Morgan Stanley's Pick, SBF's big decision to testify, and a CEO spreads his own bad news

Alphabet's share price fell 9.6% today on fears that Microsoft's earnings beat signals a changing of the guard in the cloud computing space.

In what could be his biggest gamble ever, FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has decided that he will testify in his own defense in his fraud trial.

Telegram has blocked some of the channels in its Android app that Hamas was using to communicate with its followers; Google said the channels were violating its app store policies. No word yet on where Apple stands on this issue.

Morgan Stanley has chosen Ted Pick, a longtime veteran of the firm, to be its next CEO, ending a three-way race that James Gorman, the bank's current CEO, reportedly once jokingly compared to the show “Succession."

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In an attempt at damage control, the CEO of the equity management startup Carta, Henry Ward, today emailed customers, telling them that if they are concerned about “negative press” tied to the outfit, they should read a Medium post of his.

The move appeared only to call more attention to the many reported problems plaguing the 11-year-old company.

Some of the customers say they hadn’t seen the negative press until Ward called attention to it, according to posts on social platform X.

One X user wrote: “Cringe. They’re forgetting that it’s not a big deal unless you make it a big deal.” Another wrote: “This is literally the first ive heard about negative Carta press but Im definitely not going to just ‘ignore it’ now ha.” Still, one other user posted: “i feel like this is terrible comms work, dont draw unnecessary attention to it for the majority of ppl who prolly never saw anything anyways if it doesnt directly impact me i probably dont give af.”

An investor in Carta — which was most recently assigned a post-money valuation of $7.4 billion in 2021 when it last raised an institutional round of funding — called Ward’s decision “weird.” Said this individual who also seemed unaware of the some of the negative press that has swirled around Carta, including an October 24 piece published by Insider, and October 4 and October 16 pieces published by Fortune: “90% of your customers really don’t think about you everyday . . .This might have been a bit of founder navel gazing, like, ‘Everybody must be thinking about me all the time,’ but most customers of any product have their own job to do. If your product is delivering value, they’re not going to think about it too much.”

In the Medium post, which Ward published five days ago, he outlines conversations he has had with Carta employees about numerous stories about the company, including, most recently, tied to lawsuits around allegations of sexual abuse on the part of executives, a toxic “boy’s club culture,” and indecent exposure, among other things.

In his post, Ward suggests that he’s the target of ambitious reporters bent on building their careers by exposing companies for “bad behavior.” The post is a public service, in a sense, writes Ward. “I know other CEOs have to deal with this so I wanted to share what I shared with employees in case it’s helpful for other CEOs thinking through similar problems.”

He goes on to delve into the many accusations about Carta while also seemingly confirming them. He says, for example, that Carta has “extensive documentation” that former CTO Jerry Talton “was inappropriate with women and abused his position.” Ward adds: “It also turns out, we discovered after he left, that he is a misogynist and a racist.”

More here.

Censys, a six-year-old startup based in Ann Arbor, Mi., that provides customers with security insights about critical internet-connected infrastructure, raised a $50 million Series C round co-led by Decibel Partners, GV, Greylock, and Intel Capital, with Ascension Ventures and Four Rivers Partners V also investing. The company has raised a total of $128.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Pony.ai, a seven-year-old, Chinese autonomous vehicle startup that is now headquartered in Fremont, Ca., has raised $100 million from Neom, Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city and development project. As part of the deal, the two are planning a joint venture to deploy autonomous vehicles and smart infrastructure in Neom and elsewhere in the Middle East North Africa region. TechCrunch has more here.

Quantum Systems, an eight-year-old German startup that produces multi-sensor data collection drones for government agencies and commercial customers, raised a $67.4 round million Series B round co-led by HV Capital and DTCP, with additional participation from Project A, Thiel Capital, ScaleUp Fonds Bayern, Omnes Capital, and Airbus Ventures. The company has raised over $100 million. Tech.eu has more here.

YouTrip, a five-year-old Singapore startup that allows users to pay for goods and services in over 150 currencies, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Lightspeed. The company has raised a total of $100 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

Moreh, a three-year-old, Santa Clara- and Seoul-based startup whose AI software tool optimizes and creates AI models, has raised $22 million in Series B funding that brings its total backing to $30 million. Advanced Micro Devices and the Korean telco KT were among the investors. TechCrunch has more here.

OnsiteIQ, a six-year-old New York startup that provides real estate developers with tools to monitor their projects from anywhere in the world, raised a $14 million Series B round led by Vertical Venture Partners, with RET Ventures and Interplay VC also stepping up. Commercial Observer has more here.

Sage, a startup whose platform allows residents of senior communities and their caregivers to connect with care teams, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Maveron, with previous investors Distributed Ventures, ANIMO Ventures, and Goldcrest Capital also contributing. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Sky Labs, an eight-year-old South Korean startup that has developed an AI-powered ring-type blood pressure monitor, raised a $15.3 million Series C round led by Korea Development Bank and including K2 Investment Partners, Devsisters Ventures, SJG Partners, and OpenWater Investment. The company has raised a total of $40.5 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Ctrl Alt, a three-year-old London startup that helps financial institutions and fintechs offer fractionalized investments in property and green energy, raised a $2.7 million seed round co-led by Forward Partners and Middlegame Ventures, with Enterprise Ireland and Algorand Ventures also pitching in. The Business Post has more here.

FarmInsect, a three-year-old Munich startup that is promoting the use of insects as a sustainable option for livestock feed, raised an $8.5 million Series A round led by Sandwater and joined by Minderoo Foundation. Tech.eu has more here.

Flashpoint Therapeutics, a Chicago startup that is developing nanotechnology-enabled therapeutics for cancer and other diseases, raised a $10 million seed round led by Beta Lab, with CS Venture Opportunities Fund also chipping in. More here.

Gozen, a San Francisco startup that is developing a new form of lab-grown leather, raised a $3.3 million seed round led by Happiness Capital, with Accelr8, Astor Management, and SOSV also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Ignition, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that is attempting to unify a number of product launch steps into a single platform, raised an $8 million seed round led by Audacious Ventures, with additional funds provided by Altman Capital. More here.

Lunr, a Minneapolis startup that provides inventory financing for emerging retail brands, raised a $6 million round. Mairs & Power Venture Capital led the deal. More here.

Node, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that has developed a single sign-on product that consumers can use across multiple merchants, raised a $2.75 million seed round. Neotribe Ventures was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Pair Team, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides in-person and virtual clinical and mental health care to underserved communities in partnership with local health centers and community-based organizations, raised a $9 million Series A round led by Next Ventures, with PTX Capital, Create Health Ventures, OCA Ventures, CHCF Innovation Fund, Kapor Capital, and Augment Ventures also piling on. More here.

Palladium Energy, a four-year-old startup based in Jacksonville, FL, that originates, develops, and finances renewable energy projects, raised a $10 million round. Ultra Capital was the deal lead. Renewables Now has more here.

RadiantGraph, a startup that says it uses using machine learning and artificial intelligence to drive consumer engagement for health plans, raised a $5 million seed round co-led by True Ventures and XYZ Ventures, with Remus Capital also participating. More here.

VisionAI, a two-year-old German startup that helps SMBs use tools like cross-selling to build their online stores, raised a $5.3 million seed round. HV Capital was the lead investor. Tech Funding News has more here.

Wareclouds, a three-year-old logistics startup based in Santiago, Chile, that connects households with storage space to SMBs and e-commerce companies looking to store their inventory near last-mile delivery, raised a $2 million round led by 2048 Ventures, with Chile Global Ventures also contributing. LatamList has more here.

Yourco, a two-year-old Indianapolis startup that has developed an SMS- and intranet-based product for deskless workers that does not require downloads, passwords, internet access, or data plans, raised a $2 million seed round led by Ground Game Ventures, with Allos Ventures, Start Something Ventures, Elevate Ventures, and Flywheel Fund also weighing in. The company has raised a total of $2.5 million. More here.

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PE giant Silver Lake says it's working on a proposal to take private Endeavor, the owner of talent agencies WME and IMG. “Silver Lake firmly believes in Endeavor’s business and is not interested in selling its shares in Endeavor to a third-party nor in entertaining bids for assets that are a part of Endeavor,” the firm said in a statement earlier today. Silver Lake owns about 71% of the voting stake in Endeavor. The announcement came after Endeavor said it is exploring strategic opportunities for the company that could include a sale of assets. The company went public in April 2023 and its shares have since fallen 35%.

Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam is relinquishing his role as managing partner of the crypto-focused firm he co-founded five years ago, per The Information. Ehrsam previously cofounded the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

In a new Vanity Fair profile, former Peloton cofounder and CEO John Foley says that he has "to reprove myself and, one, show that the Peloton success when it was happening wasn’t luck; and two, prove to, I guess, the world, that I am a businessman worthy of betting on.” His new company, Ernesta, sells rugs.

Forbes is reporting that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt invested $100 million in a startup accelerator run by his 29-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Ritter. "He is a very, very active chairman," Ritter told Forbes. "It's not going well," Forbes concludes.

And Magic Leap has another new CEO. The maker of an augmented-reality headset for business uses today named Ross Rosenberg as top banana, replacing Peggy Johnson, a high-profile hire from Microsoft.

It's fair to say that the housing market is San Jose, Ca. is smoking: a house with an "inactive meth lab and meth contamination" is on the market for $1.55 million.

The banks that lent Elon Musk the capital to buy X (née Twitter) are sitting on a mountain of unsold debt, reports the WSJ.

The Biden administration is expected to unveil a "sweeping" new executive order on artificial intelligence next week will require AI models to undergo assessments before they can be used by federal workers.

The world's oldest very good boy has died.

The Pew Research Center surveyed Americans to find out how many friends they have. 

Hurricane Otis was one of biggest hurricane forecast failures in meteorological history.

IBM researchers say ChatGPT is very good at persuading people to click on phishing emails.

An espresso maker that's too beautiful to use.

Formula One star Lewis Hamilton can drink his new blue agave spirit during pit stops: it is entirely alcohol-free.

Cold immersion in your own bathtub.