Tech Babies: ChatGPT and Embryo DNA
Necessary Nuggets
Happy Wednesday! If you’re new here, welcome to Necessary Nuggets. We deliver exciting updates from Necessary Ventures and some helpful tidbits on the tech world to you bimonthly. Every edition is also on our blog.
Jobortunities 🚨
Taro: Taro increases access to healthcare while reducing costs and physician burnout via direct primary care based health insurance.
| Product Engineer |
Arc Boats: Electrify watercraft. Build the Tesla of boats. Arc’s aim is both sustainability and high performance.
| Test Engineer |
Forage: Create a unified API that helps low-income Americans buy online groceries. It’s Stripe, but for Electronic Benefits Transfer.
| Security Software Engineer |
Reach out with any questions! All 125 open job postings are listed here.
Hot off the Press♨️
The saying goes that “people make the place,” but where are the right people?
At Necessary Ventures, we know that talent is distributed across the globe, but opportunity is not. We're excited to share our preferred partnership with Assembly Industries, which provides access to management consulting level talent, vetted for strong critical thinking and communication skills, at an exclusive price of only $1,600/month. While originally only for our portfolio companies, we have seen strong enough results to share with you as well.
Companies are using Assembly across sales, marketing, project management, account management, customer success, operations, and finance. See talent here that you can hire today. Extending this preferred pricing is one way we're saying thank you for being a part of our community, just be sure to mention Necessary in your onboarding.
Market Stirrings 🚩
Can startups outrun the funding dips? The data does not look good. According to Carta data featured in this Bloomberg article, 543 startups have declared bankruptcy or shut their doors so far this year, already crossing last year’s stat of 467 for all of 2022. There’s no sugarcoating it, especially when startups aren’t receiving any sugar. Funding is still in the dumps: as of Q3, U.S. startups raised $126 billion, well below the $195 billion at the same time last year and $239 billion for the same period in 2021.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
Spotify employees were hit with shocking news that 17% of the workforce will be laid off.
Bitcoin hit $42,000, a high not seen since May 2022.
It was ChatGPT’s birthday.
Orchid is launching the first commercially available whole genome sequencing report for embryos.
For the less rushed reader …
NOT IN A GREAT SPOTIFY: “We still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact,” said Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in a memo to all company employees. After a positive earnings report and improved performance, Spotify employees were hit with shocking news that 17% of the workforce will be laid off, which totals about 1,500 people. Ek emphasized a need to rightsize Spotify, which has steadily missed financial goals in a declining economy – hence, the third round of layoffs this year. But how can something right-size feel so wrong?
BITCOIN SKYRISE: 2023 has had its ups and downs, and no industry has felt this more than crypto. In the face of fierce adversity, Bitcoin hit $42,000, a high not seen since May 2022. Crypto journalists speculate this surge stems from the pending ETF approval for U.S. stock-market-traded bitcoin funds. An especially impressive aspect of bitcoin’s current price run is the market context given what happened with Binance over the last month. In case you’re not in the loop, Binance’s CEO pleaded guilty to money laundering and fraud charges, including laundering money for terrorist groups like Hamas. For all the crypto skeptics out there, crypto is a cockroach - it’s impossible to kill and probably inevitable that you find it in your home.
BIRTHD(AI)Y: Let’s all wish ChatGPT a happy birthday (one week late because Facebook didn’t give me a notification). It’s only fair to recap how far the little generative AI program has come: GPT 3.5 (AKA ChatGPT) launched, became the fastest growing consumer app, scared Google into releasing Bard, and continues to be integrated in companies and daily life. Was ChatGPT an AI breakthrough? According to AI researchers, no. However, it was a breakthrough for generative AI as a concept in that it finally became mainstream. ChatGPT’s most valuable impact is simple: it challenges people to mimic it.
WHAT THE IVF: Reproductive technology startup Orchid is launching the first commercially available whole genome sequencing report for embryos to provide extra peace to couples undergoing IVF. Couples will be able to identify which embryos present genetic risks like neurodevelopmental disorders and cancers, previously only detected after birth. Existing tests read about 0.25% of an embryo’s genome. Don’t faint – Orchid’s test can read 99%. Parents can save some baby blues and get a crystal ball on their fertilized embryos for an additional $2,500 per embryo. As we develop more advanced tools to identify human traits, it raises some important questions: when does genomics become eugenics, and how far is too far?
Fire Up the Pre-Seeds🔥
Notable pre-seed raises in …
CLIMATEtech
Planted Materials - Manufacturing a circular economy
The Problem: 25% of all greenhouse gasses originate from the manufacturing industry.
The Tech: Renewable, plant-based materials that present sustainable alternatives for petroleum-based materials and chemicals.
Recently Raised: $500k in funding led by Galileo Russel.
Also Note: Planted Materials was accepted into the Greater Seattle Export Accelerator (GSEA) program to further enable scaling.
tech bits
BurnerPage - Sizzling hot webpages
The Problem: Companies spend a large amount of money inefficiently driving traffic to their websites.
The Tech: AI-based algorithm that automates experiments to determine how to convert website visitors to customers and increase ROI.
Recently Raised: $790k in follow-on pre-seed funding.
Also Note: BurnerPage envisions a world where web pages build themselves.
Outro🚪
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Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
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