From the Investors
Tod Francis of Shasta Ventures surfaces the key traits of 25, billion dollar companies and conclude that ‘big ideas are often not obvious at the Series A stage’ in “What Did Billion Dollar Companies Look Like at the Series A?”
Michael Seibel of Y Combinator launches a new pilot program for 50 startups from underrepresented communities to get 20 minute office hours with a YC Partner in “YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders”
Angela Tran-Kingyens of Version One Ventures encourages startups to not just think about increasing the size of your user base, but also to consider the value the users bring in “Network Effects on Social Platforms: Why the Quality of User Matters”
Angel Investor Joanne Wilson offers seven pieces of advice for women to keep in mind when pitching investors in “Women Raising Money”
Adam Draper of Boost VC describes a vertical network as a group of people focused around the same sector’s goals, and declares virtual reality as his network’s new focus in “The Verticalization of Networks”
General Catalyst announces that Evernote co-founder and former CEO, Phil Libin, has joined General Catalyst to focus on ‘next-generation application businesses’ in “Introducing Phil Libin as our Newest Managing Director in Silicon Valley…”
Kima Ventures is hiring two new associates; a Deal Associate and Tech Associate, based in Paris, or remote.
North Atlantic Capital is hiring an associate in Portland, Maine.
From the Operators
Morgan Linton of Fashion Metric shares the same step-by-step process he’s used in buying, selling, and brokering millions of dollars in domain names in “What Every Startup Founder Should Know About Buying Domain Names”
Gabriel Weinberg of DuckDuckGo believes ‘an ambitious startup idea with just a little bit of traction attracts the right elements for success in “Why You Should Choose an Ambitious Startup Idea”
Lior Degani of Swayy reflects on what he’s learned about building a startup, the culture, partners, and himself in “34 Lessons Learned from Starting and Selling My First Startup”
Mark Luckie formerly of Twitter opens up about his time working at Twitter in “What It’s Actually like to be a Black Employee at a Tech Company”
Bryan Dickens of Microsoft Azure dives into how he used Machine Learning to analyze data he’s been collecting for two years in “What You Can Learn from 2 Years of Coach.me Habit Tracking + Machine Learning”
Ben Thompson of Stratechery provides an overview of how he thinks ad blocking technology may pop the ‘unsustainable bubble publishers live in’ in “Popping the Publishing Bubble”
Join Mattermark at the Pioneer Summit in Silicon Valley, October 7-9
Our co-founder Andy Sparks will be leading a discussion on the current venture capital and investment landscape with leading investors including Mike Maples (Floodgate), Jules Maltz (IVP), James Joaquin (Obvious Ventures).
To learn more and register, please visit pioneersummit.com.