Investors are looking for a reason to say “yes.” if you’re a founder who finds yourself in a meeting with a V.C., try to remember two things:
- You’re the most competent person in the room.
Even so, many entrepreneurs squander this opportunity, often because they direct questions or fail to understand their BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement).
“As the venture landscape becomes more a meritocratic environment where resumes and institutional affiliations matter less, these strategies can make the difference between a successful fundraiser and a fruitless meeting,” says Agya Ventures co-founder Kunal Lunawat.
Whether you’re already in the fundraising process or plan to be in the future, read “A crash course on corporate development” that Venrock VP Todd Graham shared with us this week.
“If you’re going to get acquired, chances are you’re going to spend a lot of time with corporate development teams,” says Graham. “With a hot stock market, mountains of cash, and cheap debt floating around, the environment for acquisitions is vibrant.
On Wednesday, August 24 at 3 p.m. PDT/6 p.m. EDT/11 p.m GMT, Managing Editor Danny Crichton will host a conversation on Twitter Spaces with Eric Dean Wilson, author of “After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort.”
Wilson’s book explores the history of freon, a common refrigerant that was later banned due to its devastating impact on the ozone layer. After their discussion, they’ll take questions from the audience.
Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch this week! I hope you have an excellent weekend. Walter Thompson, Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist
Apple is changing Mail Privacy Protection, and email marketers must prepare
Apple iPhone, Apple Mail, and Apple iPad account for nearly half of all email opens. Still, the privacy features included with iOS 15 will allow consumers to block marketers from seeing their physical location, I.P. address, and tracking data like invisible pixels.
Email marketers rely heavily on these and other metrics, so they should prepare now for the changes, advises Litmus CMO Melissa Sargeant.
In a detailed post, she shares several action items to help marketing teams leverage their email analytics to “continue delivering personalized experiences consumers crave.”
Let’s make a deal: A crash course on corporate development
Venrock Vice President Todd Graham has some frank advice for founders at venture-backed startups: “It would be wise to generate a return at some point.”
With that in mind, he authored a primer on corporate development that lays out the three most common categories of acquisitions, tips for dealing with bankers, and explains why a partnership with a big company isn’t always the best way forward.
“you need to take the meeting, ” regardless of your chosen path,” advises Graham. “In the worst-case scenario, you’ll get a few new LinkedIn connections, and you’re now a known quantity. The best-case scenario will be a second meeting.”
When V.C.s turned to Zoom, Chicago startups were ready for their close-up
The pandemic failed to slow the momentum of venture capitalists pouring money into startups. Still, Chicago stands out as an “outlying benefactor of accelerating venture capital activity and the rise of remote investing,” Alex Wilhelm and Anna Heim write for The Exchange.
When the world shut down, and it didn’t matter if you were in NYC or S.F. (because everyone was on Zoom), the Windy City was ready to present itself as the venture champion of the Midwest.
What does Brazil’s new receivables regulation mean for fintechs?
The Brazilian Central Bank made a significant reform to how payments are processed, which may open the doors for e-commerce in South America’s largest market. Historically, merchants who accepted credit card payments had two options: Receiving the full payment distributed over two to 12 installments or offering a deep discount to receive a smaller sum upfront.
But in June 2021, the BCB created new “registration entities” that permit “any interested receivables buyer/acquirer to make an offer for those receivables, forcing buyers to become more competitive in their discount offers,” says Leonardo Lanna, head of payment products at Monkey Exchange. The new framework benefits consumers and sellers, but for the region’s startups, “it opens the door to a plethora of opportunities and new business models, from payments to credit.”
As its startup market accelerates, Brazil could be in for an IPO bonanza
An inflow of V.C. dollars, notable acquisitions, and rising unicorn counts are all features of the Brazilian tech startup market, Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm note in The Exchange.
“The IPO market in Brazil is changing,” they write. “TechCrunch noted last year that in the decade leading up to 2020, just two of the 56 IPOs in Brazil were technology companies. More recently, the number of technology companies listed in the country has swelled to at least 16, up from just four in 2019.”
Insider hacks to streamline your SOC 3 certification application.
Waydev, a Git analytics tool that automatically helps engineering leaders measure team performance, just attained the SOC 3 certification. “For good reason, security certifications like the SOC 3 put you through the wringer,” Waydev CEO Alex Cercei writes in a guest column. “We learned so much from the process, we felt it was right to share our experience with others that the prospect might daunt,” Cercei writes. “So here’s our advice on how teams can smoothly reach a SOC 3 while simultaneously balancing workloads and minimizing user disruption.”
Dear Sophie: Tips on EB-1A and EB-2 NIW?
Dear Sophie,
I’m on an H-1B living and working in the U.S. I want to apply for a green card. I’m concerned about relying only on my current employer and want to change jobs or create a startup quickly. I’ve been looking at the EB-1A and EB-2 NIW. I’m unsure if I would qualify for an EB-1A, but since I was born in India, I face a much longer wait for an EB-2 NIW.
Any tips on how to proceed?
— Inventive from India
How to establish a health tech startup advisory board
Most startups could use an advisory board, but it’s a core requirement in health tech.
Founders seeking to innovate in this area need mentors who have experience navigating regulations, raising capital, and managing R&D, to name just a few places.
Based on his experience, Patrick Frank, co-founder, and COO of PatientPartner, shared some concrete ideas about who to recruit, where to find them, and how to fit them into your cap table.
“You want to leverage these individuals, so you can focus on the full view of the company to ensure it is something that both the market and investors want at scale,” says Frank.
The Crypto world shows signs of being relatively bullish
Alex Wilhelm notes that there’s no shortage of tech news to analyze, but he took a fresh look at crypto this week.
How come?
“Because there are some rather bullish trends that indicate the blockchain world is maturing and creating a raft of winning players,” he writes.
Four common mistakes startups make when setting pay for hybrid workers
In one recent survey, 58% of workers said they plan to quit if they cannot work remotely.
Startups that don’t offer employees work-from-home flexibility are at a competitive disadvantage, but figuring out how to pay hybrid workers raises a complex set of questions:
- Should you localize salaries for workers in different areas?
- How should you pay workers with the same job when one is WFH and the other is at their desk?
- Are you transparent with your staff about how their compensation is set?
