Gm. In May 2016, Snapchat was worth $20 billion.

In September 2021, Snapchat was worth $136 billion.

Today: Snapchat is oworth $20 billion.

There's a lesson in here somewhere, just not sure what it is.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers.

HEALTHCARE

Amazon goes shopping

Flush with cash after we all emptied our pockets for smart toasters on Prime Day, Amazon decided to do a little shopping of its own. Yesterday, it announced the acquisition of public healthcare company One Medical for $3.9 billion, the third largest in its history.

• Once backed by Google Ventures, One Medical is a primary care provider. Looking under the hood though, you’ll also find a snazzy app, 24/7 access to telehealth services, and guaranteed same- or next-day appointments at 125 locations. It also has more comfortable furniture inside its “reimagined” doctor’s offices.

In other words, it’s offering “healthcare for millennials” as a Verge writer described it.

What does Amazon want with it?

The online retailer has been slowly extending its tentacles into the healthcare space for years now. You may remember its ill-fated joint venture with JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway in 2018 where it tried to build an employee healthcare operation.

While that initiative eventually crashed and burned, Amazon has since rolled out a virtual pharmacy in 2020 and recently expanded its Amazon Care program (which provides primary and urgent care services to its own employees) to serve patients nationwide.

• With the acquisition, Amazon sees the opportunity to worm its way further into the primary care space, though it's still unclear if it will keep One Medical as a stand-alone company or integrate it into its broader healthcare strategy.

Bottom line: Whatever the grand plan is, Amazon has basically written the playbook on updating old, analog services for the internet age. It’s done it with books and shopping, now it’ll look to sprinkle some Amazon magic onto visits to the doctor’s office.

VENTURE CAPITAL

Remote work is eating the world

How do you know rent is getting bad? When a16z moves its headquarters to “the cloud.” Yesterday, the world-famous venture capital firm announced that it was ditching a centralized HQ in favor of a multi-city approach.

• The cities: Alongside its existing Menlo Park and SF offices, a16z announced it was adding new locations in Miami, New York, and Santa Monica as well.

The writing has been on the wall

Ever since the pandemic hit and remote work took off, the idea that venture capitalists had to stay within the physical confines of Silicon Valley is increasingly antiquated. In response, distributed VCs are growing more common:

• Eric Tarczynski’s Contrary Capital has been remote since inception, while Ankur Nagpal of Vibe Capital is planning to spend one month at a time in each location he invests in.

• Even Index Ventures, whose founder originally hails from SF, is opening its first new office in over a decade in downtown Manhattan.

Zoom out: As the Silicon Valley exodus accelerates, up-and-coming tech nexuses like Austin and Miami stand to benefit the most.

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: With the IPO market clogged worse than a Central Park public toilet, exit values for US venture-backed startups totaled just $48.8 billion in the first half of 2022. That figure represents a minuscule 6% of 2021’s exit totals. As liquidity markets continue to look like the Sahara desert, expect to see more flat and down rounds in the coming months.

Story we’re watching: Minecraft announced a ban on NFTs within its game saying in a blog post that it's "not something we will support or allow." The company dropped the hammer on NFTs because it believes that the inherent scarcity of digital collectibles goes against the “safe and inclusive” spirit of Minecraft. It’s another strike against NFTs in the gaming community following Steam’s ban of them and Ubisoft’s hugely unpopular NFT rollout that it quickly shuttered.

Rabbit hole: The great fiction of AI (The Verge)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing “mild” symptoms.

• Google is pausing new hires for two weeks after hiring roughly 10,000 employees in Q2 alone.

• Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings (and 0% of its Dogecoin), citing a need to prioritize cash positions.

• OpenAI has opened DALL-E 2 to an additional 1 million beta users.

GUESSTIMATE

Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical for $3.9 billion is its third largest corporate acquisition ever.

Can you name the two bigger ones?

FUNDRAISING FRIDAY

Not a fundraising-specific thread this Friday, but still one worth reading.

LAYOFFS TRACKER

Notable layoffs this week:

Blockchain.com: 150 people (25%)

BlueStacks: 120 people (30%)

Just Eat: 390 people

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across this week that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

🧠 Why we’re approaching psychological biases all wrong.

🔢 Data rules that could save you $40,000 a day.

🤖 23 remote tech jobs that don’t require a degree.

GUESSTIMATE ANSWER

Whole Foods at $13.7 billion & Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at $8.5 billion.