Ops Rundown: Issue #004

Hello Operators ??

Techstars recently announced changes to their operations. But their plans for an exciting new chapter backfired into a PR mess.

Techstars decided to shut down their Boulder and Seattle accelerators. This news came after they had just recently closed their Austin program.

But that's not all, here's a quick recap of what went down last week:

• Techstars is building the Masterclass for entrepreneurs
• Rivian lays off 10% of workforce as EV pricing pressure mounts
• Reddit files to finally go public
• Clerky + Pulley partnership announcement
• Carta: (Early access) QSBS Attestation for individual shareholders

• Techstars 2.0: Building the Masterclass for Entrepreneurs

Well-known accelerator group Techstars announced a slew of changes to its operations this week, including the shuttering of some of its city-based programs.?

The upcoming closure of its Boulder and Seattle accelerators comes after the group decided to hit pause on its Austin-based program, an event that TechCrunch reported on in late 2023.

Given its extensive global footprint and lengthy history of investing in early-stage startups, changes to how Techstars operates will impact founders, and local venture ecosystems around the world.

Source

• Rivian lays off 10% of workforce as EV pricing pressure mounts

Rivian is laying off 10% of its salaried workforce in a bid to cut costs in an increasingly tough market for electric vehicles, putting even more pressure on its future, more affordable EV called the R2. A limited number of non-manufacturing hourly employees will also be cut, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in a companywide email.

This is the third round of layoffs for the EV company since July 2022, when Rivian cut 6% of its workforce. The company cut another 6% of jobs in February 2023.

Source

• Reddit files to finally go public

Social media giant Reddit filed to go public on Thursday. Its long-awaited S-1 filing?will see it approach the public markets potentially at the head of a long column of richly valued technology startups and private companies that need to find an exit this year.

The timing of Reddit’s IPO is not a surprise.

The company’s got a long and tangled history. It was?sold in its infancy, only to be later spun back out. Today Reddit approaches the public markets with more than $800 million worth of revenue in 2023, up from $666.7 million in 2022.

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• Clerky + Pulley: Launch your startups instantly

Navigating the initial stages of launching a startup can be daunting. From legal paperwork to equity management, the list of manual tasks can seem endless, often holding founders back. That’s why we're excited to share that Pulley and Clerky are joining forces to make starting a company easier than ever.?

Founders who incorporate their businesses using Clerky can automatically generate a cap table on Pulley with one click.?

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• Carta: (Early access) QSBS Attestation for individual shareholders

You and our shareholders can?now see exactly which securities are eligible for the QSBS tax benefit on Carta. Companies who purchase a QSBS Attestation letter with Carta, can share a personalized version of their QSBS attestation letter with their individual shareholders.

Source

MORE NEWS

• Florida man buys Cake’s remaining US inventory of electric motorbikes: The future of bankrupt electric motorbike startup Cake is still uncertain, but the majority of its U.S. inventory is going to a guy in Florida.
• Google launches two new open LLMs: Barely a week after launching the latest iteration of its Gemini models, Google today announced the launch of Gemma, a new family of lightweight open-weight models. Starting with Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B, these new models were “inspired by Gemini” and are available for commercial and research usage.
• Humane pushes Ai Pin ship date to mid-April: Hardware is difficult, to paraphrase a famous adage. First-generation products from new startups are notoriously so, regardless of how much money and excitement you’ve managed to drum up. Given all that, it’s likely few are too surprised that Humane’s upcoming Ai Pin has been pushed back a bit, from March to “mid-April,” per a new video from the Bay Area startup’s Head of Media, Sam Sheffer.

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