Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 08/20 – Lyft Ends Service In California At Midnight

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

Facebook has removed tons of stuff from what it calls US-based militia organizations. Airbnb has filed for its IPO. Cobalt is an interesting raise. But also, some new tech might remove cobalt for better batteries. DoorDash launches grocery delivery. And is Palantir the first high profile company to flee Silicon Valley? Sponsors: Metalab.co BuyRaycon.com/tech Links: Facebook Removes 790 QAnon Groups to Fight Conspiracy Theory (NYTimes) Facebook restricts more than 10,000 QAnon and US militia groups (The Guardian) Airbnb files confidential IPO paperwork (CNBC) Airbnb Files Confidentially for IPO With SEC (WSJ) Online Thrift Shop ThredUp Plans IPO Early Next Year (Bloomberg) Cobalt.io grabs $29M Series B to continue building out pentesting platform (TechCrunch) This Cobalt-Free Battery Is Good for the Planet—and It Actually Works (Wired) DoorDash launches grocery delivery to compete with Amazon and Instacart (The Verge) Data-analysis giant Palantir moves headquarters to Denver (Denver Business Journal) Alibaba posts 124 per cent gain in quarterly profit, sees China retail back to pre-pandemic levels (SCMP) Lyft will suspend its ride-hailing service in California (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Thursday, August 20th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Facebook has removed tons of stuff from what it calls U.S.-based militia organizations. Airbnb has filed for its IPO. Cobalt is an interesting raise, but also some new tech might involve removing cobalt for better batteries. DoorDash launches grocery delivery and is Palantir, the first high-profile company to flee Silicon Valley.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Facebook has further cracked down on QAnon on its platform, removing 790 Q&N affiliated groups and restricting another 1,950. Facebook also took action on 440 Q&N-related Facebook pages and over 10,000 Q&N-related Instagram accounts, quoting the New York Times. Facebook's takedown followed record growth of Q&N groups on the site, much of it since the coronavirus pandemic began in March. activity on some of the largest Q&OND groups on the social network, including likes, comments, and sheriffs of posts rose 200 to 300% in the last six months, according to data gathered by the New York Times. We have seen growing movements that, while not directly organizing violence, have celebrated violent acts, shown that they have weapons and suggest they will use them or have individual followers with patterns of violent behavior,

Facebook said in a statement, adding that it would also block Q&on hashtags such as hashtag digital army and hashtag the storm. The actions, less than three months before November's presidential election, underline how QAnon is increasingly causing alarm. Founded four years ago, QAnon was once a fringe phenomenon with believers who alleged falsely that the world was run by a cabal of Satan worshiping pedophiles who were plotting against President Trump while operating a global child sex trafficking ring, end quote. At the same time, Facebook removed over 980 groups, 520 pages, and 160 ads for what it called U.S.-based militia organizations, including those that identify as Antifa, quoting The Guardian. The moves are the result of a shift in the company's policy toward movements that have, quote,

demonstrated significant risks to public safety, end quote, but do not meet the criteria for an outright ban, such as terrorist and hate groups. The policy shift also applies to U.S.-based militia groups and what Facebook is calling, quote, offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, end quote, some of which, quote, identify as Antifa, end quote. Well, at long last, it's finally coming, the last big IPO of this tech generation, i.e. the post-Facebook post-smartphone cohort of startups. Airbnb says it has submitted its draft S-1 for an IPO to the Securities and Exchange Commission, quoting CNBC. The company did not disclose its financial information, nor did it specifically.

how many shares would be offered. Airbnb was valued at $18 billion following its latest funding round in April. That was nearly half of what the company was worth in 2017, end quote. Note that this is not a direct listing, which I think there was some discussion of, reminding you of the entire backstory, let's quote from the Wall Street Journal. Airbnb said late last year that it planned to go public, but its plans were thrown into disarray as the health crisis shut down global travel. It initially had planned to make its widely anticipated debut on the public markets this year via a direct listing, which wouldn't involve raising any additional money, but now plans to raise cash through a traditional IPO. Airbnb joins a rush of companies tapping public investors after the IPO

market emerged from a virtual standstill triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Still, it's offering will test the public markets, particularly amid increased weariness for money-losing startups. Chief Executive Brian Chesky is under pressure from employees to list this year because many valuable stock options are set to expire, end quote. Speaking of companies going public, I'm pretty sure we've never talked about this one, because frankly, I wasn't even aware of the company until this morning. Thread Up is an online marketplace for used clothing. Around since 2009, ThreadUp carries over 35,000 brands and lists 45,000 new items every day.

Well, sources say that Thread Up is targeting an IPO for early next year that could raise between $200 and $300 million. quoteing Bloomberg. Threatup raised $175 million last year from new and existing investors, including Parkwest asset management and Irving investors. Threatup was valued in that round at $670 million, according to Pitchbook. In May, the company announced a partnership with retailer Walmart to sell used women's and children's clothing on its website. Threatup, like some other internet retailers, has fared relatively well in the coronavirus pandemic as sales have shifted online. Threadup's higher-end rival Poshmark,

delayed its listing to focus on boosting sales and improving its execution Bloomberg news has reported. Shares of luxury reseller The Real Real, which went public a year ago, are down 5.9% this year, end quote. And since we're in the mood for these sorts of segments it seems today, how about an interesting raise? German startup Cobalt connects companies with human penetration testers. The better to check on your security. Cobalt has raised a $29 million series B led by Highland Europe, bringing its total raise to date to $37 million. Here's how TechCrunch describes what they do, quote. The promise of software as a service has always been about taking tedious, expensive manual tasks

and finding a way to build a platform to automate them. Cobalt.io is doing that with pen testing, the process of testing and application for security vulnerabilities before it goes out the door. Today, the startup announced a $29 million series be led by Highland Europe. The company's platform provides a way to move beyond traditional pen testing consultancies to connect pen testing professionals with companies who need their services. The reports those pros generate, and the issues that need to be fixed get incorporated into the tools developers are using, like Jira, to help resolve them in their existing workflow. Cobalt CEO Jacob Hansen says the company began fundraising at the beginning of the year just as the pandemic was beginning to

take hold in Europe. He saw a lot of those discussions wither, as some firms simply stopped investing, but he eventually hooked up with Highland Europe after a strong Q1 and Q2, where the company actually became cash flow positive, an unusual achievement for a startup at this stage. The company also has 600 customers on the platform, and Hansen projects it will be up to 900 by the end of the year. These customers buy a certain number of Penn Test credits on a subscription basis, based on the number of programs they need to test, and the cadence of their testing. So as an example, a company with four applications might buy eight credits to test twice a year. Hansen says that the company's retention numbers are comparable with other SaaS businesses, end quote.

Is it too awkward a segue to move from talking about cobalt the startup, to talk about cobalt the element? There's a new battery technology that will eschew the use of cobalt, which would be better for the environment, better for human rights, and might actually improve battery technology overall, quoting Wired. Cobalt is a scarce, toxic, and lustrous mineral that is found in the negatively charged electrode or cathode of almost all lithium-ion batteries used today. It's expensive, heavy, and linked to unethical mining practices, wild price swings, and a tenuous global supply chain. It's no wonder so many battery manufacturers went to kick their cobalt habit. But the mineral plays a crucial role in stabilizing batteries and boosting their energy density. Although experimental cobalt-free cells exist,

They've all had major performance issues like limited lifetimes and slower charge rates until now. In July, a team of three researchers from the University of Texas reported the results from tests using a new cathode chemistry that eliminates cobalt entirely. They use their nickel-rich cathode in a small experimental lithium-ion pouch about the size of a deck of cards. Although the battery had a slightly lower energy density than typical cobalt batteries, it was able to operate at higher voltages and at similar charge rates. even after a thousand-fold charge-discharge cycles, the typical lifetime for a commercial battery,

the experimental cell performed as well as comparable cells with cobalt cathodes. Cobalt can account for a fifth of the material in a lithium-ion cathode, which typically comes in one of two flavors, NMC for nickel-magnes-cobalt oxide or NCA, nickel-cobalt aluminum oxide. The cobalt in these batteries has a stabilizing effect and prevents cathode corrosion that can lead to a battery fire. It can also boost a battery's charge rate, but the raw material is pretty expensive and hard to come by. It has some social problems, too. Nearly two-thirds of the world's cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a secondary product of large-scale nickel and copper mining. But the DRC also has a large

contingent of independent or artisan miners that effectively operate without any oversight. This has led to a multitude of human rights abuses in Congolese cobalt mines, including the use of child labor. The cathode developed by the researchers sidesteps cobalt by increasing nickel content. It makes up 89% of the metal in the cathode by weight. Their cell combines the ingredients of NMC and NCA cathodes to create a cobalt-free NMA, nickel-magnese aluminum oxide cathode. Although the team is not the first to develop a cobalt-free or high-nickel cathode, the researchers say their process is the first that doesn't also have major performance

drawbacks like short battery life and low energy density, end quote. DoorDash is launching grocery delivery, the better to compete with the likes of Amazon and Instacart. It will start with select stores in California and parts of the Midwest, quoting the verge. The move follows DoorDash's push into convenience stores earlier this year, and it's recently announced Dash Mart Virtual Store for selling snacks and other food items and over-the-counter goods. For now, DoorDash is working only with Smart and Final, Meyer, Fresh Time, and Hyvie, with Smart and Final only serving California customers in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento, and San Diego. Customers in Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis,

and Milwaukee will have access to Meyer and Fresh Time with support for Hyvie coming at a later date. Key to DoorDash's ambitions in grocery delivery are its back-end delivery platform called DoorDash Drive, that it sells to existing chains, including huge grocery players like Walmart, to help power their own online delivery systems as well as the company's promise of delivery windows as short as its standard meal order ones. DoorDash Drive allows chain restaurants and grocery stores to create their own delivery systems and throw their brand name on them. And the company says it's using the same underlying technology to bring grocery stores large inventories over to its main app. That same platform is how chains like Wegmans are able to offer

to go meals and other prepared foods, both through the main DoorDash app where the store is treated like any other restaurant and through its own Wegmans to Go app that exists separately from the chain's standard grocery delivery, which in most markets is, in fact, powered by Instacart, end quote. From the Is Silicon Valley Over department, eagle-eyed watchers noticed that Palantir is now listing Denver as its headquarters. No official confirmation on if that means the huge and secretive startup has decamped from Silicon Valley, but CEO Alex Carp did say in a May interview that Palantir was considering leaving. If they do jump ship from the valley, Palantir would be. be the highest profile tech company to do so in recent decades. Palantir was previously headquartered

in Palo Alto, quoting Denver Business Journal. Company officials have not yet responded to Denver Business Journal's request for interviews, but the firm now lists Denver as its headquarters on its website, its social media pages, and its Wikipedia entry. Changes believed to have been made quietly on Tuesday. The address 1555 Blake Street is listed as its Denver location with the Colorado Secretary of State and on its LinkedIn profile. although it's not clear if that's where the ultimate headquarters will be. The move comes after CEO Alex Karp told Axios during a May interview on HBO that he was getting close to a decision on whether to move the company out of California, citing in particular

the, quote, increasing intolerance and monoculture of Silicon Valley, end quote. And he specifically cited Colorado as a potential destination, quote, we haven't picked a place yet, but it's going to be closer to the East Coast than the West Coast, Karp said during the interview. If I had to guess, I would guess something like Colorado. It's not clear how many employees it will relocate to Denver or hire new for the positions. Palantir has about 2,500 employees worldwide. The company already has employees working in Colorado. It also has posted listings on sites such as LinkedIn and Indeed.com for new jobs in Denver and Aurora that include a software infrastructure engineer, a Splunk engineer slash architect, and an information system security officer.

The relocation comes at a pivotal time for the firm, which filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July to go public at an undetermined date, end quote. And from the COVID recovery slash China-US Tech War Department, Alibaba has posted quarterly revenue that was up 34% year-over-year and profit that was up 124% year-over-year, all on the strength of its online retail and cloud computing businesses. So it's a little best of both worlds for Alibaba. Consumers want to buy online during COVID. Cloud computing usage is up during COVID.

COVID, but also it seems that the post-COVID Chinese economy is recovering quite well. But Alibaba is watching the geopolitical situation closely also, quoting the South China Morning Post. E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding said it is closely monitoring the latest shift in U.S. government policies toward Chinese companies after the company posted a 124% increase in profit and strong domestic retail sales in the June quarter. Quote, today, we face uncertainties. from not only the global pandemic, but also increasing tensions between the U.S. and China,

said Daniel Zhang Yang, chairman and chief executive of Alibaba in a conference call with analysts on Thursday after announcing the company's latest results. Quote, as the world's largest e-commerce platform, Alibaba's primary commercial focus in the U.S. is to support American brands, retailers, small businesses, and farmers to sell to consumers and trade partners in China, as well as the other key markets around the world. Zhang, who described the current situation as very fluid,

said Alibaba was, quote, assessing the situation and any potential impact carefully and thoroughly and will take the necessary actions to comply with any new regulation, end quote. Speculation that Alibaba, the parent company of the South China Morning Post could be next on Washington's hit list, recently surfaced as U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he could exert pressure on more Chinese companies after short video app operator TikTok, end quote. Just as I was wrapping up editing, this story broke, so forgive me, I just tape this on here. Lift has officially announced that it will be suspending its services in the state of California later today after being ordered to classify drivers as employees.

Word on the street is that Uber is likely to announce something similar, but at the time of this writing, they have not officially done so yet. Quoting the verge, Lyft will suspend its ride hailing operations in California at 11.59 p.m. Pacific time on August 20th, the company confirmed in a blog post. Along with Uber, the company was ordered by a state judge to employ its drivers rather than classify them as independent contractors. But Lyft is choosing to end its service in California rather than comply with that order, at least for now. Quote, this is not something we wanted to do. As we know, millions of Californians depend on Lyft for daily essential trips, the company writes. We're personally reaching out to writers and drivers

to share more about why this is happening, what you can do about it, and to provide some transportation alternatives, end quote. Uber has also said it will cease operations in California at the end of the day, though it has yet to officially confirm it. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment, but shared a link to a medium article arguing that Uber has been an essential transportation service during the pandemic. Lyft's bike and scooter sharing services will still be operational in California, as will its car rental service and public transit navigation tool, end quote. So somehow I missed this, but we passed 700 episodes over the last few days,

I think actually over the weekend. So happy milestone to us. This means we'll pass the thousand episode mark, what, early new year, maybe February, maybe around our three-year anniversary. I don't actually have the numbers in terms of total downloads lifetime, but we're probably approaching 50 million sometime in the fall. I have to think of something special to do to mark either the three-year anniversary or the thousandth episode, but we've got time to figure that out, I guess. Talk to you tomorrow.