Google’s Office Bet | The Crowd[funder] Knows Best | Leaving From The Top

Plus: Hollywood’s Hottest 2021 Thriller Isn’t A Bond Or Marvel Movie—It’s The Megaplex’s Fight For Survival

Good morning.

Unlike other tech companies, Google isn’t going fully remote—but is investing less in physical presence. We’ve also asked a founder to share what he’s learned from raising capital via equity crowdfunding and look into a recent string of CEOs' departures. Don’t miss this cover story on movie theaters’ hope for a blockbuster summer.

In The News Today

Jason Miller, a spokesperson for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, said the former president will return to social media in "about two to three months on his own platform."

The AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine was 79% effective against symptomatic Covid disease and 100% effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalizations in its U.S. Phase III trial.

Top Take-Aways

Despite tech giants’ move towards remote working, Google is keen to retain a physical presence across the U.S., but its planned $7 billion investment in offices and data centers across 19 states for 2021 is much reduced from previous years.

Unemployment in the pandemic doesn’t affect everyone equally. Asian American workers have faced steeper long-term unemployment rates than their Black, white and Latino peers during the economic downturn resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

New York is preparing to legalize adult-use cannabis, but the illicit market in the city that never sleeps is unlikely to be put down any time soon. 

When Dan Kurzrock started pitching his company ReGrained to investors, it was a tough sell, so he turned to equity crowdfunding. Two successful rounds later, Kurzrock shares his advice on equity crowdfunding.

Isabelle Freidheim and Phyllis Newhouse are doing their bit to address the gender gap in the SPAC world. They founded a $250 million blank-check company, Athena Technology Acquisition Corp, which debuted on the NYSE on Friday.

CEO departures like Jeff Bezos at Amazon or Colin Huang at Pinduoduo make headlines and move markets, but lately these have not been rare occurrences—195 leaders departed their top roles in the first two months of 2021.

At the dawn of the 20th century, Maggie L. Walker taught a generation of women how to achieve financial independence and enrich their lives. Her story is the latest in our CultureX series, which celebrates decades of forgotten Black entrepreneurs.

Today's Must Read

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As the pandemic began last year, AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot, 61, was the hottest CEO in big pharma. But the events of the pandemic year have put a cloud over the Soriot success story. 

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