🏠 Elephants in the room

Sequoia apologies for portfolio companies

gm. Today is Tax Day, which is always stressful, but even more so if you aped in and out of 53 NFT projects over the past 12 months. 

Good luck to all the degens out there. Hope you didn't forget anything. 

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers. 

VC 

Sequoia India addresses the elephants in the courtroom

It wasn’t an iPhone notes style apology, but yesterday, Sequoia India finally addressed the slew of fraud allegations leveled against some of its portfolio companies. In the statement, the iconic VC firm emphasized that its portfolio in India is still a “work-in-progress” and distanced itself from the unsavory activities of some of the companies it’s invested in.

The backstory

You know the saying: two’s company, but three’s a crowd. The same goes for fraud allegations. Sequoia’s statement issued yesterday was in response to three prominent portfolio companies that have recently been caught doing shady stuff.

  • Zilingo, a fashion marketplace, valued at more than $1 billion, recently suspended its founder and CEO following an investigation into accounting practices.  

  • BharatPe, a fintech company valued at $2.8 billion, had its former CEO and co-founder resign from the startup earlier this year after an investigation found that he and his wife were siphoning money from the company. 

  • Trell, a live commerce startup valued at $750 million, is investigating claims that its founders siphoned money and lied about growth metrics. 

All in all, lots of siphoning, lots of bad corporate governance, and plenty of bad press for Sequoia India. 

The other side of the coin

Bolt founder Ryan Breslow interpreted Sequoia’s recent activities a little differently, tweeting “Many founders in India are telling me that it’s a slaughterhouse with Sequoia India and local founders.”

  • Ryan “Sequoia is the mob” Breslow is obviously a little biased on this issue, but it is worth considering the possibility that Sequoia could be throwing founders under the bus to cover up for some of its own poorly judged investments.

Bottom line: Like Paradigm and a16z who were recently named in a class-action lawsuit involving the actions of one of their investments, Uniswap, Sequoia is now navigating the same choppy waters of liability that arise when a portfolio company breaks the law. 

UNIONIZATION 

Tech union roundup

Reuters

Until recently, workers in the tech industry have shied away from organized labor. But unionization drives are starting to pick up steam as workers fight for more sway within their companies. Here’s a roundup of the latest news on tech unions:

🍎 Apple’s retail employees at its Grand Central Terminal store in New York have made moves to put together a union, delivering a branding masterstroke in the process: they’ve called the new union the Fruit Stand Workers United. If the campaign succeeds, it will be the first Apple Store in the country to unionize—but at least three other locations are mounting similar efforts.

🛍 Etsy took a hit last week when over 17,000 sellers put sales on hold to protest changes on the platform. Participants took issue with a hike in seller fees and a “Star Seller” program that benefits merchants who don’t make their own goods. The strike’s success has led some Etsy sellers to create a Discord server for a potential unionization drive.

📦 Amazon’s scuffle with its recently unionized warehouse workers is still dragging along. The latest update: Amazon is claiming the union coerced employees into supporting it by handing out free weed. New Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also went on CNBC last Thursday to say that employees certainly could join a union but are “better off not doing so.” The free weed begs to differ.

QUICK HITS

Seed round

@MrSollozzo

Stat: The US is crazy for chicken, and birds have ballooned to meet the demand: the chickens we eat have grown by 364% over the past five decades due to a combination of farming innovations and lots and lots of hormones. The increase in poultry poundage has helped meet demand, but at the cost of flavor, moisture content, and potentially our health. This Twitter thread gets into the weeds about the downsides of modern, giant chickens. 

TLDR: Enough ink has been spilled on Elon’s attempt to buy Twitter to fill a thousand threads. But here are two more pieces worth reading. 

Rabbit hole: The mystery of the miracle year (Dwarkesh Patel)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

  • Elon tweeted that the “economic interests” of Twitter’s board “are simply not aligned with shareholders.”

  • UCF’s football team wore QR codes instead of numbers for Saturday’s spring game. The codes brought viewers to player bios on the team’s website.

  • Covid cases are currently rising in 32 states as a new strain takes hold.

TRIVIA 

Chicken isn’t the only food that we can’t get enough of. Which item from each pair is eaten more in the United States?

  • Pizza vs. burgers

  • Eggs vs. chicken wings

  • Hot dogs vs. tacos

  • Chocolate chip cookies vs. chocolate bars

MONDAY MUSING

If you were an Apple store employee or an Amazon warehouse worker, would you want to unionize?

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across this weekend that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

🧠 Making sense of complex material more efficiently

❌ Don’t build useless features. 

🏰 Keep your thoughts organized with a memory palace

TRIVIA ANSWER

  • 50 billion burgers > 15.2 billion slices of pizza

  • 91.9 billion eggs > 29.7 billion wings

  • 20 billion hot dogs > 4.5 billion tacos

  • 16.8 billion chocolate bars > 7 billion chocolate chip cookies