Contrary Research Rundown #25
Remote hiring trends, and new memos on Coda, Hightouch and more
Research Rundown
Rising interest rates, falling public market multiples, layoffs, hiring freezes, and higher expectations for venture financings have resulted in a gloomy atmosphere in the startup world. Many companies that were once heralded as category leaders are now facing increased scrutiny and negative headlines as they take steps to navigate the current uncertain climate. Amidst all the noise, it can be helpful to remind ourselves that building great, lasting companies takes time. It can also be clarifying to take a step back and focus on the bigger picture of a company’s fundamentals and market tailwinds.
Few companies better exemplify the drastic and sudden shift in public sentiment and coverage than Stripe. Stripe’s revenue growth slowed substantially in 2022, prompting it to cut 14% of its staff. To cover a tax bill that will come due when it resolves a looming stock squeeze for its earliest employees, Stripe is looking to raise $6 billion from investors, and has reportedly cut its valuation for the fundraise to around $50 billion.
While recent news about Stripe may have tarnished the sterling reputation it had garnered during the bull market over the past decade, the fact is that Stripe remains a promising company operating in a massive market with a large product portfolio, and global reach. That being said, the company does face significant challenges stemming from a stronger global competitive landscape, limited adoption of some of its newer offerings, an uncertain path to profitability, and slowing growth.
So what does the future look like for Stripe? Our latest deep dive on Stripe’s story unpacks the business fundamentals, market, and tailwinds that will determine it’s long-term outlook. It also includes a comprehensive overview of the company’s founding story, the evolution of its product offering, market dynamics, competitive landscape, opportunities, risks, and more.
Goldfinch is a decentralized credit platform broadening the lender pool beyond banks. It operates a marketplace for uncollaterized loans and decentralizes loan underwriting. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Memora Health helps healthcare organizations digitize and automate care journeys, making complex care delivery simple for patients and clinicians easier to navigate both both parties. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Boom Supersonic is an airplane manufacturer that builds supersonic airliners designed for speed, safety, and sustainability. Their goal is a routine supersonic flight for everyone. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Substack is a subscription-based newsletter publishing platform for independent writers. It makes it easy for readers to find writers whose work they love to read and support. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Microsoft announced Dynamics 365 Copilot, built using OpenAI’s tech, helping draft contextual chat and email answers and more, rolling out in preview.
Buy-now-pay-later became a popular target for fraudsters, sometimes helped by companies with loose underwriting. Check out our memo on fraud solution Sardine.
Amazon had $38B in 2022 ad revenue, more than the entire global newspaper industry and likely more than the revenue Prime generated from subscriptions.
Private equity firm Silver Lake and a Canadian pension fund offered to acquire Qualtrics for $12.4B as majority owner SAP looks to divest its 71% stake.
Susa Ventures’ Leo Polovets’ blog post on a tactical framework for cash management.
Salesforce announced Einstein GPT, bringing OpenAI-based generative AI to Customer 360, Slack, Tableau, and its other products using data from its Data Cloud.
TikTok launched Series, letting select creators sell Collections of content of up to 80 videos, each up to 20 minutes. Creators initially get 100% of earnings.
SoundCloud started testing a TikTok-like feed for music discovery.
ADHD startups are exploding; between 2003-2011, the U.S. faced a 42% growth in childhood ADHD diagnosis.
Startup scaling lessons from Claire Hughes Johnson, ex-COO of Stripe. She just published a book on the same topic.
Hubble Telescope faces a threat from SpaceX and other companies’ satellites. Check out our memo on SpaceX.
Interview with Reddit Chief Product Officer Pali Bhat on rolling out a video feed, search, moderation, AI, NFTs, its 500M+ MAUs, and more. Check out our memo on Reddit.
Brex announced it would be launching AI-powered tools for CFOs and their teams. Check out our memo on Brex.
An interview with Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom on his social news app Artifact, curating sources, editorial judgment, avoiding filter bubbles, and more.
A look at the AI Education Project, a nonprofit backed by Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and others that offer resources to boost AI literacy in low-income schools.
DuckDuckGo launched OpenAI and Anthropic-powered DuckAssist in beta, using Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, and other sources to summarize answers.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman has bet on Helion Energy for limitless energy and Retro Biosciences for expansion of human life. Check out our memo on Helion Energy.
Spotify announced its app redesign to make it easier for users to find new stuff to listen to and watch.
Stripe Is raising $6 billion to resolve the employee tax issue at $50 billion valuation.
Grammarly announced GrammarlyGO, a generative AI tool that can write and rewrite content in a user’s style, available to all users in beta in April 2023.
Apple unveiled a standalone classical music iPhone app with 5M+ tracks, available for pre-order now as part of Apple Music subscriptions.
Discord announced multiple AI experiences as experiments in a limited number of servers. Check out our memo on Discord.
Meta is exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates; the app, codenamed P92.
California regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank, appointed the FDIC as receiver to protect insured deposits.