Nextdoor Raised $75 Million in New RoundNextdoor, the social media platform for city neighborhoods, has raised $75 million at a valuation above the $1.1 billion level it reached in its last fundraising round in 2015, according to two people close to the situation. The precise valuation couldn’t be learned. But in August, the company authorized $75 million in new Series G shares at a price that was 28% above its previous round, according to a Delaware filing. That would peg its new valuation at close to $1.5 billion. Nextdoor spokesman Steve Wymer declined to comment. [ The Information ] Inciting a new futureSwati Mylavarapu and Matt Rogers are the definitive Silicon Valley power couple. Rogers, a cheerful, be-fuzzed technologist, co-founded Nest Labs. Swati, a sharp visionary, was at Square for four years before joining legendary investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner. Now they’re ready for act two. The pair have just launched their new investment platform, Incite, and are looking to the future with a timeline generally unheard of within the Valley. The bottom line? Matt and Swati are looking to fund world-changing startups no matter how long it takes to see a return on investment. [ Tech Crunch ] Kickstarting Pitch Deck: a party game that challenges you to make great pitches for terrible startupsFred Benenson (previously) just quit his job to make weird internet stuff, something he excels at: his latest is Pitch Deck, a kickstarted card game that uses a madlibs/Cards Against Humanity-style mechanism to challenge you to come up with excellent pitches for terrible startups. $25 gets you a set. It's a crowdfunder, so there's a chance you'll get nothing, but Fred's got a great track record for delivering. [ Boingboing ] AOL's former head of video has raised money to build a Facebook-plus-Yelp-plus-Tinder for immigrants
Ran Harnevo sold his startup 5min to AOL back in 2010. He eventually became head of AOL Video, before leaving in 2014 to run the music-centric social media app Bkstg. Now Harnevo is back for startup number three with Homeis, which aspires to build a digital community for immigrants in cities across the globe. [ Business Insider ] You Can’t Bullshit a Good VC, But You Can MAKE THEM BELIEVEBullshitting is telling prospective investors one story — what you think they want to hear and you’re not really committed to — while telling your team another story. Making Them Believe is articulating what your company has the chance to become, even if it’s dependent on lots of hard work and there’s lots of unknown between now and then. Remember, VCs are listening for what could happen if things go right, not wrong. [ Hunter Walk ] Step-by-Step Fundraising Tactics from the NYC Legend Who Raised $750MIn First Round’s recent State of Startups Survey of 869 venture-backed founders, we noted that over half said it took them 3 or more months to raise their last round, over a third said they raised less than they set out to, and nearly a quarter pitched 20+ firms. Basically, it’s a knock-down, drag-out process for nearly everyone. Now imagine doing that over two dozen times. That’s the experience NYC startup legend Kevin Ryan brings to the table. As founder or chairman of companies like DoubleClick, Gilt, MongoDB, BusinessInsider, and Nomad Health, he’s raised $750M in venture capital. “I’ve spent a lot of time successfully closing good deals with almost every VC you know,” he says. “But I’ve also been rejected over and over and over again.” [ First Round ] Groupon founder Andrew Mason is back with a cool new startup
Groupon founder Andrew Mason launched another new startup on Tuesday. It's called Descript. Descript takes an audio file, say a recording for a podcast, and automatically transcribes it in a few minutes using artificial intelligence. It then links every word on the transcribed word processing document to the original audio file. You can edit the audio file by editing the words in the transcription file. [ Business Insider ] This startup wants to solve 2 major problems with the gym businessAs CEO of the new fitness app POPiN, Dalton Han is trying to solve two problems for gyms and their users: expensive drop-in fees that make it difficult to develop a flexible fitness routine, and usage patterns that leave many gyms empty on weekday afternoons. POPiN, which launched in August, allows users to pay by the minute at participating gyms, which can cut the price for a 60-minute workout in half. The app currently gives users access to seven gyms in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. A former consultant for companies like Microsoft and Cisco, Han began developing the app with his co-founder and CTO, John Wu, in the summer of 2016. They knew that for the app to have any chance of success, they would have to convince gyms it wouldn't eliminate their ability to sell memberships. [ Business Insider ] Why is there a belief in Australia that SaaS-model startups shouldn’t hire sales staff?In the world of SaaS startups there seems to be a belief that investors are only interested in self-service sales models. The theory goes that when customers can sign up online with a credit card, this high-volume, high-velocity sales model allows for quick global scalability. On the other hand, enterprise sales is often frowned upon by Australian VCs as an expensive and slow go to market strategy. It’s true that for many businesses, investing in digital marketing and a seamless conversion funnel is the best approach to growing revenue. However, at AirTree Ventures we believe there are many ways to build a successful business and my colleague James Cameron has discussed the danger of applying a one size fits all go to market strategy. In AirTree’s portfolio, over 70 percent of our portfolio companies are B2B and very few rely solely on self-service sales to grow their customer base.Prior to joining the investment team at AirTree, I worked in enterprise sales. My first sales role was at a startup selling a SaaS fundraising platform to charities. More recently I worked at LinkedIn, selling to some of Australia’s largest corporates. I was incentivised to help my clients get the most value of their software solution, which ultimately reduced churn and increased expansion revenue. So how do you determine the right sales model for your SaaS business? What are the key considerations for investors when evaluating the appropriateness of your go to market strategy? [ Startup Daily ] Facebook bats back after a second former exec accuses it of negatively impacting societyYesterday, The Verge published comments made by investor and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, quoting his interview last month at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he echoed recent comments made by former Facebook president Sean Parker that the platform is having deleterious effects on society. Said Palihapitiya at Stanford, “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse. No cooperation. Misinformation. Mistruth.” It appears that Palihapitiya made the comments just a day or two after Parker broadcast his own warnings in an interview with Axios, telling interviewer Mike Allen that the thought process behind building the social media giant was: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” Added Parker at the time: “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.” [ TechCrunch ] Facebook Messaging VP David Marcus joins Coinbase boardSoutheast Fintech Venture Conference Keynote AddressHackers/Founders' Jonathan Nelson Says Venture Capital Is Broken. His Answer? An Ethereum-Based FundE784: Andrew Mason (Groupon) launches Descript audio editing & transcription for podcastersAI 100: The Artificial Intelligence Startups Redefining IndustriesBrazilian startup Creditas is revolutionizing credit in the world’s third largest lending market |