For most small firms, employment growth is slow A new study from JPMorgan Chase Institute found that the median small business is adding fewer than one full-time position a year. The study highlights the economic challenges facing many small businesses. It runs contrary to the belief that in general, entrepreneurship is a driver of economic growth and prosperity. (Wall Street Journal)
This article makes a huge and incorrect logical leap, that a small business is the same thing as an entrepreneurial business. Almost every doctor and lawyer is privileged private practice is a sub 10 person LLC or Partnership, and these make up a huge number of the "small firms" in the U.S. Do you considered these entrepreneurial firms? Job drivers? How about food trucks, small restaurants, lawn care guys, nail shops... All small companies and individually certainly entrepreneurial, but this was a thread about startups and venture capital, are we talking about all these small businesses which are structurally limited to about a dozen jobs a piece now? It's a different conversation if we are, something that this headline intentionally conflates, is all.
Sofia Vergara’s startup closes ‘mid-seven figure’ Series A Formed by the actress, a longtime business partner and the former president of Fox 21 Television Studios, Raze willlaunch laterthis year as a mobile- and video-first destination that will be a hub for news, lifestyle and beauty. The undisclosed funding round came from UTA, Greycroft Partners and Raine Ventures.(Variety)
Health startup raises $90M to analyze Medicaid data A San Francisco-based health startup thatanalyzes health information using datafrom Medicaid, has raised more than $90 million in funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Called Nuna, the company aims to use data to answer questions about emerging disease clusters, billing patterns and other issues that can be gleaned from 74 million Medicaid patients.
Cisco buys AppDynamics, preempting its IPO AppDynamics, a San Francisco-based startup, has been purchased byCisco for $3.7 billion,just days before the software company had planned to go public. AppDynamics would've been worth $1.6 billion had the offering price on its shares fallen between $12 and $14.(San Francisco Chronicle)
Airbnb could be acquiring S.F. startup Tilt Tilt, a social payment startup based in San Francisco, is intalks with Airbnbfor a possible acquisition for a price upwards of $50 million. Tilt works in the payment space around social gatherings and events, and could fit Airbnb's ambitions to extend beyond lodging to encompass the whole trip experience.(TechCrunch)
Milpitas smart glass startup is latest to get $100M megafunding This year's string of Bay Area tech megafundings continuedon Tuesdaywith a $100 million round for Milpitas smart-glass developer View.TIAA Investments led the round, described as a first close of a Series G funding, that the Wall Street Journal reports values the company at close to $1 billion.(Silicon Valley Business Journal)
Sourcebits acquired by Ascendum Ascendum Solutions said it plans to acquire Sourcebits, aSan Francisco-based mobile app designer, with offerings in analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud solutions across several industries, including retail, financial services, wellness, travel and technology. Ascendum is based in Cincinnati. Sourcebits has offices in San Francisco, London and Bangalore.(CRN)
Self Propelling Delivery Robots Testing In the Mission A Dispatch delivery robot on 19th Street (not pictured: delivery robot handler with controller). Photo by Laura Wenus ByLaura Wenus Posted3 hours ago FacebookTwitterShare What’s this? It’s a delivery robot from Dispatch, as its handler must have told a million people today with impressively good humor (it literally says “delivery” right on the side but everyone who saw this little fella trundling down the street still had to ask, including me). The guys whose legs you see in the photo said they thought it might be ice cream, but sadly, no frozen treats were to be had – from what I could gather, the robot is learning the sidewalks of the Mission and beyond. Dispatch is a startup withsome $2 million in seed fundingthat hastested its delivery bot on two college campuses. The robot, called Carry, is about three feet tall and is meant to make multiple deliveries per walking-speed trip. The recipient unlocks the robot’s compartment with an app. There are several companies trying to figure out the “last mile” of getting products to customers in an era where going into a store is apparently passé. Last year a company called Starshiptested something similar out in the Richmond. The challenge is efficiency and timeliness – asone investor noted to Forbes, despite all the fuss about flying drone delivery, keeping delivery robots grounded is significantly cheaper. The question is how it will stack up against human-powered competition. Are bike messengers’ jobs facing automation? No word yet from Dispatch media relations about Mission-specific plans for the Carries.