& meet dozens of singles today!
User blogs
You’ve landed on Human Capital, a weekly newsletter detailing the latest in diversity, equity, inclusion and labor. Sign up here to receive the newsletter every Friday at 1 p.m. PT.
The events of this week perfectly encapsulate the variety of worker and workplace-related struggles happening in the tech industry. Google settled some discrimination allegations with the Department of Labor, Amazon agreed to settle a complaint with the FTC over stolen tips from Flex workers and the Alphabet Workers Union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. It was quite the week so let’s get to it.
Grocery delivery startup Dumpling faces backlash
Dumpling workers said this week they have been misled by the Instacart alternative’s business model, Vice reported. Additionally, workers told Vice the company shut down their Facebook post where they were protesting pay changes.
From Vice:
But Dumpling is now in hot water with many of the gig workers on its platform, which it calls “business owners.” These business owners say the company has misled them about how much autonomy and control they’d have on the platform, and has shut down their Facebook group after workers on the platform spoke out against a series of changes the company made to its pay model in the latter half of 2020. When Dumpling closed the Facebook group, it said the group “ha[d]n’t lived up to its positive intent.”
Alpha Global walks back its announcement
Remember when Alpha Global announced an alliance of Alphabet workers around the world, including those affiliated with the recently-formed Alphabet Workers Union in the U.S.? Well, it turns out that wasn’t entirely true. Alpha Global has since issued a revised statement clarifying it did not have buy-in from AWU.
In our announcement of the Alpha Global alliance, UNI mistakenly included CODE-CWA and the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) as members of the Alpha Global Alliance and a quote from AWU Executive Chair Parul Koul, without receiving proper authorization from CWA, the Alphabet Workers Union’s elected Executive Council, or Ms. Koul. We take full responsibility and have addressed this situation to prevent it from happening again.
But by the time Alpha Global made the announcement, the damage had already been done, according to The Verge. Some AWU members expressed their concerns with the way things went down, and some are now pushing to disassociate from the Communications Workers of America.
It’s a whole thing that you can read more about here.
Alphabet Workers Union files complaint with NLRB
In a filing with the National Labor Union, AWU alleged Google vendor Adecco violated the law by trying to silence employees. The complaint alleges employees were punished for discussing their pay. The complaint was filed against both Adecco and Google
Google CEO meets with HBCUs
In light of recent departures of Black leaders at Google, CEO Sundar Pichai met with five HBCUs last Friday. The meeting itself was relatively uneventful — they reportedly didn’t even talk about the allegations from Dr. Timnit Gebru and April Curley — but HBCUs and Google provided the following joint-statement to CNN:
“We are all encouraged about the future partnership. The meeting paved the way for a more substantive partnership in a number of areas, from increased hiring to capacity building efforts that will increase the pipeline of tech talent from HBCUs.”
Speaking of Dr. Gebru, Google’s lead of the ethical AI team, Margaret Mitchell, posted an email she sent to Google pertaining to Gebru’s exit.
Google settles discrimination allegations with DOL
Google agreed to pay $2.59 million to more than 5,500 current employees and former job applicants as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor over allegations of systemic discrimination as it relates to compensation and hiring.
Google also agreed to reserve $250,000 a year for the next five years to address any potential pay equity adjustments that may come up. That brings Google’s total financial commitment to $3.8 million — a drop in the bucket for the company, whose parent company Alphabet has a market cap of $1.28 trillion.
The settlement comes after the DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found pay disparities affecting female software engineers at Google’s offices in Mountain View, as well as in offices in Seattle and Kirkland, Washington. The OFCCP also found differences in hiring rates that “disadvantaged female and Asian applicants” for engineers roles at Google’s locations in San Francisco, Sunnyvale and Kirkland.
Two Google workers quit to show solidarity
Vinesh Kannan, a software engineer, quit Google in light of Dr. Timnit Gebru and April Curley’s negative experiences at the company.
In a tweet, Kannan said what they experienced “crossed a personal red line I wrote down when I started the job. I know I gained a lot from Google, but I also gained a lot from both of their work, and they were wronged.”
David Baker, who was a director focused on user safety, left Google last month, saying Gebru’s departure “extinguished my desire to continue as a Googler,” according to Reuters.
Amazon agreed to pay $61.7 million to settle FTC complaint over stolen tips from Flex workers
Amazon will pay $61.7 million to compensate the drivers who loss out on the tips they were owed.
According to the complaint against Amazon and its subsidiary Amazon Logistics, the company had advertised that it paid 100% of tips to drivers. But in reality, Amazon used the customer tips to cover the difference after it lowered the hourly rate — a change it didn’t inform drivers about, the complaint says.
The FTC also alleged that Amazon didn’t stop this behavior until it became aware of the FTC investigation in 2019.
Amazon union vote on the horizon
Despite Amazon’s motion to postpone the Bessemer, Alabama union election, the National Labor Relations Board on Friday denied the company’s request. The election will go as planned via mail-in ballots beginning on Monday, February 8.
Context: Amazon has been vocally anti-union, with a website dedicated to convincing workers not to unionize, as well as fliers posted inside the workplace — even in bathroom stalls, according to The Washington Post.
Workers protest future Amazon fulfillment center
Over in Oxnard, Calif., workers protested at the site of a future Amazon fulfillment center, disrupting the construction efforts, Vice reported. The strike aimed to challenge the fact that Amazon contractor, Building Zone Industries, hired non-union workers from out of the state for the job. There were reportedly more than 100 people who participated in the strike and refused to cross the picket line to work on the project.
CA Supreme Court rejects lawsuit challenging Prop 22
The California Supreme Court shot down the lawsuit filed by a group of rideshare drivers in California and the Service Employees International Union that alleged Proposition 22 violates the state’s constitution.
“We are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear our case, but make no mistake: we are not deterred in our fight to win a livable wage and basic rights,” Hector Castellanos, a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. “We will consider every option available to protect California workers from attempts by companies like Uber and Lyft to subvert our democracy and attack our rights in order to improve their bottom lines.”
The suit argued Prop 22 makes it harder for the state’s legislature to create and enforce a workers’ compensation system for gig workers. It also argues Prop 22 violates the rule that limits ballot measures to a single issue, as well as unconstitutionally defines what would count as an amendment to the measure. As it stands today, Prop 22 requires a seven-eighths legislative supermajority in order to amend the measure.
Don’t miss TC Sessions: Justice
I’m spearheading an upcoming virtual event, TC Sessions: Justice, that’s going to dive into all of these topics. You’ll be able to hear from speakers like AWU Executive Chair Parul Koul, former Amazon warehouse worker Christian Smalls, Uber Chief Diversity Officer Bo Young Lee, Backstage Capital founder and Managing Partner Arlan Hamilton and others.
Tickets are just $5 and you can snag yours here.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/06/amazon-google-pay-the-piper/
For the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, we looked back at “Soul,” which was released on Disney+ at the end of last year.
The new Pixar film tells the story of Joe Gardner, a high school music teacher and jazz musician voiced by Jamie Foxx. Joe seems to be on the verge of his big break when he accidentally falls down an open manhole, sending him to a distinctly Pixar-ish twist on the afterlife, and eventually on a metaphysical quest to return to his body before an important concert..
Anthony has been wanting to talk about “Soul” for a while — it was easily his favorite movie of 2020, but he watched it right after we recorded our discussion of the best streaming content of 2020.
And if you’re worried that this is nothing more than 40 minutes of praise, well … you’re not entirely wrong. Both of us liked it a lot, appreciating both its vibrant (and in retrospect, melancholy) portrayal of New York City life before pandemic lockdowns and social distancing, as well as its inventive portrayal of the worlds our souls go to before we’re born and after we die. (It was so inventive that Jordan had to wonder whether any unusual substances may have been involved in its genesis.)
Still, we did acknowledge some of the criticism of “Soul,” particularly certain viewers’ disappointment that even though it’s the first Pixar film with a Black protagonist, Joe actually spends a large portion of the film as a disembodied blue spirit — entertaining from a story perspective, but not quite an unambiguous victory for representation.
You can listen to our review in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also follow us on Twitter or send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)
If you’d like to skip ahead, here’s how the episode breaks down:
0:00 Intro
0:20 “Soul” review
18:35 “Soul” spoiler discussion
The public markets have been so active lately that it’s hard to drum up excitement for yet another company making its way to the bull market. But, in the case of Bumble, a dating app where women message first, next week’s public debut is worth paying attention to.
The market for dating startups has long had an 11-year-old elephant in the room: Match Group. The Dallas company owns popular dating brands including Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, and more, which some saw as the singular exit point for startups that help people meet.
Bumble, founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd, will change that narrative with its entrance into the public markets. Bumble is seeking to raise more than $1 billion upon debut. The company could be worth between $5.73 billion and $6.14 billion, looking at a diluted valuation.
Bumble’s choice to swipe past the classic route to sell to Match Group tells us that Wolfe Herd is bullish that the exit environment is strong for dating apps, as loneliness amid the pandemic continues to impact the masses.
Cleo Capital’s Sarah Kunst, a former senior adviser to Bumble, tells me that Bumble is making history in a few ways, and “may well unleash a tidal wave of new funding and startups in the space.”
“As the youngest woman to ever take a company public, Whitney has proven that dating, a category long shunned by venture investors, is a highly lucrative and fast growing sector,” Kunst said. “She also is at the vanguard of several dawning realizations in tech: companies founded outside of Silicon Valley, companies founded by women, and gender parity on boards.”
We’ll be all over this on TechCrunch and Extra Crunch next week, but in the meantime, let’s get through the other news of the week. Make sure to follow me on Twitter so I can bother you the remaining six days of the week.
Pandemic-era valuations
Valuations are simply the price that an investor thinks a startup is worth — nothing more, nothing less. When a big event happens in the world of startups, such as a massive exit or blockbuster IPO, startups within the sector-of-interest often enjoy a boom in valuations.
Here’s what to know: This week, we explored whether edtech enjoyed that same burst of energy. According to over a dozen investors, edtech isn’t seeing skyrocketing valuations. It’s a surprise to me, but venture capitalists have their theories as to why (and seemingly are energized enough by exit opportunities in the meantime).
Etc: Beyond edtech, this survey can give us key intel on how sectors that faced a pandemic lift, such as fintech and e-commerce, are valued and ranked by investors. It might suggest that the noise is louder than the actual dollars and cents.
- Why one Databricks investor thinks the company may be undervalued
digitally generated image of money tornado.
Carta tackles the startup liquidity problem
Don’t let the Demo Days fool you: Venture capital is getting bigger, faster, and older. But if you’re an angel who invested in a startup that was meant to go public in 2014, you might be getting a little bit impatient and want your capital back.
Carta is trying to create a solution to help startups trade secondary shares, pre-exit events, to bring liquidity earlier on in a startup’s life.
Here’s what to know: The tool, CartaX, finally launched this week after being teased out for months. Upon launch, Carta sold nearly $100 million of its own shares on its own cap table, at more than double its last valuation post-Series F round.
Etc: Carta is, of course, hoping that its cap-table management business will help it pull off the operation unlike others who have tried and failed. Here is some context from Danny Crichton:
That wave of liquidity startups ran into two problems: One was regulatory, and the other was a lack of company information about cap tables and that company’s current financial picture. Stock buyers were essentially flying blind while buying into companies, which some investors were more than willing to do, but that blindness limited the market demand for secondary shares significantly.
Image: JaaakWorks/iStock/Getty Images
The art of a startup narrative
It’s normal if sculpting a story out of the hot mess that is your day-to-day doesn’t feel natural. It’s like writing a story before you know exactly what you want to accomplish with each and every word. The difficulty doesn’t diminish the necessity, though.
Here’s what to know: Whether it’s pitching for a story or for millions of dollars, founders need to know how to nail their startup’s narrative. We got into the nuts in bolts in the latest edition of Extra Crunch Live, a virtual event series for early-stage founders.
We were very heads down, building these open-source projects and trying to create good software, and we just hadn’t thought a lot about the narrative. Over the years, that’s gotten a lot better, but it’s also become a lot more self-evident to us and much clearer as we write and build the business,” said Raj Dutt, Grafana’s co-founder and CEO.
Etc: Speaking of advice, here’s one warning story by Silicon Valley editor Connie Loizos about how an insurtech startup got their idea swiped (and funded) by their own venture backer. And to offset that stress, here’s one inspiring story, by yours truly, about how one woman went from user to chief executive of a startup in less than a year.
detail of a microphone with some bokeh on background
Work with really cool people, and me
Extra Crunch is now hiring for reporter, editor and project manager positions
It’s almost our second birthday, and in lieu of presents, want to send us candidates? The Extra Crunch team, which I’m a part of, is hiring for new contract positions to help us dig out what’s really going on in the world of startups.
Check out the amazing speakers joining us on Extra Crunch Live in February
Our live, virtual event series is back and better than ever with a stacked lineup and a ton of advice for early-stage startup folks.
Plus, a new gift for your inbox:
Wrapping up this week, TechCrunch has a new newsletter coming out on apps that is going to rule. Sarah Perez is writing it. You can sign up here, it’s free!
Across the week
Seen on TechCrunch
New antitrust reform bill charts one possible path for regulating big tech
The cloud infrastructure market hit $129B in 2020
A growing number of startups are creating APIs to assess and offset corporate carbon emissions
China’s national blockchain network embraces global developers
Seen on Extra Crunch
Udemy’s new president discusses the re-skilling company’s future
4 strategies for deep tech founders who are fundraising
Spotify Group Session UX teardown: The fails and their fixes
Dear Sophie: What’s the recipe for an H-1B
@EquityPod: A lake house architect, Miami VC, and homeowner walk into a wine bar
In this week’s podcast, the Equity team got their west coast correspondent back (aka me) and had a good ol’ time talking about everything from Miami to millennial homes.
Listen to the podcast to hear us chat about Drizly’s new parent, a new Nellie Levchin-backed startup, and UiPath’s big new valuation. We, of course, got into off topic conversations such as a sommelier that hates people and the lake house dynamic.
Until next week,
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/06/bumbles-first-date-with-the-public-markets/
The SPAC mania continues unabated, with new SPACs being filed with the SEC on an almost hourly basis at times.
SoftBank, the Japanese telecom conglomerate which has also been running the gigantic Vision Fund and its successor, doesn’t want to be left out. Yesterday, it filed back-to-back SPAC registration statements for two new blank-check companies.
SVF Investment Corp 2 is $200 million and SVF Investment Corp 3 is a $350 million vehicle. Both SPACs have a standard roughly 15% over-allotment option, which means that their final sizes will likely end up at $230 million and $400 million respectively assuming that the underwriters take their option (number three has a slightly smaller over-allotment if you’re checking my math).
One interesting component of both SPACs is that they have what is known as a forward purchasing agreement connected to SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. That agreement allows the second Vision Fund to purchase shares into these SPACs when they begin their business combinations with their target startups, essentially giving it the right to buy into the mergers. The Vision Fund has a $100 million agreement with SVF 2, and a $150 million agreement with SVF 3.
As with all SPACs, a registration statement is merely a filing of an intention to raise money, although these days, the vast majority of filings are later consummated.
As the numbering indicates, SoftBank had an earlier SPAC that it filed in December and officially closed on January 7 of this year. That vehicle targeted a total fundraise of $604 million including the underwriters’ over-allotment option. It also included a $250 million forward purchase agreement with the second Vision Fund similar to these latest two vehicles.
What are these SPACs looking for? Well, according to the filings, “We intend to identify, acquire and manage a business in a technology-enabled sector where our management team have differentiated experience and insights. Relevant sectors may include, but are not limited to, mobile communications technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud technologies, software broadly, computational biology and other data-driven business models, semiconductors and other hardware, transportation technologies, consumer internet and financial technology.”
That seems to cover a lot, but just in case, the filings note that “However, we may consummate a transaction with a business in a different or related industry.” So basically anything.
There is no timeline yet for when the SPACs could potentially close, but typical timing is 4-8 weeks given market averages.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/06/softbank-files-for-a-double-scoop-of-spac/
Police in Minneapolis obtained a search warrant ordering Google to turn over sets of account data on vandals accused of sparking violence in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd last year, TechCrunch has learned.
The death of Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in May 2020, prompted thousands to peacefully protest across the city. But violence soon erupted, which police say began with a masked man seen in a viral video using an umbrella to smash windows of an auto-parts store in south Minneapolis. The AutoZone store was the first among dozens of buildings across the city set on fire in the days following.
The search warrant compelled Google to provide police with the account data on anyone who was “within the geographical region” of the AutoZone store when the violence began on May 27, two days after Floyd’s death.
These so-called geofence warrants — or reverse-location warrants — are frequently directed at Google in large part because the search and advertising giant collects and stores vast databases of geolocation data on billions of account holders who have “location history” turned on. Geofence warrants allow police to cast a digital dragnet over a crime scene and ask tech companies for records on anyone who entered a geographic area at a particular time. But critics say these warrants are unconstitutional as they also gather the account information on innocent passers-by.
TechCrunch learned of the search warrant from Minneapolis resident Said Abdullahi, who received an email from Google stating that his account information was subject to the warrant, and would be given to the police.
But Abdullahi said he had no part in the violence and was only in the area to video the protests when the violence began at the AutoZone store.
The warrant said police sought “anonymized” account data from Google on any phone or device that was close to the AutoZone store and the parking lot between 5:20pm and 5:40pm (CST) on May 27, where dozens of the people in the area had gathered.
When reached, Minneapolis police spokesperson John Elder, citing an ongoing investigation, would not answer specific questions about the warrant, including for what reason the warrant was issued.
According to a police affidavit, police said the protests had been relatively peaceful until the afternoon of May 27, when a masked umbrella-wielding man began smashing the windows of the AutoZone store, located across the street from a Minneapolis police precinct where hundreds of protesters had gathered. Several videos show protesters confronting the masked man.
Police said they spent significant resources on trying to identify the so-called “Umbrella Man,” who they say was the catalyst for widespread violence across the city.
“This was the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting throughout the precinct and the rest of the city,” the affidavit read. At least two people were killed in the unrest. (Erika Christensen, a Minneapolis police investigator who filed the affidavit, was not made available for an interview.)
Police accuse the Umbrella Man of creating an “atmosphere of hostility and tension” whose sole aim was to “incite violence.” (TechCrunch is not linking to the affidavit as the police would not say if the suspect had been charged with a crime.) The affidavit also links the suspect to a white supremacist group called the Aryan Cowboys, and to an incident weeks later where a Muslim woman was harassed.
Multiple videos of the protests around the time listed on the warrant appear to line up with the window-smashing incident. Other videos of the scene at the time of the warrant show hundreds of other people in the vicinity. Police were positioned on rooftops and used tear gas and rubber bullets to control the crowds.
Law enforcement across the U.S. are increasingly relying on geofence warrants to solve crimes where a suspect is not known. Police have defended the use of these warrants because they can help identify potential suspects who entered a certain geographic region where a crime was committed. The warrants typically ask for “anonymized information,” but allow police to go back and narrow their requests on potential suspects of interest.
When allowed by law, Google notifies account holders of when law enforcement demands access to the user’s data. According to a court filing in 2019, Google said the number of geofence warrants it received went up by 1,500% between 2017 and 2018, and more than 500% between 2018 and 2019, but has yet to provide a specific number of warrants
Google reportedly received over 180 geofence warrants in a single week in 2019. When asked about more recent figures, a Google spokesperson declined to comment on the record.
Read more on TechCrunch
Civil liberties groups have criticized the use of dragnet search warrants. The American Civil Liberties Union said that geofence warrants “circumvent constitutional checks on police surveillance.” One district court in Virginia said geofence warrants violated the constitution because the majority of individuals whose data is collected will have “nothing whatsoever” to do with the crimes under investigation.
Reports in the past year have implicated people whose only connection to a crime is simply being nearby.
NBC News reported the case of one Gainesville, Fla. resident, who was told by Google that his account information would be given to police investigating a burglary. But the resident was able to prove that he had no connection to the burglary, thanks to an app on his phone that tracked his activity.
In 2019, Google gave federal agents investigating several arson attacks in Milwaukee, Wis. close to 1,500 user records in response to geofence warrant, thought to be one of the largest grabs of account data to date.
But lawmakers are beginning to push back. New York state lawmakers introduced a bill last year that would, if passed, ban geofence warrants across the state, citing the risk of police targeting protesters. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) grilled Google chief executive Sundar Pichai at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing last year. “People would be terrified to know that law enforcement could grab general warrants and get everyone’s information everywhere,” said Armstrong.
Abdullahi told TechCrunch that he had several videos documenting the protests on the day and that he has retained a lawyer to try to prevent Google from giving his account information to Minneapolis police.
“Police assumed everybody in that area that day is guilty,” he said. “If one person did something criminal, [the police] should not go after the whole block of people,” he said.
Send tips securely over Signal and WhatsApp to +1 646-755-8849. You can also send files or documents with SecureDrop.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/06/minneapolis-protests-geofence-warrant/
