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| |  Image Credits: gremlin / Getty Images | | It may seem like a great time to launch a SaaS startup, but the landscape is crowded with well-designed applications that promise "blazingly fast and delightfully simple" experiences, according to seed-stage investor John Chen of Fika Ventures. Most SaaS startups will fail, but not because of a sour marketing campaign or server downtime. The majority of these companies will fall victim to what Chen calls "the myth of frictionless onboarding." Despite the hype about ease of use, enterprise companies always ask customers to abandon familiar tools so they can learn something new. "Just like with a new fitness program, participants feel good after completing the workout, but it takes a lot of activation energy to start and hard work to get there," Chen notes. Instead of putting the onus on customers to roll up their sleeves, he suggests that SaaS startups learn from cryptocurrency culture and find ways to "incentivize users to do the necessary work to have the right experience." But how do you give users an incentive to put in the time and effort that produces an optimal customer experience? “In a world where there is a surplus of alternatives for every job to be done, the scarce resource is not content, tooling, or hacks and tricks,” says Chen. “It's attention.” We’re off on Monday, May 31, in observance of Memorial Day; I hope you have a relaxing weekend! Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist Read More | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Nigel Sussman | | Telehealth startup Doximity filed to go public earlier today. Notably, the company has not fundraised since 2014, a year in which it attracted just under $82 million at a valuation of $355 million, per PitchBook data. How has it managed to not raise for so long? By generating lots of cash and profit over the years. Healthtech communications, it turns out, can be a lucrative endeavor. Read More | | | |
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| |  Image Credits: Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images | | The growing complexity of fundraising has the opportunity to make tech either inclusive or exclusive. For new founders looking to raise money, let's dismantle the myths about raising your first check and instead focus on how investors and other successful founders describe the nuance needed to secure money. Natasha Mascarenhas spoke to Elizabeth Yin, founding partner of Hustle Fund, and Leslie Feinzaig, founder of Female Founders Collective, to get their candid thoughts about the challenges first-time founders face when fundraising. According to Yin, all startups should be able to reach one of two goals: by the fifth year, achieve $100 million ARR or a $1 billion valuation. "This is hard to do,” she said. “And most businesses will never get there — not for a lack of trying — but there's a lot of luck whether your idea has that much demand that quickly," Read More | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Artur Debat / Getty Images | | Cities like Miami, Pittsburgh and Austin have been drawing talent and wealth from Silicon Valley for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend. In recent months, many investors and entrepreneurs have noisily departed for Miami, citing the region's favorable business climate and quality of life. It's always good to consider one's options, but before booking a moving van for the Sunshine State — or any emerging tech hub, for that matter — here are some basic questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves. Read More | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Olga Strelnikova / Getty Images | | The world of hybrid work is here, and the usual 10-minute intro call, swag bag and first-day team lunch are not enough to make your new employee feel welcome. While many companies have found a way to interview and select candidates in a fully remote environment, fewer have spent time and resources on aligning the "pre-boarding" and onboarding process for the new hybrid world of work. Many employers still rely on old ways of welcoming new hires, despite our totally changed work environment. It's important to capitalize on candidates' enthusiasm and eagerness from the moment the offer is signed, instead of when they log in on Day One, because first impressions can make or break a candidate's chances of staying at a company. Read More | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Sequoia Capital / Wolfe + Von / TechCrunch | | In just a few short years, Vise has gone from launching on the Disrupt Battlefield stage to a unicorn. Co-founders Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra met Sequoia's Shaun Maguire at an afterparty at the event, and Maguire ended up leading a seed and Series A round while Sequoia led the Series B. Last week, Vise raised its Series C of $65 million and was officially valued at $1 billion post-money. We spoke to the pair about the early fundraising process for Vise, what Vasavada has learned about delivering a good fundraising pitch, and what stood out about the pitch and the product for Maguire. Read More | | | |
| |  Image Credits: SOPA Images / Getty Images | | The spinout of video platform Vimeo from IAC completed this week, with the smaller company now trading as an independent entity under the ticker symbol VMEO. If you missed the news that the internet conglomerate was spinning out the video service, don't feel bad; it slipped past many radars. But with the company now trading, with our access to its historical results, and with our minds still enthralled by YouTube's recent financial performance for Alphabet, it's worth taking a moment to digest the company's health. Read More | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Nigel Sussman | | The Flywire IPO is neat from a financial perspective and notable in that it's a Boston exit as opposed to yet another New York or San Francisco-based flotation. It's nice to see some other cities put points on the board. But more than that, this IPO is a useful measuring stick for keeping tabs on the IPO market as a whole. This year and the last are shaping up to be key exit periods for startups and unicorns of all shapes and sizes; many a venture capital fund return rests on these public debuts. Read More | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch | | Dear Sophie, I do recruitment for tech startups. With a surge of VC investing, many startups are urgently hiring. Which visas offer the quickest options for international talent? Are there any unique strategies that you would recommend we explore? — Maverick in Milpitas Read More | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Nigel Sussman | | On Thursday, consumer fintech service Acorns joined the ranks of startups seeking to go public in a blank-check merger. Acorns fits inside the larger savings-and-investing boom seen over the last four or five quarters as consumers buffeted by COVID-19 turned to stashing cash and boosting their investing. By now this is old news, but we haven't had a clear picture of the economics of consumer fintech startups accelerated by the pandemic. Now that Acorns has decided to list via a SPAC, we do. Read More | | | |
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