Archive: startup investing

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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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Seattle in the early 1990s was booming. And no sector was growing faster than aerospace. But Seattle was also midwifing the birth of a new kind of coffeehouse. Starbucks reimagined the experience of a damn good cup of coffee. It struck a deep and broad chord. Starbucks stores…
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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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Watch for Red Flags Around Boards of Investors

By Vin Narayanan on April 19, 2022

Those of you who follow me on Twitter (you can follow me @vinistic) know that I’m obsessed with Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter and take it private. In case you missed this story, here’s a quick timeline: April…
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We recommended Bloomstack last June. We liked founder and CEO Eric Delisle’s idea of combining all the systems and platforms cannabis operators use into a single platform. Not only was it a great idea, but it also seemed to be working. Bloomstack was…

Now Is the Best Time to Be a Startup Investor

By Vin Narayanan on April 13, 2022

Andy Gordon and I recommend a startup for our First Stage Investor members to invest in every two weeks (click here to sign up). When Andy and I first started working on startups together in 2018, we couldn’t do…

Lessons From a New Startup Investor

By Allison Brickell on April 6, 2022

I’ve been working at investment-related companies since 2015. But I’m still pretty new to the investing world. My background is in communication and journalism, not finance. So for the last seven years or so, I’ve been researching the online startup markets and observing my colleagues’ approach to investing.
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Investing With a Potential Recession on the Horizon

By Vin Narayanan on April 5, 2022

I broke my ankle pretty badly a couple of weeks ago. It’s going to take four to six months to heal. I’m wearing a walking boot now. And as far as I’m concerned, the walking boot might be the greatest invention since the printing press. The…

Startup Price Inflation Signals Danger for Investors

By Andy Gordon on March 30, 2022

Price inflation in the startup world is running rampant.  This isn’t new. But I do wonder when it’s going to peak. We’re not there yet. If anything, it’s getting worse. I’ll give you a recent example. I was talking to a founder yesterday who…
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Angel Insider: VCs Are Missing Out on Female Founders

By Early Investing on March 29, 2022

Historically speaking, funding for female founders has been pretty paltry in the venture capital (VC) world. From 2011 to 2020, the amount of VC money going to female-only-founded startups never went above $4 billion. In 2020 — despite U.S. startups raising a record $143 billion — funding to…
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I never thought this day would come. I’m recommending a company that is replacing coffee with a hot beverage that is damn nearly as rich and roasty but a hundred times more healthy.  Listen, I love my coffee. I drink three to…
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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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The five most exciting future markets are, in no particular order, robotics, medtech, fintech, energy and space/aerospace. But only one of them is harboring a big ugly secret.  And that’s the space market.  Imagine the FDA allowing companies to avoid listing harmful side effects…
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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…

Is Hawaii a Startup Paradise?

By KingsCrowd on March 2, 2022

Note from Early Investing’s editors: There’s been a lot of buzz about how Silicon Valley may be losing its throne as a startup hub. Factors such as sky-high living expenses in California, the rise of remote work and online startup investing are changing the entrepreneurial and venture capital…

What Disruptive Startups and Figure Skating Have in Common

By Allison Brickell on February 23, 2022

In the startup world, big ideas have the potential to become big moneymakers. Good ideas — especially if they’re executed well — can change the world.  But revolutionary ideas scare people. They often fail because the world isn’t ready for them yet.  As startup…