| Eric Paul Newcomer | |
| Birth Date: | September 7, 1989 |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard College |
| Occupation: | Journalist |
| Years Active: | 2012 to present |
| Website: | http://newcomer.co |
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]
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]
While at Harvard, Newcomer had internships at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Tampa Bay Times. Later, he worked as a James Reston Reporting Fellow for The New York Times. 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. 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.
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]