- Medium saw more employees depart the company after CEO Ev Williams published a “culture memo.” While the Medium memo doesn’t wholly ban politics, some allege that the undertone of the statement, timed weeks after a failed unionization attempt, created an unsafe environment. A week later, Natasha covered another controversy, this time at Y Combinator. We riff on the takeaway, and what this story looks like three months from now.
- The issue of company culture is attracting companies. Or more precisely startups, with Blendoor dropping a new report this week that TechCrunch covered, and Vault raising $8.2 million to provide a software solution to aid employees in reporting misconduct.
- On the funding round beat, we explored ChartHop’s new $35 million round that Danny had many thoughts about, fake-chicken nuggets startup Nuggs raising $50 million and Faculty’s latest deal that will help power its vision for the future of male grooming. We also got into Lifted’s elder-care focused round, a startup in the larger health tech beat that Natasha is giving some of her attention to.
- And we wrapped with the ExtraHop exit. We spent a minute trying to figure out why the company was valued at $900 million in its exit. The number, while large, felt light based on what we knew about the company.