The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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Recent Editions

Photo via Together.

Emergence Capital to Fund GPU Reseller Together at $500 Million Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 24, 2023 7:15am PDT

If you’ve been following our reporting on Together (here and here), which sells access to cloud-based servers running on Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips as well as software to help startups train and run AI models, you may remember the firm raising money at a lower valuation than it could have received. If you’ve been following our reporting on Together (here and here), which sells access to...

Art by Shane Burke. Photo via Coastal Community Bank.

How a Fintech Reckoning Is Rippling Through a Small Bank in Washington

By Michael Roddan · Oct 24, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

When Washington state–based Coastal Community Bank struck its first fintech partnership with Aspiration, a startup backed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom, it ushered in a new era for the sleepy bank north of Seattle. Starting with that agreement in 2017, Coastal quickly became one of the most prolific banking partners for... When Washington state–based Coastal Community Bank struck its first fintech partnership...

Hello Bello's factory in Waco, Texas. Photo by Rick Kern/Getty.

What a Diaper Bankruptcy Says About the Digital Ad Market

By Ann Gehan · Oct 23, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

It’s getting ugly out there for consumer brands, as today’s bankruptcy filing by Hello Bello, the baby care brand founded by celebrity couple Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, demonstrates. On the surface, Hello Bello had all the ingredients for success: famous co-founders who could promote the brand to their combined 20 million Instagram followers,... It’s getting ugly out there for consumer brands, as today’s bankruptcy filing by Hello Bello, the...

Elon Musk speaks in front of a test tunnel for The Boring Company in Hawthorne, Calif., in 2018. Photo via Bloomberg/Getty

Boring Co. Shares Rise Over 22% in Employee Share Sale

By Becky Peterson and Mark Matousek · Oct 23, 2023 4:41pm PDT · 4 comments

Elon Musk speaks in front of a test tunnel for The Boring Company in Hawthorne, Calif., in 2018. Photo via Bloomberg/Getty

Boring Co. Shares Rise Over 22% in Employee Share Sale

By Becky Peterson and Mark Matousek · Oct 23, 2023 4:41pm PDT · 4 comments

Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has sold shares owned by employees and investors at a price over 22% higher than in a funding round for the tunneling startup last year, according to two people familiar with the matter. The most recent price gives the startup an implied valuation of over $7 billion and suggests investors have faith that the... Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has sold shares owned by employees and investors at a price...

The YouTube Indicator to Watch

Creator Economy

The YouTube Indicator to Watch

By Sahil Patel · Oct 23, 2023 2:47pm PDT

Will short-form video ever generate meaningful revenue for creators on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram? The next three months will go a long way to answering that question. Just pay attention to YouTube. Advertisers in the summer committed more than $7 billion to YouTube during the annual advertising negotiations known as upfronts. These... Will short-form video ever generate meaningful revenue for creators on YouTube, TikTok and...

A Nvidia HGX H100 artificial intelligence supercomputing GPU. Photo by Getty.

GPUs’ Latest Magic Act: Securing Data Center Debt; Amazon’s Doubling Down on AI Chips

By Anissa Gardizy · Oct 23, 2023 7:15am PDT

While Nvidia makes bank from selling artificial intelligence chips at $32,000 a pop, several upstart cloud providers—as well as the big guns like Amazon Web Services—are buying as many chips as they can so they can rent them out to AI developers. These cloud providers hope to generate revenue of at least several times that sticker price for each... While Nvidia makes bank from selling artificial intelligence chips at $32,000 a pop, several...

Aaron Frank. Photo via Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Apple Card Architect Heads to Lightspeed to Hunt for Fintech Deals

By Lauren Tara LaCapra · Oct 23, 2023 6:30am PDT

At a moment when many investors are retreating from fintech, Lightspeed Venture Partners is doubling down. The venture capital firm has hired Aaron Frank, who built the company that became the foundation for the Apple Card, to help seek out deals in payments and lending. The 37-year-old Frank was the co-founder and CEO of Final, the credit-card... At a moment when many investors are retreating from fintech, Lightspeed Venture Partners is...

Erin Bali photo courtesy of Carbon Health. Composite by Clark Miller

A Pandemic Windfall Turns into a Hangover for a High-Flying Healthcare Startup

By Paris Martineau · Oct 23, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Erin Bali photo courtesy of Carbon Health. Composite by Clark Miller

A Pandemic Windfall Turns into a Hangover for a High-Flying Healthcare Startup

By Paris Martineau · Oct 23, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Two years ago, Eren Bali was on top of the world. The online education company he co-founded, Udemy, had gone public in 2021 at a $3.8 billion market value, and Bali was turning his focus to a startup he had formed in 2015: Carbon Health, a chain of urgent-care clinics that planned to use tech know-how to improve healthcare. At the time,... Two years ago, Eren Bali was on top of the world. The online education company he co-founded,...

Jay McGraw, Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell and Jennifer Pullen (left to right) at the grand opening of Hello Bello's diaper factory. Photo by Getty.

Kristen Bell’s Diaper Startup Hello Bello Files For Bankruptcy, Lines Up PE Buyer

By Maria Heeter and Ann Gehan · Oct 23, 2023 5:30am PDT · 4 comments

Hello Bello, the venture-backed diaper and baby care company founded by celebrities Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday. The filing is a high-profile symbol of the struggles many buzzy consumer-focused startups have faced from dealing with belt-tightening by shoppers and increases in digital marketing... Hello Bello, the venture-backed diaper and baby care company founded by celebrities Kristen Bell...

In 2021, SES AI founder Qichao Hu unveils the company's gigantic 107 ampere-hour cell. Photo: Courtesy SES AI

The Electric: Bunkers, Blasts and Production Hell—An Afternoon With SES AI Founder Qichao Hu

By Steve LeVine · Oct 23, 2023 4:30am PDT

In 2021, Qichao Hu began planning a pilot factory in South Korea to produce next-generation electric vehicle batteries for the startup he founded, SES AI, when a debate erupted among his staff scientists: Should the plant include explosion-proof bunkers? Some of the scientists argued that such fortifications were a waste of money—ordinarily the... In 2021, Qichao Hu began planning a pilot factory in South Korea to produce next-generation...

Mansoor Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud, chief executive officer of Qatar Investment Authority, during a panel session at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, Qatar, on May 23, 2023. Photo: Getty.

Qatar’s Hamas Ties Could Thwart $475 Billion Investing Ambition

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Jon Victor · Oct 21, 2023 7:00am PDT · 25 comments

Qatar last year signaled it wanted to be a much bigger investor in tech when its $475 billion sovereign wealth fund backed Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Now, the war between Israel and Hamas—a Palestinian terrorist group with ties to Qatar—may hamper those ambitions. The petroleum-rich Persian Gulf nation has been trying to... Qatar last year signaled it wanted to be a much bigger investor in tech when its $475 billion...

Hey Alexa: What’s Andy Jassy Up To?

Hey Alexa: What’s Andy Jassy Up To?

By Jon Steinberg · Oct 21, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hey Alexa: What’s Andy Jassy Up To?

Hey Alexa: What’s Andy Jassy Up To?

By Jon Steinberg · Oct 21, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.As Jessica writes in her cover story this week, Andy Jassy has enjoyed a relatively smooth transition period as CEO of Amazon. Sure, there have been hiccups and challenges in the two years since Jeff Bezos handed Jassy the reins. He earned some ire from employees after laying off 27,000 workers in 2022. And there was... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.As Jessica writes in her cover story this week, Andy Jassy has...

Art by Clark Miller.

Spotify’s AI Chief Wants to Remix Our Relationship With Discovery

By Annie Goldsmith · Oct 21, 2023 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

When Ziad Sultan began thinking about artificial intelligence, there was no craze afoot. Not even a cultish flurry of excitement. Sultan, who is now Spotify’s vice president of personalization, responsible for a slate of new AI features for the audio streamer, first caught the bug in the early 2000s. He was 17, had just moved to Cambridge,... When Ziad Sultan began thinking about artificial intelligence, there was no craze afoot. Not even...

Art by Clark Miller. All photographs courtesy of subjects.

‘From This Abyss, Something Better Will Grow’: Israel’s Tech Leaders Brace for an Uncertain Future

By Flora Tsapovsky · Oct 21, 2023 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

Since the Hamas terror attacks of Saturday, October 7, Israel’s tight-knit tech community has rallied to the country’s defense. Some executives have children in the Israeli military or serve themselves; others immediately launched civil aid programs to support the Israel Defense Forces, war refugees or the families of hostages. While... Since the Hamas terror attacks of Saturday, October 7, Israel’s tight-knit tech community...

Photo via Convoy.

U2 Won’t Save Your Trucking Startup

By Martin Peers · Oct 20, 2023 3:30pm PDT · 3 comments

You have to enjoy a certain level of self-confidence to start a business, particularly if you’re asking other people to help fund it. Too often, though, entrepreneurs have way too much confidence for their own good. Take the people behind Convoy, the trucking startup that fell off a cliff this week, after months spent trying to find a buyer or... You have to enjoy a certain level of self-confidence to start a business, particularly if you’re...

Answering for Misinformation: The New York Times Needs To Be Held to Account

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct 20, 2023 2:15pm PDT · 23 comments

Answering for Misinformation: The New York Times Needs To Be Held to Account

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct 20, 2023 2:15pm PDT · 23 comments

All of us at More or Less are quite upset about the continued proliferation of misinformation about Hamas's ongoing terrorism against Israel. That, sadly, includes coverage from legacy media sites like the New York Times. It's okay to make mistakes. But it is imperative that leaders own up to—and fix—them. I hope you... All of us at More or Less are quite upset about the continued proliferation of misinformation...

Dan Lewis, CEO of Convoy. Photo via Getty. Art by Shane Burke

How Trucking Startup Convoy Drove Itself Into the Ground

By Maria Heeter, Ann Gehan, Nick Wingfield and Theo Wayt · Oct 20, 2023 1:05pm PDT · 19 comments

On Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m, the mimosas started flowing at Convoy’s Seattle headquarters. It wasn’t a celebration. After months of Convoy trying desperately to raise cash or find a buyer, employees had just been ordered to stop taking new orders and cancel existing shipments. The startup, which had raised more than $1 billion... On Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m, the mimosas started flowing at Convoy’s Seattle...

Nishad Singh, former director of engineering at FTX, arrives at court in New York on Oct. 17. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Behind SBF’s Campaign of ‘Excessive’ Spending

By Aidan Ryan · Oct 20, 2023 12:35pm PDT

Early last year, Sam Bankman-Fried attended a dinner, alongside Hillary Clinton, Jeff Bezos and Leonardo DiCaprio, at the house of investor Michael Kives, co-founder of the firm K5. Kives, Bankman-Fried wrote to his colleagues at FTX shortly afterwards, was “the most connected person I’ve ever met.” Bankman-Fried told his... Early last year, Sam Bankman-Fried attended a dinner, alongside Hillary Clinton, Jeff Bezos and...

Photo via Flexport.

Pro Weekly: Companies Turn to New Leaders As Growth Slows

By Akash Pasricha · Oct 20, 2023 8:00am PDT

As tech companies grapple with slower growth, a focus on profitability and tumbling valuations, many are shuffling their leadership. Our Org Charts reflect those changes.Logistics startup Flexport last week named the leaders who will report to founder Ryan Petersen, whom the board reinstated as CEO last month. Since Petersen and the board... As tech companies grapple with slower growth, a focus on profitability and tumbling valuations,...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy believes things are far from settled in the AI race: “We are like three steps into this marathon.” Art by Clark Miller; photo Getty.

Amazon’s Andy Jassy Plans to Crash the AI Party

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct 20, 2023 7:00am PDT · 13 comments

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy believes things are far from settled in the AI race: “We are like three steps into this marathon.” Art by Clark Miller; photo Getty.

Amazon’s Andy Jassy Plans to Crash the AI Party

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct 20, 2023 7:00am PDT · 13 comments

I’m nine minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour conversation with Andy Jassy when it becomes clear why the CEO has invited me to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. Like everyone else in business these days, he wants to talk about artificial intelligence. Unless you’ve been under a rock this year, you know that the breakthroughs in... I’m nine minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour conversation with Andy Jassy when it becomes...