Direction. 'Ecosystem' #29
A weekly guide on tech news and early stage fundraising. Aiming to open access to venture capital for less networked founders and junior VCs.
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Hello and welcome to issue #29! Happy February!
This week has been one of those that simply has flown by! Or has it?
"Time flies. It's up to you to be the navigator." - Robert Orben, Comedy writer
It is very true - and we all know that what we focus on, expands. It is a question of priorities - similar to the coordinates a pilot has on his/her map to ensure the plane flies in the right direction. Invest your time and energy in what matters to you. What objectives did you achieve in the first month of the year and what are you focusing on for the months ahead?
This week ‘Ecosystem’ comes to your inbox on a Sunday - and I hope it will be an enjoyable read to start the day! Until next week! 👋
Greg Isenberg (CEO, Late Checkout and Growth Advisor, TikTok)
#EcosystemGiants
The week marked the second #EcosystemGiants event for the year - a very open conversation with the incredible social entrepreneur and investor Tessy Antony de Nassau. Her many achievements in life and in business are difficult to list! Going back to our chat, few memorable takeaways:
Joining the the military was an opportunity to question the status quo - and a space to push boundaries (Tessy was deployed to Kosovo at 18 as the only woman of her draft!).
“As a woman, you need to prove yourself over and over again. I realized how ‘macho’ society can be. The way to succeed is to make yourself indispensable.”
While the military was overly (and overtly!) competitive, as Tessy went into the corporate world, she experienced a different type of competition - female rivalry. Personality traits aside, a workplace culture may set up women to compete - not precisely because the environment is male-dominated, but because the opportunities for women to reach senior positions are more limited.
“Once you climb up that ladder, the other women become competitive towards you, not because they are mean but because there’s only one spot. You become a threat.”
What is Tessy’s advice on dealing with covert competition?
“You cannot fight negativity with negativity. When you see that someone is threatened, try to understand and even help them. Emphasize on communication and address these people.”
But more importantly:
“Know your worth, your skills and expertise. Stay the competent, professional self that you are and don’t diminish yourself on these unimportant topics where people often just lack security and confidence.*
It’s a trickle-down effect that drives change to level the playing field for women (in business and in life). As previously mentioned, inspiration is contagious. The more we are exposed to it, the more we pass it on.
“My sons see me focusing on female empowerment - they tune up and learn how to be better men themselves.”
*What are Tessy’s tips on building a network? Take a look at her TedX talk here.
Supported by community partners:
Startups Magazine, ParlayMe, Kaiku, When Unicorns Fly
Who is the next guest #EcosystemGiants guest? A speaker who will bring insights from a region we’ve not extensively covered here to date. Stay tuned for an email next week :)
Innovation Ecosystem Updates
Whether you are an investor, a founder, an operator, a corporate or a friend. The top news stories this week you may find of interest.
Trending. Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon CEO after the strongest year for the company yet (NBC). Who is his successor, Andy Jassy? (Quartz). Following a record loss in 2020, Softbank, the $100BN Saudi-backed tech investment fund bounces back (FT). Major automakers halt car production and furlough workers as a global ‘chip famine’ hits the auto industry (Axios). Who benefited and who lost from the GameStop bubble? (Intelligencer) The hedge fund that made $700M the Reddit trader who lost $13M in a day (CBS). Meanwhile, Robinhood raised a whopping $3.4BN in emergency funding (under a week); with app downloads hitting record 1M per day (Techcrunch).
Sustainability. Big companies step up in the battle against climate change. One of UK’s largest asset managers, Aviva, threatens to fully divest from 30 of the world’s biggest carbon emitters if their boards fail to take sufficient action over climate change (Reuters). Delivery Hero goes carbon neutral in Europe and Latin America (Sifted). Chamath Palihapitiya’s latest climate-focused investment, residential solar lender Sunlight Financial - yet another sign of a renewables boom (Techcrunch). A*female-led* sustainability podcast turned VC-backed business (Techcrunch). UNDP partners with Norrsken Foundation to support pre-seed impact start-ups. The accelerator program (details!) will invest in companies tackling the biggest challenges facing the world including poverty, climate change and food security. And more purpose-driven companies you should know about - in Shaper Impact Capital’s February newsletter.
IPOs. Genetic testing firm 23andMe to go public via a SPAC backed by Richard Branson (and at a value of $3.5BN) via The Verge. Greek yogurt maker Chobani eyeing a 2021 IPO (target valuation between $7BN to $10BN) via MarketWatch. TikTok rival Kuaishou launches $5.4BN IPO (WSJ). Online payment startup Payoneer (used by the likes of Airbnb and Amazon.com) to go public via $3.3BN SPAC led by Bancorp founder Betsy Cohen (CNBC). More finance news. Financials-focused SPAC JOFF Fintech Acquisition, led by Joel Leonoff (previously CEO, now Vice Chairman, Paysafe Group) prices upsized $360 million IPO (Nasdaq). Sana Biotechnology goes public in the the largest-ever IPO for a preclinical biotech, raising more than $587.5M (Pitchbook). While UK biotech Immunocore announces pricing of upsized IPO and secures £200M in NASDAQ offering (Busienss Cloud). After being valued at reportedly $1.6BN in March 2020, WeWork rival Knotel files for bankcruptcy and is set to be acquired by publicly traded real-estate services company NewMark (Techcrunch).
Massive rounds. Based out of Berlin and Beijing, artificial intelligence robot company Agile Robots raises $130M (China Money Network). Originally from Denmark, the world’s largest ecommerce platform for wine Vivino raises $155M (Sifted). Dutch rental accommodation marketplace HousingAnywhere secures €24M and buys rental website Kamernet (the company’s fourth acquisition in a year!) via Silicon Canals. Across the Pond, grocery delivery startup Good Eggs banks $100M, as it plans to expand beyond the Bay Area (Bloomberg) and proptech company Divvy Homes secures $110M Series C to help renters become homeowners (Techcrunch). Robotic process automation platform UiPath Closes $750M in Series F Funding (BusinessWire).
Wins for women. Former operating partner at A16Z and Twitter exex, Elizabeth Weil and 30 Under 30 alum Annelies Gamble launch a $42M VC fund To Bring Back ‘Old Venture’ Collaboration (Forbes).👏 Driving diversity in VC, Arlan Hamilton opened Backstage Capital to retail investors via a crowdfunding platform and raised $750K overnight (Impact Alpha). 👏 Led by Theresia Gouw, Acrew Capital is to raise a new Diversity Capital Fund, targeting LPs from underrepresented backgrounds (Fortune). 👏 Nine impressive female leaders including Joyce Liu (Founder, Pegafund) and Deborah Okenla (Founder & CEO, YSYS) selected to take part in the third Atomico angel programme (Sifted). 👏
Funder
Manu Gupta (Founding Team & ex-Partner, Lakestar) discusses the latest consumer trends, monetizing early users and making a subscription model work. Must listen!
“It’s time to retire the phrase “The robots are coming”—the robots are already here. Almost three centuries after the first Industrial Revolution liberated human workers from tedious physical labor, the automation revolution has now arrived for knowledge workers.”
Philipp Seifert (Vice President, Sapphire Ventures) on “low-code/no-code” platforms (which will account for more than 65% of all app development functions by 2024) and the four types of products driving workplace automation
Five female entrepreneurs you should know about? Deepali Nangia, Venture Partner, Speedinvest reflects back on her investments as an Atomico angel and highlights the incredible women she backed in 2020
Founder
“In the weeks before I resigned from my last startup I couldn’t sleep; I couldn’t eat; and my heart rate felt pegged at 120. I had reached a point where I couldn’t agree with my co-founder over the future of the company. I had to step away from the startup for which I shed blood, sweat, and tears. I didn’t want to do it, but I had reached a point, physically and mentally, where I couldn’t handle the stress anymore.”
Garry Tan (Founder and Managing Partner, Initialized) opens up about his experience as a founder, team conflict and offers advice on avoiding the #1 killer of early stage startups
Lu Li (Founder, Blooming Founders) on transitioning from a corporate role to a startup, growing a community business and ways to support female founders
Twitter Highlight (s)
Peter Yang, Staff Product Manager, Credit Karma
Startup of the week
An end-user self-assessment app
With 10M users and counting, Berlin-based Ada is the world's most popular symptom assessment app. Built by doctors and scientists (impressive female co-founder!), the startup uses medical AI to help people check symptoms (from stomach pain to headache) and discover what might be causing them. Without an appointment and on-demand.
Tweet @adahealth to share they were featured in ‘Ecosystem’!
I would love to hear from founders working on products/services that advance one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Are you building a purpose-driven startup I should know about?
Startup Go-to Resources
Eight Ways to go Viral - What do Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube have in common? An insightful article by Uzi Shmilovici (CEO and founder, Future Simple) on building viral features to accelerate growth
An extensive collection of resources for product builders and leaders - covering product-market fit, metrics and growth, hiring and more (done by Deepka Rana, Investment Manager, Northzone)
From a $550k first raise to a $350M second raise? Profitability from day one, a simple yet viral product - Tope Awotona on building Calendly
Turning 'Adjacent' users into engaged ones - an in-depth analysis by Bangaly Kaba (EIR at Reforge; Former VP Growth at Instacart & Instagram) inc examples for Slack and Instagram
A Guide to B2B Tech Branding - a 'must-read' whitepaper by Battery Ventures
An open-sourced impact investor list
VC 101: The Angel Investor's Guide to Startup Investing
How to develop an effective fundraising deck? Invaluable advice by Vinod Khosla (Founder, Khosla Ventures) to help you pitch the way VCs think
100+ Fundraising and Development Resources for Black, Latinx, and Women FoundersThank you for reading another ‘Ecosystem’ newsletter! What feedback do you have for me (likes/dislikes)? I would greatly appreciate if you share this with contacts (founders, tech operators & investors) who may find the content helpful🖤