Archive: startup insider

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The wine market was worth $64 billion in 2021 — and that’s just in the U.S. Yet this gargantuan industry has been sorely lacking in innovation. Until Winc came along, that is. Winc is a wine club startup that’s changing the industry from the ground up. It produces around 60 to 70 new wines every year. Then it uses data to track everything — not just how…
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Our friends at KingsCrowd have been tracking online startup investing since 2018. They gather data on deal volume, industry growth, investor check sizes, founder demographics and everything in between. So we were excited to learn about their…
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Startup Insider: Data Takes Over

By Early Investing on March 28, 2022

In 2011, Marc Andreessen — co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz — proclaimed that “software is eating the world.” It’s been a mantra of tech investors ever since. But today an even more powerful force is overtaking software: data. Data is a gold mine for…
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Startup Insider: The Power of Luck

By Early Investing on March 17, 2022

When investors evaluate startups, they need to consider a wide range of factors. Some factors — like founder experience and financial performance — are straightforward. Others — like profit potential and scalability — are more speculative and difficult to measure. Then there’s luck. As…
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Startup Insider: Ukraine’s Mighty Startup Scene

By Early Investing on March 7, 2022

When news broke that Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, people around the world responded with shock. Now headlines about the ongoing war describe civilians fleeing their homes, protesters resisting Russian forces and government officials discussing their next moves. But the mainstream headlines may not tell…
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Competition is an essential part of the startup world. When evaluating a startup, investors need to study its target industry and understand what its competition looks like.  But this is where investors typically fall into a trap. If the startup has a lot of competitors, investors…
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The SEC decided to increase its regulatory oversight of alternative trading systems — specifically those dealing with government securities (treasurys, debt, etc.). Notably, this expanded oversight opens the door for regulators to poke their noses into crypto. It will allow them to regulate DeFi (decentralized finance),…
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Startup Insider: Medtech Portfolio Company Changes Name

By Early Investing on February 7, 2022

Heart failure is a massive health problem in the U.S. More than 6 million Americans have it. And it’s one of the most expensive health problems for patients to manage.  Early detection is the key for effective treatment. But no company has been able to provide…
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Marketing is both an art and a science. Companies are constantly trying to better understand their customers’ innermost desires. And it’s up to marketers to come up with creative ways to tap into those desires.  But marketers are working with very limited information. They don’t…
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Startup Insider: ESG Investing Makes an Impact

By Early Investing on January 20, 2022

A growing number of investors are focusing on companies with ESG initiatives — environmental, social and corporate governance. These non-financial factors are standards that measure the ethical impact and sustainability of an investment in a company. This is also known as impact investing or sustainable investing. …
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Grammarly is on a roll. The popular auto-editing software tool has raised $200 million from Baillie Gifford and other investors at a $13 billion valuation.  Grammarly is not a particularly exciting company. It helps delete unnecessary prepositional phrases and other grammatical errors — not exactly earth-shattering…
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In the first three quarters of this year, U.S. venture capitalists (VCs) invested around $59 billion in European startups. And European VCs aren’t worried about it — as long as their startup ecosystem keeps growing. This has a lot of implications for startup investors in the…
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Startup Insider: The Most Promising Cannabis Companies

By Early Investing on October 25, 2021

Last week, one of the leading marijuana business conventions — MJBizCon — took place in Las Vegas. And First Stage Investor’s own Vin Narayanan was there to see firsthand what’s going on in the cannabis industry. Many people have been disappointed by…
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Startup Insider: Investing Lessons From the Toast IPO

By Early Investing on October 4, 2021

Toast — a provider of hardware and software to restaurants — went public a week and a half ago at a roughly $30 billion valuation.  But unlike most billion-dollar startups, Toast wasn’t on venture capitalists’ radar from the beginning.
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Last week, financial software giant Intuit confirmed it was buying Mailchimp — an email marketing/content tool — for a whopping $12 billion.  The buyout proves there are lots of different ways for a startup to succeed. But it also raises a lot of questions — namely,…
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Startup Insider: Last Chance to Invest in Genius Juice

By Early Investing on September 9, 2021

Genius Juice — which creates simple and delicious two-ingredient coconut smoothies — is one of the First Stage Investor team’s favorite startups. Andy Gordon presented it to subscribers about four months ago. He summed up Genius Juice’s prospects succinctly…