Blind TL;DR Edition No. 8: Week Ended Dec. 31, 2021
Blind TL;DR helps you stay on top of what shaped the tech industry this week in about 3 minutes. Keep tabs on the latest with insights straight from the newsmakers—technologists like you.
Apple fights back
The Great Resignation has hit Apple, and Tim Cook doesn’t appear to like it.
Some engineers received surprise bonuses of $50,000 to $180,000. The restricted-stock-unit grants, which vest over four years, were given to the top 10% to 20% of engineers, mostly from hardware teams, to help keep top talent from getting poached by Meta and other tech giants.
Check out why some Apple engineers on Blind are unimpressed with the spot bonus.
What is going on with bitcoin?
Bitcoin became more mainstream in 2021, and even Wall Street is a fan. (See the new bitcoin exchange-traded fund.) Still, critics say the cryptocurrency has more work to do to mature.
The price of bitcoin remains wild. The cryptocurrency has moved more than two standard deviations from its average at least 19 times this year. It’s just one of the reasons technologists on Blind remain skeptical about the future of cryptocurrency.
You, too, can be a unicorn
Watch your inbox for more pitches from startup recruiters. This year, about 340 startups became unicorns for the first time after raising capital at a valuation of $1 billion or more—more than three times the total from last year.
Tiger Global made 335 investments in 2021, making it the most active investor in startups, excluding accelerators like Y Combinator or Techstars.
Don’t miss the best startups to join in 2022, according to Blind.
Mogul city
Peter Thiel, the Palantir and PayPal founder, is one of the more than a dozen notable tech leaders who moved to Miami this year. Other moguls setting up camp in Magic City include Oracle Founder and Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and TechCrunch Founder Jack Michael Arrington.
Miami-area startups raised more than $2.4 billion in 2021, a record high for the South Florida city. Blind debates whether Miami is just hype or the real deal.
Be a newsmaker
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