Mon.Feb 22, 2021

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Try This on for Size: The Future of Retail is Social Commerce

StartupNation

In 2000, e-commerce primarily took place on individual websites. Today, it happens in marketplaces. In early 2020, Bank of America analyst Justin Post released an update on the latest e-commerce market share trends , and it indicates Amazon alone dominates the e-commerce market with 44% market share and growing. Tomorrow, however, companies want to drive sales from where users spend more of their time—on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

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Splice gets $55 million for its software bringing beats from bedrooms to bandstands

TechCrunch

Splice , the New York-based, AI-infused, beat-making software service for music producers created by the founder of GroupMe, has managed to sample another $55 million in financing from investors for its wildly popular service. The GitHub for music producers ranging from Hook N Sling , Mr Hudson SLY, and Steve Solomon to TechCrunch’s own Megan Rose Dickey , Splice gained a following for its ability to help electronic dance music creators save, share, collaborate and remix music.

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A Genius Chemist Broke a German Monopoly’s Grip?—?Using Their Own Product

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Economics tend to favor the bold and the innovative. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Creatio raises $68M as the low-code space keeps attracting huge checks

TechCrunch

This morning Creatio , a Boston-based software company, announced that it has raised $68 million. Volition Capital , a growth-equity fund, led the round. The deal was a minority investment in the startup. The deal is notable not merely thanks to its sheer size, but because up until today Creatio had bootstrapped. That’s according to founder and CEO Katherine Kostereva , with whom TechCrunch caught up with last week regarding the investment.

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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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5 Ideas for Implementing a Workplace Wellness Program at Your Company

StartupNation

Sponsored content. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, stress was already costing Australian businesses upwards of $10 billion every year. Anxiety levels have worsened, with COVID-19 proving to be hugely disruptive to corporate wellness. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to workplace stress and other related health problems. However, it could potentially be beneficial to implement a workplace wellness program with the goal of improving health and wellness, as well as productivity, at your company

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More Trending

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The Secret to Fighting Bigger, Better-Resourced Competitors?—?From the Founder of Bronto Software

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Taking on a market leader isn’t easy for entrepreneurs, but, with the right strategy, there’s a way to win Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Ageras nabs $73M at a $244M valuation for its accountancy marketplace and bookkeeping tech stack

TechCrunch

Vertical marketplaces continue to be a key lynchpin in the digital economy, a centralized place where people providing certain goods or services can connect with those specifically looking to buy them, a position that has, it seems, become even more prominent and in-demand in our pandemic economy. In line with that trend, today a startup out of Denmark called Ageras Group , which has built a dual-purpose platform, providing both accountancy software and a marketplace for small and medium busines

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Business Environment – Definition, Components, & Features

Feedough

Several internal and external factors directly or indirectly influence business operations. While some of these are within the business’s control, most of these are not; and the business has to adapt itself to avoid being affected by changes in such factors. Both of them combined forms the business environment. Today’s fast-paced business world witnesses a trend of a rather dynamic business environment – that is, it’s never stable.

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If Coinbase is worth $100 billion, what’s a fair valuation for Stripe?

TechCrunch

Mere days after we discussed Coinbase at $77 billion and Stripe at $115 billion in the private markets, those same semi-liquid exchanges have provided a new valuation for the cryptocurrency company. It’s now $100 billion, per Axios’ reporting. Good thing we argued last week that there could be some merit to Coinbase’s $77 billion secondary market valuation from a particular perspective.

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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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Men Aren’t the Thing Holding Female Founders Back?—?What’s Really Holding Women Back in Startups?

Entrepreneur's Handbook

From a female founder who’s worked with thousands of aspiring women in business…and hundreds of male entrepreneurs, too. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Why I felt fine about not disclosing my pregnancy to investors

TechCrunch

Kathy Hannun. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Kathy Hannun is president and co-founder of Dandelion Energy. Prior to Dandelion, Kathy worked at X, Google Alphabet’s innovation lab. In May 2017, Kathy launched Dandelion as an independent startup. She graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Computer Science. I closed two major rounds of funding for my geothermal energy startup, Dandelion Energy, while pregnant.

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Bumble’s IPO Shows Dating Apps Have Changed Courting Forever

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd has entered into a rarefied club of self-made female billionaires after the company enjoyed an IPO that… Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Snack, where TikTok meets dating, gets $3.5 million in funding

TechCrunch

After online dating’s tremendous 2020 growth that culminated in last week’s epic Bumble IPO, a new entrant has tossed its hat into the dating app ring. Snack , founded by Kimberly Kaplan, looks to merge the popularity and format of TikTok with the dating world. Kaplan hails from Plenty of Fish, where she was one of the earliest employees at the dating site.

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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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WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Business Startups Continue at Record Pace (Episode 178)

StartupNation

We’ve reported previously on the Business Beat that the last quarter of 2020 was a really robust one when it comes to business startups in the U.S. In a new report by the Visual Capitalist, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the United States, and the upward trend continues. In fact, there were 492,133 new business applications filed in January 2021.

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Eat this, exercise now; new personalized software predicts and helps prevent blood sugar spikes

TechCrunch

Not everyone has Type 2 diabetes, the disease that causes chronically high blood sugar levels, but many do. Around 9% of Americans are afflicted, and another 30% are at risk of developing it. Enter software by January AI , a four-year-old, subscription-based startup that in November began providing personalized nutritional and activity-related suggestions to its customers based on a combination of food-related data the company has quietly amassed over three years, and each person’s unique

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The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

In my Jan 1st post talking about what I expected to happen this year , I wrote: I think we will see the end of the Covid Pandemic in the US sometime in the second quarter. I believe the US will work out the challenges we are having getting out of the gate and will be vaccinating at least 40mm people a month in the US in the first quarter. When you add that to the 90mm people in the US that the CDC believes have already been infected , we will have well over 200mm people in the US who have some

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Winning enterprise sales teams know how to persuade the Chief Objection Officer

TechCrunch

Oren Yunger. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Oren Yunger is an investor at GGV Capital , where he leads the cybersecurity vertical and drives investments in enterprise IT, data infrastructure, and developer tools. He was previously chief information security officer at a SaaS company and a public financial institution. More posts by this contributor. 6 CISOs share their game plans for a post-pandemic world.

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The GTM Intelligence Era: ZoomInfo 2025 Customer Impact Report

ZoomInfo customers aren’t just selling — they’re winning. Revenue teams using our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform grew pipeline by 32%, increased deal sizes by 40%, and booked 55% more meetings. Download this report to see what 11,000+ customers say about our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform and how it impacts their bottom line. The data speaks for itself!

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How Ramon Ray Makes Perfect Podcasts That Keep Audience Engaged

Smart Hustle Magazine

Ramon Ray, the founder of Smart Hustle Media, wears multiple hats. He started four companies (sold two of them), wrote best-selling books, and interviewed the past United States president. Ramon is an authority on small business growth. Through his speeches, he inspires audiences around the globe. In addition to the above things, Ramon Ray is also known for conducting stellar podcast interviews.

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India’s Zomato valued at $5.4 billion in new $250 million investment

TechCrunch

Zomato has raised $250 million, two months after closing a $660 million Series J financing round , as the Indian food delivery startup builds a war-chest ahead of its IPO later this year. Kora (which contributed $115 million), Fidelity ($55 million), Tiger Global ($50 million), Bow Wave ($20 million) and Dragoneer ($10 million) pumped the new capital into the 12-year-old Gurgaon-headquartered startup, Info Edge, a publicly listed investor in Zomato, disclosed in a filing (PDF) to a local stock

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‘Everything Borrowed’ Podcast Ep. 17: A Conversation with Burton Heiss

StartupNation

Welcome to an all-new episode of “Everything Borrowed,” a podcast hosted by Andrew Blake! On this episode, Andrew welcomes Burton Heiss, CEO of Buddy’s Pizza. Burton joined Buddy’s Pizza as CEO in July 2019, with over 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry. During the show, Blake and Burton talk about how he is focused on taking the Detroit-based brand outside of Michigan during the pandemic, as well as how he balances his life and business!

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Gophr, the U.K. last-mile delivery company, picks up £4M funding

TechCrunch

Gophr , a U.K.-based last-mile delivery provider, has raised £4 million in funding, as it looks to invest in its product off the back of 300% revenue growth during the last 12 months. Leading the round is pan-European B2B investor Nauta Capital. The company had previously raised £1 million in two rounds, including £500,000 from publicly-listed Auctus Alternative Investments.

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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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[OurCrowd in The Times of Israel] OurCrowd startup survey shows hybrid office/remote work model set to continue

OurCrowd

Even as coronavirus vaccinations are being rolled out, only 14.3% of OurCrowd’s portfolio companies see employees working solely in the workplace by July 1. Read more here. The post [OurCrowd in The Times of Israel] OurCrowd startup survey shows hybrid office/remote work model set to continue appeared first on OurCrowd Blog.

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Indonesian investment platform FUNDtastic lands $7.7 million Series A

TechCrunch

Despite the market impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, retail investing is increasing in Indonesia , especially among people aged 18 to 30. Today, investment platform FUNDtastic announced it has raised a $7.7 million Series A to tap into that demand, with plans to launch new products for retail investors, reports DealStreetAsia. The round was led by Singapore-based Ascend Capital Group, with participation from other investors including tech holding company Indivara Group.

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[CropX in PR Newswire] CropX Addresses Critical Soil Health Challenge – Develops Advanced Fertilizer and Salt Monitoring Capability

OurCrowd

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — CropX, a global leader in soil analytics for agriculture, today announced a significant advancement in soil sensing technology: the ability to accurately and continuously monitor soil fertilizer and salt levels. Adding another level of data insight to its ag analytics platform, CropX scientists have created a solution to precisely detect fertilization events, salt concentrations and fertilizer movements throughout the soil.

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Bringing jobs and health benefits, BlocPower unlocks energy efficiency retrofits for low-income communities

TechCrunch

Retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient and better at withstanding climate change-induced extreme weather is going to be a big, multibillion-dollar business. But it’s one that’s been hard for low-income communities to tap, thanks to obstacles ranging from faulty incentive structures to an inability to adequately plan for which upgrades will be most effective in which buildings.

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5 Ways You Can Win Faster with Gen AI in Sales

Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.