Thu.May 12, 2022

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A KPI for Corporate Innovation: The Valuation Index

Paul G. Silva

Leaders of global corporations are under intense pressure to grow their valuation by hitting aggressive revenue, margin, and EBITDA targets. Acquirers pay a valuation premium on recurring, high-margin, and high-growth product revenue. However, the metrics most companies use (ROI) fail to capture the impact on valuation, causing leaders to make choices that slow their valuation growth.

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Altro has raised $18M to help you build credit just by paying for your Netflix subscription

TechCrunch

Michael Broughton was the first in his family to go to college. But he almost didn’t, when he had trouble securing the necessary financing to pay his tuition. The experience stuck with him, and when he met Ayush Jain at the University of Southern California, the pair bonded over their belief that credit access should be free. They came up with the idea of helping people build credit through recurring payment forms such as digital subscriptions to Netflix, Spotify and Hulu.

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Investing in Lightspark

Andreessen Horowitz

We at a16z started investing in bitcoin in 2013 , several years before we had a dedicated crypto fund. We have always been big believers in Bitcoin , its unique history and its foundational role in crypto. . It’s hard to … The post Investing in Lightspark appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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Daily Crunch: Key Twitter executives depart following Elon Musk ownership deal

TechCrunch

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PT, subscribe here. It’s Thursday, May 12, so Happy Friday Eve. Congrats to the “GoogleCrunch” team, which wrote something like 28 stories yesterday to cover Google I/O. You can catch all of the Googliness here. Haje is enjoying a couple of days off, and I fear you will now know who the funny one is.

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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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3 Reasons Why Investors are Passing on Your Early-Stage Startup

Entrepreneur's Handbook

It’s not always about you. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Before Investing in Crypto, You Need to Understand What DeFi Is and How It Works

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels: [link] My friends and I entered the crypto scene early when most of the world wasn’t quite aware of what it could actually mean. Things were easier in those early days, especially if you just wanted to invest a few hundred dollars into tokens that you felt would go a long way. Then, with the launch of Ethereum and its smart contract capabilities, the fresh crypto market underwent rapid changes, unlocking multiple new investment opportunities.

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Brazilian fintech infrastructure company Dock closes on $110M in funding, now valued at over $1.5B

TechCrunch

If there’s one area that has thus far felt insulated from the global venture downturn, it’s infrastructure. Companies that offer banking as a service and help other businesses offer their own financial services and products in particular continue to rake in the dollars. The latest such company in Latin America is São Paulo-based Dock , which operates a full-stack payments and digital banking “platform” across the region, where demand for financial infrastructure that can help boost inclusion is

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How Boomer Mark Tilbury Makes $50K+ per Week in Passive Income

Entrepreneur's Handbook

From selling RC toys to 9M+ online followers Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Token.io raises $40M to expand open banking-based account-to-account payments in Europe

TechCrunch

The rise of digital payments has changed the nature of how people do business with each other; and open banking — a movement in banking where incumbents are finally adopting newer technology such as APIs to open their systems to modern integrations — is leading to a wave of new payment methods, all of which are hoping to become as standard as cash or paying with cards.

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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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How To Bear A Bear Market?—?Crypto Edition

Entrepreneur's Handbook

How To Bear A Bear Market?—?Crypto Edition There’s nothing very funny about watching your portfolio crumble Photo credit: investors.com Punny article titles aside, there’s nothing very funny about watching your portfolio crumble day after day, week after week, with no sign of an end in sight. If you, like me, are a uni-cycler (a term representing people who are still in their first crypto cycle), we have not yet experienced the arduousness of a true bear market, a crypto-winter.

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Gusto raises an extension round, following Faire as unicorns react to a changing market

TechCrunch

Gusto , an HR technology unicorn worth nearly $10 billion, has raised an extension to its 2021-era Series E funding round. That funding event included $175 million in primary capital, a tranche of secondary shares and a tender offer. EquityZen first noted the new capital raise from Gusto based on its review of publicly available filings, which TechCrunch can confirm.

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#28. How To Go From YouTuber To $3M+ Annual Revenue w/ Sam King

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Learn from the Founder of Flick.Tech with 160k+ YouTube Subscribers [link] Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Inspirational stories plus practical takeaways from the entrepreneurship world. Today’s guest is Sam King a.k.a Sam King FTW. He started a YouTube channel aged just 16 which blew up and supported his lifestyle for several years with 160k followers.

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Nexi, the Italian payments giant, buys Germany’s Orderbird for $140-150M to expand its SMB strategy

TechCrunch

More consolidation is apace in the world of payments: Nexi , the Italian fintech that scooped up rivals Danish-based Nets and then Italy’s SIA to create a $12.5 billion European payments giant, has made another acquisition, this time to dig deeper into financial services for small and medium businesses in the region. It has fully acquired Orderbird , a startup out of Germany that provides point of sale products and related services for restaurants and other businesses in the hospitality in

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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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Local ESOs Come Together to Identify Solutions and Build a More Equitable Indianapolis

Forward Cities

Upwards of fifteen Indianapolis metro entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs), in partnership with JPMorgan Chase Foundation and Forward Cities , are on a journey over the next 10 months to design and implement ecosystem projects that bolster capital access for entrepreneurs of color. This investment is part of JPMorgan Chase’s $30 billion racial equity commitment to advance economic inclusion and help close the racial wealth gap.

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Tidio raises $25M to automate customer service interactions

TechCrunch

During the pandemic especially, it’s become overwhelming for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to answer all of their customer service requests. A Freshworks survey found that companies experienced a 71% increase in overall contact volume between February 2020 and January 2021, and expect it to increase further. At the same time, customers — while empathetic — have become more demanding.

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[Xage Security in Globe Newswire] Investors funnel capital into Xage as critical infrastructure organizations take action to block cyberattacks

OurCrowd

PALO ALTO, Calif, May 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Critical infrastructure operators are rolling up their sleeves to prevent hacks. Xage, the zero trust security company, today announced that customers in energy, defense, utilities, manufacturing, and logistics have more than doubled in the past year, and two-thirds are accelerating rollouts to address increased cyber risks and meet Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and other government mandates be

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‘Move fast and break things’ is a bad idea for health tech startups

TechCrunch

Rachel B. Goodman. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Rachel B. Goodman is a partner at Foley & Lardner and is a member of the firm’s national telemedicine and digital health industry team. Nathaniel M. Lacktman. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Nathaniel M. Lacktman is a partner at Foley & Lardner and chair of the law firm’s national Telemedicine & Digital Health Industry Team.

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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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What Is CPC? Cost Per Click Explained

Feedough

Digital marketing is a broad term that refers to the. Read more. The post What Is CPC? Cost Per Click Explained appeared first on Feedough.

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Data-driven fintech Tifin valued at $842M in new $109M Series D round

TechCrunch

There’s been talk throughout the venture ecosystem of a funding slowdown, but AI-powered fintech platform Tifin seems to be a clear exception. The Boulder, Colorado-based startup, which aims to match investors with investments in the wealth and asset management industries, announced today that it has raised a $109 million Series D round, less than a year after its Series C last October.

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Info Diet: Tandem CEO Rajiv Ayyangar

Andreessen Horowitz

Info Diet offers a peek into the personally curated feeds and media habits of the people shaping the future. In each installment, a different builder spends two days chronicling all the content they consume in order to stay ahead of the curve. This time: Rajiv Ayyangar, cofounder and CEO of the virtual office app Tandem. Read More. The post Info Diet: Tandem CEO Rajiv Ayyangar appeared first on Future.

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Customer service automation startup Lang lands $15M

TechCrunch

The customer experience is one of the most important focus areas for businesses. According to PwC, among all customers, 73% point to experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions, behind price and product quality. But the pandemic increased the workload of support teams, making it more difficult to hire customer service agents and keep the attrition low while maintaining a high bar for customer experience.

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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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What Is CPM? Cost Per Thousand Impressions Explained

Feedough

Advertising on the internet can be confusing. There are so. Read more. The post What Is CPM? Cost Per Thousand Impressions Explained appeared first on Feedough.

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When and how to hire your startup’s first growth marketer

TechCrunch

Jonathan Martinez. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Jonathan Martinez is a former YouTuber, UC Berkeley alum and growth marketing nerd who's helped scale Uber, Postmates, Chime and various startups. More posts by this contributor. Tackling touchpoints on your customer’s path to purchase. 5 growth marketing predictions for 2022. In 2021, more than $329.5 billion was invested in startups across all stages, per Crunchbase.

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Zoho Marketing Plus Is A Powerful Solution for Total Marketing

Smart Hustle Magazine

Marketing is not easy. So many companies use a variety of tools, apps, sticky notes and Excel to manage their marketing. You’ve got the copywriter, the designer, the brand manager and other people all involved. The challenge? How do they communicate, follow up, keep track of deadlines and so much more. Thankfully there’s a better solution than trying to wade through emails, inboxes and more.

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VC investment into crypto startups peaked right before everything went to hell

TechCrunch

The first quarter was a hot time for crypto-focused startups. According to a recent dataset from CB Insights , crypto startups raised more capital than ever before in Q1 2022 and set records across a host of other metrics. If you closely watched the first-quarter venture capital cycle, this should not come as a surprise. As The Exchange noted, the crypto startup economy — blockchain technology upstarts, trading platforms, web3 more generally, etc. — was busy partying while the rest o

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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.