Silicon Valley has plenty of jobs, just not enough people to fill them. Recruiters spend a lot of time luring gainfully employed software engineers away from competitor companies—a tough task when they’re already accustomed to high salaries and perks that range from unlimited vacation to twice-monthly maid service.
The numbers: Eaze, an on-demand marijuana delivery service (and one of several nicknamed the “Uber for weed”), has raised $10 million in a series A round. The San Francisco startup, founded by early Yammer employee Keith McCarty, raised $1.5 million in seed funding in November. It was one of the first pot companies to get support from institutional investors, who in the past have been skittish about putting their money in marijuana.
A day before a scheduled vet appointment to euthanize her dog, Wendy Mansfield decided to try one last resort to alleviate the chronic pain of her 15-year-old labrador mix: cookies from a marijuana dispensary made specifically for ailing dogs.
Stack Overflow, a Q&A site for programmers, recently came out with its 2015 developer survey. With responses from more than 26,000 people in 157 countries, Stack Overflow was able to pinpoint some interesting trends in tech and how they vary regionally, painting a picture of the life of a programmer today around the world.
Apple’s new emoji have gotten a lot of attention lately. As part of updates to its iOS and Mac operating systems, the company has added new skin tones, same-sex parental units, and Spock’s live long and prosper gesture.
In hindsight, it makes perfect sense why Facebook’s spent the last half year aggressively pushing its mobile users to use its standalone Messenger app. All along, the plan was to turn the chat app into a platform—yet another way to appeal to marketers and persuade developers to build on the social network’s technology. Now the company is hoping to further expand its efforts by bringing Messenger to web browsers.
Buying a pair of prescription glasses is cumbersome process. Retail stores often charge hundreds of dollars—not including add-ons like UV coating—and require customers to return days or weeks later to pick up their spectacles.
The numbers: Privateer Holdings, a Seattle-based marijuana conglomerate best known for its plans to bring Bob Marley-branded weed to market this year, has raised $75 million, bringing its total funding to $82 million. Research firm CB Insights says this is the largest-ever funding round for a pot startup.
The numbers: ZenPayroll, a San Francisco-based startup that helps small businesses issue paychecks and comply with tax-filing requirements, has raised $60 million in a series B round led by Google Capital, bringing its total fundraising to $86.1 million. The new financing boosts the company’s valuation to $560 million.
The first quarter of 2015 marked a slowdown in venture capital activity, in terms of both the number of deals and cumulative amount invested. But startups and venture capital firms aren’t exactly suffering.
Unicorns, or startups valued at $1 billion or more, have been getting a lot of attention lately. But it isn’t just high-profile tech companies like Uber (valued at $40 billion) and Slack ($1.2 billion, with rumors this might double soon) that investors are excited about. Across the board, valuations are climbing, according to data from research firm Pitchbook.
Facebook has rolled out a new app that lets friends (and subsequently their network of friends and so on) add clips to an ongoing video focused on a single topic—April Fool’s Day, for instance. It’s potentially a game-changer for advertisers on the social network, which eventually could use the app to engage directly with consumers. And it’s another example of Facebook’s growing emphasis on video.
Chinese tech company Huawei is doubling down on research and development. In reporting its annual financial performance today (March 31), the company said it invested 40.8 billion yuan, or $6.6 billion, in research and development in 2014, up 29% from the year prior. Overall, it’s spent 190 billion yuan in innovation over the past decade.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi today showed off new connected products for the home, including an ultra-affordable smart scale. It also introduced its cheapest smartphone yet.
The sensational gender-discrimination case that has rocked Silicon Valley ended after a second round of jury deliberations. The jury ruled against Ellen Pao on all counts, finding that her gender was not a substantial motivating factor for her former employer, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, not to promote her to senior partner. The jury also found that retaliation for her lawsuit was not a substantial reason for her termination from the firm.
Update: The jury returned with a verdict after its second round of deliberations, finding against Pao on all counts. The verdict was accepted by the court.
Enterprise chat platform Slack revealed today that hackers infiltrated the startup and accessed a database containing users’ contact information for four days in February. As a result, the company said it was adding two-factor authentication, which offers an additional security layer when users log in, and enhanced controls for team administrators to terminate active sessions and reset passwords for the entire company.
“What is real?” asked Michael Abrash, Oculus VR’s chief scientist, posing that very existential question to Facebook’s annual gathering of developers. (Facebook bought the virtual reality startup for $2 billion last year.)
When Facebook acquired the startup Oculus VR last year for $2 billion, many observers scratched their heads, unsure how the cutting-edge virtual reality technology would fit into the social network’s vision.
Facebook has turned its chat app, Messenger, into a platform that can integrate third-party apps, letting people send rich multimedia messages, such as GIFs, stickers, and videos. Such a platform, which reaches 600 million users a month, also spells opportunity for businesses to better engage with—and sell to—customers.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the company’s developer conference today by saying the event, called F8, would focus less on product announcements and more on serving the developer community. And then he dove in and detailed a number of the social network’s new features, products, and updates. Here’s a roundup of what was announced:
At Facebook’s F8 developer conference today and tomorrow, the social network will likely use its stage to connect the dots between its disparate products and recent acquisitions.
Y Combinator is an accelerator that hosts what are widely considered the most coveted tech startups in the world, and this most recent class is no different. Even with a record 114 startups in its current class, president Sam Altman said they represented “less than 2% of the companies that applied.” Only about four or five would go on to become “big hits,” he added.
Two and a half minutes. That’s how much time the influential tech incubator Y Combinator gives startup founders to deliver a perfectly crafted pitch to an auditorium packed with investors and journalists.
