FundersClub Weekly Newsletter - November 10, 2016
FundersClub Portfolio News
Labdoor, a startup that tests about 50 supplements and energy drinks each month and then ranks for consumers, recently closed on $3.4 million in Series A funding and plans to open up its own dedicated lab in Northern California in "In Labdoor, Floodgate sees an e-commerce giant in disguise."
PocketSuite announces its Android app release on the Google Play Store, which more than doubles their addressable customer market as 70% of service businesses (like cleaners, handymen, tutors, etc.) are Android users, with 30% of the service professional market being iPhone users. Starting this week, any service business with a smartphone can now download PocketSuite and run their business from a single app.
Coinbase is now enabled on Jumio's Netverify solution to verify user ID cards/documents and then ensure the person with the ID matches the identity on the card before approving increased buy/sell limits within the marketplace in "Jumio adds facial recognition, enables Coinbase, releases mobile banking study."
AppZen has been selected to proceed to the second round of consideration for CB Insight's "AI 100" list.
Soldsie, which uses the link in your Instagram bio to place your brand’s content on full display, is named as a top tool on Instagram to use for your company's marketing in "The Top 5 Must-Have Instagram Marketing Tools for 2017."
Unocoin, a Bengaluru based bitcoin company, has implemented its Application Programming Interface (API) to allow companies to access the world’s largest potential market for Bitcoin and to take advantage of Unocoin’s features in "Unocoin opens up its API for integration with other companies worldwide."
Investor Thoughts
FundersClub offers an educational guide to learn the basics of startup and angel investing, from the odds of landing on a winning company, to the key players (angels investors and VCs) placing the bets in "VC 101: The Angel Investor's Guide to Startup Investing."
Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures gives an example of auction pressure in the recent LinkedIn acquisition to show how to run a fundraising or acquisition process in "How To Build Auction Pressure In Acquisitions And Financings."
Rodrigo Martinez of Point Nine Capital offers some hiring tips for early-stage startups in order to build their best team in “The Right Team & Roles.”
Bryce Roberts of O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures notes that not every billion dollar business starts with a billion dollar idea, and not everything unfundable by VCs is unworthy of doing in "You Don’t Need a Master Plan — You Just Need to Start."
Ash Rust of Trinity Ventures gives an overview of some popular pricing-model options, and highlights the importance of choosing the right strategy for your startup in "Which Pricing Model is Best for Your Startup?."
Carl Fritjofsson of Creandum advises that founders should not overestimate their marketshare during a pitch presentation, and describes methods to calculate a marketshare relevant to your company in "Your market size is only a fraction of what you think it is."
Jason M. Lemkin of SaaStr Fund writes that a Lead Rich environment is not necessarily better than a Lead Poor one, but what matters is that your Qualified Leads go up faster than your revenue growth rate in "Lead Rich vs. Lead Poor Environments."
Founder and Operator Thoughts
Ben Silbermann of Pinterest shares how he overcame using the internet to solve various problems without being technical and how Pinterest found their first users in "Ben Silbermann at Startup School [Video]."
Madhavan Ramanujam of Simon-Kucher & Partners explains why pricing is so important from the start and the four ways companies often make mistakes when trying to monetize in "It’s Price Before Product. Period."
Jim Corey of Blue Ridge Partners breaks down how companies should deal with revenue-related issues such as growth strategy, pricing, sales and more in "'Sizing the Prize' from revenue growth: A repeatable & standardized technique for addressing growth challenges."
Grant Canary of DroneSeed lists the 7 tactics that comprised his training regime to get in shape for public speaking, particularly startup pitching, in "Startup Pitching and Adrenaline Management: An Athlete’s Tactics."
Elizabeth Dukes of EVP, iOFFICE shares some typical workplace practices that will become extinct by 2017 as younger generations begin to dominate the work force in "3 Workplace Trends Millennials Are Eliminating in 2017."
Entrepreneur Adrià Hernándes believes that in order to solve diversity issues in the workplace, it is possible to completely automate the entire recruitment (& job hunting) process from the moment a company needs to hire someone, to the actual contract negotiation in "Lack of Diversity in Tech is Just the Tip of the Iceberg."
In Other News
Twitter Inc. Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain, who built the company’s business model, is leaving and Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto will shift to Bain’s job, and the social-media company has started a search for a new finance chief in "Twitter Names Anthony Noto COO, Initiates CFO Search."
GoPro Inc. shares dropped as much as 10 percent after the company announces that it is recalling about 2,500 of its new Karma drones in "GoPro Plummets After Recalling 2,500 of its New Karma Drones."
Did You Know?
Did you know that the Olympic flag's colors are always red, black, blue, green, and yellow rings on a field of white because at least one of those colors appears on the flag of every nation on the planet?