From the Investors
Mahesh Vellanki of Redpoint Ventures takes a look at the overnight success of Pokémon GO and digs into the history behind Pokemon and Nintendo in “Here’s How Pokemon GO Became An Overnight Phenomenon”
Jerry Neumann of Neu VC argues why VC investments in VR startups will end up doing poorly and why the AR market is wide open in “AR Will Be Startup Dominated, VR Will Not”
Aaron Batalion of Lightspeed Venture Partners reminds us that a simple novel product experience is entirely sufficient to engage millions of people in “A New High Bar for AR — The Post Pokemon GO Era”
Joelle Kayden of Accolade Partners discusses her experience in the tech IPO market of the 90’s, closing their first fund 2 weeks before the first dotcom bust, and investing in Accel, a16z, Harrison Metal and other iconic VC firms in “Origins Ep. 5” (podcast)
Brad Feld of Foundry Group points out some flaws of short-term thinking and asks founders to ponder what their company will look like in 2025 in “Looking Forward to 2025”
Ash Fontana of Zetta Venture Partners aims to provide an addendum to Sequoia’s Business Plan Template in the age of machine learning in “Positioning a Machine Learning Company”
From the Operators
Thomas Smale of FE International publishes an in-depth piece that you can use to understand what your SaaS business is worth in “How to Value a SaaS Business in 2016”
Morgan Ingram of Terminus lends advice on how to keep a steady mindset as a Sales Development Representative in “#TheSDRChronicles 001” (2 min. video)
Mollie Chen of Birchbox reflects on the business reasons and her personal feelings that have led her to leave Birchbox in “What It’s Like to Leave a Company You Started”
Diane Loviglio of Boone+Gable shares the story for why they decided to create a paid (not unpaid), parental (not just for new moms) leave policy in “Design Your Paid Parental Leave Policy Before It’s Too Late”
Akash Sharma of Chargebee explains the ‘underrated magic’ of pivots in “I Thought I Knew Pivots, Until I Wrote This Post”
David Hose of SoundWall announces a new funding round and focus on ramping up sales and marketing, specifically to get front of customers offline in “Soundwall Eyes Growth With New CEO, $3M Funding Round”
Here’s What You Need To Know About Q2 VC
tl;dr: VC investment into US companies slowed in Q2, but the first half of the year posted some positive indicators. Mattermark’s Alex Wilhelm investigates.
