Sam

Last week, Sam Waisbren, a friend and CBI teammate, was killed in a tragic accident in NYC. Sam had been at CB Insights for almost 4 years and was one of the trailblazers of our business development team.

Sam was smart, witty, funny, kind, and a great friend. He is loved and missed.

Our thoughts are with his family.

At $47B, WeWork is one of the world’s most valuable startups — but the way its business works is widely misunderstood.

The company filed its S-1 earlier this month and reported $1.4B in operating losses in H1’19 alone.

So is WeWork’s business model just a house of cards fueled by Silicon Valley, or is there something more? We dig into how the company makes money — or doesn’t — here.

Corporates take on wellness

More and more consumers are prioritizing wellness, and many US corporations are expanding their product lines across multiple verticals to capitalize on the trend.

From sustainable beauty products to stress relief for drivers to financial health tools, we take a look at how corporate wellness initiatives in the US are transforming the customer experience.

The new generation of wireless

In the next 10 years, the rise of connected devices will need networks to transmit huge sums of data in near real time — and the standard 4G wireless tech won’t be sufficient.

But 5G could be. We explain how the next generation of wireless technology works, how it’s transforming industries, and more. Read all about it here.

Funding to US-based real estate tech startups is on track to exceed $4B this year, shattering record levels set in 2018.

From home buying to property management to agent matching, we mapped out 130+ US-based startups using tech to make real estate more accessible, efficient, and connected.

Amazon in fin services

Amazon is the largest e-commerce player in the US, but its ambitions stretch into other areas, including financial services.

We examine the tech giant’s key financial products, how it threatens incumbents, and more. Clients can check it out here.

Wired. James Silver writes about UK-based unicorn company Graphcore and references PwC and CB Insights’ latest MoneyTree Report.

Business Insider. Dan DeFrancesco (@dandefrancesco) discusses the US banks investing the most in fintech and refers to CB Insights research.

GeekWire. Kurt Schlosser (@kslosh) writes about coffee startups in Seattle and references CB Insights research.

I love you.

Anand
@asanwal

Meat vs. meatless. Plant-based meat is rapidly gaining popularity, and cattle ranchers are taking notice.

Washington Post

Teach me. Machine learning is heavily dependent on human teaching.

Wired

Looking into it. The US Drug Enforcement Administration is expanding scientific and medical research for marijuana.

US DEA

Library robot. More people interacted with a robot at the Oodi library in Helsinki, Finland after a pair of googly eyes were attached to it.

Fast Company

Surfing on camera. Cameras are everywhere. Here’s how they’re changing the style of surfing.

The New Yorker