Good hiring news: Despite the COVID-19 crisis, some Bay Area tech companies are still moving forward with ambitious hiring plans in 2020. Facebook plans to hire 10,000 people in tech and product this year, and Google has 600 open positions listed in the Bay Area. Salesforce also has 2,200 open positions locally. Overall, the tech industry has experienced a smaller decline in job listings due to the pandemic so far than many others. [SF Chronicle]
Delivery apps must cap restaurant fees: A new emergency order from the city is ordering delivery companies like Grubhub, DoorDash and Caviar to cap the commission fees they charge its restaurant partners for orders received through their apps at 15 percent. It’s part of an effort to help struggling restaurants’ bottom lines amid the pandemic. The city is planning to begin to enforce the cap on Monday, and some apps have already said the decision will lead to higher costs for customers. [Eater SF]
How Twitch’s CEO is helping restaurants: Emmett Shear penned an op-ed last week shining light on his $1 million effort to support SF restaurants by buying food from them and delivering it to residents in need. Over the course of the effort’s first 12 days, $250,000 has been paid to local small businesses and 16,000 meals served to people in need. [MarketWatch]
Dorsey’s $1 billion pledge: In another display of tech leader philanthropy, the Twitter and Square CEO announced last week that he was moving $1 billion of his Square equity into an LLC to fund global COVID-19 efforts. Beyond the pandemic, it will shift to supporting girls’ health, education and universal basic income. [Forbes]
SoFi acquired Galileo: In one of the week’s biggest tech deals, fintech startup SoFi acquired payment processor Galileo for $1.2 billion. The deal will help the companies launch new products and grow their international business. [CNBC]
Eventbrite’s CPO reflects on his career: We spoke with Casey Winters about his approach to growth. As Grubhub’s 15th hire in 2008, he went on to grow the delivery app’s customer base from 40,000 to three million over just five years. He moved on from there to Pinterest before landing at Eventbrite, where he is looking to up partnerships and distribution channels. [Built In SF]
Woebot uses humor to make users laugh and open up: The SF-based mental-health chatbot mixes humor and cognitive behavioral therapy in a push to reduce its users’ anxiety and depression. We spoke with the company to learn how it’s separating itself from an increasingly crowded field of AI-powered mental-health chatbots. [Built In SF]
Visa partners with Fold: SF-based startup Fold has been tapped by Visa to help it develop a Bitcoin rewards card. The move is being described as a sign that cryptocurrency is increasingly seen as a mainstream currency. [Bloomberg]
