PacketZoom, a startup that helps app developers speed up and optimize app delivery on mobile devices, announced a $5M Series A today. The round was led by Baseline Ventures with participation from First Round Capital, Tandem Capital and Arafura Ventures. Today’s investment brings the total raised to over $9M, according to Crunchbase. The company combines a content delivery network (CDN)… Read More
Sramana Mitra: Very good. In your space, what are the trends and what are some open problems that you would point new entrepreneurs to look into? Mike Laven: If you send a million dollars from San...
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The story of AppLovin‘s acquisition has taken another turn. We first reported that the mobile ad startup was in acquisition talks in August of last year, and the announcement came a month later: AppLovin would sell a majority stake Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital. Today, however, CEO Adam Foroughi revealed that the deal is (sort of) off. Instead of an outright… Read More
As Apple reportedly ramps up work to ship an augmented reality headset in 2020, it has acquired a startup from Montreal, Canada that could help it get there. TechCrunch has learned that Apple has acquired Vrvana, maker of the Totem headset — which had rave reviews but never shipped. The deal was for around $30 million, two sources tell TechCrunch. We contacted Apple, and the… Read More
ADAY, a fresh entrant in the highly competitive world of direct-to-consumer fashion, has raised $2 million in new funding for its mission to simplify wardrobes with a line of durable, technical and chic womenswear. The company is the latest in an ever-expanding movement of startups that offer direct-to-consumer products for the fashion-conscious consumer. Read More
While smart suitcase startup Raden is inarguably a hardware company, they’ve decided to test the social waters by diving headfirst into the world of stickers. The company is launching a sticker store in their mobile app, which lets customers order physical stickers that once delivered can be can be affixed to their suitcases. The app lets you preview what the stickers will look like on… Read More
French startup Blade, the company behind Shadow, announced at a press conference that it is launching new offers, updating specifications and the ability to become a client and buy a subscription without any waiting list. Shadow is a gaming PC in the cloud for a monthly fee. The company has been running thousands of computers with an Intel Xeon processor and an Nvidia GTX 1070 in a data… Read More
Candid, the dental startup that aims to straighten your teeth for less than the cost of braces and Invisalign, recently raised a $15 million Series A round led by Greycroft Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, e.ventures and some existing investors. The plan is to use the funding to beef up Candid’s operations and grow its customer base, the company said in a press release. Read More
A company called Confido raised a small ICO by selling special CFD designed to allow “safe and trustless cryptocurrency payments. According to ICODrops they raised their goal of about $400,000 and quickly disappeared, taking the cash with it. The site is currently a parked web server that points to nothing. The apparent founder and former eBay employee, Joost van Doorn, posted a message to… Read More
Monzo, one of a number of “challenger” banks in the U.K. aiming to re-invent the current account, is assembling quite an array of backers, many with a U.S. bent. Its most recent round, which gave the startup a £280 million post-money valuation, saw the likes of Goodwater Capital, Stripe, and Michael Moritz invest, and before that Thrive Capital became a backer. Now TechCrunch… Read More
November 21, 2017
Looking Glass, a Brooklyn-based company we recently led the Series A investment in, just released HoloPlayer One, the worldâs first interactive lightfield development kit. This is a new interface that lets groups of people see and interact with floating 3D scenes without VR or AR headgear. While itâs an early release dev kit, itâs still as close to achieving the dream of the hologram shown in Blade Runner 2049 as Iâve seen.
This is relevant in my world because an investment theme we think a lot about is Human Computer Interaction. While itâs dangerous to try to predict the future, I think itâs a safe bet that in 20 years humans wonât be interacting with computers in the same way they are now. Amazon Echo is an example of one massive HCI shift that will impact our lives for years to come. Looking Glass is betting that another HCI shift will be related to how people interact with 3D content, like how a doctor will show a patient a CAT scan or how a 3D modeller will rig a Pixar character or design a rocket engine.
There are a lot of people who see this interface shift on the horizon with billions of dollars flowing into AR and VR companies evidence of this general interest. But what if there was a way to do it without the cost and constraints of a VR or AR headset.
The Looking Glass founders Shawn and Alex have been obsessed with chasing this dream since they were kids. Now theyâre betting deeply against the headgear-based VR/AR trend by saying that holograms will be the next shift in human computer interaction. And they want fellow hologram hackers along for the ride.
I just got one (well, another one â we already have two HoloPlayer prototypes in the office with Structure Sensor scans of all the Foundry partners).
You can pre-order your Holoplayer dev kit here. Save $50 with code TOTHEFUTURE.
Also published on Medium.
Entrepreneurs interested to learn more about raising funds for their startups need to keep up with what is happening with seed investors today. The seed eco-system has become a 5-stage process,...
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In October, Sonos launched the Sonos One, raising the bar on what is already the gold standard in wireless whole-home audio. The big new feature? An integrated microphone that added support for Amazon’s Alexa. However, there was one big caveat: While Alexa was integrated to control music services like Apple Music, Google Play Music, Soundcloud and others, it was missing a major player in… Read More
Dabbl is giving users a straightforward reason to interact with ads — the ads earn them money in the form of gift cards. For example, when I signed up for Dabbl this morning, I was presented with a menu of several different campaigns. The first one that I chose was from Oreo, where I answered a bunch of questions about how I feel and what I know about Oreo products. The whole thing… Read More
Mike Laven: We effectively provide our customers a one-stop connection to a global banking world. It’s very difficult to find a single bank that optimizes everything for you. Different banks and...
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On-demand delivery is a coveted service in traffic-congested Nairobi. Enter Shujaa Delivery, a Nairobi-based door-to-door delivery and courier service for businesses that uses motorcycles instead of cars. Read More
As ancient as the art of writing is, there is a bit of a shortage when it comes to truly excellent writing applications. Scrivener is one of the few, and today, the app has gotten a major update.Scrivener works for both professional writers and hobbyists, giving an assortment of options for whatever kind of writing suits you, from screenwriting to novels and beyond. The app also offers a… Read More
Meet DreamQuark, a French startup that wants to help banks, insurance companies and asset management firms with all of their artificial intelligence needs. DreamQuark crunches your data, creates models based on machine learning and lets you apply those models on all past and future data points. Many banks still rely on COBOL code to compute all sorts of financial operations. COBOL is a… Read More
You’re sitting down to a nice meal and your aunt, always one step ahead, mentions she wants to start investing in Bitcoin. You freeze, a drip of gravy plopping off the ladle. It’s your time to shine. You got this. First, you know that the state of crypto is very, very good. This has been a banner year for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin rose from $738 a year ago to $8220 as of this year.… Read More
November 20, 2017
Thereâs a magnificent exercise that I like to do for myself on a periodic basis. Iâm sure it has a more formal name but I call it âGood Bad Like Dislike.â
I create a two by two matrix that looks like this:
I then go through my calendar for the next few months as a starting point to stimulate things to put in each box. Iâm careful not to put specific items in the box, but concepts. For example, âManaging Other Peopleâ often ends up in âBad â Dislikeâ box when I realize, through my forward calendar review, that I have a set of activities where Iâm managing others. Or, instead of Good-Dislike: Company X Board Dinner, I end up writing âBoard Dinnersâ in the Good-Dislike Category.
To be more specific, I deeply dislike managing others. While I might have been good at it a long time ago, and I could also likely be good at it if I worked at it, since itâs in the Dislike category, I donât want to work on it. In contrast, I like âLeading Other Peopleâ and am good at it.
Part two is a personal reflection. Instead of being prompted by my calendar, I sit quietly and think about the things Iâm doing that I dislike. Iâll often talk to Amy about this as she knows my Good Bad Like Dislike better than anyone on the planet. This is a particularly hard exercise for me because I often rationalize that I should be doing things in the Dislike category. I often overrate my ability on certain things that I feel that I should be good at, so they land in the Good category instead of the Bad category. Having a Fair Witness in oneâs life helps with this.
Part three of the exercise is to take specific action around the high-level categorizations. Since I used my calendar to stimulate the review, I have my next three months in the front of my mind. I can then take specific actions. For example, I systematically decide not to do any board dinners in the future. Or, I change the management structure around the project that Iâve ended up managing so that Iâm a participant in the project instead of the manager.
I just did this over the weekend as I was considering what 2018 was going to look like for me. Iâm also sneaking up on v52 of myself, so itâs a good time for me to think about these kinds of things.
Also published on Medium.
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