EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022

How to land investors who fund game-changing companies • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in Climate, climate tech, EC Food Climate and Sustainability, EC Hardware, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Sila, startup fundraising, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, VentureNo Comments

A lot of problems worth solving aren’t ones that you can solve in a year or two or even 10. For founders and investors alike, such long timelines can seem daunting. But for Gene Berdichevsky, co-founder and CEO of battery tech startup Sila, hard tech problems are also some of the most tantalizing. “It’s always a good time to be a hard tech startup,” Berdichevsky said at ZebethMedia Disrupt. “One of the reasons is that the world doesn’t change just because it should. It changes because someone goes after something insanely hard and actually succeeds at it.” Such hard.tech startups run the gamut from advanced batteries like those made by Sila to nuclear fusion, quantum computing, automation and robotics. Any tech that has the potential for such broad impact also has a massive potential market, and that means a certain class of investors are willing to be in it for the long haul. “Hire people to do the technical stuff. Keep an eye on it, but then go learn the other pieces.” Gene Berdichevsky, co-founder and CEO, Sila “We look for real step-change, game-changing technologies that are going to benefit everyone and we think that will drive a huge [total addressable market],” said Milo Werner, a general partner at The Engine. When Berdichevsky founded Sila, he believed his company’s technology, a silicon-based anode that promises to improve lithium-ion battery energy density by 20%–40%, would be a significant enough advance that it would have no problem finding a market. What he didn’t expect was how long it would take. When Sila’s first product debuted inside the Whoop 4.0 wearable last year, the path to market had been twice as long as Berdichevsky had expected.

What investors really think about the TAM slide in your pitch deck • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in EC How To, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, startup fundraising, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Total Addressable Market, VentureNo Comments

We’re encouraged to think of pitch meetings as a trial by fire: If an entrepreneur can negotiate deadly traps and slay the doubt monsters that bedevil tech investors, they’ll be rewarded with a golden SAFE note at the end of their quest. Particularly for first-timers, the pitch has become an existential drama, which can lead to poor decisions like overlong slide decks, failing to prepare investors before a meeting, and fatally, exaggerating the size of the total addressable market (TAM) in which they hope to compete. “With TAM, it is almost guaranteed you’re going to be wrong,” Aydin Senkut, the founder and managing partner of Felicis Ventures, said at ZebethMedia Disrupt. “It’s either going to be too large or too small.” Kara Nortman, a managing partner at Upfront Ventures, said the TAM numbers given in a pitch do not control whether she’s likely to invest. “I would say [it is] more important to be able to articulate how big something can become and to show that you have a thought process around TAM, if it’s early.” According to Deena Shakir, a partner at Lux Capital, TAM, along with the associated metrics serviceable addressable market (SAM) and serviceable obtainable market (SOM), aren’t meant to be carved in stone. They’re simple planning tools that help founders show investors their company’s upside potential, while SOM and SAM help them offset risk. “If we’re taking the meeting, we all sensibly think there’s something there that’s interesting enough to be potentially venture-bankable,” she said. “The way it’s calculated and the way the founder is thinking about it tells us not necessarily about the business or its future, but about how the founder thinks about company creation. And that’s much more important at the earliest stage.” All three panelists said TAM, SAM and SOM numbers offer a window into a founder’s mindset, but they’re not determinative factors, since they already have a general understanding of the sectors in which founders hope to compete.

How Metafy founder Josh Fabian caught the attention of 776 by building in public • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in ec gaming, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Gaming, Katelin Holloway, metafy, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

In over a decade of investing in startups, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has only once offered to fund a founder on the spot. That founder was Josh Fabian, CEO of Metafy, a video game coaching platform. “We were able to just engage and talk like humans, and Josh told us his story in a very different way,” said Katelin Holloway, a founding partner at 776, where Ohanian is general partner. “Not only was it incredibly compelling from a business perspective, it was incredibly compelling from a human perspective.” As Fabian explained at ZebethMedia Disrupt, Metafy has a pretty fun founding story. Once a competitive Yu-Gi-Oh player in his childhood, Fabian was working as a lead designer at Groupon when he became obsessed with mobile gaming. “I would spend my bathroom breaks very productively playing a game called Clash Royale,” Fabian said. He eventually became one of the top 20 players in the world and streamed for up to 4,000 viewers on a daily basis, but he wasn’t making much money — that is, until fans started asking him to pay him for private coaching. In just six months, he made $40,000. When Fabian’s children wanted to get better at the Pokémon Trading Card game, he hired one of the best players in the world. “He offered to teach them for $20-an-hour, which is less than what we pay our babysitter,” Fabian remembered. He said he asked the player if he did Pokémon full-time, but the player said he worked a minimum wage job at a warehouse. That got Fabian thinking about building a business to let people in similar situations make a living off their gaming expertise. This past February, Metafy raised a $25 million Series A round, co-led by 776 and Tiger Global. Building in public

These founders landed early checks by being savvy about social media • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 31, 2022Posted in Campfire, couplet coffee, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Social, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, VentureNo Comments

On first blush, founders building a coffee brand, a social networking app, and a fintech-focused venture fund wouldn’t appear to have much in common. But at ZebethMedia Disrupt, the founders, together on stage, credited their early success in raising venture capital to their use of social media platforms. It’s an interesting and increasingly necessary ingredient. While one founder, Nik Milanović, who launched a small fintech-focused media company and an associated venture fund, happens to enjoy the kind of profile that VCs tend to notice (Stanford grad, biz dev experience at Google, white), the checks the other two founders raised are something of a statistical anomaly. Gefen Skolnick, the founder of coffee brand Couplet Coffee, is a woman; just 2.4% of venture dollars flowed toward women-led companies in 2021. For a Black founder like Josh Ogundu, whose app Campfire invites users to create and share 30-second audio stories associated with pictures on their phones, the odds of getting a check were an even more abysmal 1.3% in 2021. (For Latin and Black women founders, the chances of receiving venture funding in 2021 were closer to zero.) Though Ogundu and Skolnick made the point that going to esteemed schools and logging time at brand-name companies helped even the playing field (he attended both Michigan State and the University of Southern California and had a stint at TikTok; she attended UCLA and worked at Tesla, among other internships), all three suggested that savvy use of social media can do more than make it easier to connect with investors and customers — it can keep a founder and their brand relevant and accessible, too.

Remote work is here to stay. Here’s how to manage your staff from afar • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 30, 2022Posted in EC Future of Work, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Enterprise, mural, remote work, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, workboardNo Comments

Over the last two and a half years, remote and hybrid working has become the norm — a majority of employed Americans have the option of working from home for all or part of the week, and 87% of workers who were offered remote work embraced the opportunity heartily. While some companies are pushing for a return to the office, today’s strapped labor market is giving employees more power to push back for remote, or at least flexible, jobs. This isn’t just a pandemic response anymore — it’s a way of life, and it has the potential to make some businesses better. People who work from home have been reporting an uptick in their productivity levels without the distractions that come with an office — Oh, it’s Beth’s birthday. Cupcakes in the kitchen! But both employers and employees have reported some downsides to remote work. Isolation can make people feel lonely and disconnected, leading to mental health issues. Learning and collaboration have taken a hit without the human element of being in the same room. And it can be difficult to create and maintain a company culture remotely. Luckily, some seriously smart people have thought hard about how to address these challenges and make it work. We put a few of them onstage last week at ZebethMedia Disrupt, and while you can watch the whole video, here are some of their best insights. Be hyper-intentional when coming together IRL Two and a half years into the pandemic, people are “actually clamoring to spend more time together,” said Adriana Roche, chief people officer at Mural, during a panel discussion at Disrupt. Ironically, one of the main solutions to the woes of remote work is finding ways to bring staff together IRL. That might mean a couple of times per week in the office if everyone lives in the same city, but if the team is fully remote, companies have to be more intentional with how they plan monthly or quarterly off-sites.

3 founders discuss how to navigate the nuances of early-stage fundraising • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 30, 2022Posted in Alloy Automation, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, EC venture capital, fiveable, fundraising, Parthean, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Venture, venture capitalNo Comments

Fundraising isn’t a monolithic event but rather a series of meetings and pleasantries, each with their own vibe and nuance. Yet many pieces of fundraising advice to founders paint the process with a broad brush. We heard from three founders at ZebethMedia Disrupt last week: Amanda DoAmaral, co-founder and CEO of Fiveable; Arman Hezarkhani, founder of Parthean; and Sarah Du, co-founder of Alloy Automation, each of whom has raised in the extreme highs and lows of last 18 months. They spoke about navigating the process, what worked (and what didn’t) and how to customize your pitch to navigate the many subtleties of fundraising. For DoAmaral, it was important to spend time researching which investors may actually back her company. She said she’s had investors take meetings with her due to a warm intro despite having no actual intention to invest. “My co-founder and I got in a car and drove down to Tennessee thinking we’re gonna get this check. And this guy didn’t even trust me to like, be an attendee at this event. They’re not writing the check,” DoAmaral recalled. “People are not going to take me seriously if they’re not going to see me as someone that is their equal at all.” Du added that performing due diligence on potential backers beforehand is helpful, not only to find out whether they might actually invest in the company, but also if they will be good to work with. This is especially true for founders raising at the early stages who are looking at a long relationship ahead.

Crypto bear markets are a ‘great time’ to launch startups, industry execs say • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in bear market, Crypto, crypto startups, EC Blockchain, EC Cryptocurrency, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, visaNo Comments

There are other things to look at beyond crypto prices, the COO of Uniswap, Mary-Catherine Lader, said at ZebethMedia Disrupt last week. “Right?” She asked rhetorically. “Especially if you’re building something and you’re excited about the technology and its potential and not [viewing] crypto necessarily as an asset class.” Even though the crypto market cap is below $1 trillion, down about 55% from $2.2 trillion at the beginning of the year, ideas, startups, and big players are still entering the space. “I think many of the products in the next phase could get to a point where consumers are using a product without knowing that there’s crypto behind the scenes.” Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa “If you look at crypto market prices and pull out all of the general market decline […] what are you left with?” Brett Harrison, former president of FTX, asked during the panel. “I think you’re left with how much institutions are trading crypto and actual applications that are being built on crypto.” Compared to the 2018 crypto bear market, things have changed, Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said during the panel. “At the time there were questions of would anything exist outside of Bitcoin?” Today, there’s so much more for people to look at and build upon, including stablecoins, crypto infrastructure, or building a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized finance, Sheffield said.

Clubhouse’s Paul Davison on Twitter, the impact of hype and what happened • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in clubhouse, EC Media, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Hype, paul davison, Social, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

For most venture-backed social companies, a period of hypergrowth seems like it would be the dream. It means the app broke through the noise of thousands of others, resonated with a mass market of people and didn’t need to spend a penny on marketing. Clubhouse, however, offered a retort to that perspective. The app’s fall from peak, both in terms of daily active users and general fanfare among techies, has been intriguing after its splashy invite-only start. Paul Davison, Clubhouse co-founder and CEO, spoke about changes at the company at ZebethMedia Disrupt last week. “We had a couple of months of insane, silly, unsustainable 10x month-over-month growth,” Davison said. “I think what people might not appreciate is that Clubhouse has kind of moved into all of these different verticals, and they probably don’t appreciate the size of the community and the activity and the diversity and the range and all the conversations that are happening.” He added: “I don’t think hype is good, I don’t think extreme hypergrowth is good for a company. The ideal is to grow at a steady pace.” Let’s not hype up hype Davison described Clubhouse’s “hype moment,” during which the app grew users 10x month over month and took the No. 1 spot at the App Store in Japan, Hong Kong, Russia, Germany, Brazil and Italy. While the company was able to use that momentum to raise over $100 million in financing, with its latest known round closing in April 2021, Davison grounded the narrative. The co-founder said that the 10x growth lasted two months and spiked the app’s Sensor Tower metrics, which “shaped the narrative” when downloads began to slow down. In reality, the hype stressed the infrastructure, Davison admitted.

How to raise funds when you aren’t in the Bay Area • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, EC venture capital, fundraising, remote work, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, VentureNo Comments

Perhaps sitting perched somewhere in sunny Miami, Florida, is a founder wondering the best ways to fundraise for a company when situated outside a traditional tech hub like the Bay Area. They need not worry. Last week, Mike Asem from M25, Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund and Accel’s Rich Wong answered that question at ZebethMedia Disrupt. The consensus of the venture capitalists was that remote work accelerated the trend of VCs looking at emerging markets, founders and companies throughout the nation. That and social media — specifically Twitter — have made it easier to connect with people. To some, sliding into an investor’s DMs can be just as legitimate as diving into one’s network for a warm intro. “We noticed a couple of years ago, in looking at our own analytics, that most of our deals were coming through Twitter,” Yin said at Disrupt. “If I look at my portfolio, my companies who are active on Twitter actually do have an easier time raising money because investors feel like they know them.”

3 VCs explain how founders can stand out when pitching • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, EC venture capital, fundraising tactics, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, VentureNo Comments

Venture capitalists get flooded with startup pitches, which can make it difficult for founders, especially those building in crowded categories, to stand out. And while every investor is looking for something different, there are ways founders can improve their chances of getting noticed. Speaking at last weeks’ Disrupt 2022 conference, investors Annie Case, a partner at Kleiner Perkins; Sheel Mohnot, co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures; and Jomayra Herrera, partner at Reach Capital, said that the founders who manage to capture their attention are the ones who come to the pitch process prepared. Of course, this could mean a lot of things. Case said that it’s incredibly helpful when founders help investors prepare for their pitch meeting. When founders send over information before the pitch, or offer a preview of the deck, she can to go beyond surface-level questions right away, which leaves more time for in-depth questions, she said. That allows her to walk away from the meeting with more information, which could help a founder get a check down the line. If you’re starting a company, and there are three or four other companies that people would look at, I expect you to know intimate details about them. Sheel Mohnot, co-founder, Better Tomorrow Ventures For Herrera, just sending over a partial or basic pitch deck, or a demo, if relevant, can be wildly helpful. “I generally recommend having almost like a teaser version of the deck with enough data and information to give us a sense of where you are in terms of the journey of your company,” Herrera said. “Just enough information so that we come prepared to the meeting.” The three investors agreed that founders should come to the pitch meeting ready to answer questions about the team, progress and TAM. Mohnot said it’s a red flag when companies don’t seem to have thought through these potential questions, especially when it comes to competition. “If you’re starting a company, and there are three or four other companies that people would look at [in the space], I expect you to know intimate details about those companies,” Mohnot said.