Immoderata Tech #5
Welcome to the latest edition of Immoderata Tech, a newsletter about key developments impacting the broader technology ecosystem. Our goal is to inform and educate our readers - ultimately to make you (and us) better technology investors, operators, and advisors.
Immoderata is an investment group that backs ambitious technology companies. If you are an angel investor (or want to be), feel free to join us and gain access to great deal flow.
Portfolio News
Congratulations to the ChargerHelp! team on closing their $17.5M Series A round of funding! More here.
Climate
Climate funding gap hinders first-of-a-kind hardware ventures. More here.
Tesla to start opening up at least 3,500 of its Supercharger stations to non-Tesla EVs. More here.
Nifty crash course on ClimateTech. More here.
eCommerce
Jumia’s performance raises questions about Amazon-style B2C eCommerce in African markets. More here.
Stripe continues to sign on major payment partners to grow a stagnating business. More here.
Crypto
Terraform Labs founder faces SEC securities fraud charges. More here.
Legal trouble brewing for Binance as international operations may have influence over the US business. More here.
AI & Computing
Google’s chip investments may help it close the gap with Amazon’s cloud business. More here.
Microsoft streamlines its cloud business with a round of layoffs. More here.
Machine intelligence should scare you, according to Sam Altman. More Here and here.
Workforce
A new vintage of founders emerge from tech layoffs. More here.
Startups that held off going public find themselves in a tricky spot trying to manage their employees’ stock shares. More here.
Capital
NAIC quantifies the contributions of Black alternative asset managers. More here.
The VC slowdown is a natural part of the cycle. More here.
Deep Dive
How to operate a SaaS startup. More here.
Powerful Ideas
We all know that distinctiveness – originality – is valuable. We are all taught to “be yourself.” What I’m really asking you to do is to embrace and be realistic about how much energy it takes to maintain that distinctiveness. The world wants you to be typical – in a thousand ways, it pulls at you. Don’t let it happen.
You have to pay a price for your distinctiveness, and it’s worth it. The fairy tale version of “be yourself” is that all the pain stops as soon as you allow your distinctiveness to shine. That version is misleading. Being yourself is worth it, but don’t expect it to be easy or free. You’ll have to put energy into it continuously.
Until next time,
Eric
P.S. - Feel free to email us or text with questions, comments, or feedback. We love hearing from you!
This newsletter does not constitute an offering or form part of any offering or any solicitation of any offer to subscribe to or purchase any investment by Immoderata, LLC, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with any contract therefore. Any such offer will be made only by means of definitive investment offering documents. The information included in this newsletter is subject to change without notice to any recipient.