Wed.Apr 14, 2021

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Women entrepreneurs find success despite lack of access to investment capital

Source Link

Throughout history there are numerous success stories of female entrepreneurs, yet women continue to face a number of challenges when starting and growing their businesses. From Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, a former slave who ran a prosperous dressmaking business that eventually led to her designing and sewing dresses for Mary Todd Lincoln, to Anne Wojcicki, founder of genetic testing and analysis firm 23andMe, women have proved they have what it takes to reach the top of the entrepreneurial mountai

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Free Business Funding: 5 Tips for Writing a Winning Small Business Grant Application

StartupNation

If you’ve researched grants for startup or existing businesses, you know how hard they are to find. Sure, you can find incubators, accelerators, loan programs, angel investors and venture capitalists, but the vast majority of those funding options require that you give up at least some equity in your business in exchange for some financial support. Grants don’t.

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Why Emmy Award-winning documentarians focused their lens on 5 GSEA student entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) encourages young entrepreneurs through its Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) , EO’s premier competition for college students who own and operate a business. The annual competition culminates with the Global Finals, where “studentpreneurs” from 50 countries compete and connect with both seasoned entrepreneurs and other student competitors.

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Outschool is the newest edtech unicorn

TechCrunch

Outschool , a marketplace providing small-group, virtual after-school activities for children, has raised a $75 million Series C led by Coatue and Tiger Global Management. TechCrunch first learned of the round from sources familiar with the transaction; the company confirmed the deal to TechCrunch. The new funding values Outschool at $1.3 billion, around four times higher than its roughly $320 million valuation set less than a year ago.

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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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What Is Acqui-Hiring & How It Works?

Feedough

Mark Zuckerberg once said that Facebook has never bought a company for the sake of buying a company. They buy companies to hire great people. You’re not alone if you’ve ever wondered why a tech-savvy company would bother to buy a startup with no profit and a product in a completely different field. As the war for tech talent is intensifying, it is becoming more and more difficult for companies to attract top-notch talent.

More Trending

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6 Free and Low-Cost Resources to Help You Create and Execute a PR Plan

StartupNation

Developing and executing a public relations (PR) plan is one of the best things you can do for your startup. Public relations is too often left out of business plans, as its purpose is often misunderstood, and business owners don’t truly understand its value. One of the most common reasons that business owners fail to create a PR plan for their business is they believe they need to hire an agency.

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MIT startup Pickle raises $5.75M for its package-picking robot

TechCrunch

There’s no doubt this past year has been a major watershed moment for the robotics industry. Warehouse and logistics have been a particular target for an automation push, as companies have worked to keep the lights on amidst stay at home orders and other labor shortages. MIT spinoff Pickle is one of the latest startups to enter the fray. The company launched with limited funding and a small team, though it’s recently changed one of these, telling TechCrunch this week that it has raised $5.57 mil

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WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Pepperdine Most Fundable Companies (Episode 211)

StartupNation

On this morning’s Business Beat, Jeff welcomes Dr. Craig Everett, finance professor at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School, who shares details of the Pepperdine Most Fundable Companies competition. Built to help great companies succeed, the contest provides the opportunity for companies seeking funding outside of major investment areas like Silicon Valley to find investors.

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Beat the deadline: Apply to compete in Startup Battlefield at TC Disrupt 2021

TechCrunch

Startup Battlefield — the matriarch of all pitch competitions — is the stuff of tech legend. Heck, it even played a role in the HBO show, “Silicon Valley,” and its influence touches early-stage startups around the globe. Under no circumstance will you find a bigger, better platform for launching your startup to the world. Battlefield has a long history of producing notable names.

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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 Collapse of What “Could’ve Been the Next Facebook” Shows Why Sexy Ideas Aren’t Enough

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Despite starting with a $2 Million fund, Greg Isenberg almost lost everything Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Slice raises $40M to power ordering and marketing for independent pizzerias

TechCrunch

Slice , a startup that helps independent pizzerias build an online business, has raised another $40 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Cross Creek, with participation from KKR, GGV Capital and Primary Ventures, as well as Twitter’s former CEO Dick Costolo and former COO Adam Bain (through their firm 01 Advisors). Last spring, the startup announced a $43 million Series C.

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A Former Facebook VP Shares Lessons to Manage Your Team Better

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Ideas that can help every entrepreneur achieve more. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Vanadium ion battery startup Standard Energy raises $8.9M Series C from SoftBank Ventures Asia

TechCrunch

Standard Energy , a vanadium ion battery developer, announced today it has raised a $8.9 million Series C from SoftBank Ventures Asia. The South Korea-based company says its batteries’ advantages over lithium ion include less risk of ignition and the ease of sourcing vanadium. The latter is an important selling point, as electric vehicle makers face a potential shortage of lithium ion batteries.

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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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[Highcon in WhatTheyTh!nk] Highcon Invests in Customer Success

OurCrowd

Yavne –Highcon Systems Ltd. today announces the launch of new product enhancements and consumables, and a new pricing model. These new initiatives will enable the customers of Highcon® Euclid and Beam digital converting platforms, to improve their workflow efficiencies to significantly reduce their costs, as well as offering a new level of cutting and creasing performance that will lead to increased product value and job profitability.

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How Pilot charted a course of not raising too much money

TechCrunch

A few weeks ago, we wrote about fintech Pilot raising a $100 million Series C that doubled the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion. Bezos Expeditions — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ personal investment fund — and Whale Rock Capital joined the round, adding $40 million to a $60 million raise led by Sequoia about one month prior. That raise came after a $40 million Series B in April 2019 co-led by Stripe and Index Ventures that valued the company at $355 million.

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Coinbase from YC to IPO

Y Combinator

Today, Coinbase has gone public. We are proud to say that Coinbase is a Y Combinator company and a member of the Summer 2012 batch. Co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong applied to Y Combinator on March 29, 2012 and began the batch a few months later. According to the Coinbase YC application, the company was initially named “Bitbank” and had not been launched; however, Brian mentions in his application that he built one of the first Android apps for bitcoin as a side project.

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Sunday raises $24 million seed round to build a fast restaurant checkout flow

TechCrunch

Meet Sunday , a new startup that is going to attract some headlines as it has raised a $24 million seed round at a $140 million post-money valuation. That’s a lot of money for a company that started just a few months ago but that’s because Sunday wants to move quickly. Sunday is getting noticed because it is founded by Victor Lugger, Tigrane Seydoux and Christine de Wendel — Lugger and Tigrane have been working together for several years as they’re the founders of Big Mamma.

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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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8 Massive Signs You’re Further Ahead Than You May Think

Entrepreneur's Handbook

If you understand life isn’t only about you, you’re already winning Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Messaging app Wire raises $21 million

TechCrunch

Wire , the end-to-end encrypted messaging app and service, has raised a $21 million Series B funding round led by UVC Partners. As the company said a couple of years ago, the company is focusing on the enterprise market more than ever. While Wire started as a consumer app, it never managed to attract hundreds of millions of customers like other messaging apps.

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[HoneyBook in CTech] The 50 Most Promising Israeli Startups – 2021

OurCrowd

Even the biggest optimists couldn’t predict the turnaround that the Israeli tech sector experienced over the past year. April of 2020 was a period of crippling uncertainty, with the entire county under lockdown, businesses closing down and mass waves of layoffs and furloughs, with a seemingly inescapable economic crisis arriving in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Amira Learning raises $11M to put its AI-powered literacy tutor in post-COVID classrooms

TechCrunch

School closures due to the pandemic have interrupted the learning processes of millions of kids, and without individual attention from teachers, reading skills in particular are taking a hit. Amira Learning aims to address this with an app that reads along with students, intelligently correcting errors in real time. Promising pilots and research mean the company is poised to go big as education changes, and it has raised $11 million to scale up with a new app and growing customer base.

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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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[The Bouqs in Forbes] Tiffani Thiessen On Balancing Business And Motherhood

OurCrowd

She captured the hearts of teenagers in the 1990s as good girl “Kelly Kapowski” on Saved by the Bell, but these days, actress and businesswoman Tiffani Thiessen is all about reaching the hearts of a wider audience, especially her fellow moms. Read more here. The post [The Bouqs in Forbes] Tiffani Thiessen On Balancing Business And Motherhood appeared first on OurCrowd Blog.

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Inside the US’ epic first-quarter venture capital results

TechCrunch

It’s no surprise that the venture capital market was incredibly active in the United States during the first quarter of 2021, but precisely how strong has only recently become clear. This morning, we’re digging into the data. According to a report from PitchBook , venture capitalists unleashed a wave of capital in the first three months of the year.

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[ClimaCell in CTech] The 50 Most Promising Israeli Startups – 2021

OurCrowd

Even the biggest optimists couldn’t predict the turnaround that the Israeli tech sector experienced over the past year. April of 2020 was a period of crippling uncertainty, with the entire county under lockdown, businesses closing down and mass waves of layoffs and furloughs, with a seemingly inescapable economic crisis arriving in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Zeta in talks with SoftBank to raise at over $1 billion valuation

TechCrunch

Banking tech startup Zeta is inching closer to the much sought-after unicorn status as it talks to investors to finalize a new round, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 is in talks to lead a ~$250 million Series D round in the five-year-old startup, the sources said. The investment proposal values the Indian startup, co-founded by high-profile entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia, at over $1 billion, up from $300 million in its maiden external funding (Series C) in

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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.