PIN'd

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
February 09, 2024

Welcome to PIN’d - our weekly newsletter where we pin (lol, bear with us) the most important tech/startup news of the week for aspiring angels, vc’s, startup investors, founders, etc. Expect a new weekly roundup from us every Friday morning!

If you’re receiving this, it’s because you’ve signed up for our waitlist and/or for newsletter updates.

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📰 This week’s best news

Adam Neumann is trying to buy back WeWork

WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann is reportedly attempting to buy the company back. WeWork, which was once valued at $47 billion, filed for bankruptcy last November with over $18.6 billion in debt.

According to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Sequoia Capital's evergreen fund now manages $17.8 billion in assets. This represents a 24% increase from the same time last year and includes cash commitments from limited partners, as well as shares and earnings of portfolio companies that have gone public.

Runway, a generative AI company that focuses on images and videos, is planning to raise a $10 million fund to invest in early-stage AI startups. This information was revealed through a SEC filing. The trend of startups raising VC funds for other startups has become increasingly common, especially when new technologies begin to boom.

Wonder Ventures has successfully raised $102 million across two funds: a $57 million Fund 4 for pre-seed investment, and a $45 million later-stage opportunity fund. The venture capital firm has invested in almost all of Los Angeles' unicorns, such as Honey and Whatnot, and has also made notable investments in Clutter, Modern Animal, and Tala. With this new capital, Wonder Ventures is now poised to fund even more promising startups.

Spanx, the popular shapewear brand, has announced the appointment of Caroline (Cricket) Whitton as its new CEO and Jeanne Jackson as Executive Chair. Whitton, who previously served as Spanx's President and Chief Growth Officer, has been key in leading the brand's digital transformation since she joined the company in 2017.

Jack Altman, the younger brother of Sam Altman, has recently raised a $150 million venture fund for his VC firm, Alt Capital. In a recent interview, he stated that the fund will focus on investing in early-stage startups, particularly those involved in enterprise software, including AI startups. The plan is to lead or co-lead investments in startups immediately after they incorporate.


💰 Funding announcement highlights

OTee has raised $1.3 million in a funding round led by RunwayFBU and Superangel, with additional contributions from Antler and StartupLab. The Oslo startup provides a no-code platform for designing and managing industrial automation projects.

Galileo AI, a San Francisco startup that develops AI tools for designers and builders, raised a $4.4 million seed led by Khosla Ventures.

Jam, a startup helping teams to report and resolve software bugs more efficiently, has raised $8.9 million in a Series A funding round. GGV Capital led the funding round, including investments from Figma Ventures, USV, BoxGroup, Version One Ventures, and Village Global.

Blush raised a $7 million seed round from Naval Ravikant and other angels. The new startup will be launching an invite-only dating app.

Mogul, a startup founded last year in Los Angeles, has raised $1.9 million in a seed round from Wonder Ventures, United Talent Agency, Amplify.LA, and Creator Partners. The company provides an overview of an artist's royalty earnings and identifies areas where they are owed money but have not yet collected it.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

Some good times are coming for VC, according to the quarterly report supported by J.P. Morgan, Denton, and Deloitte. In Q4 2023, the number of VC deals was still higher than any quarter before the year 2020, and the public markets finished with positive results for the year.

In this episode of a16z podcast, Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, discusses his new book "Read Write Own: Building the Next Era.

Salil Deshpande manages $745 million completely alone at Uncorrelated Ventures in Palo Alto. The firm closed a $315 million fund last year, exceeding its $225 million target. Deshpande founded Uncorrelated in 2019 after being a managing director at Bain Capital Ventures for several years.

The Financial Times published an exclusive interview with the banker who has gained a significant following on Wall Street thanks to his satirical alter ego. In the interview, the banker speaks candidly about his experience and sheds light on the inspiration behind his witty and cutting commentaries on the finance industry.

In this LinkedIn post, Ryan Hoover, founder of Product Hunt, dives into the major drivers of portfolio construction, how they impact each other, and trade-offs to consider.

💪 Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Bond Street

🤑 Total money raised by the Venmo Mafia: $411 million

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

Venmo alumni network has built some amazing companies, so we took a look at the top companies.

The Venmo Mafia takes the 47th spot, with 15 companies founded in total and 537 million in total raised.

PS: Are you a Venmo employee/alum interested in getting your community together to invest in the community (and earn carry/other benefits along the way)? Or are you a member of another community that you think would make for an amazing startup investment community? 😉

Learn more about us and sign up for the waitlist here.

📌 PIN tweet of the week

💼 Who’s hiring in VC?

Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.

Era is looking for a Platform/Program Associate.

LDV Capital is looking for a VC Analyst.

Y Combinator is looking for a VC Associate.

Root Ventures is looking for a Head of Operations.

M12 is looking for a Managing VC Partner.

📠 Fun fact of the week

According to Harvard professor Tom Nicholas, the origins of the contemporary American venture capital model goes back to whaling expeditions. By the middle of the 1800s, nearly 75% of the 900 whaling ships in the world were American, and that was mostly because American whaling agents had figured out how to finance and make money from these risky ventures.

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