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| |  Image Credits: Bill Ross / Getty Images | | Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm reached out to Boston-based investors to track VC sentiment in the region and found that area startups are doing better than expected. Fewer companies than anticipated are laying off staff, but several VCs noted that their Boston-area portfolio companies aren’t planning to raise this year. “The March-era stress tests are now months in the rearview mirror, and every startup has shaken up their spend and growth plans,” concluded Alex and Natasha. “Perhaps we have met the new normal, and it's time to let the runway do the talking.” Here’s who we heard from: - Rudina Seseri, Glasswing Ventures
- Lily Lyman, Underscore VC
- Jamie Goldstein, Pillar VC
- The Victress Capital team (Lori Cashman, Suzanne Norris, Kate Castle, Madeline Keulin. Molly Sellers)
- Rob Go, NextView Ventures
- Bill Geary, Flare Capital
- Michael Greeley, Flare Capital
- Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Ventures
- Neeraj Agarwal, Battery Ventures
Thanks very much for reading, and have a great weekend; we’re publishing on a light schedule today so we can celebrate Juneteenth. Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Nigel Sussman | | If the venture capital industry were a neighborhood, it would be a gated community where no one gets in without an invitation or a key. Once inside, the demographics are somewhat homogenous. When Managing Editor Danny Crichton returned to TechCrunch after his second time working in VC, he was frustrated by the industry’s insular nature — “few investors were really willing to go out on a limb and invest in founders before another VC had committed a check.” To create a more level playing field, we’ve launched The TechCrunch List — a database of active investors who are the top recommended “first check” writers in 22 categories ranging from D2C to space. We hope you’ll help us build this resource that will help make the tech industry look more like the world it aims to change. Read more | | | |
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| |  Image Credits: Bloomberg / Getty Images | | Eventbrite CEO and co-founder Julia Hartz appeared on Extra Crunch Live this week to talk about managing an events company when we’re all trying to keep our distance from each other. "You never as a founder — at least I never — ever wondered what would happen if the whole basis of our mission was tested," she said. The company says paid ticket volume was up 33% last month compared to April, but overall, sales were down 82% from the same time last year. "A massive market and industry dislocation and disruption. I mean, we're a living example of that," she said. "It's not a victory lap. Certainly, we're seeing some really exciting signs of recovery, but it's still very sobering." Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Wutthichai Luemuang/EyeEm / Getty Images | | Just as no one wants to say “development, security and operations” repeatedly, when it comes to implementing company-wide processes that help make security top of mind, there’s no time to waste. There are several pillars to building a successful DevSecOps program; here are some immediately actionable tips for putting your plan into action. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Superhuman | | After TechCrunch reporter Lucas Matney spent six months using email service Superhuman, he warned: “If you aren't used to the cult of ‘inbox-zero,’ the service will drag you into it.” Nearly a year later, the invitation-only service has a waitlist with more than 275,000 people. That’s by design, CEO Rahul Vohra told us earlier this week on Extra Crunch Live. "I think a lot of folks misunderstand the nature of our waitlist," he said. "They assume it's some kind of FOMO-generating technique or some kind of false scarcity. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real reason we have the waitlist is that I want everyone who uses Superhuman to be deliriously happy with their experience." Read more | | | |
| |  | | Zero-cost trading app Robinhood has seen a surge of new users and a spike in trading volume since the pandemic started; in times of doubt, saving and investing are popular pastimes. In Thursday’s edition of The Exchange, Alex Wilhelm looked into why financial service startups in the U.S. are doing well, but “fintechs abroad are reveling.” To get an insider view, we spoke with Adam Dodds, CEO of U.K.-based trading app Freetrade. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Matt Martin | | In his own words, Clockwise CEO Matt Martin shares the story of how the startup went from concept to launch to closing its Series B after connecting with Bain Capital Ventures a few months ago. “It would require getting to know a partner in lockdown, long nights assembling a pitch deck and many bleary-eyed Zoom calls with some of the best VCs in the world,” he writes. Matt’s post covers establishing trust while sheltering in place, decision-making during extreme economic uncertainty, finding opportunities in the pandemic, and other topics that resonate with entrepreneurs. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg / Getty Images | | In the last nine weeks, India’s Reliance Jio Platforms has raised $15.2 billion from an assortment of private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds — and $5.7 billion from Facebook. By selling a 24.7% stake in its business, which serves almost 400 million subscribers, Manish Singh writes that the telecom “is the world's most ambitious tech company.” In the first of several reports, he creates a timeline for Reliance Jio’s rapid ascent over the last four years. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Rudy Malmquist / Getty Images | | In his latest recap from the science world, Devin Coldewey reports on a prototype electronic nose that can sniff out ripe peaches in an orchard, breaks down technology that enables more efficient data collection for oceanographers and looks at an AI breakthrough that will provide major benefits for people with disabilities. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Pale Blue Dot | | Targeting pre-seed and seed stage startups, Sweden-based Pale Blue Dot this week announced the first closing of its debut €53 million climate tech fund. “We invest all over Europe, but can also do the U.S., even if we think a majority of the investments will be done here,” said founding partner Joel Larsson. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Treedeo / Getty Images | | Since protests over the killing of George Floyd, several tech companies have announced plans to pull back from government contracts that offer facial recognition for surveillance technology. Secrecy over protest surveillance has prompted widespread calls for transparency, which means lawmakers will be taking a closer look at security tech in general. Plus, the latest funding news in “$ECURITY $TARTUPS.” Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Alistair Berg / Getty Images | | When regulators asked Ryan Easter to run a pandemic business continuity test in October 2019, “I honestly thought that it was going to be a waste of time," said the IT director, who’s also a principal at Johnson Investment Counsel. Months later, the company was rolling out a response plan it never thought it would need. “Our systems and the plan operated perfectly," said Easter. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: James Warwick / Getty Images | | There are myriad ways to measure the effects of your growth marketing, but according to Joe Yakuel, “your company's one metric that matters should be long-term profitability.” Optimizing for long-term value instead of short-term profitability is a more sustainable way to generate lift, which is why data analysis leads to better customer experiences — and more revenue down the road. Read more | | | |
| |  | | In Wednesday’s The Exchange, Alex used trends in software sales and startup layoffs as a proxy to detect the general health of the startup market. “Studying layoffs and churn should help sharpen some of the blurred edges in our view of the current landscape. The news was mostly positive, “but lost in the mix is the fact that many companies are still struggling for one reason or another,” he found. Read more | | | |
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