You don’t need to move to San Francisco to start a startup, but working here has some advantages: mild weather, natural beauty, great food, and sure, the world’s largest concentration of venture capital.
Y Combinator’s Demo Day was held this week, and although the event itself was only virtual, 86% of the founders of YC’s 2023 Winter Collection lived in SF while participating.
The ongoing boom in AI is a contributing factor: 54 of the 282 companies in this group are “specifically building AI startups,” Natasha Mascarenhas said.
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In keeping with tradition, the TechCrunch staff picked their favorites from the latest batch.
Please note that these are for entertainment purposes only, as we “do not provide investment advice or recommend anyone to join or support a startup.”
Thanks a lot for reading. Have a nice weekend!
Walter Thompson
Managing Editor, TechCrunch+
@employee
VCs for Reselling Startups: Let’s blast some labels
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Thanks in large part to Gen Z’s interest in sustainable shopping, invested trade has skyrocketed to new heights, and enterprising investors are looking forward to it.
Since Etsy went public in 2015, companies like Poshmark, The RealReal, and thredUP have followed suit, drawing more investors into the sector. Last year, nearly $6 billion in invested capital poured into reselling the platforms, according to Brian Schwarzbach, an investor in Cathay Innovation.
In a post for TC+, he explores three areas of re-commercialization that are attracting VC interest and shares “some food for thought for founders building startups in this (re)emerging space.”
Funds making “friends and family” checks can make the change that under-represented founders need
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America’s long-standing wealth gap between white and black households contributes to a lack of diversity among startup founders.
The average liquid wealth for a black family in the United States is $3,630, but that figure rises to $79,000 for a white family. As a result, “the average black founder earns less than $1,000 from family and friends,” reports Dominic Madhuri-Davis.
With friends and family averaging $23,000, “they would need to secure the full liquid wealth of six Black families” in order to get even, according to a white paper from the Fifth Star Venture Fund.
Pitch Deck Teardown: Smalls’ Series B platform – $19 million
Image credits: Smalls (opens in a new window)
Cat food startup Smalls has raised $34 million since its launch in 2017.
Now, the company has 50 employees, plans to open a cat cafe and is looking to expand into retail. Its founders shared their Series B block with TC+, minus “specific details of the company’s current valuation and revenue.”
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With YC launching a new batch, here’s how the early-stage project market is performing today
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Drawing on data from Carta’s report “First Cut – State of Private Markets: Q1 2023,” Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm crunched the numbers to get a sense of the early-stage venture capital landscape.
Taking into account “average round sizes and deal values,” they found that pre-money valuations of seed-stage startups declined slightly, but that Series A, B, and C rounds “appear to show signs of recovery.”
What is the fair price premium for startup stock?
Image credits: Javier Gersi / Getty Images
The Market Update report from Redpoint Ventures contains insights for Series B and C founders planning their fundraisers this year, writes Alex Wilhelm.
“Mid-stage startups still look rather expensive,” he writes. “Either the stock market needs to get some of its juice back, or startup prices need to drop even more for things to get back to normal.”
6 common challenges cybersecurity teams face and how to overcome them
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According to investor Ross Hallijuk, cyber security product teams operate under unique pressure.
It’s not just that they operate in a crowded market — “it’s an incredibly dynamic space with landscapes changing sometimes overnight.”
With many startups lacking frameworks for building customer relationships and refining model metrics, Haleliuk, who is also a chief product officer at his own company, shares tactics that will help security vendors “better understand their target market and what kind of solutions they’re looking for.”
Ask Sophie: How do we transfer H-1Bs and green cards to our startup?
Image credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
dear sophie,
I was recently laid off.
I co-founded a clean tech startup with two of my ex-colleagues, who were also laid off. Both of my co-founders work on H-1Bs and were with our previous company. I am a US citizen.
What do we need to do to convert H-1Bs and green cards into our startup? Based on your experience, do investors care how much a startup spends on visas and green cards for its founders?
Founder for the first time
Vote for TechCrunch at the Webby Awards
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