A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC
MARCH 29, 2023
USV is an investor in Bolster , a marketplace for fractional and full-time executive talent for startups and growth companies. This week Bolster launched a daily short (5min) podcast and email with actionable insights and advice from founders, operators, and investors. It is called The Daily Bolster. I did a Daily Bolster episode and it is featured today.
Entrepreneurs' Organization
MARCH 29, 2023
A digital marketing strategy is a nonnegotiable element of a successful company. Billions of people use the internet at any given time during the day. Your business’s success hinges on reaching the right audience at the right time, which is why the value of digital marketing cannot be overstated. However, if your company is new to digital marketing, it can take some time to identify your specific needs.
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TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
If you think embedded insurance is the only hot thing in insurtech these days, we’ve got a surprise in store for you: While it’s true that startups that help sell insurance together with other products and services are enjoying tailwinds, there are plenty of other opportunities in the space, several investors told TechCrunch+. You see, insurtech startups often need to take into account the myriad rules and regulations in place when they seek to innovate and embed insurance into products, which m
The Seraf Compass
MARCH 29, 2023
In Part I of this article we addressed why setting a fair valuation on a startup company is so hard and treated with such great importance by both the investor and the entrepreneur, along with what kinds of constraints are placed on these valuation discussions. Now let's take a look at four of the most common methods for valuing early stage companies.
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.
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
Sam Parr, founder of HubSpot-acquired newsletter and media brand The Hustle, doesn’t watch “Succession” because “it’s too real” (and because he prefers watching comedy compared to behemoth business billionaires fighting). But when he announced his new project, Hampton , an invite-only club for chief executive officers, the references started rolling.
Startup Catalyst Brief brings together the best content for the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
Deep Render , a startup developing AI-powered tech to compress videos on the web, today announced that it raised $9 million in a Series A funding round led by IP Group and Pentech Ventures. A source familiar with the matter tells TechCrunch that the round values the startup at $30 million, a respectable number for a five-year-old startup in light of the recent market turbulence.
American Entrepreneurship
MARCH 29, 2023
Gen Z and Gen Alpha Consumers are Requiring Companies to Reinvent their Digital Commerce Strategies Over the next decade one billion digital-first consumers are expected to join global ecommerce in eight countries. Global Commerce Lead at Accenture who conducted the study compares it to the massive consumer moves from landline phones to mobile. The Accenture Song report titled, “The Next Billion Consumers: A Fast-growing Opportunity for Digital Commerce,” suggests that some of the traditional ba
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
AI is riding high on a curve of hype, which means some of the practical questions that might grow louder over time — the many costs (financial and social), the business models — may not be the most front of mind right now. Today a startup called Fetch.ai is announcing $40 million in funding in anticipation of when that shifts. The startup, based out of Cambridge, England, says it is building tooling that focuses on “autonomous agents, network infrastructure, and decentralised m
American Entrepreneurship
MARCH 29, 2023
The post Payal Kadakia appeared first on American Entrepreneurship.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
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.
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
Alvaro Morales and Kshitij Grover were working together as engineering leaders at Asana for five years, during a time when the company underwent major changes to pricing and packaging. The initiatives were painful for both the engineering and finance departments, they say — which is when the pair realized that they wanted more flexibility over how software-as-a-service (SaaS) products were billed and monetized. “We found it counterintuitive that billing tools often constrain and dict
American Entrepreneurship
MARCH 29, 2023
The post How All Entrepreneurs Gain from their Angel Conference Experience appeared first on American Entrepreneurship.
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
Effy is at a crossroads. The energy renovation company based in France is doing well, but it is addressing a market that is much bigger than anticipated. That’s why it is making a bet. The company just closed a €20 million funding round (roughly $22 million at today’s exchange rate) from Felix Capital. This is the first external funding round for the company.
American Entrepreneurship
MARCH 29, 2023
The post Sal Khan appeared first on American Entrepreneurship.
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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?
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
Unacademy has laid off 12% of its workforce, or over 350 roles, in its latest round of layoffs — just over four months after cutting about 350 roles in November. Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal announced the new layoff decision in a Slack post to employees. “We have taken every step in the right decision to make our core business profitable, yet it’s not enough.
American Entrepreneurship
MARCH 29, 2023
The post Tracy Lawrence appeared first on American Entrepreneurship.
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
The pandemic brought with it a spike in work-from-home and hybrid work, which increased peoples’ dependence on personal devices — driving businesses to try and rein in their use. It’s been a particular challenge for the financial services industry, which has comparatively strict governance and compliance requirements. In September, the U.S.
American Entrepreneurship
MARCH 29, 2023
The post Ritu Narayan appeared first on American Entrepreneurship.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
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!
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
Spera , a Palo Alto-based security startup that provides businesses with the tools to proactively protect themselves from identity-driven threats, today said it has raised a $10 million seed funding round led by YL Ventures, with participation from a number of prominent angel investors and serial entrepreneurs. The company’s founders, Dor Fledel (CEO) and Ariel Kadyshevitch (CTO), argue that an organization’s identity surface is now the number one attack vector, yet as companies incr
American Entrepreneurship
MARCH 29, 2023
The post Tech Entrepreneur Shares Successful Angel Funding Experience appeared first on American Entrepreneurship.
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
Payday , a neobank issuing global (USD, EUR and GBP) accounts to Africans, has raised $3 million to fuel its “future of work” initiative through borderless payment alternatives in major currencies. The seed round was led by Moniepoint Inc ( formerly TeamApt Inc ), the U.S. entity that houses Moniepoint Microfinance Bank and TeamApt Nigeria. Techstars, Angels Touch, HoaQ, DFS Lab’s Stellar Africa Fund, Ingressive Capital Fund II and angel investors such as MFS Africa chief Dare Okoudjou and Noreb
OurCrowd
MARCH 29, 2023
LAGOS, Nigeria & NEW YORK & TEL AVIV, Israel–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zone (formerly Appzone), Africa’s first regulated layer-1 blockchain network for payments, and ThetaRay, a leading provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology, today announced they will collaborate to implement ThetaRay’s cloud-based SONAR solution to monitor and screen Zone’s transactions in Nigeria for illicit activities and sanctions violations.
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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.
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
Gutter Capital , a New York venture capital firm, closed on $25 million in capital commitments for its first fund to invest in pre-seed and seed stage companies focused on affordability, economic mobility and climate change. Founding partners Dan Teran and James Gettinger met while students at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to starting Gutter Capital, Teran started his first company, Managed by Q , which automated office management.
OurCrowd
MARCH 29, 2023
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NanoLock Security, a leading provider of device-level, zero-trust OT protection for industrial manufacturing lines and machines, and ISTARI, a Temasek-founded global cybersecurity firm dedicated to helping clients build cyber resilience, today announced a strategic collaboration to deliver NanoLock’s industrial product suite to ISTARI’s worldwide clients as part of their global strategy.
TechCrunch
MARCH 29, 2023
It turns out that if you have an active customer audience invested in the long-term viability and success of your platform, you can crowdfund a venture-sized extension round. Substack, a venture-backed subscription media platform popular with writers and known for its email service, has collected more than $5 million in pledges for an extension to its Series B from its community and the internet at large.
OurCrowd
MARCH 29, 2023
TEL AVIV, Israel, March 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Quantum Machines, the provider of breakthrough quantum control solutions that accelerate the realization of practical quantum computers, today announced that Alice & Bob, a cutting-edge quantum computer vendor with a mission to develop universal, error-free quantum computers, have chosen Quantum Machines’ advanced quantum control platform, the OPX+, to power their advanced quantum computer.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
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.
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