Let’s talk about succession arrangements

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced look at this week’s startup news and trends from senior reporter and equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox.

Maybe it’s because “Succession” is coming back next week, or maybe it’s because Silicon Valley just went through its first-ever banking crisis, but I want to talk about the startup downline.

As I write in my last:

Silicon Valley Bank is a good reminder that startups, often rooted in the world of risk and failure, sometimes forget to think about the obvious: single points of failure. But just as it makes sense to trust a community-friendly bank, it also makes sense to trust just one person to make your business a success. Now that we’ve seen that the first really doesn’t work, maybe it’s time to rethink the second.

For my full take on new entrepreneurs, read “Banks Aren’t the Only ‘Single Point of Failure’ Entrepreneurs Who Need to Rethink.”

For more on the cryptocurrency angle, read my latest snapshot of founder sentiment, the impact on black founders, and this timeline of everything that’s happened so far. That’s where the coverage of the SVB ends, so that the author of this newsletter can keep his wits about him and remember that there is a world beyond the bank pits.

In the remainder of this newsletter, we’ll cover news that was hidden this week and GPT-4. you can follow me as always tweet or Instagram to continue the conversation. You can also email me tips at [email protected] or Signal on +1.925.271.0912. Please, no seats.

GPT-4 did not write this

At this week’s Equity, Alex and I talk about the above, but more interestingly, the future of AI. We talked about the impact of technology on smart people who write books, the context and the general technological exuberance. We need it, and I’m not just saying that because I live a short walk from Cerebral Valley.

So the bottom line is this: GPT-4 was released this week by the team behind OpenAI. Our own report from Kyle Wiggers: “GPT-4 can generate text and accept both image and text input, an improvement over GPT-3.5, its text-only predecessor, and works across a variety of ‘human-level’ academic and professional benchmarks . For example, GPT-4 passes a pseudo-bar exam with a score in the top 10% of test takers; The GPT 3.5 score, on the other hand, was in the bottom 10%.” Companies like Stripe, Duolingo, and Khan Academy were among the beta testers.

Messages that were buried

When there is a clear zeitgeist, news often gets buried, intentionally or not. As a result, there has been a lot of news in the past week that deserves closer attention, both good and bad. The list contains Launch House deals with existing activities and layoffs, as well as Klaviyo and Course Hero making company-wide layoffs for the first time.

Here’s what I missed most when I shared my two cents:

And so on and so forth.
Memorial Saturday: If you missed last week’s Startups Weekly, check out my latest issue, Brand Risk So Skewed In Venture Capital, here.
Do we stay on campus? TechCrunch is coming to Boston on April 20. I will be there with my favorite colleagues to interview top experts in a one-day startup meeting. Reserve your pass as soon as possible! Speakers include Kerty Levy of Techstars, Dayna Grayson of Construct Capital and James Currier of NFX.
Kudos to all the sources who have spoken to me privately and confidentially over the past week to help me understand Silicon Valley’s first real banking crisis. There is still more to learn and lots of questions ahead, so have faith and stick to the advice.
Developer Note: If you’re reading this in a browser, you’ll also receive it in your inbox! Sign up here and share it with your friends.

Discovered on TechCrunch

Google warns users not to take steps to protect against remotely exploitable flaws in popular Android phones

Virgin Orbit would never have taken employee holidays

MindGeek, which owns Pornhub, was sold to a private equity firm

Anonymous side chat app picks rival Yik Yak… and users aren’t happy

Discovered on TechCrunch+

Dear Sophie, how can I return to the United States as a founder?

How I present myself: 7 investors discuss what they are looking for in March 2023

Zero-Based Budgeting: A Proven Job Expansion Framework

Product-driven growth is fueling a wave of sales tool startups

Silicon Valley has had an exhausting time, which is saying a lot given that COVID-19 remains an ongoing pandemic and the recession continues to pose obstacles. If you made it to the end, thank you, but take a nap too. We’ll be here on Monday. You deserve a break. I’ll probably have nicer words about how technology came about in a time of tremendous stress, but sleep for now.

Chat soon and let me know if you’d like to live tweet me about “Succession” next week.

north