In business, there’s nothing so valuable as having the right product at the right time. Just ask Zoom, the hot cloud-based video conferencing platform experiencing explosive growth thanks to its sudden relevance in the age of sheltering in place.

Having worked at BlackBerry in its heyday in the early 2000s, I see a lot of parallels to what Zoom is going through right now. As Zooming into a video meeting or a classroom is today, so too was pulling out your BlackBerry to fire off an email or check your stocks circa 2002. Like Zoom, the company then known as Research in Motion had the right product for enterprise users that increasingly wanted to do business on the go.

Of course, BlackBerry’s story didn’t have a happy ending.

From 1999 to 2007, BlackBerry seemed totally unstoppable. But then Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, Google launched Android and all of the chinks in the BlackBerry armor started coming undone, one by one. How can Zoom avoid the same fate?

As someone who was at both BlackBerry and Android during their heydays, my biggest takeaway is that product experience trumps everything else. It’s more important than security (an issue Zoom is getting blasted about right now), what CIOs want, your user install base and the larger brand identity.

When the iPhone was released, many people within BlackBerry rightly pointed out that we had a technical leg up on Apple in many areas important to business and enterprise users (not to mention the physical keyboard for quickly cranking out emails)… but how much did that advantage matter in the end? If there is serious market pull, the rest eventually gets figured out… a lesson I learned from my time at BlackBerry that I was lucky enough to be able to immediately apply when I joined Google to work on Android.

Make sure to set your desired font for new as well as "Replying or forwarding messages." Steven John/Business Insider

6. Repeat the process under "Composing and reading plain text messages."

You can opt to password protect your exported contacts file if you wish, a plus for use on shared or workplace computers. Steven John/Business Insider

3. On the next window, select "Export to a file", then hit "Next."

4. Select "Comma Separated Values."

5. If need be, choose the Outlook account in question on the next popup (assuming you have multiple Outlook-linked accounts) and then choose "Contacts" under the account from which you're exporting, then hit "Next."

6. Name the file you'll create and choose the location you want to save it to, which should usually be the desktop, then hit "OK."

7. Click "Finish" then "OK."

Outlook will save your contacts as a .csv file. This file can be opened in a number of different programs, including Excel, Google Sheets, and more.

COVID-19 quickly put the stock market in the ICU, with signs of unprecedented volatility and declines. However, the market’s resilience and swift action by the Fed made this downward spiral short-lived. The Russell 2000 Index, a benchmark for small-cap stocks, is one of several indices that highlights this.

Within a one-month period from late February into March, The Russell 2000 Index was down more than 40%, signaling the end of a long bull market and entrance into bear territory. Yet, two months later, at the end of May, the Index is up over 35% from its low. In the private market, the impact of volatility on healthy, pre-COVID-19 software company valuations is much easier to track. As SaaS founders consider their financing options, the picture might be a bit less glum than they might imagine.

Still going strong

Changes to private market valuations often lag behind what transpires in the public markets. Also, fundraising cycles for private companies generally take 2-3 months from start to close. Unlike the 2000 dot-com crash and the 2008 Great Recession, where valuations dropped for extended periods of time, private company valuations, for the most part, have not had time to adjust for the volatility seen in the public markets.

You can't share calendars created by others, even if you have editing access. Steven John/Business Insider

2. At the top of the page, click "Share Calendar" and then select the calendar to be shared.

3. In the Calendar Properties box, click "Add."

4. Enter the contact (or email address) of the person with whom you're sharing the calendar. Then click "Add."

5. Click "OK" when you're done. 

6. You can also change the default permission level by selecting "Choose your permissions" — you can switch it to "Can view all details" or "can edit," for example — and then hit "OK" to save the setting.

And note that while you can share a calendar with someone who doesn't have a Microsoft email account (@Outlook.com, @Hotmail.com, @MSN.com, etc.), they can only view the calendar, and can't make edits.

Danggeun Market, the startup behind Karrot, South Korea’s largest neighborhood marketplace and community app, announced today that it has raised a $33 million Series C. The round was led by Goodwater Capital and Altos Ventures.

The funding brings Danggeun Market’s total raised so far to $40.5 million. Its list of investors also include Kakao Ventures, Strong Ventures, SoftBank Ventures and Capstone Partners. Danggeun Market, which launched Karrot in the United Kingdom last November, will use part of the funding to expand into more international markets and increase its monetization tools.

One of Karrot’s most unique features is that its peer-to-peer marketplace only shows people listings from sellers located within a six-kilometer radius (the distance is set slightly wider for more remote areas), and most transactions are completed in person. As a safety measure, all user identities are verified through their mobile numbers and location.

In a call with TechCrunch, Danggeun Market co-founder and co-CEO Gary Kim and vice president Chris Heo said Karrot’s model works because of the high population density in many South Korean cities. As the app launches overseas, the company will focus on other densely populated areas, especially ones that don’t already have a dominant neighborhood marketplace app.

Danggeun Market planned to enter three new countries this year, but slowed the pace of its expansion because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, it will focus on enhancing its community features in South Korea, with the goal of launching in at least one new country by the end of this year.

Danggeun Market was founded in 2015 by Gary Kim and Paul Kim, both of whom previously worked at KakaoTalk, South Korea’s largest messaging app. Before Danggeun Market launched, the most popular online secondhand marketplace in South Korea was website Joonggonara, but it didn’t have a mobile app.

Being designed for smartphones helps Karrot differentiate from other peer-to-peer marketplaces. For example, its distance limits make listings easier to spot, and also encourages interactions among neighbors. Its approach to neighborhood networking is also the foundation of the company’s monetization model. Instead of charging listing fees, the app is free to use, and the company makes money through hyperlocalized advertising.

Danggeun Market says its monthly active users have grown 130% year-over-year, reaching seven million in April and making Karrot the second-largest shopping app in South Korea after Coupang, the country’s largest e-commerce platform. Users spend an average of 20 minutes per day on the app, and gross merchandise value increased by 250% year-over-year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Heo said the number of listings on the app actually grew from 4.4 million in January to 8.4 million in April, as more people spent time at home and found things they wanted to get rid of, and also preferred to remain within their neighborhoods. Danggeun Market’s community features also saw a jump in the number of postings made.

Heo said face-to-face transactions continued, because many South Koreans were already used to wearing masks and other safety measures that were ramped up during the pandemic. The company added a new feature called Karrot Help, with tools to help match people with neighbors who needed help running errands and a mask inventory checker for nearby pharmacies, and implemented tools to automatically control the price of mask listings and prevent profiteering.

HenQ, an Amsterdam-based VC that invests in European B2B software startups typically at seed and Series A, recently disclosed the first close of its fourth fund at €70 million. The final close is expected to top out at between €75-€85 million later this year, and the firm has already begun backing companies out of the new fund.

However, what sets henQ apart from many VC firms isn’t just its pure focus on B2B software but that its team is fully remote. Primarily investing in the Nordics and Benelux, henQ doesn’t have any official offices, with the team working from different temporary locations. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, henQ closed deals remotely.

Successes from its previous funds include Mendix (acquired by Siemens) and SEOshop (acquired by Lightspeed).

I spoke to partners Jan Andriessen, Mick Mackaay and Jelmer de Jong to learn more about henQ, what it’s like to be a fully remote VC and how the firm envisions the post-pandemic era.

TechCrunch: Can you be more specific regarding the size of check you write and the types of companies, geographies, technologies and business models you are focusing on?

Jan Andriessen: Our main focus is seed rounds, in which we often are the lead investor. We also invest in Series A rounds, often as a co-investor. Initial check sizes vary from €500,000 to €3.5 million.

A typical seed investment has a product and perhaps a few pilot customers. The key here is not revenue (which is OK to be zero), but there is proof of the actual need for the product.

Most of our recent deals were in the Nordics and Benelux, the areas where we spent the majority of our time. But we have also invested in the Baltics, Czech Republic and the UK. For henQ 4, we expect this to be the same: the bulk of our investments will be in the Nordics and Benelux, with an occasional deal in broader Europe.

In terms of technology and business trends, one of the things we firmly believe in is the consumerization of enterprise software: successful startups are centered around their customers and focus on the job to be done. More generally, we have always been focused on startups with staying power: companies that have a right to exist over time, not just now, as they deliver a product that touches the core processes of their customers and operate at the heart of their customer’s business.

For example, looking at our portfolio, Zivver delivers secure communication solutions for hospitals and governments. Stravito works deep in the research departments of FMCGs, delivering a knowledge management platform. Mews runs the full operations of hotels with their property management system, and Orderchamp enables retailers to digitize their buying process.

We see the business model of a company as a means, not an end. Most of the startups we invest in charge a SaaS plus implementation fee, and have a more enterprise-sales driven business model. We are not afraid to invest in startups that have a more complex and longer sales cycle, and are not per se looking for SaaS ‘by-the-book.'

Christian Czernich is Founder and CEO at Round2 Capital Partners, a firm that is experimenting with an alternative financing model.

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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 Parthib Srivathsan was recorded in May 2020....

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

This week will see two richly valued SaaS businesses share their Q1 earnings reports: CrowdStrike and Zoom. Both are 2019 IPOs, but these relatively young public companies have enjoyed a strong run in the public markets this year.

Zoom started off 2020 worth around $69 per share; today it is worth $179.48 ahead of the start of today’s trading. CrowdStrike started the year at a little over $49 per share; today it’s worth $87.81 per share. The business-focused, but consumer-friendly video chat service Zoom and the cybersecurity-focused CrowdStrike are perfect examples of the updraft that SaaS businesses have ridden this year.

With both firms reporting earnings at the same time, we’ll get notes on the work-from-home trend, and how it is impacting services that help make remote-work possible. CrowdStrike’s earnings will inform us on how the cybersecurity space is performing — are businesses shelling out more than expected to keep their networks and employees safe when so many are out of the office?

If Zoom and CrowdStrike report results that disappoint investors, they could do more than just deflate their own shares. Missed earnings reports from either could puncture SaaS valuations more broadly, perhaps impacting private valuations for companies that are in the market for new capital. Why?

Prominence and timing.

Earnings expectations

Good morning and welcome back to TechCrunch’s Equity Monday, a brief jumpstart for your week.

A big thanks to the whole Equity crew for doing a stellar job last week with the show while I was on vacation, especially to Danny for taking on this particular installment of the podcast. Equity Monday is still pretty new, frankly, so him stepping up and into the role was a huge boon. Thanks, Danny.

Right, so, what did we talk about today?

In the face of outrageous police action and systemic racism, most of tech — both public and private, alike — said something or did something in the last few days. We go over some of the latest statements and pledges from the VC and startup world in the episode, but do take a look for yourself and decide if what’s been done and said is enough.For more, read this.Coming up this week: Zoom earnings. Zoom’s earnings report matters a bit more than a regular digest of three-months’ worth of corporate performance. The company is a key plank in the group of companies that have been buoyed by the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that investors that have made similar bets will have their eyes on the videochatting giant’s results. And, SaaS and cloud stocks are trading at all-time highs. If Zoom can turn in good numbers, that run might be able to continue.Tia Health put together nearly $25 million for women-centric telehealth.Beam, a micromobility startup headquartered in Singapore, raised $26 million.And, finally, fintech layoffs. I was off last week but was a bit surprised at the number of fintech companies that were cutting staff. Why? Well, we have a guess or two on that count. (You can read more here, and here, from our own Natasha Mascarenhas for background).

Today, some news of a huge acquisition out of Turkey that represents the first billion-dollar-plus exit for a startup out of the country. Social gaming company Zynga confirmed that it is buying Istanbul-based Peak Games, the company behind popular Candy-Crush-style mobile gaming apps Toon Blast and Toy Blast, for $1.8 billion — $900 million in cash, and $900 million in Zynga shares.

Interestingly, this is the second time that Zynga has made a Peak Games acquisition. In 2017, it purchased the company’s mobile card games business for $100 million (more on that below).

The news caps off a short period of speculation about an upcoming deal, with local tech publications like Webrazzi calling the sale (and correct price) last month.

Peak’s investors had included European VCs Earlybird and Hummingbird Ventures — both active backers of startups in emerging markets in the region — and Endeavor Global (the nonprofit that invests via its Endeavor Catalyst fund). Sidar Sahin, the founder and CEO, had been the company’s biggest shareholder.

As with all M&A in the world of gaming, Zynga is getting a couple of big gains out of this sale.

The first is picking up two very popular titles/franchises that it doesn’t have do develop from scratch (in hopes of investing R&D budget in what it hopes but can’t guarantee will be a hit). Toon Blast and Toy Blast together total more than 12 million DAUs. And on top of that, those two games are some of the highest-grossing among all in Apple’s App Store, ranking among the top-10 and top-20 games in the past two years, Zynga noted in its announcement.

It’s not just about adding popular games content, but expanding Zynga’s advertising business as well. Significantly, Peak Games’ primary users are outside of Zynga’s home market of the US, representing a real growth opportunity for the company to cross-sell other games. Zynga says that bolting on Peak’s games network to its own will boost its number of mobile daily active users by 60%, which mean a lot of scaling up for its ad network.

Of course, sustaining both of those titles and their respective franchises as hits for the long run is not a given — the world of gaming regularly sees blockbusters fizzle out when the next big thing comes along — although these “forever franchises” with their steady popularity have a strong play to be exactly that.

However, the long play is also where the third big asset comes in: talent. Peak has 100 employees working on its current franchises and other games. So while the back ends (and revenues) may be getting combined, Zynga says Peak’s people will stay put and continue to work under the Peak brand on the existing franchises as well as on new projects that are already in development.

Zynga says the deal will close in the third quarter of 2020, and it’s updated its guidance already on the news, sending its stock up more than 5% in pre-market trading. Specifically, Zynga today said it believes the deal will bump up revenues by $40 million for the year, to $1.840 billion.

A startup so nice, Zynga bought it twice

The deal is notable not just because of what it’s adding to Zynga today, but because it highlights some interesting history between the two companies.

Back in November 2017, Zynga acquired one division of Peak Games, its mobile card games studio, for $100 million in cash.

The deal included games like Spades Plus and Gin Rummy Plus, respectively the largest spade and rummy mobile games in the world at the time; and games that were popular in Peak’s home market, 101 Okey Plus and Okey Plus. And according to analysis from Apptopia, it looks like Zynga was set to recoup the money it paid out by 2019, meaning that business is now profitable.

The remainder of Peak Games is another story. If Zynga tried to buy the whole business two years ago, it might have been that Peak was reluctant to sell its remaining two titles — its own Candy Crush crushers — Toon Blast and Toy Blast for anything near $100 million. And with good reason, since (as Zynga itself pointed out) they went on to become some of the consistently highest-grossing games in all of the App Store.

In the intervening period, Zynga tried to create its own rivals, namely Wonka’s World of Candy, but it’s never been as big of a hit as the others. (Apptopia’s Adam Blacker today told me, after I published this piece, that in fact Wonka’s World has made but a tiny fraction of the revenue of Peak’s titles.)

Hence, two years on, Zynga possibly finally found the “right price” for the whole of Peak Games.

“We are honored to welcome Sidar and team to Zynga. Peak is one of the world’s best puzzle game makers and we could not be more excited to add such creative and passionate talent to our company,” said Frank Gibeau, Chief Executive Officer of Zynga, in a statement. “With the addition of Toon Blast and Toy Blast, we are expanding our live services portfolio to eight forever franchises, meaningfully increasing our global audience base and adding to our exciting new game pipeline. As a combined team, we are well positioned to grow faster together.”

“This is a monumental partnership not only for Zynga and Peak, but for the whole mobile gaming industry,” said Sidar Sahin, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Peak, in a statement. “Both companies share a common vision — to bring people together through games. Peak’s culture is rooted in relentless learning and progress, so as we embark on this new chapter in our journey together with Zynga, we remain as committed as ever to our unique culture. We’re very excited for our combined future and what we will accomplish together.”

Zynga and games business strategies aside, this is also a huge deal for Turkey’s tech ecosystem.

Turkey has been a steady presence straddling both the European and MENA markets (much as Turkey’s wider economy and political presence does), but so far with little impact in terms of exits and activity that extend outside of the region.

This acquisition is a testament to the exciting companies and talent that are being developed in the market, and is of course yet another sign of how big tech companies based out of more established centres like the Bay Area will continue to take bigger leaps to tap talent ever further afield, in their ongoing consolidation push and search for both business and audience growth.

One impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been that many are starting to see a much faster decentralisation in the world of technology. People are working remotely, and some are even planning to move away from tech hubs; and deals are getting done not in person but over videoconferencing links. This acquisition also demonstrates how that is also playing out in the world of M&A, too.

SaaS-based financial and human resources enterprise services provider Workday (NASDAQ: WDAY) recently reported results for a strong first quarter that beat estimates. It was also its first ever $1...

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Bonusly, a platform that involves the entire organization in recognizing employees and rewarding them, closed on a $9 million Series A financing round led by Access Venture Partners. Next Frontier Capital, Operator Partners and existing investor FirstMark Capital also participated in the round.

Bonusly launched in 2013 when co-founder and CEO Raphael Crawford-Marks saw the opportunity to reinvent the way employers and colleagues recognize and reward their employees/coworkers.

“I knew that, in order to be successful, companies would be shifting their approach to employee experience and I thought software could enable that shift,” said Crawford-Marks. “Bonusly was this elegant idea of empowering employees to give each other timely, frequent and meaningful recognition that would not only benefit employees because they would feel recognized but also surface previously hidden information to the entire company about who was working with whom and on what and what strengths they were bringing to the workplace.”

Most employers use year-end bonuses and performance reviews to motivate workers, with some employers providing some physical rewards.

Bonusly thinks recognition should happen year-round. The platform works with the employers on their overall budget for recognition and rewards, and breaks that down into “points” that are allotted to all employees at the organization.

These employees can give out points to other co-workers, whether they’re direct reports or managers or peers, at any time throughout the year. Those points translate to a monetary value that can be redeemed by the employee at any time, whether it’s through PayPal as a cash reward or with one of Bonusly’s vendor partners, including Amazon, Tango Card and Cadooz. Bonusly also partners with nonprofit organizations to let employees redeem their points via charitable donation.

In fact, Crawford-Marks noted that Bonusly users just crossed the $500,000 mark for total donations, and have donated more than $100,000 to the WHO in six weeks.

Bonusly integrates with several collaboration platforms, including Gmail and Slack, to give users the flexibility to give points in whatever venue they choose. Bonusly also has a feed, not unlike social media sites like Twitter, that shows in real time employees who have received recognition.

The company has also built in some technical features to help with usability. For example, Bonusly understands the social organization of a company, surfacing the most relevant folks in the point feed based on who employees have given or received points to/from in the past. In a company with tens of thousands of employees, this keeps Bonusly relevant.

Bonusly has also incorporated tools for employers, including an auto-scale button for employers with workers in multiple jurisdictions or companies. The button allows employers to scale up or down the point allotments in different geographies based on cost of living.

There are also privacy controls on Bonusly that allow high-level employees and leadership to give each other recognition for projects that may not be widely known about at the company yet, like say for an acquisition that was completed.

Bonusly says that peer-to-peer recognition is more powerful than manager-only recognition, saying it’s nearly 36% more likely to have better financial outcomes.

The company also cites research that says that a happy workforce raises business productivity by more than 30%.

Bonusly competes with Kazoo and Motivocity, and Crawford-Marks says that the biggest differentiation factor is participation.

“We set a very high bar for how we measure participation and engagement in the platform,” he said. “You’ll see other companies claiming really high participation rates, but typically if you dig into that they’re talking about getting recognition every six months or every year or just logging in, rather than giving recognition every single month, month over month.”

He noted that 75% of employees on average give recognition in the first month of deployment with an organization, and that number gradually increases over time. By the two-year mark, 80% of employees are giving recognition every month.

Bonusly has raised a total of nearly $14 million in funding since inception.