Who Cares What I Think (WCWIT) #11 : Launch Ticker Weekend Highlights…

Tuesday, August 16, 2016 — Jason Calacanis’, @jason, just plain excellent record of producing some seriously decent, useful content continues in his tech news feed, “Launch Ticker”. Sign up. This is one of the only newsletters I’ve ever actually read, let alone find incredibly useful, distilled and engrossing enough to quickly shape my macro tech thoughts — daily.1. Big Shifts, Whispered Rumors Arianna Huffington announces her departure from the Huffington Post; the editor-in-chief and co-founder recently signed a deal to remain with the company till 2019, but will instead focus on her soon-to-launch startup Thrive Global; Huffington founded the online publication with Kenneth Lerer, Andrew Breitbart and Jonah Peretti in 2005 before selling to AOL in 2011 — Link Recode’s Peter Kafka postulates Arianna Huffington’s departure from the Huffington Post, suggesting it may be connected to Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo; Kafka cites an unnamed source, who posits Huffington’s influence would likely be diluted in a Yahoo/AOL media restructure — Link Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global raises $7M Series A led by Lerer Hippeau; will target corporate clients and consumers with courses, coaching, other tools and resources for balancing productivity and wellbeing; plans to launch an online shop offering scented candles, mattresses, more — Link This is crazy. The end of an era. Huff Po has set so many digital publishing standards, and it’s open platform has hosted the worst and the best of modern journalism, on a relatively even distribution. It’s not going away, of course, but it’s figurehead is, and rumor supports the idea that Yahoo’s next swell to find it’s place in the market may eclipse the platform. 2. Moorebot v. Jibo Overseas backers of the delayed Jibo social robot have been told they won’t be receiving their device, according to TechCrunch; launched on IndieGoGo in 2014, the campaign raised $3.7M from 45 countries, promising to deliver a product that could read messages, run apps, take photos and more; the firm seemingly emailed customers outside of North America, claiming the device won’t work in their country; represents the latest crowdfunding controversy — Link Yeah. We NEED BETTER VETTING on crowdfunding platforms. This is insane. Nearly $4M for… Moorebot launches Kickstarter campaign for animated camera; claims to be able to be able to entertain users and work as an AI personal assistant; records audio and video; raised $36K on $30K goal, ends September 14 — Link Entertainment. That was our last stand as humankind. Ah well. Global investment in robotics to grow 17% per annum until 2020, according to study by Technavio; sees three reasons for the increase: race for robotics patents, demand for lower system engineering costs, and growing demand for industrial automation — Link Do Furbys count? If Furbys count, my estate is well secured for generations. If Furbys don’t count, you can find me at the Williamsburg Flea Market every saturday! 3. I’ll Soon Be Embarrassed By How Impressed I Am Seagate showcases a 60TB SSD, the world’s largest by capacity; the enterprise-focused device comes in a 3.5” form factor and makes use of Micron’s latest NAND flash technology; release and pricing details remains unclear, but the report suggests it’ll be between $30 to $40k — Link That is massive… and so tiny! I can’t wait to be humiliated by this claim soon enough. 4. An Important Precedent A California court dismisses a lawsuit claiming Twitter is culpable in the rise of Daesh; the suit posited 30k foreigners had been recruited via a Daesh Twitter account in 2015 alone, but the judge ruled the plaintiffs had not presented a compelling argument; the suit was filed by the family of Lloyd Fields, a US contractor killed by a terrorist attack in Jordan — Link Good. You can’t hold platforms like this responsible for tangential actions — whose enactors happen to be users who shout & clamor on said platform… 5. Meanwhile, in Ireland… Ireland approves extradition to US for alleged Silk Road administrator, Gary Davis; in correspondence with Ars Technica last month, Davis reported having received no formal charges — Link …But state application of this premise is spotty at best. 6. Nnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooo Snapchat removes a filter following criticism for perceived “yellowface” grievances; the firm claims the overlay was anime-inspired, but that the effect would not be made available again; follows previous controversy over a Bob Marley filter, and multiple claims of “blackface” — Link Ohhhhh Nooooooo. Woah boy. Yeah… Eeeeeven if that guy is in some anime that I’ve never seen, in all my casual, but regular, imgur browsing, that’s a weirdly racist anime, and I’m willing to bet it’s not a Schumer-esque satirical skewering of racism either. The decision to hand pick that one to include was… yeah there’s just absolutely no excuse. I wouldn’t boycott or sue over it, but whoever did that is a… just a poor unfortunate soul of a dum dum. Jesus. 7. I Want Information… In…formation… Data analysis company Palantir acquires data visualization and publishing platform Silk; terms undisclosed; provides collaborative tools for importing and visualizing data for sharing; Silk’s cloud platform will continue to operate but will not be updated; the startup previously raised $1.6M — Link Hey thanks for the visualizer! Why don’t you just “process” all of my data. I bet you won’t use it to feed your cybersec basilisk at all! You gotta get up migh-ty early in the morning to pull the wool over the eyes of this fox! 8. Interplanetary Fire Catchers SolarCity plans a solar roofing replacement product; as opposed to modules that are affixed to an existing roof; two new products will be unveiled by year’s end; Elon Musk says the new business plan will not cannibalize existing SolarCity business — Link Yeah. This seems very reasonable. Hopefully they figure out a way to make it commercially viable, and not just completely depend on state subsidies. I mean, I wish we could shut off war spend, and a whoooole host of other wildly misallocated funds in favor of advanced tech sponsorship — but there’s also a reason why we don’t make central, top down, decisions in the market — they don’t actually ever work. 9. Q, Homeschooled Free cybersecurity education resource Cybrary (Android, web) raises $1.3M seed led by Arthur Ventures and Ron Gula; offers courses, study guides and practice tests for learners at all levels; also provides forums for Q&A, study groups, job searching; raised $1.7M to date — Link Well, this is pretty cool. I’d love to start a summer camp franchise, raising up lil’ mission impossible techs — or just learn the core essentials here myself, stop getting yelled at by backend dudes about my laughable web security standards, misapplied SSL certificates, or the fact that I sometimes post my passwords on people’s facebook walls — when I meant to say “Happy Birthday”. 10. Hyperlocal Hydroponic Hemp Indoor marijuana cultivation startup Leaf raises $2M seed; has developed an app-connected grow system with automatic nutrient, temperature and humidity control; the box (24 by 24 by 60 inches) also features a drying mode to prepare marijuana for consumption; plans to launch this fall; price undisclosed — Link Can I also use this to make my own ropes, t-shirts, and protein powder? Then you’ve got my attention, sirs & Ma’ams. 11. Fool me once, shame on…shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again! New Adblock filter reportedly blocks Facebook’s new desktop ads; Facebook recently announced that ad blockers no longer work on the desktop website, and that ad-blocking software would have to analyze content in order to work; the Adblock community created the new workaround — Link Yeah. STOP trying to force feed terrible content and experiences to your users. That’s not a business model that we’ll continue to prop up. Death to terrible 19th cetury digital marketing, long live the new formats! 12. Alibaba Store Fronts… Alibaba ($235B market cap) Q2 beats: $4.8B revenue, up 59 percent YoY ($4.54B expected); $3.5B core marketplace revenue, up 49 percent YoY; first quarter with higher mobile monetization than non-mobile; $187M cloud business revenue, up 156 percent YoY — Link Alibaba announces intent to expand into consumer products, reports Bloomberg; CFO Maggie Wu promised to spend ‘billions’ to oust competitors from rural markets for household products; will use investment in Suning Commerce to establish storefronts and warehouses — Link Following whatever data Amazon saw that compelled them to open storefronts, Alibaba will soon follow suit, disrupting the Chinese local retailer market, bringing accessible goods to everyone they can reach. This should have pretty dramatic results on the global economy, and I’m excited to see it. 13. Twitter… Both Twitter and former CEO, Dick Costolo, push back against a BuzzFeed report suggesting past inadequacies in the firm’s handling of harassment; the story also claimed Costolo often disagreed with other executives on tackling issues of abuse, therefore allowing them to flourish; Twitter issued a short response, claiming “inaccuracies” in the report, while Costolo called it “total nonsense” — Link Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo oversaw filtering of abuse aimed at President Obama during a Q&A session in 2015, according to BuzzFeed; the covert algorithm was purportedly built using thousands of examples of abusive posts, while employees from its media partnerships team supposedly monitored and censored incoming tweets; the report also claims the efforts were kept from senior staff so as to avoid internal objections — Link Twitter denies rumors it is set to close next year as #SaveTwitter begins to trend; the origins of the hashtag remain unclear, but some suggest it was initially linked to anti-bullying posts — Link Twitter announces promoted stickers, which can be applied to uploaded photos; launching with Pepsi, the sponsored graphics are shown below the regular set — Link Twitter is in talks to bring its app to Apple TV, according to the New York Times; the moves are seemingly linked to Twitter’s live sports efforts, with the report also suggesting users may receive in-app notiifcations when an event begins — Link The more frequent Twitter’s announcements become, the more nervous I get for them. 14. THIS, THIS, 1000x THIS Amazon is reportedly set to launch a series of Japanese cooking shows that let users purchase ingredients via an onscreen 1 Click button; the Amazon Prime exclusives will purportedly launch in the fall, but it remains unclear if they will be available to US audiences — Link THIS is what the face of advertising needs to be. I’ve been… waiting. “…I did my waiting, 12 years of it…” — Serius Black, Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban. Oh my god this… 15. asdas Spotify launches a new video game music portal, featuring complete soundtracks and curated playlists; includes songs from Minecraft, Halo, Grand Theft Auto and more — Link Kewl. Okay so Zelda, Final Fantasy, Mario… Am I the only one who’s going to be looking up the theme to Knights from Sega Saturn? 16. Nah… We good. Lyft declines GM acquisition interest, plans another raise, according to sources for The Information; Lyft reportedly spoke with other potential buyers following GM’s approach; GM acquired 9 percent of Lyft earlier this year for $500M ($5.5B valuation); Lyft has raised $2B to date — Link I really wonder where GM is going with this. Certainly better than the strategy guiding the past few decades over there, but… ODMS apps? I get it’s car-related, but… Hopefully they weren’t angling to either require GM cars, solely, on Lyft, or add to the incredible, ominous, subprime car-loan problem, incentivizing new drivers or upgrading drivers to lease GM cars especially, because… We ain’t bailing them out when they tear this economy asunder, again. 17. Yeah… Let’s Just See How That Plays In Brooklyn NoWait, an app that holds a user’s place in line at no-reservation restaurants, raises $8M from Yelp; lets users browse partner restaurants and their current wait times; a user can join the wait list, get notified when a table is ready; Yelp will integrate features into its own app — Link I’d love for this to have a successful execution, but, after some up close and personal research here, it seems very unlikely to get grassroots support. 18. Them Cubes Tho Minecraft is coming to Oculus Rift next week; requires Minecraft for Windows 10 (beta), which is free for those who have purchased other versions of the game — Link I’m sure this is going to be a great interface for Minecraft. Get those kids’ limbs moving, while developing their engineering chops and creative neuro-plasticity. 19. Stop Trying to Make G+ Happen, It’s Not Going to Happen! Google Play Store will no longer require users have a Google+ profile to post reviews; change is currently rolling out; Google last year separated Google+ from YouTube’s commenting system and has rolled back Google+ dependencies in other Google products — Link Good. You introduced some nice features, on a platter to Facebook, but no one is going to seriously or regularly “be” a G+ member, whatever that was intended to mean. It’s nice to see them adjusting to the market, when their coffers could otherwise afford them a lagging buffer to reality. 20. SO DUMB Microsoft expands scope of Right to be Forgotten filtering for Bing searches in Europe; now removes affected results from all Bing domain suffixes, not just European suffixes; uses location-based signals, such as IP address, to identify origin country of search; adheres to local laws — Link Yeah, okay. Hey, Bing, why not just expand the policy just explicitly telling anyone searching for reliable results to use anything else? I mean, Google has been accused, recently, of weighing in on SEO for politically slanted results, as with FB, but this is just… childish. 21. No offense, but this is my jam, tho MIT and Microsoft Research showcase smart temporary tattoo, DuoSkin; claim it can be used to control a smartphone; consists of a circuit based in gold leaf, and can be also used to store data — Link Can’t wait to design my complicated break dance that sends tweets and unlocks my car, without the need to send vulnerable-to-hack signals. 22. Trouble at the Ole’ Monkey Inferno Monkey Inferno shutters video chat app, Blab; cited poor streaming quality and lack of active users; also noted that intended usage of brand promotion was largely ignored, users instead used it as a digital hangout place — Link Yeah, I’d heard some Blab about Blab, but at least half of it was streams seizing or failing. They say that’s basically what killed Friendster — more focused on marketing deals than fixing the 1min+ load time on the platform. 23. The Less Willpower I Need to Muster, The Better Yogi Do List (iOS) aims to provide users with a daily schedule of poses; includes audio instructions for each; increases in difficulty over time — Link The less decision fatigue in scheduling, structuring, and following up on workout plans, the higher the chance of success, I reckon. Seems a bit passive, still, but audio AR VPAs will soon flood this market. 24. But Why Make a Thing For That? VST Technology launches Kickstarter campaign for runner’s wearable, STEPP; claims to track progress, offer encouragement, and analyze technique; raised $19K on $70K goal, ends October 7 — Link Seems like the major value-add is the software that analyzes and suggests proactive action, so why not just develop a partner app for misfit, fitbit, or apple watch? I’d be very curious to hear why they felt building that meh-looking pebble with all the risk of investing in hardware was a better MVP strategy than a mobile app, or even web app, alone? 25. Awesome. SpaceX lands Falcon 9 rocket successfully for sixth time; is also the fourth successful landing on a drone ship; placed a satellite into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO); a recent attempt at this resulted in a crash upon reentry — Link I call shotgun on the next one. 26. Just Tilt Me Later Crowdfunding app Tilt (iOS, Android) adds P2P payment service; intended to satisfy the demand for international service leftover by Venmo, a PayPal subsidiary; has raised $62M to date — Link Yeah, I’d heard only 4 people were ever on Venmo, and that they’d stopped supporting development on it a couple of years ago, once they were acquihired by PayPal (do I repeat myself?). Tilt has been a great lil’ platform, intelligently chugging along for a few years & I’d be happy to see this very flexible platform scale in exactly this way. 27. Want Floatie Things Levitation Works launches Kickstarter campaign for levitation smartwatch charger, LIFT; works with both Apple Watch and Pebble; claims to double as a lamp or smartphone charger; raised $182K on $44K goal, ends September 22 — Link I was going to p’shaw this, but couldn’t dismiss the overwhelming desire to have it. Friction is so 2000 and late. 28. The Discombobulator’s Modulator’s Mal…feasancing. Research into orbital angular momentum (OAM) may vastly increase fiber optic capacities, reports Ars Technica; despite advances, challenges include the fabrication of cables capable of preventing the light from spilling into other spectrums and creating cross talk, and more — Link This just, phonetically, sounds cooler than it is. Basically the weird ‘other’ calls you sometimes here on Skype, if you’re, for some reason, still using Skype. 29. Before he speak his suit bespoke. And you thought he was cute before.Look at this peacoat, tell me he’s broke. (Woo!)Online shopping service Outfittery raises $22M D led by Octopus Ventures with participation from U-Start Club and others; the German-based firm offers personalized outfits for men; raised almost $60M to date — Link They have 50 Twitter followers! That’s, like… 10 point… $10.2M per follower! Good on them. After exploring the platform, this is basically EXACTLY what I’ve been waiting for since about 2001 in a specialized search engine. Soon it’ll be available for non-business-bros, I’m sure. 30. And The Oscar Goes to… The Openning Movie Clip to GTO : Desmoine!! VTribeca Film Festival will accept applications for virtual reality titles to premiere at the organization’s main event in 2017; virtual reality was previously relegated to Tribeca’s Virtual Arcade — ineligible for awards and main event screenings; Tribeca says virtual reality will be on equal footing with traditional films — Link This is exciting, though, somewhat quelled with the nauseating, add-nothing, disappointment that 3D movie experiences have brought. Must be a thrilling, paralysis-inducing, premise as a movie maker faced with the option to build in entire worlds, to at least look at, potentially blending with gaming in choose your own adventure experiences. That’s at least something I’d justify going out for, over Netflix. 31. Don’t Try & Convince Me That’s Not One of Those Hell Raiser Puzzles. Lenovo announces two VR-ready gaming PCs; the IdeaCentre Y710 Cube starts at $1.3k, and the IdeaCentre AIO Y910 all-in-one starts at $1.8k; base models include 2TB HDD with 256GB SSD, 32GB RAM and a GTX 1070 GPU; both available in October — Link Juuuuuuuust look at that thing. 32. Isn’t that neat. Mimo (iOS) lets users practice writing code via their mobile device; includes support for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Swift and more — Link Hm. Well would ya look at that. 1. Funding Breakdown : Aug 1 — Aug 15 42 Deals: $1,132,795,000 — Biotech/Health — 12 Deals: $ 364,400,000 — Consumer Internet — 5 Deals: $333,020,000 — Enterprise — 12 Deals: $168,900,000 — Data/Storage — 4 Deals: $98,825,000 — AR/VR — 1 Deal: $80,000,000 — AI/Machine Learning — 3 Deals: $61,300,000 — Cloud — 2 Deals: $22,000,000 — Cybersecurity — 2 Deals: $3,000,000 — Gaming — 1 Deal: $1,350,000 Funding by Category Funding by Week Number of Deals by Week — Biotech/Health — — CVRx, creates device to identify heart failure and hypertension: $113M from Johnson & Johnson Innovation. — Accolade, on-demand health concierge for businesses:$70M Series E from Andreessen Horowitz. — Honor, provides home-care network for seniors: $42MSeries B from Thrive Capital. — Woundtech, provides SaaS solutions for over 250 health insurance plans: $40M Series A from Aldrich Capital Partners. — Cleave Bioscience, creates an oncology drug: $37MSeries B from Celgene, Nextech Invest, Arcus Ventures, et al. — Vestaron, creates insecticides using environmentally safe peptides: $18M Series D from Pangaea Ventures, Anterra Capital, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, and Open Prairie Ventures. — Metabolon, assesses health using metabolomics: $15Mundisclosed from Pelion Venture Partners, Square Peg Capital. — Aligned TeleHealth, provides end-to-end telemedicine service: $12M Series A undisclosed from SV Life Sciences. — Iconic Therapeutics, develops protein fusion to combat vision loss: $10M Series C from Xeraya Capital, MPM Capital, HBM Healthcare Investments, et al. — CareSkore, predictive population health analytics: $4.3Mseed from Cota Capital, Storm ventures, Rising Tide Fund, et al. — Alafair, designs surgical products for soft tissue repair:$2M Series A from ATP Fund. — Workit Health, 90-day digital fitness program: $1.1M seed from Montage Ventures, Lux Capital. — Consumer Internet — — Carvana, online auto retailer: $160M Series C from undisclosed. — Memebox, online platform for Korean beauty products:$69.9M Series C from Formation Group. — Finova, auto title lending platform: $52M undisclosed from MHS Capital, Refactor Capital, Metamorphic Venture, et al. — Refinery29, online women-oriented publication: $45Mundisclosed from Turner. — Glovo, European Postmates-competitor: $5.57M Series A from Antai Venture Builder, Seaya Ventures, et al. — Enterprise — — Kaltura, provides video technology solutions: $50Mundisclosed from Goldman Sachs. — FullContact, professional contact-management platform:$25M undisclosed from Foundry Group. — Bynder, enables branding automation: $22.3M Series A from Insight Venture Partners. — Engagio, marketing platform for B2B companies: $22MSeries B from Norwest Venture Partners. — Farmer’s Business Network, data-share network for farmers: $20M undisclosed from Acre Venture Partners. — Innoviz, develops LIDAR laser-sensors for self-driving cars: $9M Series A from Vertex Venture Capital, Magma Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures. — Smooch, B2C chat platform; $7.6M seed from Real Ventures, iNovia Capital. — Kepler, satellite-based IoT network for space: $5M seed from IA Ventures. — QASymphony, testing software provider for businesses:$3M Venture Loan from Bridge Bank. — Leaf, provides marijuana growing system: $2M Seed from CJV Capital. — BrandYourself, online image management platform: $2Mundisclosed from FF Angel, New Atlantic Ventures. — Finexio, B2B payment network: $1M seed from James R. Heistand. — Data/Storage — — MapR, provides converged data platform: $50Mundisclosed from Future Fund. — MiningLamp, big data analysis for enterprise: $30MSeries B from Sequoia China. — Innovaccer, big data platform for distributed data assets:$15.6M Series A from Westbridge Capital Partners. — Viridis, student assessment platform for colleges: $3.225M Series A from Thayer Ventures. — AR/VR — — NextVR, platform for long-form VR broadcasts: $80MSeries B from CITIC Guoan, NetEase, CMC Holdings, SoftBank Corp, et al. — AI/Machine Learning — — Interactions, natural language service for customer care:$56M undisclosed from Revolution Growth, NewSpring Capital, Comcast Ventures. — SmartCAT, provides translation automation platform:$2.8M seed from RedSeed. — Koko, chatbot-based P2P therapy network: $2.5M Series A from Omidyar Network, Union Square Ventures. — Cloud — — Zenoti, cloud management platform for spa/salon industry: $15M Series B from Norwest Venture Partners. — Xperial, assists building and hosting of RWW platforms:$7M undisclosed from Andy Bechtolsheim, Brad O’Neill, John Hennessy, Scott Cook, et al. — Cybersecurity — — UpGuard, evaluates companies’ cybersecurity preparedness: $1.7M Series B from Pelion Venture Partners, Square Peg Capital. — Cybrary, social network for cybersecurity: $1.3M seed from Arthur Ventures, Ron Gula. — Gaming — — Bossa Studios, develops online multiplayer game:$1.35M undisclosed from London Venture Partners. If we missed anything, post a comment on our public sheet or email [email protected]/* */ Again, definitely, definitely subscribe to J-Cal’s Launch Ticker for more information, less uninformed exposition, updated daily @https://www.launchticker.com/ Tweet me at @ElizabethHunker to yell praise / threats / dadaist riffs at me on this post, or life in general.