Plus: This VC Built A Cybersecurity Unicorn Machine. Then Came His Conflict Of Interest Mess. |
| Good morning, The creator economy is growing more and more lucrative. The influencer industry is worth approximately $250 billion, a figure that Goldman Sachs predicts will grow to nearly $500 billion by 2027. The 2024 Forbes Top Creator list, released today, includes 50 individuals, from MrBeast to the D’Amelio sisters, who earned almost $720 million over the last 12 months. To create the ranking, Forbes looked at creators’ estimated gross earnings, follower counts, engagement rates and entrepreneurial activities. Some internet personalities have parlayed their social media success into business ventures, ranging from hamburgers to energy drinks, while others are building production companies.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| Alphabet’s Waymo, the leading operator of AI-enabled robotaxis, has raised its biggest fundraising round yet at $5.6 billion as it expands ride services in three major U.S. cities and prepares to launch in two new ones. Waymo began developing autonomous technology 15 years ago, and while dozens of competitors have emerged, the company currently has no meaningful competition in the robotaxi business in the U.S. McDonald's will resume sales of its Quarter Pounder burgers, the company announced Sunday, after testing by authorities in Colorado ruled out the company’s beef patties as the source of a large E. coli outbreak that resulted in one death and caused illnesses among dozens of others across multiple states. McDonald’s said the outbreak appeared to be “contained to a particular ingredient and geography” and said it was confident “any contaminated product related to this outbreak has been removed from our supply chain and is out of all McDonald’s restaurants.” |
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| | | This VC Built A Cybersecurity Unicorn Machine. Then Came His Conflict Of Interest Mess. |
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| For years, security executives at some of America’s largest corporations—Freddie Mac, Kraft Heinz, Colgate-Palmolive and Fidelity, to name a few—were happy to hear from Gili Raanan, the founder of a boutique Israeli venture capital firm called Cyberstarts. As participants in Cyberstarts’ advisor network, called Sunrise, they were used to taking introductions from the firm to meet with its three or four new startup investments each year. The startups could receive product feedback and gain insight into what potential large-sized buyers needed. For the executives, the startup founders gave them the inside track on new technologies emerging from Israel’s elite hacking units. But for some executives, there was more to it: compensation, potentially quite lucrative, in the form of profits from Cyberstarts’ blue chip early-stage funds. The execs who participated in Sunrise had the option to share in a pool of 4% of Cyberstarts’ own earmarked profits, known as carried interest, provided they took those calls and provided meaningful help, as determined by Cyberstarts. When Raanan wrote Sunrise’s 75 or so active advisors on June 27, however, it was to let them know Cyberstarts was suspending the compensation part of the program, effective immediately. The move was a major reversal for Raanan and his firm, which for years have maintained that Cyberstarts’ advisor program was neither unusual nor ethically fraught. But many fellow investors, entrepreneurs and security executives suggested to Forbes that Sunrise had a baked-in conflict of interest that made it unique, even in a close-knit security community. The executives who participated typically oversaw massive software and security budgets. Their organizations had the power to award exactly the type of large-sized contracts that could boost a fledgling startup’s financials and position it for a win. In other words, Sunrise advisors were in position to steer their company’s business to startups whose success would benefit their own. Cyberstarts denied any conflicts of interest regarding the Sunrise program. |
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| “Many of the dozens of investors and founders Forbes spoke to for this story said the Sunrise program impacted the entire cybersecurity startup scene,” says Forbes senior editor Iain Martin. “One investor said some startups with Cyberstarts-backed competitors no longer even attempted to sell to corporations whose executives had Sunrise affiliations (which Cyberstarts disputed). And as one security CEO observed: ‘An unfair advantage for certain startups damages the broader ecosystem.’” |
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| The Nasdaq reached an all-time high Friday, a first for the tech-heavy stock index in more than three months, as the group shook off tailwinds such as rising bond yields and enjoyed a boost from Tesla’s share price—before ultimately ending the day relatively flat. Leading the early rally were the “magnificent seven” behemoths, with Tesla leading the group. MORE: Tesla shares continued their rally after the automaker reported better-than-expected third-quarter profits Thursday, with the stock rising 3.4% Friday to close at its highest share price in over a year. The 26% two-day gain for Tesla added about $157 billion to its market capitalization, bringing its market cap to $843 billion.
The three major credit bureaus have ended their data partnerships with troubled San Francisco startup TomoCredit, refusing to include credit lines it reports, Forbes has learned. TomoCredit claims to help boost consumers’ credit scores through features like reporting rent and utility payments to the credit bureaus, but it has received a flood of consumer complaints about the difficulty of canceling its subscriptions. |
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| The Kushner family has turned things around for their real estate business, Kushner Companies, which Forbes now estimates to be worth $2.9 billion, nearly triple the $1 billion it was worth at the time Donald Trump was elected president, and more valuable than Jared Kushner’s father-in-law’s $2.2 billion real estate portfolio. All told, the Kushner clan is worth an estimated $7.1 billion—up from $1.8 billion in 2016. Billionaire Elon Musk, a top surrogate for Donald Trump who has boosted misleading claims about illegal immigration on his social media platform X, launched his career in Silicon Valley working illegally, The Washington Post reported. The Post found Musk, who was born in South Africa, did not have the legal right to work in the U.S. while creating Zip2—which he dropped out of a Stanford University graduate program in 1995 as a foreign student to work on. Still, Musk denied the report, saying on X he had had two visas after President Joe Biden criticized Musk over the report at a Democratic campaign event in Pennsylvania. |
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 | | Illustration by Alex Castro for Forbes |
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| Startup Cofertility aims to address three weaknesses in the nearly $8 billion (annual sales) U.S. fertility industry: timing, cost and the supply of donor eggs. Cofertility is essentially a sophisticated matching service between donors—who are often offered five figures from traditional egg banks to donate their eggs to other women undergoing IVF—and would-be parents. The startup, which encourages non-anonymous donations, offers a more personal alternative in a largely unregulated industry that’s earned the attention of private equity in recent years. |
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| Israel struck military targets in Iran, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday, responding to a large-scale missile attack launched by Iran early this month and fueling concerns of further escalation between the two countries. Three unnamed U.S. defense officials told NBC News the U.S. was informed of the attack prior to the strikes, noting the U.S. is not involved. |
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| Shares of Spirit Airlines surged 15% Friday after announcing it would sell some of its older planes and eliminate jobs to reduce costs. Shares of the budget carrier are still down 83% this year after a $6.6 billion merger with JetBlue was blocked in January, and subsequent reports show that the company was considering bankruptcy. |
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About 8 million | The number of student loan borrowers who would be affected by the new plan | |
| 80% | The Biden Administration would be able to cancel the loans for those who the Education Department believes have an 80% chance of defaulting on their loans | |
| 2025 | When the Education Department said it expects to finalize the regulations, though it’s not immediately clear whether they would be pushed through before Biden leaves office |
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| It’s not uncommon to feel uninspired or disconnected at work, but with the right actions, you can turn those feelings into an opportunity for growth. Try stepping out of your comfort zone and taking on new projects or responsibilities, set new short- and long-term goals and acquire new skills through training programs or conferences. Don’t forget to celebrate even the smallest wins, as they reflect your hard work and dedication. |
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