Y Combinator

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Pave helps companies plan, communicate, and benchmark employee compensation. Today, the company has 160 employees, more than 3,500 customers, and is valued at $1.6B. We sat down with Matt to hear his insight on building a team in the early stages of his company and today as a CEO of a growth-stage company.

strategy 98

strategy coworking collaboration advice 98

Tomasz Tunguz

JULY 25, 2023

I’m watching public company earnings to identify early trends in the software market to inform startups’ plans for 2023. At last, we see a change in slope in the annual growth rates of the cloud services. There are two forces in tension : overall cost reduction efforts by companies & the desire to invest in AI.

accelerator 81

accelerator networking support investing 81

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 15, 2018

Just because you start a company doesn’t necessarily mean you’re automatically a good manager, a good recruiter, or good at PR. Systems take the pressure off individuals for lots of different aspects of the company. It’s nearly impossible to fundraise, hire, or lead without it—but at the same time, founders don’t know everything.

construction 977

construction advice founder 977

TechCrunch

JANUARY 4, 2022

The big news at this year’s show is a number of partnerships with brands across the sports spectrum, including: Adidas Running, Trailforks (cycling/hiking), Wearable X (yoga), Slopes (skiing) and 18Birdies (golf). The company also announced today a $45 million Series B-1, following last April’s $51 million raise.

disruption 87

disruption startup innovation technology 87

TechCrunch

APRIL 17, 2022

As evidence of that, Brex revealed that DoorDash — a $36 billion in market cap company — was one of the first customers who’d taken a bet on its new spend management software product, Empower. That company said it is making a big push into the SMB space and going head-to-head with fast-growing startups like Brex and Ramp.

real estate 96

real estate peer-to-peer financing finance 96

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

The company offers an account associated with a debit card. And the startup positions itself as a premium debit card company and tries to offer credit card rewards with debit cards. Existing investor Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures is investing more money in the company and leading the Series B round.

capital 106

capital ventures investing investment 106

TechCrunch

JANUARY 24, 2023

52 to autonomously mow large-scale commercial properties like corporate campuses, parks, sports fields, and HOA complexes, all of which can have steep slopes and tough terrain. 52 mower] is purpose-built to tackle the unique challenges of commercial landscaping,” co-founder and CEO Jack Morrison tells TechCrunch. Our customers use M.52

energy 78

energy opportunity ventures investing 78

TechCrunch

MARCH 9, 2023

But the company wants to control its narrative again with some product and business news. Cowboy is launching a new feature called ‘AdaptivePower’, which automatically adjusts the power of the motor depending on the current slope and weather conditions. A bit more than a year later, the company is raising more money.

VC 82

VC startup founder founder startup 82

Revolution

OCTOBER 6, 2020

In addition to identifying key consumer trends, Good Buy Gear is riding a trend of companies moving to new hubs like Denver. The startup has already joined forces with several prominent retailers to help them find sustainable solutions to returned baby merchandise. It is no secret that the tech industry in Colorado is booming.

investing 130

investing investment sustainability founder 130

TechCrunch

JULY 21, 2021

Amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murky path to profitability for shared electric micromobility, an increasing number of companies have turned to subscriptions. And what will determine which companies win at the subscription game?

micromobility 107

micromobility transportation startup ventures 107

TechCrunch

JANUARY 6, 2022

The program included fintech startups because of the pandemic’s economic impact, focusing on three companies that “are helping aging populations better manage finances and budgets, and effectively plan for the future.” Its “Housing” section included three companies focused on personal mobility.

innovation 98

innovation health incubation communities 98

TechCrunch

JANUARY 14, 2021

If the company sells or raises enough capital, the investment converts into an agreed-upon percentage of equity. If the company grows without raising additional equity funding, founders redeem most of the equity right, based on a pre-agreed return amount. Flexible VC: A new model for startups targeting profitability.

startup ecosystem 76

startup ecosystem funders VC mentorship 76

TechCrunch

MARCH 14, 2022

She started the company in 2020 to provide virtual data analysts for businesses. While taking a gap year in college, she worked at Microsoft on designing a build-your-own virtual workforce focused on stay-at-home mothers, and it got her thinking about skill gaps, outsourcing and culture around working with companies from abroad.

peer-to-peer 76

peer-to-peer data collection mentorship culture 76

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 29, 2015

Full disclosure: I'm an investor in a stealth daily fantasy sports company. To pick out this one particular "vice" and curb consumer freedom to spend their hard earned dollar as they please is a slippery slope. I can place bets on penny stocks and I'm allowed to buy as much junk food no matter what.

media 292

media education venture capital networking 292

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 8, 2019

Which sectors see more startup company formation than others? Blockchain is clearly the category with the steepest slope. Two years later, founders no longer started companies in social media. A contrarian might found a company in a deflating category; a counter-argument might be to ride the next big wave and start there.

startup 112

startup incumbents media opportunity 112

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 30, 2020

Compare the slopes of marketing’s lead generation efforts to sales’ bookings trajectory. If the marketing slope is up and the bookings slope is up, the teams are aligned. Ideally, the marketing slope is greater than the sales slope, which means the marketing team generates more pipeline than sales can close.

B2B marketing 132

B2B marketing pitching startup 132

Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 2, 2022

Companies such as Qualtrics , Vivint , Divvy , and Pluralsight have gone from zero to unicorn and either acquired or gone public. Several other companies follow on their heels hoping to become the next emerging unicorn here in ‘Silicon Slopes’?—?I I count my company as one of those. even as a man of color. a Polynesian?—?and

pitching 59

pitching networking VC entrepreneurs 59

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 6, 2015

I fear that in the race to show that your companies can raise $20mm Series A''s, we''re mistaking good ideas for big ideas, and people are raising bigger and bigger funds off of valuations inflated by big funding rounds. It''s a slippery slope. I think that''s something that''s really lacking in the VC world.

VC 342

VC collaboration disruption founder 342

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 2, 2010

The other day, Ron Conway said at an event that “ he hopes that any entrepreneur that has “the guts” to start a company gets funded.” First off all, not every company is right for equity financing—and many other companies would be better off starting without it.

startup 253

startup entrepreneurship mentorship venture capital 253

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 7, 2012

That was clearly embodied in the memorial dedicated to Jewish Holocaust victims--thousands of unmarked gray slabs of varied heights on a sloping plaza. Turned out that the company tasked with coating the stones in anti-graffitti paint was a chemical company with Nazi ties.

creativity 264

creativity opportunity culture communities 264

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 7, 2018

In fact, I’m often asked if this was the inspiration behind the name of our company, Lunch Actually , South East Asia’s first and largest lunch dating service. In real life and in business, not telling the truth or going down the slippery slope of half truths is never a good thing.

entrepreneurship 130

entrepreneurship peer-to-peer creativity culture 130

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 19, 2012

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the companies in the fund wind up being Brooklyn based--not because I was only looking here, but because I met them when they didn't have an office and, after introducing them to spaces here, it just made sense. Geography doesn't make a fund or a company. The question is "How?".

communities 284

communities creativity incubation opportunity 284

Tomasz Tunguz

JANUARY 18, 2022

Public market investors are rotating out of high growth technology companies as the Fed’s policies of quantitative easing, asset purchases, and low rates abate. As a company’s scale approaches that of a public company, the greater the impact on their fundraising.

startup 145

startup financing finance technology 145

Angel Capital Association

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

As in previous bubble deflations, the malaise began with public market declines—a sharp Q1’22 fall in the S&P 500 -- and successively impacted unicorns and other pre-IPO companies, then late/growth stage and finally early-stage and seed-stage/angel investing. to 18.2x.

startup 52

startup VC SaaS capital 52

Tomasz Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 30, 2017

There are not many software companies who can nearly quadruple their enterprise value in two years. First, let’s describe the company a bit. There is no company at this skill that is growing this quickly in the public market. Shopify is an exceptional business. But Shopify has grown from $2.7B This is unprecedented.

sustainability 69

sustainability SaaS investing investment 69

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2020

When I started leading deals at First Round Capital, I sourced investments in 8 companies. We started talking about cycling and electronic shifters (which I definitely couldn’t afford) when he mentioned this new company. I don’t really have a particular goal with this post. I’m just sharing.

VC 340

VC hospitality investing investment 340

TechCrunch

MAY 10, 2022

For example, BNPL companies based in LATAM must weigh an array of variables included in the risk model differently based on consumer behaviors natively bound to the characteristics of the local market. Frances Schwiep: We’re on the lookout for companies both enabling and distributing next generation financial products.

financing 84

financing finance opportunity real estate 84

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Armed with $36M in new funding, the company is reimagining reforestation from root to crown in a modern and vertically integrated way, grafting carbon futures and AI to century-old machinery and logistics. DroneSeed co-founders Grant Canary (CEO), left, and Ben Reilly (CTO) hold a pair of the company’s drones. Seeds, meet drones.

energy 104

energy health accelerator financing 104

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

The commercial real estate industry is facing its share of challenges, considering the fact that so many people are working from home (and not in offices) and retail is riding a slippery slope as more people shop online. The Columbus, Ohio-based company launched its marketplace Tuesday after months of operating in private beta.

real estate 61

real estate financing finance capital 61

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 17, 2020

“Compensating talent and raising capital are the (only) two things you can use your startup’s equity for, and you need to do both in order for your company to grow large. The alternative can cripple the company, and even co-founder B won’t be happy owning a larger percent of zero. You definitely don’t need to.

founder 118

founder media VC SaaS 118

Tomasz Tunguz

DECEMBER 12, 2021

The net result is multiples have charted a volatile course with a positive slope. Cloud companies' fast growth multiplied by an appreciation in multiples has pushed valuations higher since 2014. Perhaps investors have been undervaluing companies for the last two decades. What a growth investor ought to expect.

SaaS 143

SaaS 143

Feedough

APRIL 19, 2021

From television commercials to social media platforms, companies use several channels to facilitate the marketing of their products and services that, in turn, imposes a direct or indirect influence on the lives of their customers. In other words, companies sell alcohol-based drinks under the veil of soda, fruit juice, & cocktail mixers.

strategy 69

strategy health media collaboration 69

Tomasz Tunguz

OCTOBER 27, 2022

I’m watching public company earnings to identify early weaknesses in the software market. But, the change in slope is meaningful, too. The data suggests a broader slowdown in software spending as these companies are indices of software buyers’ behavior. Microsoft Azure. Google Cloud Platform.

91

91

Entrepreneur's Handbook

AUGUST 16, 2022

Slope of enlightenment: The tech slowly starts to show successful use cases. Royalties on secondary market trading of these gaming assets provide a strong incentive for gaming companies to create NFT based ecosystem. Trough of Disillusionment: Early projects fail to deliver on promises and the public loses interest.

real estate 123

real estate disruption creativity technology 123

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 18, 2018

The forces of hypergrowth exert enormous strain on every aspect of the company. Internal break all the time as the company moults into a new skin. In either case, you need to hire for slope, not y-intercept. They need to have a steep slope, a fast learning curve. Startups are business machines engineered to grow quickly.

startup 107

startup 107

GCUC

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

When he’s not running his company you can catch martin on the slopes or having fun. Company and title: Founder of Davinci Virtual office solutions. Martin is the founder of Davinci Virtual Solutions and has been an avid part of the shared workspace community for over a decade. Name: Martin Senn.

shared workspaces 31

shared workspaces coworking communities advice 31

Reforge

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

According to a survey from California Review Management , companies who said their customer focus was “ very mature ” experienced 2.5X the revenue growth of companies with a “ very immature ” focus. It becomes a slippery slope for both leaders and operators as customers become an afterthought. This is a dangerous mindset.

culture 52

culture real estate innovation development 52