Wed.Jul 20, 2022

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Learnings of a CEO: Max Rhodes, Faire

Y Combinator

Every year, 200 YC companies go through our post-accelerator programs. These programs provide founders with the resources they need to build a company all the way through IPO. One area covered extensively is how to scale as a CEO of a growth-stage company. Outside of the YC community, little has been documented on best practices to be an effective CEO.

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Contentsquare closes a mammoth $600M round as customers clamor for digital analytics

TechCrunch

While the pandemic prompted companies to digitize much of the way they do business, not every brand made the pivot successfully. In some cases, it cost them dearly. According to Couchbase, enterprises wasted on average $4.12 million on failed, delayed or scaled-back projects in 2020. The same survey found that over four-fifths of companies — 82% — were prevented from pursuing digital transformation projects due to the staffing, resources and expertise required.

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Lessons from Implementing Netflix’s “Dream Team” Model at 3 Hypergrowth Tech Companies

Reforge

Table of Contents What makes a “Dream Team” a dream team? The 4 critical components of every Dream Team 5 steps to building your Dream Team for fast, aligned results Common pitfalls to avoid when setting your team up for success Every startup begins with a close-knit team. Imagine a dozen people sitting in the same room where everyone knows what everyone’s doing, and everyone is aligned on what’s most important.

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Crypto startup Blockdaemon continues acquisition spree, buying Sepior

TechCrunch

Crypto infrastructure provider Blockdaemon has acquired Danish startup Sepior , a digital asset security company providing key management services for institutional clients, for an undisclosed price. The deal marks the startup’s fourth acquisition in two years, the latest of which was Blockdaemon’s purchase of NFT aggregator Gem in March of this year.

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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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How to determine the ideal type of influencer for your social media campaign

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Contributed by Chris Jacks , director of growth strategy for HireInfluence , where he analyzes and adapts to the ever-changing influencer marketing industry. In 2020, the Instagram influencer market size across the globe surpassed US$2 billion. Other platforms such as TikTok are also steadily increasing in popularity among marketers. In 2020, TikTok’s initial influencer count was 35,500 but later leaped to over 106,000.

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Woman Investor Profile Series: Elaine Bolle, Investment Chair, RTP Capital

The Seraf Compass

This profile is the seventh in a series of interviews highlighting the work of interesting female investors. Elaine Bolle is an active angel investor, board director and advisor who has led domestic and global organizations from start-ups to $750M+ enterprises. She has built and successfully exited several early stage venture backed companies. She currently focuses on early stage entrepreneurial ventures serving on several boards.

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Healthie lands $16.5M to build the Stripe for virtual patient care

TechCrunch

The idea of starting Healthie , a software company meant to help healthcare companies and startups handle back-office operations, came to founder Erica Jain after witnessing her parents struggle with weight loss but lack of access to a comprehensive care team. “What Healthie is building is akin to the way that Stripe changed the way e-commerce companies were able to take payments online with a single line of code,” Jain said in an interview with TechCrunch.

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Q2 M&A: Slowing But Still Strong

Secure Docs

Q2 M&A: Slowing But Still Strong. Global deal-making topped $1.2 trillion in Q2 and nearly 6,000 transactions, marking a continued slowdown from 2021 but well above the pre-pandemic average. The prevailing trend for the year is a moderation from the record-breaking highs of 2021, along with continued momentum that made 2022 one of the biggest first halves of any prior year.

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Southeast Asia’s Creative Galileo wants to make learning fun with popular cartoon characters

TechCrunch

Prerna A Jhunjhunwala and Nikhil Naik, founders of Creative Galileo. People who work with kids know how difficult it is to keep them engaged with online learning content. Creative Galileo keeps children hooked by adding in their favorite cartoon characters. The Singapore-based edtech platform announced today that it has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding from Kalaari.

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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 Company of the Future is Default Global

Andreessen Horowitz

As the successful businesses of tomorrow launch in multiple countries at a time, opportunities abound for ambitious startups looking to build the internal software systems these companies will need to grow. . For decades, startups largely followed a well-trodden playbook for … The post The Company of the Future is Default Global appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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Crunchbase looks to grow its database of startups with $50M in new cash

TechCrunch

In both down times and boom times, businesses across industries are faced with the challenge of building sales pipelines and closing revenue. “Account-based” intelligence — i.e., research into potential customers — can help during the prospecting process. But it requires a thorough, vetted source of information and contacts in departments like business development, sales and recruiting.

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The best side hustles for 2022 and the best sites for side hustle ideas while working 9 to 5

Founder Bounty

As the recession starts to set in and the economy starts to tank there will be a number of different things you guys can do to keep your income up. We have compiled a bunch of different things you could do even while working! Use Fiver and upwork to teach English Teaching English is a great basic way to start earning extra income. Most of you dont know just how much of the globe wants to learn English.

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Don’t abandon founders in times of austerity: 3 ways to support your portfolio

TechCrunch

Michael Redd. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Michael Redd spent 12 seasons playing in the NBA and on the U.S. Olympic team. He is now co-founder and chairman of 22 Ventures. More posts by this contributor. 2 reasons why demo days are dead. 3 warning signs that your investor will leave you on the sidelines. A dark cloud is forming on the horizon for startups and investors.

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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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How the Founder of a Wildly Popular DTC Clothing Brand Structures Her Day for Maximum Productivity

Entrepreneur - Entrepreneurs Category

Lunya founder Ashley Merrill shares the habits and routines behind her success.

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Tedooo raises $3M to scale its social network for buyers and sellers

TechCrunch

Tedooo , a Tel Aviv-based social network marketed towards the trade world, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Stardom Ventures. The platform is designed to help boost and create global trade communities via partnerships between sellers and buyers. Tedooo’s current main focus is the handmade crafts and DIY industry in English-speaking countries.

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Comparing the Best Ecommerce Platforms in 2022

The Groove Blog

The debate rages between WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce for best ecomm platform -- we'll help you find the best one for you. The post Comparing the Best Ecommerce Platforms in 2022 appeared first on Groove Blog.

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Daily Crunch: VW Group changes drivers — CEO Scott Keogh shifts to launch Scout EV brand

TechCrunch

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Oh hey, and welcome to the Daily Crunch for Wednesday! Today, the whole office is proverbially abuzz with robotics. Proverbially, because we’re not sure we actually have an office at this point, and if we do, we don’t know who’s there.

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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 the Founder of a Wildly Popular DTC Clothing Brand Structures Her Day for Maximum Productivity

Entrepreneur - Entrepreneurs Category

Lunya founder Ashley Merrill shares the habits and routines behind her success.

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Arrenda emerges with Adelanta, a financing offering for landlords in Latin America

TechCrunch

Arrenda , a Mexico City-based fintech company, is offering digital financial services to the real estate market of Latin America and closed on $26.5 million in a pre-seed round of equity and debt. The funding round was a mix of $1.5 million in equity and $25 million in debt financing. Fasanara Capital led the investment and was joined by Kube Ventures, ODX, Toehold Ventures, Wharton Fintech, Lightspeed Venture Partners Scout Fund, PRMM Inmobiliaria and a group of angel investors.

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Dutchie Pay wants to help you stop paying in cash for your cannabis

TechCrunch

Cannabis is now legal in a number of U.S. states, but because it isn’t federally legal, this “legal” status only does so much for cannabis businesses. While dispensaries can sell cannabis products legally in many states, they don’t have access to the same banking facilities that any other retail business would. As a technology platform for cannabis commerce, Oregon-based startup Dutchie is cognizant of the complexity of the problem it is trying to tackle. “We are fr

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Did no one tell Europe the party is over?

TechCrunch

Did no one tell European venture capitalists and startup founders that we’re supposed to be on the cusp of a global recession? With startups and VCs all heralding the doom of investment activity across the world, you’d think a market as large as Europe would be affected quite a bit. But European venture capital activity fell only slightly in the second quarter from the preceding three months.

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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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Charles raises $20M to bring conversational commerce to WhatsApp in Europe

TechCrunch

Conversational commerce isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, with countless companies using live chats, messaging apps, chatbots, voice assistants and more to encourage consumers to part with their cash. As part of that broader movement, the mighty WhatsApp, a dominant force in the messaging world, has been pushing deeper into the business arena with myriad tools to connect retailers with customers — from product catalogs and collections , to shopping carts and Instagram Shops integration

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The Startup Battlefield 200 application window closes next week

TechCrunch

Calling all early-stage founders. There is only one way that you can attend, exhibit for three days and possibly compete in the Startup Battlefield — for free — at TechCrunch Disrupt. You have to apply to the Startup Battlefield 200 (SBF 200), and your time is running out. Disrupt takes place in San Francisco on October 18–20, but the SBF 200 application window closes on July 31 at 11:59 p.m.

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Stripe’s new and lower internal valuation, explained

TechCrunch

Stripe has been in the news this past week for lowering its own valuation to around $74 billion from $95 billion, a 28% decline that made waves in startup-land. Given the company’s size and its status as one of the most richly valued startups in history, the payments giant carries significant weight in the private markets. It’s worth taking the time to make sense of this internal valuation cut, especially to understand if the move is as bearish as the big numbers might lead some to

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WTF is a 409A?

TechCrunch

In the past few months, both Stripe and Instacart have seen their internal valuations updated in a 409A appraisal process. The startups saw their valuations being slashed by 28% and 38%, respectively, as a result of the appraisals. What do these re-pricings signal to other late-stage, pandemic-spurred startups? And how seriously should we be taking them?

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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.