Thursdays at Abnormal Returns are all about startup and venture capital links. You can check out last week’s links including a look at why ideas that seem wrong at the time work later on.
Quote of the Day
"When there is too much burn and unrealistic growth expectations, weird things happen. Getting to a sustainable, repeatable, and logical cycle of growth and cost is what the best performing companies do."
(Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad)
Chart of the Day

A look at the distribution of the size of Series A deals in the US
Gender
- The majority of venture capital firms don't have a female partner. (medium.com)
- However the number of venture capital firms with two or more female partners doubled last year. (bnnbloomberg.ca)
Companies
- A novel funding scheme is coming back to bite Vice Media. (wsj.com)
- Headspace, a mindfulness and meditation startup, just raised a Series C round. (news.crunchbase.com)
- Varo Money Inc. is set to become a full-fledged bank. (wsj.com)
- SpaceX is nearing a human space flight. (cnbc.com)
Players
- The story behind the demise of Softbank-backed startup Brandless. (axios.com)
- Alibaba ($BABA) has dramatically cut back on its investments in US-based startups. (ft.com)
Media
- How Jessica Levin's 'The Information' made a go of it. (nytimes.com)
- Sirius XM is buying a stake in Soundcloud. (wsj.com)
- Geez. Game livestreaming hours are up 19% year-over-year. (venturebeat.com)