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CRM automation guide

The Zapier Blog

A customer relationship management tool (or CRM) is a critical hub for sales and marketing teams—but it's not just a place to store contact details. When used effectively, your CRM becomes a central command center for tracking relationships, managing pipelines, and coordinating touchpoints across your entire customer journey. But here's the catch: most of that activity doesn't happen in your CRM.

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How to Communicate Impact Metrics to Investors

StartupNation

Effectively communicating your startup’s impact metrics to investors can make or break your funding opportunities. This article presents key strategies, backed by expert insights, to help you showcase your startup’s value and growth potential. From telling compelling data-driven stories to aligning metrics with investor priorities, these approaches will equip you to present your startup’s impact in a clear and persuasive manner.

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Views on the Ground: Scenes from Our Chicago Founder Fly-In

Revolution

Portfolio company leaders from across the country touched down in the Windy City to connect with fellow Rise of the Rest-backed founders on tactical tools for turbulent times. VP of Platform and Portfolio Success, Amira Ouji, and Head of Community, Liz Westhouse, recap the event below. If you’re building a company in 2025, the headlines are loud: market whiplash, trade realignments, AI acceleration, geopolitical shockwaves.

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Extend Raises $17M to Transform Document Processing with AI-Powered Cloud Platform

American Entrepreneurship

Co-founders Kushal Byatnal and Eli Badgio lead Extend’s mission to revolutionize unstructured data workflows with precision and scale. Extend, the AI-native document processing startup, announced the closing of $17 million in combined seed and Series A funding to accelerate its mission of turning complex, unstructured documents into accurate, production-ready data.

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From Curiosity to Competitive Edge: How Mid-Market CEOs Are Using AI to Scale Smarter

Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage

This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.

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Moonnox Raises $2M

HPA

HPA is excited to announce its investment in Moonnox’s $2 million Seed Round alongside M25, with participation from Early Light Ventures and Service Provider Capital. This investment leverages HPA’s operating expertise in AI to support Moonnox. Moonnox is an AI-native platform designed for professional services firms to streamline their delivery processes by enabling the creation of custom AI agents.

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21 Facebook ad examples (and why they work)

The Zapier Blog

I have a bad habit of screenshotting Facebook ads and sending them to friends completely unprompted. They don't ask for ad breakdowns, but I send them anyway. Chalk it up to occupational hazard: as a marketer and consumer of ads, I can't help but take note of ads that nail the hook, the message, and the execution. Get your leads where you need them Automate Facebook Lead Ads Here, I've rounded up standout Facebook ad examples that do just that.

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Rising Tide: The Business of Climate Innovation

Revolution

We kicked off the morning in Baltimore with an engaged room, strong coffee, and a simple premise: climate innovation is urgent, accelerating, and will pay dividends. As part of our Beyond Silicon Valley Speaker Series, we collaborated with the Pava Center , Conscious Venture Partners , and J.P. Morgan to bring together founders, investors, and local leaders for a conversation about the business of climate tech, and what it will take to scale solutions that make both environmental and economic se

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Woodchuck Raises $3.75M to Combat Construction Waste Crisis with AI-Driven Biomass Energy Platform

American Entrepreneurship

The Michigan based startup empowers contractors, manufacturers, and energy producers to reduce costs, meet sustainability goals, and contribute to a cleaner energy grid through its AI platform that uses machine vision and data modeling to improve the quality and consistency of biomass. In a powerful move for the climate tech industry, Woodchuck, an AI-powered climate impact startup, announced the successful close of a $3.75 million seed funding round.

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Figma's S-1: A PLG Powerhouse

Tomasz Tunguz

Yesterday, Figma filed its beautifully designed S-1. It reveals a product-led growth (PLG) business with a remarkable trajectory. Figma’s collaborative design tool platform disrupted the design market long-dominated by Adobe. Here’s how the two companies stack up on key metrics for their most recent fiscal year: Metric (2024) Figma Adobe Revenue (YoY Growth) $749M (48%) $21.5B (11%) Gross Margin 88.3% 89.0% Non-GAAP Op Margin 17.0% 44.5% Sales Efficiency 1.00 0.39 Adjusted FCF Margin

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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Summer Reading Picks From the VentureWell Executive Team

Venture Well

Members of our executive leadership team share a selection of books that have recently inspired or challenged them. The post Summer Reading Picks From the VentureWell Executive Team appeared first on VentureWell.

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Lioncrest Ventures Launches $100M Equity and Credit Fund Platform for Growth-Stage Tech Startups

American Entrepreneurship

New multi-strategy venture fund addresses capital alignment challenges with equity and credit options tailored for scaling companies in regulated industries. Lioncrest Ventures has officially launched with the debut of a $100 million multi-strategy investment platform designed to support growth-stage technology companies. With an initial close of $30 million, Lioncrest is positioning itself as a next-generation venture firm, offering both equity and credit capital to meet the evolving needs of f

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HPA Invests in Handspring’s $12M Series A, Expanding High Quality Mental Health Care for Kids

HPA

HPA is excited to announce its participation in Handspring’s $12 million Series A led by Cobalt Ventures with support from NextView Ventures, NVP Capital, 25Madison, Arkitekt Ventures, Cornucopian Capital, two regional health plans, and others. This investment joins other HPA portfolio companies NOCD and Array Behavioral Health that are focused on increasing access to high quality behavioral healthcare.

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Lesson #373: When to Fire Yourself as CEO?

Red Rocket

Most CEOs don’t usually think about putting themselves up on the firing block, but there any many instances where you as the CEO of the business may be holding your business back. You need to be honest in your assessment of yourself as CEO, to make sure you are in fact the right person for the job. This post will help you identify certain scenarios where a CEO change may be necessary, even if it means you firing yourself from the job.

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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The best mind mapping software in 2025

The Zapier Blog

Mind mapping is a creative way to brainstorm and find connections between different ideas. Done right, it's a great way to come up with new ideas and solutions to tricky problems, outline an article or presentation, and generally just get your thoughts in order. While it can be done as a group, it's often a solo practice. Use automation to support brainstorming, delegation, and communication Learn how I do most of my mind mapping digitally—and even when I don't, I often recreate a

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8 Must-Have Tips to Protect Your Startup

StartupNation

Launching a startup is an adventure filled with uncertainty, excitement, and plenty of unexpected challenges. As you set out on this journey, protecting your business means more than just securing your data or drafting airtight contracts. It means building a resilient, adaptable, and innovative company. We’ve put together eight ways to safeguard your startup—from how you build your team to managing your finances, and choosing the right tech. 1.

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Levelpath Raises $55M to Revolutionize AI-Native Enterprise Procurement with Autonomous Agents

American Entrepreneurship

The startup, f ounded in 2022, is led by the seasoned team of Alex Yakubovich and Stan Garber who quickly gained investor backing to make Levelpath the leader in enterprise procurement. Levelpath, a leading AI-native procurement platform, has raised over $55 million in Series B funding to accelerate its mission of transforming enterprise procurement through intelligent automation and autonomous AI agents.

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i2E Showcases Startup Innovation at Bridge2 Cohort 3 Demo Day

Innovation 2 Enterprise

Earlier this month, ten dynamic Oklahoma startups took the stage at Bridge2 Demo Day, marking the conclusion of the third cohort of i2E’s Bridge2 Pre-Accelerator. Held at Gradient, Tulsa’s Innovation Hub, the event spotlighted founders who have spent the past 16 weeks refining their ventures through tailored curriculum, expert mentorship, and strategic preparation for the next stage of investment and growth.

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How Top Tech CFOs Solve Annual Planning’s Biggest Challenges

Gearing up for 2025 annual planning? Our latest eBook from the Operators Guild is your ultimate guide. Discover real-world solutions and best practices shared by top CFOs, drawn directly from discussions within OG’s vibrant online community. Learn from senior executives at high-growth tech startups as they outline financial planning strategies, align CEO and board goals, and coordinate budgets across departments.

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From Coast to Coast, A New Future for Blue Innovation Is Rising

Venture Well

VentureWell and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have embarked on a four-year mission to help startups transform novel ocean technologies into market-ready products. The post From Coast to Coast, A New Future for Blue Innovation Is Rising appeared first on VentureWell.

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How Smith.ai saves 250+ hours weekly with one Zap

The Zapier Blog

When you're handling over a million client conversations across phone, text, and web chat, every second matters. Smith.ai , a virtual receptionist service based in California, knows this well. Their team of receptionists and AI agents serves businesses like law firms and home service providers by answering questions, booking appointments, and qualifying leads, all in real time.

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5 Signs that Your Startup is Failing to Thrive in the Age of Work From Home

StartupNation

The Work From Home era is far from over. In fact, it’s only just started. As a large portion of the working world embarks on a remote future, it’s up to your startup to adapt ahead of time to see the best results. Approximately two in three workers are now fully remote. For business leaders at the beginning of their startup venture, offering WFH roles is extremely beneficial.

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Snowcap Compute Launches with $23M in Seed Funding to Power the Future of AI, Quantum, and HPC

American Entrepreneurship

Superconducting Compute Platform Unlocks Ultra-Efficient, High-Performance Infrastructure for Next-Gen Workloads A bold new entrant in the compute infrastructure landscape, Snowcap Compute has officially launched with $23 million in seed funding led by Playground Global, alongside participation from Cambium Capital and Vsquared Ventures. Snowcap aims to transform the future of advanced computing with the first commercially viable superconducting compute platform, specifically engineered for AI,

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Your Fractional Finance and Accounting Team

Mighty Financial specializes in supporting the financial aspirations of small businesses and entrepreneurs. With our comprehensive bookkeeping and precise accounting expertise with decades of experience across diverse financial roles, our team offers tailor-made services ranging from essential bookkeeping to strategic fractional CFO support, catered specifically to the unique challenges of technology companies, startups, and SMEs.

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Interview with Suzanne Ley: Empowering SMEs with Smarter Financial Tools

Jason Malki

Suzanne Ley I had the pleasure of interviewing Suzanne Ley , a seasoned global financial services executive with over 20 years of experience driving company growth and financial performance. Suzanne is currently the CEO and CFO of Qrescendo , a next-generation investment neobank built to empower startups and middle-market companies with seamless access to capital, embedded financial tools, and a dynamic network of investors and advisors.

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The unusual story of an unusual company – Melanie Langlotz and Geo AR Games 

NZ Entrepreneur

This is the story of an unusual games company making unusual games, built by a woman who followed an unusual career path. Melanie (Mel) Langlotz is the founder and CEO of Geo AR Games , a game design studio that utilises augmented reality for “creating digital experiences that positively impact the world, fostering education and empowerment with simulations and serious games.

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Your guide to IT automation

The Zapier Blog

If you work in IT operations, the work you do is basically the backbone of your company. From safeguarding data to resolving major incidents and beyond, you're in charge of keeping everything running smoothly, so the only downtime you encounter is yours—not your system's. Making sure that your internal and external systems are constantly secure (and every team has access to the tools they need to get their jobs done) can't be easy.

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How a Reputation for Kindness Leads to Business Success

StartupNation

In a world where trust is currency and transparency is paramount, how people perceive your business can shape its entire trajectory. Whether launching your first product or expanding a growing team, you’ll find that your reputation leaves a lasting impression and that kindness plays a major role in shaping it. A strong company culture grows from genuine care, and when people feel supported, they naturally want to be part of it and share it with others.

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Digitalization: 5 Tech Updates That Will Help You Survive The Recession & Thrive

Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.