Hello again! Welcome back to Week in Review, a newsletter where we quickly recap the top stories that have appeared on Root Devices over the past seven days. Do you want it in your inbox? Get it here.
The the most read story This week is kind of wild: Bolt Mobility, the on-demand bike/scooter rental company co-founded by Usain Bolt, has somehow just…disappeared. “The departure was sudden,” writes Rebecca, “leaving the cities with abandoned equipment, unanswered calls and emails, and many questions.”
other things
Amazon buys iRobot: Bezos wants all things. Whole food! One medical! And now… Roomba? In this latest in a series of seemingly sudden and somewhat surprising acquisitions, Amazon is dropping $1.7 billion for the company best known for its robotic vacuum cleaners.
Facebook is ending live shopping: If you’re using Facebook’s Live Shopping feature to sell stuff over the stream, it might be time to find a new platform. While live streaming isn’t going away, dedicated shopping-focused features will be dimmed in October.
Starbucks enters web3: I’d roll my eyes, but considering how many people I know insist on buying a Starbucks cup in every major city they visit…
More Robinhood layoffs: Ugh. Just a few months ago, Robinhood laid off 9% of its full-time staff; this week the company confirmed that it was shedding another 23% stake. Citing over-recruitment over the past few wild years, CEO Vlad Tenev writes: “I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious hiring – it’s my responsibility.”
YC is getting smaller: It had to happen eventually. Y Combinator grew bigger with each accelerator class, peaking at an absurd 414 companies in its last batch. With the next cohort, they’re scaling things down a bit, but at around 250 companies, it’s still relatively large.
audio stuff
He gives in! Get your podcasts!
This week in Root Devices podcast world, the Equity team talked about the smaller (but still pretty big) YC cohort, Darrell and Becca talked about “Instagram being MySpaced by TikTok” on The TC Podcast, and Burnsy talked to the co-founder Convoy’s Dan Lewis on the trucking company’s “secret growth hack” on Root Devices Live.
extra stuff
Glambook’s $2.5 million startup package: Glambook recently raised millions to build what it calls “Uber for the beauty industry.” How did they convince investors to join? In this latest edition of his Pitch Deck Teardown series, Haje buzzes through the deck and helps explain why some things fell flat.
What really happens when we acquire your startup?: Acquisition is more than waiting for a bag of money to appear on your desk. Yair Snir, Vice President at Dell Technologies Capital, gives us a high-level overview of the entire process, “from NDA to LOI.”
Dear Sophie: “How long do I have to stay at my current job after I get my green card?” That’s a reasonable question! Immigration lawyer Sophie Alcorn weighs in.