Protecting critical infrastructure like power plants and other industrial plants is just as important as it’s challenging. It’s one thing to take over a remote machine to mine some Bitcoin, but you’ve got a totally different problem when those hackers try to manipulate the physical infrastructure of your power plant with the goal of causing an explosion. With their thousands… Read More
SEC chairman Jay Clayton made clear today that his agency, along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, remains acutely concerned about initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency trades. In fact, toward that end, they’re now looking for more expansive powers when it comes to protecting customers on cryptocurrency exchanges from fraud. Read More
Placements.io says it’s helping online publishers get paid on time for ads. Placements.io offers a system for publishers to manage ad inventory, orders, payments and billing, all across multiple sales channels. It also integrates with a variety of different adtech systems. Read More
Meet ProcessOut, a French startup that automatically routes transactions to the best payment provider. This way, big online services can start using multiple payment providers, pay fewer fees and reduce the number of declined transactions. The startup has just raised $1 million from various business angels, such as BlaBlaCar CTO Francis Nappez, former PayPal Director of Global Business… Read More
Exclusive content is how creators get patrons to pay them a monthly subscription fee on Patreon, so the startup is equipping them with a Snapchat-like tool to turn their private lives into “behind-the-scenes” footage. Patreon Lens launches today so creators can share photos and videos that disappear in 24 hours just with those who pay them at least a $1 a month. Read More
As a fan of both waffles and robots I present to you the FANUC food and beverage manipulation robot, waffle edition. The robot, as you see below, sorts the waffles by color, stacks them, and then another robot grabs them and puts them into a box. And these bad boys can do some heavy lifting. From the site: We have the largest offering of standard and collaborative robot models with… Read More
The team at SocialRank has spent the last few years building ways for brands and marketers to get a better sense of who’s following and engaging with them on social media. Until now, they’ve been doing that on an account level — plug in an account and you get a SocialRank report covering things like your most valuable followers. With a new product called SocialRank for… Read More
Sramana Mitra: In some cases if you can exit your company without needing a Series A, that is not a bad way to mitigate the Series A gap. Victoria Pettibone: Yes. Your angels are going to be happy...
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Andrew Romans is General Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital. Our discussion includes an interesting segment on ICOs.
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This interview explores the nuances of SAP’s Corporate Incubation strategy in great depth. Sramana Mitra: Tell us about what SAP’s thinking is in the domain of corporate innovation. What are your...
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Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) recently announced its fourth quarter results, which relayed mixed signals. Alphabet’s Google has long been synonymous with search, but now its bets beyond search are paying...
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Rob has built a thriving founder-financed business from Toronto using very sophisticated strategic maneuvering. I just loved discussing the strategic nuances of this business. You’ll learn a LOT from...
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This feature from Skift covers the funding and valuation trends in the mobility as a service sector in 2017 where ridesharing startups raised $28 billion. For this week’s posts, click on the...
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Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about what you have invested in in your current portfolio. Maybe even exits. You talked about a couple of exits this year. One of them was an IT company. Victoria Pettibone:...
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Sramana Mitra: Let’s discuss stage. The early stage investment has become quite complex. It used to be seed and Series A. Now it’s pre-seed, seed, post-seed, and pre-Series A. Victoria Pettibone:...
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Is there a point when investors will turn off the spigots for giant unicorn funding rounds? If so, we haven’t reached that threshold yet. Here, we break down the leading locations for new and existing unicorns, top sectors for investment capital, exits and a few other trends affecting the space. Read More
Sramana Mitra: What does an average deal like Foursquare amount to? Are we talking enterprise deals in the millions? Ari Paparo: I don’t want to speak about Foursquare in particular. Our minimum deal...
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Sramana Mitra: You are acquiring these customers through these kinds of channels – through computers at work. Issa Asad: We acquire 100% of our customers online. Sramana Mitra: That’s what I’m...
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Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Victoria Pettibone was recorded in October...
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As I was meditating this morning, the thought âthis is a really good place to be right nowâ came to the front of my mind. As is my way when I meditate, I noted that Iâd had the thought, placed it on a leaf, set it on the virtual river flowing in front of me, and let it drift away. Then, I brought my attention back to my breath.
I took a shower right after I meditated and the thought came back to me. This time I let it stay with me.
As I sit in our TARDIS at Foundry Group, listening to Let It Be, and catching up from a typically intense week, the thought came back to me again.
No matter how shitty, busy, or tense my day is, there are a few moments in the day where this is true. Sometimes it is long stretches or even the entire day. Other times it is only brief moments.
But we are alive, on this planet, even though we are 1 of 7.5 billion or so people, distributed across a surface area of 196.9 million miles squared, in a tiny corner of a galaxy that has a radius of 100,000 light-years, in a universe that has a diameter of 91 billion light-years (at least the observable universe.)
This is a really good place to be right now.
Also published on Medium.
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