FundersClub Weekly Newsletter - January 21, 2016
FundersClub Portfolio News
Call9, a nine-month-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based telemedicine startup that came together last spring as a Y Combinator company, has raised $10 million in Series A funding in "Call9 Raises $10 Million Series A Led by Index Ventures".
FundersClub, the world's premier online VC and platform, is hiring for a Venture Associate.
Estimote, a beacon company whose wireless sensors and accompanying software provide indoor location technology to some of the largest retailers as well as 65 percent of the Fortune 100, has now closed on $10.7 million in Series A funding in "Beacon Technology Company Estimote Raises $10.7 Million Series A".
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC ) is adding an experienced bitcoin trading expert, LedgerX CEO Paul L. Chou, to their committee of technology advisers in "CFTC Appoints Bitcoin Expert, First 2016 Meeting Will Have Blockchain Focus".
Zoomcar, a self-drive car renting company in India, launches a doorstep services for its customers across major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad in "Zoomcar Launches Doorstep Delivery Services".
LeadGenius has grown from a Y Combinator-backed start up to an essential lead generation and outbound solution for some of the biggest names in the game and is named one of the "10 Fast-Growing B2B Startups That Might Just Transform Your Business This Year".
Investor Thoughts
Sam Altman of Y Combinator reminds founders to only join an accelerator if they need the money to survive or think that the resources of the accelerator will help them be more successful, and gives general advice on how to evaluate accelerators in "Getting Into Y Combinator".
Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures says each startups’ fundraising plan should reflect the uniqueness of the business’ strengths, weaknesses and plan, to ensure enough long-term capital to succeed regardless of the fundraising market in "3 Questions For Startups To Answer For Themselves In A Volatile Fundraising Environment".
Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky of Andreessen Horowitz discuss how software is the key to standing out in the hardware industry in "a16z Podcast: Software is What Distinguishes the Hardware Winners".
Elizabeth "Beezer" Clarkson of Sapphire Ventures describes industry trends about managers, LP's, fund sizes, and geography, and discusses their implications for 2016 in "Reading The Venture Tea Leaves For 2016".
Boris Wertz of Version One Ventures highlights three strategies to expand into the mainstream and capture a bigger piece of the pie after 'nailing a niche' in "Moving From the Niche to the Masses".
KPMG and CB Insights releases their Q4 2015 quarterly VC report, highlighting a banner year for venture capital funding, with a pull-back in private market investing in Q4 in "Global Venture Capital Report - Q4 2015".
Founder and Operator Thoughts
Observing post-acquisition, TalentBin founder Pete Kazanjy muses on his startup's pivot, working at a startup vs. a large enterprise, and SaaS sales best practices in "Learn, Pivot, Innovate: The Entrepreneurial Journey of Peter Kazanjy, Co-founder of TalentBin".
Chris Messina of Uber expands upon how messaging apps have eclipsed social networks in monthly actives in "2016 Will Be The Year of Conversational Commerce".
Taylor Singletary of Slack highlights the importance of product documentation for developers in efficiency, focus, and problem solving in "Writing Great Documentation".
Micah Baldwin of AWS Startups believes that when money doesn't matter in decision making, founders make better choices for their business in "It All Changes When The Founder Drives A Porsche".
Kellan Elliott-McCrea of Etsy uncodes the distinct things people mean they say “technical debt” in "Towards an Understanding of Technical Debt".
Joyce Shen of Thompson Reuters describes how collaborating with tech startups is a fundamental need required to accelerate a strategic and/or technology agenda in "How to Turn a Contract into a Startup-Friendly 2 Page Proof of Concept".
RJMetrics takes a look at how customers acquired during the holidays behave compared to customers acquired during non-holiday months by analyzing performance on ecommerce metrics in "The Ecommerce Holiday Customer Benchmark".
In Other News
Business leaders and policymakers at the 2016 World Economic Forumwill focus on Chinese downturn, a commodities rout and stock market turmoil in "Global Economic Turmoil to Dominate Davos Discussions".
Boeing Co. plans to report a $569 million after-tax accounting loss as it cuts production of the iconic 747 jumbo jet in half amid waning demand for four-engine aircraft and a slumping cargo market in "Boeing to Report $569 Million Cost as 747 Jumbo Output Cut".
Did You Know?
Did you know that when you are awake, your brain can create enough electricity to light up a small bulb, and generates enough electricity that if rediverted could charge an iPhone in less than 3 days?