The holidays are in full swing, which means you might start getting automatic-reply emails as people take off on vacation.
But don’t let the relative calmness of the holidays stop you from fundraising. According to a DocSend report on fundraising trends, young startups aren’t looking so hot. That means that however they’ve been trying to grab investors’ attention isn’t working. For example, there’s been a dip in how much time investors spend on the “product” and “business model” slides and a significant increase in how long they’re spending on the “competition” slide.
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Now is a great time to brush up your pitch decks, practice your pitch, and get ready for when things kick off again next year, writes resident pitch deck expert Haje Jan Kamps.
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As we wrote last week, if startup IPOs pick back up in 2024, as many are predicting, the secondary market could start to return to normalcy. But how are investors in the secondary venture market thinking about things now? One thing that venture reporter Rebecca Szkutak found in her survey: LPs aren’t actually as hungry for liquidity as you might think.
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It makes sense: It’s better to build a tool in-house than it is to buy or subscribe to one from a vendor. Having control over every aspect of the business can help reduce costs and even improve efficiency.
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Startups must master operations
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“While technological innovation gets most of the glory, operational innovation is the next giant leap for companies striving to gain a competitive edge,” writes Accelsius CEO Josh Claman. He offers some tips on how companies should think about innovation, as opposed to improvement or excellence.
