“ The collective audience cannot stop seeing this ” – Heaven32

Cuando Robinhood, a startup that promises hacer que las finanzas sean accesibles para todos, limitó temporalmente el comercio en GameStop, AMC y otras acciones de meme, muchos inversores minoristas enojaron porque el favorito de las fintech de repente no estuvo a la altura de su last name. The specific reasons may have been short term and technical, but the choice seems corrupted to the average person.

Here’s why: The presence of a huge hedge fund as Robinhood’s primary partner and supporter of short sellers is exactly what Robinhood users are protesting against. The obvious conflict shows that “democratizing finance” has always been a somewhat ironic slogan. Retail investors are already entering competing apps like Public and Webully looking for more shorts to wear.

What can other startups learn? Here are some lessons:

First, the push for decentralized systems will become more aggressive, positioning startups well in cryptocurrency and the wider DeFi space. Thursday, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian spoke with the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on a Twitch show on the GameStop saga.

“No one will be waking up in a week and it will be like we’re back to how we were before. The collective public can’t help but see this, so I think there will be more and more energy to find decentralized solutions. There is so much energy in supporting something that he is not able to handle the game, ”Ohanian said. As Bitcoin hits record highs, Robinhood’s collapse only adds momentum to the asset.

My second conclusion is that fintech startups in the retail space have never been more aware of the iron fist of regulatory pressure. While one business has fallen by the sword this time around, that doesn’t mean other startups are safe and / or can promise open doors and a free market forever. The big question for start-up fintech startups is how to innovate in the midst of a revolution.

That’s all I can figure out for now, and there’s more in the bag if you’re interested. What do you think are the long-term ramifications of this wild Wall Street week on startups? Email me at [email protected] or write me on twitter @nmasc_.

Climate technology is growing

Climate tech startup funding is poor, but top startups need aggressive capital to scale up (and, you know, save the world from eternal death). Our reporter Jonathan shieber covered a series of stories this week that shed light on the number of ecosystem investors realizing the importance of climate technology.

Here’s what you need to know: Robert Downey Jr., has launched a new revolving venture capital fund, powered by AngelList, to support sustainability startups.

Etc: Why a venture capitalist thinks PSPCs are the way to go for clean tech startups. Additionally, a startup accelerator has launched its latest cohort of sustainable startups.

Long live something other than ‘Zoom School’

It has been extraordinary to witness the rise and subsequent consolidation of educational technology in less than a year. In another busy week for the industry, driven by the distance learning force of the pandemic, we have funding, public market debuts and what more than a dozen investors are looking for next.

Here’s what you need to know: 13 investors say lifelong learning is increasingly common in educational technology. Consumer education technology has always been easier to sell, as parents spend more than a boring institution would. What is new, however, is that there is an opportunity to help students beyond the school day. There is so much more to our investor survey

, as well as details on the fading opportunities in the industry and what is the biggest hurdle for an early-career education technology startup.

Etc: A company aspiring to be the Minecraft class of science just got started with seed funding from a wave of investors. A company founded in 2011 has gone eight years without monetization, and is now profitable with hundreds of thousands of paying subscribers. Oh, and an unprofitable but growing educational technology company goes public through PSPC.

SPACE

PSPCs are like weeds: if you pick one, another will appear! 300 of them, to be exact.

Here’s what you need to know: This week, Chamath Palihapitiya announced two SPAC deals for Latch and Sunlight Financial. My colleague and podcast co-host Alex Wilhelm detailed the numbers behind these decisions in an Extra Crunch article.

Etc: Coinbase goes public through a direct listing. Squarespace has filed for a private IPO. WeWork could go public through a reverse merger. And the CEO and founder of Qualtrics sat down with Heaven32 to reflect on their early days: Qualtrics … had been told that it couldn’t start, that it couldn’t build in Utah, that SAP overpaid, that SAP was wrong, and so on. Wilhelm writes.

Developed by Heaven32

All week long

Seen in the sky32

How Calendly from Atlanta turned a programming nightmare into a $ 3 billion startup

SoftBank allocates $ 100 million to Miami-based startups

Internet of cars: driver-side introduction to IoT implementation

Okta SaaS report reveals that Office 365 is winning the cloud, something like that

The three-dimensional search engine Physna wants to be the Google of the physical world

Seen on Extra Crunch

Does a valuation of $ 27 billion or $ 29 billion make sense for Databricks?

How 2 startups grew to ARR $ 50 million and above

Talent and capital distract attention from Silicon Valley cybersecurity investors

The 5 Biggest Mistakes I Made As a First-Time Startup Founder

@EquityPod

The news cycle may have been dominated by GameStop, but a lot has happened this week in the startup and corporate world. So your favorite trio created an episode to pick up on what you probably missed.

On this week’s show, we’ll dive into the fantastic founding story of Calendly, which just earned a valuation of $ 3 billion, as well as a wave of food-focused startups raising series of seeds. There is also a section on educational technology and notes on two new funds that you should probably pay attention to.

All right, breathe out. Be careful this weekend, you still deserve it, but especially after a week like this.

Talk soon,

Natasha