Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures: How to pitch to VCs, best founders, anti demo day, pro IPO
This Week In Startups - Upfront Ventures’ Mark Suster shares secrets from both sides of the table: advice for pitching to VCs, best founder qualities, investing in lines not dots, skipping demo day, missing Uber, being pro-a16z & pro-IPO.
Acentua Ventures - THE VENTURE CAPITAL FIRM THAT WASN’T THERE
Asenqua Ventures has a shady history, and a fictional present. In 2012, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist Albert Hu was convicted of a financial fraud that stretched from Silicon Valley to Hong Kong. Today, he is locked up in the minimum security wing of Lompoc federal prison—inmate #131600-111—without access to the Internet. But, somehow, his bogus investment firm has come back to life.
On the surface, Asenqua Ventures appears to be legitimate. It has a website. It has a working voicemail system and lists a Northern California office address. It has distributed multiple press releases via PRNewswire, which were then picked up by reputable media organizations. It is included in financial industry databases like Crunchbase, PitchBook, and S&P Capital IQ. Its senior managers have LinkedIn profiles. [ Fortune ]
Why did Postmates hire Silicon Valley’s most famous bankers only to raise cash from its existing investors?
Back in March, Recode reported that delivery startup Postmates had hired Qatalyst, the famed Silicon Valley investment bank known for helping internet companies find acquirers. But six months later, Postmates still hasn’t been sold.
Instead, Postmates will likely raise an investment of at least $100 million, TechCrunch first reported and Recode has confirmed. [ Recode ]
How the Founder of Change.org Stopped Worrying About Getting Rich
Ben Rattray, founder of Change.org, describes the moment he decided to leave behind a career in finance and figure out a way to empower social change. [ Inc. ]
Mark Cuban Is Offering Donald Trump $10 Million. There’s a Catch
"No one else is in the room to help. Just me, you and a broadcast crew" In a series of tweets on Friday, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban challenged Donald Trump to an interview, offering to give $10 million to the charity of Trump’s choice if he could grill the Republican nominee on his policies for four hours. [ Time ]
This Is How Much Engineers Make at Airbnb, Uber, and Snapchat
The best-compensated programmers work at Airbnb, where, on average, they earn $312,000 annually in salary, equity, and various bonuses, according to data from Paysa. Software engineers across the nation make $104,000 a year on average, but for those working at the top tech companies in the world, that's just the start. New data released Tuesday shows that the average coder working for the likes of Apple, Amazon, Uber and others easily make more than $200,000 when salary, equity and bonuses are all added up. At the top of the charts is Airbnb, which pays its average engineer a total compensation of $312,000 per year, according to a report by The Information. [ Inc. ]
VENTURE CAPITAL JOBS
Venture - Sourcing Associate, Manhattan, NY
Director of Operations - Cache Ventures, LA, US
ANALYST / SENIOR ANALYST - FINANCE, M&A (VENTURE CAPITAL) - Hollister Staffing, Boston, US,
Venture Capital, Foreign Investments - Soho Ventures, NY, US,
Strategic Business Development Manager - Amazon Payments, Seattle, WA
Innovation Intelligence Analyst III - Enterprise Innovation Team - Fannie Mae Corp, Washington, DC
Consulting, Recruiting, Venture Capital,Business Development - Copper Delta Capital, Florida, US
