Justin Kan, Founder Of Twitch, Is Back At It With New Venture; Stellar Acquires Blockchain Startup Chain

The Water Coolest

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THE HEADLINES

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A STARTUP’S STARTUP

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twitch


Twitch founder, Justin Kan, who sold his live streaming video game platform, Twitch, to Amazon for $1B in 2014 is up to his old entrepreneurial tricks, having ‘secured funding’ for his legal startup, Atrium.

Andreessen Horowitz led the $65M funding round. Partnering with one of the most well-connected VC firms in the Valley should pay dividends for the legal software startup marketed to startups.

The company aims to help new ventures fundraise, issue stock options, and create commercial contracts (read: things every startup needs to do). Another perk of the service: upfront fees. Most law firms bill hourly, which can add up. Cash flow is crucial to a startup so efficient budgeting can mean life or death.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Automating and disrupting the startup industry? This is like the ‘Inception’ of entrepreneurial endeavors.”

 

CHAIN GANG

CryptoKitty sells for 172000 dollars

Pixabay


To infinity and beyond. That’s where Lightyear is headed. The commercial arm of the Stellar network’s nonprofit just acquired the blockchain startup, Chain.

Prior to the acquisition, which is estimated at roughly $200M, Chain raised over $40M from financial institutions including Nasdaq, Citigroup, and Visa. The private blockchains that the company builds allow clients to digitize assets faster and with less friction, acting as an internal ledger.

This marriage of Chain and Lightyear will be henceforth called Interstellar and will focus on companies built on top of the Stellar network. And while Stellar might not be a household name, the network’s cryptocurrency, lumens, was one of the hottest coins back in 2017. Don’t believe us? Just ask Deloitte, IBM, and Kik.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Pretty crazy that Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey predicted this acquisition in 2014.”

 


IN OTHER NEWS

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  • Uber has appointed former Coca-Cola executive, Rebecca Messina, as its new CMO. Messina is the first person to hold the CMO title at Uber after spending 22 years at Coke and serving a four-year stint as CMO of Beam Suntory.

 

  • Tailor-made travel experiences are what’s hot in the streets if Evaneos is any sort of indication. Look what you’ve done Instagram. The travel company looking to cut out the middleman will be using its recent $80M in Series D funding to expand internationally and grow headcount.

 

  • Rounding error. President Trump tweeted “The GDP Rate (4.2%) is higher than the Unemployment Rate (3.9%) for the first time in over 100 years!” His assertion about the GDP and unemployment rates holds up … over the past decade. His administration was quick to assure the fact-checkers at home that Trump erroneously added an extra zero.

 

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The Water Coolest is a daily business newsletter consisting of business news, financial advice, and unfiltered commentary. Delivered fresh in your inbox every morning so you're ready to snap necks and cash checks. Written by Tyler Morrin, AJ Glagolev, Nick Ellis, and Ian Barto.