Meet Healthcare's Latest Unicorn I A $33 Million VC Firm For 'Hilariously Early' Startups

Plus: After GameStop Craze, Reddit Raises Even More Money—Uping Series E To $368 Million 

To millions of tweens, David Baszucki is much better known as his avatar, “Builderman.” What he built is Roblox, an addictive combo video game/social-media site that rivals YouTube and TikTok for engaging children. “Roblox is an immersive entertainment platform,” Baszucki told Forbes in 2018.

Baszucki’s company is thriving as kids stuck in the rec room have turned to Roblox to while away the pandemic. In 2020, the San Mateo, California-based startup grew users by 85%, to 32.6 million; hours spent on Roblox’s app and website soared 124%, to 30.6 billion. This week's must-read story is a deep dive into Roblox and its newly minted billionaire.

Must Read Stories For Young Entrepreneurs

Three brothers, including one Forbes Under 30 alum, are raising Canada's largest fund for BIPOC founders. The intended CA$100 million fund will invest in early-stage founders in fintech, real estate, edtech, medtech and cannabis.

Guess who has a booming online business? Goodwill. Since its founding in 1999, the humble thrift store has done over $1 billion in sales.

After a nearly picture-perfect run over the past two years, Snap is worth $100 billion. But what if that was a low—perhaps really low—figure? Here's how it could become a $200 billion company in 5 years.

The general partners at the Hustle Fund don’t need to be told that the fund’s strategy of investing $25,000 initial checks into “hilariously early” companies goes against venture capital norms. That's exactly what their $33.6 million fund is meant to do.

In the latest test for investors’ appetite for 3D printing, Markforged announced its intent to go public via a SPAC founded by Kevin Hartz, cofounder and chairman of Eventbrite. After the merger with publicly traded One, Markforged is expected to have an equity value of $2.1 billion.

The Pursuit

This week's collection of expert tips from Forbes contributors around the world for those building and running a business. Click to sign up instantly for The Pursuit, a biweekly essential briefing by Senior Entrepreneurs Editor Maneet Ahuja.

Scribble Ventures, led by Elizabeth Weil and 30 Under 30 alum Annelies Gamble, will invest $250,000 to $500,000 initial checks in early-stage startups.

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Including, Twitter launching a newsletter platform. Did you miss them?

Amid the challenges of the pandemic, the franchise industry didn’t waver. The franchise industry is expected to outpace its predicted 2020 growth rate of 1.5% and for many, the hesitation to take the leap stems from the fact that franchising is a career path that does not guarantee a paycheck. 

Zoom calls littered with acronyms? Expenses take weeks to approve? Your org may have a complexity problem.

Across Forbes