Greylock this week announced a $500 million fund dedicated to seed rounds, raising eyebrows as well as questions on Twitter about whether traditional seed VCs will be left out in the cold.
Between the lines: The seed market is bifurcating, but the barbell isn't necessarily a threat to smaller investors.
Costco CFO Richard Galanti said on Thursday that Costco is putting purchase limits on "key items," such as toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water and certain cleaning products, according to CNBC.
Driving the news: The problem has shifted from over-purchasing to a myriad of problems such as shipping delays, higher labor and freight costs and shortages on raw materials and ingredients, according to CNN.
Regulators in China are tightening their grip on industries at a dizzying pace — ratcheting up pressure that’s spared few sectors.
Driving the news: The country’s most powerful regulators banded together for the first time to outlaw all cryptocurrency activity on Friday, Reuters reports — intensifying its years-long war.
Gorillas, a German grocery and convenience item delivery platform, reportedly is raising $1 billion at a $2 billion pre-money valuation from backers like Delivery Hero.
Why it matters: This reflects how "legacy" delivery players are seeking access to instant, hyperlocal upstarts (i.e., the GoPuff model). That's why DoorDash was in talks earlier this year to back Gorillas, but reportedly is participating in a round for rival Flink at a $2.1 billion valuation.
A growing number of top VCs are calling it quits, long before typical retirement age.
Between the lines: Generational turnover isn't new for venture capital, but in the past it's been born of lean times. What we're seeing now is the byproduct of unprecedented success.
Biden-era financial regulators are getting increasingly involved in climate — if not as much as some advocates want — and this week is bringing fresh signs of the trend.
Driving the news: The Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that it's sending letters to corporations seeking more complete disclosures about their climate-related risks.
No official has been more publicly outspoken recently about regulator staffing shortages than SEC chair Gary Gensler. Complaints of this sort date back to at least 2009.
What they're saying: “We’ve got an IPO boom, we have a SPAC boom, we have cryptocurrencies to deal with ... [and] China," Gensler told CNBC last week.
The boom times are all around us (from corporate deal sprees to the breakneck rise of cryptocurrency) — and the agencies in charge are stretched thin trying to police it.
Why it matters: Overwhelmed staff and a slew of vacant posts could set back President Biden's big regulatory agenda.
Evergrande, the Chinese property giant, was due to pay foreign bondholders $83.5 million Thursday as the semi-annual interest payment on its $2 billion bond due next year. It didn't.
Why it matters: This is the biggest missed coupon payment since the chaos of March 2020, and marks a key turning point in what could be one of the biggest and messiest corporate restructurings of all time.
A handsome brick building with a pedestrian mall connecting Second Avenue to First Avenue and the riverfront would replace the four buildings blown to pieces by the Christmas morning bombing, according to new renderings released Thursday.
Why it matters: The Callen family, which owns the properties, detailed their plans Thursday in a presentation to the city, quelling fears that the lots could sit vacant or be replaced with an out-of-place skyscraper.
The pedestrian mall, akin to the nearby Printer's Alley, would be a first-of-its-kind connector in the historic district.
What they're saying: Mayor John Cooper's administration has prioritized saving Second Avenue, Nashville’s first-ever historic district.
"The mayor expects a great product to arise out of the collaboration among city agencies, other stakeholders, and the owners of these four properties," Cooper spokesperson Andrea Fanta said.
Councilmember Freddie O'Connell, who represents the area, told Axios that the new renderings could restore the neighborhood's character while revitalizing sleepier parts of the entertainment district, such as First Avenue.
"In some ways it's as good an outcome as we could have secured," O'Connell said. "They have the potential to leave it better than they found it."
Mickey Guyton's debut album, "Remember Her Name," is a watershed moment for country music, a genre with precious few commercially successful Black female artists.
Why it matters: Rave reviews and industry buzz signal Guyton is ready to break into a new strata of mainstream success as country music faces an ongoing reckoning.
As virtually every aspect of American life was scrutinized for systemic racism, the genre faced withering criticism over its lack of diversity. The controversy over Morgan Wallen using a racial slur intensified the conversation.
At the same time, Guyton brought searing songs about racism and sexism to country's biggest stages. Her continued success could open doors for artists and fans who once felt shut out.
"Black Like Me," a song Guyton released last year after George Floyd's death and nationwide protests, was a turning point in her career.
Yes, but: Guyton, 38, has Grammy, CMA, and ACM nominations to her name and a series of successful singles. But she has yet to score a country radio hit.
Guyton told The New York Times that radio success wasn't her main goal: "I can't write songs that don't mean something."
Context: Guyton is the latest example of an overnight Nashville success who was more than a decade in the making. She first signed with Capitol, a Universal Music Group label, in 2011.
In that sense, Guyton's rise parallels Chris Stapleton, another UMG juggernaut who got Music Row buzz but sat on the national shelf before debut album "Traveller" became a smashing success — without initial support from country radio.
🔊 Listen:Guyton's deft "All American" makes a subtle argument for acceptance and diversity over a boot-scootin' beat right at home on a honky-tonk jukebox.
"Remember Her Name" is available to stream and purchase today.
China's central bank declared on Friday that all cryptocurrencies are illegal, banning crypto-related transactions and cryptocurrency mining, according to Reuters.
Why it matters: China's government is now following through with its goal of cracking down on unofficial virtual currencies, which it has said are a financial, social and national security risk and a contributor to global warming.
I've spent the past week on a joyride, tooling around town in a crazy-fun, three-wheeled mashup between an electric car and a motorcycle — an "autocycle" if you will — called the Arcimoto FUV.
Why it matters: If this is the future of mobility, sign me up!
The big picture: Arcimoto, based in Eugene, Oregon, wants to lead a shift to sustainable transportation — cleaner, smaller vehicles that help reduce congestion and CO2 emissions.
The $17,900 FUV ("fun utility vehicle") is part of a family of electric trikes that share the same basic design. There's also the Deliverator, the Rapid Responder, the Flatbed and the Roadster.
Details: Like the Polaris Slingshot or CanAm Spyder, Arcimoto's FUV has two wheels in front and one in back.
It's small — about one-third the weight and one-third the size of a typical car — but it has a surprisingly roomy cargo compartment that can hold three bags of groceries.
It seats two people — one in front of the other, not side-by-side.
There's a see-through roof and a windshield, but the sides are open, with removable half-doors.
How it works: The battery sends power to an electric motor on each of the front wheels, providing the instant torque that makes driving it so much fun.
It's highway-legal and goes up to 75 miles per hour, Arcimoto says — but I stuck to local roads and felt like I was flying at 45 mph, to be honest.
The driving range is up to 102 miles in stop-and-go city driving, with regenerative braking that puts wasted energy back into the battery. The faster you go, the shorter your range.
My thought bubble: I work from home and don't really need my car as much as I used to. This seems like a hip and handy alternative for errands around town.
What to watch: The company says it has more than 4,000 "pre-orders" and has delivered 230 to date.
So far it's available in just four states: Washington, Oregon, California and Florida — with Hawaii, Nevada, Arizona and New York to be added soon.
It's also for rent in some tourist destinations like Key West, Florida, San Francisco and San Diego.
What's next: Arcimoto's goal is to scale production within the next couple of years with help from a loan under the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.
Twitter on Thursday announced a slew of new product updates, spanning everything from a creator fund to live audio improvements and even Bitcoin tips.
Why it matters: For years, Twitter made few changes to its product, instead relying mostly on ad innovations to grow its business. Now, it's adding new features faster than it ever has before.
The role of charting the future of work and workplaces is no longer just the purview of the chief executive officer or the chief technology officer — it's also front-and-center for the chief people officer.
Why it matters: The human resources department is vaulting in importance as companies grapple with return-to-work plans and the war for talent is won on corporate values and culture.
Generic drug companies have asked Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to license their COVID-19 vaccine technology to help increase global production, but so far the vaccine makers have given them the cold shoulder.
Why it matters: Other companies are saying they have extra capacity to make more vaccines. Not using that extra capacity could prolong the pandemic throughout the world.
Hurricane Ida caused more than half a billion dollars in damage to Louisiana's agricultural industry, according to estimates released Thursday by Louisiana State University.
The big picture: Ida was a catastrophic event that battered the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and South last month and is expected to incur an economic toll in the double-digit billions.
