Want to found a start-up? These are the books you should read first, a top VC saysBill Gurley's investment firm, Benchmark, has made some big bets that paid off. The firm was an early investor in Instagram, Quora, Snap, Uber, Grubhub and Glassdoor, just to name a few. He also reads two books a month and writes prolifically, and might someday even pen a book of his own. The key to success is often information gathering, Gurley said on Thursday from the LAUNCH Festival in San Francisco. [ CNBC ] Inside The Global Q1 2017 VC MarketThe first quarter of 2017 was a period of transition for the global venture capital ecosystem. There are signs that the slight downturn in venture capital financing activity, brought by the fourth quarter of 2016, is reversing course. However, certain stages of venture financing have continued to contract in the first quarter of 2017. Using reported data and projections from Crunchbase, this report from Crunchbase News takes the pulse of the global venture capital ecosystem. It focuses on the numbers behind investment and liquidity—of Money In versus Money Out. [ Crunchbase ] Freestyle Capital raised a new $90 million fund and promoted Jenny Lefcourt to general partnerFreestyle Capital has raised its fourth fund to invest in early-stage startups. This time around the firm is increasing the fund size to $90 million and promoting Jenny Lefcourt to general partner. Freestyle was founded by Josh Felser and Dave Samuel, serial entrepreneurs who had previously built and sold a couple of companies together. After a short period of angel investing, the two raised their first fund of $26 million in 2011 and have added a new fund roughly every two years ever since. In 2013 the fund grew to $40 million, and they increased it again with their $60 million Fund III in 2015. For Fund IV, Freestyle upped the ante and raised $90 million, in part so that it could put Lefcourt on an equal footing with the founding partners. [ Tech Crunch ] Inside Blue Apron’s Meal Kit MachineThe company has built an impressive high-tech operation but is spending heavily to lure customers who are always a bad experience away from bailing. [ Bloomberg ] ANGELLIST’S NAVAL RAVIKANT ON WHY SEED IS NOT ABOUT PICKING WINNERS BUT ELIMINATING LOSERS, WHY MICRO VC IS THE RETURN OF TRADITIONAL SERIES A & WHY WE WILL SEE THE UNBUNDLING OF TRADITIONAL VC BRANDSNaval Ravikant is the CEO and a co-founder of AngelList, where the world meets startups either to find great jobs, invest in startups or raise funding. Before AngelList, he co-founded Epinions, which went public as part of Shopping.com, and Vast.com. He is an active angel investor and has invested in more than 100 companies, including more than a few “unicorn” mega-successes. His deals include Twitter, Uber, Yammer, Postmates, Wish, Thumbtack, and OpenDNS, which Cisco just bought for $635 million in cash. [ 20 Minute VC ] Startup Mechanics - Kirsty NathooKirsty Nathoo is a Partner and the CFO at Y Combinator. She has worked with thousands of companies through all stages of their life; from incorporation to hiring to fundraising. In this lecture, Kirsty will talk about Startup Mechanics. Why Squarespace's Founder Finally Raised $39 Million After Holding Out for 6 YearsIn 2016, Anthony Casalena's company generated more than $200 million in revenue, but the founder of website-building platform Squarespace doesn't want to spend a penny he doesn't have to. How did you know your idea could be a viable business?I started programming Squarespace in 2003. Originally, I wasn't intending to start a company. I was creating it because I wanted to make a website for myself, and I was really frustrated that it required so many kinds of software. I didn't understand why all those things weren't in one place. I quickly realized that the thing I was making for myself was something other people could use. You asked your dad for $30,000 to buy servers for the business. How did that conversation go?My dad recalls some version of his saying to me, "We've always supported you. We're always ready to back your ideas." I remember it more like a huge fight. He didn't understand why I needed two servers instead of one. I have to credit my mom a little bit for helping me talk him into it. [ Inc. ] Full transcript: Uber reporter Johana Bhuiyan on Too Embarrassed to AskIn which we answer your questions about whether Uber is evil. Startups worship the young. But research shows people are most innovative when they’re olderWhile Silicon Valley had peddled the image of the 20-something, sweatshirt-wearing, college-dropout genius as the model for creativity in the 21st century, research shows that it is, in fact, older people who are more creative and productive. For example, a 2016 study (pdf) by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation that looked at the demographics of over 900 individuals who have made high-value meaningful, marketable contributions to technology-heavy industries in the US. Why Venture Capitalists Are Excited About This Contact Lens StartupAs with so many startup origin stories, Simple Contacts’ was conceived because one of its founders was annoyed. The problem was simple. It was 2015, and Joel Wishkovsky had run out of contact lenses. He didn’t have time to physically go to the doctor, so he filmed himself doing a visual acuity test at his local drugstore, sent it to an ophthalmologist friend, and got a prescription a few minutes later. It was easy and eye-opening: Most of his annual visits could probably be done this way. [ Fortune ] |