Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan get all the press, but they're hardly Silicon Valley's only pair with ten figures between them. Dropbox's twentysomething CEO Drew Houston just became a billionaire — and we hear he didn't reach that milestone alone.
Surprise: Wildly unprofitable money pit Groupon canceled its investor roadshow and withdrew its IPO schedule, says the Wall Street Journal. Also, there's a new SEC inquiry into the company. But everything will be back on track just as soon as the tech bubble returns, honest!
Justin Bieber has reportedly invested in a "stealth New York startup." This is a good sign for the health of the tech industry, as Justin Bieber is famous for his investing acumen and overall financial genius.
Airbnb, a website for renting your apartment to to tourist meth heads, has announced plans for a big expansion. Which is funny, because less than a month ago Airbnb was profusely apologizing for failing to protect customers, return phone calls or even blog properly. It must be time to lean in to the failure.
There's something charming about Andrew Mason's goofiness. "I feel like clout is something that builds up on your teeth," the Groupon CEO once told Today in response to a question about his influence. But with two top lieutenants out the door in as many weeks, you have to wonder if the antics are starting to grate.
Don't begrudge Aaron Levie his $113 million in venture capital. Sure, his startup Box.net sounds an awful lot like Dropbox. And, yes, he's only 26. But at least he's not some snot nosed 25-year-old tech exec. Those guys are the worst, according to Aaron Levie.
Silicon Valley's loathsome side is ready for its closeup again, judging from the recent press. You know, the side that says it deserves a tech bubble even as it insists none is forming; the side that's greedy but pretends money doesn't matter; and the side that dresses up clubby insularity as a virtue.
Peter Thiel is finally admitting there's a big blotch on his resumé that needs to be cleaned up. Becoming Facebook's first institutional investor was brilliant; thinking he was smart enough to predict big economic swings was incredibly dumb. Six billion dollars dumb. So Thiel will retreat into tech investing.
Groupon is getting ready to go public, so naturally the online discounts startup has ratcheted up the rate at which it is bleeding cash, posting a $103 million quarterly loss, triple the loss for the same period last year. If tech bubble investors demand growth at any cost, Groupon will damn sure give it to them.
Because it loses tons of money, Groupon is promoting its IPO using an inflated income number that excludes marketing and customer acquisition costs. Why would you do that? Well, that's exactly what the SEC is now asking.
Google wants to get into the LOLcat business, but Steve Yegge is damned if he's going to help; the engineer told a tech conference that "I am officially quitting that job on national TV." Also in today's Valleywag roundup: Google is showering programmers with 50 percent raises and trips to Paris; Karl Rove advertised in his favorite gay sex app; and a tech writer is minting money off a single review.
It's that time of the tech boom-bust cycle. Perk time! Chocolate fountains? Check. Indoor tree houses? Check. If your office doesn't have a mechanical bull and a ball pit, you're just not going to attract the talent you need.
An ongoing fundraising round values Twitter at nearly twice what it was worth in December, despite the company having failed to create a discernible business model in the interim, and despite admitting it needs new leadership. Welcome to the new tech economics.
Foursquare, the pointless check-in service with barely any revenue, is now worth more than six times what it was a year ago. Or so say the venture capitalists who just gave the hugely unprofitable company an infusion of cash.
