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 the pandemic is great time to start a new company.
Quote of the Day
"Business quality is about defensibility. Defensibility comes from moats. And while high gross margins are often a reflection of moats, they are not a moat in and of themselves."
(David George and Alex Immerman)
Chart of the Day
Startups are concentrating their layoffs among non-SF workers.
Instacart
- How did Instacart manage the huge surge in orders? (venturebeat.com)
- Instacart is increasingly under criticism for its treatment of gig workers. (theverge.com)
Companies
- Wasabi's "goal is to become to cloud storage what Iron Mountain is to cardboard boxes." (news.crunchbase.com)
- Slice is much more than a delivery app for pizza places. (protocol.com)
- Fernish wants to make furniture rental cool again. (news.crunchbase.com)
- The MOOCs were struggling. Then the pandemic hit. (nytimes.com)
- Automated fulfillment centers are going to come out of the pandemic as winners. (technologyreview.com)
Remote work
- Is Silicon Valley still the best place in the world to build a new company? (tomtunguz.com)
- A greater distribution of work forces, post-pandemic, seems likely. (axios.com)
- A globally distributed remote workforce can be a logistical nightmare when it comes to pay and benefits. (a16z.com)
- How Automattic handles pay for its globally remote workforce. (techcrunch.com)
Startups
- This is a great time for companies to be generous to their customers. (wsj.com)
- Credit card companies are giving companies more flexibility on how to use their rewards points. (news.crunchbase.com)
- High Alpha Innovation is bringing the venture studio model to established companies. (news.yahoo.com)
- The evidence shows that venture capital activity is decidedly pro-cyclical. (privpapers.ssrn.com)
