FundersClub Weekly Newsletter - November 17, 2016
FundersClub Portfolio News
Thalmic Labs, after announcing a $158 million Series B for its next product’s development, has begun its search for talent and has posted openings for 32 jobs in KW, and eight positions in its new San Francisco office, mostly in the marketing department where former Samsung exec Tara Kriese is leading as CMO in "Thalmic Begins Seris B Hiring Spree in "WaterlooRegion and San Francisco."
Vanhawks, a Canadian company that makes a bike with integrated safety and navigational features, is entering the U.S. IBD market, and has recently hired a vice president of sales, Jon Kameen. Their first U.S. IBD customer is Mike's Bikes, which has 12 locations in the San Francisco Bay Area in "New 'connected bike' brand Vanhawks hires VP of sales; begins sales through Mike's Bikes."
Pop Up Archive, a platform of tools for organizing and searching digital spoken word, partnered with Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) last year, and now highlights some of the ways that they have worked with DPLA partners to automatically transcribe, timestamp, and provide team editing interfaces for audio collections in "Pop Up Archive Serves DPLA Network in First Year of Partnership."
Investor Thoughts
Christopher Steiner of FundersClub discusses the data behind politics and how flawed assumptions can lead a campaign, much like a startup itself, to take actions and make plans that sow its demise in "Missed Signals in the Presidential Campaign."
Christopher Steiner of FundersClub offers an update on where the Virtual Reality space is at, and where it looks like it’s going, according to the information and grist available in "The Current State of Virtual Reality."
Aaron Harris of Y Combinator explains that while precise startup milestones are great for measuring progress, they may imply a false sense of precision with regard to raising money in “Fundraising Isn't Predictable.”
Ari Newman of Techstars, Bryan Birsic of Wunder Capital, and Bora Celik of Jukely discuss the topics of fundraising, what investors look for in a business and team, moving to the next round and more in "Ask Techstars: Going from Seed to Series A."
Mahesh Vellanki of Redpoint Ventures looks at Uber's P&L and growth trajectory to make some rough estimates for what a 2017 IPO could look like in "Here's What A 2017 Uber IPO Could Look Like."
Srikar Kalvakolanu of High Alpha shares part one of three rapid-fire videos listing innovative companies and tech products of 2016 in "2016’s 50 Most Innovative Tech Products (Part I)."
Isaac Madan of Venrock posts the first of a mini-series to discuss when/why a company may IPO, advantages/disadvantages of an IPO versus being acquired, factors that make a company ready for an IPO, and the IPO process itself in "Going Public vs. Being Acquired."
CB Insights reports that top venture capitalists participated in a record 13 deals to HR tech startups in Q1’16 but pulled back in Q2’16 and Q3’16, and smart money VC deal participation is projected to dip slightly in 2016 compared to 2015 in "Performance Review: Smart Money VCs Slow Down Their Dealmaking To HR Tech."
Founder and Operator Thoughts
Russ Laraway of Candor explains a servant leader’s approach to career conversations, and lays out a step-by-step approach for creating meaningful dialogue and details pitfalls to avoid in "Three Powerful Conversations Managers Must Have To Develop Their People."
Bob Marsh of LevelEleven explains a sales strategy that focuses on the basics of selling, such as qualifying prospects, having conversations with senior buyers and demonstrating ROI in "Why Activity-Based Selling Drives Account-Based Sales."
Sara Mauskopf of Winnie shares the 5 things she did that bought her time and made it possible to start a company when she had no time to spare in "How to Start a Company With No Free Time."
Jason D. Rowley of Mattermark finds that capital deployed into Silicon Valley-based companies is correlated to housing prices, and deal volume may be a leading indicator of the housing market in "Just How Correlated Are Silicon Valley Housing Prices And Venture Activity?"
Darius Foroux of Massive Life Success offers a reliable system for overcoming procrastination with theory, actionable advice, exercises, and videos in "How To Go From Procrastinate Hero To Procrastinate Zero."
Jon Westenberg shares a checklist that he has identifies as what startups and freelancers need in order to support growth in the early stages of a business in "Use this checklist to grow your business."
In Other News
Snapchat has filed for an initial public offering, sources familiar with the situation said, and could go public as soon as March and be valued at $20 billion to $25 billion, making it the largest IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's went public two years ago valued at $170.9 billion in "Snapchat files for one of the biggest tech IPOs in years: sources."
Microsoft announces that it is joining the Linux Foundation as a high-paying Platinum member, which may come as a surprise to some given that Microsoft and the Linux community often felt like they were at war with each other in the past in "Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation."
Did You Know?
Did you know that the average lifespan of a major league baseball is just 7 pitches?