Sat.Aug 29, 2020 - Fri.Sep 04, 2020

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It Depends: Why the right fundraising strategy for your startup is never a straight answer.

This is going to be BIG.

Talk to ten founders and ten different VCs and you’ll get roughly about 600 different suggestions as to how you should go about your fundraising strategy. I don’t know what the formula is here, but the numbers and the resulting amount of confusion gets big very very quickly. Why does it seem like there’s an exception to every rule? You’re told that you can’t raise until you have a product, yet pre-product companies get funded all the time.

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What is an Ecosystem Builder

Ecosystem Builder Hub

Dozens of ecosystem builders share their perspective on what an entrepreneurial ecosystem builder is, and does. One of the challenges in turning ecosystem building into a recognized profession is the lack of a recognized definition for what it is and what an ecosystem builder is. The Kauffman Foundation’s ESHIP Goal 3 recognizes this as an ongoing challenge, stating, “Strong collaboration will require alignment on our desired outcomes for ecosystem building and a common terminology f

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Three steps to a successful pivot

Entrepreneurs' Organization

In today’s business vocabulary, the word pivot—as a verb or a noun—has become shorthand for any change or shift. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, forced many of us to initiate wholesale and all-encompassing pivots in order to stay afloat. . We talked with entrepreneurs and members of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) who recently overhauled their businesses in order to survive—and perhaps even thrive—in a post-pandemic landscape.

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Mental Healthcare 3.0

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

My colleague Hanel wrote an important post on USV.com yesterday. It looks at mental healthcare solutions and compares them to what has happened in online learning in the last decade. USV invests in both wellness and learning and we believe that the way learning has evolved can teach us about where healthcare can go. Hanel’s post is in keeping with those beliefs.

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Navigating the Future: Generative AI, Application Analytics, and Data

Generative AI is upending the way product developers & end-users alike are interacting with data. Despite the potential of AI, many are left with questions about the future of product development: How will AI impact my business and contribute to its success? What can product managers and developers expect in the future with the widespread adoption of AI?

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empowering underrepresented engineering students: q&a with Noe Vargas Hernandez of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Venture Well

Noe Vargas Hernandez is devoted to teaching sustainability, entrepreneurship, and design practices to underrepresented engineering students. . The post empowering underrepresented engineering students: q&a with Noe Vargas Hernandez of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley appeared first on VentureWell.

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Gregslist – The Strange Attractor

Ecosystem Builder Hub

Igniting Startup Ecosystems. Hold a match to a sugar cube and it will never burn. But first add a little cigarette ash and the sugar cube will burst in flames. There’s nothing like the presence of a catalyst to ignite a system. What ignites a startup ecosystem? Thriving startup ecosystems are good for the economy, good for society, and good for pretty much everyone.

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Some Thoughts On SPACs

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

As many of you know, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are all the rage on wall street right now. SPACs are publicly traded “shell companies” that raise capital in an IPO process and then use that capital to merge with a privately held business. SPACs have been around for at least thirty years and I have always thought of them as a “liquidity path of last resort” for our portfolio companies.

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Starting a Niche Business and Finding Your Audience

Smart Hustle Magazine

Samantha Dong is the Founder and CEO of Ally Shoes , an innovative, fashion brand designed for women by women. Ally is a niche business renowned for designing pain-free heels for power women. Samantha is passionate about empowering women through fashion and making luxury footwear more accessible for women on the move. After a foot injury, Samantha couldn’t find shoes that fit.

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Tips for developing strong brands

NZ Entrepreneur

Protecting intellectual property rights through registration is an important element of any business strategy. New Zealanders have traditionally favoured a non-regulated approach—#8 wire, Kiwi ingenuity and innovative thinking drive our cultural identity. But the value of a robust intellectual property portfolio hasn’t always been on the radar for New Zealand businesses.

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Your Fractional Finance and Accounting Team

Mighty Financial specializes in supporting the financial aspirations of small businesses and entrepreneurs. With our comprehensive bookkeeping and precise accounting expertise with decades of experience across diverse financial roles, our team offers tailor-made services ranging from essential bookkeeping to strategic fractional CFO support, catered specifically to the unique challenges of technology companies, startups, and SMEs.

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YC’s First Virtual IIT Tour

Y Combinator

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be hosting our first series of virtual talks at 6 IITs this fall. At the events, you’ll meet YC partners and alumni from each of the schools. They’ll talk about how they started their companies, the challenges they faced early on, and they’ll share advice for students who want to start and scale a company one day.

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Funding Friday: Insider Art

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

The comic book community on Kickstarter is so great. This projec t that I backed today is a great example of the creativity that they express in every project they do. USV TEAM POSTS: Hanel Baveja — Sep 1, 2020 Mental Healthcare 3.0.

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Salesforce Grant Winner Offers 3 Tips for Developing Small Business Resilience

Smart Hustle Magazine

Are you tired of stories about small businesses struggling during COVID-19? Do you want something a little more inspiring and helpful for growing your small business? Perfect. Keep reading. I recently spoke with Sarah and Robbie Gonzales, co-owners of Tungsten Prep. They are recent recipients of a $10,000 grant from Salesforce. Their story offers encouragement, motivation and some practical ideas on what you can do to boost your own small business resilience.

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Newsletter: Safer Scooters in Rome + SEC’s Historic Decision + El Al in Abu Dhabi

OurCrowd

Safer Scooters on the Streets of Rome, Heading to London Trials. LINK, the shared electric scooter service created by OurCrowd portfolio company Superpedestrian , launches in Rome in September. The company, a robotics startups spun out of MIT, already operates the scooters in several US cities and has been approved by the UK government to participate in trials for a London tender.

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Digitalization: 5 Tech Updates That Will Help You Survive The Recession & Thrive

Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

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YC’s Fall Tour 2020

Y Combinator

Twice a year (fall and spring), we visit cities and universities around the world. Our goal is to meet founders and future founders, introduce them to the YC community, and share what we’ve learned from helping thousands of startups launch and grow. Below is a list of the first cities we are visiting virtually this fall. We’ll update the list as we add locations.

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i2E Management Co. Inc. leads $5.2 million investment in PhotoniCare Inc.

Innovation 2 Enterprise

Champaign, Ill. – September 3, 2020 – PhotoniCare, Inc., a company dedicated to revolutionizing healthcare by providing physicians with better diagnostic tools, today announced an oversubscribed $5.2 million Series A financing led by i2E Management Company Inc., with co-investment from OSF Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and Dreampact Ventures. The company also announced a $2.1 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Profitable Business Ideas for Men Over 40

Common Reasons Why Startups Fail

The 40s are the period of life where they feel a strong urge for opening up their own business. The post Profitable Business Ideas for Men Over 40 appeared first on.

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IEDC Small Business Development Training Course: Join us on September 17-18!

EntreWorks Consulting

It’s back to school time again. If you’re pursuing professional development or just want to learn about new trends in economic development, join us on September 17-18, 2020 for another on-line version of the International Economic Development Council’s Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Strategies course. This intro session will give you the basics on what makes entrepreneurs tick and how we economic developers can help them succeed—much needed info as America’s small business own

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PE Mastery: CAPTARGET's Playbook for Quality Lead Flow

CAPTARGET presents a masterclass in M&A deal sourcing. Learn to cast a wide net, embracing seller self-identification. Consistency is the linchpin: keep the origination process steady for a reliable flow of opportunities. Diversify your tactics, employing various tools and vendors. Tech matters! Understand DNS settings, domain authority, and brand presence for optimal outreach.

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What use is an investment banker?

Berkonomics

Many CEOs have asked me if I felt an investment banker adds value if the buyer has already been identified. How investment bankers behave. Investment bankers sometimes slow the process by requiring a cloud-based “data room” and “deal book” to be prepared containing considerable information about a company to help a buyer. Deal books are expensive to create.

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[Varo Money in Business Insider] Varo, First Consumer Fintech Granted National Bank Charter in the US, goes live with Temenos Cloud Technology

OurCrowd

“Varo was founded with a clear vision to deploy a more efficient business model and cutting-edge technology in order to create a new kind of bank – one that is wholly designed around the financial health and wellbeing of the everyday American consumer. From the start, we knew this vision needed to be supported by having a national bank charter and an innovative technology partner like Temenos.

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Kevin Learned: Entrepreneur, Teacher, Angel

Angel Capital Association

Editor’s Note – This story originally appeared in the Idaho Business Review by Sharon Fisher and reposted with permission by the Angel Capital Association. Kevin Learned is on his third career, and he’s not done yet. To many Idaho companies, Kevin Learned isn’t just an icon, he’s ang angel. That’s “angel” as in angel investing, where people invest money early in a new company’s career to help it get off the ground.

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GCUC APAC – Week 3: Wellness

GCUC

This week’s session was all about wellness. If you missed it, the replay will be available on GCUC membership later this week. We have. The post GCUC APAC – Week 3: Wellness appeared first on GCUC Community.

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How Embedded Analytics Gets You to Market Faster with a SAAS Offering

Start-ups & SMBs launching products quickly must bundle dashboards, reports, & self-service analytics into apps. Customers expect rapid value from your product (time-to-value), data security, and access to advanced capabilities. Traditional Business Intelligence (BI) tools can provide valuable data analysis capabilities, but they have a barrier to entry that can stop small and midsize businesses from capitalizing on them.

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Put Entrepreneurs Front and Center. Fireside Chat 1

Ecosystem Builder Hub

Social Venturers is launching a series of Fireside Chats to discuss what makes ecosystem builders effective. Every two weeks from September 10th until December 3rd, they are hosting peer-to-peer knowledge sharing sessions and you are invited! #1 Put entrepreneurs front and center (September 10, 2020, 2. p.m. EST). As ecosystem builders, we are committed to serving the entrepreneurs in our communities.

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Post-pandemic, weighing the climate ‘risk’ from energy use

Innovation 2 Enterprise

By Scott Meacham. I don’t get to write that often about the energy industry; i2E’s charter is to expand Oklahoma’s entrepreneurial ventures in non-traditional sectors to diversify our state’s economy. But this week, benefitting from the sage perspective of C. Michael Ming, the original general manager of General Electric’s Global Research O&G Technology Center in Oklahoma City, I am doubling down on a second discussion of “after the pandemic, then what” for the oil and gas industry.

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How EO taught me I’m a no-good dirty liar (even though I wrote the book on honesty)

Entrepreneurs' Organization

When I turned 30—four long years ago—two things happened: First, I was told I should join the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), to which I promptly answered, what the heck is EO? (Don’t worry, I did join— thankfully so.). Second, I decided I hadn’t achieved enough in my life. But, in fact, that’s an understatement. The truth is, I beat myself up about not having achieved enough in my life, and right then and there I created new goals for myself.

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Some Email Stats

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

I was looking at my Feedblitz dashboard this morning. Feedblitz powers the daily email for this blog. These are all of the emails/blog posts I have done this month: As you can see the open rate hovers between a low of 33% (Ghost Pacer) and a high of 45% (Subscription Agreements). The unsubscribe rate ranges from 0.02% to 0.075% (on my birthday!). I suspect the click data is not instrumented properly because I can’t imagine that nobody clicks on any links in the posts.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr