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Venture Capital News
Saastr
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6 Of The Most Common Mistakes I See First Time SaaS Founders Make
- Incomplete understanding of business model and how it will scale.
- Being too cheap and missing growth opportunities.
- Struggling with the transition from micromanager to macromanager.
- Hiring stretch VPs who are not experienced in scaling.
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Medium
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The Trailblazers of In-Home EEG Monitoring Are Back, Reimagining the Future of Neurodiagnostic…
- The in-home EEG monitoring industry has rebounded, with over 300 providers now in the market and a steady 10% CAGR.
- hōm neuro plans to expand rapidly through organic growth and selective acquisitions of local and regional market leaders.
- hōm neuro is exploring a franchise model to empower industry professionals and elevate the level of care for patients nationwide.
- With a focus on scalable processes, cutting-edge technology, and expansion, hōm neuro aims to redefine neurodiagnostic care.
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Insider
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Meet Glean, the enterprise AI search company that's so powerful Sam Altman deemed it a threat to OpenAI
- Glean, the AI search company that helps corporate workers find information across their companies' tools and data, raised over $260 million at a valuation of $4.6 billion. It integrates across multiple software apps and retrieves relevant answers. Glean enables AI search by integrating apps like, Slack and Dropbox and powers search across their company's universe of data.
- Founded in 2019 by Rubrik cofounder and ex-Googler Arvind Jain, Glean hit $50 million ARR over the summer and is projected to end this year with $100 million ARR, according to a source familiar with the company's financials. It is projected to hit $250 million by the end of next year, according to a source.
- Following OpenAI's latest $6.6 billion fundraise, CEO Sam Altman insisted investors avoid investing in five AI competitors, reported Reuters. Among them are Anthropic, Elon Musk's xAI, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence, and AI search startup Perplexity. The last of the five rivals, and perhaps the least well-known, is Glean, an enterprise search assistant.
- Jain previously founded Rubrik, a public cybersecurity company, and was an engineer at Google. Jain was one of Google's first distinguished engineers and reported directly to Google's founding CEO Larry Page. Although engineering was accidental, the desire to become an entrepreneur was deliberate.
- Glean helps businesses use AI by tackling a core function for employees—search. With so much data, it's difficult for employees to find what they're looking for. This can add up to over two hours a day, said Jain. Altimeter and DST Global co-led the latest round, which also included Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia, Coatue, and Kleiner Perkins.
- Glean's initial focus was search. Enterprise search is a "hard lift and a hard build," said Kleiner Perkins' Mamoon Hamid. "It's seemingly easy, but actually quite hard to build all the different connectors to different SaaS products and then build search itself."
- Glean's product, prevents users from accessing information that they're not meant to see, such as confidential financials or HR reports. Large language models (LLMs) helped boost Glean's capabilities even further. With LLMs, Glean can also generate answers in response to employee queries, including entirely new documents.
- "We had the opportunity to build Google for people in their work lives," and with that, Glean was born. "I have a very firm belief that companies win or lose because of themselves, not because of competition," said Jain.
- Jain grew up in Jaipur, an Indian city, and, excelled in math and physics. He moved to the US to earn a master's in computer science at the University of Washington. He joined Google in 2003 and worked on Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Search. Jain was far from the world of technology growing up, but his father owned "a bunch of small businesses…so he was also an entrepreneur in that sense," said Jain.
- "Even when you're playing table tennis, ping pong, or tennis, he will fight for that point," said Deedy Das, who led product development at Glean and now works at Menlo Ventures. "He doesn't care who you are. You could be a new grad; he doesn't care. He's going to fight for the point."
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Medium
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Waste not, want not! Why we’ve invested in upcycling superfood start-up, Blue Stripes
- US-based start-up Blue Stripes upcycles 70% of cacao fruit waste into tasty superfood products, such as trail mix, granola, chocolate bars and cacao water.
- The company has more than 20 SKUs and is the first to market in upcycling cacao fruit. The fruit and shell both contain nutrients, including vitamins, antioxidants and minerals.
- Blue Stripes tackles an area of food waste (chocolate production) that has been poorly addressed industry-wide but is a significant problem, as an estimated $1tn worth of food waste occurs worldwide each year.
- The company has made a large impact on the environment in the past 18 months and created extra value for farmers.
- Blue Stripes is sold only in the US; it launched into Whole Foods Market and can be found in Fresh Market and Sprouts.
- Co-founder and CEO, Oded Brenner, built the largest chain of chocolate stores worldwide and has vast chocolate industry experience.
- Blue Stripes series B round was led by Zintinus and highly seasoned entrepreneur and investor, David Brown, and included Praesidium, Hamilton Lane and The Hershey Company.
- Blue Stripes' team includes experienced and seasoned members of the food and beverage industry, as well as a top-notch shareholder base.
- The company targets consumers looking for healthy, delicious, and upcycled products with fewer, more familiar ingredients.
- Blue Stripes has a large environmental impact and creates value for farmers; the company is also the first to tackle cacao fruit upcycling with a range of superfood products.
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SiliconCanals
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Founder-VC relationship: This isn’t tango but a high-octane salsa
- Theodore Rozencwajg, Co-founder and CCO of D2X, Matthijs Huiskamp, Founder and CEO of Altura, and Mitch Voskuilen, Founder and CEO of Billy Grace share how VCs helped them in their journey and challenges faced.
- The motivation to raise funding from a VC was primarily to accelerate startup growth. The startup needs a partner who understands the vision and can add strategic value.
- It is important to choose VCs who can support recruitment and beyond the initial funding stage. VCs that help with sales and marketing have an advantage.
- A strong personal connection is a key selection criterion for startups when choosing a VC.
- The way of working with VCs depends on the stage of the startup. The later the stage, the less interaction startups have with their VCs.
- Friction happens in moments of disagreement, for example, during a fundraise. A transparent and open line of communication between the founder and VC partner is key to being a success.
- According to Investment Director Wouter Goossens, the founder-VC relationship starts with trust and transparency.
- VCs not only bring money but also expertise and network and help founders scale their businesses or steer them towards the right path.
- Monthly check-ins or specific strategy sessions to overcome challenges or explore opportunities are held to maintain a collaborative, supportive relationship.
- Avoid surrounding yourself with 'cheerleaders' and look for VCs that dare to challenge and help you to see things you may not see.
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Medium
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AI, Storage Stories, & Disney Magic: Takeaways from Our CXO Event
- Top-tier CIOs and CMOs attended the recent CXO Event in San Francisco.
- The event featured fireside chats with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Scott Dietzen, and Dipanjan (DJ) Deb.
- Company showcases included Lambda Labs, Prophet Security, Writer, and Contextual AI.
- The event aimed to help CXOs navigate their careers and will host another function in September 2025.
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Medium
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What is a Trust?
- A trust has three elements: the grantor, trustee, and beneficiaries.
- The grantor transfers assets into the trust and includes a trust document.
- Different types of trusts exist, such as revocable living trusts and irrevocable trusts.
- Revocable living trusts offer control over assets during the grantor's lifetime and bypass probate after death.
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Medium
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"Volume of Knowledge for Business"
- The Volume of Knowledge equation, combined with the (A, B, C) matrix (After-Before-Current) and ΔT (change in time), has significant potential for business applications.
- The volume of knowledge is equal to the limit, as the total knowledge approaches infinity, of the triple integral of all knowledge.
- Practical applications of the Volume of Knowledge include strategic decision-making, market analysis, innovation planning, supply chain optimization, employee training, competitive analysis, financial portfolio management, product lifecycle management, and customer retention.
- By integrating these algorithms, businesses can optimize resources based on trigonometric cycles for hiring, training, and demand; anticipate changes across quarterly and seasonal cycles; use adaptive algorithms to refine strategies; and enhance decision-making using a structured framework that combines Choice Options Results (COR) informed by historical, current, and forecasted data.
- The Improvise, Adapt, Evolve (IAE) process works hand-in-hand with Choice Options Results (COR) to refine business decisions based on real-time information and predictive analytics.
- The trigonometric cycle algorithm helps predict and adjust resources in response to cyclical changes, providing a dynamic, real-time tool for business planning.
- The A, B, C Matrix algorithm supports historical tracking and forecasting by comparing past, present, and future data.
- This framework serves as a powerful predictive and adaptive tool that aligns with the cyclical, evolving nature of business, ensuring that strategies are rooted in both knowledge and agility.
- By applying these algorithms, businesses can optimize resources, anticipate changes, and refine strategies based on real-time information and predictive analytics.
- The Volume of Knowledge framework, integrated with time, adaptability, and cyclical strategies, provides a comprehensive approach to business optimization.
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Hackernoon
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Confronting Misleading Tactics in Startup Investments: Calling for Authenticity
- Pitch competitions often prioritize storytelling over business viability, leading to investments driven by popularity rather than critical assessment.
- VCs' focus on financial returns may overshadow a startup's original mission, leading to unsustainable growth strategies.
- Excitement during pitch events can result in inflated valuations and dilution of the startup's vision.
- To foster authenticity, startups should prioritize substance, align interests, and foster meaningful connections with VCs.
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Medium
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Why We Invested in ClearJet
- ClearJet is building a delivery infrastructure solution for the e-commerce ecosystem, enabling retailers to establish their own 2-day delivery networks.
- The platform includes a decision-making engine for route optimization and allows airlines to share cargo capacity.
- ClearJet has demonstrated impressive growth and exceeded revenue expectations through partnerships and network effects.
- The company aims to expand nationally and internationally, disrupt industry shipping standards, and explore reverse logistics and new products.
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Medium
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The Man Behind Y Combinator’s Success, and Startup Legend, Paul Graham
- Paul Graham is a startup founder, writer, and speaker known for co-founding Y Combinator, the most prestigious and influential startup accelerator program.
- Graham’s first major step into entrepreneurship came with the creation of Viaweb in 1995, which was eventually sold to Yahoo! for $49 million stocks.
- Graham’s philosophy of startup building was clear: keep things simple, iterate quickly, and solve real problems. This pragmatic, no-nonsense approach resonated with the startups YC attracted.
- YC pioneered the concept of a startup accelerator, offering startups intensive mentorship and culminating in a Demo Day, where founders would present their progress to a room full of investors.
- Paul Graham’s influence on the startup world is perhaps most felt through his writing. His essays have become foundational texts in the startup community and he has the ability to distill complex concepts into easily understandable lessons.
- YC Continuity, a growth-stage fund designed to invest in YC alumni companies as they scaled, was a game-changer, ensuring that YC could support its companies at every stage of their growth.
- One of the core tenets of Paul Graham’s startup philosophy is that founders should focus on building products that people genuinely want.
- YC encourages founders to launch early with a minimum viable product (MVP) and improve it based on real-world usage. This philosophy has led to the success of numerous YC-backed startups.
- Paul Graham announced that he would be stepping down from his day-to-day role at Y Combinator but his influence on YC and the startup world remains as strong as ever.
- Paul Graham’s journey from a PhD student in computer science to one of the most influential figures in the startup world is a testament to his vision, perseverance, and unique approach to entrepreneurship.
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Medium
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Need a Loan? The (AI) Agent Will See You Now
- AI agents, software programs that autonomously interact with environments, make decisions and perform tasks to achieve specific goals, are the future of finance.
- AI agents utilize machine learning and natural language processing to improve performance over time to tackle complex, dynamic functions.
- Learning Agents, Hierarchical Agents and Multi-Agent Systems are models advanced enough to not only 10x human productivity, but enable individuals to focus on tasks where human judgment and relationships are most valuable.
- AI agents can wholly own some of the most pressing challenges that financial institutions face, such as manual risk management processes that often comprise north of 30% of a firm’s overall cost structure and human-driven errors that lead to fines in the billions.
- Startups that prioritize strong security frameworks, build in proactive compliance monitoring and features like workflow monitoring, audit logs and human-in-the-loop capabilities are well-positioned to remedy buyer concerns and earn the trust of a notoriously complex industry.
- AI agents are becoming critical to determine optimal loan amounts based on detailed risk profile analyses, supporting more fair and accurate credit risk decisions within seconds vs. days.
- Startups are building automated solutions across the stack for the insurance industry, enabling insurers to encode unique risk appetites into AI models and wholly automate and drive more transparency across the decisioning flow.
- AI agents’ ability to automate data capture, validation and support always-on compliance monitoring enhance efficiency, reduce the likelihood of regulatory penalties, and reduce compliance costs for financial institutions.
- As AI agents move beyond information processing to real-world actions, platforms like Skyfire are creating payment networks that enable AI agents to execute transactions within set parameters.
- The firms that successfully integrate AI agents stand to gain a real competitive advantage, armed with the tools to operate more seamlessly, make better-informed decisions and uphold high safety and security standards.
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Saastr
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5 More Interesting Learnings From HubSpot at $2.4 Billion in ARR
- 75% of Customers Are Onboarded By Partners
- Sales Hub, i.e Sales Hub, Growing Almost Twice as Fast as Marketing Hub
- 71% of Customers Buy 2 Products, 50% Buy 3+ Products
- Starter Customers More Important Than Ever, Now 47% of Customer Base
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Medium
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0
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The Entrepreneur Mindset: Key Trends and Innovations for Modern Success
- Entrepreneurs in 2024 embrace a digital-first approach, leveraging e-commerce platforms, mobile apps, and social media channels for global reach and customer engagement.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a vital tool for modern entrepreneurs, enabling automation, personalized customer interactions, and faster business scaling.
- Sustainability and social responsibility are key priorities for entrepreneurs, with a focus on eco-friendly practices, sustainable materials, and diversity and inclusion.
- Digital networking platforms like LinkedIn and Clubhouse facilitate global connections, collaborations, and thought leadership for entrepreneurs.
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Medium
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Crossing the River — Navigating the Complexities of Startup-VC Dealmaking
- Structuring an investment round is a high-stakes endeavor where clarity, trust, and alignment can make or break a deal.
- VCs often bring valuable experience and networks to a startup, and founders benefit from this strategic input. However, too much oversight can hinder the founder’s agility and creativity.
- Valuation is often one of the most contentious parts of a funding negotiation. Founders typically want to maximize the company’s valuation, while VCs aim to enter at the lowest possible valuation.
- Founders should set realistic valuations and back them up with data that reflects market conditions, current & past business performance, revenue potential, and comparable companies.
- Dilution, the reduction in ownership percentage due to issuing new shares, can erode a founder’s control over the company. Founders can negotiate protective provisions to retain control even as their ownership stake decreases.
- Term sheets are the stepping stone of formalizing investment interest, and they set the stage for the legal agreements that follow. Common terms include the board structure, liquidation preferences, and anti-dilution clauses.
- VCs should explain why certain terms standard practice for risk management are rather than an indication of mistrust. Founders should seek legal counsel to thoroughly understand every clause.
- Both founders and VCs must carefully navigate obstacles and find alignment despite their differing perspectives. By approaching this partnership with transparency, mutual respect, startups and VCs can build a relationship that ensures successful funding, growth, innovation, and eventual success.
- The journey of structuring an investment round is similar to crossing a river. After all, the best deals are those where both parties reach the other side of the river stronger and ready to face the next challenge together.
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