From the Investors
Bill Gurley of Benchmark chats with Emily Chang of Bloomberg West about how ‘funnel reversal’ is impacting marketers, the future of the unicorn market, and more in “A Fireside Chat with Bill Gurley of Benchmark: The Future of Ecommerce” (video)
Semil Shah of Haystack Fund interviews Chamath Palihapitiya of Social+Capital Partnership who shares his thoughts on ‘insane burn rates’, IPOs, and raising a new real estate fund in “Fireside Chat with Chamath” (video)
Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures examines key SaaS metrics to compare the impact of sales efficiency for vertical and horizontal SaaS companies in “Do Vertical SaaS Companies Benefit from Higher Sales Efficiency?”
Matt Turck of FirstMark Capital provides a list of experiments and ways for someone to ‘practice VC’ in order to hone their skills as an investor and/ or to become one in “Playing ‘Fake VC’ (Or the Portfolio Approach to Getting a Job in Venture Capital)”
Leo Polovets of Susa Ventures gives founders the inside scoop on how to answer ‘the roadmap question’ when fundraising in “5 Tips for SaaS Roadmap Planning”
Brian Ascher of Venrock talks with Jeff Hyman, producer of the Startup Therapist series, about the rare attribute VCs look for in founders, how VCs approach startup pitches, mental health, and more in “VCs Are Human Too… A Top Silicon Valley VC Opens Up” (video)
From the Operators
Meenal Balar of Remind in the First Round Review offers her frameworks and advice to help startup of all types ‘stop guessing and start growing’ in “Here’s What a Real Growth Strategy Looks Like – Road Tested by Facebook and Remind”
Serial Entrepreneur Dan Martell believes results require the right mindset to execute on top of, even if you don’t know how to do something in “The Founders Operating System: How to Hack Your Mindset”
Wyatt Cavalier of Honest Coffees details a major scam that he almost fell for after responding to cold email requests for his product in “How to Fall for a Chinese Export Scam: A Step-by-Step Guide”
Pablo Viguera of Groopify draws upon his experiences and believes hiring is the most important aspect of growing and scaling a company in “On Hiring”
Jitha Thathachari of Rouse Digital explains why you don’t really need passion, vision, or a brilliant idea to start up in “What do you really need to start up?”
Marc Kuo of Routific urges founders to stop wasting their time building things that somebody else has already built in “Don’t Build It In-House. There is an API for That”
Geeks On A Plane
Join 500 Startups and a curated group of leading tech investors, entrepreneurs & execs on a journey to explore the wonders of the past, the momentum of the present & the innovation of the future. From December 5-15, 2015, Dave McClure & the Geeks on a Plane crew will tour the Middle East, with stops in Dubai (UAE), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Amman (Jordan) & Cairo (Egypt). Want to join the tour? Apply here
Startup Funding Benchmarking Series
This series of content by the Mattermark Research team explores the allocation, concentration, and macro trends in the financing of high growth startups. Brush up on the latest research on our blog.