WORKWEEK

FALLING KNIVES Bolt’s Big Plan Backfires One-click checkout startup Bolt just laid off 185 employees, ~30% of the company In February, founder Ryan Breslow announced Bolt would start issuing personal loans to employees to exercise stock options The move was criticized as highly risky, with the potential to bankrupt employees if Bolt’s ultimate exit valuation…

EVENTS Want to meet Just Raised IRL? Next week, we’re hosting a live podcast & free happy hour in NYC with the CEO & Co-Founder of Rho, Everett Cook. Rho recently raised a $75M Series B to expand its game-changing fintech. Register free today to join us NEXT Thursday, June 2 at 7pm in NYC by clicking…

STARTUPS Maximum Fear: Unpacking the Downturn Layoffs are accelerating and now include Robinhood, On Deck, Thrasio, Carvana, Gorillas, Cameo, and Netflix Meta, Twitter and dozens of early stage startups have initiated hiring freezes Klarna and Mainstreet have slashed valuations to seeking new funding, the first high profile down rounds of the cycle VCs are forecasting…

DEEP DIVE Future Proofing the Food Supply with Plenty Masa Son, Bezos, and a Billion in Venture Dollars Plenty is a vertical farming company that’s raised a billion dollars. Not valued at a billion dollars like a run-of-the-mill unicorn, Plenty has raised $941 million. I know raising a billion dollars isn’t terribly uncommon for late stage companies.…

STARTUPS In my last newsletter, I asked “If A16Z is determined to become the full-stack player in venture, what will they do next?” Then they launched… A16Z Crypto Research Introducing A16Z Crypto Research: A new R&D division pursuing foundational research into the hardest problems in crypto Led by Stanford computer science professors Tim Roughgarden and Dan Boneh Shipping…