Sat.Aug 19, 2023 - Fri.Aug 25, 2023

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How to Fuel Your Startup’s Growth Engine

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Image: Created by author To keep close to the startup community, I chat with founders often. I’ll frequently get asked about what growth is, how you apply it to startups, and when you should focus on it. So to help with those conversations, I put together a quick “Growth 101” doc to answer some of the most common questions I get from founders. As a side benefit, my parents might have some idea of what I actually do for work.

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Three Places At Once: Challenges VCs Face In Managing Their Time [Part II]

The Seraf Compass

In Part I of this article we talked about the challenges and responsibilities General Partners face managing a fund. Now let's take a closer look at the time commitment involved when you're ready to invest in a company, what's required when serving as a board director, and how GPs should handle communications with their LPs.

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The BS List - We Don't Like This Space (No. 52)

This is going to be BIG.

One of my favorite startups to have backed was a travel company called Noken. You answered a few basic questions about travel preferences, like pace, the fanciness of the hotel, etc., and then BOOM they sent you a link to an app with your whole trip, completely booked, with a map driven itinerary and a text concierge available to make last minute changes, etc.

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Take only “smart money” investments

Berkonomics

This statement could be considered controversial. We have previously made the case that professional investors demand more in the form of restrictive covenants and lower valuations. Now we explore the other side of that coin. Professional investors usually bring “smart money” to the table, defined as money that comes along with good advice and great relationships for corporate growth.

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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 — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’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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How to Make Corporate Venture Capital the Solution to Your Funding Needs

Entrepreneur's Handbook

More and more large companies are creating venture groups to invest in startups Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook »

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The BSList: You Need a Co-Founder (No. 93)

This is going to be BIG.

A recurring theme in a lot of my BSList posts is that, if an investor thinks they can make a boatload of money with you, they’ll go to all sorts of lengths to invest. That includes investing way earlier than they would normally, investing outside of scope, investing with their personal capital outside of the fund, etc. So when someone gives you a single, declarative reason for a pass, they’re either saying one of two things: In my experience, companies that have this particular attribute have an

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ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot

TechCrunch

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. It’s able to write essays, code and more given short text prompts , hyper-charging productivity. But it also has a more… nefarious side. In any case, AI tools are not going away — and indeed has expanded dramatically since its launch just a few months ago.

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GEN New Zealand releases manifesto to encourage greater entrepreneurship

NZ Entrepreneur

Watch the video interview now A network of more than 140 entrepreneurial businesses and organisations warns New Zealand is in danger of being left behind due to a lack of resources and insufficient policies to progress entrepreneurship. The New Zealand chapter of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) wants to see local and central government politicians initiate policies to make entrepreneurship easier and more effective.

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ChatGPT vs. Radical Authenticity in Personal Branding

Entrepreneurs' Organization

As a personal branding expert, I have no choice but to advise you against using ChatGPT as your ghostwriter. Here’s why. Looking to build your personal brand , but struggling with the time commitment required to write a LinkedIn post or, even worse, a lengthy thought leadership article? You are not alone. A fellow entrepreneur recently said to me: “I would rather have another C-section than sit down and write!

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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 can’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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Startup Island TAIWAN Unites Taiwanese and Vietnamese Tech Startups in Ho Chi Minh City

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register Startup Island TAIWAN, an initiative backed by Taiwan’s National Development Council, recently joined forces with domestic venture capitalists and listed companies to present a significant event showcasing the prowess of Taiwanese digital tech startups.

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Modular secures $100M to build tools to optimize and create AI models

TechCrunch

Modular , a startup creating a platform for developing and optimizing AI systems, has raised $100 million in a funding round led by General Catalyst with participation from GV (Google Ventures), SV Angel, Greylock and Factory. Bringing Modular’s total raised to $130 million, the proceeds will be put toward product expansion, hardware support and the expansion of Modular’s programming language, Mojo, CEO Chris Lattner says. “Because we operate in a deeply technical space that re

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Lightspeed VC Michael Mignano on Why Apple’s Threats Influenced His Decision to Sell Anchor to Spotify, Why No FOMO in Venture is Good (AI Aside), & What NYC Founders Need to Realize

Hunter Walk

Investing in someone is primarily a business relationship. It doesn’t mean you don’t develop a personal affinity – it’s best when you do! – but creating an enduring bond transcends the question of founder:VC dynamics and is often not even directly correlated with economic outcome. Our participation in Anchor ( later acquired by Spotify ) generated both a return and a friendship between us and the founders.

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Going Beyond Good Intentions: Wissam Akra’s Trailblazing Journey in Transforming the Construction…

Jason Malki

Going Beyond Good Intentions: Wissam Akra’s Trailblazing Journey in Transforming the Construction Industry It’s a strange, wonderful, and sometimes scary time for industries that are impacted by the adoption of AI into their day-to-day work. Construction is no different. The possibilities are endless and the unpredictability of innovation leaves practitioners at every level wondering if new developments will improve their work or leave them looking for a new job.

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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 Association 

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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The Heartbeat of Korean Gaming: Pangyo Techno Valley’s Evolution into a Cultural Epicenter

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register The Pangyo Techno Valley, Korea’s representative game valley, is growing into a content & culture complex, hoping to become a ‘pump-priming’ for the Korean gaming industry. Pangyo Techno Valley, fondly known as Korea’s game valley, is a burgeoning epicenter for the gaming industry.

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Dipp uses AI to fix bottlenecks between marketing and design teams

TechCrunch

Before founding dipp , Jennifer Chen and Mikhail Abramov spent 15 years working as art directors in New York City. During that time, Chen says they realized that the marketing, sales and design process have stayed the same, despite new technology and tools being introduced to the market, and is often riddled with bottlenecks. “Salespeople have sales needs, they communicate with the marketing team and then once the marketing team has a direction they brief a designer, then the designer goes back

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Compounding Improvements

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Exploring how tiny changes in a product lead to substantial increases in conversion The Leaky Funnel One lesson I’ve had to relearn repeatedly over the years is that, often times, hard things can be made easier by simply reframing how you approach them. This past week, in reflecting on the consumer tech products I’ve built, I was able to put into words (and numbers) one such reframing approach that has always benefited my work.

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Lessons Learned, Experience Gained: Ruminations on Mark Small’s Journey from Salesperson to Sales…

Jason Malki

Lessons Learned, Experience Gained: Ruminations on Mark Small’s Journey from Salesperson to Sales Leader I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Small, a global sales and revenue operations leader who has now taken on the role of Growth and Go-to-Market (GTM) Advisor to investors and startups. Mark brings a wealth of experience and a global perspective as a senior sales and revenue operations leader to his role as a Strategic Advisor to emerging, potentially disruptive companies.

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

Speaker: Nick Noreña, 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 Noreña 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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Singapore’s Solar AI Raises $1.5 Million to Fuel Regional Solar Expansion in SouthEast Asia

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register Singapore-based Solar AI Technologies has successfully secured a seed funding round of US$1.5 million, with Earth Venture Capital taking the lead, accompanied by participation from Undivided Ventures, Investible, and climate-tech angel investor David Pardo.

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This week in AI: Amazon ‘enhances’ reviews with AI while Snap’s goes rogue

TechCrunch

Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of the last week’s stories in the world of machine learning, along with notable research and experiments we didn’t cover on their own. This week in AI, Amazon announced that it’ll begin tapping generative AI to “enhance” product reviews.

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How to Balance Vision and Execution in Startup Leadership

Startup Blogpost

How to Balance Vision and Execution in Startup Leadership Balancing vision with execution is a key challenge for startup leaders. To provide you with practical insights, we’ve gathered seventeen unique approaches from founders and CEOs. From implementing the Vision-to-Task Framework to prioritizing high-output efficiency over perfection, discover how these leaders have successfully navigated this delicate balance.

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James Martin, CEO of Butterflye, on Changing the Way Product Teams Communicate and Gather Feedback…

Jason Malki

James Martin, CEO of Butterflye, on Changing the Way Product Teams Communicate and Gather Feedback from their Customers I had the pleasure of interviewing James Martin, the CEO and co-founder of Butterflye , a software company dedicated to helping businesses effectively communicate changes to their products and services. With over 12 years of experience in the SaaS industry, James possesses a profound understanding of the challenges businesses encounter when striving to keep their customers info

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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.

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Navigating Asia’s Premier Fintech Conferences: Shanghai’s INCLUSION·Conference, Hong Kong Fintech Week, and Singapore Fintech Festival

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register In the swiftly transforming landscape of financial technology (FinTech), Asia stands resolute at the forefront of innovation and entrepreneurial dynamism. Anchoring this transformative wave are three standout conferences that have captured the imagination of FinTech aficionados and industry professionals alike: Shanghai’s INCLUSION·Conference on the Bund, Hong Kong FinTech Week,

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Alloy, Synctera and Unit discuss the future of embedded finance at TC Disrupt

TechCrunch

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS), embedded finance and open banking are among the hottest topics in fintech today. The promise? Make opening a bank account, storing money, receiving a payment card and lending money as easy as opening a social network account. The reinvention of banking is well underway, and we’re excited to welcome three key players — Peter Hazlehurst, co-founder and CEO, Synctera; Laura Spiekerman, co-founder and president, Alloy; and Amanda Swoverland, chief compliance officer, Uni

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Why Do Investors Care So Much About LTV:CAC?

Andreessen Horowitz

To put it simply: higher LTV:CAC → higher margins → higher valuation. Investors often use 3x LTV:CAC as a rough benchmark of a consumer company’s financial health. If your customer lifetime value (LTV) is 3 or more times your customer acquisition cost (CAC) within 5 years, that means your company has efficient returns on sales and marketing spend. But there’s little discussion of how a higher LTV:CAC actually translates to long-term profitability and, ultimately, valuation.

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From Sneakers to Startups: Unveiling the Journey of Samuel Thomas, Scout at Bessemer Venture…

Jason Malki

From Sneakers to Startups: Unveiling the Journey of Samuel Thomas, Scout at Bessemer Venture Partners Steel DAO I had the pleasure of interviewing Samuel Thomas. A Scout at Bessemer Venture Partners Steel DAO, focuses on early-stage startups in the Consumer Crypto, web3 Gaming, Infrastructure, and DeFi space. Samuel is the founder of Thomas Brand, which is a bootstrapped sneaker reseller business that sold over 700 pairs of sneakers and generated over $250K in 2019.

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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?