<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/572916208d3eaeea6b9dec78-1200-924/josh-altman.jpg" border="0" alt="josh altman"><p class="source"><span>Robin Marchant/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Josh Altman.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Josh Altman is a real estate powerhouse.</p><p>The star of Bravo's "<a href="http://www.bravotv.com/million-dollar-listing-los-angeles">Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles</a>" and cofounder of real estate firm <a href="http://thealtmanbrothers.com/">The Altman Brothers</a> has sold over <a href="http://thealtmanbrothers.com/about/josh-altman/">$1.5 billion in real estate</a>, including the most expensive one-bedroom house in history, which sold for over $20 million.</p><p>He also sold an $11 million home to actor Tyler Perry in less than 10 hours, and made a $12 million sale to someone within hours of meeting them in line at Starbucks.</p><p>"A lot of people say, 'Well that's just lucky. That's just because you were in the right place at the right time,'" he tells Farnoosh Torabi on <a href="http://podcast.farnoosh.tv/2015/10/josh-altman/">an episode</a> of her "<a href="http://podcast.farnoosh.tv/">So Money</a>" podcast.</p><p>It's not just blind luck, he tells Torabi: "The truth is that I go to that same Starbucks every morning for one reason. It's not for the coffee.</p><p>"It's because I know the type of clientele that I'm trying to go after, and I know that all the rich people and celebrities in Beverly Hills go there. And so I'm putting myself in a situation where I choose to be lucky - it's not just random luck."</p><p>The second half of the equation is jumping on opportunities as they arise - for example, actually <em>talking </em>to the guy in the Starbucks line.</p><p>He calls this the "ready-fire-aim" mentality. "You've got to realize when there's an opportunity in front of you and you have to capitalize on that opportunity," he explains.</p><p>His $11 million sale to Tyler Perry epitomizes the "ready-aim-fire" mentality. He was at the gym one morning and realized he was working out next to Perry, he tells Torabi: "I go back and forth about whether or not I'm going to talk to him. I'm a little nervous. And I say, 'You know what, I'm just gonna do it.'"</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/572a0818918a0fa33b8487ae-1200-924/altman-brothers-1.jpg" border="0" alt="altman brothers"><p class="source"><span>Tommaso Boddi/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Josh and Matt Altman cofounded The Altman Brothers real estate firm. </p></img></div><p></p></div></div>By 10:00 am, Altman is showing Perry his future house. Come 4:00 pm, he has an offer on his house - and at 5:00 pm, he closes a deal for $11 million.</p><p>"The majority of people in situations like that will say, 'Ah forget it, I'm not gonna do it,'" Altman tells Torabi.</p><p>He recognized the opportunity and found the guts to tap Perry on the shoulder. "I knew what I needed to do," he tells Torabi. "I made sure that <em>he</em> knew what I do and that I'm very good at what I do. You believe in yourself, you trust your gut and don't second-guess yourself, and you do it."</p><p>Making your own luck, or choosing to be lucky, doesn't just apply to real estate agents, he emphasizes: "You can do that too, in any business that you're in."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/study-reveals-how-people-live-happier-lives-2016-4">The longest study on happiness revealed that people who did this lived longer, happier lives</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="F3NGR0MjE6PKTFlo4NFmQEinkNRqpslZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'F3NGR0MjE6PKTFlo4NFmQEinkNRqpslZ',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

A real estate expert who sold an $11 million home in 10 hours explains how to make your own luck

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/57360d028b987dc5129c0ebb-1200-924/josh-altman-6.jpg" alt="josh altman" border="0" /><p class="source"><span>Astrid Stawiarz/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Josh Altman.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Josh Altman became a millionaire at age 26.</p><p>It all started when he and his brother Matt, cofounders of real-estate firm <a href="http://thealtmanbrothers.com/">The Altman Brothers</a>, put in $5,000 each to buy a house for $400,000 (with 100% financing). They ended up flipping it and making a $200,000 profit.</p><p>That successful investment triggered more, and Altman reached the seven-figure mark at the ripe age of 26.</p><p>He promptly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/josh-altman-learned-from-becoming-a-millionaire-at-26-and-losing-it-all-2016-5">lost everything by 26 and a half</a>, but he learned from his million-dollar mistake and has since established himself as a real-estate powerhouse.</p><p>Today, the star of Bravo's "<a href="http://www.bravotv.com/million-dollar-listing-los-angeles">Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles</a>" has sold over <a href="http://thealtmanbrothers.com/about/josh-altman/">$1.5 billion in real estate</a> and has earned his million back tenfold: He has an estimated net worth of <a href="http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/business-executives/josh-altman-net-worth/">$10 million</a>.</p><p>On <a href="http://podcast.farnoosh.tv/2015/10/josh-altman/">an episode</a> of Farnoosh Torabi's "<a href="http://podcast.farnoosh.tv/">So Money</a>" podcast, Altman shared his best investing advice, and a rule he follows before making any investment: "<strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Invest in something that you know</strong>."</p><p>For him, that means real estate. "Personally, I like to invest in real estate, because I'm an expert at real estate. I like to drive down the street and see my investment - touch it."</p><p>When he's investing outside of the real-estate realm, "It's got to be something that I use," he says. "If I like Colgate toothpaste, then I'm going to invest in Colgate. I don't invest in things that I don't use. That's my investment strategy personally, and it's worked for me."</p><p>That's not to say the average person should start picking individual stocks - in fact, many experts <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/investing-in-low-cost-index-funds-2015-7">advise the opposite</a> - but if you do decide to take any investment risks, play to your strengths. Next, be diligent, Altman emphasizes, because, "Nothing's a home run. Nothing's a sure bet."</p><p>Part of being diligent is planning for the worst, he explains. "In good markets or bad markets, you always have to look at what your exit strategy is in a worst-case scenario. When I buy a property to develop, I don't go off of the number everybody else is saying it will be worth. I go off of the number that I know that I can literally get rid of this property tomorrow for this price if I fire sale it - and I need to be OK with that."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-cramer-on-investing-individual-stocks-versus-index-funds-2015-12">JIM CRAMER: This is where you should invest your first $10,000</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="B5b2FmeTq208XAywpTwiOvPDO9MgmeeI" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'B5b2FmeTq208XAywpTwiOvPDO9MgmeeI',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

A real-estate expert and self-made millionaire shares the one rule he follows before investing in anything

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5643b28e9dd7cc19008c92bc-900-678/bravo million dollar listing la cast.jpg" alt="bravo million dollar listing la cast.JPG" data-mce-source="Tommy Garcia/Bravo" /><p class="source"><span>Tommy Garcia/Bravo</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Josh Altman, Josh Flagg, David Parnes, and James Harris are the realtors who star on Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles," which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m.</p><p>On every episode, these men wheel and deal over the most expensive property in the city with the richest people in the world. Los Angeles has always attracted people from all corners of the world to its year-round good weather and accessibility to all kinds of terrain, from beaches to mountains and desert. And all that doesn't come cheap.</p><p><strong>So, who are these guys and what places them among the best in Los Angeles?</strong></p>

Meet the 4 star realtors who make a killing selling multimillion-dollar LA homes

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56218dd49dd7cc10008c2a8b-2595-1887/umadbro.jpg" alt="umadbro" data-mce-source="Orwellian Stuff via Flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/orwellianstuff/14481719960/"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/orwellianstuff/14481719960/">Orwellian Stuff via Flickr</a></span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Nobody likes to be questioned.&#xa0;<p>But lately,&#xa0;some of&#xa0;Silicon Valley's&#xa0;big tech investors seem to be particularly&#xa0;upset that journalists are questioning&#xa0;some of the valley's hottest startups.</p><p>There's a fundamental difference in point of view here. The funders see first-hand how hard it is to build something and sympathize with the struggle. The journalists are supposed to be as objective and careful as possible and report what they find - even if some people don't like it.&#xa0;</p><p>The latest example is Theranos, whose science&#xa0;was called into question by the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901">Wall Street Journal</a> on Thursday. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-responds-to-wsj-report-2015-10">quick</a> to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-holmes-fires-back-at-her-critics-2015-10">defend</a> her company, as you'd expect from a CEO.&#xa0;</p><p>But some VCs also seemed genuinely upset.&#xa0;Not at the substance of the allegations, but not for giving founders the benefit of the doubt when it comes to building something.</p><p>Here's Greylock's Josh Elman, claiming that the Journal's story is&#xa0;"probably nonsense."</p><p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>I would bet that the real Theranos story is a ton of people working really hard to change medical tests and are close to something amazing</p>- Josh Elman  (@joshelman) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/655033793414238208">October 16, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The question is only whether they fully achieve that amazing potential and can deliver to the market or if they just remain close.</p>- Josh Elman  (@joshelman) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/655034015536189442">October 16, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The accusations of fraud, impropriety are probably nonsense. Instead, People working very hard to try and will something new in reality.</p>- Josh Elman  (@joshelman) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/655034356298153984">October 16, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Elman&#xa0;later admitted in a Twitter conversation with Wall Street Journal reporter Christopher Mims that he actually didn't really know much about the dispute.&#xa0;</p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/mims">@mims</a> ok - I have zero experience in their field so I can't comment on the claims. And I understand their are many questions</p>- Josh Elman  (@joshelman) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/655037937034199040">October 16, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">He just gave Theranos the benefit of the doubt.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Elman&#xa0;wasn't the only one to chime in.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Sam Altman - who runs Y Combinator, a startup accelerator that just raised a $700 million fund and is planning on getting into late-stage investing - criticized people who were "cackling with glee" over the Theranos story.</p><p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>I don't know if the WSJ allegations about Theranos are true or not. But always gross to watch people cackle with glee in these situations.</p>- Sam Altman  (@sama) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/654828572859723777">October 16, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>New tech is hard. Slam pieces tell one side of a story. I do think Theranos should be more transparent, but ppl shouldn't pray for failure.</p>- Sam Altman  (@sama) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/654828908005617664">October 16, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Maybe Altman was reading a different Internet than I was, but I didn't see anybody cackling with glee. I saw a lot of people taking some very serious allegations seriously.&#xa0;</p><p class="embed-spacer">But the default assumption is that Theranos should get the benefit of the doubt.</p><p class="embed-spacer">But journalists see that the writer of the story, <a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/C/john-carreyrou/1282">John Carreyrou</a>, is a two-time Pulitzer prize winner for investigative reporting, and we're more inclined to believe that he did everything possible to uncover and tell the truth.</p><h2 class="embed-spacer">At odds</h2><p class="embed-spacer">This&#xa0;disconnect between the worldview of journalists and VCs has been showing up more and more recently.</p><p>Last month,&#xa0;we saw <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vinod-khosla-awkward-techcrunch-disrupt-interview-2015-9">Vinod Khosla go off</a> on editor&#xa0;Jon Shieber on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt - a trade show that's mostly about startups and the VC funding that helps them grow.&#xa0;</p><p>Shieber questioned him about food startup Hampton Creek, a Khosla Ventures investment. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo-complaints-2015-7">Business Insider</a> and <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/30/haveyouseenthewarningletter/">TechCrunch</a> have published articles questioning the company's science and ethics, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration&#xa0;accused it in a letter of&#xa0;"<a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2015/ucm458824.htm">misleading</a>" labeling.</p><p>Khosla said the company was doing "awesome." Shieber said that was&#xa0;"debatable."&#xa0;Khosla shot back:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Khosla:</strong> Here's a journalist who doesn't know what's going on, has an opinion, just like he does, to make interesting stories.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>TC (Shieber):</strong> Hopefully, hopefully, there will be an interesting story that comes out of this.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Khosla:</strong> I know a lot more about how they're doing, excuse me, than you do.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56031d3c9dd7cc16008bc96c-4256-2832/gettyimages-489684282.jpg" alt="Vinod Khosla disrupt techcrunch" data-mce-source="Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch" data-mce-caption="Moderator Jonathan Shieber speaks with Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 at Pier 70 on September 23, 2015 in San Francisco, California."><p class="source"><span>Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch</span></p><p class="caption">TechCrunch's Jonathan Shieber speaks with Vinod Khosla in September.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>That same day,&#xa0;Sequoia&#xa0;Capital partner&#xa0;Roelof Botha spoke to Bloomberg's Emily Chang on TV about whether there's a tech bubble or not. During the interview, he&#xa0;said:<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>When I look at some of the companies that we ourselves are involved with and I see how they get written up, it's from people who don't actually know the details of what's actually going on inside these companies.</span>&#xa0;</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">I remember being at PayPal as an executive in 2001 and reading the press articles. I remember one title was "Earth to Palo Alto," they made a mockery of us at PayPal thinking that we were delusional, and no one knew what a good business we were building, and today it's a $40 billion public company.</p><p>We've heard&#xa0;similar complaints in&#xa0;private conversations with other venture capitalists,&#xa0;too. The argument usually goes something like this (paraphrasing a bunch of conversations, not any particular one):</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Startup founders have a really hard job. They are trying to do something new and drive society forward. The tech press doesn't know all the facts so you should give them a break.&#xa0;</p><p>The first sentence is indisputably true - it's hard (and lonesome) to found a tech startup.</p><p>But that goes for a lot of jobs. It's hard to found a successful restaurant, or to drive a truck on transcontinental runs, or to be a research scientist dependent on the whims of grants and the commercial viability of your discoveries.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/528fd6df6bb3f73013546a67-767-649/screen%20shot%202013-11-22%20at%205.12.16%20pm.png" alt="Sisyphus" data-mce-source="Wikimedia Commons" data-link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Punishment_sisyph.jpg"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Punishment_sisyph.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></p><p class="caption">Sisyphus? Now that guy has a hard job.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>The second sentence is where things get sticky.</p><p>A lot of tech founders are trying to do something new and drive society forward. But some of them are not.</p><p>People have all kinds of motivations for founding a company - any kind of company. Some want to get rich. Some hate working for other people. Some have what they think is a great business idea and want to see if they can make it real, and don't particularly care if it's good for society. (Does the world really need another messaging startup, or another social network, or another photo filter? No. But we might use&#xa0;a better one! That's the glory of capitalism. If you have a great idea, and you can figure out how to sell it for a profit, congratulations. You're in business.)</p><p>The third sentence is where they completely miss the point.&#xa0;</p><p>Journalists don't set out to write takedowns of companies. But when a journalist begins investigating a company and finds something is amiss, and the story is well-vetted and fairly reported, the venture community should welcome that reporting.</p><p>Because every faker,&#xa0;every charlatan, and every company whose product just isn't good enough to win is <em>taking money that could have been invested in other companies that have a better chance</em>.&#xa0;</p><p>(One more thing. Journalists are happy to hear companies defend themselves. But when a company refuses to share any data that could bolster its&#xa0;case, and refuses to let anything they say privately be used publicly - that's "off the record" in journalism-speak - it's awfully hard to take these defenses seriously.)</p><h2>Circle the wagons</h2><p>There may be something else going on here.&#xa0;</p><p>The venture community has been benefiting from&#xa0;cheap interest rates for the last seven years, which has made raising funds somewhat easier than in past eras, meaning that they have more money to plow into startups. A lot of those companies have raised rounds at valuations that will be hard to&#xa0;justify if they need to raise another round when funds tighten up.&#xa0;</p><p>A lot of VCs themselves have been sounding nervous recently, including <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marc-andreessen-on-startup-burn-rates-worry-2014-9">Marc Andreessen</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gurley-instacart-doomed-2015-9">Bill Gurley</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brad-feld-start-thinking-about-unicorpses-2015-9">Brad Feld</a>, and most recently&#xa0;<a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/91063628-73f5-11e5-bdb1-e6e4767162cc.html#axzz3olu8GtSe">Mike Moritz from Sequoia,</a>&#xa0;who&#xa0;wrote that&#xa0;a lot of today's unicorns seem like&#xa0;"the flimsiest of edifices." They're starting to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valleys-denial-is-over-everybody-thinks-were-in-a-bubble-2015-10">be more cautious</a> with their investments, too.</p><p>Maybe this is simply the venture community circling its wagons.&#xa0;</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-overly-attached-girlfriend-explains-what-internet-stardom-is-like-2013-3">The Overly-Attached Girlfriend Explains What It's Like Being A Wildly Popular Internet Meme</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="d5aHhnYTpqGl-XJ8oVMwbVK1p1SzL686" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'd5aHhnYTpqGl-XJ8oVMwbVK1p1SzL686',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Some tech investors sure seem to be getting defensive lately...

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/562195609dd7cc70408b78ca-3776-2832/21470472099_87d36edd12_o.jpg" alt="Sam Altman Y Combinator" data-mce-source="Getty Images" /><p class="source"><span>Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Y Combinator has spawned some of the biggest startups in Silicon Valley, like Airbnb and Dropbox, only to push them out of the nest when they graduate the three-month accelerator.</p><p>Y Combinator graduates get an even $120,000 investment in exchange for seven percent of equity. From there, the alumni network helps take care of their own, but there's no more financial support from the program. </p><p>The system has worked. The elite startup school that has funded more than 800 startups since 2005.</p><p>But the system changed dramatically this week. </p><p>On Thursday, Y Combinator President Sam Altman announced that the accelerator had raised a $700 million "Continuity" venture fund to do just what its name implies. </p><p>Run by Twitter's former COO and YC partner Ali Rowghani, the Continuity Fund will invest only in Y Combinator alumni after they've graduated from the accelerator. </p><p>In other words, the startup school that used to groom and present companies to other VCs to help them grow is now going to compete with those very same VCs a few years down the road. </p><h2>How the fund will work</h2><p>The first way the Continuity Fund will invest is by exercising Y Combinator's "<a href="http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2014/10/12/the-authoritative-guide-to-prorata-rights/">pro rata rights</a>," a venture capital term that means a fund can continue to participate in future rounds to maintain its same ownership share. <a href="http://blog.ycombinator.com/q-and-a-with-yc-continuitys-ali-rowghani">The fund has promised to exercise those rights</a> on any Y Combinator company's raise if it is below a $300 million valuation.</p><p>Above that, the fund is reserving its rights to be more selective.</p><p>"<span>Its actually somewhat unusual for an investor like us to not continue to do pro rata," Altman told Business Insider. "So the founders were saying 'Can you continue to support us?' and we just didn't have the money to do it."</span></p><p>Y Combinator first decided it would just do the pro rate piece, Altman said, but as it started raising money, it found many "hard tech companies" - like nuclear power or rockets - have trouble raising large rounds of capital in their later stages.</p><p>"Somewhere between very hard and impossible actually. There just aren't that many investors who are willing to do that," Altman said. "So we're thinking to ourselves, if we're going to keep putting these companies through our program, it's important that we continue to support them and help them raise large amounts of capital later."</p><p>At the later stage rounds, the <a href="http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-continuity-fund">Continuity Fund</a> starts looking like more of a competitor in the funding landscape.</p><p>The fund will invest in growth stage rounds - the ones typically a few years before an IPO where nontraditional investors like Goldman Sachs or T. Rowe Price participate. In <a href="http://blog.ycombinator.com/q-and-a-with-yc-continuitys-ali-rowghani">a Q&amp;A with Y Combinator</a>, Rowghani, the fund's lead, said it will even lead rounds and join a board seat. </p><p>"Most VCs don't love the growth rounds. Most VCs love the A and the B rounds which we've said we're not doing," Altman said.</p><h2><strong>Not picking favorites...at first</strong></h2><p>Fellow venture capitalists, especially in the earlier stages, aren't really concerned about the change. One venture capitalist said it "makes sense" that the accelerator that that has built its reputation on supporting its investments in so many other ways would continue to do so in a financial way. This same investor also applauded Y Combinator for its transparency in how it will keep the field level for investors in the earlier stages to still come in and lead rounds.</p><p>"<span>We will still look to Y Combinator graduates as great potential investments at the early stages where we take active board roles and help the founders build their companies," Greylock partner Josh Elman told Business Insider in an e-mail. "At the later stages, it seems that growth investors will have to compete with the Continuity fund which may have inside knowledge on the companies."</span></p><p><span>Jumping into the late-stage game will be fun to watch for many of the early stage investors who have come to know the accelerator as only the starting point of some of the highest-valued startups in tech.</span></p><p><span>"I'm really excited to see how Sam's planning on adding value to late-stage companies," said Tim Young, a founding general partner at Eniac Ventures.</span></p><p><span>This is a big bet on startups, and not all of Y Combinator's companies will make the later stage. </span></p><p><span>Altman doesn't see this as picking his favorites from a batch, and will keep a careful eye to make sure there's no unintended consequences, he said. </span></p><p><span>"There are a bunch of other firms that pick their favorite children at the end of the program, and that's just absolutely disastrous. We would never do that," Altman said.</span></p><p><span>However, he acknowledges that startups may change their view of Y Combinator over the years. What was their launch pad and debut into the startup scene will become a cash source in the future. Altman hopes he's set it up so that companies will continue to come to Y Combinator for advice on both their highs and lows, but that may change down the road when the company looks more like a potential investor and board member.</span></p><p>"Once a company is 3 or 4 years out, and raising a round at half a billion or a billion dollars, yeah at that point they're going to view us as potential investor and probably treat us differently," Altman said. "But during the program, as we designed this, we limited our own economic upside so it doesn't change for these founders."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/launching-startup-changed-drastically-stewart-butterfield-slack-flickr-2015-6">Why new companies have it way easier now than a decade ago</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1sd3FndTqSDbFP-3eYupLmnL535dH0Et" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', '1sd3FndTqSDbFP-3eYupLmnL535dH0Et',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

The most elite school for Silicon Valley startups just threw a wrench into the works

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f825489dd7cc0f008ba531-1300-975/million%20dollar%20listing%20la%20james%20harris,%20david%20parnes%20hi.jpg" alt="million dollar listing la James Harris, David Parnes hi.JPG" data-mce-source="Bravo"><p class="source"><span>Bravo</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>It's often said that couples shouldn't go to bed angry. That could be a good rule for business partners, too.<p>On last week's episode of Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles," British pair&#xa0;<span>James Harris and David Parnes&#xa0;had a falling out over a lost listing. But if they don't make up quickly, another multimillion-dollar deal may fall through their fingers.</span></p><p><span>"James and I have been friends since we were little," David explains in Business Insider's exclusive preview of Wednesday's episode. "We've had our fights before and eventually they always blow over."</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f823b1bd86ef15008ba3e9-779-417/million%20dollar%20listing%20la%20excl%20video%20bi%20ag.gif" alt="million dollar listing la excl video bi ag" data-mce-source="Bravo"><p class="source"><span>Bravo</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>In a Business Insider exclusive video, David Parnes may have waited too long to patch things up with partner, James Harris. He has been charged with purchasing three huge properties with just about $16 million to play with. It's a puzzle and he's going to need James' help to figure it out.</span></p><p><span>"I should have never kept James out of the loop," David admits. "I need James to help me figure out this insane puzzle of a deal."</span></p><p><span>Is it too late? Watch BI's exclusive preview below:</span></p><p><span><div><iframe src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/PHSl-B/hsjGJPh4DVwT/embed/select/media/guid/2140479951/2902790" width="688" height="387" frameborder="0" seamless="seamless" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></span></p><p class="embed-spacer">Meanwhile, the show's other star realtors have their own tough situations to deal with.&#xa0;<span>Josh Flagg is trying to unload a stale tear down property, which is a hard sell. And Josh Altman is trying&#xa0;to win over a new client, all while his visiting parents put the pressure on him and his fiance Heather to have children.</span></p><p class="embed-spacer"><em>"Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/barbara-corcoran-mark-cuban-behind-the-scenes-shark-tank-2015-9">'Shark Tank' investor reveals Mark Cuban's strategy on the show and the real drama behind the scenes</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ptZ2JqZzpeF4kLv3B-xWxQrJVfg_RI9z" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'ptZ2JqZzpeF4kLv3B-xWxQrJVfg_RI9z',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

These 'Million Dollar Listing' stars have to solve a tough $16 million property puzzle

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58651e4fee14b6c7148b58c3-2222/undefined" alt="trump carrier" data-mce-source="Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images" /><p class="source"><span>Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>There's a restaurant near my house that serves salads and stir fry.</p><p>But it doesn't employ a single cashier. Instead, there are rows of machines that allow you to select and place your order. A few minutes later, you pick up your meal, hardly having to interact with any humans.</p><p>This is an example of automation. A traditional low-skill job being replaced by technology - specifically machines and robots.</p><p>Many view this as progress. Technology is doing work for people, so we don't have to do it ourselves. And it's cheaper for companies, who can use technology to employ fewer people. It can lead to lower prices and faster service.</p><p>But to those who might have had that cashier job, automation is deeply concerning. And this concern was at the root of why some in middle America voted for Donald Trump. </p><p>Part of president-elect Donald Trump's plan to "Make America Great Again" is to bring jobs back to the US. These jobs that have either been moved abroad or cut altogether to save companies money.</p><p>And as president-elect, Trump has made a very public show of seeking to reverse that trend. </p><p>In November, he negotiated with Carrier to keep about 800 jobs in Indiana that were slated to move to Mexico. On Wednesday, he announced that Sprint and OneWeb would each bring or bring back thousands of jobs to America - though the Sprint and OneWeb jobs were part of SoftBank's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/us/politics/donald-trump-sprint-jobs.html">already-announced commitment</a> to add 50,000 jobs in the United States.</p><p>Promoting individual instances of job creation seems like a decent, immediate solution to the automation and exportation of low- and middle-skill jobs. And it's easy to see why these moves make many Americans hopeful.</p><p>But it is a short-term fix to a very big, gnarly problem.  </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55e4d8bfdd0895f7118b46da-1400" alt="eatsa robot restaurant san francisco 2927" data-mce-source="Melia Robinson/Tech Insider" /><p class="source"><span>Melia Robinson/Tech Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Eastsa is a human-free restaurant. You order your food on an iPad rather than through a cashier.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Trump is largely saving jobs that will be automated in the future. And if people keep waiting for their jobs to come back, rather than try to retrain in fields that are growing, the problem will get worse.</p><p>And I say this as someone whose job is in danger of eventually being automated. Publications like the <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7939067/ap-journalism-automation-robots-financial-reporting">AP already have some articles being written by robots</a> rather than journalists.</p><p>Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking summed up the key automation issue well in a recent op-ed.</p><p>"The automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/19/stephen-hawking-ai-best-or-worst-thing-for-humanity-cambridge" title="" rel="nofollow" data-link-name="in body link">rise of artificial intelligence</a> is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining," he wrote in The Guardian. "The internet and the platforms that it makes possible allow <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/29/artificial-intelligence-strong-concern-bill-gates" title="" rel="nofollow" data-link-name="in body link">very small groups of individuals to make enormous profits</a> while employing very few people. This is inevitable, it is progress, but it is also socially destructive."</p><h3><strong>Universal Basic Income and the rise of trillionaires</strong></h3><p>One possible long-term solution for automation is universal basic income (UBI). Popularized by Silicon Valley, it's the notion that the government will pay people whether or not they work. You could earn more on top of the UBI by working, but the intent of the UBI would be to ensure that even those who do not work can maintain a basic standard of living.</p><p>But there are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ubi-universal-basic-income-trump-2016-12">problems with doling out free money</a>. The biggest, perhaps, is that it ignores the fact that people <em>want</em> to work.</p><p>"<span>One problem is that a UBI does nothing to replace the sense of reward or purpose that comes from a job," Business Insider's Josh Barro explains. "It gives you money, but it doesn't give you the sense that you got the money because you did something useful."</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58651f37f10a9acc1c8b583a-616/undefined" alt="Sam Altman, Y Combinator" data-mce-source="The Young Global Leaders" /><p class="source"><span>The Young Global Leaders</span></p><p class="caption">Sam Altman, President of the Y Combinator startup accelerator.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Sam Altman, the head of prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator, is a big proponent of UBI. He thinks automation is inevitable, and, like Hawking, that only the most creative people will be employed in the future. Those people will likely be inventors and entrepreneurs who create the jobs they hold, and they will be astronomically wealthy - which will only increase the resentment the lower class feels toward the elite. </span></p><p><span><span>"We need to be ready for a world with trillionaires in it," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-world-with-trillionaires-is-inevitable-2016-6">Altman told Business Insider's Chris Weller</a> during a discussion about UBI. "And that's always going to feel deeply unfair. It feels unfair to me. But to drive society forward, you've got to let that happen."</span></span></p><p><span><span>Another long-term solution to automation is </span></span><span><span>to retrain and educate people in fields that are growing - like computer science and engineering. But that takes time and it requires wider access to affordable, higher education. </span></span></p><p><span><span>So, what's the real solution for technology eating our world and our jobs? </span></span></p><p><span><span>That's still unclear. But one thing is certain:</span></span></p><p><span><span>What Trump is doing may be the first step to solving the automation problem. But don't get used to it.</span></span></p><p>It might be a solution for you right now, but it won't be a solution for your children. </p><p class="tagline">The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/psychology-finding-purpose-life-happiness-2016-12">A psychologist reveals what you should do every six months to find your purpose in life</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="s5MTEzMDE6XURmHG5QnaxQm-kfuQCpA6" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 's5MTEzMDE6XURmHG5QnaxQm-kfuQCpA6',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

It doesn't matter how many US jobs Trump "saves" in the long run - we still have a giant problem

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/574da0b08ceb95a9736a4816-1200-924/ashton-kutcher-9.jpg" border="0" alt="ashton kutcher"><p class="source"><span>Brian Ach/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Ashton Kutcher.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>If you know Ashton Kutcher primarily from films and television, it may surprise you to hear that the 38-year-old actor has also <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ashton-kutcher-startup-aplus-media-viral-plagiarism-celebrities-2015-2">quietly built a media empire</a>, cofounded <a href="https://www.wearethorn.org/about-our-fight-against-sexual-exploitation-of-children/">a human-rights organization</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ashton-kutcher-on-shark-tank-2015-9">appeared as a guest Shark on "Shark Tank</a>."</p><p>He's also <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2016/03/23/how-ashton-kutcher-and-guy-oseary-built-a-250-million-portfolio-with-startups-like-uber-and-airbnb/#3fcc7d084ae1">built an impressive $250 million portfolio</a>, investing in tech companies such as Skype, Spotify, Uber, and Foursquare, and was recently on the cover of Forbes magazine, featured as one of tech's top investors.</p><p>On Chelsea Handler's new Netflix talk show "<a href="http://www.chelseahandler.com/">Chelsea</a>," Kutcher <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXhCe4Qj2Ho&amp;feature=youtu.be">offered up his best investment advice</a>:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Invest in the things that you know. If you drink beer all the time - if you go to microbreweries and you try all kinds of them - you probably know which ones are the best, and my advice is always to invest in what you know.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">If you're a stock boy in a grocery store and you see something flying off the shelf, find out who made it. Find out why it's flying off the shelf. Do the investigation necessary to know whether or not it's something that is going to have ultimate value.</p><p>He's not the only successful entrepreneur to preach this advice.</p><p>Josh Altman, self-made millionaire and the star of Bravo's "<a href="http://www.bravotv.com/million-dollar-listing-los-angeles">Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles</a>," said essentially the same thing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/josh-altman-best-investing-advice-2016-5">when asked about his best investing advice</a>: "Invest in something that you know."</p><p>For him, that means real estate. If he's ever investing outside of the real estate realm, "It's got to be something that I use," he says. "If I like Colgate toothpaste, then I'm going to invest in Colgate. I don't invest in things that I don't use. That's my investment strategy personally, and it's worked for me."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nyu-student-earns-enough-to-pay-his-tuition-2016-5">How this NYU student earns enough to cover his $48,000 annual tuition</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="VpaHVrMzE6esiujpM9hEVcuZicQU4433" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'VpaHVrMzE6esiujpM9hEVcuZicQU4433',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Actor-turned-entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher shares his single best piece of investing advice 

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55915e79eab8eafb27fdc42d-909-681/first-round-capital-rob-hayes-1.jpg" border="0" alt="first round capital rob hayes"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/loiclemeur/8576951085/sizes/l/">Flickr via Loiclemeur</a></span></p><p class="caption">Rob Hayes led First Round Capital's early investment in Uber. The company was only worth $4 billion then; now it's worth $3 billion more.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>On Monday, First Round Capital published a letter it sent to its limited partners about <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/269788805/First-Round-Q1-LP-Letter">the state of startup investing</a>. It was uncovered by <a href="https://fortune.com/2015/06/29/first-round-doesnt-know-if-theres-a-tech-bubble-but/">Fortune's Dan Primack</a>.</p><p>According to New York's top startup investing firm, things are looking a bit unstable in the private markets. Specifically, First Round Capital notes that every nine days last year, a new startup received a $1 billion+ valuation, and that some of these so-called "unicorn" companies will be exposed as frauds.</p><p>"We believe that some of them will be exposed as nothing more than horses with sticks taped to their heads," the firm's lead partner, Josh Kopelman, wrote.</p><p>Early stage startups have gotten eye-popping valuations lately too. Kopelman says seed-stage valuations have increased 20% year over year over the course of the past decade. And with seed valuations soaring higher and higher, what would have been a 3X return for funds in 2007 is about a 1X return today.</p><p>He likens the current startup market to a Black Jack table. Normally, odds are you have a 52% chance of losing if you play your cards right. But lately, the startup world feels like the odds are really stacked against investors and that 52% is more like 80%.</p><p>First Round Capital isn't the first firm to sound the alarm. Benchmark's Bill Gurley has also said we're headed for a bubble and startup accelerator leader Sam Altman says startups are burning scary amounts of money right now.</p><p>But this LP letter offers particularly good insight into the current frothy market, so it's worth reading every line. Buckle up!</p><p style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;"><a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/269788805/First-Round-Q1-LP-Letter" title="View First Round Q1 LP Letter on Scribd">First Round Q1 LP Letter</a> by <a href="https://www.scribd.com/first5round5capital" title="View First Round Capital's profile on Scribd">First Round Capital</a></p><p><iframe width="800" height="1066" frameborder="0" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269788805/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-IU5t8GuY8fMO0KrAVlFB&amp;show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="0.7729220222793488"></iframe></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gogoro-smartscooter-is-available-and-it-looks-incredible-2015-6">The 'Tesla of scooters' is finally available and it looks incredible</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="JrYjNydTomoXrRoIQe_bxbwlk4mNL1AL" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'JrYjNydTomoXrRoIQe_bxbwlk4mNL1AL',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

A bunch of billion-dollar 'unicorn' startups are just 'horses with sticks taped on their heads,' top New York investors say

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:343px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/51150974ecad04953900000e-361-270/barbie-1.png?maxX=343&amp;maxY=257" border="0" alt="Barbie" width="343" height="257" /></div><p class="source"><keyword id="145063" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mattel">Mattel</keyword></p><p class="caption">The seller.</p></div>For 41 years, <keyword id="52473" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Barbie">Barbie</keyword> has lived in her Malibu Dreamhouse, a three-story confection of faux old world charm and pink hardwood floors.</p>
<p>But now, as part of a new campaign for the doll, Barbie is selling her longtime beach home and moving somewhere else. <a href="http://www.trulia.com/barbie/">She wants $25 million for the property, as </a><a href="http://www.trulia.com/barbie/">listed on</a> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/trulia" class="hidden_link">Trulia</a>. The campaign contains several "real" elements — the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/business/media/barbie-to-sell-her-malibu-dreamhouse.html?_r=0">house even has a human listing agent</a>, for instance (it's  Josh Altman, of the TV show “Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles”).</p>
<p>By fall this year, Mattel will unveil a new home for Barbie, and hopefully the California real estate market will cooperate and she'll be able to move in.</p>
<p>But for now, feast your eyes on the inside of the most famous house in all of Malibu, Calif.</p>

Tour Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse -&#160;Mattel Is Selling It For $25 Million As A PR Stunt

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Business Insider" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54eb7e1eeab8ea98265bc62c-960/google-29.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54eb7e1eeab8ea98265bc62c-572-481/google-29.png" border="0" alt="Gmail autosuggest" /></a><p class="source"><span>Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Double-check the "To" field in the next email you send, if you're a Gmail user.<p>Google's mail service seems to have a bug in its auto-suggest feature that's causing a bunch of people to send messages to the wrong contacts. Instead of auto-completing to the most-used contact when people start typing a name into the "To" field, it seems to be prioritizing contacts that they communicate with less frequently.&#xa0;</p><p>New York City venture capitalist&#xa0;<a href="http://avc.com/2015/02/sending-stuff-to-the-wrong-people/">Fred Wilson just posted about the problem</a>, writing that he got a bunch of emails yesterday that were clearly not meant for him, but people are complaining about it all over Twitter, &#xa0;too.&#xa0;</p><div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Gmail autocomplete fails today? It's serving up least used rather than most used as suggestions. Already emailed the wrong people twice.</p>- Chloe Albanesius  (@ChloeAlbanesius) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/569926831626985472">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></div><div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>has anyone else noticed that the autocomplete for addresses in gmail has gotten horrendously bad recently?</p>- Sam Altman  (@sama) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/569913743217307648">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Gmail address autocomplete is totally whacked out. I keep emailing the wrong Amanda when I want to email my assistant! How to fix?!?</p>- Ann Miura-Ko  (@annimaniac) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/569916071785795584">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>This Gmail email address autocomplete bug is killing me. Is Google's new social strategy to have me email people I don't remember?</p>- Ryan Singel  (@rsingel) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/569907162551447555">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Hey <a href="https://twitter.com/gmail">@gmail</a> PLEASE fix autocomplete for email addresses ASAP. This is causing so much inefficiency and errors when composing emails to ppl.</p>- Josh Kelley  (@ImSeekingOrion) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/569905103995576321">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></div><p class="embed-spacer">The bug doesn't seem to be affecting all users (I haven't noticed anything funny, for example), but it's definitely not an isolated problem, based on the Twitter response.&#xa0;</p><p class="embed-spacer">Google just acknowledged the problem via its official Twitter account:</p><div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>We're aware of an issue with Gmail and auto-complete and are currently investigating. Apologies for any inconvenience.</p>- Gmail  (@gmail) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/569942495196418048">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><p class="embed-spacer">Business Insider reached out to Google to get more details about what's going on, but in the meantime, take it slow! &#xa0;</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

A weird Gmail bug has tons of people sending emails to the wrong contacts 

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56fb175e52bcd05b008b983d-1333-1000/cofounders dustin and justin(1).jpg" alt="Asana cofounders Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein" data-mce-source="Asana" data-mce-caption="Asana cofounders Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein" /><p class="source"><span>Asana</span></p><p class="caption">Asana cofounders Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein</p></div><p></p></div></div>San Francisco startup Asana just raised $50 million from a who's who list of investors.</p><p>These include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan; Y Combinator president Sam Altman; Groupon founder Andrew Mason and Peter Thiel's VC firm Founder's Fund, among others.</p><p>That's not surprising considering its cofounders, Dustin Moskovitz (one of Facebook's cofounders) and Justin Rosenstein (an early Facebook employee), are clearly members of the Silicon Valley elite themselves.  </p><p>Asana is a project management tool for work teams that competes with the likes of Trello, Wrike and Wunderlist.</p><p>While Asana won't reveal revenues, it says it has 13,000 paying customers, up from 10,000 last September. A few of its high-profile customers include Uber, CBS Interactive and Khan Academy.</p><p>Asana is also known for its incredible employee perks in the land of over-the-top employee perks.</p><p>For starters, its 190 employees enjoy homemade gourmet food all day long (free breakfast, lunch, dinner) from a professionally trained chef and his "culinary staff." As one <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Benefits/Asana-US-Benefits-EI_IE567443.0,5_IL.6,8_IN1.htm">employee on Glassdoor</a> put it, "we have a nutritionist consult, a pastry chef, and nearly everything (from the pickles and smoked fish on the salad bar to the granola and bbq potato chips) are made in-house."</p><p>Plus, employees enjoy on-site yoga classes, a life coach, 12-week parental leave for new moms and dads, and $10,000 to spend on creating an ergonomically correct workstation.</p><p><span><span>Despite the lavish digs, Asana has not been known as a startup that burns through cash. Quite the opposite: </span></span><span><span>Its last raise was back in 2012 of $28 million, bringing its total raised with this announcement to $88 million.</span></span></p><p><span>Interestingly, both Moskovitz and <span>Rosenstein also became first-time investors in their own company, Asana's spokesperson tells us. </span></span><span><span></span></span><span><span>"W</span></span>e're excited to put our money where our mouths are," they wrote in a blog about the round.</p><p>But there's more to it than that.</p><p>When <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dustin-moskovitz-on-why-slack-isnt-a-threat-to-asana-2016-2">Business Insider's Biz Carson met with </a><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dustin-moskovitz-on-why-slack-isnt-a-threat-to-asana-2016-2">Moskovitz last month,</a> she asked him why he didn't raise prior to 2016, when money was flowing fast and cheap. Was he just a good CEO, better at managing money than most?</span></p><p>"I don't know if I would go that far, I mean, keep in mind a lot of these fundraising announcements are polluted," he said.</p><p>He added that a lot of startups were dependent on "these structured deal terms" that "were actually very unfavorable to employees."</p><p>To decode that a little: CEOs were selling huge chunks of equity to VCS along with preferred stock that prioritized their investors should the company sell, but not their employees. (The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/long-weird-history-of-good-technology-2015-12">tale of Good Technology</a> is a case in point. Spotify's latest $1 billion debt raise <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/29/stream-with-the-devil/">has already been characterized by TechCrunch's Josh Constine as a 'devilish' deal</a>.)</p><p>On top of that, Moskovitz added, "We do manage our finances. We also have revenue because we're an <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Enterprise">enterprise</keyword> company."</p><p>Other investors in this round include VTF Capital (a fund backed Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh), VC Roger McNamee, Quora cofounder Adam D'Angelo, Eric Ries of Lean Startup fame, and early Facebook employees Ruchi Sanghvi and Aditya Agrawal.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/batman-v-superman-is-a-trainwreck-2016-3">'Batman v Superman' is a complete trainwreck, and director Zack Snyder is to blame</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="l5OXJhMjE6rtk-m5U6Ty5lTvna_idcyV" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'l5OXJhMjE6rtk-m5U6Ty5lTvna_idcyV',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

The Facebook cofounder that warned about 'polluted' VC deals has raised $50 million for his own startup

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5903ba632f6ae4080e8b5410-1860/ap872221312322.jpg" alt="jane kim supervisor san francisco" /><p class="source"><span>Josh Edelson/AP</span></p><p class="caption">San Francisco County Supervisor Jane Kim addresses a crowd during a "Yes on Prop 61" rally outside City Hall in 2016.</p>The tech industry collectively face-palmed when Trump's treasury secretary <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-robot-automation-2017-3">said earlier this year</a> that the threat of robots taking human jobs was "not even on our radar screen."<p>There is a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-robots-taking-jobs-2017-4">growing evidence</a> that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/there-is-a-huge-hole-in-trumps-promise-to-bring-back-us-manufacturing-jobs-2017-3">robots and artificial intelligence could displace</a> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/white-collar-jobs-and-automation-2017-3">huge swaths</a> of the American workforce in the next couple of decades, much sooner than the "50 to 100 more years away" timeline that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he expects.</p><p>In San Francisco, where robots already <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marble-self-driving-robots-yelp-food-delivery-2017-4">run food deliveries for Yelp's Eat24</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/thiel-fellow-cafe-x-technologies-robot-coffee-2017-1">make lattés at a mall coffee kiosk</a>, one politician is working to ensure the city stays ahead of the curve.</p><p>Supervisor Jane Kim is exploring a tax on robots as one solution to offset the economic devastation a robot-powered workforce might bring. Companies that use robots to perform tasks previously done by humans would pay the city. Those public funds might be used to help retrain workers who lose their jobs to robots or to finance a basic income initiative.</p><p>Kim, <span>one of 11 city supervisors in San Francisco, </span>has been interviewing tech leaders, labor groups, and public policy experts <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40400920/one-san-francisco-politician-is-exploring-a-tax-on-robots">in the hopes of creating a task force</a> that will explore how<span> a "robot tax" might be implemented. San Francisco would become the first city to create such a tax, after European lawmakers <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-robots-lawmaking-idUSKBN15V2KM">rejected a similar proposal</a> in February.</span></p><p><span>"We think that [automation of work] could be one of the bigger - or biggest - policy issues that will face us in, not the next 50 to 100 years, as <span>Mnuchin</span> said, but in the next five to 10 years. And I think that government needs to get ahead of the curve," Kim tells Business Insider.</span></p><p><span></span></p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/588b9067475752ee018b4f9c-2000/cafe-x-technologies-henry-hu-4.jpg" alt="cafe x technologies henry hu 4" /><p class="source"><span>Cafe X Technologies</span></p><p class="caption">A robotic arm handles a cup of coffee at automation-powered coffee kiosk Café X in San Francisco, California.</p><p>Kim learned the concept of a robot tax when <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-robots-pay-taxes-2017-2">Bill Gates called for one</a> in an interview with <a href="https://qz.com/911968/bill-gates-the-robot-that-takes-your-job-should-pay-taxes/">Quartz</a>. It struck a chord with the San Francisco politician, who represents some of the poorest and wealthiest residents across the Tenderloin, South of Market, Civic Center, Treasure Island, <a href="http://sfbos.org/supervisor-kim-district-6">and several other neighborhoods</a>. She hears of robots cropping up in hotels, hospitals, and even her local bar, and worries about how automation might deepen the income gap.</p><p>A new study from research fim <span>PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)</span> <a href="https://www.recode.net/2017/3/25/15051308/us-uk-germany-japan-robot-job-automation">estimates 38% of US jobs</a> could be lost to automation by the early 2030s. Jobs that are repetitive and do not require human interaction - like flipping burgers or making deliveries - are likely to be the first to swap out people for robots.</p><p><span><span>The disruption will hurt low-income earners first, Kim predicts. San Francisco has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the US, according to figures from the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/city-and-metropolitan-inequality-on-the-rise-driven-by-declining-incomes/">Brookings Institute</a>.</span></span></p><p>Sam Altman, president of startup accelerator Y Combinator, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-robots-taking-jobs-2017-4">has said</a> automation will bring "<span><span>a change in the economy on the order of the Industrial Revolution or the Agricultural Revolution, where you see a huge amount of human jobs change in a very short period of time."</span></span></p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58d53a84d349f91d008b6be3-2000/starship-london-2.jpg" alt="starship technologies delivery robot" /><p class="source"><span>Starship Technologies</span></p><p class="caption">On-demand food delivery startup DoorDash relies on a fleet of six-wheeled couriers to make deliveries in Redwood City, California.</p><p>When Kim hears tech workers talk about automation, she says they often put a positive spin on the displacement. "No one's going to have to work at McDonald's anymore," they tell her.</p><p><span>"That wealth will accumulate among a very few due to automation," she says. "[So the question is,] what do we do with that accumulated wealth that's being distributed to fewer people?"</span></p><p>A robot tax could potentially give the city of San Francisco the ability to channel those savings into a fund that helps low-income workers make a living. The Office of Economic and Workforce Development already provides training in healthcare, hospitality, construction, and technology to residents who face barriers to employment, like a lack of higher education.</p><p>The tax might also provide funds for a universal basic income experiment, such as the one <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-techie-for-california-governor-2017-4">currently underway</a> in Oakland, California. The program<span> gives </span><span>roughly 100 families $2,000 a month to live on, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/22/silicon-valley-universal-basic-income-y-combinator">has racked up some impressive supporters</a> from Silicon Valley.</span></p><p><span>This isn't the first time a robot tax has been floated in the US. In 1940, a US senator suggested a tax on machines<span> to offset the unemployment they may cause. It was called an "<a href="https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/midaily/mdp.39015071756063/320">economic monstrosity</a>" that has "<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=AUD19400329-01.2.63#">no chance whatsoever of congress [sic] ever enacting it into law</a>."</span></span></p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5907ccd02f6ae4d4008b5c78-1067/relay-towel-delivery.jpg" alt="savioke relay botlr robot" /><p class="source"><span>Savioke</span></p><p class="caption">A robot from startup Savioke makes a room-service delivery at a hotel in Silicon Valley.</p><p><span>When Gates resurfaced the idea in February, internet commenters <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/02/20/robots-take-peoples-jobs-should-pay-taxes-says-bill-gates/">took to Twitter</a> in protest.</span></p><p><span>Most tech leaders have been quiet on the issue. The CEO of robotics startup Savioke, whose robots deliver fresh towels and coffee at hotels across the region, compared the tax to an "innovation penalty" in <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/22/save-the-robots-from-taxes/">an editorial</a>. <span>Ulrich Spiesshofer of European automation-technology solutions company ABB Group <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/18/china-development-forum-bill-gates-wants-to-tax-robots-but-abb-group-ceo-ulrich-spiesshofer-says-otherwise.html">also attacked the proposal in an interview</a> with CNBC.<span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>"Taxing robotics is as intelligent as taxing software," <span>Spiesshofer</span> said. "They are both productivity tools. You should not tax the tools, you should tax the outcome that's coming."</span></span></span></p><p><span>Kim made clear that she is in the beginning stages of assembling a group that will explore solutions for automation. San Francisco is a long way from seeing a robot tax implemented.</span></p><p><span>"I do think it's important that we're the city that looks at this issue, because we're at the center of the technological revolution. We have access to so many academics, researchers, and tech companies that can help us brainstorm and think about this issue," Kim says.</span></p><p><span>"</span><span>And why not? DC's not thinking about it."</span></p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/self-driving-robot-developed-apple-google-alum-food-yelp-marble-2017-4">This self-driving robot developed by Apple and Google alum can deliver food right to your doorstep</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video                    

You Searched For "Josh Altman" and got 14 results

A real estate expert who sold an $11 million home in 10 hours explains how to make your own luck

KATHLEEN ELKINS

A real-estate expert and self-made millionaire shares the one rule he follows before investing in anything

KATHLEEN ELKINS

Meet the 4 star realtors who make a killing selling multimillion-dollar LA homes

Jethro Nededog

Some tech investors sure seem to be getting defensive lately...

Matt Rosoff

The most elite school for Silicon Valley startups just threw a wrench into the works

Biz Carson

These 'Million Dollar Listing' stars have to solve a tough $16 million property puzzle

Jethro Nededog

It doesn't matter how many US jobs Trump "saves" in the long run - we still have a giant problem

Alyson Shontell

Actor-turned-entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher shares his single best piece of investing advice

KATHLEEN ELKINS

A bunch of billion-dollar 'unicorn' startups are just 'horses with sticks taped on their heads,' top New York investors say

Alyson Shontell

Tour Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse - Mattel Is Selling It For $25 Million As A PR Stunt

Jim Edwards

A weird Gmail bug has tons of people sending emails to the wrong contacts

JILLIAN D'ONFRO

The Facebook cofounder that warned about 'polluted' VC deals has raised $50 million for his own startup

Julie Bort

San Francisco is considering a once unthinkable measure to offset the threat of job-killing robots

Melia Robinson

The Silicon Valley 100 2015: 1-100

Melissa Stanger,Mike Nudelman

You Searched For "Josh Altman" and got 14 results

A real estate expert who sold an $11 million home in 10 hours explains how to make your own luck

KATHLEEN ELKINS

A real-estate expert and self-made millionaire shares the one rule he follows before investing in anything

KATHLEEN ELKINS

Meet the 4 star realtors who make a killing selling multimillion-dollar LA homes

Jethro Nededog

Some tech investors sure seem to be getting defensive lately...

Matt Rosoff

The most elite school for Silicon Valley startups just threw a wrench into the works

Biz Carson

These 'Million Dollar Listing' stars have to solve a tough $16 million property puzzle

Jethro Nededog

It doesn't matter how many US jobs Trump "saves" in the long run - we still have a giant problem

Alyson Shontell

Actor-turned-entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher shares his single best piece of investing advice

KATHLEEN ELKINS

A bunch of billion-dollar 'unicorn' startups are just 'horses with sticks taped on their heads,' top New York investors say

Alyson Shontell

Tour Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse -&#160;Mattel Is Selling It For $25 Million As A PR Stunt

Jim Edwards

A weird Gmail bug has tons of people sending emails to the wrong contacts

JILLIAN D'ONFRO

The Facebook cofounder that warned about 'polluted' VC deals has raised $50 million for his own startup

Julie Bort

San Francisco is considering a once unthinkable measure to offset the threat of job-killing robots

Melia Robinson

The Silicon Valley 100 2015: 1-100

Melissa Stanger,Mike Nudelman

Tour Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse - Mattel Is Selling It For $25 Million As A PR Stunt