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Tesla stock rose on Thursday after the company made a profit for the fourth quarter in a row.
Elon Musk's electric-car company reported $104 million in net income, a big improvement from its $408 million loss in the second quarter of 2019.
Tesla is now eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500, which promises to expand its shareholder base.
Musk also announced that Tesla will build its fourth US factory in Austin, Texas.
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Shares in Tesla climbed on Thursday after the group posted its fourth consecutive quarterly profit for the first time ever.

Elon Musk's electric-car company reported net income of $104 million for the three months to June 30, a sharp swing from its $408 million net loss in the second quarter of 2019.

Its automotive revenues fell 4% year-on-year to below $5.2 billion as the coronavirus pandemic weighed on car sales. However, that was more than offset by $428 million in revenue from selling regulatory credits, up from $111 million in the same period last year.

Tesla's four profitable quarters in a row make it eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500. Joining the benchmark index promises to expand its shareholder base given the large number of tracker funds and institutional investors that seek exposure to it.

The group's stock price has more than tripled this year, and traded close to its all-time high as of Wednesday's close.

Its market capitalization is approaching $300 billion, dwarfing the combined value of the "big three" US automakers — GM, Ford, Chrysler — and comfortably beating both Volkswagen and Toyota, the biggest automakers in Europe and Asia respectively.

Musk also announced on Wednesday that his company will build its fourth US factory near Austin, Texas. It will manufacture Cybertrucks and Tesla Semis in the facility, as well as Model Y and Model 3 cars for East Coast customers, he added.

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Twitter shares spiked as much as 5.8% on Thursday after the social network reported record growth in daily active users in the second quarter.
The company added 20 million users in the period, fueling a 34% year-on-year increase in its userbase to 186 million.
However, its earnings fell short of Wall Street forecasts as revenue fell 19%, and it posted a net loss of $1.2 billion.
CEO Jack Dorsey also described last week's hack — which saw celebrities like Elon Musk and Bill Gates have their accounts compromised — as "a very public and disappointing security issue."
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Twitter stock jumped as much as 5.8% on Thursday after the social-media group revealed a record increase in users in the second quarter, adding more than $1 billion to its market capitalization.

However, its revenue and profits fell short of the consensus forecasts of analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Here are the key numbers:

Revenue: $683 million versus $705 million estimated.
Operating income: $124 million loss versus $49.2 million loss estimated.
EPS: -$1.56 versus -$0.16 estimated.

Twitter's revenues fell 19% as advertising sales tumbled 23% due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Combined with higher costs, that meant the company posted a net loss of $1.2 billion — a sharp swing from the $1.1 billion in net income it made in the second quarter of 2019.

More positively, Twitter grew its average daily active user base by 34% year-on-year to 186 million, as it added 20 million users in the three months to June 30.

The robust growth followed a 24% increase in its users to 166 million in the first quarter.

Twitter's bosses attributed the latest increase to people signing up to join a global conversation about current events, as well as product improvements.

"The elevated usage of our service presents a tremendous opportunity to serve the public conversation and to be where even more people go to see what's happening," CEO Jack Dorsey said in his quarterly shareholder letter.

Dorsey also addressed the hacking of several high-profile Twitter accounts including Joe Biden, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett last week.

"Twitter suffered a very public and disappointing security issue," he said in the letter.

The company "moved quickly to address what happened" and has improved its resiliency to social-engineering attempts, rolled out additional safeguards to its systems, and continues to cooperate with law enforcement as they investigate the matter, he added.

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More money is flowing into the autonomous-vehicle industry than ever.
As the technology evolves, that money is going to fewer companies.
The coronavirus is likely to accelerate the industry's trend toward consolidation.
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The autonomous vehicle industry is consolidating, and the space that once frothed over with huge investments has settled into a steady simmer.

With many autonomous-vehicle companies years away from bringing in meaningful revenues, investors are getting more discerning about where they place their bets. While the amount of money flowing into the industry has risen in each of the past seven years— and likely will this year, as well — the number of companies cashing those checks seems to have peaked. In 2018, a record 163 AV companies landed investments. Last year, that number dropped to 150. So far in 2020, it's just 72. And the financial havoc wreaked by the coronavirus is likely to accelerate the winnowing trend.

Below are the 10 autonomous driving startups that have raised the most money to date, according to Pitchbook's data, as well as the research company's summary of what distinguishes each company from its competitors — and why investors think it's a smart bet.

10. PlusAI

Total capital raised: $200 million
Most recent valuation: $1 billion

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of self-driving technology designed for large-scale autonomous commercial fleets. The company's technology uses artificial intelligence, computer vision, sensor technology, and deep learning to operate autonomous vehicles, enabling truck and freight companies to increase truck utilization and profitability."

9. Dynamic Map Platform

Total capital raised: $218.5 million
Most recent valuation: N/A

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of a 3D-map data-management technology for autonomous driving. The company's three-dimensional map data offers automated driving and safe-driving support system, enabling clients to reduce traffic accidents, support mobility for people with transportation limitations, and alleviate congestion to reduce the environmental burden with the realization of autonomous driving."

8. WeRide

Total capital raised: $237 million
Most recent valuation: $593 million

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of fully-autonomous vehicles designed to deliver a safe, robust, and convenient MaaS (mobility as a service) to the public. The company's vehicles use deep learning to deliver full automation that operates without human intervention by using a combination of lidar, cameras, and radar sensors along with artificial intelligence to perceive the driving environment, enabling users to navigate the quickest and safest path to the final destination."

7. Innoviz Technologies

Total capital raised: $264 million
Most recent valuation: $575 million

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of remote-sensing sensors and systems designed to offer accurate mapping and localization. The company's system offers smart three-dimensional remote sensing for fully autonomous vehicles, as well as provides real-time three-dimensional images of the vehicle's surroundings, enabling vehicle owners to integrate the sensor systems seamlessly into any vehicle for accurate mapping."

6. Quanergy

Total capital raised: $325.1 million
Most recent valuation: $2.3 billion

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of solid-state sensors designed to offer smart sensing services for self-driving cars. The company's sensors help in real-time capture and processing of high-definition mapping data, as well as help in object detection, tracking and classification, enabling clients to access sensing systems that benefit from advanced artificial-intelligence perception software thereby improving safety and efficiency in industries."

5. TuSimple

Total capital raised: $407.9 million
Most recent valuation: $1.2 billion

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of self-driving technology intended to improve the safety and efficiency of the trucking industry. The company offers self-driving trucks with an array of cameras to scan the surrounding environment with the help of high-precision visual positioning and multi-sensor integration system, enabling clients to increase safety, decrease transportation costs, and reduce carbon emissions."

4. Pony.ai

Total capital raised: $726 million
Most recent valuation: $3 billion

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of an autonomous-driving technology intended for the manufacturing of automated vehicles. The company's platform leverages artificial intelligence and algorithms to accurately perceive the vehicle's surroundings in order to predict surrounding driver's actions and maneuver the vehicle accordingly, enabling vehicle companies to improve their car functionality and safety in an efficient manner."

3. Aurora Innovation

Total capital raised: $765.6 million
Most recent valuation: $3.1 billion

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of an autonomous car technology designed to create self-driving cars. The company's technology uses advanced machine-learning software and hardware to power self driving cars by leveraging a combination of camera, radar, and lidar, enabling clients to make roads safer and improve access to mobility."

2. Nuro

Total capital raised: $1 billion
Most recent valuation: $2.7 billion

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of a suite of robotics designed to make life easier. The company's robotics include an autonomous vehicle which helps to transport goods quickly, safely, and affordably."

1. Argo AI

Total capital raised: $2.6 billion
Most recent valuation: $7.3 billion

What the company does (according to Pitchbook): "Developer of artificial-intelligence software designed to offer self-driving technology. The company's artificial-intelligence technology helps to tackle robotics and artificial intelligence for self-driving vehicles, enabling its users to avail effective self-driving technology."

Personal information belonging to thousands of Instacart users is up for sale on the dark web, BuzzFeed reported on Wednesday.
The information being sold includes customer names, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and order histories.
An Instacart spokesperson said the company is not aware of a data breach.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The personal data of thousands of Instacart users is for sale on the dark web, BuzzFeed reported late Wednesday night.

The personal information reportedly includes customer names, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and order histories. It is being sold for about $2 a person and appears to have been uploaded in June and July.

An Instacart spokesperson told Business Insider the company is not aware of a data breach.

"We take data protection and privacy very seriously. As a part of this commitment, we have a dedicated security team as well as multiple layers of security measures across common vectors designed to protect the integrity of all user accounts," the spokesperson said.

"More broadly, outside of the Instacart platform, attackers may target individuals using phishing or credential stuffing techniques. In general, this type of activity can occur across the web when a person uses similar login credentials across various websites and apps. In instances where we believe a customer's account may have been compromised through an external phishing scam outside of the Instacart platform or other action, we proactively communicate to our customers to auto-force them to update their password."

Instacart has benefited from a boom in online grocery as many continue to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic. At the beginning of July, the company raised an additional $100 million in venture funding, adding to the $225 million it raised in June. It was valued at $13.8 billion in the most recent funding round.

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elon musk

SolarCity dominated the rooftop solar industry in the years before it was acquired by Tesla in 2016.
Now the firm, part of Tesla's energy business, has just about 5% of the market, according to the research firm Wood Mackenzie.
What happened? SolarCity was a huge solar installer, but it was struggling financially when Tesla bought it.
Tesla diverted resources away from SolarCity following the acquisition to focus on the Model 3, according to analysts interviewed for this story.
The coronavirus pandemic has slowed installations, the company said.
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Just five years ago, a Silicon Valley company founded by two of Elon Musk's cousins ruled rooftop solar.

In 2015, SolarCity controlled more than a third of the market for residential solar and installed a whopping 870 megawatts, according to the research firm Wood Mackenzie. The second-largest company at the time, Vivint Solar, had just 11% market share.

Then, a year later, when SolarCity was struggling financially, Tesla bought it.

In the years that followed, SolarCity's installations fell, dipping to a mere 29 megawatts last spring. Installations were slightly up in the second half of the year, only to fall even lower once the coronavirus began to spread.

On Wednesday, Tesla said it installed just 27 megawatts of solar from April to June — its lowest deployment per quarter, ever.

Competition is also heating up. Earlier this month, the leading rooftop-solar company Sunrun said it would buy the second-largest installer, Vivint Solar. The combined company would control at least 15% of the market.

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The pandemic is partially to blame for Tesla's recent slide. In its earnings call Wednesday, Tesla's CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said the closure of permit offices limited installation volumes.

But four analysts who spoke to Business Insider earlier this year — well before the coronavirus became a pandemic — said the company has long had problems with its solar offering and is unlikely to see major success in this line of business.

They also questioned whether the company's buzzy solar roof product would ever become mainstream, although Tesla said it tripled solar roof installations in the most recent quarter.

Do you have information about Tesla's solar glass roof or solar panels? Please contact energy@businessinsider.com or reach us through the secure messaging app Signal at (646) 768-1657.

solarcity

The decline of SolarCity

SolarCity wasn't soaring when Tesla bought it in 2016. As several sources have already reported, the firm was saddled with debt in 2016, leading some investors to call the acquisition a bailout.

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to face a trial, tied to the deal, in which shareholders are seeking $2.6 billion in damages. Shareholders allege that Musk failed to "disclose the depth of SolarCity's problems, or their own conflicts," per Reuters. The trial, originally set for March, was delayed due to the coronavirus and a new date has yet to be set.

But since acquiring the firm, Tesla has done little to support the enormous lead the company once had. And several missteps have run it further into the ground, according to Gordon Johnson, an analyst at GLJ Research and well-known Tesla bear.

As Musk himself has acknowledged, part of the problem was that Tesla was focused on the production ramp for the Model 3 car at the time of the acquisition.

"For about 1.5 years, we unfortunately stripped Tesla Energy of engineering and other resources," Musk said in an earnings call last year.

It's hard to know exactly what other resources Musk is talking about, but it's clear that SolarCity's door-to-door sales team was, at some point, gutted in favor of other sales strategies, according to Michelle Davis, a senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie. Plus, the firm ended its partnerships with major retailers like Home Depot, she said.

Selling solar panels is nothing like selling cars, analysts say

Tesla's solar competitors like Sunrun and Vivint Solar spend a lot on sales; as of earlier this year, the cost for a watt of solar energy was about $3 in the US, and these businesses spend more than $1 per watt on customer acquisition, according to estimates from Wood Mackenzie.

Tesla has taken a different approach.

The firm has banked on a crossover sales strategy, said Jeff Osborne, a financial analyst at Cowen, whereby customers who are in the market for electric cars might also buy panels, either online or in a showroom.

But buying solar panels is far more complicated than purchasing a car, Osborne said.

"The idea of just going on a website and procuring solar or swinging by the mall and saying, 'I want to buy solar,' this $15,000-$25,000 purchase on average, is not something that happens in reality," he said. "I think that strategic goal failed."

Tesla's solar glass roof faces questions

Business Insider has previously reported on issues with Tesla's solar panels, which some customers like Walmart say are linked to fires.

In interviews earlier this year, Wall Street analysts pointed out other problems related to cost. Unlike its competitors, Tesla says it manufactures its solar panels domestically, at a factory in Buffalo, New York.

"It's pretty tough to make domestic panel manufacturing work," said Joe Osha, an analyst at JMP Securities. "That's a tough row to hoe, and to be honest, I find that pretty suspect."

Tesla's solar roof product, which differs from its panels, is made of attractive glass shingles that double as electricity-generating solar panels. With an emphasis on appearance, they've attracted a lot of attention.

Versions one and two of the glass roof "didn't work," Osborne said. And while Musk said 2019 would be the "year of the solar roof" and the company would soon produce 1,000 roofs per week, there has been little to show for it.

"The volumes are very small," Osha said earlier this year. "I know it would require major changes in terms of how the business model works. You've got to get out and get roofers to do this. They've got to demonstrate the reliability of this."

In its earnings report this week, Tesla said it tripled installations of the solar roof product in the period April through June, relative to the prior quarter, but a preliminary analysis by Wood Mackenzie suggests the absolute number of roofs is likely still low. The analysis showed the company installed just 100 solar roofs in California, the largest solar market, through the first three months of 2020.

Will Tesla's solar business bounce back?

Musk, for one, is confident that Tesla's energy business, which includes home batteries, will ascend. In a call with investors last year, he said it will eventually "grow faster than automotive."

Tesla's solar offering is the cheapest in the US, at $2 a watt before tax incentives, Musk said on Wednesday's call. Analysts at Wood Mackenzie confirmed that, at $2 a watt, Tesla's offering would be the cheapest in the US market.

"We're very confident that people will have our solar product, whether it's the solar retrofit or Solar Roof," Musk said on Wednesday.

That view is shared by some Wall Street bulls.

Tesla has an incredibly strong brand, a high potential for crossover sales, and it's already been on top, said Colin Rusch, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.

But "whether it's the best use of capital for the organization is a totally different question," he said. "I would say it's not a high priority, as a concern, for most folks."

Energy is just a sliver of Tesla's business, accounting for just 6% of sales in 2019, so investors aren't focused on the business. Roof or no roof, Tesla will still sell electric cars.

"90%-plus of investors don't care about it," Osborne said. "Quite honestly, it doesn't really move the needle for them, even if it doubled next quarter. If you were to have a list of Elon's top 20 priorities, I would be shocked if this is in the top 10."

Which leads to the final question, posed by Osha: Tesla has a highly successful EV and battery business, so why is Elon Musk still investing in solar at all?

This story was originally published on February 26. It was updated with Tesla's second-quarter earnings report.

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Jen Grant joined no-code software startup Turbo Systems in February as a first-time CEO, and on Thursday the company announced $3.45 million in Series A extension funding.
The former CMO at Looker rushed to put together a pitch deck once she realized there was an opportunity to raise extension funding from existing investor Mayfield and possibly other interested VCs.
Grant said that the remote fundraising process was probably faster than it would have been if she'd had to meet with new and existing investors in person, because of the travel and logistics it would have involved to get everyone in the same room.
Grant worked closely with founder and CTO Hari Subramanian to create the deck so that it remained consistent with what he had shared in the past but also included updates based on Grant's vision for the business.
See the full deck below.
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Jen Grant had already prepared a 60-day plan when she joined no-code software startup Turbo Systems as CEO. She was a first-time chief executive, and she wanted to make an impact early on at the 3-year-old company once she officially joined in February.

Then the pandemic hit.

Instead of prioritizing growth and doubling down on enterprise sales, Grant was meeting her team through Zoom and calculating just how long the startup could last on its available funding if the company operated conservatively. Luckily, she told Business Insider, Turbo Systems was in a stable financial position before she joined, and she had the luxury of at least two years' worth of runway.

But after her first board meeting 30 days into her new job, an existing investor advised her to scrap the newest set of conservative plans, and prioritize growth. That could involve raising more money during a pandemic.

"I asked [Mayfield partner Rajeev Batra] to slow down," Grant told Business Insider. "I had only been here for 30 days, so let's slow down. I waited another 30 days, and then I said we should pitch the Mayfield team as, okay, let's talk about it."

It worked. On Thursday, Turbo Systems announced it had raised $3.45 million in Series A extension funding led by Mayfield. The startup had previously raised $8 million in Series A funding, also from Mayfield, back in 2018.

Turbo Systems offers no-code software that, it says, enables any staffer to custom-design a mobile app and deploy it quickly. As its pitch deck outlines, the company is focusing first on helping its customers to organize field services visits for equipment such as medical devices. The company says the apps can be tailored to manage work orders and keep track of details like signatures, and confirmations that workers are using the appropriate protective equipment, or PPE.

Grant said her revised 60-day plan included completely revamping the team's pitch deck, which had been created by founder and CTO Hari Subramanian. She didn't want to erase his vision, she told Business Insider, but she also felt that the new deck would be a stake in the ground by which existing and potential investors could evaluate her as the new CEO.

"When you have a founder and then bring in a new CEO, I have to embrace the big message that Hari has been pitching but I also have to make up my own while deeply understanding what the vision is and owning that," Grant said.

She said the team, along with Batra as an advisor, was able to work out a business story that felt natural and cohesive, while still remaining aggressive about growth. But running slides and practicing the pitch remotely had its own challenges, Grant said. Timing and picking who spoke when was tricky, as was incorporating revisions from multiple parties. Ultimately, she says she was happy with the remote pitching process, though it might not work well for every company to bypass in-person meetings. Grant says she recognized that Turbo Systems' successful raise was largely a function of the relationships she and Subramanian built prior to the pandemic.

"I think it actually goes a little faster when everything's remote because getting everyone in person is more difficult, but with remote it's just, do you have time on your calendar and let's schedule something," Grant said. "I imagine the advantage that I had when pitching these folks was that I had some sort of relationship with or Hari had a relationship with or Rajeev from Mayfield had a relationship."

See Turbo Systems' Series A pitch deck that combined the founder's and the new CEO's company visions and brought investors on board remotely.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's reelection campaign posted an Facebook ad that misleadingly used a picture from a 2014 Ukraine protest to illustrate "chaos & violence."
The picture's photographer confirmed to Business Insider on Wednesday that the image is of pro-democracy protesters in Ukraine six years ago.
Facebook has not removed the advert, though it now appears to be inactive.
A source close to Facebook told Business Insider the platform will not delete the ad, and that politicians are exempt from its third-party fact-checking program.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook will not remove a misleading advert by President Donald Trump's reelection campaign that used a 2014 photo from Ukraine to illustrate "chaos & violence," a source close to the company said.

The ad, which was released on Facebook on Tuesday, sought to contrast "public safety" with "chaos & violence" with two images. The first showed Trump listening to law-enforcement officials, while the second showed an image of protesters appearing to attack a police officer.

However, the image of the protesters was not taken in America in 2020, but in Kyiv, Ukraine, in March 2014. The picture's photographer, Mstyslav Chernov, confirmed the date and location of the image to Business Insider on Wednesday.

Though the advert did not explicitly claim the picture is from the US, it comes at a time when civil unrest in American cities has become a key GOP campaigning point.

A source close to Facebook told Business Insider on Thursday that the company is not removing the ad because politicians are exempt from the platform's third-party fact-checking program.

According to Facebook's advertising archive, the ad is now inactive, meaning that it is not being shown to people. It is not clear when the ad was made inactive, and who made the decision to do it. Business Insider contacted Facebook for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Before it went inactive, the ad had been distributed to pro-Trump groups like "Evangelicals for Trump." As of Thursday, fewer than 1,000 people have seen it, according to the advertising archive.

Though politicians are exempt from Facebook's third-party fact-checking program, they can still be punished if they incite violence or voter suppression, which violates the platform's rules.

Facebook has previously removed Trump campaign adverts over issues of census misinformation, copyright infringement and use of hate organization symbols as well.

Tuesday's advert did not violate any copyright issues, as it was posted under a Creative Commons license to Wikimedia Commons. (Business Insider sought the additional permission of the photographer to publish the image.)

The photo also happens to be the first image that appears in Google Images under the search term "protester attacks police officer," with the image permission settings toggled to "labeled for reuse with modification," as cyber threat analyst Nate Beach-Westmoreland pointed out in a tweet.

There is no indication that the Trump campaign located the photo this way.

The ad ran as tensions between law-enforcement officials and protesters are at a record high.

Trump has said he supports the right to peaceful protest during the swell of activism that followed the police killing of George Floyd.

However, his campaign has amped up rhetoric against what it says are violent protesters, and the issue has become a major focus for Trump's administration and reelection campaign.

Trump has sent federal agents to quell protests in Portland— against the wishes of local officials — and has threatened to send more to other Democrat-led cities. The city's leaders have warned that the move will only amplify tensions between law enforcement and protesters.

A video uploaded to Trump's YouTube channel on Wednesday, which included clips of brawling and disorderly protesters, is titled: "Far-left fascists have turned Portland into a violent hellscape."

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Tesla plans to launch a "major insurance company," CEO Elon Musk announced during a call with investors Wednesday.
Tesla plans to use data from its cars' computers to determine insurance rates for drivers based on how aggressively they drive, similar to what other insurers offer through third-party connected devices.
Tesla already offers a basic insurance product in California, which Musk described as "version 0.9," which saw a rocky rollout last year.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Despite a rocky rollout from its first attempt, Tesla is gunning for a full-fledged insurance product using data collected from its vehicles to offer cheaper premiums than traditional insurers.

"We're building a great, like a major insurance company," CEO Elon Musk told investors on Tesla's second-quarter earnings conference call, after reportinga fourth-consecutive profitable period, its longest streak in company history.

"Ultimately," he explained, "where we want to get to with Tesla Insurance is to be able to use the data that's captured in the car, in the driving profile of the person in the car, to be able to assess correlations and probabilities of crash and be able then to assess a premium on a monthly basis for that customer."

Musk's interest in offering a cheaper insurance product to Tesla owners isn't new. For years, drivers have complained of higher costs, mostly due to more expensive fixes on the cars. The company first talked about insurance in April of 2019, before launching a product in California a few months later.

That launch, however, was marred with issues.

Just hours after going live, the site was taken down for an "algorithm update." Some customers who were able to get quotes before the pause said they were quoted rates that were higher than their current third-party insurance plans, despite Tesla's pitch of 20% lower rates. That product was "version 0.9," Musk said.

Connected cars aren't a new trend in insurance, though Tesla could likely have even more insight into driver behavior and safety habits.

"At the heart of being competitive with insurance is what is the accuracy of your information," Musk said. "Like are you dealing with — are you forced to assess people statistically looking in the rear-view mirror? Or can you assess people individually, looking ahead with smart projections, and inform the driver that — of how they may reduce their — what actions they can take to reduce their insurance."

By the end of the year, Musk said, Tesla hopes to launch insurance in a handful of US states with plans to eventually offer plans nationwide.

"I would love to have some high energy actuaries, especially," he said. "I have great respect for the actuarial profession. Your guys are great at math. Please join Tesla, especially if you want to change things and you're annoyed by how slow the industry is. Tesla is the place to be. We want revolutionary actuaries."

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Satya Nadella

Microsoft is valued at over $1 trillion, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Microsoft reported earnings for the full 2020 fiscal year on Wednesday, beating analyst expectations for overall results.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, has operated as a transformational leader since he took the helm in 2014.
Nadella and his team have emphasized Microsoft's cloud business and a psychological attitude called growth mindset.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus recession has not threatened Microsoft's central role in the tech industry.

The company cut a small number of jobs as it entered the new fiscal year, but the cuts affected less than 1,000 jobs — and Microsoft's reported earnings for the full 2020 fiscal year, released on Wednesday, beat analyst expectations.

Microsoft continued to see strong growth in businesses including Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Windows, and Xbox, as stay at home orders lead to heightened demand for video games and remote work tools, Business Insider's Ashley Stewart reported. However, it did miss expectations on the business unit that includes Office 365 cloud productivity suite and its Microsoft Teams communications app, Stewart reported.

Microsoft has come a long way since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, a time when the tech company was known for its internally competitive culture and plateauing shares. By October 2019, Microsoft won a $10 billion cloud-computing contract with the Pentagon over Amazon Web Services.

That rolls into a larger question: How did this once stagnant company achieve a trillion-dollar valuation?

Over the past six years, Nadella has made a series of sound business decisions after assuming the CEO position. He used his experience running Microsoft's cloud and enterprise group to push the intelligent-cloud effort that's driving Microsoft's over performance in quarterly earnings. He was willing to work with competitors like Oracle and Sony, and supported Linux on the Azure platform. He even walked on stage at Dreamforce in 2015 with an iPhone to demonstrate Outlook.

In October 2019, Microsoft secured the contested Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract with the Pentagon. Industry experts long considered Amazon the front-runner for this contract. Internally, Microsoft employees complained that taking a defense contract would mean being complicit in "increasing the lethality" of the defense department. Nadella heard them out but confirmed that Microsoft "will be engaged" when it comes to the US military.

Nadella continues to make bold moves for the company in the wake of the coronavirus recession. Last month, Microsoft announced plans to shut down its video game streaming service and close most of its retail stores. Analysts say that those decisions are part of CEO Satya Nadella's strategy to ruthlessly prioritize Microsoft's strengths while cutting losses in other areas.

As a company, Microsoft has visibly grown from where it stood in 2014.

For a deeper understanding, consider the influence of Nadella's leadership style and how he has shaped Microsoft's culture.

Prioritizing growth and transformation

Nadella has been very public about his embrace of a growth mindset, a concept that actually grew out of developmental psychology.

The Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck was studying what made grade-schoolers succeed or not when she noticed something odd: Some of the kids loved riddles and difficult problems, while others shut down in the face of them. When the riddle-loving children encountered a problem they didn't understand, they didn't think they were failing— they thought they were learning.

Hence a growth mindset, in which people jump at challenges and see failure as part of a larger learning process, and a fixed mindset, in which challenges are a turnoff, and failure something to be urgently avoided.

Over the decades, Dweck and her colleagues have found that a growth mindset leads to success in both the classroom and the workplace.

And Nadella has credited "Mindset," Dweck's popular book, with the tech giant's culture change.

Ushering in a growth mindset across a culture

Nadella's style of leadership is different from what Microsoft is used to. Bill Gates built a workaholic culture that he has since characterized as intense. Steve Ballmer focused on short-term sales performance over long-term sustainability.

In making his many unprecedented moves, Nadella has demonstrated a growth mindset on a large scale.

According to the New York University psychologist Jay Van Bavel, acquiring a growth mindset means focusing on how your group is improving over time, as well as getting everyone to work on collective goals. It takes the focus off competitors and moves it to the company's internal strategy for sustainable growth.

Crucially, a growth mindset destigmatizes making mistakes and struggling with tough problems — like, for instance, if you were trying to take a software giant and push it into cloud computing.

Shaping identity

To Van Bavel, Nadella is also an example of an identity-based leader.

"You get your team to feel like you're all part of a common group," he said — for example, by leading a 38-hour hackathon and bringing together some 10,000 employees, as Nadella did five years ago.

It's about getting everyone to buy into a vision, like a growth mindset, and modeling it yourself.

Identity-based leadership is a hallmark of executive performance, though it is not without risks. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is another example of the identity-oriented leader, as is the ousted WeWork CEO Adam Neumann.

Microsoft Chairman John Thompson told Business Insider in July that the most important driver of growth was "the cultural transformation that Satya's led."

"The attitude that the team has about each other, their engagement with customers and partners, their belief in openness and inclusiveness," he said. "All of those things have changed under his leadership."

Sherin Shibu contributed to an earlier version of this post.

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Lucid Air

Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson worked for Tesla CEO Elon Musk from 2009 to 2012.
Rawlinson said the biggest lesson he learned from Musk is the importance of relentless optimism.
"Sometimes you have to put all your chips in," Rawlinson said.
Are you a current or former Lucid employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com, on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address mmatousek@protonmail.com.
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Peter Rawlinson worked for Tesla CEO Elon Musk from 2009-2012 as he led the development of the electric-car maker's groundbreaking Model S sedan. Now the chief executive of the electric-vehicle startup Lucid Motors, Rawlinson learned from Musk the importance of relentless optimism.

"I really believe that success can beget success," Rawlinson said in an interview with Business Insider. "It can be a self-fulfilling prophecy if you're really committed and you're all in, and everyone at Lucid knows I am. And that's the leadership I hope I provide."

If you focus too much on what might go wrong, it can decrease your odds of achieving your goals, he added.

"Sometimes you have to put all your chips in," he said.

Musk, Rawlinson said, demonstrated his commitment to success "on an hour-by-hour basis." Rawlinson has taken that attitude to Lucid, which he joined in 2013 (he became the company's CEO in 2019). His confidence in the company and its debut vehicle, the Air luxury sedan, is driven by Lucid's in-house engineering and design efforts. According to the company, the Air will be able to drive over 400 miles between charges and accelerate from 0-60 mph in under 2.5 seconds. Those specs would make the Air competitive with the Model S, which, depending on the trim, has a maximum range of 402 miles and a 2.3-second 0-60 mph time.

"We're creating a car which is going to be the best car in the world," Rawlinson said. "People are going to want it."

Lucid will unveil the production version of the Air in September before beginning production next year. The vehicle's price will start "well north" of $100,000, Rawlinson said.

Are you a current or former Lucid employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com, on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address mmatousek@protonmail.com.

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Tesla's stock price has jumped from $373 at the end of March 18 to $1,678 when markets opened on Thursday.
Morgan Stanley said in a research note published on July 13 that those who have bought Tesla shares for $1,500 or more are making four questionable bets about Tesla and its competitive and economic environments.
Those investors are banking on relatively peaceful trade relations between the US and China, weak competition from other automakers and tech companies, and Tesla's automated-driving technology bringing in a large amount of revenue in the coming years.
Are you a current or former Tesla employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com, on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address mmatousek@protonmail.com.
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Tesla's stock price has been on a tear this year, rising from $373 at the end of March 18 to $1,678 when markets opened on Thursday.

But investors who have paid $1,500 or more for Tesla shares are making four questionable assumptions about Tesla, its rivals, and macroeconomic conditions, Morgan Stanley said in a research note published on July 13.

"In our view, buying the stock at these levels one must believe: (a) that US-China relations will remain copacetic on trade/IP long term, (b) the legacy [automakers] will fail to produce a competitive EV product, (c) the big tech platforms (AMZN, GOOGL, APPL, etc.) will either not try to develop compelling EV systems, not achieve success, or, if successful, use Tesla technology in its offering, (d) that autonomous driving can produce substantial service revenue ($50 to $100 ARPU) over the next three to five or five to 10 years," the bank said.

Morgan Stanley raised doubts about the prospect of those four scenarios playing out simultaneously, saying, "We remain concerned about Sino-US relations with respect to autos. We believe legacy players will spend $400 billion to $500 billion on EVs over the next five years. We expect big tech (established and clean-sheet startups) to enter transport as a significant competitive force in EVs. And we are extremely cautious on the pace of adoption of full autonomy as a percentage of miles traveled over the next decade (<0.3% by 2030)."

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Though Tesla shares have been more expensive than those of General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler for years, the electric-car maker reached a new milestone earlier this month when its market capitalization surpassed Toyota's, making Tesla the most valuable automaker, based on the value of shares held by investors.

Skyrocketing investor confidence has come as Tesla has posted four consecutive profitable quarters for the first time in its history, begun production of its Model Y SUV months ahead of schedule, and surpassed analysts' expectations for vehicle deliveries in the second quarter of this year, though Morgan Stanley expressed confusion regarding the significant number of Tesla shares that have been traded in recent weeks.

"We have made efforts to identify the source of such extraordinary levels of volume (long-only short covering, retail, index, quant, ESG options, intra-exchange volume), but admittedly, it is not entirely clear to us where the bulk of the volume is originating," the bank said in its July 13 note.

Are you a current or former Tesla employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com, on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address mmatousek@protonmail.com.

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Some financial firms are evaluating their post-pandemic office needs.
Wells Fargo is not renewing its lease in a 750-person WeWork space in Charlotte, N.C. Citi meanwhile has signed a lease for a roughly 100-person WeWork space that's not in a major city.
UBS is pushing ahead with working with WeWork remodelling a large space in New Jersey, now incorporating a social distancing-geared design.
Charlie Morris, head of Avison Young's US Flexible Office Solutions practice, said he's seen financial services remain "active" in the flex-office market, and that his firm's consulting with a "very large" player on committing a large percentage of space to flex-office.
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Big financial firms now have had the experience of operating largely remotely for the first extended period of its kind.

Many of these companies' plans for fully returning employees to buildings are up in the air — particularly in the US — as the coronavirus pandemic's path changes by the day.

Some are taking this opportunity to reevaluate their office needs. But there's no industry-wide consensus yet on how it will shake out.

Of the 400 chief human resource officers, chief information officers, and chief operating officers across US-headquartered banks, insurers, and capital markets firms polled in an Accenture survey published on Tuesday, 51% expected to keep their real-estate footprints, and 42% expected reductions.

Here's a look at some of the biggest financial firms' real estate and flex-office plans:

Wells Fargo is leaving a 750-person Charlotte WeWork space

In Charlotte, N.C., a big financial-services hub, Wells Fargo has chosen not to renew its lease in a prominent WeWork location in the city, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The bank, headquartered in San Francisco with a large presence in Charlotte, had a 24-month lease for the 750-person space at 128 South Tryon Street starting in September 2019, according to this person. A clause in Wells Fargo and WeWork's contract provided the bank the option to exit the lease after one year, this source said.

WeWork has touted the seven-floor, 130,000-square feet location inside the First Citizens Bank Plaza building as its largest office in the Southeast US when it opened, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.

A spokesperson for Wells Fargo declined to comment. A spokesperson for WeWork also declined to comment.

Wells Fargo, meanwhile, is planning to keep more than 200,000 employees working from home until at least September, according to a second-quarter earnings call transcript on the investment research platform Sentieo.

For Wells Fargo, reducing expenses was a key objective for Chief Executive Charlie Scharf even before the pandemic hit. On the earnings call with analysts on July 14, Scharf said he found some $10 billion in expenses Wells Fargo would need to cut. He said he expected the bank to start taking action in the second half of 2020, and that could mean consolidating branches, field offices, and corporate sites.

It's likely the bank will have to house fewer employees, regardless. Wells executives are drafting plans that could cut tens of thousands of jobs starting this year, Bloomberg News reported in early July. The bank reported some 263,000 global employees as of March.

TIAA has moved out of a temporary Midtown Manhattan WeWork space it rented while its headquarters are being renovated

The $1.1 trillion manager TIAA moved into four of WeWork's five floors at 575 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan as temporary space while its nearby headquarters undergoes renovations. TIAA didn't renew its WeWork lease and moved out as originally planned in June. Employees will work remotely until renovations wrap up.

In 2018, WeWork leased five floors at the location totaling 117,000 square feet. According to July marketing materials from WeWork viewed by Business Insider, the coworking giant is currently looking to fill one 20,070-square-foot full-floor space on the 16th floor, as well as 12,000-square-foot and 10,000-square-foot partial spaces on the 15th floor at 575 Lexington.

TIAA's real-estate subsidiary, Nuveen, was WeWork's second-biggest US landlord last year, based on CoStar Group data, Business Insider reported in August. Nuveen leased more than 600,000 square feet of space to WeWork in the US as of last June, per CoStar, which declined to provide more recent figures.

Nuveen does not own 575 Lexington Avenue. That building's trio of private owners put the property up for sale earlier this year, The Real Deal reported in January.

Others are adding flex space, and more deals could be in the future

Citi and Mastercard are among the companies that have signed new leases with WeWork recently, according to a July 12 report in the Financial Times.

The lease agreement Citi signed with WeWork is for a small office intended for some 100 people, and is not in a major metropolitan US area, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider. A spokesperson for Mastercard said the company could not comment on specific real-estate deals.

WeWork Chairman Marcelo Claure told the Financial Times that the office company was on track to be cash-flow positive in 2021, thanks to aggressive cost cutting and strong in-demand from companies seeking flexible-office arrangements because of the pandemic.

Charlie Morris, head of Avison Young's US Flexible Office Solutions practice, said that he's seen financial services remain "active" in the flexible-office market, and that for some firms, the pandemic has been an accelerator.

He said that his firm has been consulting with "one very large financial-services firm" on committing a large percentage of its office space into flexible-office in the future. The plan pre-dated coronavirus, but he said that the firm is "definitely involved more so post-COVID."

UBS say it's thinking about flexibility

UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti told analysts on a Tuesday earnings call that the Swiss bank has already been looking at its global real-estate footprint.

"There is an acceleration that more and more you will have a situation in which people don't have necessarily their own desks, but they have a space in which they need to share. And that creates a lot of flexibility in the way we manage our real-estate footprint," he said.

Last month, the firm's chief operating officer, Sabine Keller-Busse, told Bloomberg News that she could envision about one-third of UBS's workforce of some 70,000 people permanently working remotely. Ermotti largely reiterated that outlook on Tuesday.

UBS, with North American regional headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, is working physical-distancing design plans into a previously instated renovation program in conjunction with WeWork for 100,000 square feet of UBS's Weehawken, N.J. office, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Morgan Stanley looks to keep its presence in big cities

For some firms, the prestige and appeal of big cities could be hard to let go.

"I think headquarters will always be in these iconic cities, and the symbol of that — it's kind of the Mecca of the finance industry," said Jocelyn Kung, the founder and CEO of organization development consulting group the Kung Group, referring to New York City. "I would think that symbol will never go away."

"But the way that work happens and transactions occur more and more through electronic transfer and remote work — that is not just in the finance industry, but all over it's happening," she said.

On a call with analysts last week, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said having 90% of the bank's total workforce working remotely has given management a chance to rethink office strategy — but shot down the notion the New York-headquartered bank would meaningfully cut back in big cities.

"We're committed to the major cities in this world where we have our headquarters: here in New York, where I am today with [finance chief Jon Pruzan] although socially distanced; London; Frankfurt, which we've moved and consolidated, is our European headquarters; Tokyo and Hong Kong. That doesn't change. Morgan Stanley will remain a major player in the commercial real-estate market globally," he said.

In wealth management, Morgan Stanley's force of some 15,400 financial advisers have been gradually returning to offices in some areas of the US where local mandates allow, a person familiar with the matter said.

The wealth business had already been trimming branches — it had 584 through June 30, down from 591 in March. But that was planned pre-pandemic, this person said, and those offices could wind up with even smaller footprints in the future.

A startup that uses AI to scan Wall Street chats is flagging more people for cursing and complaining — and it could be a sign of bigger compliance issues while people work from home

Wall Street is starting to return to the office — but not everyone is heading back. Here's which finance jobs are the most likely to remain virtual.

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Netflix recently named its content chief, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO along with Reed Hastings.
The co-CEO system is nothing new — Chipotle, Whole Foods, Deutsche Bank, and Samsung have had more than one CEO at the same time.
Having more than one chief executive can help a company accomplish more, but the system is certainly not for every company.
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Netflix recently named its content chief, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO along with Reed Hastings.

"To be totally clear, I'm in for a decade," said Hastings during the company's quarterly earnings call.

Netflix isn't the first major company to tap more than one CEO at the same time. Chipotle, Whole Foods, and Deutsche Bank have also been run by two CEOs. Samsung even has three of them. But why?

The co-CEO system is nothing new, though it is certainly uncommon. Previous implementations suggest that having more than one chief executive can help a company accomplish more by delegating different roles to each head. But the system is certainly not for every company.

Sometimes referred to as "two-in-the-box," the unusual structure can provide "increased scope and broader capacity," Joseph L. Bower, a management professor at Harvard Business School, told Business Insider.

Bower, author of "The CEO Within," thinks that co-CEOs can better lead certain companies.

"If one CEO is on a global tour of facilities, the other can deal with the government at home," Bower offered as an example. "It also increases the range of talents in the box. A visionary can be complemented by a hands-on operator."

This was the case when Oracle's Larry Ellison stepped down and named two CEOs to replace him. Safra Catz oversees manufacturing, finance, and legal decisions, while Mark Hurd manages the sales, service, and global business units.

Some companies keep the founder in place and bring in an experienced executive to share the role. Whole Foods has kept its founder as one CEO and remains the heart of his company. That dynamic has shown that keeping a founder at the top as an inspirational lead and partnering them with a leader with more management experience can yield great results.

Steve Ells founded Chipotle in 1993 and served as its singular CEO until 2009, when he promoted then president and COO Monty Moran to the position. That same year, Chipotle's annual earnings jumped 67% from 2008. Moran honed his delegation skills when he led a team of lawyers at the firm Messner Reeves, and those skills complemented Ells' passion for culinary creativity. Moran left the company in 2016 and Ells stepped down as CEO in 2017.

chipotle CEOs split

Having dual CEOs is more common in countries like Germany, said Bower, where "collective management is a tradition of sorts." German company Deutsche Bank had two CEOs until 2016. SAP only recently ended its run under co-CEOs.

Jack Zenger, CEO of the leadership research firm Zenger Folkman, agrees that the co-CEO structure could work well in some situations, such as a temporary solution after a big merger or when a CEO wants to groom their successor.

But the management structure also comes with significant downsides. Even when the two CEOs determine which duties to split, it's only natural that "one person is going to be held primo and the other person is going to play a secondary role," says Zenger. "To me, it seems like it raises an unnecessary set of issues that aren't really sustainable in the long run."

For example, having two CEOs of a small business, like online eyewear retailer Warby Parker's Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa, could help grow the company by splitting major responsibilities, according to Zenger. But it could also create problems with clients who may be confused about who to consult about a major decision.

And though Zenger admits that having another executive to discuss something before approaching the board is a benefit of the system, he thinks that co-CEOs risk over complicating things by having to report to each other constantly.

Oracle CEOs

Bower also recognizes that most companies that try the system will feel the strain of divided command. "It takes great discipline to consult when appropriate, be decisive when needed, and not blow up the arrangement when one's partner has violated an aspect of the arrangement," he said.

In 2008, for instance, media company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia named Wenda Harris Millard and Robin Marino as dual CEOs. But the arrangement dissolved in less than a year, reportedly due to disagreements at the top.

Despite the risks, Bower thinks that the US may be gradually moving toward a leadership culture more akin to Germany's, in which co-CEOs would not be such a rarity. "[A]s we strengthen the non-executive chairman's role, as well as the lead director, we may — in effect — be moving in that direction," he said.

Zenger, on the other hand, believes that the history of business leadership weighs too heavily against the co-CEO structure becoming mainstream anytime soon. "After centuries of experience, it's usually easier if there's one person who has the ultimate say," he said.

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Former Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek disappeared in late June after a $2 billion hole was found in the German company's accounts. Sources tell Insider they believe he is in hiding in Russia.
But why would Russian security agencies help with the escape of a fugitive fintech executive?
"There's a million reasons [for the Russians] to get involved with Wirecard," a Dutch official told Insider. "Russian officials always need to move money to the West, and Wirecard was raising lots of money but not as much as they told investors.
"Russian government and intelligence services expect financial favors by way of support for off-the-books intelligence operations by their favored businessmen," a Central European counterintelligence official told Insider.
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European Union investigators and prosecutors have arrested three former top executives from the German financial firm Wirecard, which spectacularly collapsed last month after a $2 billion hole was found in its accounts by outside auditors. They continue to seek former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek for questioning, although law enforcement officials are worried that he may have fled to Russia in late June. 

Former CEO Markus Braun and two other executives were rearrested on Wednesday by German police. Investigators believe that Wirecard — a rising star in European Union online financial circles — had been fraudulently misrepresenting its assets to investors on a systematic basis.

After outside auditors discovered in late June that two accounts that were supposed to be holding $1.9 billion did not exist, Wirecard quickly collapsed. More than $3.2 billion in loans from European and Japanese banks is expected to be lost by investors. Within days of being fired, Braun and other executives were detained for questioning, but Marsalek fled Germany. Security sources told Insider he is most likely in Russia. 

He knew the recipe for novichok

Marsalek appears to have substantial ties to Russian intelligence, European law enforcement officials told Insider, who cited his public bragging of trips to Syria in the company of Russian military contractors, about 60 trips to Russia over a 10-year period on six Austrian and three other unidentified "diplomatic" passports, as well as links to various Austrian right-wing politicians and political parties themselves linked to Russia politically and economically.

Marsalek also once bragged to colleagues that he knew the recipe for Novichok, showing the documents containing the "recipe" for the chemical used to poison ex-Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018, according to the Financial Times.

"We believe he is in Russia," a Dutch law enforcement official told Insider. "That he could so easily evade the German warrants, and cross into Russia from Belarus, certainly indicates official cooperation with Russian intelligence." 

When asked what Russian intelligence would gain from involvement with a German online finance company, two EU law enforcement officials gave nearly identical accounts of a nexus between criminal activity and Russian intelligence and political operations. 

'Russian officials always need to move money to the West, and Wirecard was raising lots of money but not as much as they told investors'

"There's a million reasons to get involved with Wirecard," said the Dutch official. "Russian officials always need to move money to the West, and Wirecard was raising lots of money but not as much as they told investors. So there's strong indications of both money laundering as well as fraud." 

"So now the Russians have access to money sloshing around in Europe, Germany in Wirecard, and even Braun and Marsalek themselves in Austria," the official adds, pointing to an Austrian criminal investigation into both men filed as the company collapsed.  

"It's well understood that the Russian government and intelligence services expect financial favors by way of support for off-the-books intelligence operations by their favored businessmen," said a Central European counterintelligence official who cannot be named because of close ties between their government and Russia.  

"Austrian prosecutors will be investigating if Wirecard or these executives were funneling Russian support by way of cash to political figures," the official said. "Or I hope they do, as this has been an allegation raised in the past." 

In 2019, prosecutors began an investigation into the use of Austrian banks in Russian money laundering that threatened to drag in members of the political elite.

And in March, 2019 the government of Sebastian Kurtz was forced to resign after allegations that officials from their junior coalition partner, the far-right Freedom Party, had engaged in unethical dealings with Russian nationals. 

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At its Inspire 2020 event this week, Microsoft announced new features for Teams that will deepen integrations across its broader enterprise ecosystem. Google has pursued a similar strategy — last week, we wrote about how the company's forthcoming G Suite overhaul will further integrate Gmail, Chat, Meet, and Docs, making it harder for standalone services offered by Zoom and Slack to compete.

Microsoft Teams Daily Active Users

Google and Microsoft together account for virtually the entire enterprise-office-suite market, so they can broaden the appeal of new services by embedding them in their already popular platforms. For instance, in March 2020, Microsoft revamped its healthcare software package to enmesh IoT, Azure Cloud, and virtual assistant functionality within Teams and Microsoft 365.

Here are two announcements from the Inspire 2020 event that illustrate Microsoft's integration strategy:

Expanded third-party integrations in Teams will help Microsoft position itself as a more comprehensive enterprise productivity solution. Developers will be able to integrate apps within video meetings, building on established functionality offered in Teams chats. This will make it easier for participants to jump between tasks within a meeting. For instance, talent acquisition platforms iCIMS and HireVue have already leveraged the new feature to build a plug-in allowing participants to provide feedback directly within virtual interviews. By expanding third-party integrations, Microsoft will encourage users to remain within its ecosystem, even when they use apps from outside developers.
Microsoft Dataflex will help companies develop custom apps within the Teams ecosystem. Dataflex is a "low-code" data platform intended to be used by technical and nontechnical workers alike to create and deploy custom apps within the Teams ecosystem. These apps can tap into data aggregated within the Dataflex interface, which supports sources such as Excel, SharePoint, and SQL servers. It can also encourage enterprises to take advantage of a broader range of Microsoft services, as it integrates with Power Automate for Office 365 and intelligent chatbots in Teams.

Microsoft's integration strategy will now be under greater scrutiny, however, since Slack just filed a formal antitrust complaint with the EU. Slack alleges that Microsoft "illegally tied its Teams product into its market-dominant Office productivity suite, force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers."

Jonathan Prince, Slack's vice president of communications and policy, added, "We want to be the 2% of your software budget that makes the other 98% more valuable; they want 100% of your budget every time." While the EU filing will undoubtedly turn a critical eye toward Microsoft's strategy of deepening integrations across its enterprise ecosystem, we don't think it will lead to any changes in behavior prior to a ruling: The pandemic has proven to be a seminal moment for the adoption of enterprise productivity suites, and Microsoft will want to keep up its pace of product development to take full advantage of the opportunity to seize market share.

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Three of the lawmakers tasked with grilling big tech CEOs as part of a congressional antitrust investigation own stock in some of the companies being investigated, Business Insider has found.
The CEOs of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google's parent company Alphabet will give highly anticipated testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Monday.
Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Jim Sensenbrenner, and Steve Chabot are members of the committee that will question the CEOs Monday. Each member owns shares in at least one of those companies, according to their latest financial disclosures.
The testimony will be a pivotal moment in a broader congressional antitrust investigation into whether the tech companies misused their market dominance to edge out competition.
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Three of the lawmakers leading a sweeping antitrust investigation into Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google also own stock in one or more of those companies, creating potential conflicts of interest as the investigation nears a pivotal day of testimony Monday.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, will testify Monday before the House Judiciary Committee. Lawmakers are approaching the end of a monthslong probe into whether the tech companies misused their market dominance to unfairly stifle competition.

But Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner — who is the ranking member of the House Antitrust Subcommittee — and Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Steve Chabot also own stock in those companies, according to their latest financial disclosures. All three House Judiciary Committee Members will be tasked with grilling the tech CEOs on Monday.

It's not illegal for lawmakers to own shares in companies, even when an investigation into those companies is underway. But the holdings could create potential conflicts of interest or undermine public trust in the investigation.

Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and the top GOP representative on the antitrust committee, owns more than $98,000 of stock in the four companies combined. He owns $26,658 in Apple, $27,035 in Amazon, $37,384 in Alphabet, and $7,341 in Facebook, according to his latest financial disclosure.

Lofgren, a California Democrat, owns between $1,000 and $15,000 of stock in Facebook, Apple, and Alphabet each, according to her most recent financial disclosure. She reported that she sold some of those shares in each company in the past year, but did not specify the exact amount that was sold.

Chabot, a Republican from Ohio, owns between $15,000 and $50,000 of stock in Facebook, according to his most recent disclosure.

A spokesperson for Sensenbrenner said the congressman's shares are in a trust set up by Sensenbrenner's late father and that he does not actively manage the portfolio. A spokesperson for Lofgren said her shares are in a rollover IRA managed by her husband and that she does not manage the holdings.

A spokesperson for Chabot did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Judiciary Committee investigation is meant to dig into whether the four tech giants have accumulated so much power that it's become impossible for smaller competitors to gain a foothold. The investigation is far-reaching and could be a pivotal moment in broader backlash against tech companies' power.

Monday's testimony is also hotly anticipated as the Justice Department is preparing a possible antitrust suit against Google, and both Amazon and Facebook are the subject of an ongoing Federal Trade Commission investigation.

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Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider with a list of the nine most in-demand original TV shows on streaming services in the US.
Disney Plus' "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" surged in demand after Disney announced another animated "Star Wars" series is in the works.
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Disney Plus' "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" saw an increase in audience demand this week after Disney announced another animated "Star Wars" series, "The Bad Batch," is in the works for its streaming platform.

Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider with a list of the nine most in-demand TV shows on streaming services in the US.

The data is based on "demand expressions," Parrot Analytics' globally standardized TV-demand measurement unit. Audience demand reflects the desire, engagement, and viewership weighted by importance. The list is ranked by how much more in demand the top series are than the average TV show in the US.

Below are this week's nine most popular original shows on Netflix and other streaming services:

9. "The Witcher" (Netflix)

Times more in demand than average show: 34.9

Description: "Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster-hunter for hire, journeys toward his destiny in a turbulent world where people often prove more wicked than beasts."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 1): 66%

What critics said: "Part GOT, LOTR and Harry Potter, The Witcher's first season is a winner. Henry Cavill is perfectly cast in this sexy, fantastical world with lots of potential." — CineXpress (Season 1)

Season 1 premiered on Netflix on December 20. See more insights for "The Witcher."

8. "Harley Quinn" (DC Universe)

Times more in demand than average show: 35.1

Description: "Harley Quinn has taken down the Joker and Gotham City is finally hers for the taking…whatever's left of it that is. Gotham has become a desolate wasteland, left in ruins, following the huge earthquake caused by the collapse of Joker's tower. Harley's celebration in this newly created chaos is cut short when Penguin, Bane, Mr. Freeze, The Riddler, and Two-Face join forces to restore order in the criminal underworld. Calling themselves the Injustice League, this group now stands in the way of Harley and her crew from taking sole control of Gotham as the top villains of the city."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 2): 100%

What critics said: "Much like the first season, Harley Quinn shines with its comedy. Once more it feels effortless ..." — Geeks of Color (season 2)

Season 2 premiered April 3 on DC Universe. See more insights for "Harley Quinn."

7. "Dark" (Netflix)

Times more in demand than average show: 35.7

Description: "A missing child sets four families on a frantic hunt for answers as they unearth a mind-bending mystery that spans three generations."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 3): 95%

What critics said: "In its final outing, Dark's creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese have delivered an ending the show deserved - one that isn't perfect, but befitting." — Film Companion (Season 3)

Season 3 premiered on Netflix on June 27. See more insights for "Dark."

6. "Lucifer" (Netflix)

Times more in demand than average show: 37.3

Description: "Bored with being the Lord of Hell, the devil relocates to Los Angeles, where he opens a nightclub and forms a connection with a homicide detective."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 4): 100%

What critics said: "The more I think about it, the more I stand by my belief that the majority of season four is among the very best episodes the Lucifer has to offer." — AV Club (Season 4)

Season 5 premieres on Netflix on August 21. See more insights for "Lucifer."

5. "Titans" (DC Universe)

Times more in demand than average show: 38.0

Description: "'Titans' follows young heroes from across the DC Universe as they come of age and find belonging in a gritty take on the classic Teen Titans franchise. Dick Grayson and Rachel Roth, a special young girl possessed by a strange darkness, get embroiled in a conspiracy that could bring Hell on Earth. Joining them along the way are the hot-headed Starfire and lovable Beast Boy. Together they become a surrogate family and team of heroes."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 2): 81%

What critics said: "Superheroes, mysteries and brawls, Titans has it all." — Cinemablend (Season 2)

Season 2 premiered on DC Universe on September 6. See more insights for "Titans."

4. "Doom Patrol" (HBO Max/DC Universe)

Times more in demand than the average show: 38.1

Description: "Doom Patrol is a team of traumatized and downtrodden superheroes, each of whom has suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities but also left them scarred and disfigured. The members of the team have found their purpose through The Chief and have come together to investigate some of the world's weirdest phenomena. After The Chief mysteriously disappears, though, the reluctant heroes find themselves called to action by Cyborg, who comes to them with a mission that they cannot refuse. Doom Patrol, part support group, part superhero team, is a band of super-powered freaks fighting for a world that wants nothing to do with them."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (season 2): 96%

What critics said: "These disgruntled shut-ins of the Doom Patrol make for perfect viewing during a year of disease and disappointment." — SF Weekly (season 2)

Season 2 premiered on DC Universe and HBO Max on June 25. See more insights for "Doom Patrol."

3. "The Mandalorian" (Disney Plus)

Times more in demand than average show: 46.5

Description: "After the fall of the Empire, a lone gunfighter makes his way through the lawless galaxy."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 1): 93%

What critics said: "A show which cheerfully raids its own iconography while adding successfully to the whole." — Screen Daily (Season 1)

Season 1 premiered on Disney Plus on November 12. See more insights for "The Mandalorian."

2. "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (Disney Plus)

Times more in demand than average show: 48.4

Description: "From Dave Filoni, director and executive producer of 'The Mandalorian,' the new 'Clone Wars' episodes will continue the storylines introduced in the original series, exploring the events leading up to 'Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.'"

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 7): 100%

What critics said: "In the endgame, the show is better than ever." — Memphis Flyer (season 7)

Season 7 premiered on February 21 on Disney Plus. See more insights for "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."

1. "Stranger Things" (Netflix)

Times more in demand than average show: 63.5

Description: "When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 3): 89%

What critics said: "The problem with aggressively reminding your audience of the classics time and again is that you'll eventually get to a point when they'd rather watch those movies instead, and skip the show that can't stop toothlessly imitating them." — Thrillist (Season 3)

Season 3 premiered July 4, 2019 on Netflix. See more insights for "Stranger Things."

Monica_Desai

Business Insider asked 25 rising star venture investors what prospective candidates need to do to break into the notoriously difficult and exclusive field of fintech investing.
Many investors said candidates should do most of their legwork, such as industry research and networking, before applying to work at a venture firm to demonstrate what value they would add after joining.
Some also suggested working at a financial tech startup first to learn more about the struggles young companies face and how investors can be helpful.
A group of investors suggested working in other areas of finance, such as banking or consulting, to better identify startups that fix gaps within existing markets.
Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Breaking into the venture capital industry is notoriously difficult. Many firms never post open roles, and many senior partners rely heavily on existing networks to meet with and ultimately hire junior firm employees. But once a candidate is in, they're in.

Business Insider asked 25 rising star fintech venture investors what prospective job candidates need to do to break into the notoriously difficult and exclusive field. All the investors Business Insider spoke to had fewer than 5 years of experience and were considered junior-level employees at their firms, and all focused on making big bets in the red-hot fintech sector.

Overall, the consensus from these investors was that candidates have to gain most of their foundational skills within the finance industry before reaching out to a venture firm where they'd like to work. Many firms are small and want each new employee to add something of significant value, whether that's experience, skills, or a unique perspective. So it helps to have the basics nailed down before reaching out, the investors said.

"Educate yourself, and in turn use your knowledge to help existing operators and investors to establish a relationship," Canvas Ventures investor Grace Isford said. "Once you prove your usefulness, it's much easier to get your foot in the door of a venture capital firm or tech company."

Investing in fintech at a venture firm is something of a finance double-whammy, many investors said. Not only do candidates need to understand the basics of venture capital, which are rooted in unit economics and macro-trends, but it also helps to understand global economic markets as well as stateside trends that startups can mine to their advantage.

"[Candidates should] develop a root cause understanding of how money moves through our economy, starting with cash and the US checking system," CRV partner Matt Heiman said. "In particular, I recommend 'Payments Systems in the US' by Carol Coye as a great starter text."

Many investors recommend that job candidates get a handle on the broader fintech landscape, as Heiman suggested, before they select a smaller sector within which they can specialize. The fintech categorization is so broad that it helps to hone in on an area — say payments infrastructure or neobanking — to better stand out compared with other applicants who have more generalized skills.

"Fintech is a super broad category," Norwest Venture Partners senior associate Brian Moon said. "I recommend that young professionals take the time to figure out what niche area of fintech in particular that they're genuinely excited about, then become an expert in that area and develop a clear viewpoint. I've found that you'll have a totally different level of conversation with founders when they sense that you actually understand the space."

Many investors said they gained industry-specific experience at fintech startups within the sector that caught their interest. Working at a startup, or what many investors categorize as "operator experience," also has the added benefit of learning first-hand what founders and young companies need help with and where investors fit in, they said.

"Working for 3 and a half years within a payments-focused startup like Stripe was absolutely critical in developing a deep understanding of financial infrastructure," Index Ventures investor Mark Fiorentino said. "I'd encourage young professionals looking to break into fintech investing to go learn it from the inside out, whether that's at another payments company, a challenger bank, or any of these other fintech-derivative businesses."

Other avenues of specialization can be traditional financial services, like banking and consulting, or through academic research and exploration, investors said. Investing is about crunching massive sets of data combined with curiosity, investors said, so candidates should find ways to hone their expertise within those two primary skill sets.

"I think venture actually favors non-conventional paths, and often I'll see people from operating roles, or in financial services, with deeply relevant domain insights," Kleiner Perkins principal Monica Desai said. "Follow your nose and insights to meet companies and get to know founders within your areas of interest. Your expertise may be helpful to them, and those interactions will help you calibrate your investment theses."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what it's like to travel during the coronavirus outbreak

Photos of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg surfing in Hawaii went viral last weekend.
He was riding a Lift Foils efoil electric surfboard, which sells for $12,000.
One spokesperson said he has a reputation for being "pretty decent."
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg can't seem to go outside without being turned into a meme. Last week, he was photographed on an electric surfboard off the coast of Hawaii. The surfboard was the $12,000 efoil board from Lift Foils, the company confirmed to Business Insider.

Zuckerberg owns more than $100 million worth of land on several properties across Hawaii. In 2016, he built a six-foot wall around his property and was later involved in a land dispute on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i.

As pricey vacation accessories go, electric surfboards seem to be getting popular in Silicon Valley. Fliteboard, another electric surfboard company, told Business Insider owners of its product include Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer and Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. A Fliteboard spokesperson also told Business Insider, that the $150 million Ulysses yacht rumored to be purchased by Zuckerberg before his team denied it, has Fliteboards on deck.

In the photos published by The New York Post, Zuckerberg is on the Lift surfboard, controller in hand.

Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1284947338847563776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Mark Zuckerberg surfboards in Hawaii with way too much sunscreen https://t.co/TYcdDmBbZG pic.twitter.com/INyGVPvNY6

The $12,000 gadgets run on lithium-ion batteries.

They can go as fast as 25 mph.

Lift is based in Puerto Rico and started selling its boards in 2017.

Source: New Atlas

The company sells four different models, ranging in size from four feet and four inches to six feet and two inches.

Cofounder Nick Leason told Business Insider that Zuckerberg has several Lift surfboards. He has staff who are tasked with purchasing them, according to Leason.

They're controlled by wireless remote, which controls speed and displays battery life information.

The boards have a battery life of about 60 to 90 minutes and typically charge in less than two hours.

The aluminum propulsion system moves the board while reducing drag.

Leason says Zuckerberg has a reputation for being "pretty decent" at riding the board.

Steve Simoni — CEO of Bbot

Bbot makes software that allows customers to place their own food and drink orders inside restaurants and bars.
The company originally developed a ceiling-mounted robot that would ferry drinks from the bar to a table over the heads of customers, but found more demand for the ordering software they created for their system.
Demand for Bbot's service exploded during the coronavirus pandemic; with their doors closed, many restaurant and bar owners seemed to reevaluate their technology needs and decided they liked its system, the company says.
The startup just raised its first outside funding — a $3 million seed round — using the pitch deck below
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Steve Simoni wasn't planning on starting a software company. Instead, he and his colleagues were intent on building a robot that would make it easier for them to get drinks at a bar.

Their original idea — born over drinks at a Bay Area watering hole, of course — was to make a robot that would be attached to the ceiling of such establishments and cart drinks from the barkeep to individual tables over the heads of other patrons. They worked for a year on the project out of a garage in Silicon Valley, funding it themselves and even machining original parts out of a local TechShop. Once they had a working model, they sold a system to a bar in Cincinnati.

Along the way, they created a sophisticated ordering system that customers could use to order drinks from their tables. The system would track exactly where they were in the bar so the bartender could direct the robot their way. In marketing their system, Simoni and his colleagues, who had formed a company called Bbot to sell the service, soon discovered that many bars and restaurants were far more interested in their software than their hovering waiter bot.

In terms of delivering drinks, "it turns out that humans can just do it more efficiently and better," Simoni told Business Insider on Thursday. "Anyone tells you robots are going to take your job, our company is living proof that it's not."

The robot idea may not have taken off, but Bbot's software certainly has, according to the company. Simoni and his team, who relocated to New York, picked up their first software-only customer in May 2018, soon after refocusing on that part of the company. After pausing about six months to refine the software, they started signing up more customers. By this spring they had some 90 to 100.

Then, ironically, during the coronavirus shutdowns, business really picked up. Bbot says it now has some 500 active customers with another 350 waiting to get on board with its system.

The lockdowns seemed to give restaurant and bar owners a chance to reevaluate their operations and technology, Simoni said. As establishments started reopening for outside service, they decided, "this is the kind of product they want to implement for that," according to Simoni, Bbot's CEO.

Simoni didn't want to download an app to order a drink

Bbot's service allows bar and restaurant customers to order food and drinks from their tables at the establishment via their phones. Customers scan a QR code at their table, which brings up a menu in the web browser on their phones. They pay for their orders on their phone, either by using Apple Pay or Google Pay or by entering their credit card numbers. The QR code directs servers to the right table for the order.

Simoni and his colleagues wanted to make it as easy as possible for customers to place orders.

"We built this for ourselves ... We didn't want to have to download an app to drink a beer," he said.

The service can allow a restaurant or bar to better serve people who might get overlooked when things are hopping, the Bbot CEO said. When customers can order anytime they want, without having to wait for a server to take their order, they are likely to purchase more items, Simoni said. The service can allow establishments to cut down on their labor costs, he said. Instead of having a team of people assigned to pick up and serve orders to a particular, small number of tables, the proprietors can employ a few people to deliver any and all orders, and a floor manager to address any problems that come up, Simoni said.

Part of the Bbot pitch: It has designed its software so that restaurants can integrate it easily into their existing point-of-sales systems. So, a customer sitting at the bar would likely just give her order to the bartender. Or a restaurant could use servers to take orders indoors and rely on Bbot's ordering system for outdoor customers. Customers can also use Bbot's software to take online orders, the startup specifies.

The company charges $149 to $199 a month per venue for its software. It also makes money by processing credit card payments.

Bbot sees a big opportunity in Europe

While many of its customers are based in New York and Los Angeles, Bbot says it has clients all around the country and even overseas, including in cities such as London and Copenhagen. Simoni said he sees big potential in foreign markets, particularly in Europe.

"We think that, actually, overseas, they like this product even more," he said. "Their culture is different than American dining culture."

Investors are starting to see some potential in Bbot. After self-funding the company for years, Simoni and his team raised their first round of financing, a $3 million seed round led by Craft Ventures, in May. They're hoping to raise a $7 million to $10 million Series A round this fall.

They used the initial funding to expand their staff — the company now employs 24 people — particularly its operations and customer support areas. The startup is also is planning on investing in developing relationships with partners to sell its service. It already has relationships with Seated and SevenRooms, both of which offer reservation software for restaurants, the company says.

Simoni's drink delivering robot idea may not have worked out, but he's still excited about the future of Bbot.

"We definitely think we have the best product for restaurants for the future here," he said.

Here's the pitch deck Simoni and his colleagues used to raise their $3 million seed round:

Got a tip about a startup or the venture industry? Contact Troy Wolverton via email at twolverton@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.