Rachel Uranga
Rachel Uranga covers the intersection of business, technology and culture. She is a former Mexico-based market correspondent at Reuters and has worked for several Southern California news outlets, including the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. She has covered everything from IPOs to immigration. Uranga is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and California State University Northridge. A Los Angeles native, she lives with her husband, son and their felines.
The Los Angeles City Council capped service charges third-party delivery services like Postmates, Grubhub, Uber Eats can pass on to restaurants at 15% of the purchase price during the pandemic following similar moves in San Francisco, Seattle and other major cities.
Restaurants have long complained about charges from the popular apps as high as 30% are eating away at their business, and those worries have grown during the pandemic, as owners find themselves relying more heavily on the services.
<p>Even as dine-in restaurants slowly reopen, many are still devastated by the months-long closure. During that time, those that managed to stay afloat could only offer customers carry out and pick up services in order to keep business alive.</p><p>"Any arbitrary cap – regardless of the duration – will lower order volume to locally-owned restaurants, increase costs for small business owners, and raise costs on customers. Delivery workers would have fewer work opportunities and lower earnings," said Jenna DeMarco, a spokesperson for GrubHub in an email. "We also believe that any cap on fees represents an overstep by local officials and would not withstand a legal challenge."</p><p>Chris Webb, the CEO of ChowNow, an online order platform that offers restaurants a flat fee, said restauranteurs have long been frustrated with the fees. </p><p>"What we are hearing from a lot of restaurants," he said. "' We cannot afford to stay in business and take around 30% commissions consistently. It's driving us out of business and now this (pandemic) is the motivator for us to move.'"</p><p>He said he saw business skyrocket as many restaurant owners shifted away from delivery services that relied on percentage-based fees and to his flat-fee model. Webb said he was signing up as many as 2,000 restaurants a month.</p><p>The effort to cap the services was driven in part by pressure from the United Food and Commercial Worker Union Local 770, which is organizing the drivers. The order, which must still be signed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, also prevents the apps from taking tips from drivers.</p><p>"This smart policy will prohibit these companies from taking tips from drivers and gouging restaurants with fees," said John Grant, president of UFCW 770 in a statement."Food delivery drivers are essential workers who provide meals for the residents of our City, especially to seniors and others who are sheltering at home or under quarantine."</p>
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Blck VC Group Launches 'We Won't Wait' Campaign Pushing for Diversity in Investing Groups
Jun 03 2020
Venture capital has fueled billions of dollars in wealth but it has largely excluded black Americans. Only 1% of venture-funded startup founders are black and more than 80% of venture firms don't have a single black investor.
Blck VC, a group of young black investors and entrepreneurs are calling on the venture capitalist community to diversify their ranks and support the black community. Declaring Thursday, June 4th, a day of action, the group launched a campaign called "We Won't Wait."
<p>"Venture prides itself on being progressive. We disrupt industries. We work fast and break things. We fund dreams and create jobs. Yet, venture is one of the most homogeneous and exclusive clubs there is," a post from the group <a href="https://medium.com/@BLCK_VC/we-wont-wait-3eaa94d85aac" target="_blank">said on medium</a>.</p><p>Blck VC was started in the Bay Area in 2018 by Fredrik Groce, a principal at Storm Ventures and Sydney Sykes, who worked in venture and was struck by the lack of diversity in the field.</p><p>The group, with outposts in Los Angeles and other major cities, helps connect graduates to jobs in venture and investors to mentors through their growing network.</p><p>"Venture Capital is one of these unjust systems. It is a system of funding entrepreneurs that has routinely overlooked talented black founders and investors, squashing promising businesses and dreams as a result. It is time for venture to face the ugly reality that it is a system perpetuating the institutional racism that plagues our society," the post said.</p>The group is asking firms to donate to funds that fight systematic racism and help break the wealth gap, including its <a href="https://www.blckvc.com/donate" target="_blank">own group</a>, <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/naacp-1" target="_blank">NAACP</a>, <a href="https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/donate" target="_blank">Minnesota Freedom Fund</a>, <a href="https://secure.everyaction.com/zae4prEeKESHBy0MKXTIcQ2" target="_blank">Reclaim the Block</a>, <a href="https://secure.eifoundation.org/site/Donation2?df_id=6082&mfc_pref=T&6082.donation=form1&s_src=kyrcmain&utm_source=kyrcmain" target="_blank">Know Your Rights Campaign</a>, <a href="https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2" target="_blank">Black Visions Collective</a>, <a href="https://code2040-2020.funraise.org/" target="_blank">Code2040</a>, <a href="https://www.hbcu.vc/donate" target="_blank">HBCUvc</a>, <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/devcolor" target="_blank">/Dev/Color</a>, <a href="https://www.hiddengeniusproject.org/donate/" target="_blank">Hidden Genius Project</a> and <a href="https://www.digitalundivided.com/donate" target="_blank">DigitalUndivided</a>.
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The El Segundo-based Prodege acquired its fourth company in the last 13 months as it seeks to dominate in the digital rewards program space and strengthen its consumer analytics business.
The owner of consumer rewards site Swagbucks and MyPoints picked up Upromise Inc, an education-saving rewards business owned by Sallie Mae, giving it a foray into credit cards and helping the company build its consumer data business. Terms of the deal weren't released.
<p>The Massachusetts-based Upromise provides a cash-back rewards program linked to 529 plans, an investment tool that provides tax breaks for college savings. The product has 500,000 members, many with a linked credit card that will be handled in partnership with Barclays. And those individuals are estimated to have $3.2 billion in purchasing power. </p><p>"We grow our members, we grow the number of partners we work with, we grow our revenues and profits,' said chief executive Chuck Davis, the former head of Fandago and Shopzilla.</p><p>The addition also adds an important demographic to their 120 million people that have signed up for their products, college-bound families. About half of Prodege's business is based in its analytics of consumer behavior, the other half is its consumer facing rewards programs that direct shoppers to certain brands. Swagbucks, for instance, works directly or indirectly with about 3,500 merchants, including names like Amazon and Walmart.</p><p>Landing access to upwardly mobile families makes the product more appealing to brands and could help their analytics side. </p><p>Earlier this year Prodege bought the digital coupon-cutter company CouponCause, which helps it capture valuable shopper information. The company said it has rewarded $1.7 billion in cash rewards and gift cards since its inception. <br/></p>
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