Welcome to Startups Weekly, a contemporary human-first tackle this week’s startup information and tendencies. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
On Fairness this week, we mentioned the value of the written word. You’ll be able to think about that the ensuing argument is inherently biased, contemplating we’re three journalists who’ve guess our livelihoods on ink; however, I promise, there’s extra nuance right here past how essential a lede is.
We lately revealed a recent deep dive on Automattic, the industrial media firm behind the WordPress publishing platform. Based in 2005, Automattic is without doubt one of the few firms that has been in a position to evolve and increase its method via a graveyard of media websites. Valued at $7.5 billion, it has additionally satisfied buyers of the monetary promise of its imaginative and prescient.
I used to be most struck by how textual content has formed Automattic’s hiring course of: The corporate presents a purely written interview, the place potential new hires by no means must reveal their face or voice to anybody via the recruitment funnel. It takes away the inherent bias that comes with a Zoom interview, which, at its core, is only a digital model of a face-to-face interview. Monica Ohara, chief advertising and marketing officer of WordPress.com, defined extra about her pondering:
“You usually suppose you’ve acquired to speak to them; see them on video. With textual content solely, you take away all this bias and deal with the content material of what they’re saying, and likewise take a look at for a mode of communication that’s actually essential in a distributed group.
“In Silicon Valley, everyone seems to be competing for a similar folks that may add range to your pool. Which is nice for these folks, however what about all of the others who don’t have these alternatives due to the place they had been born or dwell? For me, I used to be born within the Philippines and if I hadn’t had the luck to maneuver right here, I’d be residing a special life.”
Rethinking the worth of textual content, the identical method we rethink how many synchronous meetings must be on our calendar, feels just like the pure subsequent step for firms determining how one can scale distributed work. Even in a world seemingly dominated by short-form video, phrases — and sound — appear to matter in a method that different codecs by no means will.
In the remainder of this article, we’ll speak about PayPal’s reported new buddy, the Chinese language enterprise capital market and in no way about Facebook’s impending new rebrand.
PayPal picks Pinterest
Picture Credit: TechCrunch
We rushed to Twitter Areas this week after rumors got here out that PayPal may be buying Pinterest for a reported $45 billion. The fintech big has been on an acquisition spree of kinds, however scooping up a social, photo-sharing platform could sign its hungry to personal the content material — not simply the client.
Right here’s what to know: This feels nostalgic. PayPal doubtlessly becoming a member of forces with a extra content-focused e-commerce enterprise comes greater than a half-decade after it divorced from eBay. However, as Finix Chief Development Officer Jareau Wadé identified, Pinterest isn’t a purchasing vacation spot like eBay — it’s a spot the place purchasing begins for practically 450 million customers.
In a Substack put up, Wadé makes the next argument to explain why PayPal may buy Pinterest:
At its core, Pinterest is extra like Google than eBay. It’s a search engine that conducts over 5 billion searches per 30 days for fuzzy, hard-to-describe concepts the place footage, somewhat than phrases, are sometimes the most effective place to begin. It additionally has a rising advertisements enterprise that produced $613 million final quarter, up 125% YoY. With Pinterest, PayPal can be shopping for the highest of the funnel — the attention and curiosity levels — for thousands and thousands of internet sites on the web. PayPal would supply Pinterest with the underside of the funnel, permitting them to see the purchases that consequence from purchasing that started on Pinterest.
Think about if PayPal may use their core product and the commerce belongings they’ve acquired over the previous 5 years to construct a deconstructed gross sales funnel, not only for one web site, however for the entire web.
Put a pin in it:
China is flourishing
Picture Credit: TechCrunch
Knowledge from CB Insights reveals us that, other than a single outsized 2018 spherical, China’s third quarter of 2021 was the best three-month period for Chinese startups ever — each in deal worth and deal depend.
Right here’s what to know: We’re stunned, too. On Fairness, we mentioned how the growth of China’s venture capital market contrasts in sentiment with the area’s authorities restrictions. It appears that regulatory impact hasn’t stopped all firms from elevating, and rising, their companies there.
Internationally talking:
Round TC
TC Sessions: SaaS 2021 is next week! My colleagues have put collectively a tremendous present in regards to the sector that seemingly can’t cease attracting thousands and thousands from buyers. We’ll see what stopped consuming the world, how starvation is popping into innovation and positively hit just a few SaaSy notes via panels with consultants.
Try the event agenda, buy your pass and are available hold with us on October 27.
Throughout the week
Seen on TechCrunch
A massive ‘stalkerware’ leak puts the phone data of thousands at risk
What do people want in a co-founder? YC has some answers
Station F adds an online program to educate the next generation of entrepreneurs
Trump to launch his own social media platform, calling it TRUTH Social
Seen on TechCrunch+
Mission-driven ventures are growing fast during the pandemic
Dear Sophie: Any suggestions for recruiting international tech talent?
Lessons from founders raising their first round in a bull market
Udemy targets valuation of $4B in major edtech IPO
Speak quickly,
