Momentum Builds For Stimulus Deal | Thiel’s “New Economy” | The World’s Youngest Billionaire

Plus: Small is Beautiful Again: 100 High Performance Small Cap Stocks

Good morning.

The SPAC boom has created a new billionaire, Luminar founder Austin Russell, who also claims the title of the world’s young self-made billionaire. We are also looking at the success of Everlywell, the at-home medical testing unicorn, and a billionaire’s $1 million donation to a “dark money” group backing the president. 

In The News Today

Congressional leaders clashed Thursday over the next federal coronavirus relief bill, with Republicans pushing for a smaller package with provisions both parties can agree on while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for talks to focus on the $908 billion framework introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers earlier this week.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease official, said Thursday he would join three former U.S. presidents and volunteer to be given a coronavirus vaccine on camera to help dispel misinformation about it “as soon as my turn comes up,” Fauci said.

Top Take-Aways

The SPAC boom of 2020 is Wall Street’s story of the year and a once-in-a-lifetime chance for early-stage tech companies to grab funds at a breathtaking pace. Peter Thiel, who backed Luminar Technologies’s listing, called out the “crazy froth” but saw the movement as ushering in “the new economy.” 

That listing has turned Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell, 25, into the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. Russell, an optics prodigy, who founded the company at age 17 is set to become a key supplier of laser sensors for driverless vehicles.    

Everlywell, the at-home medical testing company founded by 36-year-old Julia Cheek, is one of the few companies that has experienced growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, the company is a digital health unicorn with more than 30 test kits, 250 employees and a projected $100 million in revenue.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise set up shop in Palo Alto in 1939 and can claim to have helped build Silicon Valley. Now, its move to Houston, Texas, has prompted a new cycle of questions about the Bay Area’s future as a tech hub.

Whole Foods cofounder and CEO John Mackey was the unlikely lead speaker at a cannabis conference and tipped that the legal weed industry was a tipping point on the road to mainstream, and corporate acceptance. 

A little-known California billionaire named Donald Friese made a $1 million donation to a “dark money” group supporting Donald Trump. The contribution, which has not been previously reported, came in January from Friese and his wife Andrea, according to emails from Friese’s bankers and a representative of the tycoon.

Despite taking a discount on the company’s value, FanDuel gave its investors a reason to celebrate Thursday with the announcement that Flutter Entertainment had agreed to pay $4.1 billion to expand its stake in the sportsbook giant.

Today's Must Read

In Case You Missed It

Sean Henry, 24, and Jacob Boudreau, 22, founded flexible warehousing startup Stord while in college at Georgia Tech in 2015. Today, Atlanta-based Stord hit a new milestone: With shipping surging in advance of the holidays and customers expectations for lightning fast delivery at a fevered pitch, the company raised $31 million, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

Tips You Can Trust

Is Renting Really A Waste Of Money?

7 Things You Say That Kill Your Credibility

Across Forbes