Many big companies in the fintech world cut jobs in the past month. And yet Stripe’s announcement it would lay off 14% of its workforce still made a splash, proving that unicorns and decacorns are not immune to the challenging economic and fundraising conditions. The Stripe news closely follows Chime confirming this week that 12% […]
Education options during and after incarceration have never been particularly extensive, despite the best intentions of educators. Emerge Career is working on changing that and its early success in putting formerly incarcerated folks to work is attracting investment from both VCs and government programs. It was only August when Emerge first appeared as it came […]
Are you ready to launch a bajillion-dollar startup? Before you start: Are you planning to build a centaur, a unicorn or perhaps a decacorn? Startup pitching has become an existential drama, in part because so many founders exaggerate the size of the total addressable market (TAM) in which they hope to compete. At ZebethMedia Disrupt, […]
You’d be forgiven for expecting public fintech companies that facilitate consumer trading to be under pressure this week. And yet, after reporting earnings, the share prices of two pandemic-era highfliers gained ground. Coinbase and Robinhood up? In this economy? Yes. Of the out-of-fashion tech sectors, consumer trading has to be among the most out of […]
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 […]
As a startup, when you’re trying to stay as lean as possible, outsourcing is the name of the game; if you can get someone else to do the work for you (and manage the team, deal with hiring and HR, etc.), that’s a win. The major exception is anything that creates core intellectual property and […]
Surfe, the startup that was originally named Leadjet, is an interesting browser extension if you spend a lot of time on LinkedIn and are tired of switching between your CRM and the professional social network. When you install Surfe’s browser extension, you get some nifty syncing features between your CRM and LinkedIn. For instance, you […]
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Oh what a week. What a week. Things are busier than ever at ZebethMedia, where we’re coming out of our post-conference stupor and charing straight back into a packed news cycle. Sure, Musk is […]
Ashish Kakran Contributor Ashish Kakran, principal at Thomvest Ventures, is a product manager/engineer turned investor who enjoys supporting founders with a balance of technical know-how, customer insights, empathy with challenges and market knowledge. More posts by this contributor Here’s where MLOps is accelerating enterprise AI adoption Remember the cable, phone and internet combo offers that […]
Danish startup Pleo has announced that it plans to lay off around 15% of the company’s workforce. As the company currently has nearly 1,000 employees, it could affect up to 150 people. Pleo develops expense management tools for SMBs around Europe. “I’ll be honest. Pleo today, at the point of almost 1,000 employees and with […]
