50 startups that will boom in 2018, according to VCs2018 is almost upon us and so it is once again time to predict which startups will take the tech industry by storm next year. Who better to ask than the startup experts, the VCs that watch the industry, guide the startups, hear their pitches, and invest in them? We reached out to a number of top VCs and asked them which startups will boom in 2018. We invited participation from investors from a variety of backgrounds and investing philosophies. This includes some of the top VCs in the Valley (Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Bessemer, Greylock Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia). We included VCs of note who specialize in seed and early rounds (8VC, Bloomberg Beta, BBG Ventures — which backs startups with at least one female founder.) We also asked some top VCs from the startup nation Israel (JVC, OurCrowd) and VCs that have been known for picking hits (like IVP's Somash Dash). [ Business Insider ] Do VC woes extend to portfolio companies? For Rothenberg, probably notAs VC brands go, Rothenberg Ventures has seen better days. The firm built up a reputation as an up-and-coming early-stage investor a few years ago, based on bold bets on virtual reality, a flashy marketing strategy and its well-connected namesake and founder, Mike Rothenberg. Between 2012 and 2016, the San Francisco firm participated in funding rounds for more than 100 early-stage companies, commonly investing alongside top-tier VCs. [ Tech Crunch ] This 26-year old is now Denmark’s youngest VC – “Stanford taught me ambition”While studying finance at Aarhus University, Christian Jantzen felt the well-trodden track leading to a corporate job or “evil” investment banking wasn’t for him. A few years – and an “eye-opening” Stanford exchange semester – later, 26-year old Christian Jantzen is launching his own venture capital fund, Futuristic.VC. [ Business Insider ] Can You Pass This Investor’s 3 a.m. Test?Kimmy Scotti, a founding partner at 8VC, specializes in technology companies with a focus on healthcare. She led investments in uBiome, Blink Health, and Honor Elder Care. Before professionally investing, Scotti co-founded Script Relief, a direct-to-consumer healthcare company, and Monthly Gift, a women’s health and wellness company. In a conversation with Fortune, Scotti discusses how her operating experience has helped her investment strategy, why she tells founders to call her in the middle of the night, and what “whisper networks” have done in the Valley. [ Fortune ] HAS THE SILICON VALLEY HYPE CYCLE RUN ITS COURSE?The social media boom, powered by the growth of mobile computing, is over. And while a glittering new technological age of artificial intelligence beckons, the current cycle seems bloated and fatigued. It’s no wonder venture capitalists are looking elsewhere. It is a strange feature of golden ages that they only seem apparent in retrospect. If you’re lucky enough to realize you’re in one, you’re probably late to the party. For Silicon Valley, that wasn’t yet obvious in 2014, amid an unprecedented surge in venture capital. Yik Yak, which I checked religiously as a college senior, was a surprise hit. Money flowed into other millennial-friendly apps, like Secret and Meerkat, which went briefly, spectacularly viral. The term unicorn, which had just been coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee was just coming into vogue. [ Vanity Fair ] Uber to disclose price on SoftBank deal early next week
What we can learn from the successes and failures of UnicornsThe term “unicorn” is commonly used to define a privately-owned company that is valued at $1 billion or more. Although named after a mythical creature, they have been appearing with increasing regularity and they provide lessons for businesses of all sizes. Since the label was first used in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to describe start-ups that reach the lofty heights of a $1 billion valuation, “unicorn” has come to signify new and disruptive businesses that capture the imaginations of consumers and investors alike. [ Medium ] WHY VCS FUNDAMENTALLY ASSESS FOUNDERS THE WRONG WAY, WHY VC NEEDS TO INNOVATE ON THE SCOUTING MODEL & WHY SAFE’S AND CONVERTIBLE NOTES ARE THE FUTURE OF INVESTING WITH ELIZABETH YIN, FOUNDER & GENERAL PARTNER @ HUSTLE FUNDElizabeth Yin is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Hustle Fund, as they describe, the ventue fund for hilariously early hustlers. Elizabeth is also the co-founder of HustleCon, a conference series for non-technical entrepreneurs to launch and scale their startups. Prior to Hustle Fund, Elizabeth was a Partner @ 500 Startups where she ran the 500 Startups seed program in Mountain View and where she and her partner saw over 20,000 startup decks. Before that Elizabeth was a successful operator, as the Co-Founder and CEO of Launchbit, an adtech platform that was acquired by BuySellAds. [ 20 Min VC ] The Paradise Papers suggest Chinese tech billionaire Lei Jun is connected to the world’s biggest bitcoin minerLei Jun amassed a $7 billion fortune by making stylish, affordable smartphones under the Xiaomi brand. He’s now one of China’s richest men, and is often considered China’s answer to Steve Jobs, for his emphasis on design and the wild success of Xiaomi handsets in a crowded market. It turns out he may be adding to his fortune via the lucrative world of bitcoin mining, through a connection to the world’s largest manufacturer of bitcoin-mining equipment, Beijing-based Bitmain. [ QZ ] 16 charts showing current trends in US venture capital |