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Faraday Future reveals its new 45% owner, as one of its co-founders exits the vehicle

At the end of 2017, a mysterious investor towed the beleaguered electric vehicle company Faraday Future out of a serious financial rut -- mere weeks before it was set to completely crash and burn through its cash supply.

Now, as the reported $2B deal nears approval, the mysterious benefactor is revealed to be Season Smart Ltd., a British Virgin Islands-based investor.

But wait, there’s a twist

Hong Kong-based Evergrande Health has since acquired Season Smart, and will take over the FF investment commitment along with a 45% company stake.

This deal comes as a rare NOS-boost for Faraday Future, who unveiled their vision for EVs -- the ultra-fast, ultra-luxurious FF 91 -- to great fanfare during CES last year, but has been speeding down a dusty road of financial missteps ever since.

In 2017, FF was forced to kill its engine on the product line, and ultimately walk back the development of its $1B factory in Nevada.

You sure this is the car you wanna drift with, Evergrande?

So far, FF has received $800m of the $2B investment with the remaining $1.2B disbursed over the next 2 years -- that is, IF they can hit the undisclosed goals laid out in the agreement.

What’s more, should Evergrande find reason to believe the company’s notorious CEO/main financier Jia Yueting “is unable to perform [his] duties” in managing the company, the voting shares that FF Top Holding controls will go to Evergrande.

Time to invest in some team bonding exercises

But, one of the company’s co-founders, Tony Nie, won’t be renewing his lease -- leaving the other 2 co-founders, Jia and Senior VP Nick Sampson, to navigate the EV highways themselves.

And this isn’t the first time one of FF’s bigwigs has traded in their pink slip: Last year, reports of poor office culture caused a traffic jam of high-profile departures (including then-CFO Stefan Krause and head of HR Crystal Peterson) that cut their 1.5k-person workforce in half.

OK, if the head of HR is leaving, you know it’s bad…

Capitalizing on scandal at Uber, $15.1B Lyft raises another $600m for a long ride

Lyft raised another $600m in a Series I round this week. That’s ‘I’ as in “ice cream,” and after a year of aggressive expansion, the company deserves a treat -- in the past 14 months, Lyft’s value has more than doubled to $15.1B.

This breakout year shows the ride-sharing battle isn’t won yet -- and highlights the strategic differences between Lyft and their embattled rival.

“Uber’s scandal has arrived. You have 2 min. to take advantage”

Lyft (circa 2012) has played catch-up with rapidly expanding Uber (circa 2009) from the start. But while Uber’s ‘ask-for-forgiveness-not-permission’ approach enabled rapid growth -- it also caused expensive municipal bans and employee turnover.

Those problems created a brief window of opportunity for Lyft to grow and Lyft jumped at it -- investing in product development and a trust-focused ad campaign.

Lyft is taking a different route

Even after doubling in size, Lyft’s market cap ($15.1B) is a far cry from Uber’s ($72B). But Lyft didn’t want to surpass Uber right away, it wanted to plant its feet for the fight ahead -- and it did.

At the close of 2016, Lyft’s US market share was just 15.9%, but last month the company announced it had hit 35% market share. In Q4 2017, Lyft’s revenue grew 168% year over year (almost 3x faster than Uber at 61%).

Back on solid ground, Lyft won’t aim to knock Uber off its pedestal just yet -- but it will race them toward everything from autonomous driving to scooter sharing.

Thanks to its forward-thinking strategy, a 130-year company is #1 on social media

National Geographic’s 89m Instagram fans make it the biggest (non-celebrity) brand on the platform -- and NatGeo’s cross-platform storytelling has made it the top brand on social media for 4 years in a row.

NatGeo’s 420m followers (across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) generated 1.5B fan interactions in 2017 alone -- not bad for a print mag that’s existed since before color photography.

Social media’s unlikely ‘it’ brand

The hottest star on Instagram? Selena Gomez, born in ’92. The hottest brand on Instagram? NatGeo, born in ’88 -- that’s 1888.

For brands, the competition is not even close -- with 78m, Nike trails NatGeo by more than 10m followers. Last year, NatGeo posted the most popular video on the whole ’gram (a jaguar battling a caiman).

So how do they do it? Easy: sweet photos -- oh, and a genius cross-platform social media strategy.

A magazine that knows what it’s good at

As other magazines struggle to stay afloat, NatGeo is sailing full-speed ahead -- offering a case study on how to adapt old-school storytelling to modern digital audiences.

Rather than pushing against Instagram and Facebook, NatGeo leveraged these new formats to add layers to their print and online storytelling -- using behind-the-scenes content and photographer cross-posts to expand its audience.

FirstVet fetches $6m to expand its pet advice telehealth service

As dog walking apps like Rover and Wag become more ubiquitous by the Bowser-loving day, it was only a matter of time until pet health services made it into the digital space.

Now, with $6m in new funding, Sweden’s FirstVet will offer remote video consultations and advice for neurotic pet owners who constantly worry that their pet is on the verge of taking the long nap.

The startup launched in 2016 and now claims around 60k registered users in its home market.

And they already have some competition

Within days of FirstVet’s Series A, Fuzzy Pet Health, a subscription vet care service that provides in-home vet visits to subscribers in the SF area, has come to play as well.

Their new product, Fuzzy Pet Health Connect, will allow customers to send text, pictures, and videos to a vet at any time to receive real-time medical advice -- at just $10 a month.

Which is great… because pets are friggin’ expensive

According to the ASPCA, the first-year cost of any pet ownership generally exceeds $1k -- not including emergency vet trips after your dog mauls a king-sized bag of Butterfingers on Halloween.

According to FirstVet’s founder, the price point for their service is about 30-40% of the starting fee for a physical vet visit in their market, which, along with Fuzzy Pet, means the market is ripe for disruption… but WebMD is still free.

SLUG: Premium bean water from Algorithm Coffee from $15 a bag

This Berkeley-based coffee shop is one of our team favorites. They knocked our mugs off with their small-lot, single origin roasts at Hustle Con -- and frankly, they’re just really cool people. Grab a bag of their beans like the Colombia Yellow Cat, or the Veracity Reserve.

GRIND IT PRESS IT POUR IT IT DRINK IT → →

GRIND: Your way out of the office, with strap-on scooter wheels $129.99

Thought Razor was dead? THINK AGAIN. Their new Turbo Jetts let you strap electric wheels on any shoes so you can leave those Lime scooter commuters in the dust.

STEP, ROLL, AND POWER UP → →

TRAVEL MORE: And Spend Less with your Dollar Flight Club, FREE 7-Day Trial

Want to travel the world but don’t want to shell out the big bucks? Dollar Flight Club has the hookup. They help their 500,000+ members travel for less. We’re talking significantly less: Dublin, Ireland $255 round trip, Bangkok, Thailand $265 round trip. DFC sends deeply discounted international flights ($500+ average savings) straight to your inbox daily. They’re offering a FREE 7 day trial of their Premium Membership for the next 24hrs.

SEND ME THE DEALZ →

JUICE: Your phone for up to 2 days with the BlackBerry® KEY2, $649.99

A super secure data “locker,” physical keyboard, and a battery that not only lasts up to 2 DAYS, but checks your calendar and REMINDS YOU to charge it? That’s not a smartphone, that’s a lifeline. The new BlackBerry KEY2, powered by Android™, is a palm-sized domination station for folks whose work never sleeps.

LET ME TOUCH →

ACCEPT: Venmo from your customers with PayPal Checkout, Free to Sign Up

The Hustle’s favorite P2P payments app in the US is open for business. With the new PayPal Checkout, your business can finally tap into millions of Venmo users and intelligently display the most relevant payment options at checkout -- all through a single integration. Genius? Ya, we think so.

INSTANT BUSINESS BOOSTER →

T-Mobile welcomes wireless wanderlust

Traveling internationally? Dumb question. Of course you are. It’s 2018, and the world is our communal oyster.

But, if crossing time zones and language barriers gets your motor revving, those international smartphone charges are like quicksand, threatening to slow your global roll.

Luckily, the days of your smartphone morphing into a WiFi-tethered brick when you travel are over. Our magenta friends at T-Mobile are changing the game for us globetrotters.

Introducing unlimited travel from T-Mobile ONE

T-Mobile is making global travel while staying connected a reality. With T-Mobile ONE, you get unlimited data (at up to 2G speeds) and texting in over 140 countries and destinations, standard -- as in, no special add-ons required.

If you’re traveling to Canada and Mexico, the deal is even sweeter with unlimited talk, text, and 5GB of high-speed data. Plus, when you’re in the air, T-Mobile gives you free texting and an hour of free WiFi on all Gogo-enabled flights.

Not to mention, you’ll still get all the other benefits of T-Mobile ONE (see the laundry list of awesomeness here).

So, kiss the traveling wireless blues goodbye. Join T-Mobile and stay connected from 30k ft to the seaside hostel.

If congested, customers using >50GB/mo. may noticed reduced speeds due to prioritization. Video typically streams at 480p. Max 3G tethering.