I feel hungover. No, not in the traditional sense, but in the dizzying way you feel when half of your world is celebrating double vaccinations and no masks and the other half mourned all over the world for death and not a piece of light in the end The tunnel. The privilege of watching this is like playing the worst of musical chairs, only some seats are clouds and others are simply rows of knives.
For technology, the questions we are going to discuss are bigger than if “this conference is going to be virtual or in person”. Instead, we are now trying, for the second time in a year, to find out what the future of work and education will look like. The United States is opening up again, and that means much of the work culture is being rewritten. Switching from an individual mindset to a collective, dispersed world will be more difficult than taking off a mask and bursting an aspirin.
New and old founders of startups are about to make decisions about how to lead in this changing world. You need to look at things far more consistently than when free lunches come back. There are many more serious questions: How do you give flexibility and accountability? How do you fix the overall mental health burden? How do you provide opportunities between remote workers and in-person workers alike? What if half of your workforce can go to happy hour while the other half is in a city that is locked?
Naj Austin, the founder and CEO of Somewhere Good and Ethel’s Club, spoke to me about the intent this week. She explained that repainting something is easier than reinventing the whole process, but the latter has the potential to be far more disruptive than the former. I thought about going back to the offices and that the hassle-free option might not be the best option in the long run.
I’ve learned that the best founders embody that ethos and choose the tougher bucket. It stands out when you intend for the hiring, return, and potential relief that comes with the option.
For the remainder of this newsletter, we’ll cover volatility in the stock markets, the history of Expensify, and what a founder learned after being rejected by YC 13 times. As always, you can support me by subscribing to Extra Crunch and following me on Twitter.
What goes up must go down
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The public edtech market is on fire this week, and many stocks have nearly halved stock prices from 52-week highs.
Here’s what you should know: Alex and I wrote about how the carnage is expected in the public markets in Edtech, a sector rife with pandemics. We predicted that bullish VCs would stay bullish and the correction in the market is ours.
In September 2020, Larry Illg, CEO of Prosus Ventures, told us that edtech was filled with “tourists” and “fads,” making it difficult to rate companies and find accountable bets.
“It’s pretty dangerous,” he said. “Over the years, we have seen at various points in time in the geographical context that people are attracted to India or Brazil and are pumping in money. Two or three years later, they come out with their tails between their legs. ”
Plus, two SPACs, two IPO updates and SoftBank:
The origin of cost management
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Expensify has managed to become a leader in the expense management market with 10 million users, just 130 employees, and of course an upcoming IPO. For these reasons and many more, it is the newest company in our EC-1 series. The first episode, written by Anna Heim, went online this week.
Here’s what you should know: While managing finances feels like a pretty straight forward deal, Expensify’s origins were far more chaotic. Think of the P2P hacker culture, consensus-based decision-making and, as always, an Uber perspective. In the history of development, it is examined how a colorful crew created a unique cost management system.
The deep dives continue:
All about TC
We look forward to TC Sessions: Mobility, this year’s virtual leap into the world of transport. Book your $ 125 general admission pass today and I promise you won’t regret it.
Speakers at this year’s event include Pam Fletcher, Vice President of Global Innovation at GM, Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI, founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, JoeBen Bevirt, investor and founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman (whose acquisition company for special Purposes just merged with Joby). , Investors Clara Brenner from Urban Innovation Fund, Quin Garcia from Autotech Ventures and Rachel Holt from Construct Capital, co-founder and CEO of Starship Technologies / CTO Ahti Heinla, co-founder of Zoox and CTO Jesse Levinson, organizer, transportation consultant and lawyer Tamika L. Butler, Remix co-founder and CEO Tiffany Chu and Revel co-founder and CEO Frank Reig.