December, 2022

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Is Your Startup a Good Fit for Venture Capital?

Entrepreneur's Handbook

5 criteria VCs look for before considering investing Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ยป.

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Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadnโ€™t experienced since the late 90โ€™sโ€Šโ€”โ€Šwe all began praying to the God of Valuation. It wasnโ€™t always like this and frankly it took a lot of joy out of the industry for me personally. What happened? How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets?

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Upgrade Your Leadership Skills to Stabilize Your Team and Maintain Momentum

Entrepreneurs' Organization

The pandemic was the strongest catalyst for workplace change Iโ€™ve seen in my lifetime. It disrupted the way work was done, which means it also impacted how leaders operate. Remote and hybrid work became the new normal overnight, and leaders had to quickly transition to new processes and systems. Why was the shift to remote work so powerful? It challenged leaders to think beyond the status quo.

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Sign Everything

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

The advances in AI over the last year are mind-boggling. I attended a dinner this past week with USV portfolio founders and one who works in education told us that ChatGPT has effectively ended the essay as a way for teachers to assess student progress. It will be easier for a student to prompt ChatGPT to write the essay than to write it themselves.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape โ€” and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, theyโ€™re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Who Owns What - Understanding Early Stage Capitalization Tables [Part I]

The Seraf Compass

Several years ago, I was speaking to a colleague of mine. He was trying to decide between two great job offers, and was having a difficult time making a final decision. I started asking about his compensation package. For salary and bonus, the two companies were equivalent. However, when it came to stock, there seemed to be a big difference. I tell this story as one simple example of the importance of actually understanding a companyโ€™s Capitalization Table (โ€œcap tableโ€) before transacting in the

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More Trending

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Kenyaโ€™s Uncover raises $1M to expand skincare product enterprise across Africa

TechCrunch

Africaโ€™s beauty and personal care market is growing accelerated by its growing young and fashion conscious population, increasing spending power, and urbanization. The marketโ€™s potential has in recent years attracted major brands, with Fenty Beauty by Rihanna and LVMH being the latest entrants. Niche local brands are also emerging to offer tailored beauty and skin care products.

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PLG & Profitability : More Product Doesn't Necessarily Mean Greater Profits

Tomasz Tunguz

Profitability or net income margin has become the most important correlate to public software company valuations. But public companies are less profitable today than a year ago. Surprisingly, PLG companies’ profitability has suffered more than sales-led businesses. Across every quartile, public software & infrastructure companies have seen a 5 percentage point drop in net income since Covid.

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7 Tips for Success from a PR and Connection Superhero

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Justin Breen self-describes as โ€œa Dad who happens to be an entrepreneur.โ€ His own father died when Justin was just 13, so spending time with his sons, ages 8 and 10, takes precedence over all else. Five years ago, Justin started his public relations company, BrEpic Communications , with zero business experience. After being a journalist for 20 years, Justin created his company for two reasons: 1.

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The Hour Of Code

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

I have written many times about the Hour Of Code here at AVC. It is the highlight of the annual Computer Science Education Week which is the first week of December, which is this week. Yesterday Marco Argenti, Goldman Sachs’ CIO, and I went with NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks to the Hospitality Management High School in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan to do an Hour of Code with the students there.

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Statement of Cash Flows vs. Cash Flow Statement

Speaker: Wayne Spivak - President and Chief Financial Officer of SBA * Consulting LTD, Industry Writer, and Public Speaker

The old adages that "cash is king" and "you canโ€™t spend profits" still hold true today. But however well-known these sayings might be, it requires a change in mindset to properly implement a cash flow management system that predicts your business's runaway as accurately as possible. Key to this new mindset is understanding the difference between the Statement of Cash Flows, a historical look at the source and uses of cash, and the Cash Flow Statement, which uses transaction history and forward-l

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Reshore and Restore: Unlocking American Innovation for the 21st Century

Andreessen Horowitz

Whether through COVID-19, climate change, or geopolitical conflict, the past few years have laid bare the tenuous connections underpinning key parts of our modern world. Wars, pandemics, ransomware attacks, and extreme weather events have pushed supply chains, power grids, and … The post Reshore and Restore: Unlocking American Innovation for the 21st Century appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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2022 YC Year in Review

Y Combinator

In 2022, most of the world freed itself from the shackles of the COVID pandemic, everyone struggled with inflation, and a war broke out in Europe. Here at YC we took things in stride and recruited our summer and winter batches as always. We also slowly began to bring back that very human thing we used to do: meeting in person. For the S22 batch, we instituted a beginning-of-batch retreat and weekly meetups.

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Revel raises $7.8M to become the Instagram and Robinhood of NFT platforms

TechCrunch

Revel , an NFT or โ€œsocial collectiblesโ€ platform, raised $7.8 million in seed financing led by Dragonfly Capital, the startupโ€™s CEO, Adi Sideman, exclusively told TechCrunch. โ€œOne way to describe Revel is a cross between Instagram and Robinhood, wrapped in social game economics,โ€ Sideman said. Instagram is known as a social media platform while Robinhood is known as an investing and trading platform.

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I Used ChatGPT to Create a Small SAAS Valuation Program for Startups, and I Love It

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Since I work with startups and investments, I thought, maybe I should let this ChatGPT write me a program about a SaaS valuation calculator? Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ยป.

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How to Avoid the Pain and Cost of PCI Compliance While Optimizing Payments

Speaker: P. Andrew Sjogren, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Very Good Security, Matt Doka, Co-Founder and CTO of Fivestars, and Steve Andrews, President & CEO of the Western Bankers Associationย 

PCI compliance can feel challenging and sometimes the result feels like you are optimizing more for security and compliance than you are for business outcomes. The key is to take the right strategy to PCI compliance that gets you both. In this webinar, we have a great set of panelists who will take you through how Zero Data strategies can be used as part of a well-rounded compliance and security approach, and get you to market much sooner by also allowing for payment optimization.

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QYOU Mediaโ€™s Ginsburg is Reimagining Influencer Brand Marketing

Jason Malki

I had the pleasure of interviewing Glenn Ginsburg. Glenn Ginsburg holds the position of President at QYOU Media and launched and runs QYOUโ€™s award winning Influencer Marketing Agency whose client portfolio includes Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Hasbro, Activision, Capcom, Hyundai and other leading brands. Under Glennโ€™s leadership QYOU Media has also become the foremost authority on brand engagement on popular short form entertainment platform TikTok.

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When to Quit Your Job & Start Your Own Business

OkDork

From ages 22 to 26, I was working day jobs. I worked at Intel, then at Facebook, and finally at Mint.com. I had some cool experiences, but overall I was mostly unhappy because I wanted to start my own business, soooooโ€ฆ. I kept quitting early or getting fired. If I could go back in time I would do things a little differently. and this is the post I wished I had when I felt stuck.

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a16z Slack Debate: Will Generative AI Supplant Therapists, Game Makersโ€ฆFriends?

Andreessen Horowitz

There’s much more to generative AI than heroic avatars and tongue-in-cheek art. The potential applications are widespread, from drug discovery and therapy to writing, game development, education, ecommerce, and more. Last week, five a16z partners met on Slack to debate … The post a16z Slack Debate: Will Generative AI Supplant Therapists, Game Makers…Friends?

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It's better to work in venture capital than try to build a startup business

Founder Bounty

Building a company is damn hard. So hard that you cannot imagine. The chances of you getting venture funding in 2023 are close to zero. In venture capital, you get paid a management fee whatever happens plus a carry of its one of your investable company exits. Its easier, you take risks and most venture capitalists (especially in Europe) dont really have any kind of company-building experience and dont really understand how founders work.

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

Speaker: Nick Noreรฑa, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreรฑa will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

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Mozilla acquires Active Replica to build on its metaverse vision

TechCrunch

An automated status updater for Slack isn’t the only thing Mozilla acquired this week. On Wednesday, the company announced that it snatched up Active Replica , a Vancouver-based startup developing a “web-based metaverse.” According to Mozilla SVP Imo Udom, Active Replica will support Mozilla’s ongoing work with Hubs, the latter’s VR chatroom service and open source project.

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The Difference Between Jobs to Be Done And Problems

Entrepreneur's Handbook

The nuanced balance to creating value for your customers Image: IWantProductMarket.Fit Problems are at the core of each startup. It shapes your solution that generates value. Without generating value, itโ€™s hard to retain customers. Therefore we have books , articles and podcasts around the mantra: โ€œLove the problem, not the solutionโ€. So what is love?

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Coworking Megatrends 2023

GCUC

Coworking Megatrends 2023 First and foremost, go back and read what I wrote last year because, quite frankly, itโ€™s dead on. Give it a skim and come. Read More.

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First Round Draft Picks: Helping CEOs Build Great Teams

The Seraf Compass

Superstar, cult-like CEOs make for great press. How many times have you read an article about Steve Jobs, Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg that makes it sound like their companiesโ€™ success rested entirely on their shoulders? It makes for a compelling human story, but these are myths. That is not how the world works. Without a great supporting team, these CEOs could never deliver on their promised vision.

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The Startup Funding Gap

This resource discusses the gap between early funding from friends/family and the more substantial rounds from angel groups and VCs. Why does this gap exist and what can be done about it?

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Investing in Setpoint

Andreessen Horowitz

Behind many of lifeโ€™s most important financial transactions โ€” be it buying a house, applying for a mortgage, getting a small business loan, or refinancing a personal credit card โ€” exist a network of trust and credit relationships. Billions of … The post Investing in Setpoint appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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What I Learned from Quitting a Stable Job to Start My Own Company

Entrepreneurs' Organization

(And no, it didnโ€™t start as a side hustle.). After graduation, many job-seekers hunt down positions in established companies with a large pool of clients. Thatโ€™s precisely what I did as a new lawyer. Working for a big firm provides financial stability, mentorship , exciting cases, and the potential for upward mobility. . But itโ€™s not the best choice for everyone.

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Fintech giants face uphill battle

TechCrunch

Welcome to The Interchange ! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If youโ€™re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, Iโ€™ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space to hot takes on a particular company or phenomenon.

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How to Perfect Your Market Research For Your Pitch Deck or Business Plan

Entrepreneur's Handbook

If you believe your TAM is 500 million when it’s actually 50 thousand, then you’re looking in the wrong places. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ยป.

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ABM Evolution: How Top Marketers Are Using Account-Based Strategies

In times of economic uncertainty, account-based strategies are essential. According to several business analysts and practitioners, ABM is a necessity for creating more predictable revenue. Research shows that nearly three-quarters of marketers (74%) already have the resources needed to build successful ABM programs.