Thu. 08/03 – Pandemic High Fliers Crash To Earth

Tech Brew Ride Home

Amalgamated Internets, LLC

Tech News, News, Technology

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Two stories today of startups who flew high during the pandemic, but have crashed down to earth in meaningful ways. NFT trading volumes might be sinking, but developers continue to flood into the space. And does Goldman Sachs want out of the whole Apple Card partnership? Links: Johnny Boufarhat steps down as CEO of Hopin (Sifted) ‘A Nice Bike, When It Works’: Riders Fret After E-Bike Maker Goes Bust (NYTimes) IRS expects faster refunds in 2024 for people who stop using paper (Washington Post) NFT Trading Volume Is Sinking, But It’s Not Stopping Developers From Entering Web3 (Coindesk) Kenya suspends Worldcoin's crypto project over safety concerns (Reuters) Why are people lining up for Worldcoin eyeball scans? “Easy $50” (Rest of World) How the Partnership Between Apple and Goldman Sachs Soured (The Information) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Thursday, August 3rd, 2023.
0:07.6	I'm Brian McCullough today.
0:09.2	Two stories of startups And does Goldman Sachs went out of the whole Apple Card partnership?
0:24.0	Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.
0:26.0	I take no pleasure in this, but we've got two stories today of pandemic era
0:36.3	high-flyers who have come crashing back down to earth. First, Hopin, the
0:40.9	struggling virtual events startup, once valued at 7.75 billion dollars back in August of 2021 is selling its events and session units to Ring Central.
0:52.0	CEO Johnny Balfour Hat is stepping down as well.
0:56.0	Quoting Sifted.
0:58.0	Hopin was the fastest European company to ever hit unicorn status
1:02.0	when it raised a $400 million series C round at a 5.65
1:05.4	billion dollar valuation in 2021, less than two years after it launched.
1:09.6	It went on to acquire several other businesses, including StreamYard, a video streaming platform which it bought in
1:14.9	2021 for $250 million.
1:17.7	That product, Sifted sources say, is now the company's biggest revenue driver.
1:21.8	The Streamyard product is not part of the
1:24.0	Ring Central Deal. Hopkins investors include Andreson Horowitz, general
1:28.5	catalyst, IVP, Co2, DFJ Growth, North Zone Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Global, Seed Camp, and
1:35.5	Asell.
1:36.8	Since the pandemic, the company has struggled.
1:39.6	In 2022, it did several rounds of layoffs and saw its head count drop by half from 1,100 employees in January
1:45.9	to 505 in December 2022, according to data gathered by Synaptic.
	...

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