| Hi, Agen. From Shaq to Tom Brady to Naomi Osaka, plenty of celebrities got caught up in the crypto craze a few years ago. Some were investors in now-bankrupt FTX. Others just lent their star cred to endorsements of NFTs and other crypto products. But many of those celebs are now pulling back on their startup entanglements, an analysis of Crunchbase data shows. Plus, another big AI raise, a breakdown of Reddit’s IPO, and startup valuation vs. round pricing. Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal famously invested in Google’s Series A back in 1999, and has gone on to invest in an eclectic mix of startups since. But even Shaq got caught up endorsing ill-fated FTX, and he wasn’t alone among his celebrity peers. We found that stars who just a couple of years ago were hyping or investing in the crypto craze are backing fewer startups, promoting less, and mostly staying away from Web3. Investor appetite for AI remains strong. AI-enhanced work assistant and enterprise search startup Glean is the latest to hit it big, locking up a $200 million Series D at a $2.2 billion valuation in a round led by Kleiner Perkins and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Reddit is finally ready to go public. The company is poised to be the first major venture-backed tech IPO out of the gate this year. Does this mark the beginning of an IPO upswing that could spark a new wave of exits from startups that have been waiting for signs of safety? Entrepreneur and investor John S. Kim offers his take on the Reddit IPO and what it means for the market. Black-founded startups in the U.S. last year received only $705 million in venture funding, marking the lowest amount such companies received — as well as the smallest share of the venture market — in seven years, Crunchbase data shows. We speak with those in the know in the industry about what’s going on, and what needs to change. Somewhere in the last decade, in an era of easy money and seemingly endless tech growth, investors stopped thinking seriously about valuation — all that mattered were comps based on trends in similar transactions, writes guest author Dan Gray. How do we get back to a more disciplined approach? | 
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