Author : zebethcontrol

The fintech layoffs just keep on coming • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 6, 2022Posted in Fintech, Layoffs, 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 Wow, I take off one week and come back to all hell breaking loose in the fintech world. Sadly, it felt like we got news of layoff after layoff. I’ll attempt to round up as many of them as I can here: Chime confirmed that it is letting go of 12% of its employees. This equals about 160 people. According to an internal memo obtained by ZebethMedia, Chime co-founder Chris Britt said that the move was one of many that would help the company thrive “regardless of market conditions.” In the memo, Britt said that he and co-founder Ryan King are recalibrating marketing spend, decreasing the number of contractors, adjusting workspace needs and renegotiating vendor contractors. Opendoor announced it was letting go of 18% of its staff. This is around 500 people. Opendoor co-founder and CEO Eric Wu said his company, a publicly traded real estate fintech, was navigating “one of the most challenging real estate markets in 40 years.” Chargebee has laid off about 10% of its staff. As reported by Jagmeet on November 2, “Chargebee, backed by marquee investors including Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India, has laid off about 10% of its staff in a ‘reorganization’ effort due to ongoing global macroeconomic challenges and growing operational debt. The Chennai and San Francisco–headquartered startup, which offers billing, subscription, revenue and compliance management solutions, confirmed to ZebethMedia that the update impacted 142 employees.” Stripe lays off 14% of its staff. As reported by Paul, “Stripe has announced that it’s laying off 14% of its workers, impacting around 1,120 of the fintech giant’s 8,000 workforce.” In a memo published online, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison conveyed a familiar narrative in terms of the reasons behind the latest cutbacks: a major hiring spree spurred by the world’s pandemic-driven surge toward e-commerce, a significant growth period and then an economic downturn ridden with inflation, higher interest rates and other macroeconomic challenges. Danish startup Pleo may lay off 15% of its workers. Jeppe Rindom, co-founder and CEO of Pleo — which less than one year ago raised $200 million at a $4.7 billion valuation — revealed that the company’s new strategy will impact 15% of its roles. He added that “up to 150 of our colleagues may have to leave.” Pleo is a developer of expense management tools aimed at SMBs to let them issue company cards and better manage how employees spend money. Credit Karma, now a subsidiary of Intuit, has “decided to pause almost all hiring.” This is according to an internal email sent to employees by chief people officer Colleen McCreary. McCreary referenced “revenue challenges due to the uncertain environment.” This was reiterated in Intuit’s fourth quarter earnings call, during which the company shared on November 1 that “all Credit Karma verticals have been negatively impacted by macro uncertainty. Credit Karma experienced further deterioration in these verticals during the last few weeks of the first quarter.” Remote online notarization services provider Notarize cuts its team by 60 people. A spokesperson told me via email that “the reorganization impacted nearly all teams and the decision was in service to the larger strategy we have been enacting at Notarize, and will enable us to move faster to best serve our customers.” The spokesperson added that in September, one small real estate–focused team was laid off in response to both its strategy shift and “the drastic drop in demand from the specific customers that they served.” The recent layoffs follow a larger layoff in June that impacted 110 people. Prior to that reduction, Notarize had about 440 employees. It currently employs 250 people across the United States. I wrote this newsletter on November 3 because I’m leaving on a trip to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary, so it’s possible that more layoffs took place between then and now. 🙁 What this means for the broader fintech world is not yet clear, but when well-funded companies such as Chime, Stripe and Pleo are cutting staff, it is no doubt sobering for all the players — small or large — in the space. Special thanks to TC senior reporter and very nice guy Kyle Wiggers for helping me draft the Weekly News and Fundings and M&A sections below so I could get offline and pack for my trip! Weekly News Jeeves, the fintech startup that recently raised $180 million at a $2.1 billion valuation, told ZebethMedia via email that it has launched a service called Jeeves Pay that it’s billing as a “credit-backed business payments solution” for enterprise customers. At a high level, Jeeves Pay lets customers use their existing credit line to send wires or pay vendors, ostensibly solving the problem of having to rely on cash or revenues to fund local and cross-border business and vendor payments. Jeeves Pay is available now to all Jeeves customers “where permitted by applicable local laws and regulations,” the company says. Brex sees startups as one of the key avenues to growth in the corporate card and spend management market. To that end, the company on Wednesday announced a partnership with Techstars to extend Brex services to companies within the accelerator, following similar tie-ups with Y Combinator and AngelList. For the duration of the accelerator, Techstars participants will get a Brex platform support team, access to exclusive Brex events and free use of Brex’s Pry financial forecasting

Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue subscription with verification may launch in India in ‘less than a month’ • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 6, 2022Posted in Apps, Asia, Elon Musk, india, Social, Twitter, twitter blueNo Comments

Twitter may extend its subscription service to India in “less than a month,” its owner and chief executive Elon Musk said, offering a glimpse at just how aggressively he plans to roll out Twitter Blue to the larger world. Twitter launched Twitter Blue in four markets — US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — last year. The Elon Musk-owned firm plans to launch a revamped version of the subscription service in those four markets on Monday. Musk has ramped up Twitter Blue’s offerings, promising a verified checkmark to anyone who subscribes, among other features, including long form video content and having to sift through fewer ads. Those who already have the verified checkmark will need to subscribe to Twitter Blue over the coming months to retain it, Musk said in another tweet. He has previously said that Twitter Blue, which is priced at $7.99 a month in the U.S., will be more affordable in some countries to account for local purchase parity. “Power to the people,” Twitter’s iOS app update note said in anticipation of Monday rollout. “Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.” Musk is betting on turning the subscription service into a major revenue driver for Twitter, which he acquired last month for $44 billion — $13 billion of which he lent from banks. Musk needs to pay more than $1 billion a year in interest payments. The company this week laid off roughly half the company’s workforce, or about 3,700 jobs. In a series of tweets over the weekend, Musk offered a few more updates on Twitter Blue. He claimed the company “can beat” YouTube’s ad-revenue split to creators, and that fixing the search functionality on Twitter “is a high priority” for the firm. Twitter will soon allow users to attach long-form texts to tweets, he said. Many users who have wished to post longer texts have over the years posted screenshots of texts written on a note app. Musk said the new revamp will end such “absurdity.”

Elon guts Twitter, Google shutters Hangouts, and the tech layoffs continue • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in Layoffs, Media & Entertainment, Startups, Twitter, Week in ReviewNo Comments

Hey, all — welcome back to Week in Review, the newsletter where we sum up the most read ZebethMedia stories from the past week. And oof, what a week it was. Want this newsletter in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Signed up? Let’s just dive right in. most read Mass layoffs at Twitter: It was Elon’s first full week as the boss of Twitter post-$44 billion acquisition. Sweeping layoffs were said to be on the way — and, well, they’ve begun. After a painfully impersonal heads-up email went out Thursday evening, entire teams are waking up to find their access suddenly revoked. With reports suggesting layoffs could impact up to half the company, Twitter employees have reportedly taken to referring to the whole thing as “the snap” (à la Thanos). A class action lawsuit has already been filed alleging that Twitter isn’t following the proper legal processes here. Layoffs everywhere: Meanwhile, news of tech industry layoffs continues to pour in. Lyft let go of 13% of its workforce, Stripe cut 14%, Opendoor reduced its workforce by 18%, Chime parted ways with 12%, and more. Meanwhile, both Apple and Amazon have reportedly gone into hiring freezes. Google kills Hangouts: We knew it was coming, but this week Google put the final nail in Hangouts’ coffin, shutting down the chat-focused web app (the Hangouts Android/iOS apps were shuttered last year) in favor of Google Chat. Of course, given Google’s history with chat apps, I expect at least two more to be launched and/or shuttered by the time I finish this newsletter. Falcon Heavy returns to space: This week SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time since 2019, finally moving forward on a mission that had been delayed (“due to payload readiness issues”) since late 2020. Amazon expands its Music service: “The company said it will now offer Prime subscribers a full music catalog with 100 million songs, instead of the previously more limited selection of just 2 million songs,” writes Sarah, “and will make most of the top podcasts on its service available without ads.” audio roundup Whats up in TC podcast land this week? Here’s some of the highlights: The Equity crew chatted about the ever-evolving role of the venture capitalist, and our friend Melia Russell from Business Insider stopped by to fill us in on her recent story about how “investors are rewriting the playbooks when it comes to maternity leave policies at their firms.” Amanda joined Darrell on the TC Podcast to discuss Elon’s “questionable plans” to change up how identity verification works on Twitter The Chain Reaction team dive into the growing list of troubles that have developed for Bitcoin miners in the last few months. techcrunch+ Not a part of ZebethMedia+ yet? Here’s what TC+ members were reading most behind the paywall: Pilot’s CEO tears down their $60 million Series C deck: Published in early 2021, this one blew up for some reason this week! Just a few weeks after raising a big Series C, Pilot CEO Waseem Daher sat down with Lucas Matney to break down what worked about their pitch deck. The most common pitch deck mistakes: Speaking of pitch decks, TC’s resident pitch expert, Haje Jan Kamps, has a list of the mistakes he’s tired of seeing in decks, having reviewed thousands of them.

Twitter begins rolling out $7.99 Twitter Blue plan with verification, fewer ads • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in Apps, Elon Musk, Media & Entertainment, Social, social media, Twitter, twitter blueNo Comments

Just days after newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk floated changes to Twitter’s system for verifying user accounts, including charging $8 per month for the privilege, Twitter appears to have begun rolling out a new tier of Twitter Blue, its premium subscription service, that reflects some of the changes that Musk has proposed. According to an in-app iOS notification viewed by ZebethMedia, the upgraded Twitter Blue, starting at $7.99 per month, will add the blue verification checkmark previously reserved for accounts that applied through Twitter’s free verification process. Other benefits include “half the ads” seen by non-paying Twitter users as well as ostensibly “twice as relevant” ads, and the ability to post longer videos to Twitter (although it’s not clear just how long; the notification doesn’t specify). Image Credits: ZebethMedia The new, pricier Twitter Blue will also offer priority ranking for “quality content,” promising to boost subscribers’ visibility in replies, mentions and search. Twitter’s making the claim that this will help “lower the visibility of scams, spam and bots,” but time will time will tell whether that’s truly the case. Image Credits: ZebethMedia Musk earlier claimed that Twitter, which recently ended support for ad-free articles offered under Blue, would create a new program for bypassing paywalls for publishers willing to work with the company. But if he intends to follow through with the proposal, the program doesn’t appear to have made it into the new Blue — at least not at launch. Available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. on iOS to start, the new Twitter Blue arrives after mass layoffs at Twitter affecting roughly half of the company’s staff, including employees on key human rights, accessibility, AI ethics and curation teams. Musk has claimed that the cuts — along with the introduction of new paid features — are necessary to bring Twitter to profitability, as the company faces an estimated $1 billion a year in interest payments on $13 billion in debt. It’s likely to be an uphill battle. Data from analytics firm Sensor Tower suggests that Twitter’s app has generated only $6.4 million in in-app purchases to date, with Blue being the top purchase. Musk’s management of Twitter doesn’t appear to have instilled much confidence in major advertisers, however, many of whom have paused campaigns on the platform. In a tweet on Friday, Musk blamed a “massive drop” in Twitter revenue on “activist groups pressuring advertisers,” likely referring to an open letter sent Tuesday by civil society organizations urging Twitter advertisers to suspend their ads if Musk didn’t commit to enforcing safety standards and community guidelines.

Twitter chaos, Mastodon grows and WhatsApp launches Communities • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in Apps, This Week In AppsNo Comments

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly ZebethMedia series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has decreased. But overall, the app economy is continuing to grow, having produced a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS and Google Play last year was $133 billion, and consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps. This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place, with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more. Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters Twitter is dying, long live Twitter? Has it really only been a week since Elon Musk bought Twitter? It seems like a lifetime. The Tesla and SpaceX exec has wasted no time making the bird app his own, beginning with the almost immediate layoffs of the Twitter executive team, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde, before moving on to cut upper management, and then the widespread layoffs of staff. (Which he’s now being sued over, in fact, as the required 60 days legal notice wasn’t given.) Twitter is expected to cut 50% of its staff, or some 3,700 jobs. The roles being cut span areas large and small, from the mission-critical moderation, trust & safety, ethical AI and curation teams — just ahead of a major election, worryingly — as well as those working on more experimental features, like Communities, and in all sorts of business and tech areas like marketing, sales, policy, research, partnerships, accessibility, data science, machine learning, social good, communications and more, including core engineering. Twitter’s Developer Platform lead is out and the developer conference Chirp was also canceled. Employees are already warning that such significant cuts combined with cost-cutting in areas like cloud hosting will lead to difficulties in maintaining Twitter’s infrastructure, The Verge reports. Advertisers are growing worried about what the significant job cuts in key areas mean for brand safety and began putting their campaigns on pause until they know how this all shakes out. Twitter’s chief customer officer, Sarah Personette, who managed the company’s relationships with advertisers, also departed last Friday as a result of the takeover. Musk, of course, blames “activist groups” pressure for the advertiser situation and not his own actions. The Twitter product is also rapidly undergoing a change, as Musk plans to cut new features like Revue and Notes, and revamp the Twitter Blue subscription to make the blue check now a paid feature. He’s also been thinking about rebooting Vine. To say the changes are coming at a chaotic pace is an understatement. Employees were let go via emails and often still working when suddenly their access to Twitter’s internal resources was cut. (Not being able to log in was a clue to go check their personal email to find out if their job was eliminated.) Musk never communicated with staff before the layoffs, reports said. But his message, nonetheless was clear: Twitter is being reformed and it’s not going to be the same place it was ever again. The question now is, will users stay for it? Mastodon benefits from the Twitter exodus As it turns out, some people decided they won’t be sticking around for whatever Twitter is turning into. The open source, decentralized social network Mastodon is one platform that has benefitted from the Twitter takeover. In addition to seeing a record number of downloads for the Mastodon mobile app this past weekend, the nonprofit company also this week announced a new milestone. In a post on Twitter — where Mastodon has been successfully marketing its app to those now considering leaving the service — it noted that 230,000 people have joined Mastodon during the last week alone. Thanks to these new sign-ups, as well as people returning to old accounts they had set up previously, the network now has 655,000 active users, the post said. This is the highest number of users Mastodon has seen to date and follows on news that the network had gained over 70,000 new sign-ups on Friday, October 28 — the day after Musk’s deal to acquire Twitter had closed. From Friday through Sunday, the Mastodon mobile app also saw around 91,000 new installs, third-party data from Sensor Tower indicated — a 658% increase from the 12,000 installs it saw the three days prior. This rapid growth had some downsides as the largest service mastodon.social experienced lags and outages due to the sudden influx of new users. Plus, some users came to Mastodon without a full understanding of how a decentralized social network works and have found the process confusing or overly technical. They may have already given up and moved on to another platform, despite how this week was the prime opportunity to convince them of decentralization’s perks — like how Mastodon can’t be sold to a person like Musk. Soon, another decentralized social app will come for Twitter’s user base. Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey is launching Bluesky, a decentralized social protocol and app that intends to build a Twitter-like product in a different way. But the open source community has been frustrated with the Silicon Valley exec’s decision to go his own way with Bluesky, instead of using established protocols like ActivityPub, which powers Mastodon and others. Then there’s the fact that @Jack sold Twitter to Musk to begin with, so would anyone ever trust him again? Substack takes aim at Twitter, too Another company hoping to capitalize on Twitter’s upheaval is the newsletter platform Substack. The company openly

SaaS and alts • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in alternative assets, Enterprise, Fintech, SaaS, 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. As much as I like spotting new trends, it is just as important to get confirmation on previous predictions we made or heard. This week brought us some fodder in that regard, on two sectors that are pretty high on my radar: SaaS and alts. Let’s explore. — Anna Shrinking SaaS multiples, hard times for IPOs Alex and I spent quite a bit of time this week diving into Battery Ventures’ “State of the OpenCloud 2022” report. It brought some forward-looking data to our attention — for instance, on cloud adoption — but also confirmed something impossible to ignore: That SaaS multiples — enterprise value compared to revenue projections — are shrinking. “The median forward multiple for SaaS companies has fallen from about 16x forward revenues to roughly 6x today,” Battery general partner Dharmesh Thakker told us. Multiples haven’t only shrunk, but they have also range-compressed, with fewer rewards for the fastest-growing companies compared to slower-growing ones. There are many factors at play, but the gist of it is that profitability seems to matter again to the markets. As a result of that, we’re seeing the revenge of some old rules. “Adjusted for growth,” Thakker said, “companies today that show efficient growth as implied by the Rule of 40 (i.e., companies with a growth rate + free cash flow margin greater than or equal to 40) are trading at a premium to those that are growing without regard to profitability.” Note that it’s not either growth or profitability: It has to be both, and the bar to please investors seems to be getting higher and higher. A more demanding market is a worrying picture for the many unicorns waiting to IPO, as well as for their peers who already went public but struggle to maintain their market cap. Let’s also spare a thought for Alex, who may not get his hands on another juicy S-1 before Q2 2023.

Jack Dorsey breaks his silence, owns “responsibility for why everyone is in this situation” at Twitter • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, jack dorsey, Layoffs, Media & Entertainment, Startups, TwitterNo Comments

Jack Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter CEO less than one year ago, finally addressed the layoffs that impacted approximately 50% of the company he co-founded in 2006. The workforce reduction, led by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk, impacted thousands of people – and key teams working on human rights, accessibility, AI ethics and curation. “Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient,” Dorsey said on Twitter on Saturday morning. “They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.” Dorsey, who also stepped down from Twitter’s board five months ago, added that he’s “grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked at Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment…or ever…and I understand.” Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that. — jack (@jack) November 5, 2022 This is Dorsey’s first public comment since Musk took over the platform last week. In the past, Dorsey said that Musk is the “singular solution I trust.” Leaked documents from the Elon Musk v. Twitter trial give some insight into how Dorsey was thinking about the future of the social media company. Dorsey texted Musk that he left because Twitter needed to become a new platform – one that isn’t a company. “I believe it must be an open source protocol, funded by a foundation of sorts that doesn’t own the protocol, only advances it. A bit like what Signal has done. It can’t have an advertising model,” Dorsey texted Musk. Yesterday, impacted Twitter employees used the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked, a riff on the internal hashtag #LoveWhereYouWork, to thank each other, say goodbye and share personal news. As one former employee put it, the new hashtag is a “bittersweet phrase — not because I’m gone, but because it’s gone.” Despite Dorsey’s departure from his official roles at Twitter, his silence was noticed. Musk, meanwhile, addressed the layoffs on Friday evening. “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over [$4 million a day],” Musk tweeted. “Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.” Current and former Twitter employees can reach out to Natasha Mascarenhas at @nmasc_ or Signal, a secure messaging app, at (925) 271 0912.

Laid off? Climate tech is looking for talent and founders • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in Climate, climate tech, EC Food Climate and Sustainability, Layoffs, tech layoffsNo Comments

As rumors rumbled that the U.S. Federal Reserve would hike rates once more — and when it followed through earlier this week — another round of layoffs hit the tech sector. Stripe, Opendoor, Chime, Zillow, Cerebral, Brex, and of course Twitter, among others, have already cut or are about to eliminate thousands of jobs. That’s bad news for employees today, but it might be good news for the climate in the near future. Before we get too far, let me say up front that getting laid off is terrible and not something I wish to happen to anyone. Not knowing where your paychecks will come from or what benefits you’ll receive is difficult in the best of times, and it’s far worse when economic signs are mixed or major life changes are looming. I am not at all trying to minimize what people go through when they’ve been laid off. It’s happened to me, and it sucks. But layoffs also offer a chance at a new beginning. Even before the recent waves of layoffs started washing over the tech industry, people were leaving their old jobs for new opportunities in climate tech. While this is a ZebethMedia+ story, we made sure the paywall is below the key links in case you are job-hunting. Hugs — The TC+ team “One thing we’re seeing is really, really strong talent leaving larger companies,” Erin Price-Wright, a partner at Index Ventures, said at ZebethMedia Disrupt, “because some of the financial upside for public tech companies or maybe even late-stage tech companies has sort of vaporized in the last few months. And people are like, ‘Well, I had these golden handcuffs, and that was preventing me from working on what I really care about. And I don’t have that anymore. So I’m going to take a risk and I’m going to do something.’” Climate tech has been booming relative to the rest of the market, with startups in the sector raising $5.6 billion in the first half of this year, short of 2021’s crazy hauls but still well ahead of 2020, the next previous record, according to PitchBook. Five years from now, PitchBook expects the climate tech market to be worth $1.4 trillion, a compound annual growth rate of 8.8%. All those companies are in desperate need of talent. Nearly every early-stage founder in the climate tech space I’ve spoken with in recent months went out of their way to mention that they’re hiring. Job board Climatebase has hundreds of jobs listed right now, and that’s just a portion of the climate tech companies with active listings. Shaun Abrahamson, co-founder of climate-focused Third Sphere, pointed out that his firm’s portfolio companies are currently hiring for over 400 positions. Breakthrough Energy Ventures’ portfolio companies are hiring for nearly 1,200 positions. Elsewhere, around 100 companies are using the climate career platform Terra.do to directly connect with applicants, chief business officer Nishant Mani told ZebethMedia. The startup frequently runs virtual job fairs to match employees with employers, and business is booming. The platform’s user base is growing 50% month on month, and Mani is aiming to get 1,000 companies actively using the platform in the next six months.

Making DAOs accessible for normals on ZebethMedia Live • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in bloomberg beta, DAOs, Startups, TechCrunch Live, techcrunch live announcement, upstream, VentureNo Comments

Want to start a DAO? It’s not that hard. Want to join a DAO? It’s even easier, but there are several steps to get connected. Some of those steps are daunting. That’s why Alex Taub started Upstream, which attempts to make starting and onboarding for a DAO much easier. Tune in to the next ZebethMedia Live to hear form Alex and investor Karin Klein (Bloomberg Beta) on Upstream’s novel approach to decentralized autonomous organizations. This ZebethMedia Live event opens on November 9 at 11:30 a.m. PDT/2:30 p.m. EDT with networking. The interview begins at 12:00 p.m. PDT followed by the TCL Pitch Practice at 12:30 p.m. PDT. Apply for TCL Pitch Practice by completing this application. If you haven’t joined us before on Grip — our TCL online platform — click here to register for free and gain access to all ZebethMedia Live events, including ZebethMedia Live, City Spotlight, Startup Pitch Practice, Networking and other ZebethMedia community events, with just one registration. Already part of the ZebethMedia Live on Grip community? Click this link to add this session to your agenda!

Bitwise, Paradigm and Perkins Coie talk regs at TC Sessions: Crypto

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in bitwise investments, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, Securities and Exchange Commission, TC Sessions: Crypto, TC Sessions: Crypto 2022, TechCrunch Events 2022, VentureNo Comments

Crypto entities ranging from major exchanges to small projects are on the road to stateside regulation. Whether it comes through the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, many actors in the space are looking for concrete future guidance on how to build compliant businesses in an emerging sector while navigating rules built for traditional finance. And, while crypto founders and investors know regulation is inevitable, they’re also looking to find the sweetest deal possible as they try to influence policymakers. It’s a challenging balance — enough regulation to protect retail investors from a hostile environment but not so much that it stifles the crypto sector’s growth and future innovation in the space. This regulatory tug-of-war is just one reason why we’re thrilled that Katherine Dowling, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Bitwise Asset Management; Sarah Shtylman, partner at Perkins Coie; and Justin Slaughter, policy director at Paradigm, will join us for a session called, “Is Crypto Regulation Ready” at TC Sessions: Crypto in Miami on November 17. We’ll discuss whether or not there’s been an increase in institutional adoption and how the regulatory framework might impact adoption going forward. Given the frustration over the lack of clarity in regulatory guidance, we’ll ask Dowling, Shtylman and Slaughter how legal crypto firms and counsels advise clients to navigate the present landscape while still operating in a compliant way. Dowling brings a unique perspective to the table, having experience working both in private equity firms and as a federal prosecutor in the Economic Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Shtylman brings deep knowledge of fintech and blockchain and Slaughter brings legal and advisory experience in both the public and private sectors. We’ll dive into the latest insights on how emerging regulatory frameworks will affect the digital asset industry and get their take on whether we can expect to see clarity on this in the U.S. by the end of the year. Prior to joining Bitwise, Dowling served in general counsel, CCO and COO roles at several financial and private equity firms. She also co-founded Luminate Capital Partners, where she held positions as GP, managing director and COO. A Harvard Law graduate, Dowling spent more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, most recently in the Economic Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, where she worked with the FBI, SEC, IRS and other agencies to prosecute insider trading, fraud and money laundering cases, among others. She also serves on the boards of two nonprofit organizations. As a partner at Perkins Coie, Sarah Shtylman focuses on the fintech and blockchain industries. The clients she advises range from entrepreneurs and startups to big tech and regulated financial institutions. Shtylman counsels on a variety of regulatory, commercial, compliance and product development projects — including NFTs, regulated digital asset platforms, in-game currencies and payment services integrations. Shtylman has advised clients through the application and compliance processes for state and federal trust charters, money transmission licensing and registration and lending licenses. She has engaged directly with state and federal regulators to discuss the applicability of various financial services regulatory regimes to emerging blockchain technology platforms and protocols that her clients are developing. Prior to Perkins Coie, Shtylman served as in-house regulatory counsel at Coinbase and has experience with cryptocurrency network development and launches, asset-backed digital tokens (including stablecoins), peer-to-peer lending, corporate governance, Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration and financial services litigation. Prior to joining Paradigm, Justin Slaughter was director of the office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs and senior advisor to Acting Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Allison Herren Lee. He has also served as chief policy advisor and special counsel to former Commissioner Sharon Bowen at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and general counsel to Senator Edward J. Markey. Slaughter has also served as a consultant in private practice focusing on fintech and smaller technology companies, and he began his career as a law clerk to Judge Jerome Farris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Justin has a B.A. from Columbia University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Take advantage of our early bird pricing and save $150 on General Admission passes. Buy your pass today, and then join the blockchain, crypto, DeFi, NFT and web3 communities at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami. Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.