Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 12/16 – Reddit Files For An IPO

Episode Date: December 16, 2021

Reddit finally files to go public. Is Apple once again the canary in the coal mine, this time for Omicron? HR Block sues Square cause Square is now Block. Get it? The biggest investing star of Web3 is starting her own fund. And a look at the battery technology breakthrough the could transform all our lives. Sponsors: HeyLaika.com/techmeme Dataiku.com Links: Reddit Files Confidentially for IPO (WSJ) Apple Scraps Office-Return Deadline Without Setting New Date (Bloomberg) H&R Block Sues Block, Formerly Square, for Trademark Infringement (WSJ) Adidas Originals launches NFTs and buys a plot in the Sandbox metaverse (VentureBeat) Scoop: Crypto investor Katie Haun leaving Andreessen Horowitz (Axios) Solid-State Batteries Are Here and They're Going to Change How We Live (Popular Mechanics) 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, December 16th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Reddit finally files to go public. Is Apple once again the canary in the coal mine this time for Amacron?

H&R Block Sue Square, because Square is now Block. Get it? The biggest investing star of Web 3 is starting her own fund. And a look at the battery technology breakthrough that could transform all our lives. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. One of the longest running startup sagas of the web era is reaching a conclusion. Reddit has confidentially filed its S-1 with the SEC for an initial public offering. The number of shares to be offered and the price range have yet to be determined.

But given that Reddit was founded all the way back in 2005, given that it has had this twisty-turning history of getting acquired, spun out, etc., given the out-sized role Reddit plays in our culture. This has been a long time coming, quoting the Wall Street Journal. As of August, Reddit said it had a valuation of about $10 billion after raising more than $400 million from Fidelity Investments. In February, the social media company said it had raised about $500 million at a $6.5 billion valuation. Reddit has been looking to build on the attention it gained when, at the start of the year, its Wall Street Betts Forum became a hotspot for the individual investors who rallied around GameStop, and other stocks. San Francisco-based Reddit, founded in 2005, is known for its message boards on an array of topics, plus its Ask Me Anything, Digital Town Halls with celebrities, politicians, and

subject matter experts. The company was sold to Condé Nast in 2006, and the magazine publisher's parent advanced publications spun Reddit off in 2011 and remains a shareholder. Over time, Reddit has grown to outpace rivals such as Dig to become a haven for niche communities to gather and a go-to source of news. Reddit had more than 50 million daily users as of January, according to its website. In August, the company said it reached $100 million in advertising revenue in a quarter for the first time, almost triple the prior year figure, but that it remained unprofitable, end quote. So I guess the question is, will the meme stock traders want to buy into the stock of the company that makes their meme trading possible? More details about Reddit that has shaken loose by, this filing. The site is home to more than 100,000 active communities, is visited by more than 50 million people every day, has raised over $1 billion over its lifetime, and was most recently valued, as I said, at more than $10 billion just in August. Maybe you saw on Twitter, but basically if you follow anybody in New York City over the last 48 hours, chances are you've seen them say

some variation of this. How is it that everyone I know somehow tested positive for COVID today? The rapid test lines are long, all of the sudden here in the city. Home tests are sold out across the city. It even happened to us, a holiday party that we thankfully did not attend last week, has seen, over the last two days, unfortunately, more than half a dozen friends of ours subsequently test positive for COVID. So, remember when Tech and Apple especially, were the canaries in the coal mine for the early parts of the COVID-19 pandemic? Well, if history repeats, you'd better batten down the hatches because according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg, Apple is delaying its planned return to corporate offices to a, quote, date yet to be

determined after previously setting a February 1st return date for most employees. Quote, employees were informed of the move via a memo set by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on Wednesday, and Apple spokesman confirmed the decision to Bloomberg News. We are delaying the start of our hybrid work pilot to a date yet to be determined, Cook said in the memo. Our offices remain open, and many of our colleagues are coming in regularly, including our teams in Greater China and elsewhere, end quote. He cited rising cases in many parts of the world and the emergence of a new strain of the virus. Cook also strongly encouraged employees to receive vaccinations and booster shots,

saying, quote, this is by far the best way to keep you and your community safe, end quote. In the memo, also said the Cupertino-California-based company will provide each employee a $1,000 bonus that may be used for work-at-home needs, saying it's, quote, in support of our commitment to a more flexible environment, end quote. That includes retail workers, end quote. Which, speaking of those retail workers, this is also not a good sign. Apple has closed three retail stores in Miami, Florida, Annapolis, Maryland, and Ottawa, Canada, after a rise in employee COVID-19 cases and exposures at those locations. Remember when Apple shutting down retail stores was a sign of where

the virus was blowing up next? Watch this space. So this has happened again. H&R Block is suing Square. Why? Well, because remember Square is no longer square. They changed their name to Block. So H&R Block says this is trademark infringement, quoting the Wall Street Journal. The Towers, the Towers. PRAP company believes Block's recent name change will confuse customers and harm its brand. It wants Block to stop using the name and a logo it sees as, quote, nearly identical to its own, according to a complaint filed in federal court Thursday. H&R Block's logo is a Green Square, Block's Cash app, sports a green square with rounded corners and a white dollar sign.

The goodwill that Block has so carefully created and nurtured over the past six decades is now under attack by a Silicon Valley fintech company, attorneys for H&R Block said in the complaint. Block, H&R Block said, is a, quote, relatively new Silicon Valley business that does not have the kind of history or reputation for trust and reliability that H&R Block has enjoyed for more than 65 years, end quote. Block didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Henry and Richard Block, spelled BLOC, found the tax prep firm in the 1950s. The brothers chose to end the company's name with a K because their last name was often mispronounced.

H&R Block owns U.S. trademark registrations for H&R Block, Blockworks, block advisors, and other related names. It doesn't have a trademark registered for Block, but believes its established use of the name provides certain trademark rights. H&R Block owns a trademark registration for its Green Square logo, end quote. Another day, another one of these, Adidas Originals, has partnered with Bored Ape Yacht Club, G Money, and others to launch an NFT collection, including access to wearables in the sandbox virtual world. Quoting Venture Beat. The NFTs are on sale today and buyers will receive exclusive access to Adidas Originals' experiences and products. Access will include virtual wearables for blockchain-based gaming world, The Sandbox, and other platforms, plus physical products. to match. The brand has also purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT named Indigo Hers to join one of the most active communities in the NFT space. Adidas said members were given the chance to redeem a Pope,

P-O-A-P or Proof-O-A-P-P-O-A-P-POTO-N-T-Tatness Badge, commemorating of the brand's Metaverse Journey. Adidas Originals recreated G-Money's orange be featured digitally in the Punk's comic and physically as an item of clothing. over, the brand has also reimagined the celebrities as 3D avatars to be featured in a cinematic video teasing the collaboration. Adidas has acquired a plot of land inside the sandbox, a plot of virtual land, which it is working to fill with exclusive content and experiences. The brand's digital assets will be secured in partnership with Coinbase, a leading crypto exchange, end quote. I'm going to mention this super briefly because I'm not sure if this is too inside baseball to include, but Katie Hahn is leaving Andresen Horowitz to start a new venture capital firm focusing on crypto and Web3 startups.

You might remember that Han was a former Department of Justice prosecutor who targeted Bitcoin spam cases, then moved to VC to become the first female general partner at Andresen Horowitz, and her deals there included leading investments in OpenC and Coinbase. Basically, lots of people credit Han for getting crypto religion is not quite the right word, but at least given that A16Z has gone as heavily into Web3 stuff as about anybody in the Valley, let's just say Han was a big part of that. Basically, as Web3 continues to evolve, whatever firm she starts is likely to be in pole position in terms of VC reputation in the Web3 community. Quoting Dan Premack in Axios, Han has helped turn Andresen Horowitz into the world's largest crypto investor,

including a $2.2 billion fund raised earlier this year. That's already. been deployed. Her deals have included OpenC, Cello, R-Weave, and Royal. She also led the firm's investment in Coinbase, where she serves as an independent director. She's expected to maintain all of her Andresenhorowitz-related board seats. Katie is a very special leader in the crypto community, who has been an invaluable part of the Coinbase team as we've grown. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tells Axios, founders starting out in crypto will benefit from having her in their corner, end quote. Han isn't saying too much about her new firm, except that she plans to be the only general partner, and that it will focus on crypto and Web3 startups. She'll be joined by a small number

of current Andreessen Horowitz staffers, albeit none from the investment team, including crypto marketing head Rachel Horowitz. Andrewson Horowitz will be a large limited partner in Han's new fund. Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz will make personal commitments, as will crypto-focused partner Chris Dixon, end quote. Finally today, another long read, sort of like the one we ended the show with yesterday. I might regret burning these this week. If I don't have a lot of long reads to share with you tomorrow, you'll know why. But the story yesterday about Sheehan and this story today were both big enough that I thought they deserved deeper dives and greater underlining on my part. I've said for years that if we get a breakthrough in battery technology, then our society could

potentially be completely transformed. Well, that revolution might be here. The technology is called solid-state batteries. And let me run down their advantages. How about a 10x increase in power, or a 10-x decrease in size? Depending on your goals, imagine what you could do with that for smartphones. If the smartphone wasn't half made up of the battery itself, or what about electric cars? Imagine fully charging an electric car in minutes. Oh, and these batteries cannot catch fire. Popular mechanics has a deep dive on solid state batteries when they might arrive and what the promise is. Quote, the lithium ion battery that Colorado-based startup solid power hopes to make obsolete is already a modern marvel that earned its key researchers a Nobel Prize, and the preceding

lithium-iodine cells of the 1970s lasted years longer than existing alkaline-based AA-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 or D batteries thanks to the material's unmatched energy density. They were, for example, an immediate boon for pacemaker patients who could now rely on a battery for 10 years instead of two, but lithium's greatest impact on batteries came with the rechargeable lithium ion batteries in the 1990s for portable electronics and electric cars. Lithium has been the focus of battery research for decades because it's an excellent conductor. Like its fellow alkali metals on the far left of the periodic table, lithium has a single outer electron that it easily gives up, says Jeff Sakamoto, PhD, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Michigan, who specializes in solid-state battery research.

That creates a really high voltage, he explains. And compared with other alkalis such as potassium or sodium, lithium has the smallest ion size and third lowest atomic weight on the periodic table, meaning more electrons and charge for a given battery size. The energy density of lithium ion cells is as much as four times greater than that of the nickel-cadmium batteries they've largely replaced. Current lithium-ion batteries use a liquid electrolyte where ions flow back and forth between the anode and the cathode, recharging and discharging electrons. The cathode is a lithium compound and the anode, which determines total storage, is made of graphite. This material is plentiful, conducts well, and is easy to work with. However, lithium metals capacity is,

10 times that of graphite. To tap lithium's potential researchers have spent decades working through the metal's numerous roadblocks. Chief among them says Dr. Liu is reactivity. The difficulty is lithium metal is too reactive. You can think of it as corrosion. If you get it in contact with anything, it corrods everything, end quote. Scientists eventually landed on a solution that prevented the growth of dendrites and eliminated the risk of fire, a solid electrolyte, often made of a ceramic similar to a semiconductor that replaced the flammable liquid electrolyte and physically block the growth of dendrites. And if dendrites still manage to push through the ceramic electrolyte, there's no flammable reactivity. The next fundamental hurdle is rechargeability, says Neil Dasgupta,

Ph.D., a material science and engineering professor at the University of Michigan, who studies solid-state lithium metal batteries with Sakamoto. Lithium ion batteries meet an industry standard of charging more than a thousand times before they significantly degrade, he says. If you're plugging your phone in five times a week for four years, you've already charged it over a thousand times. Solid power won't share how many cycles its current prototypes of lithium metal batteries can reach, but Will McKenna, the company's communications director, says they're still pushing to surpass the thousand cycle bar. At, for example, 10,000 cycles, we could reset our expectations for battery life, says Jin Lee, Ph.D., one of the

Harvard researchers behind the battery, it could be as long as 25 years or even half a century, end quote. The world got its first look at a solid state battery electric vehicle at the Tokyo Olympic Games, where Toyota, working with Panasonic, outfitted a fleet of its LQ concept cars. The bubble-shaped LQs could be seen following the men's and women's marathons and even starred in commercials for the Rescheduled Olympic Games. These demonstrations are exciting, despite Toyota releasing no further details on the LQ's batteries, but we're still years from seeing a lithium-metal-powered battery reach a showroom. Solid Power CEO Doug Campbell says the company is five years out from putting their batteries into consumer vehicles. BMW and Ford have signed on as partners. The company's current

target is an OEM battery that's almost twice the energy density of today's auto sales, and that charges to 90% in just 10 minutes. The company, he adds, is years ahead of most rivals, thanks to its research on adapting existing lithium ion manufacturing technology. Most other groups, with the exception of a few behemists based in Asia, are still entrenched in that research and development phase, Campbell says. Toyota, for example, says their solid-state battery is likely to come in 2025, no car included. Sakamoto runs a solid-state battery startup in addition to his work at the University of Michigan and says the recent push to develop lithium metal batteries arose after electric vehicles

became viable and in demand. I'm surprised at how quickly a light went on, and at this outpouring of financial support and investment interest in solid-state batteries, he says. There's no commercial product yet, but there's all of this investment, end quote. The Twitter space last night went a little late, almost a full two hours.

For some reason, when we do these spaces, I'm so buzzed afterwards that I sometimes have a hard time falling asleep, and that was last night. I ended up getting only about three hours of sleep last night. So I'm going to go take a nap right now. Talk to you tomorrow.