Remove incumbents Remove investment Remove networking
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The Opening

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

I like to think of investing in new things a bit like a football running play. I’ve always thought the opening would be at the intersection of gaming, online communities, and social networks. So the existing incumbents are the defensive line. And they are not taking on any of the incumbents directly. And so is Axie.

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Virtual social network IMVU raises $35M from China’s NetEase and others

TechCrunch

The line between social networking and gaming is increasingly blurring , and internet incumbents are taking notice. NetEase, the second-largest gaming company in China (behind Tencent), is among a group of investors who just backed IMVU, an avatar-focused social network operating out of California.

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After Investing $100 Million Into New VC Firms, Here’s What I Look For: Traditional But Better, or Different & Excellent.

Hunter Walk

Of course Screendoor has an eye towards new VCs with identities, backgrounds and networks which are ADDITIVE to the venture ecosystem to better serve founders, so while the structure of the playbook is duplicative, the people running the playbook aren’t – and that’s the key.

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Revolution co-founder talks Living Social, ZipCar, Steve Case & GroupOn Super Bowl Ads

Both Sides of the Table

Revolution is a “stage agnostic&# fund (means they invest early or late) funded entirely by Steve Case , the founder of AOL and co-founded by two other individuals, Tige Savage (yes, pronounced like the golfer, minus the “r&# ) and Donn Davis. We are a venture capital growth equity fund in Washington DC with about $500m invested.

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Both Things Can Be True: Bias and Bad Fundraising Advice

This is going to be BIG.

If I was to guess, the demographics of people pitching me are reflective of two things—what my own network looks like and what my portfolio looks like. First is network bias. We’ve seen studies on how men and women get asked different questions, but I also think it’s incumbent upon all founders to control the conversation.

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Sequoia Heritage, Stripe and others invest $200M in African fintech Wave at $1.7B valuation

TechCrunch

The investment is the largest-ever Series A round for the region, and it values Wave at $1.7 Four big-name backers jointly led the round — Sequoia Heritage, a private investment fund and a subsidiary of Sequoia; Founders Fund; payments upstart Stripe; and Ribbit Capital. . ” Going up against incumbents.

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5 Entrepreneur Ideas That Investors See Too Often

Gust

Social and business networking sites. Just for starters, Wikipedia now lists about 200 sites by name (once over 300), which they claim is just some of the more notable social networking sites. I still get about one business “idea” per week for a new networking site, which will combine the “best of all the sites” into a new one.