Dylan: I have an announcement and a reminder: We're launching Rhode Island Inno next month! To get you ready for that, I published a story on how Rhode Island plans to become a larger innovation hub, and there will be a few more RI-related stories coming this week. Sign up for the RI newsletter here.Secondly, we're holding the last part of our WorkXPlay series tonight, and it's all about Scaling Up. You'll hear from folks at Converge, CloudHealth Technologies, Forge.AI and EnerNOC — which I think made the news today... Buy tickets here and meet us at 100 Summer St.
Dylan: If getting more immigrants to found startups in the U.S. is a goal of the country's top tech leaders, it seems to have fallen on deaf ears when President Trump met with the CEOs of Apple, Akamai, Amazon, Microsoft and other companies on Monday. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Trump administration plans to scrap the "startup visa" plan that President Obama set in place before he left office.
The general reaction to this from the Boston tech community is a lot of booing and hissing. That's because, as the Chronicle reported, "currently no straightforward path exists for a foreign entrepreneur to reside in the U.S. while building a company," though alternative options are being built, such as the Global EIR program, which we reported on earlier this year.
"The President’s plan to scrap the ‘startup visa’ that helps foreign entrepreneurs start companies in the U.S. defies common sense for a President interested in creating domestic jobs and opportunity for U.S. Citizens," MassTLC CEO Tom Hopcroft told me in a statement. "Foreign entrepreneurs start companies that employ hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens," he added, citing the group's recent study on the impact of immigrants in the U.S. economy.
The New England Venture Capital Association also chimed in: "This would be a huge step back for entrepreneurship and innovation in America. The is designed to boost domestic investment and create American jobs. Losing it would be a blow to our competitive position globally, as other countries actively work to attract entrepreneurs whose first choice would be to build their companies in the U.S."
With Trump making such a decision, it's clear that U.S. tech companies don't have a lot of influence over the president. That or they aren't trying hard enough. "Just another indication that the oh so influential 'tech community' with billions of dollars love platitudes but never take action," Jibran Malek, who recently left MassChallenge, tweeted at me.
Another issue the tech community at large has to deal with is the gap between Trump supporters and techies who are generally anti-Trump. While it seems so clear to many of us that it's important to support opportunities for immigrants, there is a large contingent of people who don't think that way. "What we think doesn't matter unless we can convince some random people in Ohio why it's good," Tom McLaughlin, an engineer at CloudZero, tweeted.
Call it an empathy gap, an opportunity gap, but something needs fixing.
Lucy: Investors embracing Wayfair’s expansion strategy pushed the stock to a record high last week, Bloomberg reported. The consequences? Co-founders Niraj Shah and Steve Conine each gained a net worth of $1.37B. Wayfair shares have more than doubled this year, which Bloomberg said is the best performance by far in the 97-company S&P Retail Select Industry Index, which includes Amazon.com.
Dylan: With Travis Kalanick out at Uber, the ride-hailing giant now has the tasks of finding a new CEO. Among the names being floated? Outgoing GE CEO Jeff Immelt, according to Axios and other reports.
Lucy: Immelt is also among the tech leaders who are meeting with President Donald Trump today as part of the administration's so-called "tech week," which is focused on rethinking "the way the U.S. government uses technology and the policy challenges facing tech businesses."
Dylan: EnerNOC, a Boston-based provider of energy intelligence software, announced it has reached an agreement to be acquired for over $300M by Enel Group, an Italian multinational energy company.
When the deal closes, EnerNOC will join Demandware, EMC and Constant Contact as public tech companies based in Massachusetts that have been acquired over the past few years. Read more: EnerNOC Is Getting Acquired for Over $300M by an Italian Energy Giant
Lucy: Upon the agreement of both companies, a federal judge has temporarily halted the merger between FanDuel and DraftKings, AP reported. The FTC opposes the merger because it says it creates a company controlling more than 90 percent of the U.S. market for paid daily fantasy sports contests.
Dylan: Highland Capital Partner is looking to raise $300M for its tenth fund, according to a new Form D. The Cambridge VC firm previously raised $400M for its ninth fund. Portfolio companies include nuTonomy, Catalant, Rent the Runway, Rethink Robotics, Turbonomic and LevelUp.
Lucy: Unilever announced that - along with WPP - it will invest $15M in Celtra, a mobile creative management platform based in Boston.
Dylan: Just got word that GasBuddy, which is helmed by PayPal vet Walt Doyle, has promoted Miri Bauman from director of product design to VP of product design. Before GasBuddy, she was at Ready4 and Rethink Robotics.
Lucy: Participants are having a great time at BostInno's WorkXPlay series of events. Last night, 150+ people were at Convene to attend the 'Smarter Workplaces' second event of the trio, where Joyce Bromberg from Convene, Stefania Mallett from ezCater, Michael Affronti from Fuze and David McFarlane from Litmus discussed remote work and how it fits in nowadays company culture. "Trust is an important part of this," said McFarlane. "The more you can do asynchronously, the more people can participate." I made a video of the night that you can watch here. Read more: Watch the Highlights of Last Night's 'WorkXPlay: Smarter Workplaces' Event
Lucy: Mike Troiano, partner at G20 Ventures, wrote that Uber needed Travis Kalanick as its CEO, but now it needs to let him go. "How often have you seen an acknowledged 'hero' from the initial phase of a startup painted as a disruptive “cowboy” as that same business grows to scale? An entrepreneur’s inability to adapt to changing circumstance — particularly to abandon the behaviors that made them heroes in the first place — eventually renders them an enemy of the workflows and culture required to continue moving forward."
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