Venture capitalists

If you spend a lot of time reading technology news and commentary on Twitter, you’ve probably heard about the ‘techlash’ – Silicon Valley’s alleged fall from favor in the public eye. From data breaches and Cambridge Analytica to the specter of job-stealing robots and an endless string of comparisons to Black Mirror, tech news has taken a turn for the dystopian. And public trust in these companies, especially Facebook, is legitimately dropping. But Silicon Valley’s media machine sometimes has a tendency to get caught up in its own hype, or in this case, its anti-hype. How real, and how lasting, is the ‘techlash?’ We may have a new litmus test in South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg’s campaign for the presidency.

Google co-founder Larry Page popularized the term ‘moonshots.’ But venture capitalists, apparently, are looking to the stars. An app called Co-Star, which provides slick digital versions of horoscopes and astrological birth charts, has raised $5 million in funding. An investor who put money into an ‘Uber for astrological readings’ company expresses excitement about the $2.1 billion market for ‘mystical services.’ Erin Griffith, the author of a recent New York Times feature on the subject, took a lighthearted angle toward the subject while nevertheless acknowledging that there really is business potential. Millennial women, she writes, have ‘traded [astrology’s] psychedelic new-wave stigma for modern Instagrammy witch vibes.