Elon Musk is losing his mind over Twitter's "massive drop in revenue"

Still in Lisbon! Heading to a crypto party so pray for me please. (Relatedly, I said yesterday that Yuga Labs earlier acquired the intellectual property of CryptoKitties when I meant CryptoPunks, apologies.)

As mentioned, I lost my computer earlier this week and with it, an interview on my local drive. BUT for this week's StrictlyVC Download, we have an interview I conducted earlier today on stage at Web Summit with outgoing Y Combinator president Geoff Ralston, who I really enjoyed talking with. The two of us managed to cover a decent amount in 20 minutes, from how YC is structured today -- how it's capitalized -- to whether or not its terms are changing any time soon.

Giant thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Vauban from Carta. From its lips to your ears: "Set-up your next SPV in 5 minutes. Vauban, the leading VC platform in Europe, was acquired by Carta to introduce super fast low-cost SPVs in the US plus bring international funds and SPVs to the Carta platform." To learn more, reach out to www.vauban.io/strictlyvc.

Elon Musk went ahead with those massive layoffs at Twitter, turning off employees' access to its systems overnight. Now, reports Bloomberg, the company is being sued for eliminating those 3,700 jobs without enough notice in violation of federal and California law. A class-action lawsuit was filed yesterday in San Francisco federal court. The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act restricts large companies from mounting mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice. More here.

It's going to be a very different company for remaining Twitter employees in the meantime. Bloomberg reports that Musk has removed “days of rest” from Twitter staff calendars, a monthly, company-wide day off that was introduced during the pandemic. Musk also plans to cancel Twitter’s remote work policy and have staff return to Twitter offices full time.

By Musk's own telling, his maneuverings have advertisers spooked; he says Twitter has seen a "massive drop in revenue" as companies slash their spending over concerns about how he will handle content moderation. Except he wasn't quite so diplomatic. He blamed "activist groups pressuring advertisers" and reportedly said at an investment conference in New York earlier today that "we've done our absolute best to appease them, and nothing is working . . .This is a major concern."

Clearly, his charm offensive is over in any case. Later today, he threatened to expose advertisers that are withholding business from Twitter (even though many have been public about their decision to watch and wait). “A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues,” he tweeted. The WSJ has more here.

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Toto Wolff, the 50-year-old Austrian chief executive, team principal and part-owner of the Mercedes Formula 1 team who was recently described by the New Yorker as someone who might breeze "past you in the airport, smelling good, wearing loafers and no socks," talked openly yesterday about his team's terrible, no-good year. Sitting with Oliver Steil, the CEO of the German company TeamViewer, a popular maker of remote support software, Wolff also described how the troubled racing team is counting, in part, on TeamViewer's tech to give it an edge in its bid to recapture its former glory.

The two were speaking at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, and Wolff was cheered when he appeared before the crowd, owing in no small part to “Drive to Survive,” the Netflix series that has made him famous. (He finds this amusing, recounting to New Yorker writer Sam Knight how a young woman threw herself through the open window of his car to get her picture taken.)

Wolff also immediately acknowledged the obvious. "We won the championship eight times in a row," he said, "but that is the past." Mercedes, he continued, "just got the physics wrong . . . and got the concept of the car not in the right place," he said, referring to the design of its floor, which he has previously pointed to as the root of the team's lackluster year. (Every few years, the F1 teams -- there are currently 10 altogether -- are forced by the body overseeing Grand Prix racing to redesign their cars.)

Indeed, it's largely because it "takes a a long time to unwind things that are built into the car," said Wolff, that his team last year turned to TeamViewer, a 17-year-old, publicly traded company whose software can remotely access and connect any computer, tablet, laptop, mobile device, or IoT endpoint like an industrial machine -- or race car -- to allow the remote control, management, and monitoring of these devices.

More here.

Apiiro, a four-year-old New York startup that is working to help developers and security operations proactively find and solve issues that could result in vulnerabilities, raised a $100 million Series B round led by General Catalyst, with participation from Greylock and Kleiner Perkins. The company has raised a total of $135 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Lusaris Therapeutics, a Boston startup that is developing therapies involving psychedelics to treat severe neuropsychiatric and neurological conditions, raised a $60 million Series A round led by RA Capital Management, with Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Deep Track Capital, and Boxer Capital also taking part. More here.

Zest AI, a 13-year-old Los Angeles startup that works with financial institutions to provide AI-driven credit products to their borrowers, raised a $50.5 million round co-led by Insight Partners and CMFG Ventures; additional investors included CU Direct, Curql, Suncoast Credit Union, Golden1 Credit Union, Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union, and NorthGate Capital. The company has raised a total of $300 million. More here.

Aro Homes, a 1.5-year-old startup based in Mountain View, Ca., that uses machine learning to design and build carbon-negative homes in just 90 days, raised a $21 million round led by Innovation Endeavors and including Western Technology Investment, and Stanford University. More here.

Boston Materials, a six-year-old startup based in Billerica, Ma., that develops materials that enable manufacturers of industrial and consumer products to create energy-efficient products that have a low carbon footprint, raised a $12 million Series A2 round led by Good Growth Capital, with GS Group and PTT Global Chemical also taking part. The company has raised a total of $26.8 million. Composites World has more here.

Loop, a Chicago startup using natural language processing and computer vision to digitize workflows and reconcile payments for freight bills (it was started by Uber alums), just disclosed to TechCrunch that it last year raised $6 million in seed round co-led by Susa Ventures and 8VC. (Uber billionaires Garrett Camp and Ryan Graves also participated.) The company separately raised $30 million in Series A funding this year led by Founders Fund.  More here.

The Mobility House, a 13-year-old Munich startup whose software allows mobile and stationary batteries of electric vehicles to be used as buffer storage for the grid, raised a $50 million Series C round co-led by Mercuria, Ventura Capital, and Green Gateway Fund, with Mercedes-Benz, Alliance Venture, Mitsui, and SP Group also pitching in. Electrive has more here.

Xeal, a three-year-old New York startup that partners with real estate firms and property developers to install its EV charging units and software at apartment buildings and office blocks, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Keyframe Capital, with additional capital provided by ArcTern Ventures, Moderne Ventures, author Ramez Naam, Nexus Labs, Wind Ventures, and Alpaca VC. The company has raised a total of $61 million. Forbes has more here.

Constellr, a two-year-old startup based in Freiburg, Germany, that will use microsatellites to monitor the Earth’s water availability, surface temperature, and composition, raised a $10 million seed round co-led by Lakestar and VSquared, with FTTF, IQT, Amathaon Capital, Natural Ventures, EIT Food, OHB Venture Capital, Next Humanity, and Seraphim also piling on. The company has raised a total of $11.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Courtyard, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that creates NFTs out of collectibles like rare sneakers to provide digital proof of ownership, raised a $7 million seed round led by New Enterprise Associates, with Y Combinator, OpenSea Ventures, VaynerFund, Brink’s, and Cherry Ventures also pitching in. Business Insider has more here.

Emerge Career, a seven-month-old that sells online job training to governments (like the Connecticut Department of Labor) to lift low-income people out of poverty, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding. Alexis Ohanian’s 776 led the round, joined by the SoftBank Opportunity Fund, Y Combinator, writer and investor Lenny Rachitsky and Y Combinator Managing Director Michael Seibel. TechCrunch has more here.

FlowForge, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that helps companies update legacy IoT systems using Node-RED, an open source, low-code project, raised a $7.2 million round, Investors included Cota Capital, Westwave Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Open Core Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

FLX Networks, a three-year-old startup based in Bernardsville, N.J., that provides tools to help financial professionals engage with asset managers, raised a $10 million round led by Barings, with participation from Allianz Life Ventures and Broadridge Financial Solutions. The company has raised a total of $15.1 million. FinTech Global has more here.

Groove, a new, New York-based startup whose app aims to link up to four people from around the world for impromptu 500-minute social focus sessions (including with distributed colleagues), has raised $3.5 million in funding led by Resolute Ventures. More here.

Playgig, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup that aims to create cross-platform, free-to-play games, raised a $10.85 million seed round led by March Gaming and joined by Paramark, Aream, and Gaingels. VentureBeat has more here.

SparkPlug, a San Francisco startup that has built an incentive platform for retail store employees, raised an $8 million Series A round led by Lightbank and including Industry Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, and Jason Calacanis. More here.

Vesto, a startup founded this year that wants to work as a robo-advisory outfit, putting idle cash to work for startups, raised a $2.8 million seed round led by Contrary Capital, with Susa Ventures, SV Angel, and Coalition also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

VIEVE, a three-year-old startup based in Strathaven, UK, that has developed beauty products curated around a refined vegan, paraben, gluten, and cruelty-free formula, raised a $6.2 million Series A round led by Pembroke VCT and including Venrex, Samos, and Active Partners. Insider has more here.

Yes Hearing, a two-year-old New York startup that provides an online platform and at-home treatment for the hearing impaired, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Blue Heron Capital, with Primetime Partners, Ensemble Innovation Ventures, Maccabee Ventures, and Gaingels also chipping in. MobiHealthNews has more here.

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Sean “Diddy” Combs has agreed to purchase licensed marijuana operations in three states for up to $185 million, adding a new business to a portfolio that includes fashion, media and spirits. If approved by U.S. and state regulators, the deal could create the nation’s largest Black-owned and licensed cannabis company. Mr. Combs said he wants to use the business as a platform to increase Black participation in the cannabis industry. The WSJ has more here.

Ericsson subsidiary Vonage will pay $100 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it created a web of obstacles for its customers to cancel the internet-based telephone service and charged unexpected termination fees.

The $300 million sneaker king comes undone.

Trevor Noah's New York City penthouse.