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Venture Capital News
Medium
2w
255
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Understanding AMMs: The Backbone of Decentralized Trading
- AMMs, or Automated Market Makers, replace buyers and sellers with smart contracts.
- Liquidity providers deposit assets into pools, and traders can swap between them based on a mathematical formula.
- AMMs have benefits like automated price adjustments, but also face challenges such as impermanent loss and low liquidity.
- New models like concentrated liquidity and dynamic fees are being developed to address these issues.
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Medium
2w
406
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SPVs 101: How They Work, Why They Matter, and the Next Evolution
- A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is a legal entity created for a specific investment purpose.
- SPVs streamline the investment process for both investors and companies.
- Traditional SPVs face challenges in managing liquidity and capital movement.
- Tokenized SPVs offer a breakthrough solution for modernizing private market investing.
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24 Likes
Medium
2w
25
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On Double-Edged Swords of Fintech Fundraising
- Fintech fundraising with corporate ventures can bring both benefits and challenges, with misaligned priorities often hindering long-term partnerships.
- Corporate venture capital can offer funding and strategic advantages, but success depends on alignment with the product team's goals.
- Challenges like governance issues, slow decision-making, and misaligned incentives can lead to the failure of fintech startups despite major institutional backing.
- For founders, balance strategic investment with independent VC participation, ask critical questions, and secure commitments for commercial partnerships.
- Bridge financing provides temporary solutions, but multiple rounds can signal struggles with traction and erode ownership.
- Set clear targets, secure early support, and consider alternatives like venture debt to handle bridge rounds effectively.
- Pay-to-play provisions can clean up cap tables but risk diluting smaller investors and creating adversarial relationships.
- Use pay-to-play sparingly in critical cash shortage scenarios and consider alternative structures to maintain investor relationships and streamline future funding.
- Fundraising is strategic and requires foresight; decisions on partnerships, bridge rounds, and funding structures significantly impact a company's trajectory.
- Understanding the nuances of fintech fundraising can help founders navigate challenges and optimize their fundraising strategies for success.
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1 Like
Saastr
2w
359
Redpoint: 31% of All VC Money Last Year Went Into Just 20 Deals
- In 2024, 31% of all VC capital went into just 20 deals.
- From 2020-2022, the top 20 deals were just 6%-8% of all VC capital.
- Massive investments, at massive valuations, into the biggest leaders of AI are currently a trend.
- More capital is flowing into VC, resulting in increased energy and momentum in the industry.
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21 Likes
Medium
2w
225
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The Unfair Advantage: Why Some Startups Always Win (And How to Get Yours)
- Not all startups start from the same position.
- Unfair advantages are the hidden factors that make some startups win faster and easier than others.
- Examples of unfair advantages include founder advantage, network advantage, industry advantage, and distribution advantage.
- Creating your own unfair advantage can increase your chances of startup success.
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13 Likes
Saastr
2w
225
Will The Only Humans Left In Customer Support and Customer Success Be The Ones Selling You Something?
- AI is taking over support and customer success, leaving sales to humans.
- Support questions and problems from existing customers are increasingly being resolved by AI.
- In e-commerce, humans handle support for sales questions, while AI is used for returns.
- Human involvement in customer success is mainly focused on upselling, while the rest is handled by AI or eliminated.
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Sentinelone
2w
168
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PinnacleOne ExecBrief | The Hidden Cyber Risks of Mergers & Acquisitions
- Change Healthcare's ransomware attack threatened patient care and highlighted the cyber risks post-acquisition by UnitedHealthcare.
- PinnacleOne outlines a framework to manage cyber risks when acquiring companies, focusing on technical, structural, and governance risks.
- Mergers and acquisitions introduce risks like expanding attack surfaces, creating opportunities for lateral movement, and confusion over cybersecurity responsibilities.
- Acquisition integration often lacks proper IT and security input, leading to unmanaged assets and increased cyber threats.
- Companies should involve IT in due diligence, establish clear integration frameworks, and extend security governance across the entire enterprise post-acquisition.
- Security must be a strategic priority in M&A processes to mitigate cyber risks and prevent potential breaches post-acquisition.
- Companies need to rescale their security governance to match corporate growth and ensure comprehensive coverage of all newly acquired assets.
- Cyber attackers exploit gaps in integration, making cybersecurity essential in every phase of the acquisition process to prevent vulnerabilities and intrusions.
- Securing M&A integrations involves bringing IT into due diligence, establishing integration frameworks, and extending security governance to mitigate risks effectively.
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10 Likes
Medium
2w
77
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The AI Boom: Why Investors Should Tread Carefully
- Regulations like CCPA and GDPR offer users the right to data deletion, but enforcement is weak, raising concerns about data privacy and intellectual property protection.
- AI companies relying on questionable data sources face legal risks, highlighted by lawsuits like Kadrey v. Meta, urging investors to scrutinize data sources before investing.
- Investors should prefer companies with proprietary datasets for long-term defensibility and legal risk mitigation.
- AI startups building on third-party datasets without clear ownership face risks as the importance of proprietary data grows.
- AI systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks like model inversion attacks that expose sensitive training data, posing risks to data security and user trust.
- Companies, especially in regulated sectors like healthcare, must be cautious with AI deployments to avoid breaches, lawsuits, and compliance issues.
- Another risk in AI adoption is misinformation generated by AI models, which can have serious consequences in industries like healthcare and finance.
- User churn poses a significant risk to AI startups, as user trust in AI tools is fragile and often lacks deep workflow integration.
- Investors should focus on companies that retain users with workflow integration, utility, and proprietary data moats for sustainable success.
- Investors need to prioritize companies that own, protect, and ethically leverage their data for long-term success in the AI industry.
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4 Likes
Medium
2w
190
Why Investors Should Join App Adopters
- Gain early insights into promising applications and tech solutions before they become widely available.
- Engage with passionate startup teams and developers to assess potential investments firsthand.
- Invest at a lower valuation before startups attract widespread attention for higher potential returns.
- Monitor the latest innovations and emerging trends in the tech industry to position investments strategically.
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11 Likes
Medium
2w
298
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Venture Capitalist Websites Built with Webflow
- AuthoredUp improved user experience and saw a 64% increase in conversions after redesigning its website with Webflow.
- Beacon CRM's website, built with Webflow, contributed to a 52% boost in sales leads through its clean and professional design.
- Unusual Ventures showcases a sleek and interactive website that highlights its portfolio and unique resources, built with Webflow.
- Jungle Ventures' Webflow site demonstrates its expertise in early-stage investments across India and Southeast Asia.
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Global Fintech Series
2w
259
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FNEX Launches Alternatives Marketplace for Wealth Managers
- FNEX has launched the FNEX Alternatives Market, a platform designed to provide wealth managers access to curated alternative investment opportunities.
- The platform offers a range of high-quality investments such as private equity, real estate, private debt, and venture capital.
- FNEX Alternatives Market provides wealth managers with cutting-edge technology, automated workflows, and robust privacy and security features.
- It is supported by over 30 dedicated wholesalers and product support specialists, ensuring exceptional client service and sales support.
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15 Likes
Saastr
2w
21
Dear SaaStr: I Have No Co-Founder. What Should I Do?
- Being a solo founder is harder, but it is possible to succeed.
- Hire an 'Ex Post-Facto Co-Founder' who takes ownership and shares the burden.
- Prioritize hiring great early team members and allocate sufficient equity for them.
- Build a support network, such as mentors or peer groups, for guidance and advice.
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1 Like
Medium
2w
632
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Startup Funding: How to Balance Investor Influence and Founder Control in Startup Board Dynamics
- Structuring a startup board effectively is key to maintaining founder control while benefiting from investor expertise.
- Challenges include investor overreach, founder resistance, and misaligned interests.
- Founders should carefully structure voting rights and establish governance policies to retain control after securing startup funding.
- Leveraging investors as advisors and exploring startup accelerators can help maintain decision-making autonomy.
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11 Likes
Insider
2w
160
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Meet the Palantir Mafia, who have collectively raised more than $6 billion for their own startups
- Former Palantir employees have left the company to start their own startups, constituting the Palantir Mafia, who collectively raised over $6 billion in VC funding for their ventures.
- The Palantir Mafia includes founders in various sectors such as AI, legaltech, consumer, and healthcare, with notable names like Partiful, Ironclad, Joe Lonsdale, Anduril, and Garry Tan among others.
- The Palantir Mafia is likened to other tech mafias like PayPal, Facebook, Oracle, and more recent companies, producing successful alumni entrepreneurs.
- While Palantir's original focus was on federal agencies and defense tech, its former employees are now building companies in diverse sectors like healthcare, consumer, AI, and enterprise.
- Venture capital firms like a16z, Sequoia, Redpoint, and Accel have backed Palantir Mafia startups, with Anduril alone raising $3.8 billion in funding.
- Key members of the Palantir Mafia include Garry Tan, Anduril's Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Brian Schimpf, Joe Lonsdale, Cai Wangwilt of Ironclad, and others leading successful startups in their respective fields.
- Startup founders from the Palantir Mafia like Garry Tan and Brian Schimpf have leveraged their experiences to establish innovative companies, securing significant funding support.
- Palantir alumni have transitioned from roles like forward deployed engineers, software engineers, and deployment strategists to create disruptive startups in areas like mental healthcare, AI, contract management, and fintech.
- Former Palantir employees like Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz, Tarek Mansour, and Eliot Hodges have successfully founded healthcare, fintech, and AI startups post their tenure at the company.
- The Palantir Mafia's wide-reaching impact is evident with entities like Anduril, Addepar, Ironclad, Sourcegraph, and Branch Energy making significant strides with substantial funding and innovative offerings.
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9 Likes
Medium
2w
25
Image Credit: Medium
How Venture Capital Funds Work and Why They Matter for Startups
- A venture capital fund is a pool of money raised from investors, called limited partners (LPs), to invest in high-growth startups.
- VCs look for startups with scalability, strong teams, and disruptive ideas. They typically invest in early-stage companies (Seed, Series A) or later-stage ones (Series B, C, etc.).
- Beyond just money, VCs provide mentorship, networking, and strategic guidance. Some funds specialize in specific industries, such as AI, fintech, or healthcare.
- Venture capital is a high-risk, high-reward game that helps turn innovative ideas into billion-dollar businesses.
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