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Flowers Software helps SMBs manage their workflows • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Automation, Enterprise, Flowers Software, La Famiglia VC, smb, Startups, workflow automationNo Comments on Flowers Software helps SMBs manage their workflows • ZebethMedia

Workflow automation may not be what gets you out of bed every morning, but it has long been a hot topic in the world of enterprise software. There are few businesses, after all, that don’t have dozens and dozens of repetitive workflows that are currently done manually that could be automated. Munich-based Flowers Software, which originally launched in 2019, is trying to put its own stamp on this field by offering a somewhat different approach from many of its competitors. The company today announced that it has raised a $3.2 million seed funding round led by La Famiglia VC, with participation from LEA Partners and Collective Ventures. A number of angel investors also participated, including Personio’s co-founder Ignaz Forstmeier, SAP Hybris’ founder Carsten Thoma, SevDesk founders Fabian Silberer and Marco Reinbold, and Ironhack co-founder Gonzalo Manrique. Image Credits: Flowers Software Founded by Andreas Martin and Daniel Vöckler, who both spent time working at a number of small and medium businesses, Flowers currently focuses its marketing on two use cases: invoice approvals and general approvals. But the idea behind the tool is to offer a highly flexible no-code workflow tool to automate virtually any repetitive business process. “When we founded Flowers, we already knew that we were going to solve this major problem because of our experience from our previous jobs, the different industries and company sizes, etc.,” said Martin. “What we learned is that there are tons of tasks that go wrong in every company literally every day. […] And unfortunately, since most tasks are in recurring workflows, they go wrong repeatedly. For all of those problems, you will find one tool that solves exactly this problem. So you can have 1,000 problems and 1,001 tools solving them. But Daniel and I didn’t want to create another single-solution tool.” Flowers team photo. Image Credits: Flowers Software Martin noted that many traditional workflow automation tools focus on the backend, while Flowers provides anyone in the company with tools to build these workflows but also access to a user interface to step through these workflows from beginning to end. He noted that this also helps to make information more accessible and transparent to everyone inside a company. And while users can integrate a lot of third-party tools, for many of the current use cases, teams are doing a lot of their work in Flowers themselves. The team actually started building Flowers as a general-purpose automation tool but found that simply giving its users all of this freedom only led to confusion. So after some trial and error, Flowers decided to build out a few templates for common use cases — invoicing being one of those — and with that, the service took off. What the team needs to do now — and what Flowers will use at least some of the new funding for — is building out templates for more use cases so it can expand its user base. The team also plans to expand its marketing efforts to go beyond its current core market of most German-speaking countries to more of Europe and North America. Image Credits: Flowers Software “We’re going to launch with different use cases in different countries, or service work for use cases in every country, but some countries have more problems with contracts and approvals, or travel expenses,” Martin explained. “Our highly adaptable software makes it possible for us to support those laws, regulations and compliance rules very easily because the tool is flexible enough.” Flowers Software was already cashflow positive early on in its history, but the team decided to raise now in order to be able to grow faster and capture more of the market. “We really want to push as hard as we can and scale as hard as we can,” said Martin. “Flowers is changing the game for SMBs in business efficiency, productivity and profitability with a different approach to workflow creation and automation that is resonating with many customers across industries,” said Judith Dada, general partner at La Famiglia VC. “With Flowers, companies finally have a software that adapts to the way they work, rather than a software that requires the customer to change. We’re impressed by the product and strong sales traction that Andreas, Daniel and the team have already acquired and are excited to support them as they scale to new markets.”

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For immigrant founders in the UK, office hours with VCs are rocket fuel • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Column, EC Column, EC DEI, EC Europe, investors, professional networking, Startups, United Kingdom, VentureNo Comments on For immigrant founders in the UK, office hours with VCs are rocket fuel • ZebethMedia

Lyubov Guk is a founding partner at Blue Lake VC. She supports early-stage international founders working in the U.K. Robyn Klingler-Vidra Contributor Robyn Klingler-Vidra is associate dean of global engagement and associate professor in entrepreneurship and sustainability at King’s Business School. Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe Contributor All three of us are immigrants to the U.K. We were each greeted with the classic “catch-22” of trying to open a bank account and finding a place to live: To get a bank account, you need an address, but to rent a flat, you need a bank account. This is just one of the (very minor) points of friction immigrants face when moving to a new country. Entrepreneurs who set up a business in a new country encounter more challenges. Lyubov’s own experiences as a Ukrainian immigrant in the U.K. gave her both great empathy for the trials immigrant founders face, and the belief that immigrants often make and build world-leading businesses. Beyond personal experiences, academic research seems to point to an almost inverse relationship between the contributions immigrant founders make and early acceptance by the ecosystem. Designing an international founders open office hours pilot With personal experience as her motivation, Lyubov piloted a program that would offer a softer landing for immigrant entrepreneurs in the U.K. The pilot was an “International Founders Open Office Hours” program that would help immigrant founders boost their social networks and local know-how by meeting with VCs in the U.K. Instead of the usual pitch format, the meetings were informal conversations that aimed to help founders build up this essential — and for immigrants, missing — social capital. The program was inspired by Playfair Capital and its Female Founders Office Hours. The initial start was rocky, as it coincided with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Lyubov and her Blue Lake partner, David Gilgur, were helping families and friends in Ukraine by day and drafting the program plan by night. Early on, there was the challenge of bringing VCs and partners on board. Blue Lake had been active for a few years but was still a new name in the investment ecosystem. Asking for investors’ time meant that we had to prove we could launch something impactful that key players would want to be a part of.

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Microsoft backs web3 game developer Wemade • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Crypto, Microsoft, StartupsNo Comments on Microsoft backs web3 game developer Wemade • ZebethMedia

Microsoft has backed Wemade, a popular video game developer that has made aggressive bets on blockchain in recent years, the latest sign of tech giants’ showing growing interest in web3. South Korea’s Wemade said in a press release that it has raised $46 million in a funding round from Microsoft, Shinhan Asset Management and Kiwoom Securities. It did not disclose the name of the funding round or its valuation. “This is a meaningful investment by reputable financial and strategic investors with proven track records,” said Henry Chang, CEO of Wemade in a statement. “Wemade and Wemix will continue to exert efforts to attract more capital and actively invest to build the global digital economy platform.” Founded over two decades ago, Wemade is best known for its sleeper hit title ‘The Legend of Mir,” which at one point had over 200 million signups. For the last few years, it has been exploring ways to incorporate blockchain technology into its new titles and offerings. It recently launched its blockchain Wemix3.0 to mainnet and launched a stablecoin and a DeFi platform. The company says it is aiming to “transform everyday games with blockchain technology and establish its Wemix coin as a key currency in the blockchain gaming space.” “A new economy platform NILE that supports NFT and DAO will be introduced soon as well. (EOD),” Wemade said in the press release. Scores of tech giants including Microsoft and Google and storied banks have made a series of investments in the web3 space in recent years. Microsoft is also an investor in ConsenSys, the firm behind MetaMask wallet and enterprise solutions such as Infura, as well as decentralized data warehouse Space and Time and NFT studio Palm, according to Web3 Signals. Google Ventures has backed fraud detection service Sardine, trading app Blockchain.com and NFT startup YugaLabs, according to the tracker.

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Blackbird’s latest $1B AUD fund signals maturation of Australian, New Zealand venture scene • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Australia, Blackbird, New Zealand, Startups, VentureNo Comments on Blackbird’s latest $1B AUD fund signals maturation of Australian, New Zealand venture scene • ZebethMedia

The Australian and New Zealand startup community will see a boost in funding this year. Blackbird, a VC fund based in the two south Pacific countries, on Wednesday closed a fund at over AUD $1 billion, which is about USD $640 million, which the firm says is Australia’s largest fund to date. This is Blackbird’s fifth fund, and it’s double the size of the VC’s last fund which closed in August 2020. Several institutional investors participated, including superannuation funds like AustralianSuper, Hostplus, Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, New Zealand’s sovereign wealth funds and New Zealand Growth Capital Partners Elevate fund, which is a government-backed fund. A decade ago, most Australian and in particular New Zealand institutional investors didn’t want to put their money anywhere near tech startups. Their support today signals a maturation of the Australia/New Zealand venture capital space. “[Superannuation fund] capital can go anywhere. It can go into the best Silicon Valley VCs,” Sam Wong, a partner at Blackbird, told ZebethMedia. “And so the fact that they are choosing to invest their money at this scale with an Aussie and Kiwi fund marks a moment for the ecosystem and shows that we have earned our right on the global stage to manage that capital.” According to Wong, it makes sense for superannuation funds to back the tech space because they have horizons in the decades and can afford to be patient. “What they really care about is high returns so people can retire in dignity,” she said. “And when you have that long-term horizon, you can seek higher return assets that don’t have liquidity profiles that, say, public markets do. And that’s exactly what we found in the Australian superannuation system — they love tech because it’s high growth, high return. It’s very long dated, and they don’t mind that it’s locked up for 10 years.” The fund is also supported by over 270 individual investors, many of whom are tech founders and operators that Blackbird backed through earlier funds, according to the firm. Those founders will support the fund both with their own capital, but also their expertise, knowledge and connections, said Wong. The total AUD $1 billion consists of three separate vehicles: an AUD $284 million (USD $182 million) core fund for pre-seed and seed stage Aussie companies, an AUD $668 million (USD $472 million) follow-on fund to support Blackbird portfolio companies anywhere from “Series A to the last round at Canva,” and a NZD $75 million (USD $44 million) dedicated New Zealand fund, which is also largely for pre-seed and seed stage companies. Blackbird prides itself on cutting the earliest checks, which could be anywhere from $25,000 for a small pre-seed to up to $5 million for a seed round, said Wong. The firm’s mandate is to invest in founders with an Aussie or Kiwi connection, which usually means they’re based in those countries, but often ends up extending to those who founded companies abroad. Around 40% of Blackbird’s portfolio companies are actually headquartered in the U.S., said Phoebe Harrop, a principal at Blackbird. The fund has already made 18 investments into startups in a broad range of industries from AI to manufacturing to e-commerce. Last month, Blackbird invested in Sonder, an employee and student wellbeing company, and Spice AI, a data and AI-driven infrastructure platform. Blackbird said it predicts tech companies will contribute 20% of Australia’s GDP by 2032, which would be up from 8.5% today, according to the Tech Council of Australia. “We’re here to change the culture of Australia and New Zealand’s ecosystems, to make a difference at a country level,” said Niki Scevak, partner at Blackbird, in a statement.

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Amazon expands music catalog from 2M to 100M songs for Prime subscribers • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Daily Crunch, Startups, Venture, venture capitalNo Comments on Amazon expands music catalog from 2M to 100M songs for Prime subscribers • ZebethMedia

To get a roundup of ZebethMedia’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. The discussion is on in the newsroom as to whether folks are eager to pay between $8 and $20 per month for their blue checks on Twitter. Alex’s take was particularly sharp… “Not in the mood to finance your vanity project,” indeed. — Christine and Haje The ZebethMedia Top 3 Startups and VC TouchBistro, an iPad-based restaurant management platform, secured $110 million in growth financing from Francisco Partners to accelerate its growth, expand its product pipeline and make some strategic acquisitions, Christine reports. How’s this for some dodgy rhymes: Prepare to amortize: Inflation may spell doom for R&D tax expensing Image Credits: Fancy/Veer/Corbis (opens in a new window) / Getty Images The U.S. federal government has made R&D tax credits available for decades, but a major change set to take place this year will impact startups across the board. Previously, R&D expenditures could be expensed up front, but now “those expenses will need to be amortized over 5 years in the case of domestic research, and 15 years for foreign research,” according to tax attorney Andrew Leahey. Because so many startups “incur the bulk of their R&D costs in their first year of operation,” many could wait “the equivalent of a lifetime” to recover those expenses. High inflation has stalled efforts to repeal the amortization requirement, so Leahey shares several tactics companies can use “to prepare for the possibility of the rule coming into effect.” Three more from the TC+ team: ZebethMedia+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Big Tech Inc. As always, we have all the Twitter news that’s fit to post. We promise to keep it to a minimum today because there is other fantastic news to share. However, we do want to point out that Elon Musk likes to work out his thought process in tweet form now, so news is changing as the wind blows. Here’s what you need to know today: Musk continues to talk up his plans for Twitter Blue and ad-free news articles (both by Ivan), while Amanda reports on the company’s chief customer officer Sarah Personette, who resigned today. The move is quite surprising, given that she tweeted positively about a conversation with Musk last week. Meanwhile, over at Mastodon, things are happening, Sarah writes. And we have five more for you:

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Catch these rising startups exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in blockchain, Crypto, Startups, TC Sessions: Crypto 2022, web3No Comments on Catch these rising startups exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

Even when a chill venture wind blows, you’ll find daring entrepreneurs forging ahead, and we’re here to highlight the outstanding early-stage startups in the world of blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFT and web3. You’ll find them exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami, and what better way to check them out than to buy a pass, get out from behind your screen and come talk to them in person? Check out the eight listed below. You can learn more about five more exhibitors here — and another five exhibitors here. Cityverse: Cityverse is a virtual overlay for a physical city. Powered by local news, a Cityverse connects the community through information, ideas and experiences. Lifo Inc: Tokenized CRM for web3. It aims to become the web3 equivalent of Salesforce. GreenCard: This startup offers digital payment options for cannabis purchases. Howlite: Aims to provide secure, transparent, inexpensive and easy-to-use payments using distributed ledger technology — where traditional payments meet web 3. String Blockchain: A layer-1 blockchain build designed for developers building dApps for everyday use. Poolit: Unlocks access to exclusive alternative investments for as little as $1. Ponds: A web3 copyright licensing platform designed for creators to license their digital content directly to end users. MARPs Club: Defines a new concept, “MARP” (Mass Arts Representative Piece), based on NFTs to accredit value to Mass Art’s artworks Don’t miss your chance to meet, connect and network with some of the most creative early-stage startups bent on redefining the future of finance, blockchain and the web at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17. Buy your pass now and save $150 — before the early-bird pricing disappears. We’ll see you in Miami! Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

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Heylo wants to help you build your own little social circles for events • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in funding, Social, Startups, worklife venturesNo Comments on Heylo wants to help you build your own little social circles for events • ZebethMedia

If you’ve worked at large tech companies, you’ve probably seen that a bunch of groups show up, whether officially or unofficially. Google calls ’em Employee Resource Groups (ERG), Facebook has its internal version of Facebook with groups, and other orgs have systems that range from listservs that have been running since the 1990s, to internal Slack groups, or perhaps a Mighty Network or two. Heylo just raised some money to bring these types of special interest groups to startups and companies of all sizes, giving employees a way to help each other in novel ways. “After working at Google and other corporate jobs for a decade, a sense of purpose was missing in my life. I tried new activities — running, reading and even teaching myself how to do a backflip. But after years, I still felt empty because I was pursuing these activities alone,” said Eric Winters, Heylo’s CEO & founder, in an interview with ZebethMedia. “I tried to join groups, but struggled to belong. After years of searching, I finally found the right group. It changed my life. I had experiences I could never imagine and met people I never knew existed. Too many people feel the way I did — a little lost, a little lonely. I found my calling by helping people belong to great groups.” Heylo was founded in 2019, by Xooglers (that’s ex-Googler) Eric Winters and Brandon Pearcy. They bootstrapped the company to profitability, and today announced they raised $1.5 million in a round led by Worklife Ventures to bring their product to the whole world. One of the core problems the group solves is payments; if you’re arranging an outing at work, receiving payments in cash or Venmo is possible, of course, but that gets messy once you scale your event past 30 or so; who has paid, who hasn’t, what-have-you. In addition to payments, the software streamlines group chats, event details, DMs among members, booking and waitlist features, etc. The lead investors are Charles Hudson from Precursor Ventures and Brianne Kimmel from Worklife. “Before the pandemic, millions of people had much simpler lives. They went to an office every day and their co-workers were often their most important relationships. Now, with remote work, people have lost that workplace camaraderie and must proactively cultivate relationships based on common interests,” said Brianne Kimmel of Worklife Ventures. “New kinds of social groups are on the rise: running groups, kayaking groups, book clubs, roller skating, volleyball, it’s endless. I see Heylo as being the glue and toolkit that makes these groups easy to organize and manage. More importantly, I see Heylo as a catalyst for the creation of groups that wouldn’t otherwise exist.” “Charles has been a seed investor for over 20 years. He has seen all the pitches and advised companies large and small. Moreover, he’s a sincere and genuinely good person. He knows everyone, and you can’t find anyone to say a bad thing about him. We are huge beneficiaries of his expertise and network,” said Winters. “Brianne is a leader herself. Worklife brings people together, literally, in their community spaces. Brianne has been instrumental in hiring and go-to-market strategy. She encourages us to think big and make a meaningful impact on the leaders we support.” By day, Josh Goldman is a doctor at UCLA. By night, he is the co-founder of the Electric Athletic Club, a social fitness group. He has grown EAC to multiple cities throughout the US and unites his members through active, social lifestyles. Image Credit: Heylo / Michael Rodmaker The company’s near-term goal is to help group members get so much value from their group that they are happy to pay for it, in turn using that as leverage not only to provide resources for leaders, but it increases participation and engagement from members. Under the mantra “We value what we pay for,” Heylo has helped groups launch memberships, host paid events and receive donations. The company claims that in many cases, its platform offered the first time for leaders to receive meaningful money from their group. “Heylo has collected over $500,000 for our initial cohort of leaders, and their groups are growing and engaged more than ever,” says Winters, He explains his longer-term vision: “Heylo will change the paradigm for leaders. No longer will leading a group be a cost center in their life. It can become a financially viable pursuit — one that is equally fulfilling and entrepreneurial. We want to inspire the next generation of creators to lead groups. The world doesn’t need more content or online products. We need more leaders who can build community and make a positive impact on their members.”

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Samsara Eco raises $54M AUD for its “infinite plastic recycling” tech • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Australia, Climate, green tech, plastics, recycling, Samsara Eco, StartupsNo Comments on Samsara Eco raises $54M AUD for its “infinite plastic recycling” tech • ZebethMedia

Samsara Eco, an Australian startup that uses enzyme-based technology to break down plastic into its core molecules, announced today it has raised $54 million AUD (about $34.7 million USD) in Series A funding. The company is planning to build its first plastic recycling facility in Melbourne later this year, with the target of full-scale production by 2023. Investors in the round include Breakthrough Victoria, Temasek, Assembly Climate Capital, DCVC and INP Capital. Existing investors like deep-tech fund Main Sequence, Woolworths Group’s W23 and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) also participated. Samsara launched last year in partnership with the Australian National University. ZebethMedia last covered the startup when it raised $6 million earlier this year. The company’s enzyme-based technology breaks down plastics into their molecular building blocks to turn into new plastic products—which can in turn be broken down again, creating what Samsara refers to as infinite plastic recycling. Samsara’s new funding will be used for expansion, building its library of plastic-eating enzymes and funding its first commercial facility, which it says will be able to infinitely recycle 20,000 tons of plastic starting in 2024. It will also grow its engineering team and expand operations into Europe and North America. CEO and founder Paul Riley said that since March, when Samsara’s previous round of funding was announced, it’s been focused on expanding its enzyme library, which is now capable of depolymerizing several different types of plastic. Its also worked with partners to develop market solutions using Samsara’s plastic-recycling tech. Samsara’s tech is capable of breaking down plastic into its core molecules in minutes, regardless of color, type and state, said Riley. Its Melbourne facility will first recycle PET plastic and polyester, which Riley says accounts for about a fifth of plastic created annually. Its long-term mission is to recycle mixed bale plastics and advance its tech to the point where every kind of plastic can be infinitely recycled. “Given the scale of the plastics crisis, our vision was always to scale infinite plastic recycling as fast as possible,” he said. “For us, this capital raise was about partnering with those that bring industry expertise and commitment to addressing one of the world’s most prominent climate challenges—which is fossil-made plastic—and, in the process, reducing plastic pollution by closing the loop.” Samsara is also preparing for the launch of its first enzymatically recycled packaging, in partnership with Woolworths Group. The packaging will be on shelves in Woolworths’ supermarkets next year, moving the company toward its goal of recycling 1.5 million tons of plastic per year by 2030. Woolworths Group has committed to turning the first 5,000 tons of recycled Samsara plastic into packaging for its branded products, like vegetables and bakery trays. Riley said Samsara’s tech is highly tolerant of contamination and can recycle colored plastics, mixed plastics and multi-layered plastic, which means it has applications across a wide range of industries, including packaging, fashion, automative, medical, electronics and construction. The fashion industry accounts of about 10% of global CO2 emissions. Australia is the second-highest consumer of textiles per person in the world, Riley said, which gives Samsara the opportunity to recycle discarded fast fashion pieces in the form of mixed fiber textiles, reducing the amount of clothing that ends up in landfills. “As we expand our library of plastic-eating enzymes, the opportunity for infinite plastic recycling will continue to grow across all these industries, meaning we’ll never have to produce plastic from fossil-fuels again,” Riley said.

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2022 R&D tax prep, social media for founders, managing remote teams • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in EC roundup, Enterprise, Startup Accelerator, Startups, Tax law, tech layoffs, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, VentureNo Comments on 2022 R&D tax prep, social media for founders, managing remote teams • ZebethMedia

As director of Techstars’ startup pipeline, Saba Karim spends much of his time touting the ways entrepreneurs can benefit by joining an accelerator. But is it the right choice for every founder? After he posted a thread on Twitter offering several rationales explaining why some should definitely avoid them, I invited him to adapt it for a TC+ guest post we published yesterday. “Keep in mind that funding will solve your money problems, but it won’t solve everything else,” he writes. Full ZebethMedia+ articles are only available to membersUse discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription “You’ll still need to figure out how to acquire customers, find the best talent, build an incredible product, assemble a great advisory board and get to product-market fit.” His article confirms a suspicion I’ve long harbored: many entrepreneurs pursue accelerators so they can gain access to investors, score free publicity, or receive positive reinforcement for their idea. But none of those are determining factors for success. “If you’re not living and breathing your startup, you’re going to struggle anyway,” says Karim. If you have information, knowledge or experience to share that could help early-stage startup founders, investors and workers make better decisions, please review our submission guidelines and drop us a line. Thanks very much for reading, Walter ThompsonEditorial Manager, ZebethMedia+@yourprotagonist These founders landed early checks by being savvy about social media (L-R) Connie Loizos, Silicon Valley Editor, ZebethMedia, Nik Milanović, Founder, This Week in Fintech; General Partner, The Fintech Fund, Joshua Ogundu, CEO, Campfire and Gefen Skolnick, Founder, Couplet Coffee. Image Credits: Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for ZebethMedia Is there a correlation between being extremely online and a founder’s ability to fundraise? According to three entrepreneurs Connie Loizos spoke with at ZebethMedia Disrupt, a social media presence that blends aspects of your business and personal lives can “make it easier to connect with investors and customers.” Nik Milanović (founder, This Week in Fintech), Gefen Skolnick (founder, Couplet Coffee) and Josh Ogundu (CEO, Campfire) talked about the benefits and downsides of using TikTok, Twitter and other platforms to build authentic personal and business brands. “I even tweeted yesterday that it was kind of not a good day as a founder, and it was really nice and people engaged with that,” said Skolnick. “I don’t believe in constantly showing that things are good. Some days things are just not good.” How to effectively manage a remote team during wartime Image Credits: Anna Fedorenko / Getty Images “There are a lot of studies about crisis management on the web, but none of them tell us how to manage a company during times of war,” according to Alex Fedorov, CEO and founder of Ukrainian startup OBRIO. Prior to Russia’s invasion, “our company had never seen a real crisis,” he writes in a post that presents the six methods his company used to maintain continuity while protecting workers. “Training to manage stress, anxiety and personal finances will help your employees build the needed knowledge and respond to tough situations.” 3 founders discuss how to navigate the nuances of early-stage fundraising Image Credits: Kelly Sullivan / Getty Images Founders who have raised funds for early-stage startups in the last year have generally had an easier time than people seeking Series A money (or later). Then again, “easy” is such a relative term. At ZebethMedia Disrupt, Rebecca Szkutak spoke to three entrepreneurs to learn more about how they adjusted their expectations and tactics as they approach investors during a downturn: Amanda DoAmaral, co-founder and CEO, Fiveable Arman Hezarkhani, founder, Parthean Sarah Du, co-founder, Alloy Automation Prepare to amortize: Inflation may spell doom for R&D tax expensing Image Credits: Fancy/Veer/Corbis (opens in a new window) / Getty Images The U.S. federal government has made R&D tax credits available for decades, but a major change set to take place this year will impact startups across the board. Previously, R&D expenditures could be expensed upfront, but now, “those expenses will need to be amortized over 5 years in the case of domestic research, and 15 years for foreign research,” according to tax attorney Andrew Leahey. Because so many startups “incur the bulk of their R&D costs in their first year of operation,” many could wait “the equivalent of a lifetime” to recover those expenses. High inflation has stalled efforts to repeal the amortization requirement, so Leahey shares several tactics companies can use “to prepare for the possibility of the rule coming into effect.” Remote work is here to stay. Here’s how to manage your staff from afar Image Credits: Kelly Sullivan / Getty Images Before the pandemic, most startup workers had the same experience on their first day: set up a new laptop, fill out some onboarding paperwork, then start gathering intel on the best places to grab lunch near the office. Now that so many teams are hybrid or fully remote, companies are learning the importance of fostering company culture and community from day one, a topic Rebecca Bellan delved into at ZebethMedia Disrupt with three experienced managers: Adriana Roche, chief people officer, Mural Deidre Paknad, CEO and co-founder, WorkBoard Allison Barr Allen, angel investor, Trail Run Capital “The biggest learning for us over the last three years was that it’s very difficult to really build expertise in a domain or a subject through Zoom,” said Paknad. How our startup made it through 2 recessions without relying on layoffs Image Credits: Aaron Black (opens in a new window) / Getty Images So far this year, about 45,000 tech workers have been laid off. If that’s hard to visualize, imagine a sold-out Mets game at Citi Field in New York City. Cutting staff is standard operating procedure during a downturn, but Sachin Gupta, who leads sales, marketing and general operations for HackerEarth, says his company has weathered two recessions without resorting to mass firings. “At any given time, our staff portfolio operates at about 90% of what we consider ideal,” he says. “Think of this like the distance

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