“Thanks to an influx of new money and an increasingly porous definition of what is a Silicon Valley company, what was taboo once, is now a hot deal. And there is no better example than Juul Labs, a San Francisco-based e-cigarette company (which makes a rechargeable vaping device and nicotine pods) which is raising $1.2 billion in fresh cash at an eye-popping $15 billion valuation. They have already raised as much as $650 million. The gawking coverage of the company makes it seem like anything but a cigarette peddler.” Om Malik: Juul & its House of Smoke & Horrors. (It’s just too ridiculous that the same investors who won’t invest in cannabis companies will invest in this poison. And I know that these e-cigs can help some people quit smoking real cigarettes. But you don’t invest money at a $15 billion valuation because you think a company is about getting people to need its product less.)