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Month: December 2020

2020: The Year that Contained Multitudes

by jlk
This post is by jlk from The Barefoot VC

There were days this past year that felt like decades, and days that flew by. I can’t quite remember another year of my life that was filled with so much grief and sadness but also hope. Hope for a future that will be better than the past, where my life’s work of creating equitable opportunities for all may actually materialize.

Both the grief and hope come from the same place – a system that finally broke after years of heavy weight born by the masses. I am a venture capitalist and believe in new ventures and capitalism. I do believe both, enabled by technology and human talent, can lead to a true meritocracy – but haven’t been applied to do so in the past. This is the primary reason I started my own VC fund almost 8 years ago, to fulfill that promise. This is the reason I became interested in crypto at first sight – the promise that we could provide more equitable access to assets, broader participation in the world economy, and harness the abilities of everyone according to their own innate talents. This is the only future I can see that solves the challenges that lay ahead of us.

The hope is born from the advances I saw in how we think about equity in finance, in healthcare, in connectivity, in food security and every other aspect of our daily lives – I saw some of the most privileged who previously lived in their bubbles realize they (Read more...)

What Happened In 2020

by Fred Wilson

It is my tradition to end the year looking back and start the year looking forward. So today, I will write about 2020 in the context of tech/startups/VC/crypto.

While it is inarguably the case that 2020 was a terrible year with a global pandemic, racial strife and ugly politics in the US, and an economic downturn that is impacting exactly the people who have already been hurt the most, it was an inflection point for the tech/startup/VC/crypto sectors and a very significant one. These sectors, which had been growing in their global importance over the last twenty years, all of a sudden have emerged as the most important sectors of the global economy.

We are seeing structural declines in the importance of massive sectors like carbon based energy, commercial real estate, retail, and more. And technology based products and services are benefitting from these losses.

Some obvious examples:

1/ Zoom and other video conferencing services gain when employers allow/encourage/require their employees to stop coming to offices leased from the commercial real estate sector.

2/ Electric vehicles/batteries/software gain when fewer and fewer consumers are buying gasoline from the carbon energy sector.

3/ Technology based commerce solutions gain when less people venture into stores to buy groceries, clothes, and other consumer products.

These changes are not temporary, although the velocity of the changes may be. Technology based services have improved significantly this year, rising to the moment when consumers needed them, and they will continue to improve relative to legacy offerings. And (Read more...)

Investor Stories 173: Strange & Unusual (Casnocha, Bannister, Basu Trivedi, Abbasi)

by Nick Moran

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

  • Ben Casnocha
  • Janet Bannister
  • Nikhil Basu Trivedi
  • Farooq Abbasi

Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

Investor Stories 173: Strange & Unusual (Casnocha, Bannister, Basu Trivedi, Abbasi)

by Nick Moran

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

  • Ben Casnocha
  • Janet Bannister
  • Nikhil Basu Trivedi
  • Farooq Abbasi

Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

A Dazzling Metaphor for Product-Market Fit

by hypermark

When our team confuses functionality with specific tangible outcomes that our clients actually understand how it benefits them, I say, "You know, it's for kids."

Internally, this has become known as a reference to the Hula Hoop scene in Coen Brothers movie 'Hudsucker Proxy,' which illustrates what happens when product-market fit is not clear...and what happens, when it SUDDENLY is.

This scene is SO well done. Give it a look.

A Dazzling Metaphor for Product-Market Fit

by hypermark

When our team confuses functionality with specific tangible outcomes that our clients actually understand how it benefits them, I say, "You know, it's for kids."

Internally, this has become known as a reference to the Hula Hoop scene in Coen Brothers movie 'Hudsucker Proxy,' which illustrates what happens when product-market fit is not clear...and what happens, when it SUDDENLY is.

This scene is SO well done. Give it a look.

What I Learned from 500 Educators – Build Back Better Summit – Results

by steve blank
This post is by steve blank from Steve Blank

With the theme “Build Back Better” Jerry Engel, Pete Newell, Steve Weinstein and I co-hosted nearly 500 Lean Educators from 63 countries and 235 universities online for a three-hour session to share what we’ve learned about educators on how we can help our communities rebound, adjust, and recover.

We got insights from each other about tools, tips, techniques and best practices.

Here’s what we learned.

—

Background
When we last ran this virtual summit in July, our 400 educators were just coming to grips with teaching remotely. The two questions on the table were, 1) Could the lean methodology work remotely? 2) And what kind of pedagogy would support a class that depended on “getting out of the building” to work virtually? Tactically, how effective would customer discovery be for the students? Would customers sit for virtual interviews? How would you show them minimal viable products if not in person? How do you keep students engaged?

This Summit
This summit discussed how the pandemic has shifted the way we teach, but also what we learned teaching and how we can use the Lean methodology to make an impact on our communities.

COVID-19 has dramatically altered the business landscape. Main Street businesses are severely affected. While many parts of the high-tech sector are growing, others are either contracting or shutting down. Amid these uncertain times we believe that Lean educators can prepare students for this new investing climate and help communities recover.

The summit opened with a panel (Read more...)

Replay — The Self-Made Engineer, Angel, and Venture Capitalist (Cyan Banister)

by Nick Moran

Guest Update: When the episode was recorded in 2019, Cyan was a partner at Founders Fund. Currently, Cyan is a partner at Long Journey Ventures. 

In this special replay of episode 180, Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures joins Nick to discuss the Self-Made Engineer, Angel, and Venture Capitalist.

In this episode, we cover:

  • So, Cyan you have a really interesting story and background that led you to where you are today. Feel free to start wherever makes most sense but can you talk about your life experience and how it led you to where you're at now?
  • You spoke publicly about your early life at the 2018 TechCrunch Disrupt conference, from living on the streets to becoming a venture capitalist, tell us about this incredible journey, what you accredit your success to and how it lead to venture?
  • Where along the way did you meet Scott? Did you guys every consider raising your own fund?
  • How early are you able to go at Founder's Fund?
  • How do you work with founders post-investment?
  • Judicious with your magic bullets?
  • Have you funded founders with non-traditional backgrounds or missions dedicated to folks living in poverty or providing access to upward mobility?
  • How has your approach changed from your time as an angel to now your experience as a VC ?
  • Do you have any good stories or learnings from Naval?
  • Prior to FF you were an early stage investor in successful companies like Uber, Postmates, PayPal at others... I know you invest (Read more...)

Replay — The Self-Made Engineer, Angel, and Venture Capitalist (Cyan Banister)

by Nick Moran

Guest Update: When the episode was recorded in 2019, Cyan was a partner at Founders Fund. Currently, Cyan is a partner at Long Journey Ventures. 

In this special replay of episode 180, Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures joins Nick to discuss the Self-Made Engineer, Angel, and Venture Capitalist.

In this episode, we cover:

  • So, Cyan you have a really interesting story and background that led you to where you are today. Feel free to start wherever makes most sense but can you talk about your life experience and how it led you to where you're at now?
  • You spoke publicly about your early life at the 2018 TechCrunch Disrupt conference, from living on the streets to becoming a venture capitalist, tell us about this incredible journey, what you accredit your success to and how it lead to venture?
  • Where along the way did you meet Scott? Did you guys every consider raising your own fund?
  • How early are you able to go at Founder's Fund?
  • How do you work with founders post-investment?
  • Judicious with your magic bullets?
  • Have you funded founders with non-traditional backgrounds or missions dedicated to folks living in poverty or providing access to upward mobility?
  • How has your approach changed from your time as an angel to now your experience as a VC ?
  • Do you have any good stories or learnings from Naval?
  • Prior to FF you were an early stage investor in successful companies like Uber, Postmates, PayPal at others... I know you invest (Read more...)

Brexit deal: What Start-ups Need to Know

by Philippe Botteri
This post is by Philippe Botteri from Cracking The Code


On 23 June 2016, despite the betting odds being largely in favour of “Stay”, the UK decided to leave the European Union. Four and half years later, we finally know what this means – or at least have a guiding framework as several items still need to be worked out. For those of you who need a reminder of the complex chain of events triggered by the results of the referendum, I've included a full time line up until the trade deal was agreed on 24 December, 2020 below.

 

In the meantime, let’s go back to May 2016. Ahead of the  referendum result, Accel published a post discussing the potential implications of Brexit for start-ups. Then, the expert views on the outcome for the UK were fairly negative. In one of the most comprehensive polls of experts (FT poll of more than 100 economists in Jan 2016), more than75% thought Brexit would adversely affect the UK’s medium-term economic prospects; only 8% thought Britain’s economy would benefit.

 

Back to today: were these predictions accurate? Did the deal reached on 24 December  negatively impact the tech ecosystem? In 2016, we highlighted five key areas which could have a major impact on start-ups: freedom of movement for EU and UK citizens, Fintech regulation, EU R&D funding, data privacy and currency impact. Let’s have a look at where we landed.

 

Freedom of movement

For EU founders or start-up employees already living in the UK, the changes are minimal. EU (Read more...)