When Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia stumbled, Benchmark’s Bill Gurley gave him this poem
By all commonly held standards in Silicon Valley, Nextdoor is a success story — the local social network is valued at more than $1 billion and expects to be used by 90 percent of U.S. neighborhoods by the end of this year. But the company wouldn’t exist if not for a failure and a poem.
Speaking on the latest episode of Recode Decode, Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia recalled how he and his co-founder Sarah Leary initially developed Fanbase, an almanac of pro and college
athletes, which Benchmark’s Bill Gurley invested in. But after a couple of years, the company fizzled and they went back to Gurley for a “humbling, embarrassing” conversation about failure.
[ Re/code ]
A visual summary of M&A activity in 1Q 2017 [datagraphic]
20VC: HOMEBREW’S HUNTER WALK ON WHY THERE IS NO SERIES A CRUNCH, HOW TO PACKAGE PORTFOLIO COMPANIES FOR THE NEXT ROUND & WHY THE BRIDGE ROUND IS NOT ALWAYS A NEGATIVE SIGN?
Hunter Walk is a founding partner @ Homebrew, one of Silicon Valley’s breakout seed funds of the last 5 years. They have investments in the likes of Shyp, the Skimm, Managed By Q just to name a few incredible companies. As for Hunter, prior to Homebrew, Hunter led consumer product management at YouTube, which he originally joined in 2003, managing product and sales efforts for Google Adsense.
Cendana Capital — which funds 15 top seed-stage groups — just raised a ton of capital
Michael Kim is pretty much killing it.
Seven years ago, when he first approached investors with the idea of creating a fund-of-funds that would invest in seed-stage, or so-called micro VC, funds, they were cool to the idea. In fact, it took Kim — formerly a partner with the venture firm Rustic Canyon Ventures — roughly two years to raise the firm’s $28.5 million debut fund. [ Tech Crunch ]
Startups & Venture Capital in the United Kingdom
Much is riding on the UK remaining the premier destination for European startups. In light of Brexit and the tremendous growth in other European markets — will London remain the city of choice for European entrepreneurs?
Startup School Online: First Lecture and Speaker List
We’re excited to announce that Startup School is now in session. You can watch the first lecture at startupschool.org. For this course, we are joined by some great speakers who want to help make startups be better startups. [ YC Blog ]
Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Owes About $25 Million to Blood-Testing Startup
Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes, whose once-$5 billion stake in her blood-testing firm has shriveled amid regulatory and legal challenges, also owes her company about $25 million, people familiar with the matter said. [ WSJ ]
25-Year-Old May Soon Give Hong Kong Its First $1 Billion Startup
Hong Kong may soon get its first billion-dollar startup, thanks to a 25-year-old entrepreneur whose company leases phones to travelers.
Tink Labs Ltd. is in the process of raising about $40 million and aiming for a valuation of more than $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The fundraising isn’t yet complete and the final figures could change, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
