Thu.May 13, 2021

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These 3 Entrepreneurs Share Tips for Overcoming E-Commerce Product Launch Obstacles

StartupNation

With consumers spending more than ever online, it’s no wonder why so many entrepreneurs are joining e-commerce marketplaces in droves. Consumers around the world spent $900 billion at online retailers in 2020, according to report from the Mastercard Economics Institute. Up to 30% of that shift is expected to be permanent, too. This growth, regardless of sales channel, has been massively powered by startups and small businesses.

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3 West African Startups Prove It’s Possible To Thrive In Uncertain Times

Impact Hub

Turning challenges into opportunities. That is what entrepreneurs around the world have always done, and the pandemic is no exception. This article is the first in a series of eight where we will share the stories of African startups from Ghana and Nigeria who are doing just that. From healthcare to education, agriculture, and engineering, meet the resilient entrepreneurs who are creating a positive impact on their local communities as well as national economies and contributing to the country&#

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Sylvera grabs seed backing from Index to help close the accountability gap around carbon offsetting

TechCrunch

U.K.-based startup Sylvera is using satellite, radar and lidar data-fuelled machine learning to bolster transparency around carbon offsetting projects in a bid to boost accountability and credibility — applying independent ratings to carbon offsetting projects. The ratings are based on proprietary data sets it’s developed in conjunction with scientists from research organisations including UCLA, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and University College London.

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Running a remote-first startup: Do’s and Don’ts

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Running a Remote-First Startup: Do’s and Don’ts We’ve been a remote-first startup for 3 years, here’s what we’ve learned. We’ve been a remote-first startup from day one at Uizard ?—?since the moment my co-founders and I started building our first prototype at the end of 2017, to today in 2021, with a team distributed in 5 different countries. If you are starting a company now in the midst of the COVID-19 chaos, being remote-first is probably the only viable option.

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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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Walmart acquires virtual clothing try-on startup Zeekit

TechCrunch

Retail giant Walmart announced this morning it’s acquiring the Tel Aviv-based startup Zeekit , which allows consumers to virtually “try on” clothing when shopping online. The company leverages a combination of real-time image processing, computer vision, deep learning and other AI technology to show shoppers how they would look in an item by way of a simulation that takes into account body dimensions, fit, size and even the fabric of the garment itself.

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China’s WeRide secures more funding, pushing valuation to $3.3 billion

TechCrunch

Only four months after securing Series B fundraising of $310 million, Chinese autonomous driving company WeRide says it has achieved its Series C funding round that brings its post-money valuation to $3 billion. This is first time the company has disclosed its value. The company did not share how much it has raised this round, only noting that it’s in the “hundreds of millions,” according to a statement released by the company.

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I Asked 50 Entrepreneurs What Tools They Use to Stay Productive?—?Here Are the Most Popular Ones

Entrepreneur's Handbook

A condensed list of digital and physical tools Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Is there a creed in venture capital?

TechCrunch

Scott Lenet. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Scott Lenet is President of Touchdown Ventures. More posts by this contributor. Analyzing the spectrum of corporate innovation from R&D to VC. “Darth Ventures” and the efficacy of Sith management techniques. How should venture capitalists and corporate innovators assess Din Djarin, the protagonist of The Mandalorian?

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Extending your Runway!

Berkonomics

Several years ago, I wrote a book entitled, Extending the Runway , using parallels to piloting a plane to equate to the process of creating and building a small company, making maximum use of resources to get to and beyond breakeven. It is worth revisiting the most. Extending the Runway book available at Amazon. important point of that book, which was written to prompt discussion between entrepreneurs, professional managers, and their boards of directors about issues that could unite them or s

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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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The hamburger model is a winning go-to-market strategy

TechCrunch

Caryn Marooney. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Caryn Marooney is general partner at Coatue Management and sits on the boards of Zendesk and Elastic. In prior roles she oversaw communications for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus and co-founded The OutCast Agency, which served clients like Salesforce.com and Amazon. More posts by this contributor.

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5 Reasons Why Everyone Secretly Hates Entrepreneurs These Days

Entrepreneur's Handbook

We entrepreneurs can’t stand those guys either. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Chef Robotics raises $7.7M to help automate kitchens

TechCrunch

A year and a half’s worth of global pandemic has had a profound impact on virtually every sector of the workforce. When it comes to future automation, food prep isn’t quite at the top of the list (that distinction likely goes to warehouse fulfillment , for the time being), but it’s certainly up there. And it’s easy to see why the events of 2020 and beyond have left many kitchens looking for alternative sources of labor.

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[Zoomcar in BW Disrupt] Zoomcar Raises $5.5 Million Dollars From US Based Parent Company Zoomcar Inc

OurCrowd

Recently, the Indian self-drive car rental company Zoomcar has raised INR 41 Crore/ $5.5 Million from its umbrella company Zoomcar Inc. Prior to this, Zoomcar Inc had also infused INR 8.27crore/ $1.1 Million in January and INR 5.27 Crore/ $717k in February 2021. These rounds of raising investments taking the total capital infusion in the company to INR 54.5 Crore/$7.4 Million in 2021.

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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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Upsie’s direct-to-consumer swing at the warranty space nets $18.2M

TechCrunch

Upsie , a consumer warranty startup, has raised $18.2 million in a Series A round led by True Ventures. . The financing brings the total raised for the St. Paul, Minnesota-based startup to $25 million since its 2015 inception. A large group of investors participated in the round, including Concrete Rose VC, Avanta Ventures, Kapor Capital, Samsung Next, Massive, Backstage Capital, Awesome People Ventures, Draft Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, M25, Silicon Valley Bank and Uncommon VC, among others.

VC
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[Phantom Auto in PR Newswire] Phantom Auto Partners with Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas Group to Scale Up Remote Operation for Unmanned Forklifts

OurCrowd

HOUSTON, May 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas group, a leading North American provider and manufacturer of material handling and innovative automation and fleet solutions, announced today the partnership with Phantom Auto, a leading provider of interoperable remote operation software, to enable operators who are sitting up to thousands of miles away to remotely operate unmanned tuggers, pallet jacks, counterbalances and more.

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Alba Orbital’s mission to image the Earth every 15 minutes brings in $3.4M seed round

TechCrunch

Orbital imagery is in demand, and if you think having daily images of everywhere on Earth is going to be enough in a few years, you need a lesson in ambition. Alba Orbital is here to provide it with its intention to provide Earth observation at intervals of 15 minutes rather than hours or days — and it just raised $3.4M to get its next set of satellites into orbit.

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Burnout Is A Mental Health Matter

GCUC

A couple months ago I found myself in a funk, except it wasn’t going away. It seems to be lingering & I couldn’t shake. The post Burnout Is A Mental Health Matter appeared first on GCUC Community.

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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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Even startups on tight budgets can maximize their marketing impact

TechCrunch

Dominik Angerer. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Dominik Angerer is CEO and co-founder of headless CMS Storyblok , which provides best practice guidance for startups on how to build a sustainable approach to marketing their content. Search engine optimization, PR, paid marketing, emails, social — marketing and communications is crowded with techniques, channels, solutions and acronyms.

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Golden Handcuffs

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

Stock-based compensation plans throughout the startup and tech sector are based on “golden handcuffs” – the idea that an employee can’t leave because they would be giving up too much money if they do. I’ve never loved that concept. It feels like staying in a bad marriage for the kids. So I have been involved in a number of efforts to rethink that practice and one of those efforts came to light earlier this week when Coinbase, where I am on the board and compensation

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SpecTrust raises millions to fight cybercrime with its no-code platform

TechCrunch

Risk defense startup SpecTrust is emerging from stealth today with a $4.3 million seed raise and a public launch. Cyber Mentor Fund led the round, which also included participation from Rally Ventures, SignalFire, Dreamit Ventures and Legion Capital. SpecTrust aims to “fix the economics of fighting fraud” with a no-code platform that it says cuts 90% of a business’ risk infrastructure spend that responds to threats in “minutes instead of months.” .

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WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Data Shows Consumers Want to Shop and Dine Locally (Episode 224)

StartupNation

On this morning’s Business Beat, Jeff shares an ongoing trend in consumer behavior: those who are searching for something online but going to a store locally to actually make the purchase. Visits to local stores and restaurants are top of mind, according to a recent report by Google. Tune in to the Business Beat, below, to learn more about this great news for local merchants and local restaurants: Tune in to News/Talk 760 AM WJR weekday mornings at 7:11 a.m. for the WJR Business Beat.

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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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Vietnamese flexible pay startup Nano raises $3M seed round

TechCrunch

Nano Technologies, a startup that lets workers in Vietnam access their earned wages immediately through an app called VUI , has raised $3 million in seed funding. The oversubscribed round was led by returning investors Golden Gate Ventures and Venturra Discovery, and included participation from FEBE Ventures, Openspace Ventures and Goodwater Capital.

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[Kenna Security in GlobeNewswire] Publishing Exploits Does More Harm Than Good, Kenna Security Research Finds

OurCrowd

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cybersecurity researchers and “white-hat” hackers that publicize exploit code used in cyberattacks are giving a clear and unequivocal advantage to attackers, new research has found. The research, Prioritization to Prediction, Volume 7: Establishing Defender Advantage conducted by Kenna Security, the enterprise leader in risk-based vulnerability management, and Cyentia Institute, offers a definitive answer to one of the longest-running de

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BRD’s Blockset unveils its white-label cryptocurrency wallet for banks and other enterprise clients

TechCrunch

Blockset , the blockchain infrastructure platform for enterprises by BRD , announced early access to its Wallet-as-a-Service today. The white-label solution gives clients, like financial institutions, the ability to launch wallets that have the same features as BRD’s own mobile cryptocurrency wallet, which now has about 7 million users with over $20 billion assets under protection.

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[Phantom Auto in Bloomberg] Forklift Driving Becomes a Desk Job in Phantom-Mitsubishi Deal

OurCrowd

Phantom Auto, a California-based startup focusing on remote vehicle operation, has struck a deal to provide logistics equipment heavyweight Mitsubishi Logisnext Co. with software that enables forklifts to be operated remotely from thousands of miles away. Read more here. The post [Phantom Auto in Bloomberg] Forklift Driving Becomes a Desk Job in Phantom-Mitsubishi Deal appeared first on OurCrowd Blog.

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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.