It’s over. Benchmark’s lawsuit against former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has now been dropped, ending one of the biggest VC-founder disputes in history. It was dismissed as a condition of the SoftBank investment in Uber getting done. The deal was completed earlier this month, giving both Benchmark and Kalanick an opportunity to sell a significant Uber stake. Read More
Sramana Mitra: What about strategic? What role do you see Naspers playing? Naspers has played a big role in exits in India. What is their position in Africa? Vinny Lingham: Naspers is a really good...
___
First Round Capital’s Dorm Room Fund just released VCWiz, a tool to help founders find investors and raise money from them. The platform is one part VC directory and one part CRM tool, essentially letting you find the best investors for your startup then begin the process of reaching out to them. New users input some basic information about their startup including a description, industry… Read More
To help entrepreneurs to learn which qualities VCs and seed investors are looking for in the startups they will invest in, we have asked a variety of investors to share their specific perspectives as...
___
No-commission stock trading app Robinhood will let you buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum without any added transaction fees starting in February, compared to Coinbase’s 1.5 to 4 percent fees in the US. And as of today Robinhood will let all users track the price, news, and set up alerts on those and 14 other top crypto coins, including Litecoin and Ripple. “We’re planning… Read More
January 25, 2018
If you are still having trouble understanding why Net Neutrality is important, Burger King has made an awesomely funny â and extremely informative â video using the Whopper as an example. Itâs just brilliant.
In more serious news, the New York governor signs executive order to keep net neutrality rules after the FCCâs repeal. This follows on the heels of the Montana governor signs executive order to keep net neutrality in the state. Last year I wrote about the coming battle of states rights vs. federal rights, and this is a great example of the complexity of it.
At the same time, AT&T CEOâs net neutrality plan calls for regulation of websites. AT&T supports bans on blocking and throttling, but not paid prioritization or data cap exemptions. I think he needs to watch the Whopper video.
Apparently the GOP is working on a net neutrality bill would allow paid fast lanes and preempt state laws. According to an article in ArsTechnica the âOpen Internet Preservation Actâ would ban blocking and throttling but allow ISPs to create paid fast lanes. The Republican bill would also prohibit the FCC from imposing stricter regulations on broadband providers and prohibit state governments from enacting their own net neutrality laws.
Thereâs that pesky states right thing again. And more whoppers.
Also published on Medium.
Logan Paul, the YouTuber who sparked a public backlash three weeks ago after posting a video in Japan’s “suicide forest,” has returned to the platform. In his first post back, he published a video focused on suicide and self-harm prevention. Read More
Meet Setapp, the Spotify of Mac apps. For $9.99 per month, you can download and use more than a hundred Mac apps without spending another cent. All those apps are usually paid apps, but Setapp wants to change the model. Setapp was founded by MacPaw, an independent Mac development company based in Ukraine. While they have been developing their own apps for almost ten years, they’ve… Read More
Tigera, a San Francisco-based startup that helps businesses connect and secure their container-based applications, today announced that it has raised an additional $10 million in a funding round led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from New England Associates (NEA) and Wing Venture Capital. Read More
In what amounts to faint praise for the strength of the physical book NPD reported that print book sales rose 1.9 percent in 2017, less than the 3 percent growth posted in 2013-2016. NPD tracks book sales in the US. They write: “Returning from the huge sales of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ in 2016, and the rise of adult coloring books, last year’s book sales… Read More
It sounds like a natural fit: Fiverr, an online marketplace where businesses can hire freelancers, is acquiring And Co, a New York City startup building online tools that freelancers can use manage their client relationships. What’s surprising is the new price that Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman plans to charge for And Co’s software — absolutely free. Kaufman explained that many… Read More
Here Technologies, the mapping company valued at around $3 billion that counts a consortium of car makers, Intel and others among its shareholder/owners, today announced a move that underscores its intention to focus on more than just the outdoor navigation business. The company has acquired Micello, a startup that offers a database of indoor maps and provides a platform for businesses to… Read More
There’s another big financing round led by Softbank’s mammoth vision fund today, with the firm this time pouring $865 million into a construction startup called Katerra that’s a one-stop shop for getting a building up off the ground. Katerra is creating a full-stack provider for, well, buildings. The company runs the process of getting a building up and people inside it from… Read More
Mo’Nique, legendary comedian and Academy Award winner, is calling out Netflix for allegedly offering her $500,000 for a stand-up comedy special while offering millions to Amy Schumer, Dave Chappelle, and Chris Rock. In a tweet, Mo’Nique called for a boycott of Netflix on the grounds of color and gender bias: #BOYCOTT NETFLIX FIR COLOR BIAS AND GENDER BIAS. PLEASE STAND WITH ME.… Read More
Front is raising a $66 million Series B round led by Sequoia with DFJ and existing investors also participating. There are now 2,500 companies using Front to manage shared inboxes and collaborate. The startup now wants to go one step further and become the definitive email product. “I decided that I wanted to raise money, I scheduled 11 partner meetings over a single week,”… Read More
Fleet, a startup focused on making international logistics less onerous for small companies, announced that it has raised a Series A of $10 million. The round was led by Lufthansa Cargo, the German airline’s air cargo subsidiary, with participation from new and returning investors Hunt Technology, UPS, UP2398 and 1517 Fund. Read More
Drones may still be having a tough time dispelling the notion that they’re just expensive toys when it comes to the consumer space, but in the world of commercial applications, the autonomous aircraft are having a much easier time proving their worth. PrecisionHawk, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based startup, has closed a Series D round, nabbing $75M in new capital that will help it seize… Read More
January 24, 2018
Did you sell any bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies) in 2017? If you did, do you know how to pay taxes on the transaction(s)?
Iâm going to guess that a lot of people in the US that fit in the category of having sold some bitcoin in 2017 havenât spent a millisecond thinking about what tax they might owe. There are probably others who feel like they shouldnât have to pay any tax because they believe bitcoin is outside the reach of the government. And then there are others who believe the theoretically anonymous elements of the cryptocurrency they are trading should prevent anyone â especially the government â from finding out about what they are up to.
Two interesting articles came out in the past week. The first, When Trading in Bitcoin, Keep the Tax Man in Mind, is an excellent overview that addresses the following questions.
I sold some Bitcoin last year. What do I need to do?I bought a computer (or another product or service) using Bitcoin. Are there tax implications?Iâve successfully âminedâ Bitcoins. Now what?I was paid in Bitcoin. Are there any special tax consequences?What if I paid someone else in Bitcoin for their services?Can I reduce my tax bill by donating my cryptocoins?Will I receive any tax forms from my exchange? Do I have to track my own transactions?The second article, Why the I.R.S. Fears Bitcoin, is an Op-ed in the NYT that I have mixed feelings about. While there are a number of scenarios about how to evade taxes, it ultimately leads to a proposal:
âA smarter response would be for the government to switch from taxing income when it is received to taxing income when it is spent. Many economists support moving to this kind of consumption tax, but it would require a major overhaul of the tax code.â
The âshift from a consumption taxâ from an âincome taxâ is an endless debate that Iâve been hearing since I first started reading Forbes Magazine in college over 30 years ago. So, while logical, it feels like you could potentially compress the article into an argument for a consumption tax.
But, I loved the final paragraph.
âMore generally, cracking down on tax evasion will require that the community learn to trust government. Since this goes against the very ethos of the cryptocurrency movement, it poses the most difficult â but no less necessary â challenge.â
The rabbit hole goes deep.
Also published on Medium.
Businesses are gathering more and more information than they ever have before, whether it’s a manufacturer or a bank, and to Timescale CEO Ajay Kulkarni the existing database software soon won’t provide the horsepower they need. That’s why he and CTO Mike Freedman started Timescale, a new open source time series database software. The idea is that businesses increasingly… Read More
Nexar, a startup that makes an AI-based dashcam app to monitor road safety, announced today that it has raised a $30 million Series B led by Ibex Ventures. Participants included Alibaba Innovation Ventures (the venture capital investment arm of Alibaba Group), Nationwide Insurance and returning investors Aleph, Mosaic Ventures, Slow Ventures, True Ventures and Tusk Ventures. Read More
Copyright © 2020 iStart Valley.
