LAUNCH Angel Summit: Alfred Lin of Sequoia on mission-driven founders, seed stage strategies, AI
Jason interviews industry veteran Alfred Lin. In this intimate fireside chat, Alfred shares insights into the stepping stones of his journey from Venture Frogs, to Zappos, to Sequoia Capital, where he is currently writing checks to some of the most influential startups in Silicon Valley. Alfred spends a large portion of the talk explaining why he focuses on founders who are on a “mission”. He backs his argument with examples of the types of founders and CEOs who make millions, if not billions, of dollars and still choose to continue working because they are on a mission, and that mission goes beyond just making lots and lots of money. Investment strategies from Seed to Series D, the future of venture capital, and the importance of unanimity among partners are all topics covered in detail in this special episode of TWiST.
Stitch Fix has confidentially filed for an IPO
Stitch Fix has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, setting itself up for another big test for the IPO market in the near future, sources tell TechCrunch.
While we don’t know exactly when Stitch Fix will go public, we do know that a handful of companies are planning to go between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Stitch Fix only recently hired its CFO, Paul Yee, in June — so it’s possible that they will push this a little further out. This marks the beginning of the official beginning of the process ahead of the S-1 filing where the company will formally disclose its financials. Startups are allowed to file confidentially for IPOs under the JOBS act signed in 2012, allowing them to test the waters prior to formally releasing their company’s inner workings. [ Tech Crunch ]
Laurene Powell Jobs is buying the Atlantic magazine
Laurene Powell Jobs, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist, is acquiring a majority stake in the Atlantic magazine. Jobs, in a statement, called the Atlantic “one of the country's most important and enduring journalistic institutions,” and cited the links between her organization, the Emerson Collective, and the Atlantic’s founder, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who “created a magazine whose mission was to bring about equality for all people.”
David Bradley, who bought the Atlantic for $10 million almost two decades ago, will continue to own a minority stake and remain chairman for the next three years. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. [ Recode ]
Redfin goes public, VCs wait anxiously
Redfin, an Internet-enabled residential real estate brokerage, has raised $138 million in its IPO. The Seattle-based company priced 9.23 million shares at $15 per share (above $12-$14 range), for a fully-diluted market value of around $1.56 billion. It will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol RDFN. Redfin's venture backers include Greylock (12.4% pre-IPO stake), Madrona Ventures (11.4%), Tiger Global (10.5%), DFJ (10.2%), Vulcan Capital (10%) and T. Rowe Price (7.1%). [ Axios ]
Five Tips for Making the Most of Your Product Launch
Natalie Bartlett, General Catalyst
Most founders never feel ready. In most cases, having an MVP you’re proud of where you think you can learn something from shipping it is a good sign that you’re ready. For a consumer facing company, this may mean allowing public access — publishing on the app store, opening up your website, or allowing orders for the hardware. For a b2b company, this may mean allowing a larger set of users within a target customer to access the product, or moving beyond your first pilot to a larger set of potential customers.
Ben Sun, GP at Primary Venture Partners
Given the importance of last-mile logistics to today's customer experience, smart access has become mission-critical to the growth and success of NextGen Commerce businesses. Ben Sun, GP at Primary Venture Partners, writes on the partnership announced earlier this month between enterprise-grade smart access control platform Latch teamed up with Jet.com to make deliveries easier for customers in urban areas. Through this partnership, residents of 1,000 buildings in New York City will get free access to Latch, which enables them to use their phone as a key, grant access to guests, and have packages delivered securely without needing to be home.
How a female founder who spoke up about sexual harassment in tech thinks venture capitalists can solve the problem
In the past month, a conversation has been raging on the sexual harassment of women in tech. As one of the women who spoke out on the record, I want to focus less on what’s happened, and more on how we move forward from here and drive meaningful change. At the end of the day, our goal is to ensure that women and other underrepresented groups have equal opportunities for funding. [ Business Insider ]
VC investment-to-exit ratio in the US at record high
Opting to raise more funds rather than prioritizing an exit seems to be an increasingly popular route for startups. According to data from the 2Q PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, the number of US venture capital investments for every VC-backed exit reached a record high in the first half of 2017—landing at 11.3x. For the 3,917 VC investments completed in 1H, there were just 348 exits. [ PitchBook ]
6 of the most valuable startups founded by celebrities
Plenty of celebrities have invested in startups—Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Aniston, Jay Z, Leonardo DiCaprio, to name a few—but several have gone a step further and founded their own companies. Does acting prowess translate into the ability to lead a startup? We’ve looked at a selection of celebrity-founded private companies and gauged their financial health. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the startups in question aren’t exactly tech-centric. In fact, it appears celebs tend to gravitate toward the ecommerce and “lifestyle website” realm. [ PitchBook ]
PayPal co-founder Luke Nosek leaving Founders Fund, reportedly for SpaceX-focused fund
Founders Fund just lost one of its founders. Luke Nosek, known for starting PayPal with Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Ken Howery, is off to start something new. Known as a member of the “PayPal Mafia,” Nosek has stayed in contact with Musk as a director of SpaceX, the space exploration company. As Axios first reported, he’s launching an investment firm called Gigafund that will reportedly help Musk’s SpaceX raise capital. It isn’t clear if Nosek played a role in a new $350 million round of funding for SpaceX that was discovered in public filings earlier this week by the Equidate, a marketplace for private company stock. [ Tech Crunch ]
Once Google’s youngest employee, this woman just unveiled a new search company that might make Google worried
Searching on Google can often feel like a useless pursuit. Type something into the search box, and millions of results pop up with endless information that can take hours to sort through. San Francisco-based startup Node wants to change that.
Led by founder and CEO Falon Fatemi, Node emerged from stealth on Tuesday ready to take on its lofty goal of changing the way we discover information. By using AI to connect you or your business with the right opportunity at the right time, Node wants to "accelerate serendipity" on the web. [ Business Insider ]
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