As tech companies pull back on spending, big office holiday parties are on the chopping block

Hey besties. This is Jordan Parker Erb. I'm back in a very, very, very cold Montana for the holidays, meaning I missed Insider's year-end party. Apparently, some tech workers are also missing their companies' holiday festivities — but not because they're bopping around in the Mountain West.

As tech companies pull back on spending, big office holiday parties are on the chopping block. We spoke with tech founders and investors, who shared how they're saving money ahead of the new year.

Let's get to it.

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1. Cost-cutting is coming for startups — and big office holiday parties are first on the list. For startup founders and venture capitalists, the office holiday party is a December tradition. But this year, holiday parties in startup-land look a little different.

• After years of seemingly unstoppable growth, once high-flying companies across the digital economy have been hit by a tidal wave of layoffs and forced to slash spending on beloved passion projects.
• Thanks to poor financial forecasts for the new year — think: impending "death spirals" — VCs are instructing founders to cut spending wherever possible, which now includes the beloved office holiday party.
• Insider spoke with seven startup founders and investors to learn which techniques they're using this holiday season to save as much capital as possible going into an increasingly shaky market.

Here's how startup founders are keeping the holidays bright.

In other news:

2. Want to start your own company? You might have a brain parasite. A new study in wolves underscores a strange link between leadership and an infection caused by cat poop. As many as 80% of humans may have the parasite, too — and there's sketchy but tantalizing evidence that it alters our entrepreneurial behavior. But there are some important caveats you'll want to know.

3. This year, 174 US tech startups achieved unicorn status. Despite market turmoil and falling valuations, dozens of companies — from A24 Films to SeatGeek — raised money at a valuation of at least $1 billion. See the full list.

4. Leaked documents show Amazon has a rosier outlook for the US economy than other banks and institutions. According to an internal macroeconomic analysis from November, obtained by Insider, Amazon sees a 30% chance of a US recession within the next six months, a much lower estimate than other surveys. Take a look at what Amazon's predicting.

5. Silicon Valley's job cuts are everybody else's gain. New research suggests that high-paying tech jobs are abundant — especially in sectors including insurance, healthcare, retail, government, and banking. Where laid-off tech workers can hunt for jobs.

6. We outlined 21 proptech startups to bet your career on in 2023. With thousands of employees at companies like Zillow, Redfin, and Opendoor looking for new opportunities following layoffs, we created a list of proptech startups that have all the makings of future success. From firms pioneering "fix-now, pay-later" models to companies helping investors diversify their portfolios, here's our list of top startups.

7. If TikTok gets banned in the US, Oracle could be the secret loser. As Congress considers two bills that would ban the app, Oracle is in a bind: TikTok's US user data is on Oracle servers, so a ban would hurt its fast-growing cloud business. How a TikTok ban could hurt Oracle.

8. Google's management reportedly issued a "code red" amid the rising popularity of the ChatGPT AI. According to The New York Times, CEO Sundar Pichai redirected some teams to focus on building out AI products, as it's sparked concerns over the future of the Google search engine. What we know so far.

Odds and ends:

9. Review: The Amazon Kindle Scribe. After putting Amazon's first note-taking e-reader to the test, we think it's a solid addition to the Kindle collection, but its appeal is limited to a specific kind of user. Here's how the Scribe stacks up.

10. Unedited footage of a Tesla Full Self-Driving beta test shows just how stressful the software can be. The YouTube video posted by Marques Brownlee shows a Tesla failing to recognize a construction zone and a traffic cone, and then struggling to get around a semi-truck with its hazards on. See more struggles from his 23-minute commute.

What we're watching today:

• Paychex and others are reporting earnings today. Keep up with earnings here.

Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.