A 50 million dollar egg

MARKETS

• U.S. markets: It was a pretty eventful day, with the Dow snapping its eight-day win streak and the 10-yr Treasury yield climbing to a 7-year high (indicating a sell-off). So what's giving investors anxiety? Having to constantly re-evaluate inflation and trade concerns.
• U.S. economy: April retail sales met expectations (0.3% growth), giving a vote of confidence to the economy. Economists are breathing a sigh of relief after a sluggish start to the year, but interest rate hikes are on the horizon.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Listening in on the Content Police Scanner

As part of its purge of bad content from its platform, Facebook (-1.24%) deleted 583 million fake accounts and 865.8 million posts during Q1 2018.

Bad content? Like your neighbor Derek's trick shot compilation video? Nope, like actually inappropriate content: graphic violence, terrorist propaganda, nudity, hate speech, and fake accounts—all of which violate Facebook's Community Standards.

And for the very first time, Facebook spilled the beans on exactly how much content it removes from its platform.

So...what did we learn?

• Facebook has a spam problem: The vast majority of removed content (and we mean vast...like 97%) was spam. And Facebook still estimates 3-4% of its 2.2 billion monthly users are not real people at all.
• AI does a better job of flagging certain types of bad content than others: It flagged almost 100% of spam and 96% of adult nudity before any human found out. But it's got a much worse track record when it comes to hate speech. Only 38% was flagged by AI before a user complained...which speaks to the tricky nuances of human language.

But bad content isn't just a Facebook problem

Twitter (-1.92%) is also trying a new approach to keep its trolls under the bridge and away from your feed. That includes docking tweets from people who:

• Haven't confirmed their emails (sketchy).
• Sign up for multiple accounts at the same time (pretty sketchy).
• Spend a lot of time tweeting at people who don't follow them (ultra sketchy).

Is it working? It's a start. Twitter says the new approach has resulted in a "4% drop in abuse reports from search and 8% fewer abuse reports from conversations."

GROCERY

Food Startup Good Eggs Hatches a Delicious Round

If you want your food startup to be successful, here are a few key buzzwords you might want to hit:

• Organic, locally-sourced produce
• Artisanal farm products
• Same-day delivery

And Good Eggs, a San Francisco-based startup, hits all three—delivering fresh, local products like meal kits and meat out of just one warehouse.

Maybe that's why Bill Gurley's Benchmark just led a $50 million round. Don't think he can pick a winner? Benchmark invested early in Uber.

Hey Gurley, Good Eggs sounds nice and all...but have you heard of Amazon?
You know, the $760 billion behemoth that gobbled up Whole Foods and is playing the grocery industry like a fiddle? You plan on competing with that?

Sure, he knows it's a "contrarian" investment, but here are a few things Gurley likes about Good Eggs:

• Foodies might opt for Good Eggs's local, niche brands instead of those sold by their corporate overlords, Amazon/Whole Foods.
• By operating out of a single warehouse, Good Eggs skips the (extra) grocery store step in the delivery supply chain. Gurley calls this effect the "warehousing of retail."
• And, hear him out on this one, Amazon could actually be a net positive for the rest of the online grocery industry. It's conditioning the average consumer to look online for food.

Moving forward: With the round, Good Eggs plans to expand outside the Bay Area all the way to...Southern California. Baby steps.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Uber Makes an Important Statement on Arbitration

Dara Khosrowshahi made a five-star decision yesterday: Uber will end its mandatory arbitration practices for sexual harassment cases.

Tl;dr: Uber employees with claims of sexual assault and harassment can now sue the company instead of settling via under-the-table, hush-hush negotiations.

Let's refresh:

• After last year's sexual harassment scandal involving ex-employee Susan Fowler and reports of a sexist culture, Uber's been trying to flip the script.
• Especially after CNN's bombshell investigation two weeks ago: Up to 103 Uber drivers in the U.S. have been accused of sexual assaulting or abusing their riders.

So yeah...it's a pretty big deal. But not just for Uber.

Dara's decision could light a fire under other companies to introduce more employee-friendly settlement policies.

News flash: Company arbitration policies (not just including sexual harassment) are very popular in the U.S. Eighty of the country's 100 largest companies require employees to sign arbitration clauses.

Which effectively says, "Hey you're giving me a salary? Okay, I won't take you to court."

+ Lyft quickly took the cue from Uber, announcing the same policy change.

SPORTS

Cam Newton Gets a Dabbing Partner in David Tepper

Maybe hedge fund manager David Tepper took notes from Mark Cuban, who said after yesterday's sports gambling ruling, "I think everyone who owns a top four professional sports team just basically saw the value of their team double."

Tepper acquired the NFL's Carolina Panthers for $2.2 billion (with a 30% down payment). If the deal finalizes at the owners meeting next week (which it should), it would be the biggest-ever sale of an NFL team. The Buffalo Bills sold for $1.4 billion in 2014.

So who is David Tepper?

• He's the billionaire manager of Appaloosa Management, a hedge fund.
• Born and raised in Pittsburgh, he currently owns a minority stake in the Steelers. He'll have to sell that.
• If there's one person he doesn't like, it's President Trump: "If you look up demented, narcissistic scumbag, you'll see my name calling Trump that. Just Google those three words."

So Tepper may be worth watching: The president and the NFL bumped heads last year. Will one more high-rolling, outspoken owner continue to stir the pot?

TECH

Microsoft Is Bringing Conference Rooms into the Future

Remember those SMART boards your 5th grade teacher thought was the future of education? Well, they've been one-upped. Or like, ten-upped. Microsoft released its promotional video for the Microsoft Surface Hub 2—an interactive smart board that feels only a few notches below Tony Stark's handiwork.

Bottom line: Microsoft is all B2B in this game. Which could be lucrative considering it's leagues ahead of the competition: Google.

STARTUP

Venture This Responses

Yesterday, we asked if you'd invest in on-demand trash collection startup Rubicon. 85% of readers said "Yes," while 15% said "No."

Here's why one reader wouldn't invest: "Out. The key in this business model is pickup density (pickups per minute), which the current trash companies have already mastered. A decrease in density means a needed increase in price, and I can't see "on demand trash pickup" commanding much of a premium over regularly scheduled pickup.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Lime, the e-scooter company, is raising $500 million. E-scooters are becoming the real deal.
• Kellogg (-0.68%) pulled out of Venezuela as the country's economic crisis shows no signs of letting up.
• Home Depot (-1.62%) missed on sales forecasts. Food for thought: Some view Home Depot sales as an indicator of housing market strength.
• Consensus 2018: Here's a taste of what you've missed so far during blockchain's big week.
• Tesla (-2.67%) is halting Model 3 production for six days at the end of May.

BREAKROOM

THE SXSW OF THE NORTHEAST
If you’re obsessed with tech and live in the NYC area...listen up: You better get yourself to the Propelify festival (Hoboken, Thursday 5/17). It’s an incredible opportunity to meet 10,000+ other innovators who don’t just talk a big game, they take action. And the best part? Use code Lightroast for 100% off general admission tickets (no upgrades).

PRODUCTIVITY TIP
Exercise your creativity like you would any other muscle. Translation? Spend more time trying to be creative and you'll see results. But don't take it from us—that's the expert advice of Adam Green, director of the Georgetown Laboratory for Relational Cognition and your brain's personal trainer (Now get down and give me 20 poems!). And Green's got plenty more science-backed tips to boost your creativity.

GUESS THE LOGO

Breakroom Answer