Feb 3, 2017

Thrive Capital hires the White House's former product chief

Thrive Capital, the VC firm of Ivanka Trump's brother-in-law, Joshua Kushner, has hired the former White House head of product under President Obama.

Josh Miller, who joined the White House in 2015, will focus on technologies that help underprivileged Americans, according to the New York Times. At the White House, Miller helped lead various projects that impacted Americans such as an affordable diaper program for low-income families.

Party Ties: Joshua's brother, Jared, is a top adviser to President Trump. Despite his brother's close involvement with the Trump administration, Joshua Kushner—a Democrat—is showing no sign of switching camps. Many of the companies in Thrive Capital's portfolio supported Hillary Clinton, as the Times points out, and Miller was an appointee under Obama.

Go deeper

Sara Fischer

Facebook spending $100 million to help news outlets in coronavirus crisis

Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Facebook says it is spending $100 million to support news outlets around the world that have been impacted by the coronavirus, the company said Monday.

Why it matters: Whatever Facebook's motivation, this is a much-needed cash infusion at a critical time for the local news industry.

Go deeper2 mins ago - Economy & Business

Jim VandeHei

The next American struggle: Waiting out the coronavirus

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

There are now a lot of known knowns about the coronavirus: It's here, it's spreading, it's stressing hospitals, it's crippling the economy, it's slowed only by distance and isolation — and it's sure to get much worse before it gets much better.

Why it matters: Similarly, there is a sameness to the patterns and known unknowns. So now we hit the maddening stage of waiting.

Go deeper11 mins ago - Health

Sara Fischer, Kim Hart

Coronavirus pushes traditional businesses into the digital age

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

A slew of old-line industries that once hesitated to embrace digital technologies are now being forced to do so for the sake of survival.

Why it matters: Once consumers get used to accessing services digitally — from older restaurants finally embracing online ordering, or newspapers finally going all-digital — these industries may find it hard to go back to traditional operations.

Go deeper40 mins ago - Economy & Business