Power

Founders may have ceded excessive control to VCs in blocking IPOs

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Late-stage VCs may be preventing their startups from going public in 2024 Founders might have unintentionally given their VCs too much power to block an IPOWhile some investors are loudly bemoaning that the IPO window can’t stay shut forever, other VCs themselves are actually part of the problem. It’s a common term for late-stage investors agreeing to pay higher prices for their stake to boost a startup’s valuation. When late-stage startups raised at sky-high valuations in 2021 they may not have realized how much power they were giving their late-stage investors if the market cooled, which it did. “People confuse up and to the right, with a god-given right,” Hinkle said. He added that there is always a lot more friction between investors and startups about the decision to IPO than investors would like to admit.

“Empowering Solar Power in Spain: SolarMente, with Support from Leonardo DiCaprio’s Backing”

Solarmente Co Founders Wouter Draijer And Victor Gardrinier
Draijer said the company started off as an installer of solar panels in Spain, but after the pandemic, it decided it should offer a solar energy management system. “Solar is not a product,” Draijer said, explaining why most Spaniards can’t or just don’t want to pay upfront for solar panels. That’s why SolarMente offers subscription-based energy management services, which include installing solar panels without upfront costs. “We’re using this round to really power our super app for home energy,” Gardrinier said. But first, SolarMente wants to further expand across Spain, where its subscription solar offer just became available nationwide, Draijer told TechCrunch.

SIP Introduces Verrus: A Revolutionary Battery-Powered Data Center Concept

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Jonathan Winer, the co-founder and co-CEO of SIP, said that the first three data centers designed using Verrus’ architecture will be located in Arizona, California and Massachusetts. (Alongside the new business, SIP is also launching the Data Center Flexibility Initiative to bring stakeholders like energy companies, tech giants and regulators together in the meantime.) Observing the strain that data centers in particular have on the electrical grid, SIP turned its attention to those data centers themselves. Simply building more data centers, whether run by third-party data center operators or by the hyperscalers themselves, will not keep up with demand. As SIP sees it, simply adding more data centers — which has been the approach up to now — is not a sustainable approach longer term.

Addressing Mexico’s Solar Energy Deficit: Solutions from Ex-CloudKitchens Executives

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For a country with some very sunny regions, Mexico has strikingly little solar power. In Mexico, the solar market is still nascent, which means customers are not very familiar with the technology and the market remains highly fragmented. Then they went to South Korea to revamp CloudKitchens’ operations there before moving to Mexico for another CloudKitchens project. Sales cycles in solar tend to be long in Mexico, Dellepaine said. To find customers, Niko is courting large corporations to offer their service as an employee benefit, and banks that might want to improve the environmental sustainability of their mortgage portfolios.

Possible alternatives: 1. Interruption in Production: Tesla’s Berlin Plant Temporarily Ceases Operations Due to Suspected Arson Attack and Power Outage 2. Security Incident Halts Tesla Factory Operations in Berlin, Germany 3. Power Cut and Suspected Arson Strike Tesla’s

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Tesla’s factory outside Berlin, Germany will likely be shut down for days and cost the automaker more than $100 million, after a suspected arson attack on the local power grid. The fire didn’t spread to Tesla’s factory and nobody was harmed, though employees were evacuated. A purported activist organization calling itself the “Volcano Group” took credit for the fire in a letter posted online Tuesday. The same group took credit for a similar fire near the site in 2021. Last month, Tesla’s plan to expand the factory was also voted down by the public.

“Could Reddit be the Next Hot Meme Stock? Seeking Insights from Redditors”

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Reddit users wonder if the next big meme stock is Reddit itself Reddit invites power users in on its IPO, but other Redditors are also considering an investmentJeremiah Johnson says he has “an embarrassing amount” of Reddit karma. They’re also wondering if Reddit could be the next meme stock, which could prove lucrative or disastrous. Though she wasn’t invited to invest early, she plans to buy stock in Reddit once it officially goes public. “Reddit is really dependent on power users who moderate the site, and because they’ve given those power users actual power, power users did for a day or two literally make the site unusable,” Johnson said. Max Spero, a startup founder in his twenties, plans to buy Reddit stock post-IPO because he’s a fan of the platform, which he’s been using for 11 years.

Fervo Energy Secures $221 Million in Latest Funding Round, According to Filed Documents

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Hot on the heels of the successful completion of its grid-connected geothermal power plant in Nevada, Fervo Energy is raising $221 million per SEC documents, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Previous geothermal plants have only scratched the surface by accessing hot springs or shallower rock formations. Fervo uses directional drilling techniques pioneered by the oil and gas industry to extend its wells far beyond their surface footprints. Once those wells are drilled, Fervo then strings them with fiber optic cables connected to a range of sensors. Previous investors include BHP Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, DCVC, and Prelude Ventures.

“Maximizing Battery Life: The Power of Dual Chips and Wear OS Tweaks in the OnePlus Watch 2”

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Officially unveiled this morning at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona after a few months of teases, the OnePlus Watch 2 does get some points for originality. Battery continues to be the lowest hanging fruit in the smartwatch world. Like the Apple Watch, OnePlus’ Watch 2 has a Power Saving Mode. The company notes,WearOS apps and the Always On Display will not work when the device is in Power Saving Mode. Other features such as calling, messaging, and exercise modes will still work on Power Saving Mode however some of their more power intensive functions will be limited to preserve battery life, eg.

“Developing Effective Solutions to AI Concerns: Policy Recommendations by Amba Kak”

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Amba Kak is the executive director of the AI Now Institute, where she helps create policy recommendations to address AI concerns. She was also a senior AI advisor at the Federal Trade Commission and previously worked as a global policy advisor at Mozilla and a legal advisor to India’s telecom regulator on net-netruality. How do you navigate the challenges of the male-dominated tech industry and, by extension, the male-dominated AI industry? The tech industry, and AI in particular, remains overwhelmingly white and male and geographically concentrated in very wealthy urban bubbles. By exposing the power dynamics that the tech industry tries very hard to conceal.

Upcoming Reddit IPO May Provide Incentives for Influential Users

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Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, in which we talk through the week’s leading startup and venture capital news. This is a short week, but there’s still a lot to talk about:We’ll be back Friday morning!