How An Ancient Chinese War General Would Run Your Startup Better (read)
“The success of your startup is determined before you ship a single line of code.” Okay, you’re right, Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese war general and author of The Art of War, didn’t quite write that. But given his emphasis on preparation and heuristics, I imagine it’s something he might’ve included in a modern-day version of the book targeted at Mattermark Daily subscribers. Here’s the story.
From the Investors
Alex Giannikoulis, General Partner at Graphene Ventures, provides an executive summary of his key diligence insights from investing in Lyft’s latest round in “Why I Decided to Invest: Lyft”
Jaime Novoa, Analyst at K Fund, puts deal data into perspective, noting that in one quarter alone, Spanish startups closed 42% of last year’s investment rounds and 58% of 2016’s total funding volume in “Spanish Funding Activity in Q1 2017 – The Most Active Quarter in Spain’s Young History”
Sammy Abdullah, Co-Manager at Blossom Street Ventures, looks at 83 tech IPO’s to make the argument that you should raise at least 24 months of runway in “Raise More Than You Need – IPOs Raise 5.3 Years Worth of Historical Burn”
Brian Harwitt, Senior Associate at CoVenture, digs into why Amazon Lending is not advertised and the importance of flexible financing solutions for small businesses in “Amazon is in the Lending Business, Who Knew?”
Peter Teneriello, Analyst at Notley Ventures, discusses the opportunity for LPs in how they approach venture investing in “Limited Partners, not Limited Opportunity”
26 VR Companies That Grew 50%+ In 6 Months
Based on Mattermark’s data-driven Growth Score, industry tags, location, and amount of funding, here are 26 VR startups with more than 50% employee growth in the last six months.
From the Operators
Prerna Gupta, CEO of Hooked, tells the story of building Hooked from ‘crazy idea’, to early evidence, overcoming challenges, the aha moment, and getting traction in “How We Got 10 Million Teens to Read Fiction on Their Phones”
Kevin Chou, CEO of Kabam, shares the most important hypotheses and actions that made their startup’s survival possible in “Pivot Survival Tactics from Kabam’s 3 Near-Death Triumphs”
Scott Carleton, VP of Technology at Andela, starts a three-part blog series on remote working with how to build dynamic systems and controls for distributed teams in “An Engineering Manager’s Guide to the Future of Work”
Noopur Bakshi, Senior Product Manager at Adobe, reveals the most effective user interview questions and the process she follows before each interview to ensure that she gains meaningful insights in “Asking the Right Questions is Product Management”
Rich Mironov, CEO of Mironov Consulting, outlines what he thinks a Vice President of Product Management does at medium-to-large tech companies in “What We Need in a VP of Product Management”
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Also published on Medium.