It looks like Facebook will soon release the Oculus Quest headset, a virtual reality headset that can track where it is in a room using advanced built-in sensors, a feature called inside-out tracking.

A new FCC filing published on Friday is sparse on details, but it describes a VR headset with the model number "MH-B," which is similar to the Oculus Go, which is currently on sale.

FCC

FCC

Earlier this fall, Facebook announced the Oculus Quest, which had been developed under the code name "Santa Cruz." Facebook said at the time that it would go on sale in spring 2019 for $399.

There aren't a lot of details in the filing, but the limited pictures included do resemble the Oculus Quest. The VR headset has Wifi and Bluetooth radios, according to the filing.

From Facebook's announcement:

"Offering six degrees of freedom and Touch controllers for true hand presence, Oculus Quest will launch in Spring 2019 for $399 USD. In past years, we've shown you the Santa Cruz prototype, a milestone on the path to Oculus Quest today, and we're excited to help usher in a new era of VR gaming."

FCC filings like this typically surface shortly before a company releases a new device that has wireless capabilities. An Oculus spokesperson didn't immediately return an email.

Public companies head into 2019 with major blows to their market caps as the result of the end-of-year market correction. But that's not necessarily a bad thing for tech mergers and acquisitions.

While the soaring stock prices of the past few years have given CEOs the confidence to make large strategic deals, such as IBM's $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, it also meant the companies they wanted to buy were priced at intimidatingly high multiples.

With a stock market correction in full swing, tech M&A bankers and lawyers say they expect to see some buyers leap at the opportunity to acquire companies at a relative discount.

"History has shown that a stock market correction along the lines of what we're now seeing does not inevitably lead to an immediate decline in M&A activity," said Richard Climan, a partner and M&A lawyer at Hogan Lovells.

In fact, Climan said, lower prices may lead additional buyers to "jump into the fray."

"These additional buyers may have been staying on the sidelines because they thought deal valuations were just too high," he said. "So, interestingly enough, overall dealmaking activity may end up being even more robust after a stock market correction than before the correction, albeit at lower price points."

Historically, private-equity firms are more active in downturns since their business models typically prefer lower-priced assets than are widely available in a boom.

To be sure, dealmakers agree that a full-on recession and declining CEO confidence would lead to a slowdown in deals. But unless that happens, it's likely that tech bankers will remain very busy.

Software was king in 2018

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty's $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat was the largest software acquisition ever. AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

In 2018, there have been 2,236 M&A deals in the US with a total of $360 billion in deal value, according to Dealogic. While the number of deals is the smallest of any year since 2013, the value of those deals topped the past two years'.

Software deals were the stars of 2018. Just look at SAP's $8 billion acquisition of Qualtrics, Salesforce's $6.5 billion MuleSoft deal, and Microsoft's $7 .5 billion GitHub acquisition.

"The activity that you have seen this year has been all software and internet and more growth companies — more expansionary M&A as opposed to consolidating M&A," said Colin Ryan, the cohead of M&A for the Americas and global cohead of technology M&A at Goldman Sachs.

One reason for the decline in consolidation, Ryan said, is the slowdown in semiconductor M&A, which has been paralyzed by trade issues between the US and China. But strategic investors have also increased their willingness to make big bets on game-changing acquisitions.

"Customers are all going through digital transformations, and the demand for software is infinitely greater than it has been over time," Ryan said. "It's made it a very attractive business for people to own, whether that's as a strategic or a private-equity firm."

Sam Britton, the head of technology, media, and telecom M&A at Goldman Sachs, said that while many people expected a lot of acquisition activity from large tech companies such as Facebook and Google in 2018 thanks to cash repatriation, those companies were relatively quiet on the deal front. Instead, he said, many of the deals were driven by "that next tier down of software acquirers."

"We expect that to continue into the new year, with that second-tier cohort being very active and private equity being incredibly active," Britton said.

Dual tracks are all the rage

Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith sold his company to SAP for $8 billion, just days before a planned IPO in which the midrange price was $4.8 billion.SAP/YouTube

If you want to know who will get acquired in 2019, look no further than the robust lineup of IPO-ready unicorns. Word on the street is that most of the large companies prepping for a 2019 initial public offering are also entertaining offers from strategic investors.

Since valuations tend to soar once a company goes public, it only makes sense for acquirers like Google or Microsoft to make an offer in a company they are interested in before it hits the public market.

"We believe we will see a large number of dual processes, relative to historic norms, given the number of companies that aspire to go public in 2019," said Paul Haigney, the cohead of Global Technology, Telecom, and Media Group at Lazard.

"It's likely that some substantial number of them will choose a strategic outcome over an IPO outcome, both because of difficulties in achieving the IPO outcome and the certainty of a strategic investment for investors," he said.

Among those difficulties: a competitive investment landscape at a time when public markets are volatile, in which institutional investors may decide to bet on one company but not its direct competitor (think Uber versus Lyft).

Not all of these so-called dual-track processes are formal. In many cases, bankers said, it's the confidential filing that signals to strategic investors that it's time to take a look, rather than a formal process in which bankers actively seek offers.

And while insiders said the increase in dual-trackers was notable entering 2019, it is not without precedent.

Cisco famously announced its acquisition of AppDynamics for $3.7 billion in January 2017 just hours before it was supposed to go public. And just last month, SAP announced an $8 billion deal with Qualtrics, which was days away from its public offering.

But SAP's acquisition of Qualtric highlights another trend heading into 2019: big premiums over the IPO price.

Qualtrics would have been valued at $4.8 billion if its IPO had priced at the midpoint of the range it set in the first week of November, which means it got acquired at 60% premium. And while the relative value of these IPO-ready companies will most likely decline if the markets continue to fall, M&A may still prove to be a quick way to get a higher price.

Expect more buyers outside tech

General Motors' president, Dan Ammann, right, with the Cruise Automation cofounders Kyle Vogt, center, and Daniel Kan. GM Cruise

It's not just IPOs that are driving up the price of startups. Large tech companies also face growing competition from strategic acquirers outside tech.

"Non-tech buyers are becoming an increasing force in the marketplace for tech M&A deals," said Climan, citing research from Citigroup finding that non-tech buyers participated in 33% of North American tech M&A from 2016 to 2018. That's up from just 15% from 2001 to 2003.

Climan expects to see more e-commerce deals like Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of Flipkart, a deal he worked on, which the retailer announced in May, as well as deals in automotive like General Motors' 2016 acquisition of the self-driving-software startup Cruise.

Others told Business Insider they had seen growing interest by industrial companies, such as the German conglomerate Siemens — which acquired the software companies Comfy and Mendix in 2018 — as well as United Technologies and Honeywell.

"Software assets are attractive to strategics looking to remake themselves into higher-margin businesses," said Paul Crisci, the global head of technology investment banking at UBS. "We particularly see this trend in old-line industrial businesses that are able to achieve margin expansion by adding software capabilities to their business and product lines."

Something about plastics and electronics sitting at the edge of a fire may alarm you — it did me.

But, by Jove, BioLite's FirePit is a masterfully-engineered contraption built to foster, contain, and withstand the hottest little blaze you can muster, which, thanks to the fan, you can tend all night from the same seat without a single faceful of smoke. If that isn't at least a small miracle, I don't know what is.

The Bluetooth-connected, USB-charged fan, by the way, is what sets the FirePit apart. It hooks up to the side of the wire mesh cage (enabling a 360° view of your glorious flame within) and blows air through two hole-riddled tubes to create a vortex for optimal fuel burning and almost no smoke.

How the BioLite fan works Owen Burke/Business Insider

On the subject of fuel, the FirePit burns both charcoal and wood, each with astounding efficiency. The only adjustments you'll want to make when switching between the two is lowering the fuel rack for wood and raising it for charcoal (and maybe for cooking), and tossing on the grill grate when you want to cook.

Out of the box, it's recommended by BioLite that your first fire be a wood fire. This builds a layer of ash in the basin, which, they say, makes the perfect base for charcoal fires. I can confirm they're not wrong.

We started out with nothing but a bit of paper, a few precious drops of lighter fluid, some very wet wood, and not a whole lot of hope. We'd get a corner of a besotted piece of wood lit just barely before it would flicker out. After a few tries and no lasting luck, we affixed the electronic fan and got it rolling, from which point on we didn't even need to touch the thing.

Once you get your fire rolling reasonably well, all you have to do is connect your phone to the BioLite app and watch, perhaps in awe, as the size of your flame corresponds almost instantaneously to the swipe of your finger (or thumb) upon your screen.

Controlling the flame level via smartphone Owen Burke/Business Insider

The FirePit can hold about eight pieces of cordwood, which might not sound like much, but burning as optimally as it does, is plenty.

Once you're done with your fire, turn the fan off and take it inside. While it may survive rain or snow if the electronic ports are properly capped, you may want to charge it anyhow. As for the FirePit itself, make sure the fire and embers are out before attaching the cover and calling it a night or carrying on with further endeavors.

Perhaps as heartwarming as their wildly futuristic fire basin is BioLite Energy's humanitarian endeavor to bring heat and light to off-grid households around the world. To date, they've either illuminated, heated, or otherwise equipped, by their estimates, some 300,000 people around the world to date. They also have offices in Uganda, Kenya, India, in addition to their Brooklyn, New York headquarters, which is fun, but respectably modest, I ought to add.

You could do a lot worse — though hardly any better, I'm convinced — for a small outdoor fire pit or grill than the BioLite FirePit, especially in an urban or suburban setting where outdoor space is limited and large plums of smoke from traditional fire pits are cause for alarm, if not a visit from some faction of your local authorities.

Thanks in large part to how easy it was to control the flame, cooking was a breeze:

The BioLite FirePit with the fan in full force Owen Burke/Business Insider

Octopus fresh off the BioLite FirePit Owen Burke/Business Insider

Tuna belly, hot off the BioLite FirePit Owen Burke/Business Insider

Fresh fish from the BioLite FirePit Owen Burke/Business Insider

Fresh fish from the BioLite FirePit Owen Burke/Business Insider

Cooking with the BioLite FirePit was a delightful breeze. I found it a relaxing relegation of duty to sit several yards from my production, effortlessly (and somehow familiarly) swiping left or right to tamp or fan my flame.

I was able to sit back and entertain while still keeping an eye on everything. I might not be the most technologically inclined millennial on this planet, but there is a lot to be said for a remote-controlled campfire and stove (in effect). Between tossing things on and pulling them off, I never once had to come within arm's length of the FirePit, and certain dishes that I felt would be better off contained in a skillet cooked wonderfully — especially the marinated tuna belly, which I was afraid might fall apart if placed directly on the grate.

In short, the BioLite FirePit fan gets things roaring in a flash whether you're using charcoal or wood, though BioLite does advise (and I agree) that having a good base of wood-fire coals makes this little thing shine.

It's going to live in my backyard for the winter, and on my boat this summer for island hopping and fish frying, when I'll probably put it through hell and report back with more.

Buy the BioLite FirePit from BioLite for $199.95 on BioLite's website. Also find it at Amazon and REI.

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. This report is exclusively available to enterprise subscribers. To learn more about getting access to this report, email Senior Account Executive Jeff Jordan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or check to see if your company already has access.

Business Insider Intelligence

Although competition in the US wireless carrier market remains fierce, the price war among the Big Four US carriers — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint — began to cool over the past year.

In an attempt to avoid further competition on price, carriers began shifting their focus to adding value to their mobile plans with new offerings to differentiate from the competition. This helped average revenue per user (ARPU) start to stabilize across all carriers in Q1 2018, after declining over the last two years.

The Big Four have now begun reshuffling their unlimited plans to lure subscribers by providing more options. This strategy has been unrolling in two flavors: introducing new, expensive unlimited plan tiers loaded with an array of features and choices, while also catering to price-sensitive customers with more affordable plans that strip away extra perks like free digital content and international coverage. As a result, a new battleground is emerging, with differentiation now coming down to the value loaded in their mobile plans.

Looking forward, the US carrier market will see competitive pressure pick up due to a number of trends:

Celebrity jeweler Ben Baller made a diamond ring with Tesla's name and logo as a gift to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Baller said in an Instagram post.

"Dear Elon Musk Please accept this 1 of 1 custom Diamond and Ruby #Tesla ring for being an inspiration to me and my best friend Paul aka @va_p100d FYI both of us own @teslamotors Model X P100D's and both of us appreciate what you've done for Americans and the [the world]," Baller said.

Read more: Elon Musk has reportedly donated $423,600 to Flint public schools to buy laptops for all of its seventh and eighth-grade students

The Tesla ring is the first piece of custom jewelry Baller has given as a gift, he said.

"Why are we giving you this ring? Because you have motivated me and Paul to level up and push limits," Baller said. "We salute you for giving almost 50,000 jobs to Americans and putting USA back on the map as a serious contender in the auto industry."

The ring is worth $37,000, Baller told Business Insider.

Wall Street investment banks are still shopping this December, and tech bankers — the most coveted and expensive specialists in the dealmaking universe — continue to fly off the shelves.

Earlier this week, Deutsche Bank hired software banker Greg Thorne from Stifel — the bank's second software hire in as many months. Last week it was Evercore, which opened up its checkbook to sign Citigroup internet and digital media head Zaheed Kajani, a senior MD who reportedly has over 100 transactions under his belt.

Such hiring activity this late in the year is atypical, since the hiring firm will usually have to cover the bonus the banker would've earned at their previous shop — a pricey proposition that amounts to paying an employee for a year of work they did for a rival.

But this hasn't been a typical year on many fronts.

2018 has been the most active year since the financial crisis for hires and departures among senior investment bankers, with firms of all sizes poaching talent from rivals to capture a bigger slice of the year's massive dealmaking frenzy. This year has seen $27 billion in M&A fees — the most since 2007, according to Dealogic.

Hundreds of managing directors have shuffled seats, but tech bankers have been the hottest commodity, with nearly 50 MD-level hires in the US, up 41% from 2017, according to data from executive recruiting firm Egon Zehnder.

"And the pace seems to be accelerating. Especially in software, but really across the board," Albert Laverge, head of the corporate and investment banking practice for Egon Zehnder, told Business Insider.

Read more:Investment banks are waging a war for star talent in 2018. Here are the banks that won — and the banks that lost.

Other top tech bankers who switched firms this year include Kurt Simon, who left JPMorgan Chase for Goldman Sachs; Tammy Kiely, who agreed to join Morgan Stanley only to rejoin Goldman; Sam Powers, who left UBS to run US TMT banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Mathieu Salas, who left Citi to run fintech banking at Credit Suisse; and Adam Nordin, an education-technology specialist who left Barclays for Goldman.

It's no surprise the market for tech bankers is booming, given the bounty of fees the sector is producing. With two weeks left in the year, tech was the most active M&A sector, producing $670 billion worth of deals, according to Dealogic. Among the largest were IBM's $34 buyout of Red Hat, Broadcom's $18.9 billion acquisition of chip-maker CA Technologies, and Microsoft's $7.5 billion deal for GitHub.

The next closest sector is healthcare at just over $500 billion, which happens to be the second-hottest hiring sector for MDs, especially in biotech. There's also been a barrage of biotech initial public offerings this year — 58 deals that have raise a collective $6.3 billion.

"Everyone's trying to recruit someone who is supernaturally successful," Julian Bell, head of investment bank recruiting at Sheffield Haworth in New York, told Business Insider. "If you do successfully do that, you can add a lot of revenue on top."

But great tech talent is scarce, and these bankers don't come cheap.

According to industry sources, it's common for senior tech bankers to make 1.5 times as much as similarly situated bankers with a different industry expertise, such as consumer goods, business services, or real estate, for instance.

"You have to be consistently good to get into the $2 million range in most sectors. As in very good," Bell said.

By comparison, sources said, compensation for experienced tech bankers in the $3 million to $5 million range is commonplace.

In part, tech and biotech bankers command a higher premium because of the revenue they bring in working in the hottest sector for deals.

But they're also more scarce because their talents are coveted beyond the confines of Wall Street, Bell points out.

Big tech giants, as well as maturing unicorns, desire seasoned bankers for CFO and corporate development roles, and the payouts, often laden with company stock and options, are potentially far greater than anything a top tech bank like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, or JPMorgan can offer.

"If they get it right, they've just earned $30 million," Bell said.

And maybe much more.

Anthony Noto, a long-time Goldman Sachs banker, joined Twitter in 2014 as its CFO, and later as its COO, before leaving earlier this year to take the top job at SoFi. He was compensated primarily in stock and options at Twitter, which are currently worth about $67 million, not including any of the shares he's already sold, according to regulatory filings and current market prices.

Imran Khan, who left Credit Suisse to become Snapchat's chief strategy officer in 2014, had accumulated a $150 million fortune by the time went public in 2017 — mostly in stock that has diminished in value since. Khan left in September to start his own company.

Ajay Shah, who was appointed head of technology investment banking at Deutsche Bank this fall and was involved in the bank's recent MD hires, said this dynamic has made finding the right talent more difficult.

"The talent there is a little sparse in terms of people who want to move, and people we really like," Shah said. "The hiring pool had gotten a little skinny because of all those bankers moving to different parts of the ecosystem."

But, with the deal market roaring and expected to continue well into 2018, banks want to have a team in place to capitalize on it as much as possible before the music stops.

Given the customary garden leave, waiting till the new year to hire talent means a bounty of potential deal fees left on the table.

That helps explain why Deutsche Bank, and others, are still poaching tech MDs well into the fourth quarter.

"Overall, the tech space is going to be extremely active, and we want to hire ahead of that and have the right team focused on clients," Shah recently told Business Insider.

I have the privilege of meeting with amazing founders who inspire me with their vision to build companies that truly transform their markets and make people's lives better. Many of these founders require capital to grow and achieve their potential. Thus, I'm often asked about how to raise capital and how to get the best outcome when raising money.

The world of fundraising can feel opaque, but it shouldn't have to.

In the spirit of transparency, I want to share some of the things I've learned in past fundraising processes.

Before wading into this topic, I want to acknowledge that I've been really lucky. I've cofounded two companies: Harry's and Warby Parker. Together, these companies have raised more than $700 million from major institutional investors.

Before I founded these companies, I worked in private-equity investing, so I started with a solid understanding of the investment process and had relationships with people in the investment world. My cofounders and I also had great guidance — from amazing cofounders, teammates, board members, and lawyers — and lots of luck along the way, so I try not to take any of that for granted.

With that said, and with the caveats that this reflects my own experience and that others may have different but equally valid perspectives, I hope some of this advice can be helpful to anyone looking to raise capital.

So let's dive in.

There's a question I don't think entrepreneurs ask themselves enough: 'Should I raise money?'

People have often congratulated me and my cofounders after a big round of funding. But raising money isn't a badge of honor. While it's validating to have someone in our vision enough to invest in the company, outside capital is just fuel for a business to grow until it can exist in a self-sustaining way.

It's a means to an end, not an end unto itself.

My cofounders and I have taken big swings at Harry's and Warby Parker. We've opened more than 75 Warby Parker retail stores and have grown to over 1,000 people in only a few years. At Harry's, we bought a 90-plus-year-old, 420-person German razor-blade factory, even though we're just a 30-person startup in New York. And we've done all of this in highly competitive markets. As a result, we've felt it prudent to raise outside capital to enable us to grow quickly.

But raising lots of money isn't necessarily right for every company. You may not feel pressure to grow as quickly or compete in the same ways we did (and that could be a good thing), and you may not need to raise outside capital.

Additionally, raising money doesn't come without cost.

The math speaks for itself: If you own 10% of a $100 million company, it's the same as owning 100% of a $10 million company, and sometimes the latter can be much easier to achieve.

Raising money also comes with high expectations from your investors about your business performance.

At Harry's, we raised money at a $750 million valuation as a three-year-old company. That valuation was predicated on our ability to continue to grow quickly; it came with substantial expectations from investors that we would hit aggressive growth targets. Such expectations can be good — they drive our team to achieve at the highest levels — but they also add pressure to the already pressure-packed situation of building a company.

Investors also expect that we'll pay them back — meaning that at some point, we need to sell our companies, take them public, or find another large investor to get our initial investors' liquidity.

So for all of those reasons, the first question I encourage founders to ask when thinking about raising capital is a basic one: "Should I raise outside capital?"

Strelka Institute / Flickr

How do you get money?

How you approach the process can have a meaningful impact on the future of your business and your role in it. The choices you make will dictate who surrounds you, your control as a founder, and financial outcomes in both positive and negative scenarios.

Take the time to prepare

Before even thinking about valuation or terms, or reaching out to potential investors, spend time refining an airtight narrative and business plan.

A good business plan answers four key questions:

For me, the most important part of a business plan is the first section that defines your reason for being. Everything flows from there. At Warby Parker, we expressed our reason for being in one line: "Glasses shouldn't cost as much as an iPhone."

As you're laying out your plan, be pithy! Our business plans have been 25 to 30 slides at most. There's always time to share more after.

Sebastian ter Burg/Flickr

Determine how much money you need and how you want to raise it

Your financial model should help you determine how much outside capital you need. From there, imagine scenarios where things don't go exactly as planned (because they never do) and what those scenarios mean for how much money you'll actually need.

For example, ask yourself questions like: What happens if Gillette threatens to sue Harry's? (Which it did) Or what if our business grows twice as quickly as we had forecasted? (Which also happened). Given the unpredictability at Harry's (and at many early-stage companies), we needed to be prepared for any scenario related to cash burn.

This estimation is both an art and a science. I've never been able to determine, with surgical precision, the exact amount of money it takes to run a business in a variety of different upside and downside scenarios. And as a result, I've always thought it prudent to raise a little extra capital (and take a little more dilution) in order to ensure we have some cushion against our projections.

Once you've determined how much capital you need, there are three common approaches I've seen entrepreneurs take in the seed stage:

1. Friends and family

Go to your friends and family who love you and believe in you, and ask them to invest in your company to the extent they're financially able.

We started this way at Warby Parker. We were lucky to have four founders and a broader group of people around us who were able to invest in our idea.

This approach works nicely because it gives the people closest to you the chance to benefit from your success in the company. The conversations are usually easier because these people already know you well and they believe in you. With that said, unless you have very wealthy friends and family, this approach has limits in terms of how much capital you can raise.

2. Professional investors

These can be angels or venture funds — either way, they are people who invest professionally and are likely invested in lots of companies like yours.

The benefit to speaking with these folks is they know the investing process well and can commit material amounts of capital to your business. They also work with lots of companies and have perspectives and experiences that can be helpful.

That said, it can be harder to approach these investors cold, and you have to really convince them of the return on investment your business will provide.

3. A mix of the two

Many people raise a round with both professional investors and friends and family.

What's best for you depends on how much capital you think you need. If you just need a little capital to get started, friends and family can be a good way to go. If you want more capital or lots of advice and engagement, then it may make sense to pursue professional investors.

SFROLOV/Shutterstock

What form of capital should you raise? Note vs. priced round

Convertible note

A convertible note is an instrument that typically converts to equity in the next funding round. These notes usually pay interest during the time that they are outstanding, and some have a "cap," which means that there is a max valuation at which they convert to equity.

For example, a company may issue a convertible note at a 15% discount to their next round of funding with a $10 million cap. In this case, if the company raises money at a $10 million valuation in the next round, the note would convert to equity at an $8.5 million valuation (15% discount). Yet if the company raised money at a $15 million valuation, the "cap" would kick in, and the note would convert to equity at a $10 million valuation.

Convertible notes are commonly used in the early stages of companies when people aren't ready to put a hard valuation on the company, and they tend to be more popular with smaller friends-and-family raises. They can often be quicker and easier to complete because valuation is off the table.

They provide companies the limited capital they need to hit early milestones, at which point they then can go out and raise money at a valuation that's exciting to them.

Priced round

The other option companies commonly choose is to raise a "priced round." That means raising money in equity at a specific valuation.

In this instance, the founders believe their vision and track record can command an attractive valuation. They also are more likely to want to raise substantial amounts of capital at a valuation they are comfortable with and have the capital last for a while.

There's no right or wrong answer as to the type of funding you should choose. We initially bootstrapped Warby Parker and invested only our own capital (meaning our life savings). Then, after we launched the business and sold out of glasses, we realized we needed more (but had no more life savings), so we turned to our friends and family and raised money from them through a convertible note.

At Harry's, we had to buy 1 million razor blades to lock a contract with our German factory. We signed the contract but didn't have the money to buy the blades — and this part is not recommended — so we came back to New York and raised a priced round in order to have capital to get started.

Thus, the type of capital you raise depends on the state of the company, what milestones you want to hit before raising more capital, how much money you need, and what valuation you think you can command.

Flickr/Strelka Institute/Attribution License

How do you navigate the investment process?

Find a lead investor

The fundraising process can quickly spin out of control and become complicated to manage.

In order to streamline and make the job as simple as possible, we've always found it helpful to find a single investor to lead each of the rounds — though this is still not easy. A lead investor is a person or firm who will commit a substantial amount of the capital in a round and with whom you can negotiate a core set of terms.

The benefit of this approach is that you have to negotiate only once. After you have a lead investor and a core set of terms negotiated, you and the investor sign a "term sheet" codifying those terms. Chris Dixon, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, wrote a post that thoughtfully lays out the common terms included in a term sheet.

Then you can take that term sheet to other investors and get them to join the round on the same terms as the lead investor. Your lead investor can help you there, too, by introducing you to their network and serving as a partner throughout the fundraising process.

For example, at Harry's, Thrive Capital led our seed round. After the Thrive team committed to investing, we sat down, talked about the early needs of the company, and put together a list of potential investors who could be helpful, instead of spending a lot of time and effort fostering our own independent relationships with potential new investors. Thrive then helped to introduce us to those investors and supported us by explaining to them why Thrive was excited about Harry's.

Find the right investors

It's important to try to figure out who the "right" investors are for you.

Investors can add a tremendous amount of strategic value beyond just the capital they provide — and different investors add value in different ways. Some have material domain expertise, some are exceptionally well-connected and can make helpful introductions to partners and prospective employees, and others have relevant experience in building businesses at your stage.

When thinking about who might be a good investor, I often try to identify who has invested in analogous companies. Then, if possible, I ask other founders about their experiences with those investors.

Once you've figured out who you want to invest, you have to actually get to those people

This step can be hard. Most people with great business ideas don't have a Rolodex of potential investors at their fingertips (and we certainly didn't either at Warby Parker).

This is where entrepreneurial hustle comes in.

I've found that the people who make the best introductions for me are people who know me well. It's always easier to make connections through someone who already knows you. For example, when I was preparing to raise money for Harry's, I first went to my Warby Parker cofounders. They knew great investors — and more importantly, they knew me well. Because of this, the investors they introduced me to were receptive and took their recommendation seriously.

Think broadly about who you know personally — professors, colleagues, bosses, friends — as they could have a connection to investors or firms that might be useful. But if you're drawing a blank, think about who you can get to know — other founders, VCs, people in the tech community, corporate venture funds — who might be able to help connect you. In some cases, pitch competitions, incubators, or grant programs that can open doors and give you initial exposure.

Strelka Institute/Flickr

If you're having an introductory conversation with a person you don't yet know, approach it with a lot of curiosity and self-awareness. In my experience, the first discussion is probably not the right moment to go in guns blazing with a hard pitch.

Investors are also out there looking for you too. So expand your network, get people to know and like you, meet with and learn from interesting folks, do people favors, and try to network yourself into the right investors in an organic and authentic way.

No one said this part was easy — it's really hard.

How do you best negotiate?

Once you have identified a potential lead investor who is excited about your business (congrats — in a lot of ways, that was the hard part), you can think about the terms of a deal.

There are three things you should keep in mind:

Though it's counter to the way people often talk about fundraising in the news, I've always been focused more on optimizing structure and control than on valuation.

You might know the valuation of a company, or how much it's "worth." But do you know whether it's capitalized through common or preferred stock, and what special terms preferred investors have? Do you know the composition of the board and the voting rights of the founders? These things also matter.

I believe that you don't always want to take the highest price valuation. Sure, big sticker prices are good for the ego, can attract top talent, and are often good for company morale. But if you're optimizing solely for valuation and trying to push for the highest possible number, you may sacrifice other terms, or you may not get the right investor, or you could increase pressure on future rounds to raise capital at even higher valuations.

Clearly, this is all conceptual, and when it comes to specifics I'd suggest hiring a great lawyer who's been through lots and lots of transactions like this and can give you good advice.

In summary...

Raising money is always hard, emotionally draining, and time-consuming, but it doesn't have to be a mystery. I hope this helps other entrepreneurs to have a more informed perspective on the fundraising process, to make good decisions for themselves and their companies, and to get the capital they need and grow their businesses and achieve their entrepreneurial vision.

Good luck.

As a cofounder of both Harry's and Warby Parker, Jeff Raider aims to build companies and brands that positively impact people's everyday lives and the world more broadly. Harry's ambition is to create exceptional shaving and personal-care products that better meet the needs of modern men. Prior to Harry's, Jeff cofounded Warby Parker, the transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. Today, Jeff serves as the CEO of Harry's Labs. He is also on the board of directors at Warby Parker.

Oracle has grown only about 5% over the last five years, so there was little surprise when it reported a flat quarter earlier this week. Still, CTO and co-founder Larry Ellison made another shot at the market-leading Amazon Web services cloud, saying there's "no way" anyone would ever move from an Oracle database to Amazon.

Now, at least one Wall Street analyst says that Oracle's best shot at speeding up growth would be if it takes some cues from its cloud rivals at Amazon and Microsoft — specifically, that it should open up and be more flexible about supporting technologies from other companies.

"When we talk to customers and ask them why are you using Amazon Web Services instead of the Oracle cloud, they say it's because Amazon Web Services supports tools we use and they're not supported in the Oracle cloud, or the partners we work with are in the Amazon ecosystem and not in the Oracle cloud," Pat Walravens, director of technology research and senior analyst at JMP Securities, told Business Insider.

Right now, analysts say, the issue is that Oracle wants its customers to use Oracle as a solution to everything, whether it's Oracle's cloud, databases or applications. The problem is, customers don't want to just commit to one company. On the other hand, it's difficult for customers to run an Oracle database on other companies' clouds, Walravens says. Meanwhile, Amazon and Microsoft both make it easy — or at least, easier — to run software from other vendors.

"I think it's going to be tough for them to grow because they haven't quite figured out how to succeed in a cloud world," Walravens told Business Insider. "They have a pretty strong desire to get customers to use Oracle solutions for everything and the world has really moved to more of a heterogeneous approach."

Read more:Larry Ellison says there's 'no way' anyone would move from Oracle to an Amazon database

Oracle is also in the midst of bidding for a winner-take-all $10 billion cloud contract with the Department of Defense, which analysts say will likely go to Amazon Web Services. Oracle filed a protest in federal court on Dec. 6 saying that the contract should go to multiple companies, not just one. Walravens sees this as Oracle defending its federal business, as the CIA was actually Oracle's first-ever database customer.

"The federal government is a big and very important client of Oracle," Walravens said. "They don't like the Department of Defense awarding it to a rival cloud provider at all. To me this is a defensive move."

Not all hope is lost for Oracle though, and analysts say it's possible for the company to return to growth. For one, its enterprise resource planning businesses, Fusion ERP and NetSuite ERP, delivered 32% revenue growth rate from the same period last year. Still, ERP only represents a quarter of Oracle's overall cloud software business.

"In theory over time, that [32% statistic] will be a higher proportion and that should help on the growth but it will be slow progress," Raimo Lenschow, managing director at Barclays, told Business Insider. "Over time it should work. Over time it will improve, but it will be slow improvement."

As for Oracle's autonomous database, something that co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison has hyped up a lot over the last several months, it remains to be seen on whether it will drive growth. Oracle also announced its Generation 2 Cloud offering, which Lenschow says is much-hyped, but needs to prove itself out in the market.

"You don't want to bet against Larry Ellison," Walravens said. "It will be interesting to see what Oracle does with its strategy over the next few years. In particular, how their next generation cloud infrastructure does and whether they make a decision to open that up and to create more of an open ecosystem like you have at Amazon and Azure. That's the thing to watch."

Others are bullish, too. In a note to clients, Scott Kessler, director of equity research at CFRA Research, writes that "[Oracle] is still trying to catch up to cloud competitors, but we see opportunity and a compelling valuation."

By Bob Lord, Chief Digital Officer, IBM

With all of the wildfires that have raged through California, including the largest and deadliest in the state's recorded history, it would be easy to lose faith in our ability to limit the damage caused by natural disasters. I reflected on this as teams gathered in Puerto Rico in August, almost one year since Hurricane Maria tore through the islands and as the inhabitants braced themselves for the 2018 hurricane season. Led by IBM's Dr. Angel Diaz, a native of the region, there was a palpable sense of optimism and excitement in the room, given stark relief by the devastation still visible outside. For two days, NGOs, relief organizations, and members of the local startup and developer communities came together to explore ways in which technology could help better prepare and protect their communities for the future.

A compelling idea named DroneAid, from local developer Pedro Cruz, used drone and visual recognition technologies to help first responders identify the areas and families in greatest need. You can catch a glimpse of DroneAid and hear from its creator in this video:

National news outlets also took notice and shed some light on this incredible event:

This was one of more than 325 events held in over 50 cities around the world — part of the inaugural Call for Code, a new global initiative — created by David Clark Cause and Founding Partner IBM. The initiative supports Charitable Partners United Nations Human Rights and the American Red Cross, and The Linux Foundation is also helping power the cause. Call for Code is designed to rally the technology industry, academia, and NGOs in an effort to help reduce the impact of natural disasters, such as fires, floods, volcanoes, hurricanes, and tsunamis on society. As Founding Partner, IBM is investing $30 million over the next five years, as well as technology and resources with the goal of developing technology solutions that significantly improve disaster preparedness, provide relief from devastation caused by natural disasters, and benefit Call for Code's Charitable Partners.

Even as we made the announcement at VivaTech in Paris in May, Hawaii's Kilauea volcano was destroying hundreds of homes and soon afterward Guatemala's 'Volcano of Fire' left hundreds dead and missing. Against this backdrop, we placed our belief in the promise of technology and the willingness of developers around the world to invest their skills and drive positive and long-lasting change in society.

We were not disappointed.

In 2018, over 100,000 developers from 156 nations around the world participated, creating more than 2,500 applications. More than 70 organizations are now signed up as program sponsors, supporters, or affiliates, and many IBM clients have engaged their in-house developer teams to build solutions designed to help improve the current state of disaster preparedness. We've benefitted from the support of 40 generous celebrity supporters in addition to content partners and a panel of eminent judges — former President Bill Clinton; Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, The Linux Foundation; Kate Gilmore, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights; Dr. Irwin Redlener, Director of National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Earth Institute of Columbia University; Deborah Dugan, Chief Executive Officer, (RED); and Grace Kim, Design and Research Lead at Twitter — who volunteered to help select the winning technologies.

On October 29, the 2018 Call for Code winners were announced during a Global Prize Celebration at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, California. The winner of the USD $200,000 grand prize, Project OWL, is an IoT and software solution that keeps first responders and victims connected in a natural disaster. Project OWL, which stands for Organization, Whereabouts, and Logistics, is a two-part hardware/software solution that provides an offline communication infrastructure that gives first responders a simple interface for managing all aspects of a disaster.

The physical "clusterduck" network is made of many individual IoT "ducks," which can float in flooded areas if needed. Only five are needed to cover a square mile, and they create a mesh network where users can report information such as their well-being and needs like food and water.

The conversational piece becomes useful on the OWL web application that is used by first responders (think of the OWL web app like the main software brain in the cloud). First responders can talk to this web app to easily see and explore all the data added to OWL, regardless of whether that data comes from APIs, is loaded by first responders, or uploaded by a civilian through the clusterduck network.

This application, the OWL software incident management system, uses predictive analytics and multiple data sources to build a dashboard for first responders.

"Once this network of ducks is deployed and then clustered, civilians are able to basically get on the devices through a really intuitive interface and contact first responders with a list of things that are really essential to them," team member Magus Pereira said.

With this information, Project OWL allows first responders to manage a disaster, coordinate resources, learn about weather patterns, and get information data analytics through the cloud. The solution bakes in the latest IBM Watson Studio, Watson Cloud APIs, and Weather Company APIs — all built on the IBM Cloud.

In addition to the cash prize, Project OWL will be deployed by IBM Corporate Service Corps in 2019. The team members, who come from New York, North Carolina, and Texas, will have the opportunity to pitch OWL to venture capitalist firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) for potential funding.

The second place winner, Post-Disaster Rapid Response Retrofit (PD3R) from Kathmandu, Nepal, and Bogotá, Colombia created a solution to provide displaced families with immediate access to engineering advice following a natural disaster, seeing the damage caused by the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Their solution is based on AI taught by 3D model images.

San Francisco Bay Area team Lali Wildfire Detection, now based in the Netherlands, France, and Ecuador, created a solution to predict the spread of wildfires in real-time with the use of sensor networks. Inspired by a teammate's first-hand experience growing up surrounded by fires in Ecuador, Project Lali took third place.

PD3R and Project Lali were each awarded USD $25,000. All three winning solutions will also receive long-term open source support from The Linux Foundation.

As heartened as we are by the response, there is always room for more people to get involved. We need champions, advocates, and most of all, we need developers to help renew faith in our ability to overcome one of the greatest challenges facing society today.

We can't prevent natural disasters, but the development community can come together to create solutions to improve the current state of disaster preparedness and recover efforts.

What will you do to help answer the call in 2019?

To discover more about this work, join us at Think 2019 February 12-15 in San Francisco, California. Visit the conference website here to register.

This article originally ran on August 23, 2018 and was updated on December 21, 2018.

This post is sponsor content from IBM and was created by IBM and Insider Studios.

When Teresa Brewer told her 7-year-old son that she was joining Roblox as its new VP of corporate communications, his reaction was memorable.

"His look was — I'm going to categorize it as 'pride,'" Brewer told Business Insider. "That, in a nutshell, is how I'm feeling about [the new job]."

Brewer is joining Roblox after a two-year stint at SurveyMonkey— the well-known online polling company, which she helped guide towards a blockbuster debut on the public markets in September. Before that, Brewer was at Apple for 12 years, where she was a senior PR manager involved with the launch of the iPhone, and, later, the App Store.

If you're unfamiliar with Roblox, it's likely that you don't have any kids in your life. At last count, Roblox had 70 million active monthly players, many of whom skew on the under-18 side, putting it in a league with juggernauts like "Minecraft" and "Fortnite." In September, Roblox raised a round of funding valuing the company at $2.5 billion.

The Playground, the hub area of "MeepCity." Roblox

Unlike its peers, however, Roblox is almost entirely created by its users. All 40 million Roblox games, including huge hits like "MeepCity," were made by its base of mostly younger independent developers. If a player chooses to spend the premium virtual Robux currency — which costs real money — in a game, the developer gets a cut. Some of those young developers have become millionaires and moguls in their own right.

Read more: A video game turned this self-taught 23-year-old programmer into a budding mogul who can support his mom and brother

Brewer says that it's this element that ultimately drew her towards Roblox. During her time at Apple, she says, she crossed paths with plenty of developers who were energized to be working with its platform. Thanks to the "great growth" of Roblox, she now has a similar opportunity to work with passionate independent developers, she says. Besides, she notes, before she went to Apple, she spent some time in Sony's PlayStation video gaming division.

"It really extends what you get to work on as a communications professional," says Brewer. "I love to see the creativity that you see in developers."

Ultimately, she says, she appreciates that Roblox is mature enough to be an established brand with a seasoned leadership team, but also, at a moment where it's seeing user growth and investor interest. It's an opportunity she likens to the atmosphere at SurveyMonkey when she joined in 2016.

"It's an opportunity to really build something out," says Brewer.

"Roblox Murder Mystery 2," a Roblox game. Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

When Brewer officially starts in the role in early January, she says she already has at least one priority mapped out: Working with parents. She says that her own son loves Roblox so much, it's made him want to code his own iPhone games. In an effort to understand it better, she says she did her own research into Roblox — research that made her more excited about the game. In that same way, she wants to work on spreading the word to more parents.

"As I became educated about [Roblox], I thought, there's a lot of opportunity here," says Brewer.

Some owners of Apple's 2018 iPad Pro have claimed the MacRumors forum that their devices have developed slight bends out of the box or over time, and Apple has confirmed to The Verge that it acknowledges the issue and it doesn't consider the bending a defect.

Whether they were shipped that way or developed a bend over time, the bend some owners have experienced shouldn't "worsen over time or negatively affect the flagship iPad Pro's performance," according to The Verge referring to Apple's confirmation. Users have reported slight bends on both the smaller and larger-sized 2018 iPad Pros, and Apple says it's a side effect of the iPad Pro's manufacturing process.

Despite the confirmation of bending iPad Pros, Apple hasn't set up a replacement program. Owners of the new iPad Pros can still exchange their original unit for a replacement within the 14-day return period, but that could be too late for some. The 2018 iPad Pro was announced on October 30 and released for sale on November 7.

Apple hasn't experienced a higher-than-normal return rate for the 2018 iPad Pros, the company told The Verge.

Bending iPad Pros doesn't seem to be related to the ease at which they can bend under stress, as shown by popular YouTuber and destroyer of gadgets Zack Nelson of the JerryRigsEverything YouTube channel.

Business Insider has requested for comment from Apple, but has not immediately heard back.

Facebook says that there's an innocent explanation for why it allowed Spotify and Netflix to access users' private messages — a behavior that it acknowledged in the wake of a bombshell New York Times report.

In short, writes Facebook VP of Product Partnerships Ime Archibong in a blog post published on Wednesday evening, the social network needed to give those partners special access in order to enable messaging features.

"We've been accused of disclosing people's private messages to partners without their knowledge. That's not true," Archibong says.

The experimental features, which are no longer available, allowed users of Spotify and Netflix to message their Facebook friends directly from those apps.

Spotify therefore needed permission to "write" private messages so users could share songs via Facebook Messenger; Netflix needed the same access so viewers of the streaming video service could share links to movies with each other. The same general idea goes for integrations with Dropbox and the Royal Bank of Canada app, which feature Facebook messaging features.

"That was the point of this feature — for the messaging partners mentioned above, we worked with them to build messaging integrations into their apps so people could send messages to their Facebook friends," writes Archibong.

Read more: Facebook had a secret data deal with Amazon which flouted its own privacy rules

Importantly, Archibong says, these features did not mean that Facebook was actively supplying outside companies with your private messages; that users always need to grant permission for the companies to use these features; and that all of these social sharing features "were experimental and have now been shut down for nearly three years."

Notably, Archibong's blog post does not mention Amazon, and only contains a passing, irrelevant reference to Apple — two companies that were identified by the New York Times report as also having potentially inappropriate access to Facebook user data.

You can read Archibong's blog post here.

Waymo

"Can Waymo Drive Alphabet's Stock?" Jefferies equity analysts wondered in a research note to clients Wednesday. 

It certainly could, the analysts concluded in a sweeping report that examined the self-driving company's impact on the Google-parent Alphabet. 

Jefferies upped its long-term value estimate for Waymo to $250 billion (from a previously forecasted range of $75 to $125 billion). That's a notable price tag, compared to Alphabet's current market capitalization of $730 billion.

"Waymo is exploring many different business models, and our new estimate encompasses not only AV technology sale, but also transport services (people, goods/foods, commercial freight), ongoing AV tech support, incar services (advertising/marketing, entertainment, business), and new types of vehicles," the analysts, led by Brent Thill, wrote, referring to the autonomous-vehicle technology.

Accordingly, Jefferies said it would change its methodology in evaluating Waymo to a "revenue per mile monetization model," from an "upfront per vehicle value model." Their forecasts for Waymo's growth take into consideration the many concerns that still surround Waymo and self-driving technology more broadly.

"Questions linger around timeline, as influenced by AV tech progress, regulations, cost, and consumer concerns," Jefferies wrote, citing cities and states taking a cautious approach to allowing autonomous driving.

Still, the California-based company has appeared to progress this year. Waymo was planning to launch its first commercial rides as soon as this month, in Phoenix, Arizona, Bloomberg reported in November, citing a person familiar with the matter. And back in October, Waymo became the first company to receive permission to test unmanned, self-driving cars in California.

Other Wall Street firms have analyzed Waymo's impact on Alphabet. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley upped its own expectations for Waymo's valuation, taking it to $175 billion from $75 billion.

And while the valuations are eye-popping, analysts note autonomous vehicles still have a long road ahead.

In a report earlier this month, UBS auto analyst Colin Langan wrote that even though Waymo had just launched its commercial autonomous car service outside of Phoenix, Arizona, the MIT professors that the firm met with believe it will be a decade before "scale AV applications in complex urban environments become commonplace."

Alphabet shares have tumbled nearly 18% from the stock's all-time high hit in July.

Now read:

Markets Insider

Private Equity firm Thoma Bravo continues to overhaul the management team at Apttus, the scandal-ridden software company it acquired in October after its founding CEO stepped down following an allegation that he sexually assaulted an employee during a company trip to Mexico.

Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Santelices is the latest executive to leave Apttus. Apttus

The most recent departure is Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Santelices, who left his role at the company this week, according to sources familiar with Apttus.

Santelices, who is based in Colorado, joined Apttus in 2015 after a career spent in sales roles at IBM and various tech startups including Webroot and TrackVia.

It is unclear whether Santelices left on his own or was pushed out of Apttus. His departure comes weeks after Raj Verma, chief operating officer at Apttus, changed roles to chief revenue officer.

Although Apttus' senior leadership team has faced withering criticism from insiders who point to the company's toxic and "dishonest" corporate culture, Santelices stood out for being well-liked among employees. Multiple former employees described him as one of the most "ethical" and "well-respected" senior leaders at the company.

Santelices did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Thoma Bravo declined to comment.

Thoma Bravo also brought in several of its own executives in recent weeks, including Chief People Officer Colleen Carr and Chief Legal Officer Omer Rafatullah.

CEO David Murphy joined Apttus in October when the acquisition closed. He took over a role left vacant in July when founding CEO Kirk Krappe left the company.

Neehar Giri and Kent Perkocha, who cofounded Apttus along with Krappe and held c-level positions throughout their time at the company, are both listed just as "co-founders" on the Apttus website.

Human resources crisis continues at Apttus

The leadership shakeup comes as Thoma Bravo grapples with a human resources crisis at Apttus, where allegations ranging from sexual assault to a hostile work environment have cost the company millions of dollars in settlement fees with departing employees.

Apttus faces multiple on-going legal complaints, sources said, related to allegations of inappropriate behavior from leadership at the company.

In November, Murphy asked employees to take an anonymous survey which asked about their past interactions with human resources.

It's unclear whether any of the title or position changes are related to human resources concerns.

Departing CSO had a $4.7 million exit package

Santelices was one of four executives at the company with a parachute package valued over $1 million, according to a company document previously reported by Business Insider.

The exit packages caused a stir at the company after a equity holders — which included most current and former employees — were asked to vote to approve of the packages ahead of Apttus's sale to Thoma Bravo.

A large portion of the payments are contingent on shareholder approval. It is unclear whether shareholders approved of the payments.

The document outlines payments that "have, will, or may be paid," the total of which may ultimately prove to be overstated, according to the documents. The parachute provisions include an array of potential payments, including potential severance packages and unvested equity awards.

Business Insider reported last month that employees were particularly concerned with the $26.5 million parachute for Verma, whose behavior, sources said, is the subject of several ongoing legal complaints.

Santelices' exit package was valued at $4.7 million total. Chief Marketing Officer Ben Allen has a $1.3 million package, and Chief Information Officer Praniti Lakhwara has a $1.7 million package. Both Allen and Lakhwara remain at the company.

Elon Musk revealed what's next for The Boring Company in a series of tweets on Wednesday, a day after he demonstrated how the underground tunnels the startup is developing would operate in Los Angeles.

"Next step for @BoringCompany Loop is demonstrating high throughput at high speed. Target is 4000 vehicles/hour at 155mph (250km/h)," he said.

Musk said the company will offer vehicles in a range of sizes for passengers in its proposed underground tunnel system.

"A variety of vehicles, like normal roads, from a small car to a densely seated bus. Must be seated & belted for high speed safety," he said.

Read more: A rail-guided Tesla and flamethrowers: Inside Elon Musk's exclusive Boring Company tunnel launch party

Musk then said the company's vehicles could carry over 100,000 people per hour through one of its tunnels if the vehicles resembled "densely seated" buses, but he said the company would instead focus on providing a range of vehicle options for customers.

"If all vehicles were densely seated buses, throughput in excess of 100,000 people per hour per lane is possible, but better to offer a range of vehicles & let people decide what makes them happy," he said.

The Boring Company, which was founded to dig tunnels for the proposed Loop and Hyperloop transit systems, unveiled its first test tunnel in Hawthorne, California, on Tuesday. The company has so far won a bid to build a tunnel for the Loop transit system in Chicago and has proposed building tunnels in Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. (Musk has suggested the company could also build a tunnel in San Francisco.)

The Boring Company has received approval to dig a 10.3-mile tunnel beneath Baltimore and begin preliminary work in Washington, DC.

Hyperloop, first proposed by Musk in a 2013 white paper, would carry passengers in pods at speeds of over 600 mph. Loop resembles the Hyperloop but would be used for shorter distances that require slower speeds. Musk has said Loop pods would hold 16 people and travel at 150 mph. He has also said a Loop system could be accessed by dozens of small stations that would transport passengers underground and take up as much space as a parking spot.

A small team of engineers worked under the cover of darkness to replace failing bolts on one of New York's newest bridges, NBC4NY reported Wednesday.

Sixty bolts out of more than a million total are known to have failed on the newly opened Mario Cuomo Bridge, located on the Hudson River about 25 miles north of New York City.

An NBC4NY investigation revealed that more failed bolts may have been secretly repaired.

According to a safety inspector turned whistleblower, a handful of workers were covertly replacing broken bolts under the cover of darkness before safety inspections could take place, NBC4NY reported.

The New York attorney general's office has been investigating the faulty bolts. The construction company that built the bridge says it's cooperating and that its work is completely safe. One engineering expert told NBC there's likely no chance of collapse — just inflated maintenance costs throughout the bridge's lifespan.

AP In a statement to the New York Times, Tappan Zee Constructors said: "all bolt testing performed by multiple parties indicates there is not an issue with the bolts."

"TZC has not been provided with, nor is it aware of, any information that is contrary to these bolt testing results," it continued. "TZC has demonstrated a constant willingness to address any additional issues and will continue to do so."

The issue could end up being similar to one which plagued the Bay Bridge across the San Francisco Bay, costing an additional $4.3 million to replace faulty anchors. The builder, in that case, avoided any legal punishment for the problems.

The Mario Cuomo Bridge, which replaced the 50-year-old Tappan Zee Bridge, has been mired in controversy ever since the idea was conceived. Critics were quick to attack Governor Andrew Cuomo for re-naming the new crossing after his father and former governor. Others said the opening of the $3.98 billion bridge was intentionally sped up to happen before the primary race in which Cuomo defeated challenger Cynthia Nixon.

Read more:Virgin Hyperloop One's new CEO has run subway systems and bike-sharing companies around the world — now he's focused on making Elon Musk's dream a reality.

In 2016, a crane collapsed while contracting the new spans, injuring three motorists and adding headaches to

"Ninety-percent of the time these things are tracked down and found not to be the big problem someone thought in the beginning," the MIT engineer told NBC4NY. "Ten percent of the time it might end up being a big problem and then it really gets into who is the one who didn't pay attention to what was going on."

A thruway spokesperson told the New York Times that "the bridge is completely safe for the traveling public."

Pinterest is gearing up for an initial public offering as early as April 2019 and is in the process of talking to bankers as it seeks to choose its underwriters, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The company could be valued at more than $12 billion, sources told the Journal. That's also the level at which Pinterest most recently raised funding.

The report comes on the heels of Pinterest tapping former Google and Alibaba exec Jane Penner to be its head of investor relations, as Business Insider first reported last week.

Read More: Pinterest has nabbed Google and Alibaba's former head of investor relations — the biggest sign yet that it's gearing up for a 2019 IPO

Pinterest has also contacted a number of banks for a credit line that could come in at around $500 million, according to the Journal.

Companies typically reach out to banks for lending in the run-up to an IPO to incentivize them to land a role on the offering. They also hire investor-relations executives a few months before going public.

Pinterest is poised to double its revenue this year to nearly $1 billion, according to a CNBC report from this summer, and has a valuation of $13 billion to $15 billion. In September, it announced it had 250 million monthly users, up from 200 million a year before.

2019 is expected to be a banner year for initial public offerings, with a roster of hopefuls including Uber, Lyft, Slack, and Airbnb.

Gaming hardware and accessory company Razer announced the "Turret" on Wednesday, the first official keyboard and mouse designed specifically for the Xbox One console.

For some who prefer the good old-fashioned keyboard and mouse over console gamepad controllers for playing games, the news may seem like cause for celebration. It means you can finally use your preferred gaming control method on the couch with a powerful console that delivers better performance than an equivalently priced PC.

For others, Microsoft is making a controversial move to allow keyboard and mouse support on its games console.

There's a whole debate over the speed and accuracy advantages of using a keyboard/mouse over a gamepad. Pit a keyboard/mouse gamer against a gamepad gamer in a match, and it's likely the keyboard/mouse gamer will win. Some say that gamers who choose to use keyboards and mice on a console have an unfair advantage on a gaming platform where most players use controllers.

With that said, one of the games that will support Razer's Turret is the massively popular "Fortnite," a third-person-shooter game where players on any platform, including Xbox One, PlayStation 4, mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, and even Macs, can play together in the same online match. So far, there hasn't been any massive upheavals regarding a PC player's advantage with a keyboard and mouse over another player on console, or even on mobile, where the controls are arguably the most limited or difficult to use.

The Turret sports a $250 price tag, which is wildly expensive when Microsoft's Xbox One controller goes for $50. Even Microsoft's premium Elite Xbox One controller is less expensive at $150.

The Razer Turret is available for pre-order now from the Microsoft Store, and it's estimated to start shipping March 31, 2019.

For now, you can check out the $250 Razer Turret and all it details below: