July, 2015

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Bill DeBlasio's Uber targeting is in danger of making NYC a tech joke

This is going to be BIG.

Mayor Bill DeBlasio is on the verge of making NYC one of the most unfriendly cities in the world for technology companies to operate. It first started with Airbnb, which got caught in a crackdown aimed at people who turn "affordable" residential housing into full time hotel space. Don't concern yourself with the fact that Airbnb is simply an outgrowth of the lack of affordable housing--where no one would ever bother renting out their place if they didn't have to struggle to afford to live here.

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Fauxmentum

Both Sides of the Table

__. faux·men·tum. fōˈmen(t)əm,fəˈmen(t)əm/. noun. when a technology startup, its investors or the market believe in robust growth rates writ large. “the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __.

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The Fastest Growing Areas of Startup Investment in 2015

Tomasz Tunguz

Earlier this week, we examined the trends in the major categories of startup investment including eCommerce, Software, Social Networking and Education. But which lesser known startup sectors are starting to raise venture dollars? Where are founders finding unique opportunities to innovate? Bitcoin is the fastest growing sector followed by photo sharing and physical storage (which includes moving and self storage companies).

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In Defense of the Deck

abovethecrowd.com

My partners and I have noticed an interesting trend over the past few years: an increase in the number of entrepreneurs who prefer to pitch us without the use of a presentation deck. On one hand, this is totally understandable. Many believe that PowerPoint decks are emblematic of the type of bureaucracy disparaged in Dilbert cartoons. Others want to appear “casual” and “conversational” and view the presentation as overly formal.

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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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Ed Zimmerman: The Growing Scarcity of Series B Venture Rounds

WSJ - The Accelerators

ED ZIMMERMAN : The funnel for venture funding isn’t cylindrical — it’s shape follows a more Darwinian conical path, as many seed stage companies march into the cone’s wide entrance and far fewer make it to the cone’s narrow end. There has been a lot of discussion recently of where the choke points are in the cone, and I believe we’re headed into a period in which the Series B venture round will be more of a choke point than it has been in the past, especially for American startups.

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What Scales?

This is going to be BIG.

I've got a great deal for you. It requires you to set up the operation from scratch in every city--and it probably only works in cities. There is a ton of regulatory risk. Right now the market is pretty much only high net worth individuals. Oh. You only invest in scalable businesses? Sorry, I didn't realize. I'll keep that in mind for next time. Congrats, you passed on Uber.

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Survivors

Both Sides of the Table

Failure. It smells. People are afraid of it. It’s like cancer. When you have it you find you who your true friends are because they’re the ones who double down on helping, on being available, on listening, on understanding. Most people run from failure or disease because they’re hard to handle. Hard to know how to deal with. But I am attracted to those who have had severe set-backs in life because it tells you something about the mettle of the person with whom you’re deal

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Startup Investment Trends in 2015

Tomasz Tunguz

In the last six months, VCs have invested more than $57B according to Mattermark data , which puts 2015 on pace to exceed 2000 as the year the most venture capital will be deployed, ever. Which sectors are benefitting from all these venture dollars? The chart above contrasts the top 12 sectors receiving venture funding in the US, and plots the relative share of dollars invested by month.

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TEL 254: The Responsible Business with CAROL SANFORD

The Entrepreneurs Library

A summary of things you should know about The Responsible Business according to CAROL SANFORD. Introduction (0:41). About two weeks ago a joined The University of Washington founding a center that is going to house the many many decades of my work under something called ‘The Responsible Business Center.’ I also work a lot with individuals now through seed communities, I’m an author of two award winning and Best Selling books, and as a result I do a lot of keynote speaking.

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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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Need Funding? 2015 Is A Strong Year For Startups

Gust

2015 is shaping up to be a strong year for the startup and early stage investor ecosystem. Total startup funding applications are up across the globe and in multiple sectors, especially in the United States where the surging New York City tech industry is leading a nationwide growth in new startups. Coming out of the second quarter of the year, the total number Read more >.

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BERKONOMICS CELEBRATES 6TH ANNIVERSARY WITH OVER 100,000 CIRCULATION

Berkonomics

September 21st, 2015 marks the sixth anniversary of publication for BERKONOMICS , the blog containing insights for business management, entrepreneurs, and investors. Starting with just 4,000 circulation in 2009, BERKONOMICS has grown to well over 100,000, and is read on five continents by an audience that is 45% female. One third of its readers are aged 25-34.

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Backing someone pre-pitch: The story of how I backed Clubhouse

This is going to be BIG.

I'm excited to be able to finally announce Brooklyn Bridge Ventures ' investment in Clubhouse , a company I agreed to back before I even knew what it was. In 2010, a bunch of techies got together to do the next year's NYC Triathlon. I had already done two and was looking forward to joining people from the tech community. It was also right around that time when I started CTO School--a small five session series on how to go from being a developer to a technical leader, which blossomed into a not o

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How the Hell do I Prioritize Work, Blog & Find Balance?

Both Sides of the Table

I noticed this post today from Ezra Galston titled “ Dear Brad, Fred & Mark: How The Hell Do You Do It? ” The premise is that either I (I won’t speak for Fred or Brad) have some magical solutions that allow me to produce a lot of content, or I’m super human or conversely I could read it as a negative post in that I’m somehow neglecting my duties as a mentor and advisor to the startup companies in which I’ve invested or to the fund that I manage. **. tl;dr

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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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What's Really Happening in the World of Bitcoin Investment

Tomasz Tunguz

In response last week’s post on The Fastest Growing Areas of Startup Investment in 2015 , in which Bitcoin topped the list, I received many questions about the underlying dynamics of this startup segment. Which regions? Which stages? How much is going into Bitcoin companies. Using Crunchbase data, I analyzed BTC investment patterns over the past 4 years.

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TEL 255: Small Business Big Pressure with DARRYL LYONS

The Entrepreneurs Library

A summary of things you should know about Small Business Big Pressure according to Darryl Lyons. Introduction (0:48). I’m an entrepreneur, I co-founded a company called Pax Financial Group and I have been advising and leading individuals and small business owners with their money for 15 years now. Our company has become one of the best places to work in the community so I am really proud to lead a small business and write about it.

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Need Funding? 2015 Is A Strong Year For Startups

Gust

2015 is shaping up to be a strong year for the startup and early stage investor ecosystem. Total startup funding applications are up across the globe and in multiple sectors, especially in the United States where the surging New York City tech industry is leading a nationwide growth in new startups. Coming out of the second quarter of the year, the total number Read more >.

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Bottom up budgeting creates waste. Top down!

Berkonomics

Many people believe that bottom up budgeting leads to waste and misdirection. The advocates of top-down budgeting are strong in their belief that if you give each person or department no guidance, they will budget to their wants or specific needs, not to those that support a corporate goal. So, they argue: Give your people a top-down generated target.

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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 to Expect When You're Expecting Venture Capital Returns

This is going to be BIG.

One of the first things I did when I joined the venture asset class as a lowly institutional LP analyst in 2001 was to build the VC fund cashflow model. Just about every analyst who looks at fund investing has built one. You incorporate expected company returns, mortality rates, and fee structures to try to predict how a venture capital fund works from a cash in, cash out, and NAV standpoint.

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How Many Angels is the Right Amount for a Startup to Have?

Both Sides of the Table

If you follow the Twittersphere you may have noticed several people weighing in on this recent piece by Mike Isaac of the NY Times, asking “ How Many Angels is Too Many? ” I found myself nodding through all of it with quotes like, “Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley,” said Sam Altman. I myself coined the term ENIFA (everyone now is a f **g angel) in 2011 but it didn’t stick as well as the term Unicorn did.

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Startup Best Practices 15 - Start With the Why

Tomasz Tunguz

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” This line from Simon Sinek’s TED talk captures the power of a values based marketing campaign. Simon contrasts feature-based marketing - start with what the company is selling continue to how they do it and finishes with why - to value based campaigns which reverse the story-telling order.

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Why Taking Some Risks in the Sales Process Can Improve Results

Both Sides of the Table

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. In this post I advocate taking a harder stand on where your product or solution differentiates in the market – even if it means you lose some deals as a result.

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Your Fractional Finance and Accounting Team

Mighty Financial specializes in supporting the financial aspirations of small businesses and entrepreneurs. With our comprehensive bookkeeping and precise accounting expertise with decades of experience across diverse financial roles, our team offers tailor-made services ranging from essential bookkeeping to strategic fractional CFO support, catered specifically to the unique challenges of technology companies, startups, and SMEs.

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Why Consumer Startups Dominate the Megaround Market

Tomasz Tunguz

If there’s one notion that will define the decade early 2010s in startupland, it’s the Megaround, the investments of greater than $40M in private companies. Historically, startups needed to trade on public exchanges to access sums of money from $40M to several billion. But today, the private markets are providing this capital. These billions of dollars, which amount to about half of all venture investment, skew substantially towards consumer investments.

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Take Your Startup to the Limit

Tomasz Tunguz

I learned to drive a car at age 19 on a warm Santiago de Chile night, in an unusual way. A friend named Jose Pedro resolved to teach me after dinner at his apartment, suprised to learn I didn’t know how. It was past two am, and without anyone on the streets, it would be safe, he assured me. As we sat in the car, he showed me how to manage the three pedals and the gear shift, and explained the how the clutch worked.

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How Similar is the Fundraising Environment Today to 2000?

Tomasz Tunguz

In Q2 2015, VC investment totaled $16.7B, about a 66% of the $28B deployed in Q2 2000 according to a new report. And the trends shows no sign of stopping. A big contributor to this growth are nontraditional investors including mutual funds and hedge funds, which now account for approximately 40% of dollars invested. And while the market is similar to the dotcom era in some regards, it is substantially different in others.

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Five Charts on the Second Seed Market

Tomasz Tunguz

About two years ago, we examined the new Second Seed , a tactic employed by startups who raise an initial seed round, achieve a set of milestones and raise a second seed round, before raising a series A. During the two years since that analysis, this trend has continued. In the last 24 months, Second Seeds have grown From 7.5% to 18% of US technology seed rounds, both in number and in dollars invested according to Crunchbase data.

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Digitalization: 5 Tech Updates That Will Help You Survive The Recession & Thrive

Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.