My mom gets to the point when she describes my beat to others. In her words, I cover companies like Uber before they become companies like Uber. And honestly? I can’t exactly contradict the description. The best feeling in tech journalism is telling a story about a startup before it becomes a household name. As an early-stage reporter, I honestly rely a lot on the potential of an accomplished Edtech founder or a creative marketplace game. And when I do my job right, I point to the unique insights that will make the startup successful or challenging in the future.
With that in mind, one of my favorite renewed series at TechCrunch is an EC-1 (Extra Crunch Subscription Required), a story series that walks through the core pieces of a startup’s story from the original days to the pivots along the way . I’ve spent the past few months on one of these projects – and mine is out next week! In the meantime you’ve read packages about StockX and Tonal, and our newest one has just come out: the Klaviyo EC-1:
Credit: Nigel Sussman
Enjoy this long read and thank you to Danny Crichton, my equity co-host and managing editor here at TechCrunch, who managed and edited all of these projects.
In the remainder of this newsletter, we’ll cover All Raise dates, the new Miami, and a new lineup that you won’t want to miss. Follow me on Twitter @nmasc_ for updates all week.
All (not) increase (d)
All Raise, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the footprint of female founders and funders, has published its 2020 annual report. The whole thing is honestly worth reading, but we paid special attention to how the funding for female founders has fallen:
- The round sizes for women + non-binary founders were up to 49% lower than for men
- 85% of the risk funding goes to all-male teams
- 64% of VC companies still do not have a single female partner
- The founders of Black + Latinx receive only 0.64% of the VC funds, a slight increase compared to the previous year.
Here’s what you should know: In terms of equity, we’ve talked about how these abysmal metrics were both a predicted and still surprising effect of Zoom investing. That separation is the conversation no one has during an upscale marketplace – and metrics are a way of measuring progress.
Internet is the new Miami
To quote Winnie’s CEO and co-founder Sara Mauskopf, “Internet is the new Miami.” The networks created online – either through the rise of meme culture or through Substack Spice – can be a competitive advantage in the world of investing, as two new funds showed us this week.
Here’s What You Should Know: Ryan Hoover and Vedika Jain announced the Weekend Fund 3, which will include a community donation of $ 1 million. And Chief Meme Officer Turner Novak eventually debuted Banana Capital’s debut fund, which launched at $ 9.99 million.
Novak explained how Internet-First is affecting its investments:
“It just happens somehow where [my investments] are people who understand the culture of the internet, understand memes, understand jokes and humor and appreciate that a little more, ”he said. “These are probably the people who are naturally more intuitive investments, so it definitely skews that direction.”
While Novak did not share any explicit goals or mandates regarding investing in various founders, he cited his track record at Gelt VC, where 41% of the capital went to female CEOs. To date, 65% of Banana Capital’s portfolio founding teams are non-white founders and 50% of the teams include more than one gender.
All about TechCrunch
In the course of the week
Seen on TechCrunch
The AWS for blockchain
Atlassian starts a Jira for each team
CES will return to Las Vegas in 2022
Microsoft’s new default font options were rated
Seen on Extra Crunch
Hacking the Path into Analytics: A Creative’s Journey to Designing with Data
How Brex more than doubled its rating in a year
And finally
India is in crisis. It is devastating and heartbreaking to watch this unfold and affect our family, friends, colleagues and people. My colleague, Manish Singh, who is based there, has written down the different ways you can donate to help.
I will conclude by quoting Singh:
As several major industries, including film and sports, pretend there is no crisis, entrepreneurs and startups have emerged as rare glimmers of hope in recent days, taking steps to help the nation navigate its darkest hours.
It’s a refreshing change from last year when thousands of Indian startups struggled to survive on their own. And while some startups are still severely disrupted, lending a helping hand to the nation has become a priority for most.
Until next week,
N.