Eric Newcomer (born September 7, 1989) is an American journalist known for reporting on Silicon Valley and the startup industry. He is the founder of Newcomer, a media outlet that covers startups and venture capital, which launched in 2020. [1]

Eric Paul Newcomer
BornSeptember 7, 1989
Alma materHarvard College
OccupationJournalist
Years active2012 to present
Websitehttp://newcomer.co

Early life and education edit

Newcomer was born in York, Pennsylvania, and raised in Macon, Georgia. After graduating from Central High School in 2008, he attended Harvard College, where he graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy.[2] At Harvard, he served as associate managing editor for The Harvard Crimson and won awards for investigative reporting on a four-part series related to sexual assault at the university.[3]


Career edit

While at Harvard, Newcomer had internships at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Tampa Bay Times.[3] Later, he worked as a James Reston Reporting Fellow for The New York Times.[3] He was the first employee at The Information, joining as a reporter in 2013.[4]

In 2014 Newcomer joined Bloomberg LP as a technology reporter. While at Bloomberg, he published an article about then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick that included a video of Kalanick arguing with an Uber driver.[5] The article contributed to Kalanick’s resignation as CEO of Uber.[6]

In October 2020, he launched his own venture capital newsletter, Newcomer.[7] As of July 2022, Newcomer had over 1,900 paying subscribers.[4] In 2023, Newcomer was one of many Substack publishers who publicly announced personal investments in the company as a show of support.[8] He also runs a weekly podcast containing top thought leaders in startups and venture capital. Past speakers on the podcast have included Kara Swisher and Emad Mostaque.

Cerebral Valley AI Summit edit

On March 30, 2023, Newcomer and voice-AI gaming startup Volley co-hosted an artificial intelligence summit in San Francisco. Speakers included Emad Mostaque, Adam D’Angelo and other CEOs of AI companies and venture capital investors.[9] Over 200 founders, investors, engineers and entrepreneurs attended the one-day Cerebral Valley AI Summit.[10] Attendees included Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi and MosaicML CEO Naveen Rao, who met for the first time at the event. Within months, Databricks acquired MosaicML for $1.3 billion. [11]

The event contributed to the popularization of the nickname "Cerebral Valley" for the neighborhood of Hayes Valley, San Francisco, given after many AI startups established headquarters there.[12]

References edit

  1. ^ Fischer, Sara. "Substack writer Eric Newcomer says his revenue surpassed $1M in 2023". Axios. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  2. ^ "ericnewcomer". MIT Club of Northern California. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  3. ^ a b c Roush, Chris (2014-11-20). "Newcomer hired by Bloomberg to cover tech start-ups". Talking Biz News. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  4. ^ a b Haribhakti, Sar (2022-07-26). "A chat with Eric Newcomer, the indie scoop machine". Scatter Brain. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  5. ^ Isaac, Mike (2017-03-01). "Travis Kalanick, Uber Chief, Apologizes After Fight With Driver". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  6. ^ "Uber's CEO has quit — how did we get here?". ABC News. 2017-06-21. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  7. ^ Roush, Chris (2020-10-26). "Newcomer leaves Bloomberg to start a newsletter". Talking Biz News. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  8. ^ "Substack is fundraising directly from its writers". Quartz. 2023-03-28. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  9. ^ Heath, Alex (2023-03-31). "Command Line: A visit to Cerebral Valley". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  10. ^ Mascarenhas, Natasha (2023-04-03). "'There's too much opportunity' in Cerebral Valley". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  11. ^ Beltran, Luisa (2023-09-19). "Exclusive: Databricks wasn't looking to buy, and MosaicML wasn't selling. How two CEOs navigated a blockbuster $1.3 billion A.I. deal". Fortune. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  12. ^ Tiku, Nitasha (2023-03-17). "AI is reviving San Francisco's tech scene. Welcome to 'Cerebral Valley.'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-06-29.

External links edit