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VOICE ARCHIVE

Ben Bergman

@thebenbergman
22 posts
2025-08-23
New deep dive: SPVs have been surging in popularity as retail investors scramble for stock in hot AI companies. .@bgurley has a rule: “Friends don't let friends buy SPVs.” “They have a ‘stink’ to them,” Gurley told me. “Good founders know this.” https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
2025-08-23 View on X
Business Insider

A surge in AI company valuations is driving the popularity of special purpose vehicles, but some involve high fees, opaque structures, and layers of middlemen

- SPVs have been surging in popularity as retail investors scramble for stock in hot AI companies.

@ankurnagpal @LeslieFeinzaig .@bgurley on SPVs... “For an investor that puts none or very little of his money upfront, the SPV is a ‘free roll,’ Gurley said. “You collect the management fee, and if it works, you get paid. If it fails, there's no cost at all. So it promotes very risk-seeking behavior.”
2025-08-23 View on X
Business Insider

A surge in AI company valuations is driving the popularity of special purpose vehicles, but some involve high fees, opaque structures, and layers of middlemen

- SPVs have been surging in popularity as retail investors scramble for stock in hot AI companies.

Yesterday, OpenAI published a warning that unauthorized SPVs could make investments worthless. “We urge you to be careful if you are contacted by a firm that purports to have access to OpenAI,” the company said, warning that in some cases, the “sale will not be recognized.”
2025-08-23 View on X
Business Insider

A surge in AI company valuations is driving the popularity of special purpose vehicles, but some involve high fees, opaque structures, and layers of middlemen

- SPVs have been surging in popularity as retail investors scramble for stock in hot AI companies.

@ankurnagpal .@LeslieFeinzaig described the SPV craze as like the “wild west.” “AI is going to create multiple trillion-dollar companies, and there's just a lot of expectations and a lot of hype surrounding it,” she said. “I have an assumption that there's a lot of grift.”
2025-08-23 View on X
Business Insider

A surge in AI company valuations is driving the popularity of special purpose vehicles, but some involve high fees, opaque structures, and layers of middlemen

- SPVs have been surging in popularity as retail investors scramble for stock in hot AI companies.

2025-02-26
SCOOP: Mira Murati's new startup, Thinking Machine Labs, is aiming to raise a $1 billion funding round at a roughly $9 billion valuation, sources tell us. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
2025-02-26 View on X
Business Insider

Sources: Mira Murati's new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is aiming to raise $1B at a ~$9B valuation; the round is in progress and details could change

Business Insider : X: @julia_hornstein and @thebenbergman X: Julia Hornstein / @julia_hornstein : late-night scoop w @thebenbergman: mira murati's new ai startup, thinking machine...

2024-08-20
Today: In Sicily, Autonomy cofounder Mike Lynch is missing after a “tornado-like column of air and water” sinks the yacht he rented to celebrate legal victory in a fraud trial. https://www.wsj.com/... In the UK, his co-defendant dies after being hit by a car while jogging. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
2024-08-20 View on X
Associated Press

Ex-Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, who was acquitted on US fraud charges in June 2024, is among six missing after a superyacht sank off Sicily, per Italian authorities

A luxury superyacht carrying foreign tourists capsized and sank off the Italian island of Sicily in bad weather early Monday.

2024-08-15
Eric Schmidt the past month: From messy affairs to WFH, a walking PR disaster.
2024-08-15 View on X
Wall Street Journal

Eric Schmidt says he “misspoke” when he said Google was losing the AI race because the company decided that “working from home was more important than winning”

Ex-Google CEO had said the tech company's work-life balance was ‘more important than winning’

2023-12-06
OpenView, founded in 2006, has raised seven funds totaling $2.4 billion. The firm only raised $570 million for its latest fund, 30% shy of the $800 million target. This is unfortunately just the start of what will be a wave of “zombie funds.”
2023-12-06 View on X
The Information

Source: VC firm OpenView laid off most of its staff and does not plan to make new investments, after several partners recently left the firm

OpenView Venture Partners is a VC firm which raised $2.4 billion and is now shutting down because they don't think they can generate returns for their LPs. … X: @saranormous : Dram...

2023-11-22
I just spoke to one LP who was quite surprised Shleifer is moving to a different role. Also notable Shleifer did not deliver the news himself. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
2023-11-22 View on X
The Information

Tiger Global Management's Scott Shleifer will transition from his role leading private investments to a senior adviser role, effective January 1, 2024

and a map of his empire Kul Bhushan / Entrackr : Tiger Global's private investment head Scott Shleifer steps down Connie Loizos / TechCrunch : Tiger Global chieftain Scott Shleifer...

2023-11-07
Neumann adds: “I believe that, with the right strategy and team, a reorganization will enable WeWork to emerge successfully.”
2023-11-07 View on X
Bloomberg

WeWork's bankruptcy caps a years-long saga for Masayoshi Son, who overrode lieutenants' objections to hand Adam Neumann billions, losing SoftBank over $11.5B

- Co-working space's bankruptcy highlights billionaire's hubris  — Few checks on SoftBank CEO as he prepares to go on offensive

Neumann adds: “I believe that, with the right strategy and team, a reorganization will enable WeWork to emerge successfully.”
2023-11-07 View on X
CNBC

WeWork, valued at $47B in 2019, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for its US and Canada locations, and reports liabilities ranging from $10B to $50B

The company reported liabilities ranging … Kritikopoulos Spiros : Today's diamonds may easily end up tomorrow's coal! Jerry Kallas : The company leases millions of square feet of o...

2023-09-29
This is so surreal. Everyone in the audience still stunned and some even nervously chuckling. @karaswisher looking on from the back. @lindayaX seems totally out of her depth on stage. @JBoorstin trying admirably but this is a mess. [image]
2023-09-29 View on X
TechCrunch

X CEO Linda Yaccarino claims 90% of the top 100 advertisers “returned to the platform in the past 12 weeks alone” and that X will be profitable by early 2024

You cannot talk profitability when you are defrauding owed funds to others. … Bluesky: @67sound.bsky.social : This may or may not be true if she is talking operating cash flow but ...

2023-03-12
Lots of new details in this brand new fast feature: -Some VCs warned founders to take money out of SVB late last year -Some were concerned about a lack of banking experience on the board -The company's Chief Risk Officer stepped down in April 2022 https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
2023-03-12 View on X
Bloomberg

As the “Bank of Startups”, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed from its exposure to interest-rate risk, a lack of diversity among depositors, and VC herd mentality

an unsecured illiquid claim on a failed bank. Absent @jpmorgan @citi or... https://twitter.com/... Bob Elliott / @bobeunlimited : Fed/FDIC decisions on SVB determine whether they r...

2023-03-10
I just called a VC to ask how he was advising his portfolio companies to deal with the Silicon Valley Bank fallout. “You're going to have to make this quick,” he said. “I'm on the gondola in Aspen and we're almost to the top.”
2023-03-10 View on X
Financial Times

Silicon Valley Bank launches a $2.25B share sale after losing ~$1.8B on its ~$21B of US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities

Technology-focused lender suffered loss on $21bn portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities  —  Silicon Valley Bank has launched a $2.25bn share sale …

2022-06-02
Lots of new details in this quick turn: -A former high-ranking employee said Sandberg's exit has been a long time coming. -Although its publicly described as a resignation, another manager-level employee was adamant Sandberg had been asked to leave. https://twitter.com/...
2022-06-02 View on X
CNBC

Sheryl Sandberg is leaving Meta this fall after 14 years, and chief growth officer Javier Olivan will take over as COO; Sandberg will stay on Meta's board

Sheryl Sandberg is stepping down from her role as Chief Operating Officer at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. Source: Sheryl Sandberg .

2022-05-05
Cameo CEO Steven Galanis told CNBC last year: “Our goal at Cameo is to become a publicly traded company most likely in the next 18 to 36 months.” https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
2022-05-05 View on X
Protocol

Cameo lays off 87 staff; source says CTO Rob Post, marketing exec Emily Boschwitz, CPO Nundu Janakiram, and Chief People Officer Melanie Steinbach have gone

Cameo, the celebrity video greetings startup, laid off 87 of staffers Wednesday, a move that CEO Steven Galanis described as “right-sizing.”

2021-09-04
Scoop from me and @eugenekim222: Amazon is planning to roll out its own Amazon-branded TV in the US. They are due to be shipped as soon as October, but the rollout has been beset with logistical bottlenecks. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
2021-09-04 View on X
Insider

Sources: Amazon will launch its own TV featuring Alexa and no third-party manufacturer branding in the US, possibly as soon as October

and that could be big Andrew / Phandroid : The first Amazon self-branded TV could be arriving as early as October Rob Thubron / TechSpot : Amazon expected to release own Alexa-powe...

2021-09-03
Scoop from me and @eugenekim222: Amazon is planning to roll out its own Amazon-branded TV in the US. They are due to be shipped as soon as October, but the rollout has been beset with logistical bottlenecks. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
2021-09-03 View on X
Insider

Sources: Amazon will launch its own TV featuring Alexa and no third-party manufacturer branding in the US, possibly as soon as October

- Amazon is planning to roll out its own Amazon-branded TV, Insider has learned.  — A US launch is targeted for as soon as October.

2021-05-11
ICYMI...big scooter SPAC news: I learned Bird is preparing to go public below the valuation it achieved last year. It lost $226 million in 2019 and $183 million last year, but expects to turn profitable in 2023 IF it can quadruple revenue. https://dot.la/...
2021-05-11 View on X
dot.LA

Docs show that Bird is preparing to go public via a SPAC merger at $2.3B valuation; Bird expects to trim adjusted EBITDA loss to $96M in 2021 vs. $183M in 2020

Bird Rides, the Santa-Monica e-scooter company that was once a startup darling but saw ridership plunge during the pandemic …

Sunday night scoop: Bird is preparing to merge with Switchback II, a Dallas SPAC. Value is $2.3 billion, below the $2.85 billion it reached in 2020. The financials reveal Bird lost $226 million in 2019 and $183 million last year. https://dot.la/...
2021-05-11 View on X
dot.LA

Docs show that Bird is preparing to go public via a SPAC merger at $2.3B valuation; Bird expects to trim adjusted EBITDA loss to $96M in 2021 vs. $183M in 2020

Bird Rides, the Santa-Monica e-scooter company that was once a startup darling but saw ridership plunge during the pandemic …