The Greylock Minute | Spring 2017 - A quick update of Greylock's recent investments, portfolio news, and partner perspectivesEnterprise tech had an exciting start to 2017 when Cisco acquired AppDynamics a day before their planned IPO. In a reflection post, Asheem Chandna shares his journey meeting and working with the AppDynamics team since the very beginning. In other portfolio news, Verst launched their dynamic content publishing platform. Fast Company named Airbnb, GoFundMe, Dropbox and Musical.ly to their 2017 list of most innovative companies. And in March, Innovium announced a new $38.3M funding round upon their launch of TERALYNX, the world’s highest performance and most scalable ethernet switch silicon family. Greylock investment partners have also been in the news. The New York Times named Asheem Chandna in the top 20 venture capitalists worldwide. Digital Media Valuations Could Be Tough SellBuzzFeed and Vox are sitting on some outsized expectations from investors, based on The Information’s analysis of year-end revenue and valuations for venture-backed digital media companies. But the multiples are high across the board, raising questions about all these companies’ exit options. [ The Information ] The top 10 VC investors in the SaaS space - PitchBook SaaS companies have been an increasingly popular choice for investors over the past few years, with VCs pouring billions into the industry. Recent IPO filings from SaaS startups like Cloudera, Okta and MuleSoft suggest that backing companies using the model is a good bet. The Man Who Has Travis Kalanick’s EarAs Uber CEO Travis Kalanick tries to save his company’s reputation, he is again leaning heavily on his most indispensable executive: Emil Michael. Mr. Michael, who has run business development, fundraising and acquisitions at Uber since 2013, is Mr. Kalanick’s closest confidant and has been his go-between with everyone from frenemies like Google to celebrity investors like Jay-Z. [ The Information ] Sheryl Sandberg Pens Powerful Op-Ed on Equal Pay Day: 'It’s Just Plain Wrong'Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.Org, a nonprofit that supports working women, described the pay gap that exists between working men and women as "just plain wrong" in a powerful op-ed for USA Today. The article, which was published on Equal Pay Day Tuesday, outlines the fact that, on average, women were paid 80 cents for every dollar a man made in 2016. "If you break the pay gap down by race and ethnicity, it’s even worse: black women were paid 63 cents; Latinas, 54 cents for every dollar white men made," Sandberg writes. [ Time ] This new sentiment index aims to help founders time their fundraisingA new index aims to help consumer-oriented startup founders understand the health of the venture capital fundraising environment; specifically, when is a good time to seek funding — and when isn’t. How does it work? Created by the early-stage venture firm Goodwater Capital, the index starts by analyzing a trove of publicly available information, from the aggregate dollars raised by U.S.-based consumer tech startups during the current month, to related monthly M&A activity, to the amount of money VCs have raised in the previous year, to the amount of money they’ve invested in startups over the previous quarter. [ Tech Crunch ] The Top 100 Venture Capitalists - CB Insights ReportFor a second year, we worked with The New York Times and used the CB Insights Investor Mosaic algorithm to develop a data-driven ranking of the top venture capital partners. Here are the top 100.Square is in talks to buy the Yik Yak teamYik Yak, the once high-flying anonymous social network based on college campuses, appears to be heading toward its end. Payments company Square is in talks to acquire the company, sources tell The Verge. If a deal is reached, sources said, it’s likely to be structured as a so-called “acquihire,” in which Square acquires Yik Yak’s employees but does not continue to develop its technology. News that the company was seeking a buyer was first reported Tuesday by Fortune. Startups & Venture Capital in the United KingdomMuch 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? Trudeau Innovation Shift Already Underway as Ontario Tech BoomsCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled an “innovation budget” last month designed to help improve the country’s historically poor record at bringing ideas to market. The shift is already underway. Ontario joins Quebec as the country’s two most-populous provinces see a boom in start-ups and digital-job creation. [ Bloomberg ] |