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!

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📰 This week’s best news

Google commits to invest $2 billion in OpenAI competitor Anthropic

Google agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup founded by ex-OpenAI executives. The commitment involves a $500 million upfront cash infusion and an additional $1.5 billion to be invested over time.

Village Global closed its third fund of $250 million

The venture firm announced the completion of Village Global III, a new $250 million seed fund dedicated to backing the most tenacious founders at Day 0. Reid Hoffman, ex Partner of Greylock and founder of LinkedIn, is now Chairman of Village Global.

WeWork plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week

WeWork plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week, as the SoftBank Group-backed company struggles with a massive debt pile and hefty losses. New York-based WeWork is considering filing a chapter 11 petition in New Jersey, marking a stunning reversal of fortune for the company, privately valued at $47 billion in 2019.

Disney is about to own all of Hulu

Disney is buying up Comcast’s stake in Hulu. The entertainment giant announced Wednesday that it “expects it will pay” $8.61 billion to acquire Comcast’s 33 percent stake, giving Disney full ownership of Hulu.

a16z eyes $3.4 billion raise for next venture funds: Axios

a16z is reportedly planning to raise $3.4 billion for its next early and seed-stage venture funds. The largest venture capital firm by assets under management is expected to launch its fundraising efforts by the end of this year, with the aim of closing them during the first half of 2024.

💰 Funding announcement highlights

Samara, a startup co-founded by co-founder Airbnb Joe Gebbia and former Flex CEO Mike McNamara, raised $41 million from Thrive Capital, 8VC, General Catalyst, New Legacy, SV Angel, and Airbnb. Samara assists homes in accelerating the switch to a smart, efficient, and sustainable energy generation and consumption model.

Yuzu Health, a startup that aims to help small businesses offer more affordable health plans by customizing plans based on their staffers’ needs, raised a $5 million seed round led by Lachy Groom, with participation from Neo, Day One Ventures, Altman Capital, WndrCo, and Browder Capital.

Oro Labs, a platform designed to orchestrate procurement and supplier management flows across disparate systems and data, raised $34 million in a Series B round led by Felicis, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners, B Capital and XYZ Venture Capital.

Vespa AI, a leading AI-based search platform and scaling engine, raised $31 million in Series A funding from Blossom Capital to advance the development of its search platform Vespa and Vespa Cloud service.

Chainguard, a cybersecurity startup, raised $61 million in a Series B round from Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital, Amplify Partners, the Chainsmokers’ Mantis VC, LiveOak Venture Partners, Banana Capital, K5/JPMC, and others.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

The state of VC in 2023

Sam Lessin, a partner at Slow Ventures and former VP Product at Facebook, shared a 84-page slide deck with observations on the state of venture capital. It outlines where we’re at now, where we’re going, and where to invest - definitely an insightful piece worth reading.

A legendary podcast with Charlie Munger

Acquired released their latest podcast episode this week, with none other than Charlie Munger. This is the only longform podcast he has done in his 99 years on Earth, so it’s definitely a special one! Take out your notebooks as Munger shares lessons and advice for investors today.

Letters to a young investor with Reid Hoffman

LinkedIn co-founder and former Greylock Partner, Reid Hoffman, shares what he would have done better in his earlier years as an entrepreneur and investor. Hot tip: “Not making choices can often lead, paradoxically, to closing off future options. Committing and being in the game can produce multiple knock-on effects that change the entire equation.”

The Adobe-Figma deal

Remember the $20 billion Adobe-Figma deal which would have made investors and employees ridiculously rich? Yeah…whatever happened to that. Apparently, it’s still stuck in regulatory limbo and the two companies still remain separate entities.

Lessons learned from a startup that didn’t make it

Jake Fuentes shares his journey of failure in Lenny Rachitsky’s latest post. Jake offers his hard-won lessons about what people forget about competition, how early market signal is often deceiving, what it takes to build horizontal products, the danger of unfocused ICPs, and more.

💪 Tech Mafia of the week

The Mastercard Mafia

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Lending Club

⭐ Startup to keep an eye on: Bloom Money

🤑 Total money raised by the Vimeo Mafia: $729 million

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

We have covered 45 tech mafia groups so far! This week the Mastercard Mafia joins the weekly leaderboard, taking the 33rd spot. Former employees have raised more than $729 million and founded 60 companies. The top three most successful companies founded are Kalepa, Stripe Funding, and Lending Club.

We’ve also updated the funding amounts for all the alumni groups on the leaderboard, and X/Twitter has moved from previously ranking as #18 to #3, bumping OpenAI out of the way! In fact, Tesla also pushed OpenAI further down, as former alumni have now collectively raised $48 billion.

PS: Are you a Mastercard 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

🤝 Inside the Deal

For this week's Inside the Deal series, we're taking a look at the top investors in Coinbase. It all began when the founder, Brian Armstrong, received an initial boost of $150,000 from Y Combinator. Later on, he met his co-founder Fred Ehrsam through Reddit.

The two founders had a simple yet profound goal: to facilitate the seamless and secure transfer of Bitcoin for anyone. Coinbase's monumental public debut in April 2021 signaled a new era in the cryptocurrency world, affirming the legitimacy of crypto and becoming one of the best wins for several VC firms and early angel investors of the company.

Get the full scoop.

💼 Who’s hiring in VC?

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

Twelve Below is looking for an Associate.

AngelList is looking for a Venture Analyst.

Collide Capital is looking for a VC Intern.

500 Global is looking for a VC Associate.

Acumen is looking for a VC Principal.

📠 Fun fact of the week

The origins of startups can be traced back to the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. The first recorded use of the word "startup" was in a newspaper article in 1851. The word was used to describe a new business or enterprise. The concept of a startup began to take shape in the early 20th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, a number of new businesses were founded in the US. These businesses were typically small and focused on innovation.

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