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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11912664" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="lyft" source="Orion">Lyft</keyword> is partnering with the online-ordering giant <keyword id="12737303" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="olo" source="Orion">Olo</keyword> to begin <keyword id="6376068" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="food-delivery" source="Orion">food delivery</keyword>. </li><li>A Lyft exec said its goal is to offer deliveries for merchants tired of "paying high commissions." </li></ul><p>The ride-hailing service Lyft is taking the leap into the competitive food-delivery space through a partnership with the online-ordering giant Olo, the two companies jointly announced Tuesday. </p><p>Justin Paris, the head of Lyft Delivery, said the "opportunity size" tied to partnering with Olo is "several hundred thousand deliveries per week." </p><p>Olo, which went <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-restaurant-tech-olo-ipo-noah-glass-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">public</a> in March, works with 500 restaurant brands that have 76,000 locations in the US. Large chains like Wingstop and Denny's use Olo's network of two dozen delivery providers to offer delivery to consumers. Lyft is now part of that delivery-provider mix, which also includes <keyword id="12084455" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uber-eats" source="Orion">Uber Eats</keyword> and DoorDash. </p><p>But unlike third-party platforms, Lyft is not trying to sell directly to consumers. "We don't have a consumer-facing marketplace," Paris said. </p><p>"This is not about Lyft creating a clone of <keyword id="1042120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uber" source="Orion">Uber</keyword> Eats," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-33-tech-power-players-changing-how-restaurants-operate-2021-11#noah-glass-ceo-of-olo-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Olo CEO Noah Glass</a> told Insider in an interview ahead of Tuesday's announcement. </p><p>Instead, Lyft's strategy is to facilitate last-mile deliveries for merchants who are tired of "paying high commissions" and "losing control" of consumer data by using other delivery service providers, Paris said. Most third-party platforms do not share customer data with restaurants. </p><p>"Our approach is instead of trying to compete with retailers and merchants for eyeballs and customer data, we're actually enabling these merchants and retailers to do local delivery without having to have their own internal fleet," he said.</p><p>Lyft has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-is-testing-delivery-with-businesses-looking-to-keep-customer-data-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">building its delivery business for a year</a>, testing business-to-business deliveries with retailers like Napa Auto Parts.  </p><p>Lyft's B2B offering is aimed at undercutting the prices of third-party platforms like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub, which can charge restaurants as much as 30% per order, Lyft President John Zimmer <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-lyft-results-idUKKBN27Q39P" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Reuters</a> in November 2020.  </p><p>"What we're hearing from restaurants is they're looking for a partner who will not charge 30% commission, but still offer delivery service," he said. </p><p>Glass said partnering with Lyft will likely bring down delivery costs for both restaurants and consumers because it creates more competition. </p><p>"It's a little bit like the old LendingTree commercial of 'When banks compete, you win,'" Glass said. "When delivery service providers compete, you win because you get better rates, and you get faster delivery times."</p><p>Lyft delivery is live in about 25 markets, including Dallas, Miami, Tampa, Chicago, and Denver. </p><p>"We're just scratching the surface," Paris said. "We would expect to rapidly increase that to several hundred markets."</p>

Lyft announces major push into food delivery, taking the opposite approach to rival Uber

<ul><li><strong><keyword id="2203479" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Olo">Olo</keyword>, an online ordering technology platform for restaurants, priced its <keyword id="6354763" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ipo">IPO</keyword> at $25 per share on Tuesday.</strong></li><li><strong>Olo will be valued at nearly $4 billion when its shares begins <keyword id="6368158" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trading">trading</keyword> on Wednesday.</strong></li><li><strong>The company counts restaurants like Shake Shack, Five Guys, and Sweetgreen as its customers.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/10-things-opening-bell?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingestdium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell</a></strong><strong>.</strong></li></ul><p>Olo priced its IPO late Tuesday at $25 per share, valuing the restaurant technology platform at nearly $4 billion.</p><p>The company offers an online ordering technology platform for restaurants that enables easy online ordering for either pick up or delivery. Olo counts popular restaurants like Shake Shack, Five Guys, and Sweetgreen as its customers.</p><p>The technology firm originally priced its IPO at $16-$18 per share, but demand for the stock helped boost its offering price range to $20-$22 per share on Monday, before ultimately settling at $25 per share. Olo is offering 18 million shares and will raise nearly $500 million in proceeds from the offering. </p><p>Olo was founded in 2005 and saw its business boom in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as more consumers transitioned to take-out and delivery from their favorite restaurants. The company saw its revenue surge 94% in 2020 to nearly $100 million, according to its <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1431695/000119312521049073/d867519ds1.htm">S-1 filing with the SEC. </a></p><p>"As consumers have become accustomed to the immediate convenience of on-demand commerce, they are demanding the same digital experience from restaurants, placing significant pressure on restaurants to deploy solutions," Olo said in its filing, adding, "This demand has only accelerated since the onset of COVID-19, as on-demand commerce has become a necessity for the majority of restaurants."</p><p>Olo is a rare IPO in that it is profitable, as most high-flying technology startups that have gone public in recent months are still years away from profitability. Olo recorded net income of $3.1 million in 2020, an improvement from its net loss of $8.3 million in 2019. </p><p>More than 64,000 restaurant locations and 400 brands utilize Olo's technology platform, with 1.8 million orders per day being placed, according to the company. </p><p>The company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "OLO."</p>

Restaurant technology platform Olo prices IPO at $25 per share for nearly $4 billion valuation

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Some restaurants are connecting callers to an AI voice service to place DoorDash and Uber Eats orders.</li><li>Voice AI company Kea takes customers' orders in phone calls and sends them to delivery aggregators.</li></ul><p>A new voice AI service means diners can place delivery orders with services like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doordash-history-milestones-food-delivery-2023-7">DoorDash</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-make-money-uber-eats-doordash-driving-delivery-tips-college-2024-1">Uber Eats</a> via phone call.</p><p>Rather than having to order on an app or website, customers calling restaurants that use a product developed by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kea-tech-startup-tapped-by-dominos-to-automate-phone-ordering-2021-3">Kea</a>, a voice AI company, can simply say what they want to order. Kea then sends their order to a delivery aggregator.</p><p>"It's so much better and easier to just say something and have it done versus let me download an app, let me add everything to the cart, let me customize it, let me add my credit card to it, and then press all those buttons," Adam Ahmad, Kea's CEO and founder, told Business Insider.</p><p>Before the app revolution, restaurants relied on phone calls for delivery orders. In 2023, <a target="_blank" href="https://ir.dominos.com/static-files/d91871d8-3c13-439f-bc86-b1efe79373d6">more than 85%</a> of Domino's US sales were made digitally. But there are still use cases for ordering by phone rather than using a website or app, Ahmad said.</p><p>"They're maybe driving the kids back from school and it just makes sense to hit that call button," he said, describing it as a "30-second interaction."</p><p>When customers call to order delivery from a restaurant that uses Kea's service, they'll be linked to the voice AI, which restaurants can choose from a variety of accents. The AI guides them through the transactions, including suggesting add-ons and recommending items they got in previous orders, Ahmad said.</p><p>You can hear an example of how the software works on <a target="_blank" href="https://kea.ai/how-it-works/">Kea's website</a>.</p><p>"It's not like Siri or Alexa where it's kind of stopping you and making you repeat yourself," he said. "It's very fluid in its interaction."</p><p>And if the AI has problems understanding the customer – or vice versa – they can be transferred to a Kea human agent who'll complete the order, Ahmad said. About a quarter of calls made to Kea are transferred to its human agents, Ahmad said.</p><p>Kea told BI that it had agents in nine countries but that the majority were based in the US.</p><p>Kea uses an algorithm developed by Olo to determine which delivery services are available nearby and choose the best one for each customer based on the cost and estimated time of arrival, Ahmad said. The delivery platforms that Kea can refer orders to are DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, and Favor, Ahmad said.</p><p>"We'll upsell them throughout the call and then at the very end of the call, they have the option to leave a tip for the driver," Ahmad said. "And at that time, an ETA is provided to them and the order gets placed directly into the system."</p><p>Customers don't need to have the delivery provider's app to use Kea's service, Ahmad said. They'd still be sent a link to track their driver, he said.</p><p>"We're not, of course, the delivery provider – we're sort of just processing the voice order," Ahmad said.</p><p>Ahmad incorporated Kea back in 2018, "before this whole <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jamie-dimon-jpmorgan-ai-extraordinary-consequences-transformative-internet-electricity-2024-4">large language model craze</a>," he said. The new delivery-service tie-in aside, Kea has operated a so-called "cashier in the cloud" service for years, which takes pickup orders and answers basic questions like opening hours when customers ring restaurants, Ahmad said.</p><p>Kea said that the pizza chains it worked with — which it said it couldn't name due to NDAs — were already using the AI delivery function. It plans to offer the service to its other restaurants later this month, it said. Kea takes a percentage of the orders it takes for restaurants.</p><p>Chains that Kea works with include Wayback Burger, Newk's Eatery, and California Fish Grill. Kea declined to say how many restaurants it operated in, but said it was "in the hundreds."</p><p>"A lot of them are high volume takeout places, pizza places," Ahmad said. "These are folks that have three to five phone lines at their restaurants and they simply cannot answer all the calls at once. It's just way too cumbersome. And so we're really focusing on those brands first, the ones that just have a lot of incoming phone traffic and ultimately helping them with answering every single phone call versus putting people on hold."</p><p><em>Correction: April 12, 2024 — An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Kea can refer orders to Grubhub. </em></p>

You can now place DoorDash and Uber Eats orders through a call with an AI voice bot

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The food-tech startup Sauce allows restaurants to use dynamic pricing to raise delivery prices. </li><li>Sauce is backed by the venture capitalist Kevin Novak, who created surge pricing for Uber. </li></ul><p>The venture capitalist Kevin Novak, an early data scientist at Uber, <a href="https://www.rackhouse.vc/about#:~:text=KEVIN%20NOVAK&amp;text=Kevin%20was%20the%20inventor%20of,to%20improve%20the%20mobile%20experience.">invented surge pricing</a> for the ride-hailing giant. </p><p>Novak, the founder and managing partner of Rackhouse Venture Capital, is once again touting the benefits of supply-and-demand pricing. Only this time, he's not coding. He is a seed investor in Sauce, a dynamic-pricing startup that uses machine learning to adjust menu prices on delivery orders.</p><p>The timing is right for the industry. </p><p>Raising menu prices to offset delivery fees and rising labor and supply-chain costs is becoming standard practice at chains like<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chipotle-is-raising-prices-again-how-much-2022-7"> Chipotle</a> and <a href="https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/mcdonalds-hikes-menu-prices-8-as-visits-fall-1/622903/">McDonald's.</a> In October, money spent on food away from home, which includes restaurants, rose 8.6% over last year, according to the<a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm#cpi_pressa.f.1"> Consumer Price Index</a>. Chipotle said pricing on delivery orders was up 13% in the third quarter, year over year.<strong> </strong></p><p>But "blanket price increases are no longer the best strategy" to combat rising costs, Colin Webb, the cofounder and CEO of Sauce, told Insider.</p><p>Founded in 2020, Sauce's AI-powered software can suggest different online menu prices for different times of the day based on a restaurant's historical and real-time delivery-ordering patterns.  </p><p>"We actually will recommend strategies that both increase and decrease prices, and restaurants are able to choose their preference or build their own strategies from scratch," Webb told Insider.</p><p>In some cases, "we've seen restaurants during a peak time raise their price 40%," he said.</p><div type="image" title="Colin Webb" height="600" width="800" msid="95744774" hostid="261"></div><h2><strong>'We are trying to make sure that we are not getting our margin heavily eroded'</strong></h2><p>Webb said restaurants are taking a closer look at dynamic pricing as they face inflationary pressures and a possible recession in 2023. </p><p>Sauce works with "hundreds" of restaurants and has "grown over 700% this year," the MIT graduate said, declining to give a specific number of clients. </p><p>The fast-casual chain Piada Italian Street Food has been using Sauce since June. A <a href="https://www.saucepricing.com/case-study-piada">case study released by Sauce</a> this month found that the 49-unit chain has doubled profit margins and improved its takeout operations using the dynamic-pricing model.</p><p>"From our end, we are trying to make sure that we are not getting our margin heavily eroded by the third-party fees," Jason Profitt, the director of technology at Piada, said in the case study. </p><p>In a follow-up interview with Insider, Profitt said Piada gave Sauce access to its order history. That allowed Sauce's machine-learning tech to "effectively train their AI" to know when to raise prices and by how much.</p><p>Piada gave Sauce a 10% cap on markups. </p><p>"Supply-and-demand pricing allows us to keep that markup lower during periods of slow volume, and it will increase it during the higher volume," Profitt said.</p><div type="image" title="Piada" height="1127" width="1500" msid="95744775" hostid="261"></div><p>Piada said it also took advantage of Sauce's ability to adjust pricing differently on the same menu items on a store-by-store basis, where supply and demand vary in each market. </p><p>Piada couldn't do that when it made "static" markups using its online-ordering platform <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-restaurant-tech-olo-ipo-noah-glass-2021-2">Olo</a>, Profitt told Insider.</p><p>When Piada marked up delivery prices through Olo, Profitt said there was the potential to "drive away our DoorDash guests" at lower-volume stores. </p><p>Webb said Sauce's tech has evolved this year to be more flexible based on restaurant feedback. The startup's technology is automated, but operators can also manually control the pricing recommended by Sauce. </p><p>"We have restaurants who change prices and have different pricing on the weekends versus the weekdays," Webb told Insider.</p><h2><strong>'It's kind of like paying to skip the line'</strong></h2><p>Andrew Charles, an analyst at Cowen, said in a November 21 note that the restaurant industry has experienced record increases in menu pricing this year, but "there has been limited instances of consumer pushback to elevated industry pricing."</p><p>Webb said diners, so far, haven't complained about paying higher prices for the convenience of on-demand delivery during peak hours.  </p><p>"It's kind of like paying to skip the line," he said. </p><p>On customer-feedback surveys, Piada's Profitt said diners aren't balking, either. In fact, they have "talked about the price being reasonable" for third-party deliveries, he said. </p><p>Novak, whose VC firm Rackhouse invested in Sauce last year, said price-lowering features are often overlooked when discussing dynamic pricing.</p><p>"I think dynamic pricing being contemplated with prices going up, it's sort of a false correlation. Many times, you know, I think there's an opportunity for consumers to save," Novak said.</p><p>Sherri Kimes, a professor emeritus at Cornell's Hotel School, echoed Novak, saying dynamic pricing can give consumers "some control" over how they spend their money. For example, demand pricing in the airline industry allows consumers to buy tickets on cheaper travel days of the week.</p><p>Still, she said most consumers don't like surge pricing. </p><p>"Research has shown that customers view changing prices based solely on demand is unfair," Kimes <a href="https://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/it-time-dynamic-pricing-restaurant-industry">wrote in a recent editorial column for QSR Magazine</a>. </p><p>For restaurants, dynamic pricing is still worth a shot.</p><p>"Don't be afraid to experiment," she wrote. "With digital menus, it's simple enough to just try it and see what happens."</p>

Menu items can cost customers 40% more at peak hours as Uber-like surge pricing hits food delivery

<p>Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/10-things-in-tech&amp;hash=8122c716833601fc1471f79af063b104?nr_email_referer=1&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=10_things_tech&amp;utm_campaign=Post%20Blast%20sai:%2010%20things%20in%20tech%20you%20need%20to%20know%20today&amp;utm_term=10%20THINGS%20IN%20TECH%20YOU%20NEED%20TO%20KNOW%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED0PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED">Sign up here</a> to get this email in your inbox every morning.</p><p>Have an Amazon Alexa device? Listen to this update by searching "Business Insider" in your flash briefing settings.</p><ol><li><strong>Facebook reversed its Australian news ban. </strong>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-reverses-its-australian-news-ban-and-restores-news-pages-2021-2?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">move comes after a weekend</a> of negotiations with the government over its proposed media code.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Spotify will launch higher quality streaming. </strong>The firm <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-podcasts-advertising-hifi-audio-stream-on-event-announcements-2021-2">announced a slew of updates</a>, including new podcasts featuring Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, plus CD-quality streaming.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>New malware targets Apple's new computers. </strong>The malware, nicknamed "Silver Sparrow," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-m1-computer-malware-attack-silver-sparrow-mac-mini-macbook-2021-2?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">specifically targets Apple computers</a> with new M1 chips and 30,000 machines have been infected.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Microsoft's Brad Smith wants more rules like Australia's news code.</strong> "I'm hopeful that the Biden administration will support and embrace this kind of policy to redress the imbalance between something like a search service by Google and the position of the news publishers," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-president-brad-smith-talks-australia-news-ban-2021-2?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">he told Insider's Nicholas Carlson</a> on Thursday.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Senators will question companies about the SolarWinds attacks.</strong> Senior representatives <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/senate-solarwinds-hearings-fireeye-microsoft-crowdstrike-cybersecurity-2021-2?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">from SolarWinds, Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and FireEye</a> are expected to attend.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Mark Zuckerberg intervened in Alex Jones' ban. </strong>The Facebook CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-alex-jones-facebook-ban-soften-lenient-report-2021-2?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">decided on a less comprehensive ban</a> on the conspiracy theorist, effectively deviating from company policy, sources told BuzzFeed.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Tesla has profited from bitcoin to the tune of $1 billion. </strong>The company "is on a trajectory to make more from its Bitcoin investments than profits from selling its EV cars in all of 2020," <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/tesla-bitcoin-profit-scored-billion-dollar-bet-wedbush-estimate-2021-2-1030106654">Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said</a>.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Participants criticized a Google scheme for Black college students. </strong>They <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-scheme-black-students-howard-west-technology-2021-2?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">described the program</a> as disorganized <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/21/google-howard-west-program-faced-disorganization-culture-clashes.html">to CNBC</a>, despite the underlying positive intent.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Premium: Olo is going public. </strong>Olo, founded in 2005, can best be described <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-restaurant-tech-olo-ipo-noah-glass-2021-2?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">as a digital ordering and delivery enabling platform</a> for restaurants.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Premium: We got hold of the pitch deck used by software startup Katana. </strong>The firm <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/atomico-saas-startup-katana-funding-round-11-million-2021-2?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">has raised $11 million backed by Atomico</a>, the VC firm backed by Skype billionaire Niklas Zennström.</li></ol>

10 things in tech you need to know today

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/fb-Quote"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/huddleston/7025300923/">By chief_huddleston on Flickr</a></span></p></a></div><p></p></div></div>Facebook is launching the ability to order food for pick-up and delivery on the social network. </p><p>"People already go to Facebook to browse restaurants and decide where to eat or where to order food - we're making that easier," Alex Himel, vice president of Facebook's local team, said in a newsroom post on the website. </p><p>"Once you decide you're hungry, let's take you from that decision to food in your hand," Himmel told Business Insider, saying that Facebook was targeting people who are already seeking out restaurants instead of impulse buys. </p><p>The service gives Facebook users a few ways to order. Restaurants' Facebook pages have an "order now" button, and they will also be able to browse through different restaurants in the "order food" tab.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Facebook will essentially serve as an ordering website aggregator, with partnerships with services like EatStreet, Delivery.com, DoorDash, ChowNow and Olo. The company also partnered with chains including Jack in the Box, Five Guys, Papa John's, and Panera to offer the chains' own ordering and delivery services. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-health-inspector-restaurant-letter-grades-mean-clean-dirty-shut-down-department-2017-10">A former health inspector says restaurant letter grades are bogus</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Facebook will now let you order food from Chipotle, Five Guys, and more

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Sonic</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Even the fast-food industry isn't safe from the threat of Amazon. </p><p>"Amazon is going to try and figure out ... how to use their customer engagement, customer knowledge, and distributions to encroach on anyone's business they can," Sonic CEO Cliff Hudson told Business Insider. </p><p>According to Hudson, Sonic is "concerned" about Amazon's potential to eat into the fast-food chain's sales. Amazon has been ramping up its food and restaurant business recently, with its acquisition of Whole Foods and partnership with online ordering service Olo. </p><p>The new competitor comes at a challenging time for the restaurant industry, with traffic declining <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-may-be-undermining-the-restaurant-industry-2017-9">every one of the last 17 months. </a>Customers have an ever-increasing array of choices - not just from chains, but also new delivery options, cheaper and more convenient grocery stores, and grocers' own prepared food. </p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"There was a time when Whole Foods was just kind of high-end goods," Hudson said. "Now, gosh, the ... Whole Foods near our house has 25% of its square footage dedicated to prepared food."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Dominick Reuter/Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p>Amazon is also impacting Sonic and other fast-food chains in less direct ways. With the increased ease of shopping from home, customers are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-may-be-undermining-the-restaurant-industry-2017-9">less likely to grab a quick meal on-the-go,</a> instead opting to shop online and either prepare their own food or order in. </p><p>Hudson says that Sonic hopes to avoid being beaten at its own fast-food game by the ecommerce giant by making some tech investments itself.</p><p>Sonic recently debuted a new app. Next year, the chain is rolling out a new mobile order-and-pay feature specifically made for Sonic's drive-in model. Each customer will be "first in line, every time," as they can pull into individual stalls and pick up their already prepared and paid for meals.</p><p>Still, fending off Amazon will take more than an app update.   </p><p>"It's almost certain to affect our business over time, because they're creative guys," Hudson said. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-colicchio-reveals-okay-complain-restaurants-crafted-hospitality-food-meal-top-chef-2017-9">Why you shouldn't be afraid to complain about a bad meal in a restaurant, according to Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Fast-food CEO says Amazon is a growing threat to his industry

<div><div><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/PNRA-Quote">Panera Bread</a> is best positioned to benefit from the delivery revolution, according to UBS analyst Dennis Geiger.</div><p>In a note to clients sent out on Monday, Geiger wrote, "Panera's investments in its internal delivery model position the brand as an early leader, while its menu (i.e. sandwiches, soups, salads) travels well and is in demand based on our survey work."</p><p>A UBS survey found that sandwiches are the third most likely cuisine that respondents ordered for delivery, behind only pizza and Chinese food.  </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>That's not the only reason why Panera is the way to play delivery, UBS says. 76% of consumers surveyed prefer to order directly from the restaurant from which they are ordering rather than from a third party like <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/GRUB-Quote">GrubHub</a>.</p><p>That's great news for Panera who has invested a lot of time and money into building their own online delivery platform. The effort has payed off, resulting in 10% same store sales growth for stores with delivery. UBS predicts that by the end of 2017, 35%-40% of Panera locations will have delivery, driving up sales across the company. </p><p>Delivery offers an opportunity for revenue growth for restaurants because ticket prices are higher on average than takeout. According to UBS, citing delivery solutions firm Olo, the average delivery order has a check two and a half times the size of the average in-store ticket.</p></div><div>Separately, <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/PNRA-Quote">Panera Bread's</a> stock is soaring on Monday, up 9.28% at $286.17 a share on<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/panera-exploring-sale-2017-4-1001891363"> reports that the company's management is discussing selling the company.</a></div><div></div><div><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/PNRA-Quote">Click here for a real-time Panera bread chart.</a></div><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><div title="Page 2"><div><div></div></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-hong-kong-skyscrapers-have-holes-feng-shui-2017-3">Here's why some Hong Kong skyscrapers have gaping holes</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hmNDhmYTE6ZXDUCM951-PnEMPeKaD5pD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

UBS: The delivery revolution is going to be great for Panera Bread

<p>Google's parent company Alphabet just made its first big acquisition - Dr. Organic, an British organic skincare company.</p><p>Alphabet is purchasing the company for 55 million pounds, or around $86 million, according to Bloomberg.</p><p class="p1">Dr. Organic is a skincare company that uses natural and organic raw material to make primarily <span class="s1">body and oral care products</span>. The companies ingredients prominently includes organic oloe vera and a variety or organic plant oils, butters, and extracts.</p><p class="p1">According to Dr. Organic's website, the company doesn't use any animal ingredients or participate in animal testing.</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.drorganic.co.uk/">Dr. Organic</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1"><em>Developing...</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-government-secret-airline-janet-2015-7">There is a secret US government airline that flies out of commercial airports </a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5uYWc3djp_WwFcNEae4eW__Ya2XMybSQ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Google's parent company may have just made its first big acquisition - an organic skincare company

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Angela Saylor has been an aesthetician in Phoenix, <keyword id="57493" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Arizona">Arizona</keyword>, for 22 years and has owned her own <keyword id="5680" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="spa">spa</keyword> since 2004.</li><li>After closing her spa on March 18, she began seeing clients again on May 15, the day that Arizona officially reopened. </li><li>To protect herself and her clients while they are unable to wear a mask, she has established precautionary steps and wears four pieces of personal protective equipment while working.</li><li>With the number of <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> cases in Arizona rising by the day, she worries that she will once again have to close.</li><li>This is Saylor's story, as told to Gabby Shacknai, a freelance writer</li></ul><p>Angela Saylor is an aesthetician in Phoenix, Arizona, where she has owned her own spa, <a href="https://olosspa.com/home.html">Olos Euro Medspa</a>, for 16 years. She stopped seeing clients on March 18 and reopened nearly two months later, on May 15. </p><p>Since her job requires her clients be bare-faced, she has had to take extra precautions to ensure their and her safety. <br /><br />This is her story.</p><h2><strong>As a self-employed <keyword id="6355515" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="business">business</keyword> owner, Saylor says closing had a big impact financially.</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="Angela Saylor" height="1943" width="2590" msid="76752274" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>It was terrifying. Between my husband and I, we are definitely a 50-50 contribution to the household, and I really worried as a small-business owner. I have five other rooms that I rent out to other aesthetician, a naturopathic physician, and an acupuncturist, so I was very worried for them and didn't know what it would mean for my lease. I did reach out to my landlord when I realized on April 1 that everyone was going to be shut down, and he kindly deferred April's rent to the end of my lease, so that took off a lot of pressure.</p><p>I told all of the girls here not to worry about paying me their portion because I wanted any money they had to go towards feeding their families, paying their mortgages and car payments, and all that.</p><p>But there are certain things that, as a small-business owner, don't stop for you. My payments to the IRS come out regardless, and I have $800 or $900 coming out for health insurance. We didn't get stimulus checks until six or seven weeks in, I didn't qualify for unemployment, and I could only get $1,000 in small-business loans. To be honest, it got pretty dire, and I hadn't been able to go back when I did, I would've had to start putting everything on credit cards. </p><p>So, I really needed to get back to work, but it was such a moral quandary of how I could do it in a way that keeps everyone safe. </p><h2><strong><keyword id="62764" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reopening">Reopening</keyword> seemed reasonable, but <keyword id="1052583" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="facials">facials</keyword> potentially carried more risk than other services.</strong></h2><p>At the time of reopening, Arizona's numbers were still very low, in fact some of the lowest in the nation, so it didn't seem like an incredibly risky thing to do. Even though I'm touching people, I'd read enough from the CDC and on the requirements and recommendations to make sure I went a little above and beyond what was even required of me. </p><p>We were really just supposed to wear masks and have hand sanitation, but to me that wasn't enough. I knew that if I was going to be touching people's faces, I needed to have gloves on, and even though my clients couldn't wear masks, I would wear a mask and eye guard.</p><h2><strong>She came up with a number of precautionary steps and a full cleaning routine.</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="IMG_0357" height="2400" width="3200" msid="76752277" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>In the appointment reminder email I send to clients, they're asked to look over some questions about where they've traveled, who they've been around, and if they've had any symptoms to help filter out any risks before they even step through the door. </p><p>When they arrive for their appointment, I have clients wait in their car and send me a text that they're here, and then I'll tell them when to come in so that no one is in the lobby area at the same time and my cleaning process is finished by the time they walk in. I open the door for them, so they never touch any knobs, and I spray them with hand sanitizer on their way in and their way out.</p><p>I now have a 15-minute window between clients so that I can go through my routine, and I've got that process down to about nine minutes. I literally go from one side of my treatment room to the other, and anything that I or my client could have touched gets wiped down with something that kills the virus within 30 seconds to a minute. Everything gets wiped down — the bathroom, the door knobs, the table where people can put their keys. The linens, as required by state board standards, are always cleaned well with bleach, and all of my tools, as always, are put in cavicide, barbicide, and marbicide, so it kills everything bacterial, tuberculocidal, fungal, all of that. </p><p>It does take me a little longer to do all of this, and it means I can't see as many clients in a day, so I've had to pick up an extra day to make up for the difference.</p><h2><strong>Saylor is going far beyond what's required, but she feels that's what her clients expect.</strong></h2><p>One of my clients told me the other day as she was leaving, 'Oh my god, Angela, you look like someone who's been off their meds,' and I just kind of looked at her and was like, 'Thank you?' But she said, 'This is why I come to you, because I know you do the right thing, and that's why I'm here.' A lot of my clients are people I've seen for almost 20 years, so they know me personally, and they know that I am very diligent and that I take my job very seriously. It's really about being ethical and doing the right thing for your clients.</p><h2><strong>Getting a facial might not seem like a top priority right now, but for many of her clients, it's something more.</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="Angela Saylor spa facial" height="3600" width="2400" msid="76752279" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>When I first reopened, it was overwhelmingly well-received, but there were some people who questioned it, saying, 'How badly does someone need a facial that they would get one in the middle of a pandemic?' </p><p>That was very difficult because this is what I do for a living, and I felt extremely judged. My clients come for more than just a face rub; we have an intimate relationship, and they feel they can talk to me. Our relationship is more than skin deep. It's something they look forward to and I look forward to, and as long as I'm able to continue doing this in a safe manner, I feel very confident about what I'm doing.</p><h2><strong>Her precautions have kept COVID-19 out of the spa so far, but as Arizona's case numbers continue to rise and some businesses are closed once again, the fate of Saylor's business is once again uncertain.</strong></h2><p>I'm really worried because most small businesses have a month or two of working capital, and I'm presently at the waterline. The PPP Loan I received reimbursed me for the seven weeks I didn't work, but there is nothing available like that again for small businesses. My business expenses will continue, and I will be financially strained if I have to start borrowing from banks, and I don't like the idea of going into debt even if it's a SBA loan with a small percentage rate. </p><p>My anxiety is also attached to the idea that my renters need to pay rent today and if we get closed down again, they are going to be out a portion of money that they may have needed to pay for groceries and diapers. </p><p>If for any reason I'm told I need to take a break again, that's what I'll do. It's just morally and ethically responsible. But this is incredibly stressful on all of us, and I'm honestly torn between meeting my business obligations and being a compassionate human being. It's a moral quandary.</p><p><em><a href="http://gabbyshacknai.com/">Gabby Shacknai</a> is a New York-based journalist and editor who covers beauty and wellness, food and travel, and lifestyle. Her work has appeared in Fortune, ELLE, Travel + Leisure, Air Mail, Departures, and Women's Health, among other outlets.</em></p>

I own a spa in Phoenix, Arizona, where COVID-19 cases are soaring. As someone who touches people's faces all day, I'm going beyond required safety protocols to reopen.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>CapitalG, GV</span></p><p class="caption">CapitalG partner David Lawee, left, led the investment in Lyft. GV CEO and managing partner David Krane led the investments in Uber.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Uber and Lyft have both confidentially filed for IPOs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and are expected to go public in 2019.</li><li>While the ride-hailing competitors have dueling IPOs, Google's parent company Alphabet stands to gain no matter who fares better.</li><li>Alphabet has substantial investments in both Uber and Lyft through its two venture capital arms, GV and CapitalG.</li></ul><p>The 2019 tech IPO line up has promised plenty of side-choosing as ride hailing rivals Lyft and Uber prep for dueling multi-billion dollar public stock offerings.</p><p>Alphabet, however, has hedged its bets.</p><p>The Google parent company has made major investments in both Uber and Lyft through its two investment arms, CapitalG and GV. </p><p>Both Uber and Lyft have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-09/uber-lyft-ipos-in-limbo-as-shutdown-threatens-2019-listing-boom">reportedly filed confidentially</a> to start the IPO process with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Uber is rumored to be weighing a $120 billion valuation, while Lyft could go public at a more modest $30 billion.</p><p>CapitalG and GV declined to disclose the value of its various investments, but it's clear from the rounds Alphabet participated in that the company has hundreds of millions - if not billions - wrapped up in both of the ridesharing companies.</p><p>Alphabet is in a unique position, perhaps rivaled only by SoftBank's competing investments in Uber, the Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, the Indian Olo Cab, and <span>Singapore's Grab.</span></p><p><span>There are not many other examples of investors playing both sides of the field - venture capital firms tend to avoid backing direct competitors because of stress it creates between founders and investors, as well as the logistics over which information can be disclosed to which people within a firm.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"As a general rule, we try and avoid investing in competitive companies," said Roger Lee, general partner at Battery Ventures. "It creates a lot of tension and a lot of anxiety, and it's something we're uncomfortable doing."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">When we look at a category we try to look at who is the best in that category," Lee added. "</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">There's situations that arise where companies there weren't competitive on Day One evolve into similar markets over the years, but it's rare."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As big corporations like Alphabet and SoftBank take on an increasingly larger role in startup investing, the rules of the game are changing. </span></p><h2>Alphabet switched horses mid-race</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>CapitalG</span></p><p class="caption">CapitalG's David Lawee, center, with Lyft founders Logan Green, left, and John Zimmer.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In fact, the story of Alphabet's multiple ride-hailing investments illustrates the new dynamics at play, and the horse-switching that can occur. </p><p>Alphabet's relationship with Lyft dates back to May 2017 when Waymo - Alphabet's self-driving car business - struck a partnership with Lyft to collaborate on autonomous driving technology. </p><p>Financial ties followed via Alphabet's CapitalG investment arm, formerly known as Google Capital. </p><p>CapitalG invested in two of Lyft's late-stage funding rounds. It led Lyft's Series H, which was <a href="https://blog.lyft.com/posts/alphabet-capitalg-leads-1-billion-round-in-lyft">announced</a> in October 2017 and completed in March 2018. Lyft raised $1.7 billion in that round at a $10 billion valuation, according to PitchBook.</p><p><span>Those investments were led by CapitalG partner David Lawee, the former vice president of corporate development at Google, where he managed the company's acquisitions and investments. </span>Lawee joined Lyft's board as part of the company's investment, and he plays an active role in the company's direction.</p><p>But before Alphabet teamed up with Lyft, it was betting on Uber. </p><p><span>GV, the Alphabet-own venture capital firm formerly known as Google Ventures, led Uber's $258 million Series C financing round which valued the startup at $3.46 billion, back in 2013. It also invested in Uber's $1.19 billion Series D round in 2014, which gave Uber a $17 billion valuation.</span></p><p><span>That was long before Google self-driving car spin out Waymo <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-waymo-v-uber-case-explained-2017-5">sued Uber for stealing its trade secrets</a> in February 2017. Needless to say, Google and Uber had a very public falling out. But their investment relationship stayed in place.</span></p><h2>Google gave up its board seat but said it remained an "enthusiastic investor"</h2><p><span>GV's investments in Uber were led by David Krane, former director of global communications and public affairs for Google, who now holds the title of CEO and managing partner of GV.</span></p><p><span>While Krane led the investment, it was a third David who held the board seat - David Drummond. Drummond, then senior vice president of corporate development of Alphabet, joined the board in 2013 and left in 2016 <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/alphabet-executive-david-drummond-leaves-uber-board-1472510812">as tensions and competition grew</a> between the two companies. </span></p><p><span>In<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/alphabet-executive-david-drummond-leaves-uber-board-1472510812"> a statement</a> to the Wall Street Journal at the time, Drummond said that he stepped down "given the overlap between" Google and Uber. </span>"GV remains an enthusiastic investor and Google will continue to partner with Uber," he said.</p><p><span>While Alphabet has a huge stake on the line, </span><span>it isn't the only corporate investor with dueling interests. </span><span>The Chinese ride hailing company Didi Chuxing invested in both companies, starting with Lyft in its 2015 Series E and 2016 Series F, then with Uber through a $1 billion round as part of its purchase of Uber's Chinese division, according to PitchBook. </span></p><p>Uber also has corporate investment from Axel Springer, which owns Business Insider, Microsoft, and Baidu. Lyft's corporate investors include Alibaba, General Motors, Ford, and Comcast Ventures.</p><p>There's no obvious conflict in Alphabet's ride-hailing double-dose, given its now passive role as an Uber investor.</p><p>But with Alphabet involved in two of the hottest IPOs of 2019, the real competition might be which of the two Davids gets a bigger first-day pop with their investment.</p> <p class="tagline">Get the latest Google stock price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/GOOG-Quote"> here.</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ces-tech-product-launch-events-trade-show-2018-12">Apple forever changed the biggest tech event of the year by not showing up</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

In dueling Uber and Lyft IPOs, two Google dealmakers named David share competing interests

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Disney</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" premiered in Los Angeles last night, and the verdict is in: Hollywood is thrilled.</p><p>A number of celebrities joined a few lucky fans to catch the first public showing, and took to Twitter to express their pleasure.</p><p>Rainn Wilson, who dressed as a Jedi Knight, wrote on Twitter, "1st Star Wars review: it was epic, awesome &amp; perfect. The cast was stellar. JJ killed it!" </p><p></p><p>Check out some other celebrity reactions - from Patton Oswalt, Rob Lowe, and more - below:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And Patton Oswalt couldn't contain his enthusiasm.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eagle-attacks-trump-2015-12">Watch Donald Trump get attacked by an eagle</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BjazlneToms6PUH4ZWPlsPi4dwkyQWIs" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Celebrities gave their reactions to the new 'Star Wars' - here's what they thought

<p> </p><p>Dear Readers,</p><p>This week's stories included lots of bank earnings (bottom line: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-fourth-quarter-results-2019-1">bond trading slumped, </a>but execs said the markets are improving). We broke down Wall Street's (skeptical) <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/analysts-skeptical-on-fiserv-and-first-data-deal-2019-1">reaction to a $22 billion fin-tech megadeal. </a>And we talked to a handful of tech bankers who sighed that although <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2019-was-supposed-to-be-a-banner-year-for-ipos-but-now-its-turning-into-a-shitshow-2019-1">2019 was supposed to be the year of the multi-billion IPO, it's turning into a '</a><span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2019-was-supposed-to-be-a-banner-year-for-ipos-but-now-its-turning-into-a-shitshow-2019-1">s---show' </a>(their words). </span></p><p>I went down a bit of a rabbit hole this week after reading our reporter Dan DeFrancesco's piece about a new fin-tech company that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/swarm-to-require-no-fees-for-creating-security-tokens-2019-1">lets small investors buy partial ownership </a>in real-world assets such as an art collection (imagine holding 1/1,000,000th of a Picasso) or <span>shares in a soccer club, through the sale of digital tokens. There are also a number of companies <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harbor-launches-digital-token-sales-2018-11">doing this with real estate </a>to let smaller investors take fractional ownership in different residential or commercial properties. I've even heard rumblings of tokens for rare wine and car collections, restaurants, or portfolios of patents. </span></p><p><span>Here's how it works. </span></p><p>Groups issue "security token offerings" - different than<span> </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-an-ico-2017-10">initial coin offerings</a><span>, which have drawn a </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-financial-watchdog-is-going-after-the-ico-market-with-a-wave-of-subpoenas-2018-2">wave of subpoenas</a><span> from regulators. STOs, meanwhile, have </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-age-of-the-ico-is-coming-to-an-end-giving-way-to-a-new-trend-in-crypto-2018-3">garnered increased attention</a><span> over the past year as a legitimate alternative investment method. The digital securities have stricter regulatory oversight and are tied to actual assets.</span></p><p><span>STOs serve a few different purposes. Big picture, their aim is to make</span><span> previously illiquid assets as liquid as cash. </span><span>They can also serve as an alternative funding avenue for a startup rather than traditional methods like venture capital. And they offer the ability for small investors to gain access to exclusive investments that may have been off-limits to them previously. </span></p><p><span>Probably my favorite application of this technology being used so far <a href="https://commercialobserver.com/2018/08/aspen-st-regis-blockchain/">is the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen</a>, which last year allowed smaller investors to</span><span> buy digital tokens that represent equity shares in the high-end hotel.</span></p><p><span>It all seems a bit 'pie in the sky' for now, but I think this is going to be a huge trend that becomes increasingly mainstream in the couple of years, particularly as better infrastructure comes along and regulation is cleared up. </span></p><p>Next week, we'll be sending a big group of reporters and editors to Davos to rub elbows with billionaires and world leaders so stay tuned for some dispatches from the snow. </p><p><span>To read most of the articles here, </span><a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/click/15712635.3/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnVzaW5lc3NpbnNpZGVyLmNvbS9jYXRlZ29yeS9iaS1wcmltZT9ucl9lbWFpbF9yZWZlcmVyPTEmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1TYWlsdGhydSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PUFkdmVydGlzaW5nX2luc2lkZXI/5bd0c4d12ddf9c61941dda0bBb816ad85" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/click/15712635.3/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnVzaW5lc3NpbnNpZGVyLmNvbS9jYXRlZ29yeS9iaS1wcmltZT9ucl9lbWFpbF9yZWZlcmVyPTEmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1TYWlsdGhydSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PUFkdmVydGlzaW5nX2luc2lkZXI/5bd0c4d12ddf9c61941dda0bBb816ad85&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1547863916373000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFVpdQmxaKqr-aa_iIqdUOPlr5_fQ">subscribe to BI Prime</a><span>, or email me at ooran@businessinsider.com for a 1-month free trial. And if you're interested in the latest healthcare news, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dispensed-weekly-newsletter-january-18-2019-1">check out our Friday newsletter, Dispensed.</a> </span></p><p><span>Please pass along this newsletter to anyone you think might find it valuable. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/wall-st-insider&amp;hash=f4e91136c13f3c40c496d77bc7347502">New readers can sign up here</a>. </span></p><p>Thanks again for reading and enjoy the long weekend!  </p><p>- Olivia</p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi</p></div><p></p></div></div><br /></strong><strong>2 dealmakers named David: Uber and Lyft's expected IPOs will trigger competition at Google's in-house VC firms</strong></p><p>The 2019 tech IPO line up has promised plenty of side-choosing as ride hailing rivals Lyft and Uber prep for dueling multi-billion dollar public stock offerings.</p><p>Alphabet, however, has hedged its bets, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alphabet-bets-uber-and-lyft-ipo-2019-1">reports BI's Becky Peterson. </a></p><p>The Google parent company has made major investments in both Uber and Lyft through its two investment arms, CapitalG and GV.</p><p>Alphabet is in a unique position, perhaps rivaled only by SoftBank's competing investments in Uber, the Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, the Indian Olo Cab, and Singapore's Grab.</p><p>There are not many other examples of investors playing both sides of the field - venture capital firms tend to avoid backing direct competitors because of stress it creates between founders and investors, as well as the logistics over which information can be disclosed to which people within a firm.</p><p><span>As big corporations like Alphabet and SoftBank take on an increasingly larger role in startup investing,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alphabet-bets-uber-and-lyft-ipo-2019-1"> the rules of the game are changing.</a></span></p><p><strong>The David Solomon era at Goldman Sachs kicked off with 43 words Lloyd Blankfein would never say</strong></p><p>If it wasn't clear before Wednesday that a new era of management had begun at Goldman Sachs, new CEO David Solomon wasted little time in making the point.</p><p>Just minutes into the<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-stock-price-earnings-q4?r=UK">firm's fourth-quarter conference call</a>, Solomon told analysts the firm was taking a hard look at its beleaguered fixed-income trading division. The review might include shrinking the business further if necessary.</p><p>"Let me be direct," Solomon said. "We are fully cognizant of the reduction in industry wallet over the past decade, and we will not be complacent waiting for the market to return. We are running the business with a clear perspective of its revenue potential."</p><p>On its face, Solomon's declaration doesn't seem all that controversial. Goldman's fixed-income business has had a difficult couple of years, and many competitors have already downsized their own desks. </p><p>But at Goldman, the comment drew a sharp departure from the public stance espoused by Blankfein. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-david-solomon-breaks-with-lloyd-blankfein-2019-1">Inside its 200 West St. headquarters, Solomon's comment raised eyebrows, according to two employees.</a></p><p>Blankfein, a student of history and business cycles and Goldman's CEO between 2006 and 2018, had famously stuck by the fixed-income-trading division that fueled his rise. For years, he defended the division against calls to shrink its footprint, explaining how important it is to have traders in seats when the business inevitably bounced back. That has yet to materialize.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-david-solomon-breaks-with-lloyd-blankfein-2019-1">More here. </a></p><p><strong>A $72 billion Canadian investor is poised to start making venture-capital bets in Silicon Valley</strong></p><p>A huge Canadian pension fund is plotting to expand into<span> </span>Silicon Valley, seeking to place bets on hot US tech startups.</p><p>OMERS, which manages more than<span> </span>95 billion Canadian dollars, or $72 billion, on behalf of municipal workers in the province of Ontario, hired Michael Yang as a managing partner of OMERS Ventures to open the venture arm's first US offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto.</p><p>OMERS Ventures<span> </span>oversees about 880 million Canadian dollars invested in 35 companies, mainly in Canada. The goal of expanding to the Bay Area is to gain better access to investment opportunities in<span> </span>innovative startups, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/omers-ventures-hires-michael-yang-comcast-ventures-silicon-valley-2019-1">Yang said in an interview with BI's Zach Tracer.</a> OMERS itself has been opening offices outside Canada to broaden its investment opportunities.</p><p>"Just look at where the deals are, the dollars are, where the innovation is," he said. "As they look to deploy more dollars, invest in more and more interesting projects, they need to expand their geographic horizons."</p><p><strong>'Someone's going to get hurt': JPMorgan chief issues a stark warning on the market for risky loans</strong></p><p>The firms that lurk outside the traditional banking system, known as shadow banks, are first in line for pain when the leveraged-lending cycle eventually turns, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dimon-says-shadow-banks-in-line-for-pain-2019-1">according to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.</a></p><p>Compared to the traditional banking sector, "shadow banks, they do things differently," Dimon said. Dimon was responding to multiple questions from analysts on the firm's fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday about its<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-financial-crisis-how-corporate-debt-burdens-leveraged-loans-could-hurt-markets-2019-1">exposure to a corporate-loan market that has shown signs of cracking</a>.</p><p>Dimon, the head of the largest US bank and a huge lender to corporations, shrugged off any concern about the traditional banking system. He ticked off a list of reasons why the industry will be more immune to losses than it was in the depths of the financial crisis: Senior lenders have more loss protection from other investors lower down the payment waterfall, more flexibility in the deals, and higher capital levels, Dimon said.</p><p>Not so for other market players, such as collateralized-loan managers, he said.</p><p><span>"A lot of those folks are - they're quite bright, they kind of know what they're doing - someone's going to get hurt there," Dimon said.</span></p><p><strong>Ken Griffin's $30 billion Citadel has cut several stock-pickers, joining some of the biggest names in the industry in shedding staff</strong></p><p>Surveyor Capital, an equities arm of Ken Griffin's $30 billion Citadel,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citadel-cuts-stock-picking-team-2019-1"> has axed long-time portfolio manager Adam Wolfman</a> and his team of three analysts in December, sources tell Business Insider.</p><p>The poor year and a tough environment for traditional stock-pickers has also pushed other multi-strategy firms like Jana Partners<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/21-billion-hedge-fund-blue-mountain-winds-down-long-short-fund-2019-1">and BlueMountain Capital Management to get out of the space completely.</a></p><p>Citadel - which has credit, fixed income, commodities and quant strategies to go along with its stock-picking arms - posted a solid returns in 2018 in its main, multi-strategy fund of 9.1%, according to a source familiar with the matter.</p><p><strong>A hot marijuana startup is aiming to go public next year </strong></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-vape-startup-pax-labs-will-ipo-in-2019-ceo-says-2019-1">Pax Labs is aiming to go public in 2020</a>, Bharat Vasan, the marijuana vape startup's CEO, told BI's Jeremy Berke in an interview.</p><p>Vasan he's been talking to bankers and found the appetite for an IPO has been "overwhelmingly positive."</p><p>The buzzy vape startup has landed equity investments from blue-chip firms like Tiger Global and Tao Capital Partners.</p><p><span>If you don't know who Pax is, you probably you've heard of Juul, the tobacco-vape company that </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/altria-considering-juul-investment-2018-11">recently landed a $12.8 billion infusion from Altria</a><span>. Pax was spun out of Juul in 2017.</span></p><p><strong>Wall Street move of the week:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-adds-a-growth-equity-business-2019-1">Blackstone has hired a growth equity veteran as it pushes into a new business area</a></p><p><strong>Chart of the week: </strong></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Yutong Yuan/Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>In tech news:</strong></p><div data-sticky="subnav" data-ad-subnav=""><div data-bi-ad="" id="gpt-post-science-subnav-5c3e8bb3471e72.28787359" data-force="" data-type="ad" data-adunit="business-insider/desktop/tech/science/post" data-pagetype="post" data-tag="health,comcast,comcast-ventures,venture-capital,omers,omers-ventures,pension,pension-funds,canada,bi-prime" data-pos="atf" data-authors="zachary-tracer" data-views="4041" data-region="Subnav" data-responsive="[{" browserLimit:00slotSize:300250browserLimit:7280slotSize:72890browserLimit:9700slotSize:9702509709072890location:window="" data-url="omers-ventures-hires-michael-yang-comcast-ventures-silicon-valley-2019-1" data-amazontamsizes="[[300,250],[728,90],[970,250],[970,90]]" data-google-query-id="CJWNsfyV8d8CFZbQmgodtgIBQg"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/4442842/business-insider/desktop/tech/science/post_0__container__"><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fintech-companies-venture-funding-in-2018-2019-1">It's a fintech frenzy - top venture pros spill why the $11 billion party won't end anytime soon</a></li><li><span style="color: #000000;"></span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-new-rules-employee-discussions-politics-bullying-religion-2019-1" data-analytics-position="1" data-analytics-module="hero_tout">Leaked memo spells out Facebook's new 'ground rules' restricting employee discussions about politics and religion</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-new-rules-employee-discussions-politics-bullying-religion-2019-1" data-analytics-position="1" data-analytics-module="hero_tout"></a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-airbnb-employees-are-worried-by-fears-of-recession-2019-1" data-analytics-position="5" data-analytics-module="featured_post">Amid fears of an impending recession, some employees at Silicon Valley's IPO-bound startups say they're starting to get anxious</a></li></ul></div></div></div><p><strong>In markets:<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/next-market-crash-global-markets-flashing-signal-investors-bracing-for-worst-2018-6"> </a></strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-in-2019-as-fang-mega-cap-tech-lose-investing-appeal-2019-1">Forget FANG - a $135 billion investor says a new group of stocks is poised to dominate the market going forward</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-stock-market-crash-john-carey-amundi-pioneer-recommendations-outlook-2019-1">A fund manager at a $1.7 trillion investing giant reveals how he's preparing in case stocks crash again - and outlines the risks that could plunge the market into chaos</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-strategy-one-area-set-to-explode-higher-jpmorgan-2019-1">One slice of the stock market is set to explode higher - here are the 5 reasons, and how you can get involved<br /></a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-above-50000-hedge-fund-bet-time-running-out-2018-12"></a></li></ul><p><strong>Other good stories from around the newsroom:</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-gillette-released-made-its-metoo-ad-2019-1">Gillette knew that its new #MeToo ad would prompt backlash. Here's why the company still went ahead with it.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/senior-women-workplace-sponsorship-success-2019-1">What young women think it takes to get ahead at work isn't actually what moves the needle</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/group-nine-media-is-building-a-new-e-commerce-business-2019-1">2019 is expected to be another terrible year for media brands, but publishers like BuzzFeed and Refinery29 have a plan to survive</a></li></ul>

You Searched For "olo" and got 13 results

Lyft announces major push into food delivery, taking the opposite approach to rival Uber

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Restaurant technology platform Olo prices IPO at $25 per share for nearly $4 billion valuation

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You can now place DoorDash and Uber Eats orders through a call with an AI voice bot

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Fast-food CEO says Amazon is a growing threat to his industry

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Google's parent company may have just made its first big acquisition - an organic skincare company

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I own a spa in Phoenix, Arizona, where COVID-19 cases are soaring. As someone who touches people's faces all day, I'm going beyond required safety protocols to reopen.

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In dueling Uber and Lyft IPOs, two Google dealmakers named David share competing interests

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Uber and Lyft's IPOs will trigger competition at Google; hedge funds cut stock-pickers; hot marijuana IPOs

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