Jordan Wright

An important message for any investors reviewing startups, corporate partners considering a startup pilot, or customers considering becoming a startup’s client: PLEASE MOVE FASTER (if possible). It’s a tough market for startups at the moment, and every day you do not act results in the startup burning cash, putting them in a worse position. Not everyone has the ability to increase their operational pace, but if possible, it would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Every Startup Founder PS: Thanks to Peter from Carta for the perpetual data-backed wisdom. PPS: This is exactly why we launched Scorecard.vc — to help investors and startups manage the fundraising process more efficiently. Sign up for free at http://scorecard.vc

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😱Pretty worrisome for founders, but great news for VCs😎 Fewer startups equate to less work, fewer intro calls, fewer funding opportunities, fewer bad decisions... Where next? #VentureCapital #VentureFunding #VentureDebt #Fundraising #Innovation #Technology #Entrepreneurship #Investing #Network #Investors #LPs #GPs #EmergingManagers #FamilyOffice #Markets #Economy #Business #Founders #Startups #StartupFunding #ai #artificialintelligence #unicorn #secondaries #secondarydeals

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It’s no secret… Many contractors struggle with payments. 😑😵‍💫 While most payfacs are probably great for ecom, hospitality and lower ticket marketplaces, one of the hardest lessons we’ve had to learn is they’re just not built for the trades. Ridiculous txn limits, weekly limits, lack of up front underwriting, nasty surprises, payment holds, strange risk declines due to a txn being too far over their own self-reported “avg txn” amount, 72 hour SLAs that reset every time there’s and update… The list goes on. It’s painful. Really painful. For a small business this often results in your clients calling in upset that you can’t get the materials and start the work until the payment clears… Contractors need their money NOW, not next week.🫰🏼 We know how important payments are to contractors, so we decided to leave no stone left unturned and build the best dang payments solution for contractors, ever, period. I’m so happy to finally announce the launch of Contractor+ Pay. A totally free payment solution for contractors with some of the lowest rates in the industry (lower than all of our direct competitors). We’ve got instant payouts, we’ve got free Bluetooth card readers, we’ve got the mobile and online payment solution contractors wished they’ve had all along. As of tonight at midnight 1200+ merchants will no longer be able to use WePay with Contractor+. In addition to our free in-house payments solution, we also have other popular payfac partners to choose from, including Tilled, Square, Stripe, PayPal and Authorize.net. It’s uncommon to do a soft launch on a Saturday, but but our underwriting team has been at it all day boarding our merchants over from WePay, and we’re super excited to get this shipped! Now we’ve got product led growth AND payments led growth! 🚀🤑 If you haven’t invested in Contractor+ yet, there’s still time to join us! You can make an investment at https://lnkd.in/eiAbuRE

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How many companies in a single screenshot are ready for #disruption by a savvy #DLT #startup? I count 2. If a company has 1/5 stars from the majority of customer ratings, how is that still an A+ BBB rating? If Escrow(.com) is so universally bad to such a wide variety of customers, how long before a half way competent #fintech comes to eat their lunch? I can't help but think there's a better way, and it probably has something to do with distributed ledger technology. Ideally on a trusted network with adults at the helm like Hedera. In #2024 with such technological marvels left and right; why should any company be able to get away with this?

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Founder-Turned-VC Investor Raised $150 Million for Her New Fund💰 Masha Bucher, ex-entrepreneur and founder of Day One Ventures, has raised $150M for her new VC fund. Founded in 2018, Day One Ventures focuses on early-stage startups, offering initial investments ranging from $1M to $2M. Notable companies in the firm’s portfolio include Worldcoin, legal services company DoNotPay Inc., and AI assistant You.com. 📝Diverse Investments and Real-World Impact Day One Ventures supports startups across various industries, with Bucher particularly drawn to founders tackling real-world challenges. “From profound wealth disparities to the urgent threat of climate change and the growing sense of social isolation, tech founders will be our lifeline toward a more abundant, diverse, and sustainable future,” Bucher stated regarding the new fund. 🏆The firm’s track record is impressive, with six of its investments achieving billion-dollar valuations and 22 companies either being sold or going public. This success highlights Day One's knack for identifying high-potential startups. 🎯PR Expertise and Strategic Growth Before transitioning to VC, Bucher founded a PR firm that managed communications for numerous tech companies. She has leveraged her PR expertise to coach startups on media strategies. “If you look at any business problem you want to solve and any business goal you want to solve, 90% of the business problems are communications problems,” Bucher explained on Bloomberg Television. “I think this is something we train founders on and something that we help them to do.” 📈Growth of Day One Ventures The new fund is Day One’s third and largest to date. Fund I, closed in 2019, was nearly $20 million, while the second fund in 2020 totaled $52.5 million. This latest fundraising effort saw contributions from US and European institutional LPs, as well as 14 of Bucher’s own portfolio company founders.💰 “When you are building a firm with value add and staying close to founders, you can attract a lot of capital from your own network,” Bucher said. Notably, she made a concerted effort to include female investors, securing backing from 9 female LPs. Significant in the male-dominated VC industry, where female founders received just 2% of the total capital invested in US startups in 2023, according to PitchBook.🤷‍♀️ 🤝New Investments and Future Focus Day One has already made 5 investments from its Fund III: Cradle, an AI startup focused on human longevity; Rainmaker, a Los Angeles-based company working on cloud-seeding technology; Affiniti; Astroforge; and Layer N.  🚀🌍 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #VCfund and increase the international pool of your LPs?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments (Series A/Series B)?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VentureCapital #TechInvesting #FemaleFounders #StartupFunding #Innovation

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If you plan on raising money (especially in this economy), having revenue isn't enough. At some point -- especially if you want to raise money--you've got to look at the "quality" of your revenue. This framework applies to ALL business, not just high growth startups... high quality rev = - My revenue is consistent and predictable - I have good margins - I'm being paid my happy/loyal customers low value rev = -I rely on 1-2 large customers <---its a great win at first...but quickly becomes a source of stress. -Transactions are sporadic and/or late -I give a lot of discounts/have lots of "sales" to inspire transactions TO BE CLEAR: In the early days, we're all chasing sells/revenue to demonstrate desirability (aka people want what I've built) #AsYouShould. Get those early customers by any means necessary to validate desirability BUT pick a moment in time to do a revenue post-mortem with your team and get real about its quality. The linked article in the comments is an oldie, but a goodie....I first found it during my time leading a startup (i think i first saw Keyona Meeks share it) when I was trying to understand revenue and anxious about the quality. I highly recommend for ALL entrepreneurs. cc: Prosper HealthTech Accelerator A vision of Prosper Powered by gener8tor

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👇 This is a great framework for evaluating how to choose your next payment processor (shout out Jordan McKee and all of the great work he and the team at 451 Research do for the ecosystem) but it's all still predicated on taking sales & marketing collateral at face value - and to Jordan's point, this is becoming an increasingly competitive and crowded market which typically does not result in more truth and transparency... https://lnkd.in/gKebkNdN Sure, you can look at historical data and run various cohort analyses or even a handful of test transactions but nothing ever works in production the same way it does in sandbox let alone with dummy/test data. How do you actually know they are Frictionless, Adaptable, Secure, Tailored? We need to bring more true transparency to this process, for the sake of everyone involved. RFPs are dumb. Let's be smart. With a platform like Basis Theory this is now possible. The formula is basically: own your data, reduce your reliance on your existing PSP and their various ancillary services (checkout forms, fraud services, etc.) and control your destiny. What if you could make a FAST decision but based on truth? 🤔

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VCs have adjusted to the new norm leading to changes in how they make investment decisions. There is a new level of scrutiny on the metrics. You need to be able to show objective signals of product market fit through the data. The last ~6 months companies have truly started to rethink the metrics and frameworks they use to run their business. Unfortunately, I think it took data like this for them to realize this is very real and about their company surviving. As usual, Peter Walker and Carta awesome insights.

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I spent a ton of hours diving into Carta's quarterly data. Here’s what I found about SaaS funding patterns. This week, I spent a lot of time researching market trends in the SaaS space. Carta is a cap table software which many Silicon Valley companies use. They release quarterly data on the companies that are using their software. When looking for data I came across some significant changes in funding patterns. They released some very interesting stats on Q1 of this year. The number of Series A funding rounds are down. Not only that, but Q1 had the highest share of down rounds in the last 5 years… Scary stuff. While there’s a lot to go into, I wanted to focus on the early stage growth. The key takeaways from my research are as follows: We are reaching 2018 levels of total VC investment, and this is steadying out around $16.3B in Q1. After the ZIRP era madness, this correction makes a lot of sense. But what does it mean for you? Raising a series A is one of the most decisive moments in your company’s history. Right now, we are seeing a small handful of AI companies raise massive rounds. (like Elon’s xAI raising 6 Billion for their series B to take on openAI) Raising a series A has become more competitive than ever, especially if you are not an AI company. Secondly it’s more difficult to compete when your competitor has $400 mills and you are trying your best with $500k of seed capital. Raising is also taking longer than it has in the last 5 years. The median time between raising is increasing because investors are more tepid about investing in ideas that aren’t AI. Our partners are focusing on profitability, sustainable growth instead of high leverage, high risk methods. It’s a question of how can you create a GTM strategy and narrative of growth that makes sense to convince investors about landing a series A.

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Ugh, credit card companies tryin' to pull a fast one with sneaky new fees 😤 We're breaking it down + how to protect your money. #creditcardfees #moneymatters #financialfreedom #fiercemillennial #bossup

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21 Ways to Kill Your Company Day 9: Poor Fundraising Strategy This means two things - be realistic about the benchmarks you need to unlock your next raise and then raise enough money to hit those milestones. Be great (and realistic) with financial planning. Don't forget those extra five months you typically need to raise. #21waystokillyourcompany #fundraising #venturecapital

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Referrals shouldn’t be a SPIFF for the quarter. They should be a core KPI that’s compensated within the main comp plan. Higher win rates Faster deal cycles Lower customer acquisition cost = money in the bank faster (in theory). Once you do a few and get enough data you should uncover a way to comp higher for referral deals due to increased sales velocity. So when we’re thinking about the work Commsor 🦕 is doing to rethink the SDR role When we’re thinking about “low hanging fruit” When we’re thinking about ways to leverage communities… It’s all there already laid out for you. This is what I’m speaking to Prospects and clients about. #symbioticsale #theyrecominghome

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Ever wonder why getting a loan can sometimes feel like a mystery? It all comes down to your credit score, basically a report card that shows lenders how you handle your money. The higher the score, the better! Why it Matters (Data Drop): Loan Game Changer: A high FICO Score can get you approved for loans and credit cards with sweeter interest rates (think more $$$ in your pocket). Apartment Hunting Hack: Landlords often check credit scores. A good score can give you an edge over other applicants. There are a few things that affect your credit score: 💲 Paying Bills on Time (Big Deal!): This is super important - on-time payments are key! 💲 Debt (Not Too Much!): Don't max out your credit cards. Aim to keep your debt under control. 💲 Credit History (The Longer, the Better): The longer you've had credit and used it responsibly, the better. 💲 New Credit (Don't Go Crazy!): Opening too many new credit cards at once can hurt your score. 💲 Mix of Credit (Good Variety!): Having a healthy mix of credit cards and loans can actually help your score. -----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----* I support founders' fundraising journeys and provide VCs with real-time insights into the startup ecosystem. If you're looking to expedite your fundraising process, feel free to contact me. I can help you fast-track your path to securing funds. #impactful #startup #india #startups #investments #funding #fundraising #venturecapitalist #venturecapital #impact #global #pitchdeck #business #ai #generativeai #entrepreneures #entrepreneurship #scalingbusinesses #impactfulpitch #angelinvestors #angelinvesting #fund #founders #angelinvestment #businessmodels #pitching #pitch #pitchdecks #videopitch #investors #investindia #investorcommunity #founderjourney #FICO #FICOscore

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Here are a few things we’ve launched (so far) in Q2 @ beehiiv… • new website builder • multiple subscription tiers • one-time payments • native audio embeds • file attachments • new referral program • threaded comments • new app navigation • subscriber tags • editor comments • Boost Invites • in-app partner program • Zapier apps And a couple dozen smaller things to improve the experience of our users and their readers 🫡

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Corporate card wars continue… Brex, Ramp, Rho, etc. American Express, Visa and Mastercard are also continuing to scale. Glorified reward programs, like Bilt Rewards, seem like interesting approaches, but is it not just a race to the bottom? So many companies are focused on rewards and niche markets, but the more appropriate path forward is workflow-driven solutions. The challenge is that the unit economics for card players are juicy, so if you partner on the commercial card side, you’re losing out on large attractive spreads. It’s a fascinating landscape with 100s of companies taking various approaches.

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You should know. Sending a deck to a VC company ends up in the trash. Some get evaluated by algorithms which look for $1 million invested by 4 or more investors and media buzz talking about the company. If these two are not there it is also trashed. 5 out of 10,000 companies get VC capital that's 0.05%. You are wasting your time trying to get VC capital. Stop chasing the dream and start raising capital on your own terms and conditions. Book a call mikebrette@gmail.com. Discover your options. When is your next VC meeting? #venturecapital #capitalraising #privateplacements #raisingcapital

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SwagUp founder and investors lost $75M because they started as an LLC and converted to a C-Corp. too late. Here is how to avoid it 👇 $75M has been lost because the company has not met the QSBS conditions. QSBS stands for qualified small business stock - I'm not going to go into every little detail (check out my blog post tagged in the comments), but basically, it's part of a program that incentivizes the creation of certain types of startup businesses in the US. So, what should SwagUp have done differently? Option 1: Start as a C-Corp. from the beginning. Option 2: Convert from an LLC to a C-Corp. before it hits $50M in assets. They should have been doing 409a's along the way…that way, as they approached the $50M threshold, they would have made the conversion and locked in a close to $500M tax-free shield. Which option is better? In 99.9% of circumstances, I recommend option #1, especially for first-time founders, because running a venture-backed startup as an LLC is more expensive on the legal and accounting sides, and conversions are complex and have to be done 100% correctly to qualify for the QSBS benefits. Check out my Startup Launch Package in the comments, so you don't make SwagUp’s mistake and can take your startup from 0 to being ready to raise venture funds in a week. #startuplawyer #startupfounder #qsbs #corporation

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Before I even knew what a Venture Builder was back in the day, all I pretty much did on a day to day basis was validate and launch little businesses with the goal of getting them to $10k per month in revenue. Once I got to that point I'd ask myself a few questions: "Can this thing go on without me? If I hire someone, can the revenue cover the costs and potentially make a profit? How big can this really get?" If the answers were: No, No, Not very big. I'd scrap it and shut it down. Yes, Yes, Big enough to be worth proceeding. Then I'd start the CEO search and start raising. I'd say that 9 out of 10 were scrapped, but that doesn't mean that I/we (investors) lost any money. Most of the time we all made out pretty good in such a short period of time. Venture Building is a lot of fun and can make you a lot of money if you follow the process, stay lean and make the hard decisions based on data.

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Hiring a top ex-Goldman Sachs sales leader for your fintech startup sounds like a slam dunk, right? Wrong. Within a week, they'll be floundering, lost without the large-scale support systems they're used to. The result? Frustration, wasted money, and eventual realization that not every shiny resume fits your business needs. #hiringmistakes #scaleup #leadership #businessgrowth

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