Major Moves
Actifio, a Boston-area startup, just eclipsed a $1B valuation through a $100M round led by investment firm Tiger Global Management, alongside VC funds Andressen Horowitz and Greylock Partners. Actifio works to solve the problem of "copy data" by integrating otherwise-independent data protection and recovery backup systems. The new valuation puts Actifio alongside e-commerce site Wayfair as the only two billion-dollar valued Boston companies.
Stir, a startup founded by ex-Apple engineer JP Labrosse, raised $1.5M in a round led by Tony Hsieh's Vegas TechFund. Stir builds kinetic standing office desks to counter the epidemic of long-term sitting in office gigs, recently nicknamed Silicon Valley Syndrome.
OPower, a Virginia-based SaaS company that promotes personalized energy efficiency action, announced terms for its IPO at $110 million by offering 6.1 million shares.
CVC Capital Partners, a PE firm based in London with offices in NYC and Hong Kong, lands investment from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for its £1.8bn Asia-focused fund. This comes on the heels of CVC's reducing its stake in Indonesian department store Matahari.
Personal Blogs
Angel investor and blogger, "Gotham Gal" Joanne Wilson showcases Cameron Houser of Given Goods in her Woman Entrepreneur Monday column. Given Goods, a Boulder, Colorado-based online marketplace for products that give a percentage of the price to non-profits around the world, joined TechStars back in May 2013.
Speaking of women founders, YC's Sam Altman offers a long essay on "What I've Learned From Female Founders So Far", the title of which reminds me of numerous middle school essays. Given the controversy stirred up by his predecessor Paul Graham three months ago, it's good to see Altman attempting to clarify his views.
Tomasz Tunguz, a principal at Redpoint Ventures, gives a great explanation of the "Bike Rack Effect" - why companies often get swept up in debating simple things but gloss over complicated problems.
Showing posts with label joanne wilson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joanne wilson. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2014
Friday, March 21, 2014
Lunch Links - March 21st, 2014
Major Moves
Airbnb is in talks to raise another round funding, possible valuing them at a cool $10 Billion, according to Wall Street Journal. Compare this to hotel Hyatt's $8.4 Billion valuation, or Marriott's $15.9 B.
Gigwalk, an app-based startup that allows brand managers insight into how their campaigns is working through their network of 500,000 "gigwalkers", has raised $10 Million in Series B funding.
Pley, a San Jose startup offering, of all things, LEGO block rental, has raised $6.8 Million in a Venture Round led by Allegro Ventures, valuing them at $20 Million. Taking advantage of people's desire to access, rather than own, Pley lends their subscribers lego sets, weighs and sanitizes the sets after receiving them back, and ships them off to new subscribers. If you're a messy builder, don't fear - Pley allows its subscribers to lose an average of 15 pieces in each set without penalty.
Personal Blogs
Angel investor and blogger, "Gotham Gal" Joanne Wilson gives a small look into Las Vegas' Downtown Project, led by Tony Hsieh of Zappos.
Venture Capitalist Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures uses a few graphs to illustrate that obtaining Series B funding is much, much more difficult than Series A.
North Carolina-based business strategy speaker and travel photographer James Clear explains why scheduling is actually the key to creativity.
Lessons and Lists
Lisa McGreevy of Entrepreneur.com lists 5 habits of successful social media campaigns.
Inc.com interviews Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo.com christened "America's Greatest Marketer" by American Way Magazine. Seth explains that too many forget that marketing is about the customer, not the brand.
Speaking of which, Seth Godin blogs about increasing perceived value, rather than decreasing actual profits.
Airbnb is in talks to raise another round funding, possible valuing them at a cool $10 Billion, according to Wall Street Journal. Compare this to hotel Hyatt's $8.4 Billion valuation, or Marriott's $15.9 B.
Gigwalk, an app-based startup that allows brand managers insight into how their campaigns is working through their network of 500,000 "gigwalkers", has raised $10 Million in Series B funding.
Pley, a San Jose startup offering, of all things, LEGO block rental, has raised $6.8 Million in a Venture Round led by Allegro Ventures, valuing them at $20 Million. Taking advantage of people's desire to access, rather than own, Pley lends their subscribers lego sets, weighs and sanitizes the sets after receiving them back, and ships them off to new subscribers. If you're a messy builder, don't fear - Pley allows its subscribers to lose an average of 15 pieces in each set without penalty.
Personal Blogs
Angel investor and blogger, "Gotham Gal" Joanne Wilson gives a small look into Las Vegas' Downtown Project, led by Tony Hsieh of Zappos.
Venture Capitalist Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures uses a few graphs to illustrate that obtaining Series B funding is much, much more difficult than Series A.
North Carolina-based business strategy speaker and travel photographer James Clear explains why scheduling is actually the key to creativity.
Lessons and Lists
Lisa McGreevy of Entrepreneur.com lists 5 habits of successful social media campaigns.
Inc.com interviews Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo.com christened "America's Greatest Marketer" by American Way Magazine. Seth explains that too many forget that marketing is about the customer, not the brand.
Speaking of which, Seth Godin blogs about increasing perceived value, rather than decreasing actual profits.
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