Niv Dror has raised $3 million for his debut venture capital fund, called Shrug Capital.
Why it matters: Dror has spent the past two years as head of marketing for AngelList (via its 2016 purchase of Product Hunt), and AngelList has become a burgeoning launchpad for small venture funds.
Dror, who is leaving AngelList to focus full-time on Shrug, says that he’s investing in founders working on “things that I’m excited to talk about for more than an hour to a non-tech audience. "So far, that’s been mostly consumer startups, such as HQ Trivia, Superhuman, Atoms, Molly, and Breaker.
Dror is following in the footsteps of Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover who also raised his own small fund last year.
A-list investors: Dror has been able to attract the who’s who of Silicon Valley as investors into his fund, including Banister, Chris and Crystal Sacca, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Amity Ventures, Social Capital, David Sacks, Keith Rabois, and Kevin Rose.
1 fun thing: Dror named his firm Shrug Capital after the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ emoticon, which is tattooed on his wrist.
🇰🇵 North Korea to stop nuclear testing — 🇨🇳 U.S. fears Chinese tech war will get worse — 💊 A glimmer of hope on opioids — 🇸🇾 3 years of Syria strikes
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced the country will stop conducting nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles starting April 21, and shut down a nuclear test site in the north side of the country, through a broadcast on the state news agency KCNA reports, and President Trump announced in a tweet, later adding quotes from the message.
The details: Kim Jong-un explained, “[t]he nuclear test site has done its job,” via a statement broadcasted by North Korea’s state media, per the New York Times. The statement added the country plans to “shut down a nuclear test site in the country’s northern side to guarantee transparency in suspending nuclear tests.”
What it means: This confirms North Korea is not only open to freezing nuclear weapons tests, as it has said before, but that it is planning on doing it. It leaves denuclearization on the table and will, in theory, prevent escalation and proliferation.
