Alex Wilhelm
TechCrunch
San Francisco, CA, United States
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Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
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Recent articles by Alex:
Tech valuations versus tech-enabled valuations: 2020 IPO edition –
The value of tech-enabled companies is coming into focus as several American unicorns test the public markets. The data show that some venture-backed companies often grouped with technology companies are worth just a fraction of their tech-first cousins. By tech-enabled business, we mean a company that has a technology element to its operations but doesn’t […] → Read More
Casper’s valuation could fall 40% in IPO as it reports 2019 results –
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re taking stock of the latest from Casper, the D2C mattress company that is going public. The unicorn announced its initial IPO price range this morning, targeting a $17 to $19 per-share IPO price […] → Read More
Mural raises $23M Series A after history of capital-efficient growth –
This morning Mural, a software startup focused on visual collaboration1, announced that it closed a $23 million Series A round of capital. The funds come after MURAL, formerly Mural.ly, had raised just a few million dollars previously. That fact made its round interesting: How did the company raise ten times its prior total in one […] → Read More
Equity Monday: A global selloff, MURAL snags $23M, and two unicorns that can’t raise –
Good morning friends, and welcome back to TechCrunch’s Equity Monday, a short-form audio hit to kickstart your week. Regular Equity episodes still drop Friday morning, so if you’ve listened to the show over the years don’t worry — we’re not changing it in the slightest. (Here’s last week’s episode which took a look at The Athletic’s […] → Read More
The App Store is down –
Midday on Friday it appeared that Apple’s App Store, a critical piece of the digital and mobile economies, struggled with uptime issues. Apple’s own status page indicated that the application vendor has having an “ongoing” issue that affected “some users.” The company said that it was investigating the issue, according to its website. Users weren’t […] → Read More
As SaaS stocks set new records, Atlassian’s earnings show there’s still room to grow –
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. SaaS stocks had a good run in late 2019. TechCrunch covered their ascent, a recovery from early-year doldrums and a summer slowdown. In 2020 so far, SaaS and cloud stocks have surged to all-time highs. […] → Read More
Why Front’s Series C matters, the latest on Lambda and The Athletic makes media look good –
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Danny and Alex are back with more than ever to get through. 2020 has come out of the gate fast when it comes to news, so much so that we had to leave out of the show way more […] → Read More
Layoffs reach 23andMe after hitting Mozilla and the Vision Fund portfolio –
Layoffs in the technology and venture-backed worlds continued today, as 23andMe confirmed to CNBC that it laid off around 100 people, or about 14% of its formerly 700-person staff. The cuts would be notable by themselves, but given how many other reductions have recently been announced, they indicate that a rolling round of belt-tightening amongst […] → Read More
One Medical targets IPO valuation of up to $2B as we unpack its Q4 results –
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re digging into One Medical’s updated IPO filing released this week. The document contains directional pricing information that will help us understand where the tech-enabled medical care startup expects the market to value itself […] → Read More
Some tech I loved is getting worse and I’m mad –
Time is supposed to make technology better. The idea is simple: With more time, humans make newer, better technology and our lives improve. Except for when the opposite happens. Google is a good example of this. I’ve been harping on the matter for a while now. Google mobile search, in case you haven’t used it […] → Read More
Lighter Capital secures $100M to grow its equity-free financing business –
Lighter Capital announced today that it has secured access to $100 million to lend to growing startups. The firm is best-known for its work with revenue-based financing, in which expanding companies repay borrowed funds out of future receipts. Lighter has also expanded into other, equity-free capital options for startups in the last year. Lighter is […] → Read More
IBM snaps out of revenue doldrums, breaking a five-quarter losing streak in Q4 –
International Business Machines is living a case study of a large, established company vying to transform. Over the last decade, the technology elder has struggled to move into areas like cloud and AI. IBM has leaned on a combination of its own R&D abilities and deep pockets to push into modern markets, but has struggled […] → Read More
The $100M ARR club welcomes four new members –
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re adding a few names to the $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) club. The new entrants come after we kicked off 2020 with a previous four new members. So far in January, we’ve […] → Read More
Substack builds multi-author support into its hybrid publishing, newsletter service –
Substack announced today that it has built support for multiple authors into its service. The company provides a publishing tool that blends blogs and email newsletters into a single entity, with a focus on subscription monetization. The day’s updates also include a number of publisher-friendly tools, like shared access and homepage features closer to those […] → Read More
Why is everyone making OKR software? –
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re taking a moment to discuss the amount of money going into startups building OKR software. After covering WorkBoard’s recent round, I’ve noticed OKR software and services everywhere, even in Twitter ads that I […] → Read More
Equity: Uber sells its Eats business in India, Qonto raises, and Tesla says no –
Good morning friends, and welcome back to TechCrunch’s Equity Monday, a short-form audio hit to kickstart your week. Equity’s regular, long-form shows still land each and every Friday, including this entry from just a few days ago. This morning, coming to you early from the frozen tundra of the American East Coast, it’s Tuesday. That’s because […] → Read More
FloQast raises $40M Series C led by Norwest on record of strong ARR growth, ACV expansion –
This morning FloQast, an LA-area startup, announced that it closed a $40 million Series C led by Norwest Venture Partners. The company also told TechCrunch in an interview that it raised a $20 million inside round between today’s investment and its 2017 Series B. Including today’s infusion, the firm has raised a little over $90 […] → Read More
Three takeaways from the 2019 venture capital market –
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re digging into the Q4 venture capital market — specifically unpacking three pieces of data that stood out as we read the Crunchbase News Q4 global report — and Pitchbook and NVCA’s comparative, U.S.-focused Q4 data […] → Read More
Three things to know how the VC industry wrapped 2019 –
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re taking a brief look at the Q4 venture capital market, specifically three pieces of data that stood out as we read the Crunchbase News Q4 global report, and Pitchbook and NVCA’s comparative, US-focused report. As […] → Read More
As Alphabet crests the $1T mark, SaaS stocks reach all-time highs of their own –
Continuing our irregular surveys of the public markets, two things happened this week that are worth our time. First, a third domestic technology company — Alphabet — passed the $1 trillion market capitalization threshold. And, second, software as a service (SaaS) stocks reached record highs on the public markets after retreating over last summer. The […] → Read More