Dumb person says Google is a failure

Very unprofessional. Very very.

Hi there,

He had me at “discuss synergies.”

Things got serious when he went for the “win-win.”

On-demand rise & fall

We examined the quarterly valuation history of 9 notable startups in the on-demand category — focusing specifically on ride-hailing startups and food delivery and logistics services startups.

Didi Chuxing’s recent $5.5B Series G round of funding propelled its valuation from $33.8B to $50B.

#baity

Some feedback from an ex-reader.

For context, our last 5 newsletter subject lines:

1. story of the invincible, arrogant bank
2. launch: Apple’s iBag
3. Fabio predicts Silicon Valley failure
4. ruh-roh: down exits
5. no: Tesla is rigging the vote

Based on these, I think we both know the answer to his question.

BTW, there is a method to our headline madness. We broke down the math here.

Back to the beginning

We put together a 9,000+ word report on the history of corporate venture capital. Digging into the history, it’s clear that the tensions and contradictions surrounding CVC have been there from the start:

1. The tension between financial and strategic aims
2. The contradictory evidence over whether startup investing actually works as a form of “outsourced R&D”
3. The difficulty in competing for the best deals

__________

Explore the new Quartz Index. Swipe and tap your way through stories about the latest changes in the global economy, including stats on the world’s longest flight, the one job destroyed by automation, and why Domino’s was actually a better stock market pick than Google.
__________

Please let us fail like this. Please please please.

There is perhaps no bastion of uninformed opinion like Hacker News.

In today’s lesson from Hacker News, we learn Google was a failure.

Beauty & brains

We mapped out smart money VCs’ beauty & grooming bets and see that a16z has been the most active investor in the space since 2012. In addition, Sequoia Capital made its first-ever beauty investment to British cosmetics brand Charlotte Tilbury.

I gotta admit

Posts by investors after a really big exit highlighting why they invested are as interesting as I expected they would be.

Non-compliant

We analyzed annual and quarterly equity funding trends to private companies operating within the regtech space. Q1’17 saw 27 deals worth $205M in funding, and was also the second consecutive quarter that deals and dollars dipped.

Industry Standard

CB Insights data is the most trusted by those in the industry and the media. A few recent hits.

Forbes. Christopher Steiner (@steinerwriter) writes about the changing beliefs around having a dot-com domain and references data collected using the CB Insights platform.

Seeking Alpha. David Pinsen shares lessons from Twilio’s tumble and cites CB Insights investor data.

Cryptocoins News. Rebecca Campbell (@rebeccacambel) writes about fintech funding in New York and references data found in the CB Insights Q1 2017 Global Fintech report.

I love you.

Anand
@asanwal

P.S. Join us for a briefing on investments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) on May 9th. Sign up here.