Business

Presented by Goldman Sachs:   View in browser   Presented By Goldman Sachs   Pro Rata By Dan Primack · Jun 28, 2019     Top of the Morning Source: Giphy It used to be almost impossible to raise venture capital for a "vice" product, due to specific restrictions in limited partnership agreements. And many of those anti-vice clauses persist, even with the mainstreaming of cannabis. Now there's an entire fund devoted to the cause, Axios' Kia Kokalitcheva reports: Vice Ventures is led by Catharine Dockery, a former Walmart digital brands executive who before that led private investments for Bonobos founder Andy Dunn. Target sectors include cannabis, alcohol, sextech and gambling. It just raised $25 million for its debut fund, all from individual investors (including Marc Andreessen and Bradley Tusk). Dockery says it was difficult...

Some Uber and Lyft drivers say they were misled into petitioning against their own worker rights .  Recode's Shirin Ghaffary reports that some drivers say they unintentionally signed messages from Uber and Lyft asking politicians to support their job flexibility, without realizing they were campaigning against being classified as employees. Uber and Lyft have been fighting a proposed bill in California, AB 5, that could potentially compel gig economy companies to reclassify many of their independent contract workers as employees. Both companies have sent emails and in-app notifications to drivers warning that they are at risk of losing the ability to set their own hours. "When I first saw the petition, I thought it was something for us drivers," said one driver who talked to Recode. "But when I talked to other drivers on WhatsApp, I learned more and realized that isn't t...