Amazon Ring is the new neighborhood watch

IPOs hit record highs in 2021 then hit the brakes, slowing down massively through 2023. But following last month’s successful public debuts of AI startup Astera Labs and social platform Reddit, a flurry of tech companies filed their S-1s.

Two highly-hyped startups are expected to hit public markets as soon as this week. Microsoft-backed data-security software co Rubrik is said to be looking to raise $700M and its AI adjacency adds to its investor appeal, though the company is not profitable. Rubrik’s sales pitch claims that advancements in AI could make its cybersecurity software more necessary and already works with Oracle and Amazon.

The other company expected to IPO this week is a profitable unicorn: Ibotta, a platform that gives users cash back and other rewards for online purchases. The Walmart-funded startup said it turned a profit of $38M last year and is targeting a $2.5B valuation when it goes public. 

Ibotta and Rubrik could warm markets up for a hot IPO summer: event ticket marketplace StubHub is reportedly looking to go public this summer at a whopping $16.5B valuation.

In theory, high housing prices in the US should be stimulating a ton of new home construction. But it ain’t happening. In fact, just released March numbers showed the biggest monthly drop since Covid hit in 2020.

What’s the deal? Well, housing is a pretty interest-rate sensitive industry. The high rates the Fed put in place to clamp down on inflation have driven up mortgage rates. Housing is also hard to build, with some arguing that exclusionary zoning is a big part of the problem.

The lack of supply, high mortgage costs, and price spike that occurred during the pandemic means housing is the most unaffordable it’s been in decades.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the market has really started struggling. Last week’s hot inflation report, and the spike in interest rates it generated, seemed to get the sell-off rolling. Military strikes between Israel and Iran haven’t helped matters, as they’ve kept oil prices elevated. The market hates it, given the role oil plays keeping inflation high — and the Fed potentially on hold. The S&P’s 1.2% decline Monday pushed the index below its 50-day moving average, confirming the loss of momentum.

Forget driving away advertisers and charging for blue checks only to give them out for free, Elon Musk has other ideas to not make money on Twitter, aka X. Today he floated charging new users a “small fee” to deal with the platform’s seemingly intractable bot problem.

Old heads might remember that way back in 2022, ahead of buying Twitter, the billionaire had pledged to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.” Guess we’re in the “die trying” era.