Browsed by
Tag: #FounderAlert

OpenAI and the Tooth Fairy

OpenAI and the Tooth Fairy

Comments 1 comment

Our friend and investor at ffvc, Katie Weiss, told a story in her weekly newsletter about her six-year-old daughter who had decided that the tooth fairy isn’t real, and how Katie used logic and Sora to “preserve the magic a little longer.”

“That whole exchange made me think about another type of “fairy tale”: projections. As a venture fund, we ask for them, fully aware that we’re often being handed a story only loosely tethered to reality. So why do we still value them? Why, like at home, do we try to keep the magic alive?

“Because the magic isn’t in the numbers, it’s in the mindset behind them. Hidden in those fictional spreadsheets are real signals: how a founder thinks, what they know, how they believe their business will evolve, and whether their vision holds up under pressure. If you know where to look, there’s a tremendous amount to learn from made-up numbers.” Read More...

The Silver Lining(s) in the Tech Layoff Cloud

The Silver Lining(s) in the Tech Layoff Cloud

Comments 0 Comment
Photo by Jonny Clow on Unsplash

Tech has been experiencing ‘massive layoffs’ lately, but always good to look at the why, before you jump to the ‘Oh NOOOO!’

“When people hear layoffs, that is a highly charged word… But you have to understand this in the broader context, which is there was explosive growth during the pandemic, and all that growth was unexpected,” said Russell Hancock, chief executive of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, to MarketWatch.

The ‘broader context’ is that tech is going through a period of adjustment and ‘right sizing.’ Said MarketWatch, “The largest number announced by a Big Tech company so far is the 18,000 projected layoffs at Amazon.com Inc— but Amazon hired hundreds of thousands of workers during the pandemic to grow into the second-largest employer in the U.S. (From) fewer than 800,000 employees at the end of 2019… to more than 1.6 million at times last year…Microsoft grew its workforce more than 50% … hiring roughly 77,000 workers; it recently announced 10,000 layoffs. Meta Platforms Inc. nearly doubled its head count from roughly 45,000… to more than 87,000…then decided to cut about 11,000 workers.” Read More...