Welcome to Startup Weekly, a nuance on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Correspondent and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe This.
It may be the fact that “Success” will return next week, or it may be the fact that Silicon Valley has just experienced its first banking crisis, but I want to talk about the flow of startups. .
As I write in my latest post:
The Silicon Valley Bank is a good reminder that startups, often entrenched in a world full of risks and minutiae, sometimes forget to think about the obvious: single points of failure. But just as it makes sense to rely on a community-friendly bank, so is it possible to entrust a single person to lead your business to success. Now that we’ve seen the former don’t really work, maybe it’s time to rethink the latter.
To fully understand the new anxiety founders should think through, read: “Banking is not the ‘single point of failure’ that entrepreneurs should rethink.”
For more, read about Crypto corner, my latest snapshot of founder sentiment, impact on Black founders And This timeline on all that unfolded hitherto. This is where SVB’s coverage ends as the aim of this newsletter writer is to maintain her sanity and remember that there is a world beyond the banking trenches.
In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll take a look at the news that’s been buried this week and GPT-4. As always, you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram to continue the conversation. You can also send me tips at [email protected] or above Signal at +1 925 271 0912. No pitches, please.
GPT-4 doesn’t write this
On Equity this week, Alex and I talked about the above, but more interestingly the future of AI. We talk about the impact of technology on smart people writing books, the landscape and the general welfare of technology. We need it, and I don’t just say that because I live a short distance from the Cerebral Valley.
Here’s why it’s a top priority: GPT-4 coming out this week from the team behind OpenAI. Reported by our own Kyle Wiggers, “GPT-4 can generate text and accept text and image input — an improvement over GPT-3.5, its predecessor, which only accepts text. publications — and operate on a ‘human level’ across a variety of professional and academic standards. For example, the GPT-4 passes the simulated bar test with a score that falls within the top 10% of test takers; in contrast, the score of GPT-3.5 is around the bottom 10%.” Companies like Stripe, Duolingo, and Khan Academy are among its beta testers.
Image credits: Microsoft
News has been buried
When there is a clear ideology, news is often buried — both intentionally and unintentionally. As a result, over the past week, there has been a lot more news that deserves more attention — both good and bad. the list includes Launch House ends existing activities and lay off employees, as well as Klaviyo And Course Hero conducts company-wide layoffs first time.
Here’s what I missed sharing my two cents on:
Image credits: MirageC (Opens in a new window) / Beautiful pictures
Et cetera.
- Return Saturday: If you missed Startups Weekly last week, check out my final issue here: “Brand risk is too biased in venture capital.”
- Let’s hang on campus? TechCrunch is coming to Boston on April 20. I’ll be there with my favorite colleagues to interview top experts at the one-day founders summit. Order your card as soon as possible! Speaker included Techstars’ Kerty Tax, Dayna Grayson of Construct Capital And NFX’s James Currier.
- Shout out loud All of the sources have spoken to me, on and off the record, over the past week to help me understand Silicon Valley’s first real banking crisis. There’s much more we need to learn and many questions ahead, so keep the faith and tips coming.
- Programming Notes: If you’re reading this in your browser, get it in your inbox! Ordered This and share it with your friends.
Seen on TechCrunch
At Virgin Orbit, that should never happen to a staff
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Sidechat Anonymous App Picks Rival Yik Yak…and Users Are Not Satisfied
Seen on TechCrunch+
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Silicon Valley has been through a rough patch and that says a lot that COVID-19 remains an ongoing pandemic and the recession continues to create roadblocks. If you made it to the end, thank you, but also take a nap. We will be here on Monday. You deserve a break. Maybe I’ll have some sweeter words about how technology comes together during times of extreme stress, but for now, get some sleep.
Chat soon — and let me know if you want to directly tweet “Success” with me next week?
