From the Investors
Glenn Solomon of GGV Capital advises founders to raise cash when possible, but to have a plan to ‘live off the current round if the market turns downward’ in “To Burn or Not to Burn”
Zavain Dar of Lux Capital covers the terms and concepts of Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Artificial General Intelligence, and AI Startups in “20 Bullets on Artificial Intelligence”
John Henderson of White Star Capital outlines visual and communications tasks currently performed by humans that may be ‘ripe for automation’ in “Take X and Add AI”
Sarah Guo of Greylock Partners sees an increase in users and developers adopting more ‘open, but integrated ecosystems’ in “No, You Don’t Own The Customer Anymore – The New Age of SaaS Competition”
Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital aims to come to a common understanding of ‘the eight key metrics’ used to describe SaaS revenue “Key Revenue Metrics for SaaS Companies”
Angela Tran Kingyens of Version One Ventures explains why ‘high fragmentation’ and ‘regular frequency of use or purchase’ are two important factors when considering a marketplace investment in “The Data We Use to Evaluate Marketplace Traction”
Angel Investor Tim Schumacher uses Mattermark to surface the top tech companies based on Growth Score in Cologne, Germany in “The Cologne Start Up Scene According to Mattermark Data”
Sunil Pai of DFJ compares today’s top 10 public tech companies on the Composite Index to their position in 2000 and looks for the next big company in “NASDAQ’s Record Primed for Next Big Idea Companies”
From the Operators
Eric Jorgenson of Evergreen explores – in detail – why ‘being proactive is far more effective than being reactive when it comes to employees wanting to quit’ in “How to Boost Employee Retention: Creating Long and Happy Working Relationships”
Rick Nucci of Guru teaches founders how to value and accept critical product feedback without becoming emotionally overwhelmed in “How to Not Be (Such) a Sensitive Founder”
Mike Volpe of HubSpot and Ben Rubin of Meerkat discuss Meerkat’s growth trajectory, product challenges, and why people should care about live-streaming in “The Growth Show: Meerkat Founder Ben Rubin” (audio)
John McDuling and Zachary Seward of Quartz feature Jonah Peretti of Buzzfeed’s original fundraising pitch deck in “Here is Buzzfeed’s First Pitch Deck to Investors in 2008” (slides)
Alex Taub of SocialRank reflects on his company’s guiding principles and offers their ‘CAAH’ framework as a conversation starter for other startup teams in “Company Ethos: Planned or Historical Revisionism?”