When It Comes to Series A Graduates, Techstars & 500 Startups Outpace Y Combinator (read)
500 Startups accelerator program began in 2011, 6 years after Y Combinator (started in 2005) and 4 years after Techstars (started in 2007). Let’s take a look at each program’s cumulative Series A graduates, based on years since program inception, to get a sense of whether 500 Startups is on pace to develop a comparable % of Series A deals in the future.
From the Investors
Sarah Guo of Greylock Partners goes in-depth on why this period of many new computing nodes and new ways to interact on mobile is a massive opportunity in “The Conversational Economy — Voice and the New Era of Multi-Modal Computing”
Nathan Benaich of Playfair Capital argues that AI and related technologies are the next major technology enablers, just like mobile, social and cloud before them “Why Go Long on Artificial Intelligence?”
Demetrios Pogkas analyzes how Greece and the European Investment Fund will provide capital to fund managers in Europe to invest in local startups in “Greece is Setting Up a New €260 Million Fund-of-Funds. Here’s How It Will Work“
Patrick Meenan of Arthur Ventures helps founders translate the variety of ways a VC might express funding interest in “Assessing VC Interest”
Semil Shah of GGV Capital outlines his thoughts on cross-platform architecture, consumerization of enterprise, capital efficiency, and enterprise SaaS consolidation in “Unpacking Atlassian’s Acquisition Of Trello”
From the Operators
George Eiskamp of GroundMetrics gives a granular play-by-play analysis of exactly how he did it and provides actionable recommendations for founders looking to raise angel capital in “A Founder’s Guide to Working with Angel Investors”
Sarah E. Brown of ServiceRocket advises startup employees to reflect carefully on the value they place in startup perks in “When Evaluating Startup “Extras” Ask Yourself: Is it a Perk, an Essential Benefit, or a Distraction?”
John Saddington of Pinpoint describes a glimmer of hope for software developers, teams, and organizations lacking actionable data in “Engineering Ops: Actionable Analytics and Insights”
Fred Stevens-Smith of Rainforest QA chats with Jack Altman of Lattice about how his company values manifest in their culture and management philosophy in “Resources for Humans, Ep. 3: How to Build a Culture that Scales” (video)
Heather Leonard of Throwing Fruit encourages startup entrepreneurs to rely on shorter goals, outside aid, and continual reassessment in “Startup Non-Resolutions For The New Year”