Oct 3, 2017

Reading the IPO tea leaves

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange (Richard Drew / AP)

When it comes to discovering which tech startups are beginning to consider IPOs, one major signal is when they hire new chief financial officers that have public market experience. It's not foolproof, but directionally decent. With that in mind, two new hires of note:

  • J.D. Fay is the new CFO at Matterport, a Silicon Valley-based 3D reality capture and distribution platform. He's helped take both NeoPhotonics and @Road public.
  • Pete Perrone is the new CFO at AtScale, a business intelligence platform that today announced $25 million in new VC funding. He is a former Goldman Sachs banker who also served as CFO Limelight Networks.

Go deeper

Fadel Allassan
31 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Pundits react to a chaotic debate: “What a dark event we just witnessed”

The first presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden in Cleveland on Tuesday night was a shouting match, punctuated by interruptions and hallmarked by name-calling.

Why it matters: If Trump aimed to make the debate as chaotic as possible with a torrent of disruptions, he succeeded. Pundits struggled to make sense of what they saw, and it's tough to imagine that the American people were able to either.

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Axios
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Trump to far-right Proud Boys: "Stand back and stand by"

Asked to condemn white supremacist violence at the first presidential debate on Tuesday, President Trump said the far-right Proud Boys group should "stand back and stand by," before immediately arguing that violence in the U.S. "is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem."

Why it matters: Trump has repeatedly been accused of failing to condemn white nationalism and right-wing violence, despite the FBI's assessment that it's the most significant domestic terrorism threat that the country faces. The president has frequently associated antifa and the left-wing violence that has afflicted some U.S. cities with Biden, despite his condemnation of violent protests.

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Mike Allen, author of AM
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

The first Trump v. Biden presidential debate was a hot mess

Photos: Jim Watson and Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

This debate was like the country: Everybody’s talking. Nobody’s listening. Nothing is learned. It’s a mess.

  • We were told President Trump would be savage. Turned out, that was a gross understatement. Even the moderator, Fox News' Chris Wallace, got bulldozed.

Why it matters: Honestly, who the hell knows?

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