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| |  Image Credits: MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images / Getty Images (Image has been modified) | | Before Caryn Marooney became a general partner with Coatue Management, she worked as Facebook’s VP of Global Communications and co-founded The Outcast Agency, one of Silicon Valley’s top public relations firms. So when she says new startups are irrelevant to reporters, pay attention. "People just fundamentally aren't walking around caring about this new startup — actually, nobody does,” Marooney told Lucas Matney during a panel at Early Stage, our virtual conference for tech entrepreneurs. Founders who are working on their company’s messaging need to ask themselves three questions, she recommends: - Is this an end state people would agree on?
- Do people generally like this end state?
- Are you rolling a boulder up a hill?
"You want to take people on this journey of an end state,” says Marooney. “Now, if they like that end state, the boulder goes down the hill and it's like wind at your back. If they don't like your end state… that's more like rolling the boulder up.” We’re running more how-to articles for startup founders this week based on Early Stage conversations, so stay tuned. Thanks for reading; I hope you have a fantastic week. Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Treedeo / Getty Images | | Unless a U.S.-based company can close a deal, the Trump administration will force TikTok to stop offering its service to American users. Security reporter Zack Whittaker looked past the hype surrounding the popular app to get the big picture. Until last November, TikTok gathered unique network identifiers from users’ devices, but “exactly what TikTok did with MAC addresses is unclear,” Zack reports. Read more | | | |
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| |  Image Credits: Diarmuid Greene / Getty Images | | The COVID-19 pandemic has led many media companies to make deep cuts and rethink their long-term planning, but “we're extremely optimistic,” says Brian Sugar, president of Group Nine Media. In a conversation with Anthony Ha, Sugar spoke about how his job has changed in recent months, his company’s shift to a remote workplace and said changing audience behavior has led the company to launch new products. “We've been having these really cool hackathon Fridays to build stuff quickly, because a lot of people feel like they have a little bit more time on their hands — because you don't have to travel to meetings, you can get more work done,” said Sugar. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Mint Images / Getty Images | | The COVID-19 pandemic and U.S.-China trade war created major disruptions in the global supply chain. To better understand the impacts, reporter Catherine Shu analyzed a survey of nine shipping companies produced by Reefknot Investments. Historically, supply chains remain resilient during turbulent times, but factory closures, stay-at-home orders and flight cancellations combined to create “a simultaneous supply and demand shock,” said Reefknot co-founder Wolfgang Lehmacher. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: La Famiglia | | Steve O’Hear interviewed founding partner Dr. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg and partner Judith Dada of Berlin-based VC firm La Famiglia about their recently announced second fund, which totaled “€50 million, up from its debut fund of €35 million in 2017.” The female-led firm is B2B-focused and writes first checks up to €1.5M to startups that are tackling existing problems ranging from manufacturing and logistics to insurance and sustainability. “We look for visionary founders who see a new future, where others only see fragments, with grit to push through adversity and a creative force to shape the world into being,” said zu Fürstenberg. Read more | | | |
| |  | | Conventional wisdom has it that entrepreneurs need a minimum viable product in hand before approaching an investor to ask for their first check. But Charles Hudson says he’s open to backing founders who only walk in the door with a great idea, assuming they “have a unique and durable insight that will still be true in 12 to 18 months.” In a talk at TechCrunch Early Stage titled “How to sell an idea when you don't have a product,” Hudson, founder and managing partner at seed-stage firm Precursor Ventures, shared suggestions for raising money pre-product. Read the highlights, or click through for a video with the entire presentation and discussion. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: TechCrunch | | On Thursday, reporter Natasha Mascarenhas will host investor Any Duggal on Extra Crunch Live to discuss how she’s adapting to COVID-19 and her work with the Female Founders Fund, which has “provided seed institutional capital to entrepreneurs with over $3 billion in enterprise value.” Bring your questions — Extra Crunch members can participate in a live Q&A following their discussion; click here to join now. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: cotaro70s / Flickr under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license. | | You could draw a straight line that connects lean methodology with the management concepts known as the Toyota Production Systems, which sought to eliminate waste through optimized efficiency. Muda (waste), mura (unevenness) and muri (overburden) should be top of mind for software teams — a “just in time” mindset can help prevent scope creep, keep projects on target and level-set customer expectations. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Alex Flynn/Bloomberg / Getty Images | | Wealthfront founder Andy Rachleff appeared on Extra Crunch Live last week to discuss the second decade for his wealth-management app, modern portfolio theory and his product development ethos. “If you're not first, you're last. You can't become first by outperforming your competitor. In technology that's really, really hard to do to come from behind with a better implementation,” he said. “So you have to define the market. And the only way you do that is by delighting your customer.” Read more | | | |
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