Maria Heeter
@HeeterMaria
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U.S. Deals @FT . Here for you but I work for tips: Call/text me 6033197139 (on WhatsApp, Signal, etc). @TheInformation alum.
New York, NY
Joined February 2019
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Send us removal request.
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Pinned Tweet
Friday FT scoop w/
@JFK_America
Howard Schultz, Starbucks 3X leader, has made his opposition to a settlement w/ activist Elliott clear to some board members, sources tell
@FT
.
Asks include board representation, sources say.
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10
$1B prop tech startup Veev, which develops eco friendly homes, is shutting down.
Investors are likely to get nothing back on their $600M equity invested, I'm told.
It's the 3rd 🦄 blowup this month. Convoy, Olive + Veev raised a combined ~$2.5 billion from VCs - up in smoke!
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409
Thrilled to share I’m joining the
@FT
as U.S. deals and activism correspondent, starting later this month.
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@GergelyOrosz
Via interview w/ the developer... "it was the only way to get a game that was compact enough and ran fast enough"
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Reminder that I recently moved to NY and want to go to your tech/investing events, parties, happy hours, dinners, talks!
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In conversations with investors this week about VC analysts, associates + principals, the biggest worry I've heard is that younger staff don't have the background or experience to do the financial engineering necessary for more complicated deals
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Thought the hotel bar was neutral territory 🤷♀️✌️
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Scoop: AI startup Anthropic (AKA OpenAI's more cautious cousin) is raising $750M in a deal that could value the startup between $15B and $18 billion.
A heady valuation for the sibling-founded public benefit corp (whose wonky governance "is not at odds with commercial success")
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Scoop: Jefferies traders contacting founders w/ offers for SVB claims. Bids said to have started at 70 cents on the dollar but unclear who's actually biting
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I think I got 1000 followers overnight from
@GergelyOrosz
... if you are new here, here's a quick intro:
I'm a reporter covering VC & startups for
@theinformation
. I report on how startups raise money and go public (funding rounds, liquidity events).
(1/x)
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They let me on tv! 🦈+📺+😍
.
@TheInformation
revealed that
@Chamath
Palihapitiya's
@SocialCapital
put stakes in 258 companies up for sale in June, valued at $312 million. It's currently uncertain whether any of these stakes were ultimately sold. The Information's
@heetermaria
joins with more:
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It’s bone. And the lettering is something called Silian Grail
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Scoop: Fintech startup Brex, last valued at $12Bn, is laying off a fifth of its staff. Its COO and CTO are out. We reported this morning revenue growth has stalled.
After years of up and 2 the right, Co's in venture land are shrinking.....
W/
@matousekmark
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@theinformation
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I am tweeting this from the arena
Scoop:
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NEW: Inside Sequoia's failed coup of Buy-Now Pay-Later giant Klarna's boardroom—an extremely rare example of tensions between old and new Sequoia Capital guard spilling out into the open.
w/
@KateClarkTweets
@coryweinberg
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12
55
First scoop for the
@FT
:
*GIP & CPP NEAR $5B DEAL FOR UTILITY GROUP ALLETE
w/
@AntoineGara
@JFK_America
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7
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Happy to have won two 2023
@SABEW
awards w/ my awesome colleagues at
@TheInformation
:
—For coverage of trucking company Convoy's shutdown (winner of travel/transportation)
—For coverage of the Stripe IPO that wasn't (winner of investing/markets)
👇
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Bird is saying no more Mr Nice guy and asking politely for the 63 cents you owed it 3 years ago
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Scoop: Cash burning Tonal has explored options including a sale
Has been scrambling to cut costs by shuttering stores and making a fresh round of layoffs that hit marketing and other staff in late January
w/
@anngehan
@coryweinberg
@annie_goldsmith
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Scoop:
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6
34
SCOOP: Online trading platform eToro and the Betsy Cohen-backed SPAC that agreed to take it public are planning to let the deadline for their merger pass without closing the deal, I'm told
Mine for
@theinformation
5
8
34
Looks like Blackstone is soft(🧐)-launching recruiting for its tech lending team 👀 (I interviewed Patel a few weeks ago)
Via
@litcapital
IG story
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5
31
Scoop: Cohere, one of the best-known startup competitors to OpenAI, has just 13Mn in annual revenue.
Perhaps why its funding round has stretched on for so long …..
Details here 👇
w/
@steph_palazzolo
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8
28
LIQUIDITY EVENT! In the battle for canned water IPO mandates, Goldman Sachs emerges victorious.
Liquid Death, the water brand backed by venture capitalists, has hired GS to lead a potential IPO as soon as next spring.
SCOOP w
@coryweinberg
@erinkwoo
1
8
30
NEWS: Sequoia Capital going activist
The storied VC firm is pushing for one of its most venerated former partners, Michael Moritz, to step down from his personal board position at the $7BN “buy now, pay later” company Klarna.
w/
@coryweinberg
&
@KateClarkTweets
⬇️⬇️⬇️
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Many in VC haven't dealt w/ deals with investor friendly terms like senior liquidation preferences, warrants, anti-dilution preferences, ownership preferences, pay-to-play, etc., w/ regularity, in years.
And deals getting pitched rn are some combination of all of those and more
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I have been Information-ified
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I talked to Goldman's top tech bankers in Vegas. The main points: something needs to fill the gap for startups that need funding if public markets stay shut. Namely, M&A.
My coverage of the chatter at Goldman's Private Innovative Company Conference:
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9
27
Really great story from
@seattletimes
on truck drivers left picking up the pieces after Convoy's collapse.
One driver who runs a carrier with her husband is owned $156,000. The dispute, she said, “is breaking my whole family.”
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I will be in SF all next week! Let's catch up! Or find me running along the Presidio!
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While venture capital for SaaS startups is harder to come by, investor interest in their lenders has escalated. Counter cyclical?
Capchase, the software startup lender, has closed a $400 million debt deal.
Exclusive from me, for
@theinformation
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5
23
SCOOP: Flexport revenue is down 70% the first half of this year, sources tell me +
@theinformation
logistics team.
Usual for freight? Yes. For high growth venture backed startups? No.
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Closing out '23 w/ scoop:
OpenAI has passed $1.6B in annualized revenue, a show that customers have shrugged off recent boardroom drama
That's about about 8X the annual revenue rival Anthropic told investors they'd gen by year end. But who's counting..!
@steph_palazzolo
@amir
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Older, more experienced journalists - what do you do in a source meeting when it's ⚠️Time to BeReal ⚠️ ? Seems like there's no good option
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SCOOP: Nabbed a one-time IPO contendor's financials. Cohesity is burning $50M on $110M in revenue per quarter and has taken on a huge debt load --- meanwhile, rival Rubrik is full steam ahead for an IPO.
w/
@anissagardizy8
@KateClarkTweets
3
9
23
Chamath's Social Capital has sacked two partners, according to a letter to the firm's LPs viewed by The Information.
w/
@nmasc_
We have terminated the employment of two of our employees due to employee-specific circumstances. We have no further comments at this time.
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9
23
Scoop/story update: Convoy investors have been told they are being completely wiped out ($0 return!!), even if Convoy's tech is sold.
Convoy's lenders are now in effective control of what's left of the company after a GS sale process failed.
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8
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Lots of things hung in the balance this week... including OpenAI employees' second houses. The $86B share sale (w/ participation from Ashton Kutcher's venture fund) is back on
Scoop w/
@KateClarkTweets
2
8
20
SCOOP: Activist investor Anson Funds has taken a stake in Twilio and is pushing for a sale of the company or a divestiture of its data & analytics unit.
$TWLO
@theinformation
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SCOOP: Arctic Wolf, the cybersecurity startup valued last yr at $4.3 billion, is in talks to raise $300 million in convertible debt from investors including Owl Rock Capital
Working w Morgan Stanley on the not-yet-closed deal
Latest for
@theinformation
:
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5
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Design startup InVision is planning to shut down at the end of this year, the company announced Thursday.
I wrote about the startup's demise here: 'Figma took their lunch money': How $2B Design startup InVision Fell Apart'
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Talking Social Capital on CNBC tomorrow at 7:20am.... tune in!
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Posting Bird’s market cap versus totally equity financing raised for engagement is over. Can’t do it anymore the bit is done and all traffic has been squeezed out. Pick different companies there are ton-zos
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SCOOP: $2.5 billion cybersecurity startup Cybereason is for sale. Working w/ JPMorgan to find a buyer.
Signal for more consolidation in cybersecurity, particularly endpoint security.
From
@KevKubernetes
+ me for
@theinformation
:
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19
I was on the other side of this exact scenario last year and I cringe to this day
Last year I was at a party in Manhattan with access to an exclusive app, and I asked this girl what her favorite color was… “Watch this” I said, pointing in the distance at the empire state building while its lights changed to purple.
Greatest party trick in American history
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NEWS: Sequoia Capital has retracted its request to remove Michael Moritz as chairman of Klarna’s board.
Sequoia partner Matthew Miller, the director who in recent days had asked Klarna shareholders to remove Moritz, is leaving the Klarna board.
@KateClarkTweets
@coryweinberg
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19
Not to be dramatic but I have never been as excited for any sort of concert event etc. in my young life
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WIPEOUT: Olive AI, once valued at $4B by growth / buyout specialists, has sold itself off in pieces and is winding down in the latest sign of late-stage startup distress.
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💪 👩💻 💥 📈 📈 📈 !!!
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Watching someone drop their hydro flask and asking 'Hey did you read that WSJ article'
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Less ‘Iger in, Chapek out’ headlines more ‘Thrive Capital partner Bob Iger departs the firm for a new opportunity’
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TI EXCLUSIVE: Blackstone plans to invest $2+ billion in debt deals with startups in coming years.
The world's largest alt-asset manager is pushing into growth-stage tech lending -- a corner of the debt market that’s heating up.
Latest
@theinformation
:
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Are there any other good charts emblematic of this moment in growth VC I should pin at my desk 🤔
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At least 7 tech companies are burning cash while carrying convertible debt loads that come due in 2025 or 2026 and *exceed the entire market value of the firms themselves*
Including:
RealReal
Redfin
Opendoor
Cardlytics
Vroom
Via
@coryweinberg
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11
17
In October, Anissa Gardizy and I reported that big cloud providers were interested in buying a nuclear data center campus in Pennsylvania, in a broader power land grab.
Today, the news was confirmed ⬇ ⚡ ⬇
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Programming note: my email has changed to the coolest possible my name allows. Send your tips/say hi at heeter
@theinformation
.com 📩
(maria_heeter
@theinformation
.com still works, but this way I can force a nickname)
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2
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Scoop:
Road to recap isn't pretty
Stripe took a 50% val haircut. Consumer fitness? More extreme
Tonal investors in late-stage disc to contrib $125M at a $200-300M valuation, a 90% slice
Big fall for cash burning co's. & lots of investor drama
0
2
17
🔌SCOOP🔌: One of the largest privately held owners of power plants in the US is on the auction block.
⚡ Private equity firm Carlyle is exploring a sale of Cogentrix Energy, which operates natural gas projects across the US.
Latest for the
@FT
w/
@AntoineGara
&
@JFK_America
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4
18
Anthropic was probably my last story of the year (unless something cool happens). Thanks to everyone who read along! Excited for 2024! 📈
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@GergelyOrosz
^^ Edit that above refers to Transport Tycoon cc
@m1lkcast
@GergelyOrosz
@heetermaria
That quote is for Transport Tycoon, which came out in 1994. Rollercoaster Tycoon came out 5yrs later. Both are Chris Sawyer, both are isometric simulation games. I think it showcases why RCT used an "outdated" development methodology (because he could + because he already had)
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1
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Fun chasing this down on the NY marathon sidelines! $PAN set to announce deal for cyber startup Talon as soon as tomorrow
Will crowdstrike respond… next Q!
w/
@aaronpholmes
0
6
17
A US PE group has sold a big industrial business for nearly $4bn—one of the first big private equity windfalls from a wave of dealmaking seen in 2021, which has left sponsors saddled w/ assets they can't sell.
Or, Pringles container maker expands push into cans
w/
@AntoineGara
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4
17
More than 6 months ago, JPMorgan shopped Gorillas as a SPAC candidate -- since then, Gorillas investors have been on the hunt for deals.
More details on the latest for instant delivery -- esp wrt M&A -- w/
@erinkwoo
for
@theinformation
1
8
15
SCOOP: Stripe has lowered the target valuation in its fundraise to $50B from $55B, underlining investors' leverage.
w/
@coryweinberg
0
10
17
**And to be sure, it’s not just younger staff who are rusty/new to this type of modeling
0
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16
🤯
@BLaw
scoop: Cooley asking some incoming first-year associates to defer their start dates for another year in exchange for a $100,000 stipend
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1
16
Scoop: Dutch messaging software startup Bird (known, until this morning, as MessageBird) is in talks with outside investors to raise money for a longshot bid to buy its much larger U.S. publicly traded competitor Twilio.
W/
@coryweinberg
for
@theinformation
3
4
16
SCOOP: Apollo leading a $1B+ debt investment into $6B publicly traded chipmaker Wolfspeed $WOLF.
Appears to be one of the biggest non-take private direct lending deals of the year. Latest for
@theinformation
:
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6
16
Not to tweet college drama but I need the inside story on this asap
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1
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The timeless analysis of Bird’s performance as a public company is “people wouldn’t stop throwing the scooters into the ocean” NOT lazy buzzwords like “weak sales guidance” or “over reporting revenue for two years” or “significant insider selling”
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Scoop this Saturday am w/
@parismartineau
:
Francisco Partners making widespread cuts at $SUMO post buyout
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Fun week of scoops @ The Information. Pls keep em coming: 6033197139 📲🤳📞
Chamath selling stakes
Convoy for sale 🪧
Tiger 🐯selling Cohere stake
@business
🖥️ C-suite shakeup
0
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Is SBF so ea he's saying he was never ea in order to save ea
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NEW:
@Starbucks
CEO Laxman Narasimhan is grappling with two outspoken shareholders: Activist Elliott & fmer CEO Howard Schultz.
Feature frm
@meyer_g6
@rhea_basarkar
. Follows FT scoop that Schultz has said he is opposed to an agreement w/ Elliott
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Looking for friends in New York? Have you tried being a woman next to a rec soccer league that needs one more player to meet the minimum gender requirement
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Why did so many cuts land today? People told me,
- Few weeks before the end of the year that aren't holidays
- Rush of news means that the cuts aren't their own headline. Pub co's often make cuts in the run up to earnings - private co's can escape heat by announcing @ same time
Faire, an online marketplace where mom-and-pop stores can purchase wholesale inventory, laid off about 7% of its staff of roughly 1,200 in late October.
The Dragoneer and Durable-backed startup was last valued at $12B.
Latest in e-commerce cuts:
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Sometimes I am like wow the way information flows quickly on Blind is really powerful and then I end up consuming content like
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Please ask me about SPACs
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