Got a 5s with the screen cracked?

Back Market raises $48m to fix your phone -- and the broken electronics repair industry

Back Market, a Paris-based marketplace for refurbed consumer electronics, raised $48m in VC money to capitalize on cracks in the repair industry.

The company started out answering the calls of fed-up customers who wanted more options to buy less-expensive refurbished devices -- and found a huge, untapped market in the process.

Planned obsolescence may become obsolete

Historically, tech devices were discarded instead of repaired -- sometimes because rapid-fire improvements made old devices unusable, but usually because hardware companies made products obsolete to sell new models.

*Stares mournfully at perfectly functional, now unusable corded headphones*

But recently, lawsuits in several countries -- particularly in France -- and “right to repair” legislation in 17 US states have started to crack down on companies (especially Apple) that make it nearly impossible for consumers to repair their devices.

Fix an iPhone, fix an industry

With refurbished phones now available, consumers are opting for used phones over new ones that cost as much as cars (*cough* iPhone X) -- last year, 1 in 10 iPhones purchased in the US was refurbished.

But, Back Market wants to push this trend even further -- by providing a service that matches device owners with repair services to buy and sell old phones.

So far, it’s been successful. Back Market just debuted in its 6th country (the United States), and the 3.5-year-old company already made a profit and more than $100m in revenue last year.

Now, the phone-fixing race is on

With its newfound cash, Back Market hopes to expand its lead on competitors like iCracked, iFixit, Save, Repair Cafe.

But Back Market has a triple-threat advantage -- Partnerships with 270 non-proprietary repair factories, an HQ in right-to-repair-righteous France, and a hot $48m in funding -- that positions it to out-fix the competition in the near future.

PayPal’s Dutch rival’s stock doubled post-IPO, and people are calling it a ‘mania’

Dutch fintech firm Adyen surged nearly 100% in their first day trading as a public company, going from $8.3B to 17B overnight and making their IPO one of Europe’s biggest ever in the tech sector.

Talk about getting underpriced.

Or did they? The 12-year-old company has been profitable for some time, with revenue over $1.18B last year -- and their debut at $283 per share (that since doubled) was nothing to shake a stick at.

Still, this jaw-dropping valuation spike caught everyone by surprise, and has many seeing flashes of a certain pre-millennium-explosion...

*Cough* The dotcom bubble *cough*

It’s what we in the biz call an “overreaction” or, as Bloomberg puts it, just plain “unhealthy.”

These days, stable, profitable companies seem rarer than unicorns (the actual mythical horse kind), and when they do come around, investors lose their cool like a pre-teen at a boy-girl party.

After all, Adyen processed $127B in payments last year and works with companies like Netflix, Facebook, and Spotify (that’s 50% of FANG, people!).

Time will tell if something gold can stay…

But experts are skeptical.

The word “bubble” isn’t one to be thrown around willy-nilly, but, compared to the typical 10-15% spike of a successful IPO, Adyen’s bonkers valuation seems less than sustainable.

Tesla cancels solar partnership with Home Depot and lays off 9% of employees in ‘reorg’

Back in February, we wrote about Tesla’s new partnership with Home Depot to sell “budget-friendly” solar products.

But yesterday, in a company wide email, Elon Musk shared some dim news: Just 4 months after the announcement, the company is pulling the plug on the partnership to reportedly “focus [their] efforts on selling solar power in Tesla stores and online.”

But wait, there’s more...

Arguably the biggest bombshell was the “reorganization,” including cutting 9% of employees (3.5k people) as the company pinches pennies, while boosting Model 3 output.

In the memo, Musk said the job cuts are mostly directed at salaried staff and won’t affect production workers assembling the company’s vehicles.

The chase for 5k

Musk is in focus-mode trying to hit Tesla’s production goal of 5k Model 3 sedans a week by the end of June (and help raise his performance-contingent salary from $0 to, well, a fortune).

According to The Wall Street Journal, Tesla investors were on board, sending the company’s shares up more than 3% -- a stock that has fallen nearly 9% over the past 12 months amid their production struggles.

As for the Depot deal, a spokesperson said the company plans to continue to offer Tesla’s products in its stores through the end of 2018.

As big tech regroups, Twitter hopes to use modest gains to catch up

Twitter has long struggled to avoid being the butt of every joke in tech. With stock at a 3-year high, it’s finally getting somewhere.

The 12-year-old company posted its first profitable quarter just months ago -- and while the company is using this rare victory to fight for a seat at the table with tech’s biggest and baddest, it faces an uphill battle.

A slow, anticlimactic road to ‘success’

While Twitter is profitable and increased 155% in stock value in the last year, user growth has barely ticked upward at a 3% increase.

So Twitter’s stock increase has less to do with the company’s growth, and more to do with cost-cutting and the relative struggles of its rivals.

But that doesn’t mean Twitter isn’t going to make the best of it...

‘Quick! Tweet at ’em while they’re down’

With Facebook and Google struggle to regain user trust by overhauling their news platforms, Twitter is rolling out news improvements to win some market share.

For a company that has been pegged in the past solely as an acquisition target, this new stability is a welcome win, but they’re still a chihuahua merely yapping at the big dogs.

Twitter’s recent gains put the company’s market cap at a swollen $32.5B -- while “struggling” Facebook sits at about $559B, Google at $788B, Amazon at $822B, and Apple at $979B.

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Allbirds is taking over The Hustle

Adam owns 5 pairs. Becca has 3. Sam’s on the phone trying to order Sid (his dog) a pair, which they don’t even make...yet.

How did a shoe company turn us into fanatics?

If you ask Adam, he’ll say it’s because you can machine wash them. Dirty shoes? Toss ‘em in the washer.

Ask Becca, she’ll tell you it feels like she’s wearing nothing. Just wooly lil’ clouds on her leg paws -- her exact words.

So, what’s the deal with Allbirds?

Shoes that feel good and do good

Allbirds is reinventing footwear. From the materials they use to the “second-skin” fit they’ve perfected, it’s an entirely new category of shoes -- inspired by natural materials to create better things in a better way.

While Allbirds’ classic woolen kicks are a Hustle fan favorite, their new tree shoes (yes, shoes made from eucalyptus trees) got us in a summer frenzy -- a light and breezy companion to the delightful New Zealand sheeps’ wool originals.

Plus, both the wool and tree shoes come in different styles -- runners, loungers, and (new) skippers -- all of which you can toss in the wash. And the best part? No socks necessary. It’s shoes made simple, people.

So, whether you’re lacing up for work or strolling the Saturday farmer’s market, Allbirds has your style locked down and your toes cozy.

Shop the full lineup of Allbirds here.