Snapshot for Silicon Valley: updated to add the link to the recording.
Had been asked to do a status report on the Valley for compatriots in Scotland with Christine Esson for the Scottish Business Network insights series..
Here’s the recorded interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poXljpfVNFk
References
The California Consumer Privacy Act, discussed on the China Law blog.
A summary of a representative Venture Capital viewpoint from the point of view of the investors, rather than from founders looking for investment.
Elad Gil’s advice for founders.
Linley Spring Processor Conference Goes Virtual The Linley Group held their conference which gathers good quality marketing information about imminent AI hardware developments on Zoom, to excellent effect. They report 700 part-time attendees, compared to the usual 300 maximum in person for the event. Listening to it it seemed that the quality of technical information imparted was at least as good as it would have been at an in-person event.
Sherwood Partners doing two to five business windups per day. “This is the great unwinding,” Pichinson said. “We don’t know what’s happening, but we do know everything we believed in is changing. Everything we thought to be true may not be true.”
He expects the number of startup companies that he is ending from the coronavirus downturn to exceed the carnage left behind in the dot-com bust.
What I’m seeing isn’t layoffs – what I’m seeing is business continuing, though not business as usual. One company was acquired by a public company for cash, another couple of public companies are being acquired by much bigger companies, another needs advice about splitting off the original technology it started with, with the potential to re-capitalize and convert to a much more sustainable business model while compensating the original investors.
Delivery robots are out on the street in Mountain View
There have now been 100 reported deaths in Santa Clara County attributed to Covid-19 Vehicle traffic continues to be much lighter than before the lock-down; many more people are walking and cycling along the residential streets. We ride and walk for exercise, too.
Testing, tracing and tracking an outbreak in Seoul, South Korea. Paper It’s not clear when Santa Clara County is going to be able to implement this kind of tracing and follow up; without it removing the lockdown has a high likelihood of raising the case count and death rate again.
Call to action from Jim Yong Kim : social distancing, contact tracing, testing, isolation, and treatment are essential. Massachusetts is getting started on this.
Cunning Systems 