Boundaries.'Ecosystem' #14
Your weekly guide on tech news, early stage fundraising and venture capital.
Welcome to another ‘Ecosystem’ newsletter! Thank you for being part of this journey from the very beginning! For access to all monthly events, archive and expert-led workshops become an annual subscriber.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
Spending the past week in between Berlin and London, I couldn’t help but reflect on how challenging it is to strike a good balance between being socially active (making new connections), being socially consistent/engaging (maintaining existing relationships) and carving out personal time (work focus and general ‘me’ time). A destructive ingredient to add to the mix is people pleasing (the inner desire to say yes just to ‘not disappoint others’), combined with discrediting your gut instinct. Those days took me a year back to my first encounter with burnout and reminded me of the importance of setting clear boundaries (knowing when you are ‘at capacity’ and letting others know will do more good than harm!).
In all areas of life, it is important to quickly make informed decisions on what to focus on and what to drop. As an example, venture - a calculated bet is still a bet. The choice is to literally prioritize one opportunity over another. And because time is non-refundable, we must all use it with intention.
“Sitting and thinking may be of much higher priority than a normal CEO with all these demands to see all these people. It’s not a proxy of your seriousness that you fill every minute in your schedule.” - Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
#EcosystemGiants Events
I am incredibly excited to welcome Jean-Marc Patouillaud, Managing Partner at leading venture capital firm Partech as the next #EcosystemGiants guest! Tune in at 5pm BST on Tuesday, 20 October 2020 to find out more about his journey to becoming the founding partner at one of the top 10 VC firms worldwide, evaluating global markets, teams(he has a long track record of successful exits including IPOs, in France, Israel, UK and the USA) and finding opportunity in a crisis(having lived through three economic downturns). He will also share his invaluable advice on what makes the very best startup boards (he currently serves on the board of Dayuse, Happytal, Lifen, Sigfox and Privitar). Join the conversation - RSVP here.
Links to the September, August and July recordings.
Innovation Ecosystem Updates
Whether you are an investor, a founder, an operator, a corporate or a friend. My top (about) 5 news stories this week that you may find of interest too.
Health innovation. The new artificially developed real sugar (The New Yorker) and vocal diagnostics to detect Covid infections, depression (Nature). As the world at large is preparing for a second wave, when can we realistically expect a Coronavirus vaccine? (Financial Times).
Wins for women. Propy, a (US-Bulgarian female-founded) blockchain-verified platform for real estate transactions secured funding from VC investor (and early backer of Skype, Robinhood) Tim Draper (Trending Topics). Early stage VC firm Blossom Capital (founded by former Index investor Ophelia Brown) welcomes Carmen Alfonso Rico as its newest partner(Techcrunch). Carmen previously led Samaipata VC’s UK office.
More (massive) fundings. UK used-car start-up Cazoo raised £240 million in a bumber round of funding, doubling its valuation to £2 billion(backed by General Catalyst, Mubadala Capital among others) via CNBC. Research shows Coronavirus accelerated the shift to ecommerce by 5 years (online sales jumping by nearly 20%) - retail e-commerce startup VTEX secured $225M(Investors include Tiger Global and Softbank) on a $1.7B valuation to help brands a adapt to a new world (Techcrunch). Palantir and Asana made history by debuting in dual direct listings on NYSE (both over 30% up) via Marketwatch. And the merger of the week - Crowdcube and Seedrs join forces to create one the world’s largest private equity marketplaces via Eu-Startups.
New funds. Texas-based Third Craft (backed by former Heinz CEO William Johnson) raising a debut fund of up to $75 million to invest in consumer brands and in craft food/beverages (The Information). 31-year-old Crosslink Capital targets a new (ninth) $275 million fund (Pitchbook). More capital for real estate innovation in Europe - Fifth Wall launches a new dedicated European Proptech fund(The Real Deal). The target raise is $118 million and confirmed LPs include the real estate arm of BNP Paribas and French bank Pontos (Property Funds World).
Funder
‘The best API-first companies give their users “superpowers” that they wouldn’t have otherwise’ - Grace Isford (Investor, Canvas Ventures) looks into the third-party API economy and the success metrics for companies in the space
How much do you know about ‘secondary stock sales’? Akash Bajwa (Analyst, Augmentum) explores the benefits behind liquidity for founders and early employees
Industry 4.0 - how easy is it for an industrial tech company to scale? Robin Dechant (Associate, Point Nine Capital) looks at 225 industrial startups in Europe to find out over 81% of them are yet to raise a series A round
After ‘Software is eating the world’ (coined by Marc Andreessen), will decentralized finance follow? Jamie Burke (Founder and CEO, Outlier Ventures) shares more on DeFi, innovation-triggered hype and broken cycles
Founder
Daniel Ek (Founder and CEO, Spotify) on working in flow, building culture, investing in European deep tech (moonshot) businesses and prioritising time. Interviewed by Sriram Krishnan, an angel investor and product leader (formerly at Twitter)
One day, every company will be a fintech company. The new consumers’ approach to finances has radically been shaped by two financial crises. Amira Yahyaoui(Founder and CEO, Mos.com) on building Fintech for Gen Z and Millennials; a conversation with Anish Acharya(General Partner, A16Z)
AI enables companies to innovate and increase cost efficiency across the entire supply chain. Amplifier portfolio company Humanising Autonomy* on predictive AI in logistics, potential ROIs (case study - their partnership with Airbus) and the factory of the future in a post-pandemic world.
Twitter highlight(s)
Dan Rose, Chairman, Coatue Ventures
Meagan Loyst, VC Investor, Lerer Hippeau
Startup of the week
Admix, an in-play adtech and game monetisation startup. The company brings ads to games, esports, VR/AR - allowing developers to earn money from placing ads in their games. It is a form of advertisement that creates a new infrastructure for brands to engage with a growing number of gamers. More stats on the market - at £7.9bn, invevestment/M&A activity across the videogames industry (April-June 2020) is up 315% from the previous quarter!.
Follow @admixplay and founder @SamHuber and let them know they have been featured in ‘Ecosystem’!
I have been looking at AR/VR - if you are working in the space, I would love to chat! For fundraising conversations, your solution must be targeting the supply chain.
Startup Go-To Resources
What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture by A16Z's Ben Horowitz."Because your culture is how your company makes decisions when you're not there."
Techstars Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: online resources to help you learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and accelerate startup success
Advice on how to get advice - how founders can maximize the expertise of advisors they’ve already assembled; insights summarised by First Round Capital. Have you hired a broker to help with your fundraise?
Chris Smith (Managing Partner, Playfair Capital) lists the top ten ways brokers can jeopardize your early-stage funding round.
Austen Allred (Founder and CEO, Lambda School) on 20VC - from sleeping in his car to building a company worth well beyond $150m, scaling in public (and across continents) and relocating outside of the Valley. A great episode to listen to!
Raising Series A? The top 3 metrics that matter ahead of your funding round
From building a successful mass-market business to hiring and product execution - Sarah Tavel (General Partner, Benchmark) sets out the frameworks and guides to follow
*I have currently taken a role as a visiting VC analyst at Amplifier, an early stage VC investing across the entire supply chain (seed/series A).
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