Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review!
We took a break from contextualization last week. We are looking at what is happening in the mind of one person.
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Joe Raedle is the photographer.
The biggest thing.
Jack Dorsey has been spreading the message more earnestly than most of his peers.
The majority of his official communications have not focused on the power of the Twitter platform or even the deep opportunities for his other company. The former double-CEO has spent the past year spreading the message of his company and using it to push features more aggressively than his peers.
He said that #Bitcoin would unite a divided country.
At the Miami conference this year, he was even more effusive in his praise of the digital currency. The ethos is what I like the most about it, it represents the conditions that created it, which are so rare and precious. I don't think there's anything more important in my lifetime to work on and I don't think there's anything more enabling for people around the world.
His executive fervor led both Square and Twitter to embrace the features of the digital currency. In July, he said that would be a big part of the company's future. Square is exploring the creation of a dedicated mining system for bitcoin and has a hardware wallet to store it.
Jack said that the future of the company will be based on the use of the digital currency, speach.
For platforms with a lot of pressing issues, the public focus on the revolutionary power of bitcoin hasn't always sat well with onlookers, who already worried that his status as a dual-CEO meant he wasn't in tune with the needs of his individual companies. Early last year, activist-investor hedge fund Elliott Management issued a list of demands to the company, which included that CEO Jack Dorsey step down.
The stock of the company soared Monday after the announcement that he was stepping down as CEO. While some people are happy that a full-time CEO will help the company meet its full potential, others are wondering if he is leaving to start a web3 company focused solely on cryptocurrencies. Rather than spin up a new company from scratch, he has focused on rethinking the opportunities inside his other company, Square. He announced a new name for the company, Block, a nod to CEO/ founder Dorsey's interest in the blockchain.
Square is worth nearly $90 billion and is not a penny stock, unlike the public companies of the past. Square has indicated that there will not be a wide reorganization of the company, though it is getting its own brand. It is difficult to not read between the lines, given the recent Square initiatives, like hardware wallet and mining rigs, which could re-position the company as a first-mover in the space.
It seems like Block has a potential full-stack web3 empire, or it could just mean the opportunity to piss off a lot of different stakeholders by weaving technology into products that don't work.
3 views on Jack Dorsey stepping down as the CEO.
The image is called GIPHY.
Other things.
I think you should take a closer look at these stories.
The UK antitrust watchdog ordered Meta to sell Giphy.
Meta has found itself in a regulatory environment that may make it difficult to carry out M&A business. Meta has been ordered to reverse its acquisition of Giphy and sell the startup. The tie-up between Facebook and Giphy has already removed a potential challenger in the display advertising market. One of the group's leaders said in a statement that without action, it will allow Facebook to increase its market power in social media even further.
Facebook may have changed its name to hide consumer distaste for their corporate brand, but its regulatory problems are not going away.
The company's top executive leaves.
After years of planning, the company's top cryptocurrencies expert is leaving. David Marcus was the leader of the company's Messenger app team. His departure is another major departure by a long-time Facebook executive.
Marcus was unable to leave Facebook due to regulatory pressure, despite being one of the most influential execs in the space. He said in his announcement that he is looking into entrepreneurial opportunities.
The safety policy of the social media site has been changed.
Just a day into his tenure, the new CEO of Twitter was in hot water as user backlash mounted against the company's new safety policies. Sharing images or videos of private individuals without their consent is against the policies that were framed as a way to prevent harassment and abuse. When individuals are notified that they did not consent to having their private image or video shared, we will remove it. This policy is not applicable to media featuring public figures or individuals when media and accompanying text are shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse.
It is certain to lead to further controversy. The bigger question is whether this leads to unexpected consequences in implementation.
The image is from TechCrunch.
Added things.
Some of my favorite reads from this week.
Let's talk about the selloff.
Software stocks are flirting with bear-market territory in technical terms, but also a pretty notable decline in the value of even the fastest-growing technology companies. The public valuation multiples are important indicators of a startup's success. Is the current venture capital bonanza slowing down because valuations have shifted? Probably not. We could be closer to that tipping point than you think.
Steps to survive and thrive.
How do you prepare for this important stage in your company's growth, navigate the challenges of a fundraise, and not let the process overwhelm the responsibility of still running your business? The experience of others who have been down this path can be used by the founders to ensure their efforts are efficient and successful.
There are 3 ways to recruit engineers.
The quality and diversity of developers are more important than the quantity of developers in a company. The remote revolution expanded who we can bring on board. These are the best ways to find the hidden gems.
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