Gen Z is already shaking up the venture-capital industry. Meet 29 up-and-coming investors.
Hello everyone! Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider from Business co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.
Read on for more on Gen Z VCs, Citigroup's $900 million blunder, Walmart slowing its healthcare ambitions, and what happened next at yoga brand Gaia
Read time: 5 1/2 minutes.
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Former President Donald Trump is set to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, next week, in his first public appearance since he left the White House. Here's what's trending this morning.
- AOC doubled her fundraising total for Texas storm victims to $4 million, as she joined fellow lawmakers in Houston to continue relief efforts
- A Biden official says the White House's response to the SolarWinds attack may come within weeks
- Pro-golfer Michelle Wie roasts Rudy Giuliani after he shared a crude 'panties' story about her on Steve Bannon's podcast
Gen Z VCs
From Margaux MacColl:
There's no set path for Gen Z, people born between 1995 and 2010, to break into venture. Some landed their first jobs by getting lucky with a cold email, while others got the attention of bigwigs through ambitious personal projects. For example, one Gen Zer on our list landed his venture-capital job after writing a book at age 18 that impressed a venture-firm partner. Others are forgoing traditional firms entirely, opting instead to angel invest in startups led by Gen Z founders that they believe in.
But there are some commonalities between the rising stars on this list: Almost everyone leverages social media in some way (see: the three TikTok superstars), many deeply understand the importance of forming their own Gen Z venture-capital communities, and pretty much all of them want to change the world.
Read the full story here:
Also read:
- Fintechs are desperate to reach Gen-Z. Here's how they're using influencers like Charli D'Amelio to tap into what's soon-to-be the largest generation of US customers.
- Fintech startup Marqeta, valued at $4.3 billion, has confidentially filed paperwork to go public
- Google blew $100 million a year building giant balloons to spread internet access. Insiders describe how Larry Page's passion project imploded.
Citi's $900 million blunder
From Yoonji Han and Dakin Campbell:
It was around 9 a.m. on Aug. 12 when Arokia Raj first realized that something had gone terribly wrong.
Raj, a member of a Citigroup team that processes and services asset-based loans, was reviewing the previous day's transactions when he noticed large gaps in the numbers - a discrepancy of just under $900 million.
Raj quickly put two and two together: The figure matched, down to the decimal point, the outstanding principal balance on a loan that the beauty company Revlon had taken out nearly five years ago.
With a few fatal clicks, Raj had mistakenly sent Revlon's lenders not just the accrued interest of less than $8 million, as intended, but also the total outstanding principal.
Read the full story here:
Also read:
- Goldman Sachs has seen an exodus of senior executives in recent months. Here's our exclusive org chart mapping out the power structure of 135 top leaders.
- Cathie Wood made a career betting on the future. Insiders reveal how the ARK Invest founder won the funds (and hearts) of memelord traders and boomer investors alike.
- Pimco's former funds board chair and ex-communications executive face accusations of sexual harassment in lawsuit
Walmart's healthcare slowdown
From Shelby Livingston and Blake Dodge:
Walmart's ambitious plan to build thousands of low-cost health clinics across the country is slowing down, less than two years after the retail giant embarked on a big push to expand access to primary care.
Walmart launched its first comprehensive health center in September 2019. The one-stop-shop clinics were an attempt to leapfrog the competition and capture a piece of the $3.8 trillion industry while sending more people into Walmart stores.
Walmart's vision was to become "America's neighborhood health destination." The push deeper into healthcare came as competitors like Amazon and CVS Health also bulked up their healthcare ambitions.
Now Walmart's clinic strategy is in flux, Insider has learned from conversations with eight current and former employees, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak with the press because of confidentiality agreements. Their identities are known to Insider.
The most concrete sign of the slowdown is that the company isn't on track to meet its earlier projections for the number of clinics it wants to build this year, according to documents obtained by Insider.
Read the full story here:
Also read:
- Amazon and other tech giants want to upend healthcare, but time constraints, egos, and infighting are holding them back
- Pharmacy giant CVS bought a health insurer then rolled out hundreds of in-store clinics. CEO Karen Lynch shares how she'll make all the pieces work together.
- Experts warned of the digital divide for years. Now it's 'life or death' as people struggle to sign up for online COVID-19 vaccinations.
ICYMI: What became of Gaia
From Rob Price:
Only a select group of employees were allowed to know about the corpse.
It had surfaced in the valleys of southern Peru, and word quickly made its way to Jirka Rysavy, a former athlete from Czechoslovakia turned serial entrepreneur. Rysavy, now operating a young video-streaming service called Gaia, got to work, dispatching a video crew from the company's crystal-strewn headquarters in the shadows of Colorado's Rocky Mountains to document the find. The team was sworn to silence, hiding its mission even from coworkers.
The body looked, at first glance, almost human. But the mummified cadaver had just three disturbingly long fingers on each hand. Each foot bore a trio of freakishly long toes. Its eyes were unnatural, alien slits.
Read the full story here:
INVITE: Next-Gen founders on racial equity and inclusion in tech
From Dominic-Madori Davis:
The Black Lives Matter protests last summer helped fuel a new drive for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. But how far have we come since then? And how much farther do we have to go?
Every industry in Corporate America has its own issues to grapple with. Insider is taking a deep dive into tech to talk to Next-Gen founders about racial equity and inclusion in this industry.
On Thursday, February 25th at 12 PM ET, Dominic-Madori will moderate a panel featuring Vernon Coleman, CEO and cofounder of the video networking app Realtime, Jordan Walker cofounder of the audio messaging app Yac, and Urenna Okonkwo, founder of the finance app Cashmere.
Lastly, don't forget to check out Morning Brew - the A.M. newsletter that makes reading the news actually enjoyable.
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- Matt
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