The Station: Inside the Rivian R1T and its IPO filing

Hello readers: Welcome to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B. Welp, it was an EV heavy week, starting with the Polestar SPAC and ending with the Rivian IPO filing (curses to the late Friday regulatory filing). Oh, and […]

7 takeaways from Rivian’s IPO filing

Rivian, the electric automaker backed by Amazon, Ford and a cornucopia of heavy-hitting institutional investors like T. Rowe Price Associates and Coatue, finally made its once-confidential IPO filing public.  The company, which started in 2009 as Mainstream Motors before adopting the Rivian name two years later, has exploded in terms of people, backers and partners […]

Reid Hoffman on the evolution of ‘blitzscaling’ amid the pandemic

“Blitzscaling itself isn’t the goal,” said Hoffman. “Blitzscaling is being inefficient; it’s spending capital inefficiently and hiring inefficiently; it’s being uncertain about your business model; and those are not good things.”

Startups have more options than ever to lower their reliance on venture capital

The capital market for startups has perhaps never been more attractive than it is today. Not only are venture capitalists raising more capital than ever, but new methods of financing startup activity are maturing. The result is a capital market that is increasingly competitive for startup attention, and business, which may lead to better prices […]

Vareto raises $24M from GV, Menlo and all-star angels to reinvent financial planning for enterprises

Vareto, a startup aiming to help companies conduct more forward-looking financial planning and analysis, is coming out of stealth today with $24 million in total funding. GV (formerly Google Ventures) led its $20 million Series A this year, and Menlo Ventures led its $4.2 million seed financing in the summer of 2020. Menlo also put […]

These two former corporate VCs just raised $110 million for their own fund

All kinds of teams are raising venture funds these days, so don’t be surprised to see more investors from corporate venture firms decide to create their own outfits, too. They might look to Counterpart Ventures for inspiration. Founded by Patrick Eggen and Joe Saijo, the three-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit just closed a $110 million fund […]