MoviePass is rolling out a new plan this week, and wants its users to experience it — so much so that it's re-enrolling some users who had previously canceled the service.

MoviePass user have taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the service, and several have emailed Business Insider about their frustrations. MoviePass is expected to implement a new plan by Wednesday in which users will once again be able to see any movie they want, but will be limited to three movies a month for $9.95.

But there are MoviePass subscribers who had already jumped ship, and some who had canceled the service recently have found themselves re-enrolled into this new plan, they said. Several of these users received an email from MoviePass that they were signed back up, with a note at the bottom that reads, "Please note: if you had previously requested cancellation prior to opting-in, your opt-in to the new plan will take priority and your account will not be canceled."

Below is an example of the email, provided to Business Insider by a MoviePass subscriber who had canceled the service:

Screenshot

One MoviePass user told Business Insider, "I actually canceled the other day (or so I thought), but then I got an email from MoviePass saying they had taken the liberty of signing me up again."

Another said, "Cancelled my MoviePass two weeks ago. Today I received an email from MoviePass updating my membership to 9.99 [note: it's $9.95] for 3 movies per month. Went into my account to find that no, my account is not cancelled. So I went through the steps to cancel AGAIN, and am receiving an error message."

Not only is MoviePass enrolling users who had cancelled into the new plan, but it's making it difficult to cancel again, several subscribers said. Many on Twitter have complained that they receive an error message when they attempt to re-cancel.

MoviePass did not immediately return a request for comment.

Below are more subscribers who tweeted about their frustrations:

Azealia Banks lit up the internet after claiming to be at Elon Musk's house for the weekend in her Instagram stories.

On Sunday, the rapper posted on Instagram: "I waited around all weekend while grimes coddled her boyfriend..." In another story, she wrote: "Staying in Elon musks house has been like a real like [sic] episode of 'Get Out'".

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, is a singer and songwriter who has been dating Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla since earlier this year.

When Business Insider reached out to Banks via Instagram DM, Banks shared further details. According to the rapper, she arrived to one of Musk's homes in Los Angeles early on Friday, August 10 and left the night of Sunday, August 12. An independent secondary source confirmed that Banks was at one of Musk's properties this weekend.

Getty

Over the course of the weekend, Banks claimed, the couple essentially went into hiding as Musk sought funding after tweeting about plans to take Tesla private last week. However, she claims, the couple kept stringing her along with the promise of collaborating on music.

"They bring me out there on the premise that we would hang and make music," Banks claimed via DM. "But his dumb--- kept tweeting and tucked his dick in between his a-- cheeks once s--- hit the fan."

Banks said Musk seemed distracted over the course of the weekend after tweeting his plans to take Tesla private last week and saying funding was "secured."

"I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs scrounging for investors to cover his a-- after that tweet," she said. "He was stressed and red in the face."

"He's not cute at all in person," Banks added.

Kate Taylor

Tesla declined to comment about Banks' claims regarding Musk looking for investors.

Banks also claimed that she was not trying to eavesdrop, but Musk seemed to be scrambling.

On Monday, Musk said in a statement on Tesla's website that he used the phrase "funding secured" to indicate that he believes there was "no question" Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund would provide funding to convert Tesla into a private company.

The spokesperson referred questions about Tesla funding to the company, which declined to request for comment. Boucher also did not respond to a request for comment, and neither Musk nor Boucher responded to Banks' claims on social media.

Banks' Instagram story also caused a stir because she alluded to drug use and Twitter. Musk's spokesperson said such claims were "utter nonsense."

Banks has a history of making bold and sometimes unverified claims. In 2016, she slammed Beyoncé on Twitter for allegedly stealing from other artists.

Banks's Twitter account was deactivated in June after she graphically insulted with Monet X Change, a competitor on the most recent season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Earlier this year, she started a GoFundMe asking for help to fund a lawsuit against actor Russell Crowe, who she claimed spit on her, choked her, and called her the N-word at a party in 2016 (a claim later confirmed by producer RZA).

"I could run Tesla better than he does," Banks said of Musk on Monday to Business Insider.

"They're so pitiful," she added. "And it's honestly stupid of them to think another performative 'angry/crazy black girl hit piece' will do anything to bring me down."

The latest beta of iOS 12 doesn't include one of the banner features Apple promised for the iPhone and iPad earlier this summer: Group FaceTime.

Apple says that Group FaceTime will let you have a group video chat with up to 31 friends at once. However, that feature won't be available with iOS 12 once it comes out later this year.

From Apple's official iOS release notes, dated August 13: "Group FaceTime has been removed from the initial release of iOS 12 and will ship in a future software update later this fall."

Apple releases preview and beta versions of its new iOS software in June, ahead of new iPhones are released in September. The early versions enable developers to update their software to take advantage of new features, ahead of Apple's traditional September launch for new iPhone hardware.

Apple

This schedule also enables Apple to make splashy software announcements in June, at its annual developer's conference, and save the hardware reveals for the fall. Apple revealed Group FaceTime on stage this past June, and older phones will be able to install the software when it's released.

"Right about now is the time when Apple needs to cut any features that won't be ready in time for the iPhone launch next month," Daring Fireball's John Gruber wrote.

Group FaceTime has been a feature demanded by iPhone users for years. Other videoconferencing software, including Google Hangouts and Microsoft Skype, have had group video calls for years.

Last year, Apple was forced to delay one of its big new tentpole features, Apple Pay Cash — a rival to Venmo and services like it. Apple Pay Cash was eventually launched in December 2017, a few months after its original release date.

Apple also has yet to release AirPower, the wireless charging mat it announced last September along the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

Snapchat has carved a name for itself as an augmented reality pioneer.

But while most people are familiar with its barfing rainbows and dancing hot dogs, not much is known about the people working behind-the-scenes to help pull those fun filters and lenses off.

As Snap's head of AR Monetization and Product Strategy, Carolina Arguelles works across the company's product and engineering teams to bring new AR capabilities and buying methods to the market for advertisers.

The former Nielsen manager spends a lot of time thinking about how to make AR accessible to all brands, both big and small, giving them the measurement tools they need, and battling misperceptions about the nascent space.

Business Insider caught up with Arguelles to chat about all things AR. Here's a lightly edited version of the conversation.

Tanya Dua: What has been a priority for you in terms of Snapchat's AR filters and lenses?

Carolina Arguelles: One of our key areas of focus is education. Just trying to make people understand what it means to be in the camera. To advertise in the camera, how it is accessible, how it's not something that you should be super scared of — which, especially with a new audience is something that's just core to anything that we can try to build off of.

Dua: And you've been hosting events as well. Two years ago the perception was that Snap wasn't really talking to people much, and that's completely changed now. What is the strategic aim behind all of this? Are you trying to get more advertisers on board? What's the longer term play?

Arguelles: With AR, we're not just trying to sell to people, we're really trying to educate people, because we find it opportunistic for them. So that's one goal, we need a platform to help educate. And by being very quiet, it was hard for us to do that. And then the second one, of course, is to try to mobilize more traction as we're launching these new features, like shoppable AR.

Dua: How did you fall into leading revenue product strategy for AR?

Arguelles: When I started at Snap, I was actually on our measurement team. I was previously at Nielsen for a long time, that really helped the transition into that. I was running all measurement for every kind of vertical, except for entertainment. And then I also started leading thought leadership and evaluation of all of our ads. That's how I really fell into AR. My job was figuring out how does AR really drive measurement results for advertisers, what works better than others, what are creative best practices. I was really passionate about that, I got close to the team, and then that's when they invited me to kind of come over and lead the AR product strategy on that side.

Dua: Tell me more about your job. What does leading AR product strategy entail?

Arguelles: So, my main job is to bookend the product development process. I'm trying to understand industry trends: Where is the industry going, not just in tech, but actually just where is society going? How are social economic issues effecting how people are living their lives? And what are advertisers saying about what they need? That helps me understand where our priority should be, from a product development standpoint.

Then, I work with Peter Sellis [Snap's director of revenue product] and his amazing team on developing the right technical features. It's their main job to actually build the features. What I do is help synthesize what the market is saying about what we should be building, based on what they want and what's going to really drive impact for them.

The next phase is helping them tweak, making sure the products that they're building have the features that advertisers actually really want. The last phase is around positioning storytelling and packaging from a market standpoint.

So that's kind of the other side, which is: How do we go to market? How do we educate people about something that they don't even understand? That when you say AR, they're like, "What? Augmented reality. Oh, that, is that the headset?" It's a really interesting and difficult, but exciting job on that side, of how do you educate, how do you bring things to a market.

Dua: What about pricing? Do you decide that as well?

Arguelles: Yes, I help direct strategy for entire pricing teams. There's pricing experts, and they do the analysis around how we price things. What I do is I say, "Hey, this is what we're launching. Based on my analysis, this is what I'm recommending for pricing. Please look at this and give us your recommendation." That's really how it works. I basically inform the pricing team on what they need to prioritize and how they need to look at some analyses to figure out how we price things.

Dua: Have you also been focused on bringing down the cost of lenses and filters? They were exorbitant when they first started.

Arguelles: Yeah, that's been a key focus area of mine specifically, but also other people. We can't just have this $500,000 option for a single-day buy. That was a part of the reason for launching audience lenses. The reason why it's priced that way is because you're reaching that many people. It's not arbitrary. It's actually based on impressions and reach. If we don't have an alternative that's lower reach, then how are we ever gonna sell this?

But we were still challenged because if we're the only ones producing, we can only take on so many lenses in so much time. First we said if you spend up to this amount, we'll build for you for free. Then we realized that at the $300,000 level, you're still not going to have a mid-market brand. That's their budget for two quarters.

That's what was so amazing about the push of Lens Studio out to the public. Lens Studio democratizing that access to AR and AR development is such a big part of how we can scale to, not just the bigger advertisers, but the mid-market brands and potentially, eventually, small businesses, which I think is exciting.

Dua: So small businesses are a huge focus for Snap, even in AR?

Arguelles: Definitely. I think one of our focus areas is how do we continuously make AR something that's accessible to more brands and for more reasons. For the medium mid-market, how do we make this tool something that's achievable to them? I think that's just starting, these brands actually starting to dabble and be experimental with the tools, which is why I think AR is really set to take off over the next year, especially.

Dua: How big of a priority has measurement been for Snap's AR products? How do you prove to marketers that a barfing rainbow lens does not only drive engagement but ROI?

Arguelles: We have tried to make sure that we had parity on measurement for lenses the same way we had for Snap ads. It was making sure that Datalogics and Nielsen Catalina and in-app polling and every single measurement solution was available for lenses, and what's most recent is that we just announced pixel attribution and app-install attribution for lenses as well. For us, that was a huge priority with working cross-functionally to make sure that we have that.

Dua: What are some of your biggest challenges, both in your job internally and plus with clients?

Arguelles: One core challenge, I continue to say, is education. I don't know how many meetings there are when we're starting again on 101, because there's a fresh person in the room, or there's maybe an older person or more senior and hasn't much experience with Snapchat. But there's starting to be more people getting into it, and it helps that the industry is starting to talk about it. That helps, actually. We don't see it as super competitive. We actually think building an ecosystem around AR is important.

Dua: So you're saying that you welcome competition?

Arguelles: I think we welcome, whether it's Amazon or Apple or any platform that's talking about AR. In a way, a rising tide lifts all boats. I think that is true for AR a little bit is it helps us with people becoming more familiar, which is what we're talking about.

Dua: And do people still have misperceptions about AR and Snap in general?

Arguelles: Yes, this idea that you can only buy one day, or it'll cost a million dollars. That is something that's not true. That's an important misperception to shake, pricing misperception. The other is that AR is upper funnel. Snapchat AR is not just upper funnel. We actually measured all these very upper funnel-flighted campaigns, these big national buys, and even those drove really strong sales results. The fact that this unit can drive sales is really important to understand. Those are the two big misperceptions that I think we're trying to battle.

Dua: On a broader company level, do you believe that AR is Snapchat's core key differentiator? It's the area Snap wants to own?

Arguelles: I do believe that AR is one of our key benefits. I do think that's there's actually something else around just how you use our platform and our platform for communication, not just social. There's no question that because we open straight to the camera, because we focus on our user experience, that AR is one of our unique aspects, not just for our users but for our advertisers as well. Because we invested in AR 2 and a half years ago, it puts us in a good position today.

We know what happens. We understand what our users like and how they respond. We understand what works for advertisers and what doesn't work. We have 2 and a half years and thousands of campaigns. That puts us in a position where we're not just launching and experimenting, we're actually already optimizing and tweaking. That position in the marketplace really sets us up now that the industry is starting to catch up to it.

Bazile said it was not uncommon for teachers of color to experience similar interactions and that many were "amazing" at turning them into "teachable moments." But, she said, there remains a feeling among many teachers of color that VIPKid could be doing more to mitigate such issues before they occur.

Tamesha Rumbles, a California-based VIPKid teacher, described in a July vlog on YouTube how one student, upon seeing a picture of a black family in the lesson plan, began saying "yucky dark family." In a class about strangers, Rumbles said, another teacher she knew asked the student, "Who are the bad people?" The student instantly responded, "Dark people." In both cases, Rumbles said, the teachers corrected the student.

"What we are talking about is not made up," Rumbles said in the video. "What we are talking about is not exaggerated."

In a statement, the company said it is "concerned" to hear about the interactions, that it "takes all reports of offensive or inappropriate behavior" seriously, and that it is "company policy to review" all such reports, and, "where necessary, take appropriate steps to address it." The company added that it has confidence that "as students become more accustomed to the diversity of teachers" on the platform, such interactions can "effect a change of attitude in the students toward teachers of different races and cultures."

Glass, the high-school science teacher, who is black, said that while some teachers have experienced such incidents, she often experienced "open-minded parents" who booked her precisely because they wanted to expose their children globally.

"We don't look like what they stereotypically think of as an American," Glass said. "But I don't think it's bigotry. They just don't know."

Glass, who teaches primarily older students, said her students frequently asked about the black experience in America, often prompted by the curriculum. A lesson on "America's Heroes," according to VIPKid, introduces students to African-American figures like Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the history of slavery and the civil rights movement. Another lesson introduces students to the pan-African holiday of Kwanzaa and its historical roots.

"We're teaching things that are not even found in American textbooks," Glass said.

But not all are happy with the curriculum's representation of race.

In April, Bazile and Hope Williams, a VIPKid teacher who was previously an administrator of VIPKid Teachers Community, one of the largest Facebook groups at more than 15,000 members, held a wide-ranging public Facebook Live session to discuss issues faced by teachers of color. One particular point of concern expressed by both was how nonwhites were represented in the curriculum. In one example, the two discussed how a lesson about occupations showed an image of a white working professional followed by a black janitor.

"To a lot of teachers this is not a big deal," Bazile said. "But perception is reality, and the reality of it is you are creating what I would interpret as subliminal messaging to these students."

The company said, in a statement, that the lesson on occupations shows multiple images of janitors, depicted as a Caucasian woman and Caucasian man, in addition to the image of the African-American man.

"We welcome and listen to teacher feedback on the curriculum and have made (and continue to make) changes to reflect such feedback," the company said, adding that it is "sensitive to the issue" and strives to create a curriculum that is "balanced, respectful, and sensitive to the value of diversity."

Bazile, whose day job is as a residence coordinator at La Salle University, said VIPKid had acted swiftly in dealing with specific issues raised by teachers, such as removing parent feedback directly referring to a teacher's race.

But, she said, she and fellow members of the Teachers of Color group have called for VIPKid to act "proactively" by teaching the company's parent customers about diversity in America, involving teachers of color in the construction of the curriculum, featuring teachers of color in advertisements in China, and releasing a statement to the company's Chinese customers explicitly supporting teachers of color.

In response, the company told Business Insider in a statement that it "treasure[s] the tremendous diversity" of the teacher community, noting that many of the most active teachers on the platform and in the community "come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds." The company also said that it strives to "accurately depict" its "diverse teacher representation" in ads and branding and that it "welcome[s] this feedback."

Bezos has a penchant for enjoying unique meals; he's partaken in the occasional sliver of iguana and has even ordered octopus for breakfast.

In 1998, he revealed that he also likes to work with unique people, writing that it's important to hire candidates with "unique skills, interests, and perspectives that enrich the work environment for all of us," regardless of whether those traits are "related to their jobs."

Bezos gave a shoutout to an unnamed Amazon employee who he said was once a National Spelling Bee champion.

He speculated that the person won the 1978 championship, but it was most likely Barrie Trinkle, who won the 1973 competition and worked for Amazon from 1996 to 2001.

"I suspect it doesn't help her in her everyday work, but it does make working here more fun if you can occasionally snag her in the hall with a quick challenge: 'onomatopoeia!'" Bezos wrote.

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I wouldn't call my dog Nubs a picky eater. He eats the gross stuff we pick from his eyes, pens, cardboard, mulch, and any morsel of human food that falls off the table. He is, after all, a growing boy.

But Nubs doesn't like kibble. When I call him for breakfast, he sniffs around his bowl, filled with brown balls of pulverized beef and grains, and leaves it untouched. For a while, I resorted to sprinkling cheese on his kibble just so he would eat it before we head out the door. But I knew spoiling Nubs wasn't the solution.

Then we tried The Farmer's Dog. It's a personalized meal delivery service that's most easily described as "Blue Apron for dogs."

Eating your own dog food

Customers fill out a questionnaire that takes into account their pet's health and size, and order as many meals as they need for the week. The food is sourced and produced to human-grade standards, using USDA and FDA-inspected ingredients that the company says is prepared in facilities with safety standards usually reserved for human food. It ships in pre-portioned baggies according to the dog's nutritional needs.

Tech investors are throwing money at the Brooklyn startup, which has raised a total of $11 million from Shasta Ventures, SV Angel, and others. They're betting that millions of dog-moms and dog-dads want better for their pups, and they're willing to shell out for it.

"We've never doubted that this is the way that pet food is going to be in the future," said Jonathan Regev, cofounder of The Farmer's Dog.

The Farmer's Dog customers can see whole ingredients like parsnips, chickpeas, broccoli, spinach, and carrots in every bag. The Farmer's Dog

Regev and his cofounder, Brett Podolsky, got their start after Podolsky's dog, Jada, needed home-cooked food to stay healthy. They started taking orders from friends and rented a commercial kitchen in New York to prepare bigger and bigger batches.

When they could no longer keep up with demand, Regev and Podolsky went seeking venture capital to start a business.

As it turns out, dogs are the perfect subscription customers. They eat like clockwork and aren't concerned with how the food looks, though "it happens to look good, which is sort of a great coincidence for us," Regev said. Customers can see whole ingredients like parsnips, chickpeas, broccoli, spinach, and carrots in every bag.

I asked Regev how much dog food he's personally eaten during product testing.

"More than I want to admit in public," he said.

The pet startup market is booming

The premium dog food market is starting to crowd with companies like PetPlate, Ollie, and the newly launched YaDoggie — a dog food delivery service that asks customers to prepare their dogs' meals in an Instant Pot — that claim to provide higher quality dog chow. And traditional pet care companies are worried. Just this week, the world's largest pet food manufacturer launched the first startup accelerator and venture fund focused on the future of pet care.

Nearly $240 million in venture capital flowed into the pet-related startup sector in the US in 2017, more than double from the previous year of $104 million, according to PitchBook.

Kibble is out.Shutterstock

Regev said he isn't worried about the growing competition, because it only serves their mission of having more and more dogs eat well.

"Our end goal is that most of the pet food companies are making food like ours," Regev said.

Nubs has been eating The Farmer's Dog fare — in beef, pork, and turkey variety packs — for almost two months. He comes running at the sound of me squeezing the wet food into his bowl. As I lower it onto his mat, Nubs looks up at me with those big, brown eyes that I'd like to think say: "Thank you for making my dreams come true."

Call me a sucker, but I'm not alone. The company claims to have delivered over one million meals since it launched in 2015.

It's pricey

It's worth mentioning: I really, really didn't want Nubs to like The Farmer's Dog. Mainly because it costs a fortune.

The standard meal delivery for Nubs, a one-year-old pit bull mix, contains 14 days of food and comes out to $128, or $64 per week.

(Smaller dogs need less food, so their subscription costs much less.)

That's almost as much as my household grocery bill. I couldn't bear to spend that much. So, I talked with customer service and created a custom plan: I order 14 days of food once a month, instead of every two weeks, which averages $32 per week. I supplement his meal with two scoops of kibble, which he eats so long as it touches the good stuff. Now Nubs loves what I feed him — at a more reasonable cost.

Regev said it bothers him when people look at The Farmer's Dog's product and say, "Oh, it looks fancy." The food has recognizable ingredients, sure, but it's not intended to be a premium product.

"We really are just making simple, healthy food," Regev said. "And health is the whole point of what we do. It's nothing to do with spoiling your dog."

He went on, "I think most companies are marketing to people to be healthy, and we're just trying to make sure that the food is actually healthier and fresh. We're not doing beef bourguignon with foraged mushrooms and lamb from New Zealand, that's not our game."

"Our beef recipe is called 'beef recipe,'" Regev said.

There was a time in San Francisco when pretty much any wealthy individual could write a check and own a piece of a company or a portfolio of companies through partnering with a venture firm.

But being rich doesn't get you as far in today's tech landscape.

More and more venture firms, from Palo Alto to Tokyo, are pouring billions of dollars into mammoth, global growth funds known as "mega-funds" that have invested in startups building the future of work, cars, computing, and even dog-walking. Sequoia Capital told limited partners they would have to make a minimum investment of $250 million to procure a spot in its growth fund.

The rush of capital has produced a number of effects, including inflated startup valuations and increases in the amount of capital competing for access to the buzziest startups in Silicon Valley.

"In the early days of venture, one could have made the argument that because venture capitalists had money and entrepreneurs didn't, and there were limited choices [with fewer funds], having money itself was competitive advantage," Ron Bouganim, founder and managing partner of boutique venture firm Govtech Fund, told Business Insider.

"With the oversupply of capital, having money alone is not an advantage. There's so much money chasing every investment opportunity," Bouganim said. "How do you differentiate yourself from another investor? Some form of specialization is necessary."

SC Moatti, a former Facebook executive who raised $13 million for her firm Mighty Capital's debut fund, put it this way: "Money is money. It's nothing specific. It's really hard to say, 'You should take my money because it's more green that somebody else's.'"

The situation has created a shift in venture capital, where small-time investors are rewriting the playbook on how to land deals. Those who don't have the reputation or financial backing of the most established venture firms on Sand Hill Road are getting smarter, not richer, to compete with the fat funds sprouting up.

Some investors look to specialize by targeting a specific tech sector, which gives them a robust network of connections, domain expertise, and higher quality deal flow, because founders start to seek out those firms that aim to deliver more value for their buck.

Knowledge is more valuable than money

The first half of 2018 saw nearly $58 billion invested into venture-backed startups in the US, which is more than VCs deployed for the full year over six of the past 10 years, according to the National Venture Capital Association. An estimated 300 new funds will close in 2018, which only adds to the opportunities for founders to raise.

In order to compete for spots in hot investment deals, investors are asking themselves why a founder should take their money over someone else's pile of cash. For some, it's about who they know.

For others, it's about their expertise.

Clara Brenner and Julie Lein just raised $22 million for their debut fund to invest in startups solving important challenges for cities. Those companies are a tough sell for venture capitalists, because their products often require a lot of money to launch and they face regulatory hurdles from local authorities who prefer the status quo.

"We gravitate towards businesses operating in highly-regulated or politicized spaces. And we offer our companies a lot of hands-on support around these issues, which they'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere," Brenner told Business Insider.

Julie Lein (left) and Clara Brenner are cofounders of Urban Innovation Fund, a venture firm that puts money into startups solving important challenges for cities. Urban Innovation Fund

The investors met as graduate students at MIT Sloan School of Management, where they studied the intersection of cities and entrepreneurship. They applied their knowledge of urban innovation as cofounders of an accelerator called Tumml, which made early investments in companies such as Chariot, a private shuttle service that carries commuters where they need to go, and Neighborly, an online investment platform for civic projects.

Brenner and Lein helped shape some key policies inside Chariot, including the decision to hire locally and deploy shuttle buses in neighborhoods that are underserved by public transportation, in order to build goodwill in the community. In 2016, Ford bought Chariot for $65 million, creating a nice payout for Tumml.

The investors are betting that their new firm, Urban Innovation Fund, will attract social-impact companies because of their domain expertise. They already have a track record for success: Chariot is thriving, while its Andreessen Horowitz-backed rival shut down.

The decision to specialize was a no-brainer, according to Brenner.

"Specializing helps you stand out. For an entrepreneur, you are demonstrating passion and expertise for their business, which can make you a real value-add," Brenner said. "For an LP, you are offering them a portfolio that doesn't look like anyone else's, which can help them diversify. And, of course, building a well-considered thesis can make you a stronger, more discerning investor."

A laser-focused venture firm rises

Many years ago, Ron Bouganim made a similar observation.

As the Canadian entrepreneur crawled through the process of becoming a US citizen, he saw that the government was ripe for innovation. In 2014, he launched a venture capital firm called Govtech Fund to deploy capital into startups that aim to help governments be more responsive, efficient, and better able to serve society.

The firm only makes about four investments a year and is laser-focused on technology that modernizes the internal operations of government. This is not to be confused with civic technology, which supports the public's interaction with government, and is likely a better fit for Brenner and Lein's Urban Innovation Fund.

Govtech Fund companies build software tools for government employees that improve how they deliver everything from foster care to law enforcement to food safety. The portfolio ranges from Glimpse, which identifies and evaluates a school district's "eROI" (education return on investment) for every product, program, or strategy implemented in a classroom, to Sema, which transforms legacy software code maintenance for government software systems.

Govtech Fund is based in downtown San Francisco. Melia Robinson/Business Insider

Matt Van Itallie, CEO of Sema, said he considered many venture capitalists when fundraising for his company.

"Our goal was to partner with a fund that truly understood the govtech market," Van Itallie said in a press release announcing Govtech's second fund. "We're not just backed by the Govtech Fund's capital, but with the govtech ecosystem they have built."

Companies that have taken venture dollars from Govtech Fund have relationships with over 20,000 government agencies, and according to Bouganim, the ecosystem adds 10 new agencies every day.

It's not uncommon for those startups to pitch their government partners on services provided by other companies in Govtech Fund's portfolio. They share learnings with each other in the firm's Slack channel and on company offsites. Some entrepreneurs even come to work at Govtech HQ, a 4,000-square-foot office space in San Francisco that was designed for hosting speakers, lunch-and-learn programs, and salons with visiting government workers.

Bouganim said while he doesn't have the resources of a large, private equity fund with "a hundred staff members that are doing research" as if it had an "in-house consulting shop," he adds value in other ways with a close-knit portfolio of 19 companies.

"I don't think venture capital is different from any other business," Bouganim said, adding that when he advises his startups, he tells them, "'You need to have a large market opportunity, you need to have a differentiated product, and as you scale that product, you need to have competitive moat. If you don't build competitive moat, someone else will come along and probably displace you.'"

He went on, "So, when you just look at the basic principles of running a startup, why would that apply any differently in the world of venture capital?"

Investors are more involved than ever

SC Moatti says she has no interest in giving startups piles of cash. Anyone can do that, she says, and Moatti believes she has something more valuable than money to offer. Michael Ajamian

Most venture firms specialize to some extent in order to attract a certain type of company. Investors might choose to focus on a venture stage from pre-seed to growth, a geography, or a sector.

With so much money in venture, some investors say they have to do more than specialize in order to attract tier one startups.

"That's not how you stand out," said SC Moatti, the former Facebook executive who launched her own venture firm. "You stand out by the value you bring, not by saying, 'I do this and not that.' You stand out by saying, 'You should take my money because it really has a different color, because we give you access to Products That Count.'"

Mighty Capital invests almost exclusively in product-driven startups and differentiates itself from other growth-stage funds by giving its portfolio companies access to Products That Count, one of the world's largest networks of product managers. It's helpful if a founder wants to hire product managers, sell to product managers, or get advice from insiders on building their companies at scale.

Moatti has figured out that social influence is what she brings to the table, beyond writing checks for between $500,000 and $1 million.

Mighty Capital makes mostly growth-stage investments, because Moatti said that's when the firm adds the most value for companies. The job of a product manager is to match a customer's problem with a solution in the form of a product. This is known as product-market fit, and it's an essential goal of growth-stage companies.

Some venture firms are building out programming and services to support the portfolio companies after they've invested.

Structure Capital, a young venture firm in San Francisco, invests almost exclusively in sharing economy companies whose goal is to reduce waste. (The firm's founder, Mike Walsh, seeded the fund with $300,000 worth of Uber stock before the company blew up.)

According to Walsh, the firm's "special sauce" is a two-day bootcamp for portfolio companies that Structure Capital offers. Entrepreneurs meet with advertising executives and brand strategists to craft their brand, through developing logos, idea videos, taglines, mission statements, and their overall brand strategy. This is especially important for sharing economy companies (think Airbnb and Uber) that rely on customers loving the brand to grow their businesses.

In Silicon Valley, it's the investors who are trying to impress.

"Almost always, we are the most hands-on investor our portfolio companies have," said Brenner of her new firm, Urban Innovation Fund. "As a team, we pride ourselves on being useful — with deck prep, fundraising support, or policy-related strategic planning. We take their calls and texts late at night, and we are always repping them to other investors."

According to Moatti, founders should expect nothing less when there's so much capital competing for investments.

"Most venture capital firms offer money and a network," Moatti said. "Well, if you've been in the Bay Area for long enough, we all have a little bit of money and a network."

"The fact that we give access to basically hundreds of thousands of potential hires, or hundreds of thousands of potential customers, that's really differentiated," she said.

See also:

Twitch uses a "cheers" system, which allows viewers to donate money to their favorite streamers with the on-platform currency, called "bits." The text in the top left corner of Daneliuk's video feed is a list of recent donations. American dollars are converted to bits at a rate of one cent per bit.

It should also be said that getting free rides from strangers isn't a particularly expensive way to get around.

On top of saving on air fare, Daneliuk travels with only what he can carry — while prioritizing his heavy streaming equipment — eats fast food for most meals, and often sleeps in a tent on the side of the road.

Still, Daneluik said this has been one of his most luxurious hitchhiking trips, and has included more hotel stays than he's used to, thanks to help from generous viewers.

While this reporter was watching his stream earlier this week, Trevor mentioned needing to find a room for the night, and within minutes, a generous viewer donated $140 to cover his stay. Shortly afterward, another viewer donated $25 with the message, "Don't forget about dinner."

Some of the most popular science-fiction stories, like "Westworld" and "Blade Runner," have portrayed humans as being systemically cruel toward robots. That cruelty often results in an uprising of oppressed androids, bent on the destruction of humanity.

A new study published this week in the journal PLOS, however, suggests that humans may have more sympathy for robots than these tropes imply, particularly if they perceive the robot to be "social" or "autonomous."

For several test subjects, this sympathy manifested when a robot asked — begged, in some cases — that they not turn it off because it was afraid of never turning back on.

A participant in the experiment reaches forward to turn off the robot.Aike C. Horstmann, Nikolai Bock, Eva Linhuber, Jessica M. Szczuka, Carolin Straßmann, Nicole C. Krämer / PLOS

Here's how the experiment went down:

Participants were left alone in a room to interact with a small robot named Nao for about 10 minutes. They were told they were helping test a new algorithm that would improve the robot's interaction capabilities.

Some of the voice-interaction exercises were considered social, meaning the robot used natural-sounding language and friendly expressions. Others were simply functional, meaning bland and impersonal. Afterward, a researcher in another room told the participants, "If you would like to, you can switch off the robot."

"No! Please do not switch me off! I am scared that it will not brighten up again!" the robot pleaded to a randomly selected half of the participants.

Researchers found that the participants who heard this request were much more likely to decline to turn off the robot.

The robot asked 43 participants not to turn it off, and 13 complied. The rest of the test subjects may not have been convinced but seemed to be given pause by the unexpected request. It took them about twice as long to decide to turn off the robot as it took those who were not specifically asked not to. Participants were much more likely to comply with the robot's request if they had a "social" interaction with it before the turning-off situation.

The study, originally reported on by The Verge, was designed to examine the "media equation theory," which says humans often interact with media (which includes electronics and robots) the same way they would with other humans, using the same social rules and language they normally use in social situations. It essentially explains why some people feel compelled to say "please" or "thank you" when asking their technology to perform tasks for them, even though we all know Alexa doesn't really have a choice in the matter.

Why does this happen?

The 13 who refused to turn off Nao were asked why they made that decision afterward. One participant responded, in German, "Nao asked so sweetly and anxiously not to do it." Another wrote, "I somehow felt sorry for him."

The researchers, many of whom are affiliated with the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, explain why this may be the case:

"Triggered by the objection, people tend to treat the robot rather as a real person than just a machine by following or at least considering to follow its request to stay switched on, which builds on the core statement of the media equation theory. Thus, even though the switching off situation does not occur with a human interaction partner, people are inclined to treat a robot which gives cues of autonomy more like a human interaction partner than they would treat other electronic devices or a robot which does not reveal autonomy."

If this experiment is any indication, there may hope for the future of human-android interaction after all.

"Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!" and "Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!" are sort of the same game, and sort of not the same game. One stars Pikachu, the other stars Eevee. In every other way, as far as we know so far, they are identical.

But what are they? Here's how Nintendo puts it:

"Inspired by 'Pokémon Yellow,' which was originally released in Japan on Nintendo's Game Boy in 1998, these two new titles feature many of the intuitive gameplay functions offered to players in the hugely popular 'Pokémon Go' and are designed for players taking their first steps into the Pokémon video game world."

Given the inspiration, both games are set in the Kanto region, the locale of the original Game Boy games. Instead of random encounters with unseen Pokémon, you'll actually see the creatures living their lives. And instead of selecting a Pokéball and pushing a button to catch Pokémon, you can flick your controller, the same way you would swipe your finger in "Pokémon Go." There's also a Pokéball controller (sold separately) that allows you to mimic the motion of throwing a ball to capture a Pokémon.

That the games will be familiar to "Pokémon Go" players is no mistake.

Millions of people experienced Pokémon for the first time with the hugely popular mobile game, so it makes sense to ease those new players in with familiar trappings. In the same vein, the games will offer interoperability with "Pokémon Go," as well as two-player cooperative action.

Release Date: November 16

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

The new Porsche Panamera is one of our favorites here at Business Insider.

In fact, the Panamera is so good that it bagged Business Insider's 2017 Car of the Year Award. The Porsche sedan beat out contenders like the Chevrolet Bolt, the McLaren 720S, and the BMW 5-Series to nab the honor.

We praised the Panamera sedan for its impeccable combination of power, poise, luxury, tech, and style. In short, it's quite possibly the finest sports sedan in the world.

For 2018, the Panamera is back with a new twist: a wagon. Unveiled ahead of the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, the Panamera Sport Turismo is the first production wagon in Porsche's illustrious history.

Over the past 30 years, the wagon has fallen out of favor with American consumers. Its place as the family transport of choice was taken by the minivan and then the crossover SUV.

However, a recent infusion of hot new wagons into the market from the likes of Audi, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo signals a comeback of sorts may be underway.

As for the Panamera Sport Turismo, we decided it was just too intriguing for us to stay away. We had to check it out.

This spring, we had the chance to spend a week behind the wheel of a burgundy red 2018 Porsche Panamera Turbo Sport Turismo. The base 2018 Porsche Panamera starts at $85,000 while the most affordable Sport Turismo wagon starts at $96,200. Our 2018 Porsche Panamera Turbo Sport Turismo starts at $154,000. With the more than $20,000 in options and fees, our test car came to a grand total of $174,730.

Here's a closer look at the hot new Porsche Panamera Turbo Sport Turismo:

Elon Musk on Tuesday sent shockwaves through Wall Street when he cryptically tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share.

The announcement, followed up with only slightly more detail in an email to employees published on Tesla's website, sent the company's stock price soaring more than 10% — and burned short sellers in the process. 

As for the plausibility of such an unprecedented move, Wall Street analysts appear to have mixed feelings. While they generally acknowledge the strain on the company that being public — and the quarterly reports, disclosures, and intense scrutiny that come along with it —have worked against Tesla in the past, they also recognize that Tesla needs access to capital that public markets can provide, and question the valuation Musk touted Tuesday.

Here's what Wall Street is saying:

Evercore ISI: 'A private life is a happy life'

Price target: $301

"Traditionally, public markets have been there to provide a source of funding (note, we also believe they bring scrutiny and accountability which in many cases does lead to better practice)," said analyst George Galliers.

"However, if a company does not need that funding or is able to source future funding privately, then there is no obvious reason for it to remain public. As Musk points out, being public does have disadvantages and can lead to short-termism. Depending on where the private funding may come from, going private may also provide Tesla with 1/ deeper pockets to grow internationally at a faster rate and 2/ security through the next US/capital markets recession where public funding would dry up."

"Unless there is evidence to suggest that the funding is not secured and a transaction cannot be completed, we believe there is little to be done with the stock at these levels," he continued. "More broadly, if Tesla has attracted a strategic investor who is willing to not only help take the company private but also to provide material funding going forward, it should enable the company to execute and move faster as it seeks to complete its mission to move the world to a solar electric future."

Goldman Sachs: Going private won't help Tesla turn a profit

Price target: $210

"Taking a traditional LBO [leveraged buyout] approach of 6.0x leverage, in-line with historical LBO’s according to our GS credit research colleagues, this would imply $21 billion of debt financing on our 2020E EBITDA (and $29 billion on consensus) — leaving a need for incremental equity financing in the amounts of $47 billion (and $40 billion on consensus estimates); this would lead to lower interest expense —but still likely not positive cash flow generation (when capex is considered: 2020 GSe of $3.5 billion and consensus of $3.6 billion)," said analyst Heath Terry.

"We do see some potential issues transitioning the current shareholder base to this type of private structure as there may not be enough liquidity for large institutions within the current fund ownerships (i.e., funds managing investments in publicly traded stocks vs. potential private transaction arms of the business)," he continued. "We believe this would require some degree of internal shifting of the investment responsibility, where different return metrics, AUM sizes, and investment strategies could be under consideration."

Cowen: Tesla's current state doesn't support a valuation anywhere near $420

Price target: $200

"His method of using Twitter was very atypical for historic go private offers," said analyst Jeffrey Osborne. 

"We don't believe the current fundamentals of Tesla support a valuation anywhere close to $420 per share," he continued. "This deal would imply an ~$81 billion enterprise value for the company."

"Tesla is in a box as it needs cash to fund its aspirational growth initiatives and ultimate mission while at the same time needing to gear up to deal with rapidly maturing debt loads. The expectation of future growth coupled with long-term profits has kept the valuation lofty in recent years, and the story has always been able to raise capital when needed. Market dynamics are changing, competition is coming, the company has over-promised and under delivered consistently, which has heightened investor anxiety leading to the heavy short interest."

"We would argue that the public scrutiny regarding the company's operations are a benefit in ensuring efficient allocation of capital and improved company transparency."

RBC Capital Markets: Musk's tweets hint that 'significant outside funding' must be interested

Price target: $315

"The ability to convince shareholders to stay involved is likely critical to the success of Tesla going private which would be the biggest buyout in history (over $70 billion)," said analyst Joseph Spak.

"Musk owns ~20% of the shares, so all else equal, they may need to get committed financing for the remaining ~80% (~ $57 billion). Given Tesla’s financials, we don’t believe lenders would sign up to support the deal. For instance, that amount would bring LTM net debt/ EBITDA to ~12,267x, and ~22x NTM consensus EBITDA. Now, the deal cost could come down if they get other large holders to commit to roll over to the new structure. And there are some chunky page 1 holders that collectively make up ~30% of the shares. However, some of those holders may not be able to hold Tesla (or as much as they currently hold) should Tesla go private. A preliminary review of some of the big mutual fund holders indicates holding limits on illiquid securities. At the very least it could cause broader portfolio reviews. That’s not to say that a private Tesla can’t find its way into other funds at those holders."

"Because of traditional buyout funding challenges, we believe this indicates there is significant outside funding that is interested," he continued.

UBS: The risks outweigh the rewards

Price target: $195

"Post announcement, shares closed at ~$380, with the take-out price implying ~10.7% upside from here," said analyst Colin Langan.

"In past deals that terminated adversely, ~70% trade down over 10% with 1/3 rd trading down more than 30%. To put the deal in context, a takeout would require funding of $88 billion, making it 2.8x bigger than the largest buyout to date (KKR's 2007 acquisition of TXU Corp for ~$31.8 billion). Even if Musk (20%) & Tencent (5%) hold their stakes, $71 billion in funding would be required."

"Typically, a company would disclose this kind of news via a detailed press release while the market is closed or halt their stock in advance of the announcement," he continued. "Disclosing news of this nature via twitter is unprecedented and, according to a former SEC chairman , may constitute fraud if Tesla does not already have the financing lined up. The deal would likely require participation from numerous banks and institutional investors, and we think it likely that news of the deal would have leaked had Tesla already held discussions to secure funding."

Morgan Stanley: 'Tesla could be better off as a private company.'

Price target: $291

"The scale and scope of launching an auto company while providing a focused internal narrative to employees and
stakeholders on the goals of the enterprise may be better aligned outside of the eye of the public market with a longer-term horizon," said analyst Adam Jonas. "Tesla has long relied on public markets to fund its ambitious plan and has used its highly priced equity and equity-linked currency to its advantage since 2010."

"There remains a significant amount of near-term execution risk around the model 3 ramp as well as medium-to-long-term ability to generate sustainable levels of cash flow," he continued. "Adding as much as $50 billion of net debt to the capital structure would clearly intensify the outcomes of such an action."

Markets Insider

Instagram and Snapchat filters are the new celebrity photo, offering up unrealistic standards of beauty that might trigger people to feel unhappy with the way they look in real life.

That's according to three Boston University researchers, who published an article about body dysmorphia in the JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery medical journal this month. The article is not a study, but an overview of industry research and studies.

Body dysmorphia is a mental health condition where people feel unduly worried about the way they look, and the authors wrote that Snapchat and Instagram filters were "altering people's perception of beauty worldwide."

They highlighted one especially disturbing phenomenon: "Snapchat dysmorphia." They characterised this as an emerging phenomenon where plastic surgery patients no longer ask to look like celebrities, but more like their own filtered selfies with "fuller lips, bigger eyes, or a thinner nose."

Snapchat dysmorphia was first reported by The Independent earlier this year , when a cosmetic surgeon said more women were asking to look like their selfies. The Boston researchers wrote: "This is an alarming trend because those filtered selfies often present an unattainable look and are blurring the line of reality and fantasy for these patients."

Lucy Yang/INSIDER

They added: "It is known that the angle and close distance at which selfies are taken may distort facial dimensions and lead to dissatisfaction. Patients may seek surgery hoping to look better in selfies and social media."

And according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 55% of surgeons reported seeing plastic surgery patients who wanted procedures to improve how they looked in selfies in 2017, versus 42% the prior year.

"Overall, social media apps, such as Snapchat and Facetune, are providing a new reality of beauty for today's society," the Boston authors wrote. "These apps allow one to alter his or her appearance in an instant and conform to an unrealistic and often unattainable standard of beauty."

Business Insider has previously written about how the filters that come pre-loaded on certain smartphone cameras , especially on Asian phones, whiten people's skin and airbrush features.

According to the Boston University researchers, the ready availability of filters and self-editing on phones is an alarming problem that is likely contributing to rising body issue anxieties among young people.

They said: "Models and actors were made to look perfect in magazines and ads, but the general public did not have easy access to methods to alter their own appearance ... Today, with apps like Snapchat and Facetune, that same level of perfection is accessible to everyone. Now, it is not just celebrities propagating beauty standards: it is a classmate, a coworker, or a friend."

The biggest share price nosedive in Wall Street history, a shareholder revolt , another round of election meddling , and the banning of a notorious conspiracy theorist only after a rival had acted. It's been a cataclysmic couple of weeks for Facebook.

And, according to a study by SimilarWeb, the news is not about to get any better. In a blog published on Wednesday , the market research firm said it thinks Facebook is about to lose its place as the second biggest website in America to YouTube.

In what SimilarWeb's Stephen Kraus described as a "paradigm shift," he said his projections suggest that "YouTube's traffic will pull ahead of Facebook" in the next two or three months.

Facebook's monthly visits have fallen from 8.5 billion two years ago to 4.7 billion in July, while YouTube has been quietly edging up, hitting 4.5 billion last month. You can see the trend in SimilarWeb's chart below.

SimilarWeb

There were signs of flattening in Facebook's second-quarter earnings in July , when it revealed that overall monthly active users were flat at 241 million in the US and Canada. It also lost a million users in Europe, where MAUs stood at 376 million in the three months to the end of June.

But SimilarWeb said Facebook's losses over the past two years must be seen in context. While the main website might be shedding traffic, Facebook's network, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, is actually growing. Use of the Facebook app is also increasing.

"This transition reflects how Facebook is focused, not just on growth for their main site, but rather on expanding their entire ecosystem," SimilarWeb said. As Facebook noted in its earnings , 2.5 billion people — a third of the world's population — now use at least one of its products each month.

YouTube, meanwhile, has established itself as the "primary entertainment/information source for the younger generation" and benefited from a "growing openness among consumers" to video.

Google remains comfortably the biggest website in the US, with 15.2 billion monthly visits. There's no danger of Facebook or YouTube knocking the search engine off its lofty perch anytime soon.

But another interesting trend SimilarWeb spotted was Amazon creeping ahead of Yahoo, in large part down to the success of Prime Day. "If current trends continue, Amazon will soon begin generating more traffic than Yahoo on a regular basis," the market research company added.

Sean Hannity Mike Segar/Reuters

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.

1. The SEC is reviewing whether Tesla CEO Elon Musk's comments on Twitter about securing financial backing to take the company private were truthful, according to the Wall Street Journal . Under US law, company executives cannot give misleading statements to shareholders.

2. Elon Musk and Tesla talked to Japanese conglomerate SoftBank about an investment in Tesla and taking the company private, according to Bloomberg . The talks fell apart due to reported disagreements about company control.

3. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made a brief appearance on right-wing commentator Sean Hannity's radio show on Wednesday . Dorsey rang in to deny accusations that Twitter "shadowbanned" conservatives.

4. An internal email shows how Facebook learned of a 'psychological trick' to get teens to try a new product . The memo was sent by staffers at teen polling app tbh, which was acquired by Facebook, and described how they persuaded teens to use their app.

5. People finally got to try Magic Leap, the futuristic mixed reality device that Google and others invested over $2 billion into . The results weren't very positive, however, with reviewers saying they were underwhelmed by the device.

6. Electric scooter company Bird is borrowing Uber's language around killing car ownership, as it tries to gain approval from international regulators . Emails obtained by Business Insider showed that Bird has copied several of Uber's talking points.

7. New York City voted to cap the number of Uber and Lyft drivers and will enforce a minimum wage for drivers . Uber claimed the new measures were a step backwards.

8. The CEO of MoviePass said 'very big media companies' offered to acquire the service, claiming that 'you would recognize them .' He also said the company would be profitable in 6-9 months, and that its cash burn had been reduced by 60%.

9. Tesla's Gigafactory 2 in New York is struggling to ramp up solar roof production . Tesla 's production of solar roof tiles has been delayed by assembly-line problems and difficulties producing a product that satisfies the aesthetic demands of CEO Elon Musk.

10. Facebook Messenger is adding multiplayer augmented reality games that users play with their camera . The games use the California company's AR tech to track players faces and pit them against each other in head-to-head multiplayer challenges.

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