Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, August 30

• Alphabet’s Legal Chief Steps Down From Uber Board: David Drummond, the chief legal officer at Alphabet Inc., has stepped down from Uber Technologies Inc.’s board of directors as the two companies move further into each other’s territories. Drummond joined the board in 2013 when GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet formerly known as Google Ventures, led a $258 million round of financing for Uber. It remains GV’s largest investment, and the two companies worked together on projects, including the ability to call a car through Google Maps. However, relations between Alphabet’s Google unit and Uber have become strained in recent years. Bloomberg reported last year that Google had been working on a ride-hailing service using self-driving cars. Uber acquired Otto, an autonomous driving startup staffed by former Google employees, and is working with Volvo on driverless vehicles of its own, which the companies expect to begin rolling out in Pittsburgh this month. Uber has been developing its own mapping operation and is shooting street photography to create an alternative to Google’s map data. 

• EU to hand Apple Irish tax bill of $1.1 billion, source says: The European Commission will rule against Ireland's tax dealings with Apple (AAPL.O) on Tuesday, two source familiar with the decision told Reuters, one of whom said Dublin would be told to recoup over 1 billion euros in back taxes. The European Commission accused Ireland in 2014 of dodging international tax rules by letting Apple shelter profits worth tens of billions of dollars from tax collectors in return for maintaining jobs. Apple and Ireland rejected the accusation; both have said they will appeal any adverse ruling. The source said the Commission will recommend a figure in back taxes that it expects to be collected, but it will be up to Irish authorities to calculate exactly what is owed. A bill in excess of 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) would be far more than the 30 million euros each the European Commission previously ordered Dutch authorities to recover from U.S. coffee chain Starbucks (SBUX.O) and Luxembourg from Fiat Chrysler (FCHA.MI) for their tax deals. Apple employs 5,500 workers, or about a quarter of its European-based staff in the Irish city of Cork, where it is the largest private sector employer. It has said it paid Ireland's 12.5 percent rate on all the income that it generates in the country. Ireland's low corporate tax rate has been a cornerstone of economic policy for 20 years, drawing investors from major multinational companies whose staff account for almost one in 10 workers in Ireland. Some opposition Irish lawmakers have urged Dublin to collect whatever tax the Commission orders it to. But the main opposition party Fianna Fail, whose support the minority administration relies on to pass laws, said it would support an appeal based on the reassurances it had been given by the government to date.

• You earn a million dollars a year and can’t get funded? If you’re in the position of struggling to raise funds, here are some reasons why your pitch may not be resonating. You paid $1.2 million to make $1 million: The most common case of seemingly successful businesses struggling to raise funding is when they are paying $1.2 million to generate $1 million. Or, it’s not clear how you’ll turn $1 million into $10 million: We seriously don’t expect every company to be a billion-dollar business. Our model works with $50 million and $100 million exits, but if you’re going to raise venture capital, youshould also be able to explain how you’ll achieve step-function growth — convincingly. A hockey-stick growth path to a billion dollar valuation isn’t required; it can be as simple as taking revenue from $1 million to $10 million. So… If you’ve built a million-dollar business and are struggling to convince VCs, we’d love to talk to you! Just know that when you’re pitching investors, not all revenue is valued equally, and it’s just one factor among many that investors will use to evaluate your business. Bryce Roberts put it well when he tweeted “Not all good businesses are good investments. Not all good investments are good businesses.” Your favorite neighborhood restaurant might generate a million dollars a year in revenue, but it would be a bad bet for VCs. Facebook lost money for years before going on to dominate global communication. If youdecide you want to play the VC game, just be sure to learn how the score is tallied.