Welcome to Issue 3 of 2023 for “The Land of Saints, Scholars, and Techies”
A new year brings new beginnings and you will notice some changes in this newsletter. I hope you continue to enjoy and get value from it and may share it with your network. Check out below some of what you might have missed in the last couple of weeks.
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Top Stories
Empty offices 🏢
A recent survey by the Dublin Chamber produced some interesting findings about office occupancy in the city. The survey shows low attendance in the office to start and end the week as people adopt proxy 4-day weekends. While employees are increasingly expecting this flexibility, there has been a growing trend in the US in recent months for a return to office by employers. How this plays out will be interesting to see as well as what innovations are imagined in the use of office space for other activities as it is increasingly idle. When once we had ghost estates are ghost offices set to be the legacy of this economic cycle?
Stripe stretched 💈
The poster boy of Irish tech Stripe has encountered some growing challenges in recent months. There is chatter about potentially looking to exit in the next 12 months and raising at a heavily decreased valuation privately. The company already completed a round of layoffs at the end of 2022. None of these you would say are decisions being made with Stripe in command and suggests that they are fighting to maintain their momentum and allure. There have been positive news stories of partnerships with Amazon and BMW but questions are starting to be asked about the next stage for the company and whether they like a lot of others have focused too much on growth and may be overstretched in this new economic climate.
Layoff tracker 📉
Unfortunately, we continue to have more and more layoffs announced. In the last couple of weeks, we saw large tech companies such as Hubspot, Paypal, and Equifax announce layoffs while smaller companies like DraftKings, and Learnupon were forced into cuts too. There are many who believe that tech will rebound and we have seen some leading indicators but I expect another month or more of pain before any sort of slowdown. Ireland has been more insulated than other countries with large tech industries but it is a worrying time looking at the layoff trackers and thinking about the people impacted.
Funding & Exits
Teleatherapy - Pre-seed - €700k - Link
Frankie Heath - Acquired - Link
Assure Hedge - Not stated - €15 million - Link
Spectrum.Life - Not stated - €5 million - Link
Conversation Starter:
Bard:
Google’s attempt to respond to Microsoft and ChatGPT didn’t get off to the best start as the demo of their AI chatbot included an incorrect answer. This resulted in Alphabet losing $100 billion in market value the following day and rumours that the team responsible for preparing the demo all lost their jobs. Both companies look set to duke it out in the coming years in this AI space and this interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella included some pretty inspiring lines as he declared he wanted to be the one to bring Google out and show that they can dance.
Job Announcements
If you have any feedback on the newsletter please reach out in comments, email, or chat as I am only at the start of this journey and all ears on how I can improve.
My Story and The Land’s Background
👋 To quickly introduce myself to anyone new … My name is Seán. I am in my late 20s, born and raised largely in Dublin so apologies if my capital bias may sometimes show up.
I work in a start-up within the tech industry and believe that the Irish ecosystem is a dynamic one for a small country. With COVID and too much time on my hands, I decided to create this newsletter to capture the biggest stories and provide some commentary and thoughts of my own.
Thank you for taking some time out of your busy lives to read!
💬 Contact me: thelandsst@gmail.com
🤝 Want to be friends then connect with me on LinkedIn
Cheers,
Seán