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| |  | | After schools closed to slow the spread of COVID-19, millions of students began using video conferencing, apps, email and other technology to continue learning. This sudden shift shoved edtech into the spotlight, so we reached out to 12 major league VCs to find out where they’re putting their money, the opportunities they perceive, “and how braintech still is ripe for innovation.” - Jenny Lee, GGV
- Tetyana Astashkina, LearnLaunch
- Jean Hammond, LearnLaunch
- Marlon Nichols, MaC Venture Capital
- Mercedes Bent, Lightspeed Venture Partners
- Jennifer Carolan, Reach Capital
- Shauntel Garvey, Reach Capital
- Jan Lynn-Matern, Emerge Education
- Lesa Mitchell, Techstars
- Tory Patterson, Owl Ventures
- Ian Chiu, Owl Ventures
- Tony Wang, 500 Startups
Next week, we'll publish more findings we received from these investors, focusing on edtech in a post-COVID-19 world. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Ian.CuiYi / Getty Images | | Last December, we described the state of Boston’s startup ecosystem as “white-hot.” When local darlings Toast and Flywire raised $520M in two rounds just two months later, the region was well on track to exceed its 2019 fundraising totals. But this week, restaurant-management platform Toast cut half of its staff and local unicorn EzCater, which delivers food to business meetings, laid off 400 people. We had planned to launch a monthly series covering Boston’s VC/startup community, but given current events, we moved up our timetable. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Maskot / Getty Images | | The Paycheck Protection Program in the coronavirus federal stimulus package offers some startups a chance to preserve headcount and extend their runway, but founders who hope to participate should take a closer look at the protective covenants in their charter and investor agreements. The PPP might be a potential funding source for your startup, but you’ll need to do an affiliation analysis to see if you’re eligible. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Ariel Skelley / Getty Images | | Virtual care services like behavioral coaching, remote patient monitoring and telehealth are mainstream, but the pandemic has led state and federal governments to remove major barriers that previously prevented many companies from scaling. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: baranozdemir / Getty Images | | Senior Editor Alex Wilhelm tracks the value of public SaaS companies to gain insight into the VC market: “If public SaaS shares rise, their gains help founders raise new money at attractive prices, defending and extending private valuations. When SaaS stocks fall, they do the opposite.” In this column, he digs into Q1 2020 stats from the Bessemer cloud index to unpack the good (and bad) news. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images / Getty Images | | Former TechCrunch writer (now GV general partner) M.G. Siegler spoke to Lucas Matney about the $10 million investment he led in website-builder Universal and how the public health crisis has informed his day-to-day work. “Frankly, there's a lot more portfolio work with everyone needing to make sure that the companies are in a good position to be able to weather this situation,” said Siegler. “I do think there are opportunities on top of that, and I do believe that we will still be active in pursuing new opportunities that are in play.” Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Tony Studio / Getty Images | | Dear Sophie: I have an H-4 visa and work authorization. I currently have a job that's considered nonessential during the coronavirus emergency. If I get laid off, I would need unemployment assistance while I look for another job. Would getting unemployment benefits hurt my or my spouse's green card petition under the new public charge rule? — Nonessential in NorCal Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: chombosan / Shutterstock | | Depending on their focus, “it's a time of utmost use — or uselessness — for fintech solutions,” say Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm. Many consumers and small businesses are desperate to secure their financial futures, but global markets are shedding value. Anybody can make predictions, so Natasha and Alex pulled apart several news stories and gathered data from startups in the space to create a brief. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Liam Simpson / Unsplash | | Alex Wilhelm’s daily Extra Crunch columns are fueled by copious amounts of data (and caffeine), so I was glad to see him run a “survey of surveys” earlier this week that examines performance data and sentiment collected by accelerator 500 Startups, valuation shop Preferred Return and venture firm NFX. “As a bit of a spoiler, there aren't too many smiles ahead,” he writes. “But march forward we must.” Read more | | | |
| |  | | Senior Writer Romain Dillet interviewed Jean de La Rochebrochard, a partner with Kima Ventures, to find out how the COVID-19 era has changed the way he does business. “Our attention has shifted from inbound deal flow to portfolio management. Before, we would spend a quarter to a third of our time on our portfolio, and two-thirds to three-quarters on deal flow,” says de La Rochebrochard. “Now, it's the exact opposite. We're going to allocate a quarter to a third on deal flow and the rest on our portfolio.” Read more | | | |
| |  | | Bessemer Venture Partners investor Tess Hatch spoke to Devin Coldewey about where she still sees opportunities in frontier tech, hardware vs. software investing and some of the advice she’s been offering startups in BVP’s portfolio. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: MR.Cole_Photographer / Getty Images | | Earlier this week, the Equity on Extra Crunch podcast hosted Jon Lehr, an investor at Work-Bench, a NYC-based enterprise technology-focused venture capital firm. Lehr spoke to Managing Editor Danny Crichton and Senior Editor Alex Wilhelm about the state of the market and his habit of doing research that helps him identify startups that solve existing problems. Read more | | | |
| |  Image Credits: Edwin Hooper / | | We’re entering a dangerous phase for entrepreneurs, which means this is the time to get creative. Joe White, a founder-turned-VC who navigated the 2001 dot-com crash and the 2008 financial crisis, offers a tactical guide for surviving uncertain times that’s based on his experience. “For most companies, I think this crisis will look more like 2001 than 2008, though there will be some who are lucky enough to grow through it,” he writes. Read more | | | |
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