Neighborhood-based social network Nextdoor will be going public through a SPAC at a $4.3B valuation. The company shared its investor deck this week ahead of an anticipated trading date in Q4 2021.

It’s easy to make fun of Nextdoor (I’m an avid @BestofNextdoor reader!), but the company has impressive engagement metrics. Of Nextdoor’s 60M users, 45% are on the platform weekly, and these WAUs engage 4x per week! The platform has strong network effects - weekly usage climbs from ~25% to 50%+ as neighborhood penetration grows.

Nextdoor’s DAUs grew by 50% in 2020, which is impressive for a company that’s more than a decade old. 80% of the company’s user base is in the U.S., though the platform is live in 11 other countries. Whether Nextdoor is able to get the same penetration in these other geos, as well as reach the next generation of homeowners (82% of users aren’t on Snapchat!) is TBD.

news 📣

🧑‍⚖️ White House challenges big tech. President Biden issued an executive order that has been widely interpreted as “cracking down” on big tech companies. The order, which focusing on promoting competition, brings together a dozen federal agencies and makes more than 72 recommendations. These include challenging “prior bad mergers,” crafting new data privacy legislation, and preventing digital marketplaces from unfairly competing with smaller sellers. Tech isn’t the only industry targeted - we’ll have to see how the enforcement plays out across sectors!

😋 Instacart poaches FB exec. Ahead of a rumored IPO later this year, Instacart has a new chief executive! Facebook’s Fidji Simo will replace founder Apoorva Mehta in August, as Mehta transitions to an exec chairman role. Simo was previously the head of the Facebook app, and joined Instacart’s Board of Directors seven months ago. The reason for the CEO switchup has not been revealed, besides Mehta’s statement that he “can’t think of a better leader to take the company public.”

⚔️ DiDi faces the Chinese government. Chinese ridehailing company DiDi had a rocky first week of trading. Didi’s IPO was the largest overseas listing for a Chinese company since Alibaba’s debut in 2014. However, the company’s stock fell 25% on Tuesday after being accused by China’s cybersecurity division of violating data privacy & national security laws. Didi was ordered to stop enrolling new users, and Chinese app stores were told to take down the app. The move was seen as a strike at Chinese companies listing abroad - more regulation is expected imminently.

💄 Glossier raises growth round. Big news in D2C world - skincare and beauty brand Glossier announced an $80M round at a $1.8B valuation. The company has 5M customers globally and did $100M in revenue in 2018 (they’ve been tight-lipped about metrics since then). While 80% of the brand’s sales happen online, Glossier will use the funding to open dozens of stores worldwide. Check out this thread for more on how Glossier evolved from a beauty blog to a unicorn!

The above GIF won’t make sense to anyone who hasn’t watched Bo Burnham’s Inside or heard this audio on TikTok, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take…

Jeff Bezos had his last day as Amazon’s CEO this week, ceding his title to Andy Jassy, former CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Bezos made the announcement about his retirement back in February, alongside the company’s 2020 financial results.

Amazon’s stock was up 8% this week, but the spike was (presumably) not due to Bezos’s departure! The Pentagon cancelled a $10B contract with Microsoft, announcing the new contract would likely be split between Amazon and Microsoft. The move came after Amazon sued the government, accusing Trump of asserting inappropriate influence into the decision given his personal dislike of Bezos.

what i’m following 👀

How Tencent uses facial recognition to prevent minors from gaming at night in China.

A look at Too Good to Go, the app combatting food waste (and fueling cheap meals!).

What was the top-performing investment during COVID?

How TikTok is causing products to go viral - and then flame out.

Peter Boyce II (ex-General Catalyst/Rough Draft Ventures) launches his own VC fund.

TikTok launched the pilot version of Resumes, a new feature that allows users to apply for jobs via “video resume.” The program debuted in early May, but TikTok only started promoting it this week. 37 major companies are participating thus far - listed jobs are a mix of traditional retail (Chipotle, Sweetgreen, Target), and media/tech companies (Shopify, VaynerMedia, ATTN:). 

Resumes takes advantage of Gen Z’s desire to be authentic in all aspects of life, including work. Many of the TikTok resumes I’ve come across, like this one from an aspiring PM (& Cal student), are awesome - and much more dynamic than a paper resume. Videos allow a candidate to showcase energy and creativity that is hard to communicate in a cover letter. And given that many companies are using keyword-based bots to weed out candidates on other job platforms, TikTok Resumes may give candidates a better chance of getting a fair look.

Despite these benefits, I haven’t seen many people use the Resumes feature yet! The vast majority of videos tagged #tiktokresumes (128M views) are unrelated videos trying to piggyback on a promoted hashtag. Why? A few theories. First, while candidates submit a link to their resume video, employers can click to their profiles to see what else they’ve published. Do you want employers going through your TikTok?

Making and editing a video resume may also be intimidating, especially for candidates who aren’t used to appearing on camera. It’s not something you can put together anytime - you need clear audio, a professional-ish background, and may feel the need to get dressed up! The example resumes TikTok shows as “inspiration” set a high bar.

Would you apply for a job via TikTok Resumes?

• ✅ Yes - seems cool!

• 🤷‍♀️ Maybe, if it was the only way to apply for a job I really wanted

• ❌ No, I don't want to make a video for a job application

jobs 🎓

Check - Biz Ops Associate, Growth Manager (NYC, SF, Remote)*

On Deck - Biz Ops Associate, Head of Special Projects (Remote)

AngelList - Venture Growth Associate (Remote)*

Braze - Associate Product Manager (SF)

Wish - Associate Product Manager (SF)

Rightfoot - Chief of Staff (SF)

Kapor Capital - Investment Associate (Oakland)

a16z - Associate, Capital Network Group (Menlo Park)

Foundry Group - Analyst, Investor (Boulder, Remote)

LTSE - Financial Analyst (NYC)

Thrasio - Brand Associate, Marketplaces (NYC)

Alpaca VC - Analyst (NYC)

JPMorgan - Strategic Investments Associate (NYC)

*Requires 3+ years of experience.

internships 📝

OnDeck - Founder Fellow Intern (Remote)

Floodgate - Platform/Content Intern (Remote)

MURAL - Fall 2021 Ambassador Intern (Remote)

Zendesk - Engineering Co-Op (Remote)

Gemini - Product Marketing Intern (Remote, NYC)

Realm - Growth Marketing Intern (SF)

Sendbird - Developer Advocate Intern (San Mateo)

Sweetgreen - Marketing Intern (LA)

Jerry - Editorial Intern (LA)

Formlabs - Growth Marketing Intern (Boston)

Quadpay - Strategy Intern (NYC)

Dataminr - Fall Product Marketing Intern (NYC)

puppy of the week 🐶

Meet Whisky, a one-year-old golden retriever who lives in Ayshire, Scotland.

He enjoys swimming in various rivers, posing with his tongue out, and hanging out with his best friend Ellie.

Follow him on Instagram @whiskyretrieverboy!

Hi! 👋 I’m Justine Moore, an early stage consumer & SMB investor. I’m currently Head of GTM at Canal. Thanks for reading Accelerated. I’d love your feedback - feel free to tweet me @venturetwins.