If it’s lonely at the top, it’s even lonelier at the start. Josh Kopelman knows firsthand the struggle and isolation of starting a business because he launched three before creating First Round, a venture capital firm that specializes in seeding companies in their earliest stage of growth. Kopelman talked about what he looks for in startup founders and why it’s important to keep an eye out for ideas that are so far out of the box, they just might work. Read more>>
Monthly Archives: July 2018
Is Your Culture Your Brand?
Take a peek behind the curtain at Amazon, Southwest Airlines and other hugely successful companies and you’ll find one thing they have in common: They blend their workplace culture with their brand so seamlessly that one is indistinguishable from the other. Brand-building expert Denise Lee Yohn explains how companies of any size can achieve success if leaders follow the right steps towards integrating their brand with their culture. Read More>>
The Smart Road Tech That’s Making Driving Faster, Safer, And Just Better
In 2014, the country spent $165 billion on highway construction, operation, and maintenance, according to the Congressional Budget Office. There are signs that some of that money is being invested in smart road technology, alternative energy infrastructure, and traffic management powered by artificial intelligence. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is finally hitting the road. Read more>>
Imagine Alternatives to Negotiate More Ambitiously
Mentally simulating an attractive alternative can provide some of the advantages that real alternatives typically offer. In our recent paper, “Imaginary Alternatives: The Effects of Mental Simulation on Powerless Negotiators”, forthcoming in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we found that negotiators can actually reap some of the benefits that alternatives offer by mentally simulating having an attractive alternative. Read more>>
Should You Pursue VC Funding?
“Show me the money.” But it’s not the startup hoping to see dollar signs. Instead, it’s the VC investor hoping for a quick return on a big investment. When the focus shifts from building up a successful product or service to catering to the needs of demanding VC lenders, many entrepreneurs wonder if VC lending is indeed the best approach to building a startup. Read more>>
Rocket startup sees big future in military launch
Startup CEOs generally have mixed feelings about working with the Pentagon. Tim Ellis, chief executive of rocket maker Relativity Space, most certainly does not. Ellis predicts his company’s 3D printed rockets — at $10 million per launch and entirely produced in the United States — will be flying military satellites a few years from now. Read more>>
Implantable 3D-printed organs could be coming sooner than you think
At MBC Biolabs, an incubator for biotech startups in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, a team of scientists and interns working for the small startup Prellis Biologics have just taken a big step on the path toward developing viable 3D-printed organs for humans. It can manufacture capillaries at a size and speed that would deliver 3D-printed organs to the market within the next five years. Read more>>
Why Series As Are Much Easier To Raise In 2018 Than The Past 5 Years
In the last six years, the median time between seed and Series A has more than tripled from about 200 days to about 750 days. Why? The seed market is in the midst of some secular changes. Seed rounds have declined 63% from their peak. Total dollars invested have fallen by 37%. But the median round size is up 3x in the same time period. In other words, investors are concentrating capital in fewer startups. Read more>>
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