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

Hamish McKenzie, co-founder of Substack. Photo by Substack.

Substack Reins in Cash and Perks for Writers as Creator Economy Retrenches

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 30, 2022 2:13pm PDT

Substack shook up traditional media last year, offering six-figure cash advances and benefits including healthcare to recruit writers for a newsletter platform that publishes high-profile authors like Bari Weiss and Glenn Greenwald. But this year, the San Francisco startup has told some writers it is scaling back such perks, joining a group of... Substack shook up traditional media last year, offering six-figure cash advances and benefits...

The People With Power at Amazon

The People With Power at Amazon

By Paris Martineau · Aug 30, 2022 6:00am PDT

There was a time when the core of Amazon’s management team remained stable for years on end. Just five years ago, the average tenure of then-CEO Jeff Bezos’ 17-person senior leadership team was 15 years. Those days are gone. In the 13 months since Andy Jassy became the second CEO in Amazon’s history, he has overseen a... There was a time when the core of Amazon’s management team remained stable for years...

Alexis Ohanian and Katelin Holloway, partners at Seven Seven Six. Photo by Bloomberg and Holloway. Illustration by Mike Sullivan.

Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six Targets $177.6 Million for Crypto Token Fund

By Kate Clark · Aug 29, 2022 5:13pm PDT

Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, plans to raise $177.6 million for a new fund focused on investments in cryptocurrency tokens, according to fundraising materials viewed by The Information. The new fund, named Kryptós, will be the two-year-old firm’s first focused exclusively on... Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, plans to raise...

Photo by Bloomberg

The Marketing Theory Behind Apple’s T-Mobile Deal

By Martin Peers · Aug 29, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Photo by Bloomberg

The Marketing Theory Behind Apple’s T-Mobile Deal

By Martin Peers · Aug 29, 2022 5:00pm PDT

If you’re still paying full freight for your streaming video services, perhaps you need to examine your life choices—or at least your choice of a cellular provider. News today that T-Mobile’s best customers will get free access to Apple TV+ is a good reminder of just how much the streaming video sector has become a marketing tool for telecom... If you’re still paying full freight for your streaming video services, perhaps you need to...

George Kurtz, CEO of Crowdstrike. Photo by Bloomberg

CrowdStrike CEO Plays Catch-Up in Israel as He Hunts For Security Deals

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Aug 29, 2022 2:10pm PDT

In April, George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, the second-most valuable cybersecurity firm, traveled to Israel to meet with a number of startups it could invest in or acquire. Kurtz and his team spent most of their time holed up in a hotel in an ancient port city that abuts Tel Aviv—a veritable Mecca of cybersecurity engineers and... In April, George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, the second-most valuable cybersecurity firm, traveled...

Snap Dual camera, Credit: Snap, Art: Mike Sullivan

Creator Economy

Snap Adds to BeReal Rivalry; Millennials Dominate Creators

By Mahira Dayal · Aug 29, 2022 2:01pm PDT

Snap on Monday became the latest app to join the BeReal craze by introducing a feature in Snapchat’s main camera app to take and send a photo using the user’s front- and back-facing cameras at the same time. That’s similar to a core feature of BeReal, the buzzy French social media app that pings users once a day to “BeReal” and take a photo of... Snap on Monday became the latest app to join the BeReal craze by introducing a feature in...

Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk.

Tech Companies Tilt Power in Their Favor With Performance Reviews

By Mark Matousek and Malique Morris · Aug 29, 2022 6:00am PDT · 7 comments

Nearly six months ago, Shopify promised staffers it would raise everyone’s salary, hoping to keep people from jumping ship as their share-based pay slumped along with the company’s stock price. Instead, after a hastily assembled performance review process, the e-commerce software giant decided to give only a select number of... Nearly six months ago, Shopify promised staffers it would raise everyone’s salary, hoping...

Jeff Dahn at his Dalhousie University lab. Photo: Courtesy Dalhousie University

The Electric: The Battery That Could Move Motorists to Connect to the Grid

By Steve LeVine · Aug 28, 2022 2:00pm PDT

Jeff Dahn at his Dalhousie University lab. Photo: Courtesy Dalhousie University

The Electric: The Battery That Could Move Motorists to Connect to the Grid

By Steve LeVine · Aug 28, 2022 2:00pm PDT

Save the date: Our 1-year anniversary is coming up. As a thanks to you, we are celebrating with a special subscribers-only event on perhaps the most important challenge facing the industry—building a battery supply chain not reliant on China. Our guest for this September 8 live chat is Bob Galyen, a foremost leader of the U.S. effort to... Save the date: Our 1-year anniversary is coming up. As a thanks to you, we are celebrating...

A Courtroom Drama in New Hampshire

A Courtroom Drama in New Hampshire

By Jon Steinberg · Aug 27, 2022 8:00am PDT · 1 comment

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! Perhaps you’re reading this as you’re packing up the Winnebago for Burning Man, which is back in session this Sunday for the first time in three long years. If you are indeed heading to the playa, congratulations—I hope you dance like nobody’s watching. And I really hope you’re not planning to work while you’re... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! Perhaps you’re reading this as you’re packing up the Winnebago...

Photo Diana Ragland. Art Clark Miller

‘I Don’t Ever Think About Elon Musk’: ‘For All Mankind’ Star Edi Gathegi on Borrowing from Apple, Not SpaceX

By Abram Brown · Aug 27, 2022 7:00am PDT

Near the end of Season Three of “For All Mankind,” Dev Ayesa, the show’s stratospherically ambitious CEO, makes a risky pitch to his employees without seeming to consider the possible downsides—for them. His company, Helios, has already revolutionized renewable energy and for-profit space travel. Now he wants the staff to take pay cuts and give... Near the end of Season Three of “For All Mankind,” Dev Ayesa, the show’s stratospherically...

Blake Chandlee. Photo byBusiness Wire; art by Mike Sullivan

TikTok Cuts Advertising Employees Amid Department Restructuring

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Aug 26, 2022 1:09pm PDT

TikTok has cut employees from its U.S. ad department as part of a restructuring of the unit, as the fast-growing social media app responds to the economic slowdown that has slammed the ad business of its competitors, such as Meta Platforms and Snap. Employees of the Chinese-owned app were notified several weeks ago that certain roles in the ad... TikTok has cut employees from its U.S. ad department as part of a restructuring of the unit, as...

SEC chair Gary Gensler and LBRY co-founder Jeremy Kauffman. Art by Clark Miller

The SEC v. LBRY: How a New Hampshire Court Battle Could Rewrite the Rules of Crypto

By Aidan Ryan · Aug 26, 2022 10:00am PDT

SEC chair Gary Gensler and LBRY co-founder Jeremy Kauffman. Art by Clark Miller

The SEC v. LBRY: How a New Hampshire Court Battle Could Rewrite the Rules of Crypto

By Aidan Ryan · Aug 26, 2022 10:00am PDT

Less than two hours before we spoke on the phone last week, Jeremy Kauffman tweeted that if voters elected him as New Hampshire’s next U.S. senator, his goal would be “for America to never launch another drone strike in the Middle East.” It was a sentiment shared by many self-identified libertarians, who have long opposed U.S. military... Less than two hours before we spoke on the phone last week, Jeremy Kauffman tweeted that if...

A collage of Shuffles collages by Mike Sullivan.

Can a New Collage App Make Pinterest Cool Again?

By Annie Goldsmith · Aug 26, 2022 9:01am PDT

Bec Martínez-Cristillo was hours into her search for an eight-character access code. She’d scrolled through Reddit threads. She’d sorted through hundreds of TikTok and Instagram comments. She’d even considered buying a codeon Depop, Gen Z’s favorite resale app, where they were priced from $5 to $100. Then, late last week, Martínez-Cristillo... Bec Martínez-Cristillo was hours into her search for an eight-character access code. She’d...

Photo by Bloomberg

AWS Preps ‘Bastion’ Cloud Service for Advertisers

By Kevin McLaughlin and Amir Efrati · Aug 26, 2022 6:00am PDT

Amazon Web Services is preparing to unveil a cloud service to help companies improve the way they target ads to potential customers without violating data privacy laws, according to three people with knowledge of the product. The move comes as advertisers try to recover from, and get ahead of, Apple’s and Google’s restrictions on... Amazon Web Services is preparing to unveil a cloud service to help companies improve the way they...

Photo by Bloomberg.

The U.S.-China Headline That’s Not All Bad News

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 25, 2022 5:00pm PDT

We listened to Mark Zuckerberg’s three-hour interview with Joe Rogan so you don’t have to. In short: New virtual reality products are coming in October. It might be a tall task for Meta Platforms’ VR headsets to recreate all the running, fencing, surfing, wrestling, jujitsuing and hydrofoiling the Meta co-founder and CEO tells Rogan he... We listened to Mark Zuckerberg’s three-hour interview with Joe Rogan so you don’t have to. In...

Chart: Shane Burke

Inside Spotter’s C-Suite; Twitter’s Staff Exodus

By Mahira Dayal · Aug 25, 2022 3:14pm PDT

Chart: Shane Burke

Creator Economy

Inside Spotter’s C-Suite; Twitter’s Staff Exodus

By Mahira Dayal · Aug 25, 2022 3:14pm PDT

The Information’s org charts are a reader favorite. Today we’re giving Creator Economy readers a mini version, with this map of Spotter’s C-Suite. Why are we starting with Spotter? Primarily because the three-year-old startup, which offers creators upfront financing in exchange for licensing their backlog of YouTube videos, has been on a hiring... The Information’s org charts are a reader favorite. Today we’re giving Creator Economy readers a...

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Art by Clark Miller

Scene and Heard

Andreessen Horowitz Takes Tinseltown

By Erin Woo · Aug 25, 2022 12:32pm PDT · 6 comments

Andrew Chen, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, was waiting outside The Bungalow, a bar in Santa Monica, Calif., before heading to an after-party when he noticed that his colleague Connie Chan had her head buried in her phone. “Stop sending emails,” he joked. “You’re not in SF anymore.” Chen, Chan and 15,000 of their fellow techies and... Andrew Chen, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, was waiting outside The Bungalow, a bar in...

Art by Laurent Bazart

The Kids Are Alright: Big-Tech Interns Upbeat About Prospects Despite Turbulence

By Stephen Council · Aug 25, 2022 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

This summer, the hearts of college interns across tech collectively skipped a beat as layoffs and hiring freezes began to mount throughout the industry. It didn’t help when two big companies, Meta Platforms and Twitter, made headlines due to their decisions to delay permanent job offers to current interns because of the wobbly... This summer, the hearts of college interns across tech collectively skipped a beat as layoffs and...

Thacker Pass, Nev., the site of a four-year struggle by Lithium Americas to develop a lithium mine. Photo: Suzanne Featherston/The Daily Free Press/AP

The Electric: The Climate Bill Sparks Two New Political Battles

By Steve LeVine · Aug 25, 2022 4:00am PDT

Save the date: On September 8, we celebrate our first anniversary with a special event on perhaps the most important challenge facing the industry—building a battery supply chain independent of China. Our guest for this 3 p.m. ET live chat will be Bob Galyen, former chief technology officer of China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., the... Save the date: On September 8, we celebrate our first anniversary with a special event on perhaps...

Art by Shane Burke.

Peloton’s Amazon Deal Could Be Prelude to Acquisition

By Martin Peers · Aug 24, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Art by Shane Burke.

Peloton’s Amazon Deal Could Be Prelude to Acquisition

By Martin Peers · Aug 24, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Peloton may have found its white knight. The fitness equipment maker’s decision to start selling its bike and other accessories through Amazon could be a first step toward Amazon buying the entire company. Certainly that seems to be investors’ interpretation—how else can one explain the 20% lift Peloton stock got on the news? Peloton management... Peloton may have found its white knight. The fitness equipment maker’s decision to start selling...