 692 Keeping Our 50,000 NYC Tech Industry Readers Informed and Connected __________________ — 1. NYC’s BlueVoyant, a cybersecurity startup, has raised $250 million in a Series D funding at a valuation exceeding $1 billion. Liberty Strategic Capital led the round and was joined by ISTARI and Eden Global Partners. BlueVoyant combines a mix of proprietary technology, third-party tools and professional services to manage…

Brandon is a serial entrepreneur and investor and the founder of LvlUp Ventures with extensive experience in working with early-stage startups helping them with strategy and raising capital. — What’s your favorite wall decoration at home? A piece of art my mother painted of the Redondo Pier, which was across the street from me. She did it two years ago, actually, even before she visited here. A full canvas painting that’s just beautiful.

February 17, 2022 Edition 689 Keeping Our 50,000 NYC Tech Industry Readers Informed and Connected __________________ — 1. NYC’s Ro, a direct-to-patient health care company, has raised $150 million in a venture funding round. ShawSpring Partners led the round and joined by General Catalyst, FirstMark Capital, TQ Ventures, SignalFire, NYC’s BoxGroup, The Chernin Group, Initialized Capital, Altimeter Capital, Baupost Group and Seven Seven Six. The company also…

February 10, 2022 Edition 687 Keeping Our 50,000 NYC Tech Industry Readers Informed and Connected __________________ — 1. Bloomberg takes a look at the poor job of money laundering done by an NYC couple charged with attempting to launder $4.5 billion of Bitcoin stolen from a crypto exchange. New Yorkers Ilya Lichtenstein, a self-described angel investor, and his wife, Heather Morgan, a purported entrepreneur and “business rapper”…

February 2, 2022 Edition 685 Keeping Our 50,000 NYC Tech Industry Readers Informed and Connected Happy Groundhog Day……..Happy Groundhog Day……..Happy Groundhog Day. __________________ — 1. The New York Times has acquired Wordle. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed other than to state that the purchase price was in the “low seven figures.” Wordle, which will remain free, went from only 90 people playing the game on November 1, to millions of…