Trends

Meet the 'super angel' investors, the power players of streaming, and the top M&A bankers of 2019

Hello! One of the things we try to do here at Business Insider is to introduce our readers to the individuals shaping their industries. After all, companies don't do things; it's the people working there that make things happen. With that in mind, I wanted to highlight stories focused on key players in Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and Wall Street this week. First off, in Silicon Valley, a special breed of investor known as 'super angels' are raising their own venture-capital funds as solo general...
Tags: Google, Amazon, Spacex, Elon Musk, Hollywood, Texas, Microsoft, Wall Street, Softbank, Digital, US, Trends, Tesla, Netflix, Silicon Valley, Mars

How a few scrappy homeowners may stand between Elon Musk and his dream of a Mars spaceport in South Texas

About a dozen homeowners in South Texas' Boca Chica Village neighborhood have not sold their properties to SpaceX to make way for a planned Starship spaceport. SpaceX and a real-estate firm it hired have told residents they could be removed — and for far less money — through an eminent-domain process started by Cameron County. However, one homeowner told Business Insider that she and her husband would not sell to SpaceX, and they apparently aren't alone. Meanwhile, the Institute for Justice, a...
Tags: Spacex, Elon Musk, Texas, US, Trends, Tesla, Earth, Atlantic, Washington Dc, Port Of Los Angeles, Social Security, Michigan, Mars, Johnson, Faa, Maria

The CEO of analytics startup X1 used this pitch deck to raise $5 million to help businesses track sensitive data like photos and inappropriate emails floating 'in the wild'

Los Angeles startup X1 helps businesses keep track of "data in the wild," from inappropriate emails and photos to sensitive company information being shared improperly by employees. CEO Craig Carpenter said the big data analytics startup is providing an important service at a time when businesses need to stay on top of the way data is being stored and handled for privacy and compliance reasons.  "It could be anything, harassing photos or emails," Carpenter told Business Insider. "They can take...
Tags: Europe, California, Los Angeles, Trends, Bank Of America, Sap, Carpenter, General Data Protection Regulation, Craig Carpenter, Disney Chevron, George Kadifa, Palisades Growth Capital, HP Software Here

Europe just had its 1st death from the coronavirus after a Chinese tourist died in France

The first death from the coronavirus outside of Asia has been recorded. France's health minister confirmed on Saturday that a Chinese tourist died of the virus in France, marking the first fatality from the virus in Europe. The unidentified man arrived in France on January 16 and was quarantined in hospital on January 25, the minister said. The virus has now infected more than 67,000 people and killed more than 1,500. The vast majority of cases are in China. Visit Business Insider's homepage f...
Tags: Asia, Europe, Sweden, France, White House, China, Germany, Africa, US, Trends, Spain, Bbc, Beijing, Egypt, United Kingdom, New York Times

A new VC firm doesn't give startups any funding because capital is 'commoditized.' Here's why Sweat Equity's founder says his work-for-equity model is a better deal for startups.

Dan Portillo founded Sweat Equity Ventures, a VC firm that works with founders in exchange for company equity instead of writing funding checks, with $30 million in backing from LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Portillo previously worked at Greylock with Hoffman and had helped scale internet giant Mozilla prior to getting into venture. Instead of the traditional VC operating structure, the entire $30 million is dedicated to hiring top engineers and other business experts who can then embed with ...
Tags: Trends, Linkedin, Reid Hoffman, Silicon Valley, Google Photos, Greylock, Battery Ventures, Portillo, Hoffman, Sweat Equity, Chelsea Stoner, Dan Portillo, Sweat Equity Ventures, Reid Hoffman Portillo, Business Insider Sweat Equity, Mozilla Portillo

Facebook canceled an annual San Francisco conference because of coronavirus concerns

Facebook is canceling an annual marketing conference held in San Francisco out of coronavirus concerns. The cancellation comes as the virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has infected more than 60,000 people, with 15 confirmed cases in the US. Facebook's canceled Global Marketing Summit also follows Barcelona's canceled Mobile World Summit, a major tech conference that was slated for late-February. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Facebook is canceling an annual confere...
Tags: Facebook, US, San Francisco, Trends, Barcelona, Las Vegas, Moscone Center, Anthony Harrison, San Antonio Texas, Chronicle, Wuhan China, Rob Price, San Francisco Travel, Global Marketing Summit, Amazon Intel Sony, Joe D Alessandro

Netflix's 'The Witcher' is still the biggest series in the world even as it loses steam in the US, and it shows how crucial sci-fi and fantasy are for streaming TV

Netflix's hit fantasy series, "The Witcher," is slipping in audience demand in the US but is still the most in-demand TV series across all platforms globally, according to data firm Parrot Analytics. "The Witcher" has held the top spot worldwide for nearly two months. The show's worldwide popularity is good for Netflix as the streaming giant tries to grow its presence internationally. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. While US audiences might be losing some interest in Netfl...
Tags: Amazon, Disney, US, Trends, Netflix, Ken Burns, Hulu, Business Insider, Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski, Parrot Analytics, Ampere Analysis Netflix, Parrot Analytics The Witcher

Hong Kong's Disneyland is letting the government use some of its land to quarantine people and stop the coronavirus spreading

Hong Kong's Disneyland is letting the city use its sites to quarantine people as the government tries to stop the deadly coronavirus from spreading. The government wants to build quarantine units on a vacant site that the resort had planned on using for an expansion. Lawmakers had previously proposed using its hotels to house people who may be infected. Hong Kong has confirmed 56 cases of the coronavirus and one death from it, while the virus has now infected more than 67,000 people and k...
Tags: Hong Kong, Post, China, US, Trends, Cnn, Disneyland, Wuhan, Hong Kong Disneyland, South China Morning Post, China Hong Kong, Hubei Province, Edward Yau Tang

3 ways buzzy digital banks like Chime, Monzo, and N26 can battle fierce competition and stand out in a make-or-break year

Jan Bellens, a global banking and capital markets sector leader at consultant EY, spoke to Business Insider about what challenger banks need to do to stay ahead of the curve in a competitive field in 2020.  Bellens said the current environment reminds him of how internet companies used to operate. "It's all about customer acquisitions. We don't need to be profitable," he said of challenger banks' approach. "I think that will continue. They will continue to push ads to add." Click here for more...
Tags: UK, Digital, US, Trends, WeWork, Revolut, Business Insider, Wells Fargo, Monzo, Colin Walsh, Varo Money, Bellens, Jan Bellens, JPMorgan Chase Citi Bank of America

WeWork is bringing in a new CEO as it tries to right the ship — here's everything that's going on inside the coworking giant

WeWork pulled its IPO in 2019 after mulling a massive valuation cut to drum up investor interest, and cofounder Adam Neumann was ousted as CEO and chairman. WeWork has been slashing jobs and selling or shuttering businesses.  WeWork has announced real-estate veteran Sandeep Mathrani as its new CEO, replacing Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, who served as co-CEOs since Neumann was ousted. It's also seen a big board shakeup.  Marcelo Claure will stay on as chairman, according to The Wall S...
Tags: Google, New York, Mexico, Stanford, Wall Street, Softbank, Israel, US, America, San Francisco, Trends, Kanye West, Brooklyn, Aol, Italy, Brookfield

I just spent a day using Samsung's new foldable flip phone — here are the best and worst things about it so far

Samsung's $1,380 Galaxy Z Flip is the company's latest foldable phone. As its name implies, it has a bendable screen and hinge that allows the phone to snap shut just like an old-school flip phone. The phone's hinge and flexible screen enable you to prop it up on a table or flat surface, making it easy to watch videos hands-free or use it as second miniature display throughout the workday. But there aren't many apps available to take advantage of the Z Flip's unconventional design, and it's st...
Tags: Apple, Google Play Store, Motorola, Samsung, Trends, Galaxy Fold Samsung, Galaxy Z Flip

A former Amazon and Google engineer wants to make AI more accessible to smaller companies so that Big Tech doesn't have a stranglehold on the future

Former Amazon Web Services and Google engineer Bindu Reddy wants to make artificial intelligence more accessible for small companies.  Reddy has founded a startup, called RealityEngines.ai, with her former colleagues from Google that makes a cloud based software tool to help companies make their own AI models for the workplace tools they are using.   Even before the company had a product, it raised a seed round of funding led by former Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt and Google founding b...
Tags: Google, Amazon, NFL, Trends, Aws, Eric Schmidt, Amazon Web Services, Khosla Ventures, Ram Shriram, Google Facebook, Reddy, Big Tech, Bindu Reddy, Business Insider She

Private equity's data-hiring push; The top M&A bankers, ranked; Tradeweb's next move

  Hello, readers! Big mergers and acquisitions are team efforts. But at the very top, a battled-tested senior banker provides critical advice and connections that can determine a transaction's success or failure. Alex Morrell worked with financial data firm MergerLinks to publish our first-ever rainmakers list this week. You can see rankings for the top 20 M&A bankers for North American deals here.  Casey Sullivan wrote about how private-equity firms, long reliant on human judgment to pick inves...
Tags: Europe, Nordstrom, England, US, Trends, Netflix, Ubs, Merrill Lynch, Silicon Valley, Goldman Sachs, WeWork, Montreal, Meredith, Goldman, Blackstone, Fintech

'Sonic the Hedgehog' has the biggest opening weekend ever for a video game movie with $57 million

Paramount's "Sonic the Hedgehog" won the domestic box office with an estimated $57 million ($68 million over by Monday). The movie performed higher than the studio's projection of $40 million. $57 million is the biggest opening ever for a video game movie, besting the $54.3 million opening by "Pokémon Detective Pikachu." Best picture Oscar-winner "Parasite" took in $5.5 million over the weekend, after Neon expanded it to 2,000 screens. Its biggest weekend to date. Visit Business Insider's home...
Tags: Hollywood, Trends, Netflix, Oscar, Jim Carrey, Ken Burns, Sega, Paramount, Ivo Robotnik, Warner Bros Birds of Prey, Warner Bros Pok

A cancelled conference and supply chain issues: How the coronavirus outbreak is affecting Facebook's business (FB)

Like many companies, Facebook's business has been affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak. Its supply chain for hardware has been disrupted, and it cancelled a conference it was hosting in San Francisco. Employees are being asked not to travel to China, where the virus originated. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Misinformation and rumours about the novel coronavirus outbreak are spreading on Facebook, prompting the social network to talk to the World Health Organization...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, China, San Francisco, Trends, Bloomberg, Barcelona, Who, Priscilla Chan, Anthony Harrison, World Health Organization WHO, Facebook Like, China Facebook, San Francisco Employees

The CEO of C. F. Martin & Co. explains why the iconic American brand has endured and prospered since 1833

Chris Martin is the CEO of C. F. Martin & Co., the most famous maker of acoustic guitars in the world. The company was founded by his great-great-great-grandfather, a German immigrant, in 1833. Martin has been steering the company into its third century, tackling numerous challenges while remaining focused on the brand's core value: quality. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Christian Frederick Martin IV is a genial, mellow raconteur who shouldn't be mistaken for a man who d...
Tags: Asia, Indonesia, California, Washington Post, Mexico, China, New York City, US, Trends, Pennsylvania, Porsche, Dolly Parton, Chris Martin, Willie Nelson, Taylor, Forest Stewardship Council

Facebook is spending $130 million to create a 'Supreme Court' that can overrule Mark Zuckerberg — here's everything we know about it (FB)

In late 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced an ambitious plan: to create an independent oversight board that could overrule Facebook's content moderation guidelines, and even Zuckerberg himself. The board is independent from Facebook, but Facebook is funding the board's operations to the tune of $130 million. If users believe their content was removed from the service unfairly or without cause, they can appeal to the independent board directly. If it decides to reverse Facebook's deci...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Supreme Court, US, Trends, New Zealand, Zuckerberg, Hughes, Facebook It, Facebook Most, Thomas Hughes, Oversight Board, Business Insider the company, Brent Harris

The top 9 shows on Netflix and other streaming services this week

Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider with a list of the nine most in-demand original TV shows on streaming services in the US. This week's list includes Netflix's "Stranger Things" and DC Universe's "Harley Quinn." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. DC Universe's adult-oriented animated series, "Harley Quinn," got a big boost in audience demand this week, likely due to the release of the movie "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Qu...
Tags: Amazon, US, Trends, Netflix, Cbs, Harley Quinn, Gotham City, Patrick Stewart, Times, Rolling Stone, Rotten Tomatoes, McDonald, Jean Luc Picard, Picard, Sabrina, Witcher

HQ Trivia's ex-host says the company shut down because of a 'lethal cocktail of incompetence, arrogance, short-sightedness & sociopathic delusion'

The beloved ex-host of HQ Trivia tweeted Saturday that the company was shut down due to "incompetence, arrogance, short-sightedness & sociopathic delusion." He also accused the company of leaving its staff "in the lurch after being gaslit and lied to." HQ did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The company's CEO, Rus Yusupov, announced in a company-wide email on Friday that the live gameshow app would shut down, adding that "lead investors are no longer willing to fund th...
Tags: Facebook, US, Trends, Cnn, Don, Colin Kroll, Julie Bort, Scott Rogowsky, Rogowsky, Yusupov, HQ Trivia, Rus Yusupov, Visit Business Insider, DAZN HQ Trivia

Disney's Pixar is being sued by a San Francisco tattoo artist who says her designs for a unicorn-emblazoned van in the upcoming animated movie 'Onward' were stolen

A San Francisco artist is suing Disney's Pixar for allegedly not only stealing her artwork for the studio's upcoming animated film "Onward" but also for doing so under "wickedly misleading pretenses." Pixar rented Sweet Cicely Daniher's van emblazoned with a unicorn for a company event in September 2018 as a visual prop, only for Daniher to watch the film's trailer months later and spot an animated van that she says is identical to hers. In the filed complaint, Daniher said the film's producer...
Tags: Hollywood, Instagram, Disney, San Francisco, Trends, Pixar, Ian, Hollywood Reporter, Rae, JUN, Tom Holland, Disney Pixar, San Francisco Magazine, Kori Rae, Pixar Animation Studio, Barley Lightfoot

Architecture software startups are looking to disrupt the design process with VR and machine learning — industry insiders say these are the 15 startups to watch

Architecture, unlike it's counterparty industry, construction, has decisively become a digital industry, with almost all design taking place within popular software platforms like AutoCAD.  With the advent of virtual reality, machine-learning programs that can generate designs algorithmically, and the widespread popularity of cloud-based collaboration tools, tech continues to have drastic effects on architecture. We polled a range of architects, designers, and venture capitalists to create a l...
Tags: Accelerator, UK, New York, Pinterest, Minnesota, Germany, Boston, New York City, US, Trends, Mit, Netflix, Delta, Autodesk, Bmw, Crunchbase

The Army wants more soldiers, and it's using esports to put a 'finger on the pulse' of potential recruits

The Army has been ramping up its recruiting effort, seeking more soldiers from a mix of backgrounds and with differing skill sets. The service has developed a variety of outreach methods to get those recruits. One of its most innovative may be the Army Esports Team, which draws on the Army's own gamers to attract young Americans. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. After whiffing on its recruiting goal in 2018, the Army has been trying new approaches to bring in the soldiers i...
Tags: Washington, America, Trends, Colombia, Army, Nintendo, West Coast, Mccarthy, Jones, Frank, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Christopher Jones, National Press Club, South and Midwest, Mark Milley, Muth

SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund had a no good, very bad year in 2019, but was still in the black overall. Here's why experts are still struggling to make sense of it.

SoftBank's Vision Fund had a terrible year last year, thanks in large part to the collapse of WeWork. To a large degree, though, its overall performance since it was established in 2017 is in the eye of the beholder. Despite last year, the fund was in the black overall at the end of last year, and its performance has improved since then. But its returns to date have been subpar for the venture industry, and the struggles of WeWork and many of its other investments are a worrying sign, venture ...
Tags: Softbank, Trends, Sprint, Alibaba, Silicon Valley, WeWork, Son, ARM, T Mobile, Foote, SIEGEL, Santa Clara University, GrubHub, Stanford Graduate School of Business, PE, Hendershott

Amazon's cloud boss Andy Jassy shares advice on how to build a new business within a large company — these 4 principles helped AWS grow into a $35 billion business (AMZN)

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy was asked at this week's Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference what advice he would give to others looking to build new businesses inside larger existing companies. AWS grew from a tiny project within Amazon to a leading cloud business with over $35 billion in annual sales last year. Jassy pointed to these four key principles he followed in building AWS. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. When Amazon's cloud business first launche...
Tags: Amazon, Trends, Nasa, Aws, Amazon Web Services, Andy Jassy, Amazon Amazon, AMZN, Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Jassy, Amazon Jassy

Inside San Francisco's million-dollar fixer-upper homes

Fixer-uppers selling for at least $1 million in San Francisco regularly make headlines. In a city where housing demand outweighs supply, the value of homes and land is sky-high, meaning even dilapidated single-family homes throughout the city are worth a pretty penny. But the purchase of the property is only the first step in taking on a fixer-upper project — renovations typically mean shelling out millions more. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The glamour of flipping a "f...
Tags: Texas, San Francisco, Trends, Jack Dorsey, Zillow, Castro, Business Insider, Redfin, Hgtv, Bay Area, CHAN, Richmond District, Waco, Sotheby, Culver, Joanna Gaines

3 Easy to Style Spring Summer 2020 Trends You Already Have in Your Closet

Freshen up your wardrobe with some of your old favorites!
Tags: College, Trends, Monochrome, Scarves, Varsity Jacket, Spring 2020

Thermometer guns used to screen for coronavirus are 'notoriously' unreliable experts say, warning about improper use and false temperatures

A new coronavirus spreading across the globe has led to temperature screenings at airports, Chinese cities, and businesses. The thermometer guns used in these screenings are "notoriously not accurate and reliable," since many screeners hold them at the wrong distance or use them in the wrong environments, experts told The New York Times. Demand for thermometer guns has spiked since the coronavirus outbreak began, leaving some manufacturers struggling to keep up. Visit Business Insider's homepa...
Tags: Apple, Cdc, China, US, Trends, Hawaii, New York Times, New Jersey, West Africa, Who, The New York Times, Wuhan, Grainger, World Health Organization WHO, Shenzhen China, Mo

The former Apple engineer who created the programming language Swift has joined AI chip startup SiFive. Here's what he learned working at Apple, Tesla, and Google.

Chris Lattner, the former Apple engineer who created the iOS programming language Swift, joined the artificial intelligence chip startup SiFive in January to head platform engineering there. While Lattner is focusing on software for chips now, he says it's similar to what he's been doing throughout his career at Apple, Tesla, and Google because he's building tools. Lattner says the three tech giants he's worked at have "very distinct corporate cultures" because Apple is about the product, Tesl...
Tags: Apple, Google, Trends, Tesla, Intel, Silicon Valley, Amd, Swift, Lattner, Apple Tesla, SiFive, Chris Lattner, Sutter Hill Ventures Spark Capital, SiFive Lattner, Samsung Venture Investment

5 reasons to buy the older Galaxy S10 instead of Samsung's brand-new Galaxy S20

Samsung's Galaxy S10 is still a worthwhile option for those who want a new phone but are looking to spend less than $1,000. The Galaxy S10, despite being a year old, still has a great camera and many of the same features as the Galaxy S20, like an in-screen fingerprint sensor, a sharp ultra-wide-angle camera, and a crisp borderless screen. The main features that distinguish the Galaxy S20 from its predecessor are its support for 5G, its larger, upgraded camera sensors, its extra memory, and a ...
Tags: US, Samsung, Trends, United States, Verizon Sprint

The massive screen on Samsung's new Galaxy S20 Ultra phone is so big it would have been considered a tablet less than a decade ago

The new Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a screen measuring 6.9 inches, just 0.1 inches shy of the 7-inch screen from the Google Nexus 7 tablet from 2013.  If this new Galaxy S20 Ultra smartphone were released back then, it probably would have been considered a tablet.  Samsung is no stranger to making phones with giant screens. Its first Note phone from 2011 had a 5.3-inch screen that was massive compared to the 2011 iPhone 4s, which had a minuscule 3.5-inch screen.  Visit Business Insider's home...
Tags: Apple, Google, US, Samsung, Trends, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra