Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced tackle this week’s startup information and tendencies by Senior Reporter and Fairness co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe right here.

One of many quieter conversations in enterprise capital has solely grown louder, in my DMs and interviews, over the previous few months: The recognized bias in enterprise capital has been a branding problem for a few of the rising, numerous fund managers simply now splashing onto the scene.

Everybody has a narrative, however all of them sound a bit comparable: A feminine VC is launching a fund, and he or she’s both in comparison with each different feminine VC with a fund, anticipated to solely spend money on feminine founders or have a variety, fairness and inclusion angle as a core thesis. The othering that occurs, from an ever-homogenous group of LPs and even founders who see feminine VCs as monolithic, has led to some feminine VCs rebranding their corporations altogether so they’re seen as past their gender.

Learn my full tackle this subject with Rebecca Szkutak on TC+: “For feminine VCs, bias is a branding problem.”

In the remainder of this text, we’ll discuss Upfront Summit 2023 and a shocking Higher deal. As at all times, you may comply with me on Twitter or Instagram to proceed the dialog.

VC confab brings surprises and AI

All of your favourite enterprise journalists have been busy this week at Upfront Summit 2023, a two-day, invite-only occasion that brings collectively trade insiders — and celebrities — to speak about the way forward for capital. I interviewed the previous and current guard over at Kapor Capital. I shook palms with Jamie Lee Curtis and stole interview ideas from Kara Swisher. And Al Gore tried to recruit all the viewers to be extra severe on combating local weather change.

All in all, the convention mainly fueled my story plans for the following month, so keep tuned for plenty of follow-up angles. And a few scoops too. I’ll begin with a recap on the AI conversations throughout stage.

Right here’s why it’s vital: In the event you ask me, AI was the omnipresent superstar at Upfront. It’s not shocking: Hyped-up applied sciences typically get outsized curiosity. However the environment is totally different from what it was in 2021 when traders have been throwing billions of {dollars} at 15-minute grocery supply corporations and web3. Enterprise dry powder is locked up, offers are getting accomplished slower and a few traders are nonetheless licking their wounds from the downturn to date.

Picture Credit: Clark Studio

The follow-up

My colleagues took the mic this week on Fairness to speak by the newest and best headlines. The entire present was a hoot. Unexpectedly, for all, was the return of Higher.com. Information broke earlier this week that Amazon is letting workers use their inventory to finance residence purchases and even second houses.

Right here’s why it’s vital: It’s a inventive, but additionally shocking, partnership. Higher has been an Amazon Internet Providers buyer since 2015 and its mortgage origination system is powered completely by the software program, in accordance with a press release. Nonetheless, Higher has been by its justifiable share of struggles which have solid doubt on its future. Should we run by all of the filings?

Picture Credit: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

And many others., and so forth.

Seen on TechCrunch

Salesforce strikes again

Every part Elon Musk and execs shared (and skipped) at Tesla Investor Day

Chamath Palihapitiya: It may take three years for the market to ‘precisely’ reprice late-stage cos

OpenAI launches an API for ChatGPT, plus devoted capability for enterprise prospects

Avid gamers are fixing a online game ‘taken over’ by hackers

Seen on TechCrunch+

Maybe Substack can develop simply fantastic with out enterprise {dollars}

Pitch Deck Teardown: Gable’s $12M Sequence A deck

Does web3 want a enterprise bailout now that AI has all of the hype?

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