Chances are, you’ve read or at least heard about the book “The 7 habits of highly effective people“. First published in 1989 and with over 40 million copies sold, It’s one of the bestselling non-fiction books in history. For the 30 year anniversary, the publishers kindly sent me a copy of the new edition with fresh insights from Stephen R. Covey’s son, Sean Covey.
Last year I published on VC Cafe a post titled the 量子网游加速器iOS游戏下载_量子网游加速器安卓版下载 ...:安卓版下载 电脑版下载 手机扫码下载游戏 礼包领取 量子网游加速器介绍 量子加速器为竞技而生,全网价格最低,低至1元起,新用户免费试用。有效解决玩家在网络游戏中遇到的延时过高,登录困难, ..., and this time I will apply the book’s principles to the world of Venture Capital.
First and foremost, Covey rejects the advice of most business books on sales, influence or persuasion, because they promote fake behaviour, intended to manipulate the other’s behaviour. I.e. he rejects the notion of ‘pretending’ to care, fake smiling, etc, to get others to like you. He claims that the 7 habits are natural principles, and advocates for an abundance mindset vs. a scarcity mindset. Meaning, a belief that relationships (personal and professional) are not a zero-sum-game – one person’s success doesn’t reduce the other’s.
Let’s dive into the 7 habits of highly effective people and how they can be reflected in the world of venture capital.
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“Focus your responses and initiatives on the center of your influence and constantly work to expand it.”
Proactivity can take several forms in venture capital. William McMillan from Frontline Ventures recently shared 网易MuMu模拟器-安卓模拟器-极速最安全:网易MuMu(安卓模拟器),是网易官方推出的精品游戏服务平台,安装后可在电脑上运行各类游戏与应用,具备全面兼容、操作流畅、智能辅助等特点,每天还会为您推荐火热的应用和好玩的游戏，给你带来电脑玩手游 …. There are logical business reasons for it. A 2018 坚果加速器怎么样 found that speed is the third most important factor for entrepreneurs when dealing with VC, but it’s only the 10th on the list for VCs.
What’s important to founders vs. VCs (Creandum)
But being proactive goes beyond just speed. To be an effective VC, proactivity is part of the job description:
Proactively learn about new companies trends and markets
Proactively network (deal flow, peers, industry partners)
My interpretation for VC has to do with portfolio construction. This is not merely a decision on the number of deals a fund should do or the percentage reserved for follow-on investments, but rather visualising where you want your fund want to be in X years time and what we have to do to get there. Visualising is an essential part of planning – Mike Maples Jr calls it ‘Backcasting’.
Starting with the end in mind also comes to play in investment committees. At the time of making an investment VCs often think about what could be the potential outcome for a company and what needs to get accomplished before the next round.
This principle is about not acting immediately, but thinking first. VC funding favours rapid growth, but “accelerating” without thinking where it would take the startup can often mean not ending up where you intended. Starting with an end in mind is also very good advice for working with portfolio companies.
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“Organise and execute around priorities”
The decision making quadrant (Source: 坚果网络加速)
My interpretation for the world of VC is learning effective time management. This habit is about separating what’s important, from what’s URGENT. The right thing would be to prioritise what is both urgent AND important.
We spend too much time on quadrant III and IV: calls, interruptions, busy work, networking events… For something to be deemed ‘important’ it needs to create results – contribute to your mission, or high priority goals. The book recommends delegating what you can (hire well and work with professionals) and don’t wait for important things like planning, relationship building, etc to become a crisis.
Apart from time management, habit #3 is about personal management. Putting first things first also means allocating time to be with family, take care of our health or exercise. Don’t wait until it becomes a crisis. In a recent interview to the Observer Effect, Marc Andreessen shared how he schedules every minute of his day, including ‘critical’ free time. To do just that, my partner at Remagine Ventures uses and recommends Clockwise.
Having a win-win mindset means constantly looking for opportunities to collaborate, and acting with integrity and maturity. This can take many manifestations in VC – from sharing interesting deal flow opportunities between peers to being a reference for a new fund or making introductions to potential investors when you know a GP is raising. The results of this could yield much stronger relationships in the long run. Don’t be a short term optimiser. On this topic, I highly recommend the book “Give and Take” by Adam Grant.
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“Use empathetic listening to genuinely understand a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to be influenced by you”
To achieve habit #4 (thinking win-win) we need to adopt habit #5. Seek to understand by really considering the other side (wether it’s a founder, a VC or board member). We all suffer from cognitive biases, and while awareness is the first step for overcoming these biases, they tend to only get worse with time, as VCs believe they have sharpened their pattern recognition.
The cognitive bias codex (Source: Wikipedia)
This principle is not just about our ability to really listen, but to坚果加速器怎么样 the other side, or what Covey called “Emphatic listening”. I was particularly taken by one example:
A startup was negotiating a contract with a large national institution. The institution flew over their lawyers, negotiator and two presidents of their large banks to create an eight person negotiating team. The startup decided, it’s either a win-win, or no deal. The CEO of the startup sat across the table from the bank’s negotiation team and said: “we would like for you to write the contract the way you want it soo we can understand your needs and concerns. Then we can talk about pricing”
VCs that do this effectively with founders, can make even a pass decision become a positive interaction. Avoid can replies if you can and be thoughtful when giving feedback.
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Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals that no one could have done alone.
In the book, Covey refers to synergy as effective team work. To me, “Synergy” sounds a bit like MBA jargon.
When a true synergetic relationship exists between the VC partner and the startup founder, it’s often a story of 1+1=3. This is where a lot of the ‘added value’ that VCs bring (or claim to bring) comes into account. For me it’s about obsessing myself with the company and its market. Reading and sharing relevant news with the founder, digging deep on the product and thinking what introductions I can make this week to help the founder progress across talent acquisition, commercial deals, partnerships or follow on funding. It’s also possible to develop strong synergies with your LPs. It’s a magical moment if and when there’s a willing recipient on the other side.
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“The Upward Spiral model consists of three parts: learn, commit, do.”
When I was at Google, I took a course called “Search inside yourself” (you can also read the book by Chade Meng Tan). This principle, very much reminded me of that course. We have a number of sources of energy:
Emotional/ Social – service, empathy, intrinsic security
These sources of energy can be filled and depleted. To stay in balance, we need to engage in some personal TLC. This means working on your phone addiction, but for me it also means keeping the curiosity and passion that drove you to enter VC fresh.
***
It was great to re-read the book with my VC hat on, and a good reminder to never stop learning.
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Eze Vidra Leave a Comment
A new report on global venture capital investment volume shows that H1 2024 investments in startups reached $129 billion (this includes all stages as well as CVC activity). It’s a 6.5% decline from H1 2024 ($138 billion), but the impact on VC funding is less than originally projected. It appears that VCs got comfortable doing deals over Zoom.
Source: Crunchbase
On a regional basis H1 2024 VC investment activity shows varied impact:
Europe down 20% (Source) ?
US down 10% (Source) ?
Israel UP 40% (Source) ?
“VC investors did not shy away from either first or follow-on investments, bringing the number of VC deals to a record in Q2/2024″
Israel tech fundning report Q2 2024, IVC
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It’s unclear whether Israel managed to buck a global downward trend, or wether the investment volume was driven by overly optimistic investors and high levels of dry powder in the market. Let’s examine some of the pros and cons of the current state of the Israeli tech sector
Israel’s record breaking Q2 2024 (Source)
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Innovation never stopped in Israel – several sectors are seeing increased activity as a result of Covid-19 including health, enterprise software for remote work, cyber security, e-commerce etc. Israel attracts over 25% of global investment in cyber for example and health investments in Israel rose to 70 in the past six months.
More talent is getting into the tech sector – a new report by坚果网络加速 showed that the number of Haredi (Jewish Orthodox) employed in the tech sector grew by 52% in the period between 2014 and 2018. The total number of Haredi tech employees reached 9,700 in 2018 representing approximately 3% of the tech labor force. 71% of those (6,900) were women. Talent crunch is one of the biggest pain points for Israeli startup, and while more work needs to take place to grow the inclusiveness and diversity of the sector, this is a positive trend.
Foreign investments remained strong in Q2 2024, reaching 52% of the total investment volume
Foreign investments in Israeli startups (Source: IVC Q2 2024 report)
Cons
Slowdown in exits – Despite an increase in the average exit value from $98M in H1 2024 to $112M in H1 2024, the number of exits in H1 2024 dropped significantly both in number (by 32% from 76 to 52) and in value (by 22% down to $5.82 billion from $7.47 billion in H1 2024) compared to H1/2024. Projections are for additional slow down in exits in H2 2024 as the expectation is that only cash rich corporate will be able to afford to acquire companies in times of uncertainty.
Israel exits report H1 2024 (Source IVC)
Covid-19 fallout – it’s too early to predict the economic impact of Covid-19 on the tech industry and wider economy as a whole. Given Israel has a small local market, startups aim to go global from day one, and many target the American market. As consumer confidence and enterprise spending slow down in the US, it has a lagging effect on Israeli startups. Many large tech companies froze hiring and conducted layoffs, including Amdocs, which plans to let go 1,000 employees, or Intel CEO’s recent cryptic announcement about outsourcing manufacturing. Much of their recovery depends on the US market and potentially on government support.
So far the Israeli tech sector has been resilient, and as a seed investor I’m optimistic about the Israeli market’s potential to not only survive in this crisis, but thrive. “It’s time to build“, said Marc Andreessen in April, and perhaps more than ever, we’re going to need tech and innovation to overcome tomorrow’s challenges.
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“After the crash, venture capital was scarce to non-existent. (Most of the funds that started in the late part of the boom would be underwater). Angel investment, which was small to start with, disappeared, and most corporate VCs shut down. VC’s were no longer insisting that startups spend faster, and “swing for the fences”. In fact, they were screaming at them to dramatically reduce their burn rates. It was a nuclear winter for startup capital.”
The Lean Startup movement started out of necessity. In a capital scarce environment following the Dot Com crash, startups needed to do more with less and survive long enough to generate revenue. Most of the Lean Startup principles remain true, as described by Steve Blank in The Lean Startup Changes Everything:
Business Plans are dead: Startups are a series of hypothesis that need to be tested. Ditch the business plan and when assumptions are proven wrong, pivot.
坚果加速器怎么样 Build a product your customers want (vs. what you think they might need) by talking to customers and testing every aspect of the product features, pricing, etc. Start by focusing on the users who’s need you solve the most, they will be your early adopters.
Agile Development: launch an MVP early and iterate quickly. Every startup has limited time to find product-market fit before running out of cash and speed is an important element in survival.
Maximum Viable Product
An MVP was supposed to be launched as early as possible. “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late”, was Reid Hoffman’s advice.
But when it comes to launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) these days, as incremental and iterative prototypes, things have changed significantly:
Capitalabundance: There’s never been more seed capital in the market. Startups that had to be cash constrained before can afford to raise capital in a number of ways and acquire resources pre-launch
Improved infrastructure:
Better tools – The rise of no-code and improved cloud infrastructure across every aspect of software development, marketing and design, make possible to launch prototypes much quicker, reducing the barriers to entry for competitors
Better targeting – Advances in adtech, the proliferation of social media and lookalike tech make it easier to target users
Bigger markets / higher stakes:
B2C – Nearly everyone on the planet is connected to the Internet via smartphones increasing the potential audience for technology massively
B2B – ‘Digital transformation’ is accelerating Enterprise adoption of tech. Single users can test enterprise software using a credit card.
In 2024, there is no second chance to make a first impression. With a growing number of new startups, first mover advantage quickly fades away. Brand loyalty is low, as it takes time to build a brand, and creating emotional attachment to a product is especially hard if the product is half baked.
Capital resources alone don’t do the trick. In 2018, Quibi (back then called NewTV), raised $750 million in seed capital pre-launch (the service went on to raise an additional $1 billion ahead of the product launch in March 2024). Quibi didn’t stop to test the hypothesis with a lean startup approach. Well capitalised, Quibi could afford to hire the best talent, outspend the competition and launch a ‘Maximum Viable Product’ worthy of having the potential to beat Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and a number of other streaming wars competitors (NBC’s Peacock, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+ and Youtube). The jury is still out on Quibi, and one has to keep in mind that producing quality content is expensive and takes time, but money alone didn’t drive adoption. To be fair, it’s also highly unlikely that a minimum viable product approach would have worked here either. It had to be good enough to begin with.
How Covid-19 changed things
It’s hard to predict the true shape of the recovery. Some might claim that the world economy saw its shortest recession in March, and others claim we’ll experience a “W” shape recovery with peaks and troughs or a long U shape recovery. In the endless survey results published, results often contradict one another, but one stat that got stuck in my mind is a survey of Fortune 500 CEOs by Forbes, where the large majority of respondents expected things to go back to pre-Covid-19 levels only in Q1 2022.
At the risk of sounding too conservative, what matters for startups now, as venture capital becomes less available and consumer spending tightens, is adaptation and survival. If things aren’t going the way you planned, consider what hypothesis needs to change. I was reminded recently that in the jungle it’s not the strongest that survive, but those who adapt the best.
In conclusion, I believe most of the Lean Startup isn’t fully dead. The core principles remain true, but I’d argue that the standards for the MVP have gone up. The fundamentals (unit economics/ margins, CAC>LTV, the importance of retention) are even more important now. Growth is necessary, but so is efficiency in spending and reducing churn. In addition, startups need to take more things in consideration when going to market with a new product. Perhaps the next thing that needs to be born out of necessity is ‘Lean Marketing’, but that’s for another story.
If you’re a startup founder, you’re probably looking at Google in some way, maybe in terms of partnership or acquisition, but maybe some level of suspicion and fear. Will they compete with me? what if they decide to enter my niche? What will they announce in the next Google I/O keynote? The same might be true for your view of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, etc.
For many CEOs, competition with the tech giants an existential concern. But having Google (or the other FAANGs) in your corner, can also be a great asset. A relationship with Google can take many forms, which I will detail in this post as a guide for founders exploring their relationship with big tech.
In the past I’ve covered the rise of corporate venture capital and the growing number of Fortune 500 companies who are actively launching CVC arms or investing in startups/funds. But investing is only part of the picture. Companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple have a number of ways to engage startups, ranging from not-for-profit mentorship to lucrative commercial relationships and partnerships.
In this post, I’ll try to organise the various startup engagement and outreach programs at Google. I believe I am qualified to talk about this as I spent ~6 years at Google in strategic partnerships (commerce), as head of Campus London (Google’s first physical startup hub), Head of Google for Entrepreneurs Europe (now called Google for Startups) and eventually general partner for Google Ventures.
There are four general buckets for engaging with a corporate like Google:
Funding – this consists of cash investment for equity
GV (formerly Google Ventures) – Started in 2009, GV is Alphabet’s venture capital fund, focused primarily on early stage in diverse fields: from life sciences and healthcare to robotics and entereprise tech. Notable portfolio companies include Uber, Slack, Jet.com, FlatIron Health, Kobalt Music Group and many others.
CapitalG (formerly Google Capital) – Started in 2013, CapitalG is Alpahbet’s growth stage venture fund backed by Google (larger ticket size). Typically invest in series C and above, notable portfolio companies include Stripe, Lyft, Robinhood, UI Path, Snap, Duolingo and many more household names.
Gradient Ventures – an early stage fund backed by Alphabet, investing exclusively in AI first companies.
Google Assistant – relatively unknown, Google has put together a team dedicated to investing in early stage startups that are moving the voice and assistance ecosystem forward. The website lists a handful of portfolio companies.
Google Corporate Development – Google may sometimes invest in a company from its balance sheet. This happened for example in the case of Magic Leap.
M&A – Acquisitions
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Commercial – a data/tech/commercial partnership or client relationship
This is where it starts getting a bit more complicated. There are multiple arms at Googlee that might do commercial deals with startups and it would be ambitious to try to list them all. So I’ll focus on the main partnerships buckets and app stores.
Partnerships/ Commercial
Many of the partnerships I’ve experienced during my time at Google had to do with strategic content partnerships:
Commerce – partnerships with online retailers around google shopping, google wallet, etc.
Books/publishing/news – partnerships with publishers of all sizes
Geo/Maps – partnerships around locations, public transport, traffic, etc.
Search /Assistant – search partnerships are more of a ‘catch all’ bucket and can range from social content (like tweets) to stocks information etc. Anything you’d expect to see called out in a search results page or an activation of Google home.
Marketing partnerships – Google curates agencies or companies who pass exams to become certified partners or resellers of Google marketing products.
Another big commercial area is Google Cloud for startups. In addition to the many services offered by Google Cloud directly (App Engine, Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Kubernetes, etc), startups targeting developers can list their extensions in the Google Cloud Marketplace, Firebase extensions and the G Suite marketplace.
The newly created Google for Startups, formerly known as Google for Entrepreneurs, is the umbrella organisation that coordinates the various startup support activities.
Google for Startups is Google’s initiative to help startups thrive across every corner of the world. We bring the best of Google’s products, connections, and best practices to enable startups to build something better.
Google for startups homepage
坚果加速器吧– Google launched a number of Campuses, physical hubs for startups, offering a combination of workspace, community, startup support programs and events. There are currently 7 owned and operated Google Campuses in London, Tel Aviv, Madrid, Warsaw, Seoul, Tokyo, Sao Paulo as well as a number of partner tech hubs in Numa in Paris, Factory in Berlin, Epicenter in Stockholm, TQ in Amsterdam, Dogpatch Labs in Dublin, etc. They offer free trainings, mentorship from Googlers, workshops (on fundraising, hiring, internationalisation, etc), a diverse range of events and international exchange programs between the hubs.
Startup Cafe – each Campus offers a cafe for registered members (free) where founders get fast wifi and access to the Campus community and events.
Google for Startups Residency – a 12-week cohort program focused around diversity (women founders, black founders etc), where successful applicants relocate to Campus for a 3 month program focused on leveraging Google products (i.e. Google Cloud or Google Compute). Each startup is assigned a Google mentor to help the startups focus on a key business challenge (i.e. how do we improve retention) and Google helps the startups with best practices (i.e. OKR setting, best practices for hiring, etc).
Diversity is a key value at Google for startups – Applications are now open until August 2nd 2024 for a Women Founders immersion programme as well as a Black founders immersion programme.
搜狗浏览器_搜狗浏览器官方版v10.0.0.32146_软件之家:2021-2-18 · 相信现在很多网友上网都少不了需要使用到浏览器，而搜狗浏览器就是一款非常好用的浏览器，它是目前互联网上最快速最流畅的新型浏览器，与拼音输入法、五笔输入法等产品一同成为高速上网的必备工具。需要的网友可众下载哦! – this is an extension of the startup residency program, targeting growth stage startups (post seed). Applications for various programs in Europe and Israel are open. The Accelerator programs are now fully remote and open to 10-12 startups per batch.
Google Launchpad start (update: a contact from Google informed me that the “Launchpad” programme is now all under Google for Startups Accelerator) – a one week pre-incubation program for early stage startups focused on subjects including product strategy, UX and UI, technology, marketing, business development and presentation skills. This program is mainly led by the Developer Relations team. Successful applicants receive credits to work on Google platforms as well as workshops and mentorship support. Regional Google for startups accelerators (Africa, Brazil, India, etc..) are open.
Google Startup Growth Lab – is a program for marketing leaders from B2C & B2SMB startups, aiming to accelerate their business. It’s a 6 months program consisting of educational workshops and ongoing 1:1 mentoring provided by industry experts.
Helpful content – is another area of support at scale. Examples include:
Google for startups live sessions – a series of streamed events designed to help founders survive and thrive during this period.
Playbook for startups facing the Covid-19 challenge (pdf)
Organising information about Google tools for startups – it’s a jungle out there!
Google Cloud for Startups – is targeted at developers and offers a combination of free credits to get started as well as dedicated developer relations support, free digital workshops, certificate courses, etc. Think of it as the equivalent of AWS.
Google Sand Hill Program – this program went through significant changes in recent years and now works closely with a select number of venture capital funds portfolio companies on how to best integrate with Google tools and products.
Start on Android – is a suite of tools aimed at mobile app developers. Perks include early access to pre-launch features on the platform, UI/UX review by Google Play developer relations team and free credits on Cloud, Firebase, etc. Startups can also extend their mobile apps to 泡泡加速器_吃鸡加速器_网游加速器 -「泡泡加速器官网」:2021-5-7 · 泡泡加速器是绝地求生加速器/ 吃鸡加速器，是专业为外服网游设计的网游加速器。泡泡加速器采用云智能加速技术，傻瓜式优化压榨电脑性能，按小时计费，方便快捷，畅玩到爽！登陆官网下载即可 ....
Google Digital Academy – best practices for running Google Ads campaigns, analytics, Udacity courses, developer programs, machine learning crash course, youtube best practices and much more. Open for all.
The Digital Garage – choose your course, learn at your own pace and get a certificate in a number of free online courses around data, digital marketing and general business skills. Pre Covid-19 some of the courses were also available in physical locations. Primarily aimed at small businesses (vs. tech startups).
Youtube creator spaces – state of the art physical studios for Youtube creators in London, Berlin, LA, New York, Paris, Rio and Tokyo. Primarily aimed at streamers and Youtube ‘influencers’.
Most of the support programs offered by Google are free and there’s a world of content out there.
Israeli startup landscape maps (updated July 2024)
Eze Vidra 1 Comment
I love startup landscapes. It’s been a while since I posted the first Israeli startup landscape collection (August 2018) and second batch (Nov 2024) of Israeli startup maps. In this post I’ll aggregate a collection of recent Israeli startup landscapes across Artificial Intelligence, retail tech, deep tech, health (specifically relating to Covid-19), wellness tech and others.
Israel Covid-19 tech landscape
Israeli startups and scientists are working hard on finding a vaccine and better diagnostics for Covid-19. Here are some of the companies tackling the pandemic directly and indirectly.
Source: Startup Nation Central
Israel Artificial Intelligence startup landscape
According to recent analysis by Cardumen Ventures, there are 1,042 active AI companies in Israel as of June 2024, with over 150 new AI startups created in 2024.
Health startups raised over $4.4 billion globally in Q2 2024, and wellness tech is a growing part of it. Wellness is a category that mixes several verticals within. In wellness tech you can expect to find mind and body fitness (some overlap with sports tech), personal care, healthy eating/nutrition (some overlap with digital health), senior/age tech, corporate wellness, wearable devices (some overlap with IOT), etc.
Source: Welltech
Israel Retail tech startup landscape
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Source: Retail Innovation Club/ Coresight Research
Israel Maritime tech startup landscape
There are now over 100 Israeli startups either dedicated to, or otherwise having a strong use case at the Maritime sector. An increate of 50% from last year.
Source: The Dock Innovation
Till next time…
Israeli Venture Capital funding in Q2 2024 is higher than the previous year despite Covid-19
Eze Vidra
A new report by IVC shows funding volume of Israeli startups in H1 2024 is higher than the previous year, despite the pandemic.
– Israeli startups raised a total of $2.455 billion in Q2 2024, higher than the equivalent period in 2024 ($2.2 billion) – In H1 2024, Israeli startups raised $3.763 Billion, compared to $5.199 billion in H1 2024 – $900M in April, $360M in May, $500M in June – April-May 2024 numbers compensated for the large decrease in early-stage investments during February – March 2024
Read the new preliminary Q2 2024 report by IVC: http://bit.ly/2NRSI0D
Tel Aviv ranks 6th in global startup report
Eze Vidra
I’m not a huge fan of ‘beauty contests’ of startup ecosystems, but it’s helpful to compare ecosystems to measure progress, especially for the smaller or up and coming hubs. And, I do like stats.
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No report in 2024 would be complete without the impact of Covid-19:
Capital availability – three out of every four startups have had the fundraising process disrupted
18% with term sheets had rounds cancelled
54% experienced delays
Demand – About 72% of startups saw their revenue drop since the beginning of the crisis, with the average startup experiencing a decline of 32%. Travel, beauty and fashion and manufacturing were most impacted.
坚果加速器怎么样: Over 60% of startups have laid off employees or reduced salaries. For startups reducing FTEs, an average of 33% of jobs were cut
Source: The Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) 2024
Virtual worlds – then, now and next
Kevin Baxpehler 1 Comment
Virtual worlds are a fascinating topic for us at Remagine Ventures. Perhaps their appeal has to do with the escapism we all need during lockdown, or the ability to teleport ourselves to a different, utopian, virtual reality. This post is an adapted version of my talk at the Media and esports online conference we hosted earlier this week.
Let’s first start with a definition:
A virtual world is a computer-simulated environment[1] which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities and communicate with others. These avatars can be textual, two or graphical representations, or live video avatars with auditory and touch sensations. In general, virtual worlds allow for multiple users but single player computer games, such as Skyrim, can also be considered a type of virtual world.
Wikipedia
Virtual worlds aren’t new. As a matter of fact, one can argue they exist for as long as the internet has. The first virtual worlds were simple chat rooms & communities. These then developed into more elaborate MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). In the 90s these MUDs in turn became MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), which took another leap forward in the 2000s when more sophisticated 3D graphics and virtual currency-based economies were added – laying the groundwork for games like Second Life.
Virtual Worlds Aren’t new
坚果网络加速
The first major economic transactions in virtual worlds started around 2007 when the City of Amsterdam inside Second Life was sold for $50,000 or when someone bought a unique elf on World of Warcraft for $9,500. In 2010 Jon Jacobs built & operated a virtual nightclub inside the game Entropia and sold it for $635,000!
But these were certainly more the exception than the norm. That said, we at Remagine Ventures believe that social & economic activity inside virtual worlds is becoming mainstream. Specifically, we see 3 key drivers:
The number of participants has tremendously increased. As a proxy we could use the estimated number of gamers out there, which is around 2.5 billion according to Newzoo.
Advancements in Technology: Game engines like Unreal or Unity, which are available for free to developers, have reached an incredible level of illusion (see video below). In addition, Cloud infrastructure makes game streaming possible, increasing the reach even further and reducing the costs (as no expensive hardware is needed to play). And finally, micro-transactions, which are key to monetisatioin.
Changes in consumer behaviour: Already before Covid-19 we spent an average of 6 hours and 42 minutes online – each day. The more time we spend online the more important these activities become.
Unreal Engine 5 Feature Highlights | Next-Gen Real-Time Demo Running on PlayStation 5 from Unreal Engine on Vimeo.
As the time and availability of virtual worlds has grown, so have the transactions within these environments. The global virtual goods market is expected to grow from $38 billion in 2017 to an estimated $190 billion by 2025 (based on market research firm Adroit Market Research).
Towards a Metaverse
The concept of Metaverse deserves its own deep dive. If you want to learn more about it I highly recommend reading Matthew Ball’s excellent article, “The Metaverse: What It Is, Where to Find it, Who Will Build It, and Fortnite“. In short, the metaverse is taking the virtual worlds to a next level, more than just a virtual theme park, where people can play, hang out, shop, consume content etc. A good example of this is Fortnite and in all likelihood also the thought behind facebook’s acquisition of Oculus Rift.
Getting there – The Metaverse
In any case most of these theories are still early, we there are many open questions still to answer. We are only at the beginning of what potentially could be a new version of the internet. We are confident that virtual worlds and the metaverse can create massive economic opportunities to build new brands, drive commerce, and form the entertainment companies of the future.
25+ examples of what’s next
I want to leave you with a few examples of recent trends we have seen that I am sure you will enjoy learning about and hopefully will inspire you to build your own ideas. If you are building a startup in these spaces, please come see us :)
Recent examples of the trends in virtual worlds, in no particular order. You can see the convergence of movies+games, fashion+games, commerce+games, and generally how entertainment is blending within these virtual experiences.
#1 JJ Abrams premiers 安卓坚果加速器 inside Fortnite:
Photo credit: the Verge
#2 Travis Scott’s performance attracts 12 million viewers inside Fortnite:
#3 Drinks inspired by Animal Crossing
Video games characters marketed on food products
#4 Riot Games League of Legends partnered with LVHM to create luxury ‘skins’
Source: Polygon
#5 When social distancing prevented Hong Kong protests, some took their protests inside Nintendo’s Animal Crossing:
Source: Vice News
#7 The bank of Nook in Animal Crossing cuts interest rates for savers (an alternative economy)
Source: Financial Times
#8 Fortnite Party Royale – a combat-free zone to chill out, watch movies, or go fishing. Yesterday, Epic games announced that it will air three different Christopher Nolan movies in the island’s theater on June 26th
Source: Epic Games
#9 Fortnite’s Diplo & Major Lazer Live Concert – we see concerts inside games becoming more and more popular
#10 MIT campus inside Minecraft:
No social distancing needed in the virtual MIT Campus – source: Business Insider
#11 安卓坚果加速器 during lockdown have proven popular
#12 Virtual wedding in Animal Crossing – Janna and Stefan, from Maryland, US, walked down the aisle and made vows during the ceremony.
#13 Funeral on Animal Crossing: The life of a New York video game enthusiast who died from complications of the coronavirus was celebrated with a virtual service
Virtual funeral in AC. Source: 坚果加速器吧
#14 100 thieves makes its apparel available for Animal Crossing:
#15 Designer Sandy Liang—the downtown darling known for her “clout fleece”—held an extremely exclusive pop-up sale. Only six people were allowed in at a time, with some attendees waiting in line for two hours inside Animal Crossing:
Exclusive digital goods – designer pop up shop (Source: Elle)
#16 Valentino and Marc Jacobs shared outfits with players on Animal Crossing
The only way they can afford this Valentino look is in the virtual world (Source: The National)
#17 Moschino collaborated with The Sims
Fashion and games coming closer together (Source: EA Games)
#18 Fortnite partnered with Nike on Air Jordan outfits
As the Last Dance went viral on Netflix, who doesn’t want a pair of Air Jordans? (Source: Business Insider)
#19 World’s first Animal Crossing interior design service launches, offering consultants £40 an hour to perfect in-game homes
Virtual interior design or landscaping? the new labor marketplace (source: PocketGamer)
#20 Nookazon, a fan-made online retailer for trading Animal Crossing:
Source: Nookazon
#21 Fan-made tools to help you get the most out of Animal Crossing, from price calculators to design tools
This and many more tools on Washington Post
#22 Extensive items catalogue for AC.
Marketplace for items in the game: Nookplaza
#23 Fans turn to online retailers like eBay and Amazon to purchase unofficial Nook Miles Ticket bundles for as much as $70.
If there’s a buyer, there will be sellers (source: eBay)
#24 Virtual Nature project, which explores how digital experiences of the natural world can impact health and well-being.
Can virtual nature be a good substitute for the great outdoors? The science says yes.
坚果网络加速Block by Block West music festival in Minecraft:
More than 30 bands will perform in the virtual Block by Blockwest music festival, including Pussy Riot and the festival’s founding group, Courier Club. (Provided by Courier Club) – source: PBS
#26 Live Tonight Show on Animal Crossing: Gary Witta opened up his own talk show in the game, attracting celebrities and fans
Stars Danny Trejo, Elijah Wood, and Greg Grunberg were slated for the show last month – Source: 坚果加速器吧
#27 Animal Crossing fashion show by Reference Festival in Berlin
Reference Festival, a Berlin-based fashion organization, is taking Animal Crossing’s fashion potential one step further with a virtual fashion show of Animal Crossing avatars dressed up in current season looks inspired by Loewe, Prada, and GmbH. Source: Vouge
#28 Fable Studio, the virtual beings company, created a knowledge friend for children
Audiences will discover and grow alongside Lucy as she shares her deepest thoughts and imaginations, completely unique to their personal exchange (Source: Fable Studios)
We are excited by the possibilities these trends open up for startups as the virtual and physical experiences come closer together. If you’re starting a company in this space, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch via the 坚果加速器官安卓版 or on social media (Linkedin/Twitter/Facebook/Instagram). We might start hosting virtual office hours in Fortnite or Animal Crossing soon ;-)
Join us for the inaugural Israeli media tech and esports conference online
Eze Vidra 3 Comments
We (安卓坚果加速器) and our friends at Fusion LA are happy to invite founders, investors and media experts to the inaugural 百度浏览器_官方电脑版_华军纯净下载:2021-7-11 · 百度浏览器是百度推出的一款PC浏览器，它让人伔能够更加流畅的上网，你可众一键触达海量优质的服务和资源，全面贴心的满足用户需求。百度浏览器整合了更加精致的应用中心，为您的浏览体验不断带来惊喜，而且百度浏览器真正做到保护您的网络信息安全。 The event will highlight startups and technologies in the media, entertainment, gaming and esports domains, with a spotlight on Israel.
Much like the virus, the economic impact of Covid-19 doesn’t discriminate and has impacted startups in a big way. But lockdown has forced people to stay at home around the world, increasing their overall time spent consuming entertainment/content and playing games online. This is all true for Zoom and Netflix, but what’s been the impact on the startups? Have they experienced tailwinds in their traction or has it gotten harder to grow?
The event will be streamed via Zoom and Facebook live on June 23th, 16:00-20:00 Israel time (UTC+3)
Join us (free)
The speaker line up includes various industry leaders (Snap Inc., Facebook, YouTube, The Esports Observer), top founders in the entertainment tech and esports verticals in Israel (including Remagine’s portfolio companies NOVOS and Vault AI) and the leading Israeli VC investors in this space. The event will cover the trends, as well as the challenges and opportunities for Israeli startups who are active in these verticals.
Kevin Baxpehler (my partner), will cover trends in virtual worlds and the acceleration of the Metaverse. Danny Peled (KDC/ Keshet) will cover trends in the media industry, from automated content creation to monetisation. Guy Katsovitch (Fusion LA), will moderate the investors panel with Danny Peled (Viola Ventures), Gad Huldai (Pitango) and Leonard Langenscheidt from Bitkraft in Berlin. You will also hear from Chris Hana, CEO of eSports observer, on the impact of Covid-19 on eSports popularity.
I’ll be moderating the founders panel with David Stiff (Vault AI), Or Briga (Novos), Anastasia Logvinenk (Pudding.ai), Eran Gertler (Shapeshift) and Shay Shem Tov (Gavra Games) to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities in this space.
Attendance is free, but sign up is required. For the details and registration: Sign up to the Media and eSports online conference (free)
I’ll be there too ?
For full details and registration, sign up on Zoom.
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How to be a startup Mensch
Eze Vidra 1 Comment
Many Americans would be familiar with the term ‘Mensch’. According to Wikipedia, a Mensch is a person of integrity and honour. In this post, I wanted to share a few examples of what it means in practice in the startup world. The post is written in male figure but is intended for all sexes. I believe it’s also a derivative of Ubermensch: “Beyond-Man,” “Superman,” “Overman,” “Uberman”, or “Superhuman”, a 坚果加速器吧 in the 哪个网游加速器比较好用？ - 知乎 - Zhihu:2021-6-4 · 测试的游戏是安卓版PUBG M亚服，众每个加速器都玩了三局的表现，并且游戏加速器的丢包率or网速与游戏中的网速有一些不同。因为毕竟加速器是理想状态下的加速表现，而实际情况中，如果你手机信号不是很强，会极大影响你在游戏里的网速。.
Source: Wikipedia
I got the idea for this post on my run this morning, and I guess it reminded me a bit of the book Give and Take by Adam Grant. The most successful people are givers. And the least successful people are givers too. How do you maintain integrity and end up on the top group? For a thorough answer you’ll have to read the book, but being a mensch is being a giver, and helping others want to be givers as well.
What makes someone a good startup Mensch?
Keep your promises – for example, make introductions, or give meaningful feedback when you say you’re going to do so.
Say thank you – when someone does something nice for you, it’s good practice to give a heartfelt thank you. Acknowledging the person that helped you is a great start.
Give credit where credit is due – reached an amazing milestone? closed a round? congrats! it’s takes a village to raise a startup, a mensch would call out those that made it possible.
Go the extra mile – everyone is busy and sometimes the requests we get are not exactly straightforward. A mensch would go the extra mile, even if it inconveniences them at the exact moment. Help someone find a job by doing more than just forwarding an email.
Pay it forward – it’s nice to reciprocate, but often there’s an imbalance between people needing help and people giving help. One way to ‘repay’ the favour is to pay it forward – just commit to do the same for someone else in need.
安卓(Android)游戏下载_手机下载__太平洋下载中心:2021-7-23 · 包括安卓(Android)软件下载、安卓(Android)游戏下载。 海量安卓软件游戏，高速安全下载。 360手机助手 支付宝 QQ浏览器 360手机卫士– “How can I help?”– don’t you wish you heard it more often? When your hammer means you’re looking for opportunities to help, they will naturally appear to you.
Update the person that introduced you – supposed you were introduced to a potential customer or investor, and supposed they ended up converting (buying, investing, etc). Did you update the person that introduced you? It doesn’t mean you owe them, and the update would be much appreciated to close the loop.
Praise good behaviour – you see someone behaving extraordinarily? praise the behaviour, with true feelings. Do it soon after it happened. Tell the person what they did right, encourage them, and they are likely to repeat that behaviour.
Don’t be shortsighted, Prioritise long term goals – the problem with being a mensch, or a giver, is that you can quickly let negative thoughts and fears of getting taken advantage of, take over. Personal branding is not about reaching a number followers on social media, but rather how you are perceived as a person/professional.
Cultivating seeds – a mensch is someone that listens and sees value in people regardless of their official title or position in life. If you’re lucky, it is the person that helps you early on in your career. Be that person.
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