Embed vulnerability into your workflow – TechCrunch

Thanks for reading Startups Weekly. Want the weekly summary in your inbox every Saturday? Register here.

I talked to my editor this week on The Usual: The Coming Stories, The Future of the Podcast, and the Existential Fear of Impostor Syndrome amid a year and a half of extreme change. The last piece occupied most of the conversation. Go figure!

Our conversation was helpful as it put words to tensions that often lie between the lines and gave weight to small things that are hidden during a year of pandemic size. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with my thought loops, but I will extract a few lessons that I think are widely applicable to Startups Weekly readers, because based on your clicks I know you like them. advice (and serious ones, to that):

1. Give yourself grace. The pandemic has been confusing, unbalanced, and caused a lot of loss to a lot of people. If you feel like you’re running under 100% right now, remember that you are working in an age when the world feels like it depends on a frayed light bulb to guide you. Before you get hard on yourself for not being productive, think about where your productivity standards come from and if they’re even fair in the first place.
2. Your problems are not unique. While we are all diverse and nuanced individuals, we are not alone in much of what makes us humans. Everyone overthinks, everyone searches for their soul, everyone has personal and professional insecurities that bubble in non-obvious ways. Believing that your issues are not entirely unique, I think you will feel more in control of the turbulence. Which brings me to my next point …
3. Vulnerability is everything. Vulnerability was at the forefront in the first round of the pandemic, where we were all brought to the living rooms, home offices and backyards of others via Zoom. That vibe has faded somewhat as we have more and more adapted to distributed work, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to find ways to be more vulnerable with each other. others. Let yourself be heard, even in times when it’s easier to stay quiet, because you’ll feel closer at the end.

Take whatever you want from the advice above (or check out this advice from a fellow entrepreneur), but I think it all comes down to the belief that we should be humans first, and insert position here second. It truly is (again) an unprecedented time in this world, and ending the stigma around mental health in general is a laudable goal.

The rest of this newsletter is about a cyberattack on a venture capital firm, AfterSquare, and an EC-1 regarding 911. Before we continue, we’re excited to announce that TechCrunch is launching another newsletter! This Week in Apps by the inimitable Sarah Perez will launch this Saturday morning August 7. Register here to be up to date with all applications. As always you can find me on Twitter @nmasc_.

Cybercriminals target venture capital firm

Advanced Technology Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with $ 1.8 billion in assets, has been hit by a ransomware attack. Cybercriminals have stolen personal information from some 300 of ATV’s sponsors, also known as the people who put millions of millions into his fund, according to a scoop from Zack Whittaker.

Here’s what you need to know: This particular attack stole key information about a secret part of how venture capital works. Venture capital firms often do not disclose all of their LPs due to competitive advantage and secrecy. The business may not want competitors to know who is supporting them, while a sponsor may not want others to know where their money is going. As ransomware groups “continue to hunt the big game,” according to Whittaker, LP listings are one of them – and other venture capitalists should take note.

The money behind the money:

After Square pays

FinTech lit up this week after Square bought the “buy now, pay later” giant Afterpay for $ 29 billion. The deal, expected to close next year, will see Afterpay integrate its services into Square’s Seller and Cash Pay ecosystems. Mary Ann Azevedo reported the news amid the heat in the area, and Alex Wilhelm explained why he thinks Square landed on that magic number.

Here’s what you need to know: Everyone creates their own internal BNPL service, from Shopify (!), To PayPal to Apple. So while the “Shopify Should Buy Affirm” theories were plentiful, reporter Ryan Lawler gave more context on what this deal means for startups.

Matthew Harris of Bain Capital Ventures told TechCrunch that as the BNPL space fills, he doesn’t see “a lot of headroom / new angles in the mainstream BNPL space … scale matters and it will be difficult for new entrants to reach exhaust speed. . “

Instead, he believes there is an opportunity for BNPL models to break into the B2B space, where businesses can “replace / enhance traditional invoice financing and trade credit”.

Friends of fintech:

The 411 out of 911

TechCrunch editor-in-chief Danny Crichton delved into 911 and emergency response in our latest EC-1 on RapidSOS. The company, which has raised more than $ 190 million, has built an emergency response data platform that helps first responders access massive amounts of data in high intensity situations. It handles over 150 million emergencies each year, and according to Crichton, it’s almost certainly built into your smartphone right now.

Here’s what you need to know: From the early years of the smoking pizza oven to its pivotal no-product design, the story of RapidSOS shows how much you can do in a decade of stagnation since Capitol Hill.

The four-part series:

Around TC

• Ryan lawler is back on TechCrunch! He works with the ExtraCrunch team to bring you a deeper analysis of what’s going on in the fintech world. He is particularly interested in the B2B side of fintech, including everything from startups building infrastructure and development tools for companies deploying their own financial services, to corporate cards, to start-up banking services. and expense management that TechCrunch readers are likely to use. If you work in a company relevant in the space, have invested in one of these companies or are a client or a partner of one of these companies, he would like to have your take on what is interesting and what that is happening. You can email him at [email protected].
• I haven’t given you a discount code for a while, so use the code EQUITY for a great deal on your Extra Crunch membership.
• The Disrupt Agenda is alive and breathing, so find out who is joining our virtual stage in September and buy your tickets.

All week long

Seen on TechCrunch

Seen on Extra Crunch

Goodbye,

NOT