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Venture Capital

  • Onshape and Disruption, Office 365 and Sustaining Innovation

    Onshape is CAD software making a bet that starting with the cloud is fundamentally disruptive. However, disruption includes an economic component, and as Office 365 v Google Apps suggests, if that doesn’t exist the incumbents will respond

  • Okta is a Unicorn, BlackBerry Acquires Good Technologies

    Okta is an important company in part because what their existence says about Microsoft’s challenges in the enterprise space. Plus, Blackberry acquires Good Technology, making them the market leader in device management.

  • Aggregation and Antitrust, BuzzFeed Makes News, BuzzFeed’s Valuation in Perspective

    The differing approaches to antitrust in the U.S. and Europe could mean completely different outcomes in the long run for aggregation companies. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed has raised a new round and seems to be doing better than ever, which is great news for journalism. Plus, how to think about startup valuations.

  • China’s Yuan Depreciation, The Yuan’s Effect on Apple, The Yuan and Unicorns

    The most important story of the week has been China’s ongoing depreciation of the Yuan. Clearly, the company that will be impacted the most is Apple, but there is a a potential impact on Unicorns as well.

  • WeWork and Bubble Talk, Uber’s Losses, Microsoft Exits Consumer Space

    A bit of follow-up from yesterday’s post on WeWork, and a broader discussion about the ongoing bubble talk and the squeeze on VC. Then a discussion on Uber’s losses and why no one should be surprised, and finally the end of Microsoft’s consumer business.

  • WeWork Worth $10 Billion, Three WeWork Comps

    WeWork has shocked almost everyone by raising money at a $10 billion valuation, just months after raising at $5 billion. How on earth does this make sense? The answer might be found by making comparisons between WeWork and three seemingly unrelated companies. In the end, though, absent real numbers we can only look at the investors.

  • Summer Update, Slack Strong, The Dropbox Cautionary Tale

    Slack has more numbers out, and while from a certain perspective the company still seems small, a step back reveals just how significant the opportunity is. Still, nothing is guaranteed, and Dropbox happens to offer a very useful cautionary tale.

  • Unicorns Follow-up; Uber, Contractors, and Employees; Microsoft and the End of the Ballmer Era

    This Daily Update follows up on my Unicorns article by pointing out how the behavior of most late-stage investors is totally rational. Then, a discussion about a recent decision by the California Labor Commission that one Uber driver is an employee, not a contractor, and a translation of Microsoft’s latest reorganization.

  • Unicorns

    There are a lot of unicorns, but not all unicorns are created equally: even if some die the value of them in aggregate is significant.

  • Evernote Seeking New CEO, E3 and the End of Exclusives, Playstation Vue’s “A La Carte” Offering

    In a shocking — but perhaps not surprising — announcement Evernote CEO Phil Libin said the company would be seeking a new CEO. How well is Evernote doing, and will they ever become a private company? E3 Day Zero was also yesterday, and while Sony in particular had some compelling announcements for an old guy like…