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Tag: startups

REUTERS/ROBERT GALBRAITH

The Gig Economy Appears to Be Growing– Here’s Why

With the rise of Uber, Airbnb, and TaskRabbit, there’s a sinking suspicion that the traditional 9-5 job is being replaced by flexible, independent contract work. But, despite the existence of multiple billion-dollar Silicon Valley startups hiring an army of independent contract workers, economists have had difficulty finding any evidence that Americans were more likely to be self-employed.

REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Top Silicon Valley Investor: Industries with Unions Are Ripe for Disruption

(Ferenstein Wire)—Silicon Valley is coming after unionized industries. A top investor in the Valley, Paul Graham, lit up Twitter, tweeting, “Any industry that still has unions has potential energy that could be released by startups. (I don’t mean in simply paying people less, but rather that industries afflicted by unions are sclerotic so have left lots undone.)”

Unicorn dog (Frederic J. Brown / AFP / Getty)

Number of VC Deals Falls as Investors Chase ‘Unicorns’

Global venture capitalists invested $56.31 billion in 4,894 deals during the first half of 2015–the lowest number of deals recorded by the Pitchbook blog over a six month period in the last 25 years. The major reason for a smaller number of companies being funded is that venture capitalists are throwing huge amounts of money at a small number of “unicorns.”