Author : zebethcontrol

Hyundai launches home charging ecosystem as part of EV push • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 20, 2022Posted in Electrum, hyundai, LA Auto Show, solar, TransportationNo Comments

Hyundai announced this week at the LA Auto Show a new way for its customers to charge at home as part of the company’s efforts to woo a new group of EV buyers. Hyundai Home, the automaker calls it, incorporates solar panels, energy storage and EV charging for Hyundai owners. Hyundai announced a partnership with Electrum, a solar panel, home battery and heat pump installer, which will help customers in 16 states find the right power installers and systems for their EV charging needs. With the new partnership, consumers in Arizona, California, Colorado. Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington can now work with Electrum advisors to find the best and most affordable power solutions for them. Prior to this week’s announcement, dealers were helping customers get in touch with local installers and power suppliers in order to get charging and storage set up for their new Hyundai EVs like the Ioniq 5, according to Ian Tupper, the senior group manager of strategic environmental partnerships at Hyundai. “With Hyundai Home, we’re really trying to democratize, not only EV charging and being able to adopt an electric vehicle, but the entire ecosystem around it. We want to make it easy for customers to go solar to get energy storage and to eventually use all those systems together to reduce their energy bill,” Tupper told ZebethMedia during an interview at the LA Auto Show. Making EV charging more accessible As the U.S. increasingly makes a push to reduce carbon emissions, especially those from tailpipes (aka fossil-fueled powered vehicles), states like California have banned the sale of new gasoline vehicles by 2035. That means that an increasing number of Americans are going to be looking at EVs, PHEVs and hybrids for their next new car purchase. Yet, rentals make up roughly one-third of American housing, according to the U.S. Census and most of that housing stock is older, which means that in order to get access to at-home charging, landlords will have to be willing to invest to upgrade panels and provide charging access in multifamily garages. The average cost to upgrade a single family home’s electrical panel to handle charging a vehicle at home, can run between $1,300 and $3,000, or more. Add that into the high price of battery-electric, hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles and many people wont be able to afford or access home charging, especially those who live in multifamily buildings without access to home charging. That’s something that Tupper says Hyundai is taking into consideration, but he wasn’t able to share any concrete details around future plans. “If we want to achieve mass adoption, we need to solve that problem for renters and so we’re attacking it in a couple of different ways. First through our partnership with Electrify America. We’re working with them to incentivize to construction of as much charging infrastructure as possible and we’re trying to give it to customers for free,” Tupper told ZebethMedia. “We’re taking a strategic partnership approach and trying to identify the players right to offer, really a smattering of solutions. If there’s a city where, you know, we can help support the production or the development of charging hub, great. But if there’s a way for us to even incentivize low-power AC Charging. We’re going to take a look at that as well.” Tupper says that Hyundai is working with its partners like Electrum to bring more charging and power storage options to more customers in other states outside of the 16 that Electrum currently services, too. “We’re just starting out,” Tupper said, “Our guiding principles are that customers not only get the right products, but they also get the right products at the right price. Electrum helps us help the customer find the right solution on the marketplace, that way we’re actually able to deliver, usually a substantially better deal than something that they would normally just get by going to a local provider.”

The latest in Plaid’s payments push • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 20, 2022Posted in Fintech, Startups, The InterchangeNo Comments

Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space to hot takes on a particular company or phenomenon. There’s a lot of fintech news out there and it’s my job to stay on top of it — and make sense of it — so you can stay in the know. — Mary Ann Hey, hey, Mary Ann here, feeling all sorry for myself because I have COVID for the first time when I should be grateful that it took so long for me to get it, right? Thankfully you can’t catch my germs through a computer or phone screen. I’ll be okay but as a result…you’re stuck with another slightly abbreviated version of this newsletter! Huge credit to, and gratitude for, ZebethMedia’s Kyle Wiggers, who once again saved the day by writing up all the blurbs (and there were many to cover) here. Kyle, you’re the best. Since Thanksgiving is less than a week away, I’ll take this opportunity to say how truly thankful I am to be given the trust and confidence to draft this newsletter and for you all to take the time to read and share it. I do not take this lightly because without your support, I would not be doing this. I know there are a ton of fintech-focused newsletters out there, so it really does mean the world. Okay, now that I’m done with the cringe part of this newsletter (to quote my children), let’s go straight to the news. Weekly News Image Credits: John Anderson, head of payments / Plaid Plaid announced it has hired John Anderson, a former Meta exec, to serve as its first head of payments. The move comes as the fintech startup leans into payments, both in terms of facilitating them itself and aiming to help others do so better and faster. Our first thought is that it was taking another swing at Stripe, but interestingly the two remain partners — for now. Plaid also announced that its Signal offering is out of beta with early users such as Robinhood, Webull and Uphold. It claims that by using Signal, companies can “unlock instant ACH.” In contrast to crypto, some segments of the lending market appear to be robust — at least presently. Nu Holdings, the Warren Buffett–backed Brazilian banking firm that offers credit cards and personal loans and that is more commonly known as Nubank, posted a nearly threefold jump in Q3 revenue on Monday. While publicly traded Nu has seen its U.S. shares lose over half their value this year, its customer base has grown to over 70 million following a dramatically expanded footprint in Mexico. Nu’s total revenue in Q3 reached $1.3 billion, up 171%, while profit climbed to $427 million, up 90%. Five years ago, Revolut, the British fintech company with an expanding portfolio of banking services, made the news when it reached over a million customers across Europe. That seems quaint now; this week, Revolut hit 25 million customers globally as the firm prepares to expand into new markets, including India, Mexico, Brazil and New Zealand. Revolut was last valued at $33 billion, but as of last year at least, the company wasn’t yet profitable; Revolut reported a £167 million (~$197.94 million) net loss in 2021, its largest ever. Are valuations retreating and the backlog of IPOs growing in fintech, as chatter across the Twitter-verse implies? Silicon Valley Bank says yes on both counts in its State of the Markets report out this week. According to the firm, the steepest declines in valuation have occurred for late-stage fintech companies; “enterprise value” to “next 12 months” revenue multiples for public fintechs have dipped 55% since the market peaked in early January. Meanwhile, since the end of 2021, the number of U.S. fintech unicorns has grown by 38% to 159 — standing at a staggering $656 billion in aggregate valuation, highlighting the massive backlog looking to exit. According to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health, 72% of startup founders are affected by mental health issues. Stepping out of its lane somewhat, fintech giant Brex launched a program, Catharsis, which is designed to provide resources dedicated to mental health. Brex says it’ll facilitate access to therapists via a partnership with Spring Health as well as extend a discount on the sleep-tracking Oura Ring. Seems like a worthwhile cause, but part of us wonders whether the effort is intended to distract from Brex’s poorly received pivot away from supporting small businesses. Charge cards are big business. According to Research and Markets, the segment could be worth over $2 billion by 2026, growing from $1.96 billion this year. That’s probably why banking-as-a-service startup Unit is investing in it — the company on Tuesday launched a service that’ll allow customers to build custom charge cards for their own end users. Unit handles nearly all aspects of the back end, including card printing, compliance and transaction tracking. In this way, it’s a different approach than corporate card issuers Brex and Ramp, Unit CEO Itai Damti argues, which are strictly business-to-business — Unit sees its offering as more “business-to-business-to-consumer.” If you’re itching for reading material on the forecasted economic woes in the tech sector, Ukraine-based fintech investor Vadym Synegin wrote an excellent piece for TC+ on what founders can do to help their companies prosper in times of crises. Among other steps, he suggests that founders double down on developing and proving the quality of their products, manage risk and look for ways to shore up their company’s ranks with high-performing talent. Just over a year ago, Wise — the company formerly known as TransferWise — went public

Elon Musk ends Trump’s Twitter ban • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 20, 2022Posted in donald trump, Elon Musk, Social, TwitterNo Comments

Former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been reinstated following a permanent ban in January 2021. On Friday, new Twitter owner Elon Musk posted a poll asking if Trump should be allowed back on the platform. Just over 15 million people voted, with 51.8% voting in favor of reinstating Trump on Twitter. When the poll ended on Saturday, Trump’s account was unbanned. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” Trump’s controversial ban took place days after the January 6 riots on the U.S. Capitol, in which insurrectionists violently attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter wrote in a January 2021 blog post. Still, it is unclear whether the former president will actually return to Twitter. After he was deplatformed from mainstream social media networks like Twitter and Facebook, Trump created his own social platform called Truth Social. Image Credits: Donald Trump on Truth Social “Vote now with positivity, but don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. Truth Social is special!” the former president posted on Truth Social this evening. Since taking over Twitter mere weeks ago, Elon Musk has already reversed suspensions on two high-profile accounts that were deplatformed for maliciously misgendering trans people: conservative satire publication The Babylon Bee and Jordan Peterson. He also reversed the ban on Kathy Griffin, a comedian who had impersonated Musk on Twitter. This story is developing…

Gopuff launches scheduled deliveries, gifting and in-store pickup • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 19, 2022Posted in Apps, goPuff, grocery delivery, on-demand delivery, Startups, TransportationNo Comments

Rapid grocery deliver startups like Getir, Gopuff and Gorillas, once heralded as the next big thing in on-demand ordering, are running up against logistical challenges that might very well be insurmountable. Even faced with competition and sky-high operating costs, though, they’re taking what steps they can to stick around. Case in point, Gopuff today launched features aimed at eliminating some of the platform’s biggest pain points, like the inability to schedule orders ahead or pick up orders from nearby stockrooms. Starting today, Gopuff customers can place an order when the Gopuff marketplace closes — the exact hours depend on the market — to have Gopuff deliver the order as soon as it reopens. (Needless to say, this doesn’t apply to locations where Gopuff delivers 24/7.) Alternatively, customers can schedule an order in advance for a specific date and time, similar to most major food delivery apps, or arrange for an order to be picked up where Gopuff offers retail and in-store shopping. The in-store shopping experience remains rather limited. According to Gopuff, only in BevMo! outlets — recall that Gopuff acquired BevMo!, the alcohol retailer, for $350 million in 2020 — and locations in New York City is shopping in-store an option. Strictly pickup of online orders will be offered at “many” locations, however, Gopuff says (it’s unclear just how many), with the hours mirroring that of in-app ordering. Gopuff is also introducing gifting, which will allow customers to add gifts to their cart for recipients both on and off the platform. Once they enter the recipient’s address, name and phone number and a gift message, both the gift recipient and the sender will receive a text message confirming a gift order is being prepared. The recipient will also receive SMS alerts when the order is close by, delivered or canceled. Somewhat concerningly, Gopuff didn’t respond to ZebethMedia’s question about whether gift recipients’ information will be retained for marketing or other purposes. Gopuff, like many app-based products and services, collects a broad swath of personal information that it reserves the right to use for ad targeting and promoting its subscription services, as well as sharing with third parties including business partners and “affiliates and subsidiaries.” The new features are only available via the latest Gopuff app (version 8.1.0), the company notes, which began rolling out nationwide this morning. While Gopuff has partnerships with Uber and Just Eat Takeaway to make its inventory perusable through Uber Eats and Grubhub, respectively, the company says that customers using those platforms won’t be able to take advantage of order scheduling, gifting and pick-up — despite the fact that Uber Eats and Grubhub support those features for most other businesses. Gopuff has had a rough go of it lately, no pun intended. Originally intending to IPO as soon as mid-2022 after tapping ex-Disney CEO Bob Iger as an advisor and investor, Gopuff this summer pulled out of Spain, one of its markets, to slash costs, and laid off 10% of its global workforce. Further cuts hit Gopuff in October — mainly affecting various customer service departments — as the startup reportedly looked to secure a credit line as high as $300 million to buffet against inflationary headwinds.

Amazon layoffs begin, Ticketmaster can’t handle Taylor Swift, and much of Twitter HQ quits • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 19, 2022Posted in Layoffs, Media & Entertainment, media and entertainment, Social, Week in ReviewNo Comments

Hello again! Time for another edition of Week in Review, the newsletter where we recap the week’s most read ZebethMedia stories in one quick and easy-to-skim blast. Get it in your inbox every Saturday AM by signing up here. (There won’t be a newsletter next Saturday because I’ll be off being thankful/eating leftovers/being thankful for leftovers, but we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming the weekend after.) If you read last week’s edition, you’ll notice some echoes here: more layoffs, more FTX drama, and more absurdity at Elon’s Twitter. Let’s dive in! —Greg most read Mass resignations at Twitter: After laying off thousands of Twitter employees over the past few weeks, Elon presented something of an ultimatum to those remaining: commit to being “extremely hardcore” as “part of the new Twitter” or leave with three months severance…and, well, a lot of people took door number 2. It’s unclear at this point (even to Twitter, it seems) how many declined the ultimatum, but all indications are that it was hundreds/thousands. SBF DMs: For some reason the founder of FTX — the once massive crypto exchange that imploded last week — decided to have an impromptu interview with a Vox reporter by way of DM. Seemingly without any agreement that any of it was off the record, said DMs were, of course, quickly published. His biggest regret in all this? Weirdly, filing for bankruptcy. Evernote gets bought: Evernote was once something of an App Store darling — an early go-to example of design, quality, and company leadership. Then after a series of pricing/privacy/design changes pissed off the user base, it just sort of…faded away. This week the company was acquired by Italian app developer Bending Spoons, in what Kyle Wiggers calls “the end of an era.” Amazon layoffs: Rumors suggested layoffs were on the way at Amazon, with some estimates suggesting upward of 10,000 would be let go. This week the layoffs began, with CEO Andy Jassy writing in a memo that the layoffs will continue into next year. Ticketmaster face-plants: Tickets for Taylor Swift’s first tour in years went on presale this week, and Ticketmaster, the website that no one on earth is happy to use, couldn’t keep up with the Swifties. Things went so awry with the gated presale that the scheduled public sale was outright canceled. You know your site outage is bad when it relights the political fire to break up your company’s overwhelming dominance. audio roundup Podcasts! We’ve got them! People seem to like them! Or a lot of people are just downloading/subscribing for the sake of inflating our collective ego. That’s okay too. Here’s what’s up in TC podcasts lately: Live from our ZebethMedia Sessions: Crypto event during one of crypto’s wildest weeks in ages, the Chain Reaction crew “tore up the script” and talked all about Sam Bankman-Fried’s “surreal, absurd” DM conversation with Vox. What does a corporate comms team do? The Equity team sat down with a pair of deeply experienced comms people to learn how all that behind-the-scenes machinery works. ZebethMedia+ Two states received 80% of venture funds raised: “Through the third quarter of 2022, U.S. venture firms raised $150.9 billion across 593 funds,” writes Rebecca Szkutak. Where did it all go? Rebecca breaks down the stats. A look at Sateliot’s Series A deck: 90% of the planet has no cell connectivity. What if you need an IoT device to phone home from, say, the middle of the ocean? That’s the idea behind Sateliot, which raised an $11.4 million Series A earlier this year. The company shared the pitch deck it used to raise with our resident pitch expert Haje Jan Kamps, who explored “the good and the bad of this high-flying space deck.”

You shouldn’t skim over gross dollar retention • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 19, 2022Posted in customer retention, Enterprise, openview venture partners, Startups, TechCrunch Exchange newsletter, The ExchangeNo Comments

Welcome to The ZebethMedia Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily ZebethMedia+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. For SaaS companies, net dollar retention is on investor radar more than ever. But it shouldn’t eclipse gross dollar retention: If you are not tracking both metrics, you could be fighting to add new customers into a leaky bucket. Let’s explore. — Anna Gross dollar retention is “what protects you during really challenging times” “Gross retention really speaks to the true stickiness and health of your customer base. It’s what protects you during really challenging times,” growth stage VC Rene Stewart said in a sponsored talk at ZebethMedia Disrupt in 2021. And yet, the co-head of Vista Equity Partners’ growth-stage Endeavor Fund added, most VCs she talked to “probably only care about net retention.” However, her comments were made in 2021, not 2022. “Challenging times” have come upon us since then, making investors and founders more mindful of business fundamentals. Alex and I have already written about the importance of net dollar retention when efficient growth is the new holy grail. But how does it differ from gross dollar retention, and how has the latter been faring at most tech companies? Let’s dive in.

A love letter to micro funds, the backbone and future of venture capital

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 19, 2022Posted in EC venture capital, fundraising, micro funds, PitchBook Data, Startups, Venture, venture capitalNo Comments

While the Sequoias and the Andreessen Horowitzes of the world continue to swell in size, their influence on venture capital may be heading in the opposite direction as micro funds increase their impact on the industry. Whether you define micro funds as below $50 million or sub-$25 million, these are truly the funds that power the future of the industry. They help venture hubs take off, bring expertise and specialization to the market, and fill a role in the venture capital ecosystem that larger firms simply can’t. They also can be credited with getting a lot of the large unicorn and public companies we know today off the ground, as many of them received some of their first dollars from a micro fund: Robinhood (Elefund), Coinbase (Initialized Capital, which was investing out of a $7 million fund at the time) and Flexport (Anorak Ventures). I’ve written about the rise of micro funds in the U.S. before, but when Sweetwood Ventures reached out to me a month ago about its new fund-of-funds strategy to back nano — sub-$15 million — funds in Israel, I was intrigued. I hadn’t realized that the explosion of micro funds extended beyond the U.S. market, but Sweetwood general partner Amit Kurz told me it was one he had been tracking for a few years now.

Drive Capital’s investors hit a fork in the road • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 19, 2022Posted in Chris Olsen, Drive Capital, Mark Kvamme, sequoia capital, Venture, venture capitalNo Comments

Drive Capital was founded by two former Sequoia Capital Partners looking to start anew in the Midwest. But investors in the Columbus, Oh.-based firm have had a bumpy ride of late, and according to our sources, they aren’t enjoying it. It’s a dramatic turn for Drive, which announced $1 billion in capital commitments back in June, a healthy amount for a 10-year-old firm whose mission it is to invest nearly everywhere in the U.S. outside of Silicon Valley. In fact, in June, the firm — cofounded by veteran VCs Mark Kvamme and Chris Olsen — seemed to be riding high, with a couple of apparent wins and news funds that brought Drive’s assets under management to more than $2 billion. Yet dating back to September — soon after we talked with Olsen about VC doubling back to California — we heard rumblings about a rift, along with separate plans that Kvamme was making. Then came the announcement last month that the team was splitting up. At first, the story was that Kvamme, who logged more than twice as many years at Sequoia than Olsen, was transitioning to “partner emeritus” because, as he told a Columbus Business First, 10 years and four funding cycles was longer than he originally planned to lead Drive Capital. (This was probably a big surprise to the investors who’d just agreed to let Drive invest their capital.) This week, the other shoe dropped. Columbus Business First reported that Kvamme, who races cars, is not zipping off to semi-retirement but instead talking with potential backers about a new fund, the Ohio Fund, which will apparently invest in multiple asset classes, including other funds, public stocks, private companies in Ohio, and infrastructure. The idea is to “focus on the future economic vitality of Ohio,” said an unnamed source to the outlet. Olsen now says that he’s surprised by this development. We obtained a letter that Drive sent out to its limited partners tonight that reads: Dear Limited Partner,This week an article was published indicating that our Partner Emeritus Mark Kvamme is launchinga new investment fund. All of us at Drive were surprised by this news, as we are sure you were too.While we will not send you a note each time a new article about Mark is published, we feel that, inthe spirit of being a good partner, it’s appropriate to provide you with a transparent update aboutthis situation and our relationship with Mark.After the article was published we spoke with Mark and learned that the prospect of him raising anew fund was leaked to a journalist from an unknown source. According to Mark, he has not yetdetermined what he is going to do next. Raising a new type of fund is something he is considering,along with other options in public service and personal endeavors.We have a formal separation agreement with Mark that prevents him from starting a competitivefirm or fund to Drive. Please know that this was a heavily negotiated agreement to ensure that itsubstantially protects Drive, our Limited Partners’ interests, and everything we are building towardat Drive.Again, we do not intend to communicate with you each time a new article is written about Mark,but in this instance, we thought it appropriate to provide clarification. Should you have anyquestions, please do not hesitate to reach out [contact information redacted by ZebethMedia]. Sincerely,The Drive Team Olsen declined to comment for this story; we reached out to Kvamme and did not receive a response. But it’s complicated, to say the least. According to our sources, part of the split traces to a relationship between Olsen and Yasmine Lacaillade, who was Drive’s COO for nearly seven years before leaving the firm in April to launch her own investment outfit. Asked about this, a Drive spokesman downplayed any tensions that may have arisen from a romantic relationship between the two, writing: “Yes you heard right in that Chris and Yas are in a relationship. That’s been public knowledge for some time. No comments beyond that.” Like most venture outfits, Drive also finds its portfolio in rougher shape than a year or two ago. One of Drive’s biggest exits to date has been that of Root Insurance, a now seven-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based insurance company that specializes in automotive coverage and that staged a traditional IPO in November 2020. Though the shares performed initially, they’ve tanked since, currently priced at roughly $7 each after a reverse stock split, down from $486 per share the day the company went public. Olsen stepped off the board in November of last year. The other big star of Drive’s portfolio currently — Olive AI — is trying to overcome its own challenges. The Columbus-based healthcare automation startup, founded in 2012, has long framed its extensive history of pivots (more than 30 to date) as an inspirational story of trying, then trying again. Olive was rewarded by investors for its willingness to shift gears, too. It has raised a staggering $902 million over the years and said last year that it was valued at $4 billion. But the outfit, a robotic process automation company that aimed to take on hospital workers’ most tedious tasks, was never all that it appeared, according to a series of damning Axios pieces; and by September, the wheels began to come off. Most notably, the company’s chief financial officer and chief product officer were abruptly fired, following out the door numerous C-level executives who also left this fall, including its president, a senior director of operations, its EVP of operations and its SVP of payer product strategy. Olive AI has since said it will sell a portion of its products and services to Rotera, a company built out of Olive’s own venture studio. Limited partners aren’t happy about these developments, but as far as we’re aware, they have not talked in earnest about taking action and it seems unlikely that they will. At least, it’s exceedingly rare for limited partners to cancel their capital commitments and only slightly more common for VCs

Google introduces Workspaces Spaces Chats conversations summaries • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 18, 2022Posted in Enterprise, Google, Robotics & AI, summarizationNo Comments

Having trouble keeping up with the conversations in your Chats in your Workspace Spaces? Google feels your pain, and is “excited to introduce conversation summaries in Google Chat for messages in Spaces.” Now your conversations in Spaces Chats will be summarized right in your Premium Workspace. The issue is, of course, that while Chats in Spaces are perfectly good for conversations, in larger Workspaces these Chats conversations can be difficult to keep up with unless you’re always checking your Spaces for new conversations in Chats. You know the drill – you log into your Workspace, click over to your Spaces, pull up the Chats, and your conversations are just too numerous and long-winded to catch up on! You can’t very well tell your Workspace Spaces conversationalists to leave off chatting in your Chats. Conversation is the very reason Chats exist, that’s why they call it Spaces! I mean Chats! Fortunately Google is bringing its expertise in communications apps to remedy this conversational crisis in your Workspace Spaces Chats. Starting soon, the messages in your conversations will be summarized right in your Chats, inside Spaces in Workspaces! Selected Premium Workspaces, anyway. Google put a summary in your Premium Workspace Spaces Chat conversations. You read that correctly. The Conversation Summary of the messages in your Workspace Spaces Chat will appear at the top of the Chats within Spaces, summarizing any unread chatter in the Chats conversation. Click on the summary of the Spaces Chats and you’ll jump straight to the conversation, even if it’s already visible and the Conversation summary has only summarized a few lines of the Chats conversation. If you use Spaces in your Workspace, and tend to have conversations in the Chats of those Spaces, Conversation Summary in Google Chat could be just the thing to keep those chatty Chats summarized. Sadly, this doesn’t appear to be available for Google Chat, though — which is to say regular Google Chat (that is, the newish one in your Gmail that used to be Hangouts, possibly), only Google Chat for Spaces in Workspaces, and (don’t forgot) select Premium Workspaces at that. Definitely not Meet messaging. So you probably don’t have access. But you might eventually, if Workspace Spaces Chats are still something that exist in six months. (I’m checking with Google on this.) Check out the technical details on how the Google AI team quickly and effectively summarizes conversations in Chats in Spaces in Workspaces right here. 🙂

Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison for Theranos fraud • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 18, 2022Posted in Biotech & Health, elizabeth holmes, TheranosNo Comments

Ten months after she was found guilty of fraud, the former youngest self-made female billionaire Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 11.25 years in prison, plus three years of supervised release. At her trial, she was found guilty on four of 11 counts related to defrauding investors, but she was not found guilty of defrauding patients. The former founder and CEO of Theranos, Holmes could have faced up to 20 years in prison for each of the four counts. By comparison, former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison for securities fraud, but was released after a bit more than four years. At the courthouse in San Jose, both sides of United States vs. Elizabeth Holmes presented their cases regarding whether Judge Edward Davila can consider Holmes’ “reckless disregard” of patients in sentencing. Davila rejected that proposal, since at the original trial, Holmes was only found guilty of defrauding investors. Regardless, it took over four hours before Holmes’ sentence was decided. Alex Schultz, father of whistleblower Tyler Schultz, spoke to the court, recounting how his son slept with a knife under his pillow when he suspected he was being followed by Theranos’ private investigators. Alex Schultz says Holmes hired an investigator to follow his son Tyler Schultz and he slept with a knife under his pillow b/c he thought someone was going to kill him. “My family home was desecrated by Elizabeth and the lawyers,” he says. — Dorothy Atkins (@doratki) November 18, 2022 Then, Holmes herself spoke. “I regret my failings with every cell of my body,” she said. That was when Judge Davila delivered his decision. Holmes is expected to report to prison in April. Currently, she is pregnant with her second child. Fraud at Theranos Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 after dropping out of Stanford. She pitched investors and partners on technology that would revolutionize the healthcare system — instead of drawing blood intravenously and waiting days for test results, her technology would prick a tiny bit of blood and instantly conduct dozens of tests on it. Soon she was the CEO of a company with a $10 billion valuation, but it turned out that the technology didn’t work. Theranos has been defunct since 2018, but Holmes’ criminal trial only began last fall after delays due to the pandemic and the birth of her first child. According to a letter from Holmes’ husband in a public court filing, she is now pregnant with a second child. The filing includes 282 pages of other letters from Holmes’ friends, family and business associates, ranging from childhood photos and drawings to notes from high-profile supporters like Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and venture capitalist Tim Draper. “Although there is substantial popular outcry against Theranos and Elizabeth, the attitude in much of the venture world is very different,” Draper wrote. “Venture-backed startup companies often announce and deliver products to the market before they are ready.” The former CEO’s sentencing was further delayed because her lawyers tried to request a new trial, arguing that new evidence had come to light after former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff visited Holmes at home in an attempt to find closure. Rosendorff, who worked at Theranos between 2013 and 2014, testified for six days last year during Holmes’ four-month trial. With his highly technical knowledge of the inner workings of Theranos’ labs, Rosendorff’s testimony was key to the trial. In court, he said that Holmes knew that Theranos’ technology produced inaccurate blood test results, yet she pushed for it to be used on patients anyway. After repeatedly raising his concerns about the faulty technology, he ultimately quit Theranos. Holmes’ lawyers alleged that when Rosendorff visited her home this summer, he expressed guilt that he made Theranos seem worse than it was in court. But Judge Edward Davila did not find merit to these allegations. Rosendorff affirmed once again that last year’s testimony was accurate. The former lab director clarified that he felt sorry for Holmes’ child, who will grow up without a mother if she is sent to prison, but not for Holmes herself. Holmes’ former boyfriend and Theranos COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani awaits sentencing. He was convicted on twelve out of twelve counts in his own trial, where the jury found him guilty of defrauding both patients and investors.