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TikTok v. United States
Meanwhile, Perplexity carries their round momentum into… another round and the FTC got rid of noncompetes.
Adam Hardej
April 24, 2024
Biden signed the ban bill. Yay America! I wonder if people will care for as long as the actual legal process will take. Meanwhile, Perplexity carries their round momentum into… another round and the FTC got rid of noncompetes.
Biden signs TikTok ‘ban’ bill into law, starting the clock for ByteDance to divest it
“The divest-or-ban bill is now law, starting the clock for ByteDance to make its move. The company has an initial nine months to sort out a deal, though the president could extend that another three months if he sees progress.”
Perplexity is raising $250M+ at a $2.5B-$3B valuation for its AI search platform, sources say
“The news comes on the heels of two other big fundraises that have seen the company’s valuation leapfrog in the last four months: In January, the company raised nearly $74 million at a valuation of $540 million (up from $121 million in April 2023). And at the beginning of March, the company closed funding on a valuation of $1 billion, with CEO Aravind Srinivas clarifying on Twitter today that the amount raised was roughly $63 million.”
FTC Bans Noncompete Agreements That Restrict Job Switching
“The measure, approved by the agency’s Democratic majority on a 3-to-2 vote, marks the first time in more than 50 years that FTC officials have issued a regulation to mandate an economywide change in how companies compete.”
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TOMORROW: Things I Wish I Knew About Building Self-Serve Software w/ DocSend Co-founder
Join us live tomorrow - Thursday, April 25 at 3 pm EST - to learn more about the highs and lows of building self-serve software, from tech industry veteran, Russ Heddleston.
More about Russ:
Co-founder and previously CEO of DocSend where he led the acquisition by Dropbox in 2021 for $165m (raised under $15m).
Previously he was co-founder of Pursuit, a social referral company that helped source referral candidates; sold to Meta in 2011, where he then ran Product Management for the Pages product.
Russ also led product and management roles at Microsoft, Trulia (acq by Zillow), and Greystripe (acq by EPSN.)
Previously, received an MBA from Harvard Business School, a master's in Computer Science from Stanford and a bachelor's in Computer Engineering from Stanford.
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EXPERIMENTAL: Sandhill Podcast
We have started to record some episodes with guests and I’m excited to share our first rough draft with you here. Let us know what you think! We will be improving on format and editing in the weeks to come.
I sat down with Carta’s Head of Insights Peter Walker to discuss valuation data they shared recently. It was a great conversation that covered everything from the danger of SAFEs, to current valuations, to the YC premium.
Click above to check out a summary and the full recording.
Perplexity founder moves quick
Letters From The Editor
Misc. (short for miscellaneous)
TikTok Thoughts
Personally happy to see the TikTok news. Now it’s time to get into the actual legal hassle of the whole thing. The next headline will be about TikTok suing to stop it (subject line inspo). That will probably take the rest of the year if it stays within normal processes. Could go differently if stays in the spotlight and becomes a key election issue. This article was helpful in understanding what happens now.
Talk soon,
Adam
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