In June of 2016, TechCrunch’s Josh Constine wrote an article titled: The unsexiest trillion-dollar startup — telling the story of a freight forwarding startup that went through Y Combinator, and raised $26.9 million from top investors. At the time, the three year old company had ~700 clients, which used its service to ship freight all over the world through a complex logistical networks of trucks, trains, ships, and airplanes.

Freight forwarding is a multi-trillion industry that facilitates global trade and runs the world’s economies, which up until recently, was primarily being done through faxes, emails, and Excel.

Then Flexport came along and indexed all the available carriers into a searchable database, offering free easy to use software that handles everything at scale.

The Unsexiest Trillion-Dollar Business

In September of 2016, Flexport raised a massive $65 million funding round at a $300+ million valuation, and a year later investors poured another $110 million into the business at triple the valuation.

By using software to bring transparency to the black box of freight forwarding optimizations, Flexport is quickly grabbing market share in a winner-take-most multi-trillion dollar market, where innovation was nonexistent until today.

Flexport may already look like the breakout winner in the space, but it’s still early-days. Large companies, including Amazon, are competing for market share, and promising startups like Haven are going after the opportunity that’s there for the taking.

As a startup employee, especially if you’re someone earlier in their career, choosing the right company and seeing what success looks like first-hand is almost always the right choice — regardless of the industry, title, salary, or equity percentages. For more on that, read Hunter Walk’s guest post on the our blog: Midstage Startups Are Your Best First Job in Tech.

Flexport is still relatively small considering their scale, and currently has one of the longest list of open positions on AngelList. Check it out and see if something interests you, and where you can help.

P.S. Activate your Talent Profile so companies know they can contact you if what you do fits the skillset for roles they have available. 🔑

Sean Linehan 🚢 on Twitter

The whole @flexport product team. These people are literally changing the way the world's goods move. What a group!

Collection: 15 Startups Disrupting Unsexy Industries

1. Shippo helps businesses succeed through shipping 📦

Alex Konrad on Twitter

Shipping startup and @ForbesUnder30 alum Shippo has raised $20M to help online businesses keep up with Amazon https://t.co/fdVwDlWp1w

2. Checkr is automating background checks for on-demand 🚙

AngelList on Twitter

Congrats: @Checkr "Modern background checks" raises $40M lead by YC Continuity, including @2pasc's syndicate https://t.co/InVuNJLxU0

3. Algolia helps developers build search into their business

Algolia on Twitter

Happy holidays from Algolia! It's time to announce our annual gift for the dev community 🙌 🔎 🎞 - https://t.co/cb1v1vY9Tv

4. Sighten is the energy operating system for the solar industry ☀️

5. Human Dx is a worldwide effort by the global medical community that enables more accurate, affordable, and accessible care 🌎

Human Dx on Twitter

HumanDx Alliance will use collective medical insight to help close the specialty care gap in the U.S. over the next 5 years. https://t.co/aybcQWVFam

6. True Accord is using machine learning and digital first communication to reimagine debt collection

TrueAccord on Twitter

Join our engineering team to help us build a platform for financial health and change debt collection for good! https://t.co/f4gGLVJrst

7. Fieldwire is bringing software to the construction industry

8. Qumulo lets enterprises store massive data sets at scale

9. HomeLight is brining a money-ball approach to real estate

P.S. If you’re a top 1% designer or engineer and looking to make a move, get pitched by founders, CEOs & VPs at the world’s best startups on A-List. ✌️

Trillion Dollar Startups in Unsexy Industries was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Giants like Google and Facebook thrive on personal data. In exchange for a list of your likes and topics you search for, they can offer a smarter and more personalized experience.

The problem? Most Americans don’t trust big tech to do what’s right with personal data. A study by Pew Research found only 24% of people think big companies are doing enough to protect user information.

That unease intensified this week when an AP investigation showed Google may be storing your location information, even when you ask it not to. The search behemoth does offer a second step to opt out of location tracking, but it’s strangely hard to find, raising major questions about why the feature wasn’t built in a more transparent way.

It’s better to build — rather than rebuild — customer trust. And when it comes to data collection, startups that are still developing their standards and practices may have the best shot at building strong customer relations, rooted in trust and security.

Take companies like DuckDuckGo. Launched in 2008, the search engine alternative stands on a unique principle: What’s good for Google may not be what’s good for everyone else. So its founder built a business on the idea that search engines shouldn’t track user search history — and it’s survived to tell the tale. DuckDuckGo now processes more than 20 million queries a day, and while that’s only a fraction of the 3.5 billion searches Google gets, DuckDuckGos’ growing adoption is hard to ignore.

It also reminds us there’s a major set of online users opting for privacy over personalization. So why isn’t data usage more transparent across all companies? The U.S. still has no central, comprehensive law to govern data collection. That means big tech companies can continue making ethically ambiguous choices in pursuit of growth. It also means, in this environment, that those who are transparent about their data use have an opportunity to stand out.

Privacy-First Startups

Lavabit launched in 2004 as a competitor to Gmail. “At the time, Lavabit’s founder, Ladar Levison, felt the idea of a large storage quota was great, but that Google was violating the privacy of its users,” the company explained. Nine years later, when the FBI was after Edward Snowden’s account and pressured Lavabit for its encryption keys, the company opted to shut down entirely, rather than risk compromising its other users. The service relaunched in 2017.

Tripl is a machine learning app that can scan your itineraries, make hotel recommendations, and even discover where your friends are traveling. But all that information can mean access to your social media, which was touchy for some users. Tripl solved the problem by A/B testing a brief, clear privacy policy that spelled out how customer data could be used. The startup was acquired by Trivago in 2017.

Digi.me is helping users take control of their personal data. The service helps you collect your own digital information — like accounts, images and more — and store them securely in an online library. The app will also let you share that data with businesses, but only if you choose to.

Check out the full list of Hot Security Startups that Are Hiring 🔍

Big Tech’s Big Problem with User Data 🔍 was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Is social media the next industry to have its “blockchain moment?” It certainly seems possible, given recent events.

Facebook and Twitter both dropped 20–30% over the last week of July. Both drops were caused, to some degree, by the same inescapable fact: moderation is expensive at scale.

Twitter predicted this slump in their Q1 shareholder letter, where they warned that their new initiative to scrub the platform of bots and suspicious accounts could lower their monthly active user count.

These drops aren’t fatal, but they expose a problem. As Twitter and Facebook grow to historic sizes, they become more expensive to moderate.

A new breed of social media platforms is offering an innovative solution to the problem: Give users the power to self-moderate.

Decentralized social networks

More and more startups are emerging offering decentralized social platforms — often using blockchain technology.

Built off the Steem blockchain, Steemit is a Reddit-esque social platform that as of now boasts nearly 800,000 registered users. Steemit’s version of upvotes, however, are tokens that hold real market value. Users — not advertisers — are rewarded for engagement.

Sapien is a social news network built on the Ethereum blockchain that already has thousands of active users. The platform features a global reputation system, a reward system for users, and a marketplace for creators.

Open-sourced Twitter-alternative Mastodon claims 170,000+ users, who join community-owned and operated servers that run the same open-sourced software. With no ads (or algorithmic feed!), the site promises to allow users to “put social media back in your hands.”

From a user’s perspective, these platforms provide an answer to the perception that centrally-moderated social networks are unfair or inconsistent. While Facebook isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, these new decentralized social media platforms are growing — and fast.

Interested in getting involved with blockchain?

We talked to the top startups to learn How To Get a Job at a Crypto Startup, and here’s a curated list of 30+ Hot Blockchain Startups thare are Hiring. ✌️

Still confused exactly how how blockchains work? Here’s a curated list of the best tools to help answer the question: “WTH is the Blockchain?”

👀 Blockchain Demo is a visual explanation of the blockchain
🎙️ Blockchain Curated covers the best crypto articles in a podcast
✍️ Token Daily covers all the breaking crypto happenings in a newsletter
🎒 Cryptoeconomics will teach you about token economics
👶 My First Bitcoin is a children’s book about crypto from Square

Social media’s “blockchain moment” ? 😮 was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It feels like evvveryone is hopping on the Amazon train. With one-hour delivery, massive Whole Foods discounts, and near-instant drone delivery (coming soon), there’s a lot to be excited about.

While every new feature Amazon rolls out generates massive news coverage, there is another side of Amazon’s commerce platform that flies relatively under the radar. Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) — where thousands of independent shops, manufacturers, and distributors sell their own products directly on Amazon — has spawned a blossoming ecosystem where entrepreneurs are thriving.

FBA was born out of Amazon’s own hyper-efficient fulfillment centers, which manage billions of items owned and sold by Amazon. Instead of purchasing new products themselves, Amazon allowed anybody to ship their products directly to their fulfillment centers. Items purchased by customers are fulfilled by Amazon, who takes a percentage of the sale.

FBA grew quickly: outside sellers accounted for 45%+ of all orders on Amazon in 2015. 😮

The Fulfilled by Amazon Ecosystem

Some businesses are thriving in the Fulfilled by Amazon ecosystem:

3rd party sellers: The most obvious category. Entrepreneurs selling goods through FBA, from paperbacks bought at yard sales to lip balm mass ordered from China, generate over $22B in revenue every year.

Take Harsha Atluri, who sold over $200k working nights in college:

“Some sellers go directly to manufacturers or sign distributor agreements, but that’s difficult as a solo operation. I source products from Craigslist, yard sales, thrift shops, and online auction sites.”

Software for sellers: There are dozens of products to help sellers manage their inventories, accurately track sales, identify new hot products, and encourage customers to review their products. AMZBase, FeedbackWhiz, Sellics, CashCowPro, JungleScout, and Amazon’s official Amazon Seller app are just a handful.

Black hat services: While the above help businesses legitimately compete for sales, sketchier services have cropped up. Some nefarious sellers hijack listings by selling counterfeit products listed for a fraction of the actual price. Amazon’s counterfeit detection is often lacking, so legitimate sellers, who pay more to manufacture their products, are forced to compete with counterfeiters who skimp on quality.

Some sellers will also refund customers for positive, authentic reviews of their product to boost the item in Amazon’s search rankings. Sellers find reviewers on Facebook groups like Amazon Review Club, whose 32,000 members promise free children’s backpacks, gaming headphones, and makeup for positive Amazon reviews.

Our friends at Reply All dug deep into the nefarious world of Amazon counterfeiting and fake reviews on their podcast. 🎙️

The Amazon Consumer Ecosystem

Another wave of Amazon-related startups are helping shoppers save money:

Paribus fights for cash back on your behalf when prices drop. Acquired by Capital One in 2016, the tool scans your Amazon receipts for items and automatically files complaints on your behalf when prices fluctuate.

ShadowBid is a bit more patient: instead of filing price complaints, the service allows you to set a price for any Amazon product… then places the order automatically when the price drops.

PriceAlert is exactly what it sounds like. Set an item and price, and it’ll let you know when the price drops. Camel Camel Camel (web), Fluctuate (Android), and Amazon Price Tracker (Google Sheets) are similar.

Purse gives anyone 5–25% off any Amazon item… if you pay in bitcoin. The service connects bitcoin holders (you!) with Amazon gift card holders around the world who want to trade in their credits for bitcoin at a discount.

Your Amazon orders could be counterfeits was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As individual companies succeed, new startups emerge to sell complementary products. Apple was followed by a fleet of iPhone case and accessory manufacturers.

The rise of Uber and Lyft was no different. New startups have launched to support ride-sharing customers and drivers:

Startups that help drivers sell stuff while they drive

Not every driver is just a driver. Side-hustling drivers are everywhere, using their day job to meet influencers in particular industries or sell products (like jewelry!). Take Uber driver Gavin Escolar, who made $250k+ in 2015:

“It’s a salesman’s dream,” he continues. “I have 10 minutes to make an impression. Would that happen if I went door-to-door? Or if I bought tiny online ads? My way, I get quality time with quality leads. Best of all, I’m being paid as I do it. It’s like Uber is providing a base salary before I make any jewelry sales.”

🍪Cargo lets drivers sell snacks, gum, chargers, and headphones directly in their car from a display case that sits on the center armrest. Most drivers make an extra $100/mo. Hiring for 6+ positions in NY.

📺Vugo places small televisions on the back of headrests. Riders watch ads, and drivers get paid. Hiring an ad sales rep in New York.

🎨Wrapify pays drivers to wrap their cars with advertisements. For every mile driven, drivers get paid a flat fee. Hiring in LA, Seattle, and Chicago.

Startups that help drivers find the best rides

To maximize earnings, drivers must constantly race to parts of the city where they guess the highest paid rides will appear, thanks to in-app surge fares, local events, and the natural flow of the city’s population.

Most drivers also use multiple ride-sharing services, bouncing between apps in search of the highest fares. It’s time-consuming and dangerous, especially while driving.

“Drivers get into this gig looking to make a few hundred bucks a week, but soon realize they have to worry about things like diversifying their income and competition among drivers.” — Harry Campbell, The Rideshare Guy

📊Gridwise tells drivers exactly when to pick up passengers from airports, stadiums, and venues around the city based on their proprietary dataset. Hiring data scientists and engineers in Pittsburgh.

🚦Mystro lets drivers switch between apps effortlessly and filter trips automatically. Hiring a senior designer.

📍FarePilot helps drivers identify where the most profitable rides will appear around the city.

Startups that help drivers manage their finances

Managing finances as an independent contractor can get complicated quickly, especially as drivers switch between different apps and attempt to comply with confusing tax-reporting requirements.

🤑 Hurdlr helps drivers track mileage, expenses, income streams, and tax deductions all in one app. Hiring for 4+ positions in Washington DC.

🏥 Stride Health provides healthcare and insurance coverage for the gig economy. Hiring a Director of Design and 8+ more in San Francisco.

📑Everlance automates mileage and expense tracking to help drivers expense every last mile. Hiring for 7+ positions in San Francisco.

A side hustle for your side hustle 🚗💸 was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Uber is riding the scooter bandwagon. 🛴

The ride-hailing giant just announced its investment in Lime, one of the two leading dockless scooter and bike rental companies, as part of a $335M round led by Google’s venture-capital arm. Lime is the largest domestic startup in this space, with vehicles in 70+ markets and over 35,000 scooters, bicycles, and e-bikes deployed nationally.

As part of the deal, Uber will let users rent Lime scooters directly in the Uber app and co-brand all of Lime’s vehicles with the Uber logo. Details are scarce on how the Lime branding will change, but we’re guessing Lime scooters will each get Uber stickers.

Uber’s investment into Lime could be a precursor to an acquisition: last year, Uber announced a partnership with SF-based bike-sharing startup JUMP before acquiring them for $200M.

Lime wouldn’t be as cheap. Lime and Bird (their largest competitor in the space) have collectively raised $700M in capital from Sequoia Capital, a16z, Upfront Ventures, and others. Bird is now valued at $2B; Lime’s valuation of $1.1B pushes it into unicorn territory. 🦄

Uber’s plan to become the Amazon of transportation

Uber is lining up to take on the entire transportation industry, with options for every type of trip available in app:

• Very long trips: Uber partnered with Getaround this April to offer peer-to-peer car rentals in SF. Instead of heading to Hertz, you’ll be able to rent your neighbor’s car inside the Uber app.
• Traditional trips: Uber continues to invest in self-driving technologies. They’ve already put autonomous cars on the ground in Pennsylvania and Arizona. Uber also acquired self-driving truck startup Otto, leading to their infamous public legal battle with Google over stolen trade LIDAR technology.
• Mixed use trips: Bikes, scooters, and Uber Pools all serve the “last-mile” of transit: quick trips between hubs like bus stops and subway stations. Uber has even partnered with public transit ticketing startup Masabi to sell tickets directly in the app.

Lyft is gearing up to compete. They recently acquired bike-sharing startup Motivate, which operates fleets of docked co-branded bicycles across the US. NYC’s Citi Bikes, SF’s Ford GoBikes, and DC’s Capital Bikeshare are all operated by Motivate. They’re also competing with Uber and Lime for dockless scooter permits in San Francisco.

Eventually, you’ll be able to plug in an address… and Uber will find the most efficient way to get there, combining decentralized scooters and bikes, public transit, shared carpools, car rentals — everything.

Psst! Lime, Getaround, JUMP, Masabi, and Motivate are all hiring. ✌️

The “while I’m here” effect and why it matters

The most powerful apps are the ones you check every day. If Uber can successfully capture your daily transportation needs, they’ll have a powerful platform to sell additional products like UberEats deliveries.

This isn’t a new business strategy: companies have always fought for control of your food purchases because of something we’ll call the “while I’m here” effect. When consumers visit a store to purchase something they need (like food), they’re far more likely to purchase ancillary products.

Retailers like Walmart have leveraged this effect for years. When Walmart’s growth stalled in 1988, founder Sam Walton started selling groceries. By cutting prices on everyday food items, Walmart was able to decimate grocery chains and drive sales of high-margin, everyday items like socks, toothpaste, and laundry detergent.

This theory works for online businesses as well. The success of Amazon’s recommendation engine has alone been the subject of numerous articles, and Jet.com’s success relies on your inability to say “no” to one-time discounts on thousands of items based on what you’ve already added to your cart. Surprise, surprise: Walmart purchased Jet.com for $3 billion in 2016.

The scooters are coming, and we can’t wait

Only time will tell who will win: Uber or Lyft. In the meantime, we can only hope that cities are open to including scooters, bikes, and new forms of transportation. Otherwise, we’ll never get unstuck out of traffic. 🚗

$335M for Lime, and Uber’s secret plan 👀 was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion in stock last week, the third largest in Microsoft’s history behind Skype ($8.5B) and LinkedIn ($26.2B). Microsoft paid 30x GitHub’s annual revenue, nearly 5x what they paid for LinkedIn back in 2016. 😮

We all get anxious when our favorite product is gobbled up by a giant — especially one like Microsoft, who has a history of embracing brands… only to destroy them later. Sunrise, a wildly popular calendar app, and Mailbox, a stunning email client, are now both headstones in big tech’s digital graveyard.

There’s serious concern that Microsoft could use the acquisition to advance its own interests at the expense of GitHub’s dedicated community. Maybe they put up LinkedIn-style paywalls. Or, maybe…

Funny side note: a maker on Product Hunt built an extension to embed Clippy onto any website with a couple lines of code. Check it out.

Our worst fears seem unlikely to happen for a few reasons. Code hosting startups like Gitlab are waiting to scoop up disgruntled developers. GitHub is also massively popular, with over 28M accounts. Over 15% of AngelList users have linked a GitHub profile to their account.

“We are not buying GitHub to turn it into Microsoft; we are buying GitHub because we believe in the importance of developers.” This comes from GitHub’s incoming CEO Nat Friedman in a Reddit AMA. Whew. 😪

Developers, developers, developers

The acquisition price can’t fully be explained by GitHub’s revenues ($200M). Analysts believe the market value of GitHub was closer to $3B, which means Microsoft paid an extra $4 billion dollars for something.

Developers matter to Microsoft. Microsoft needs software engineers to build applications on the Windows platform for it to be useful.

But over the past decade, developers have been busy building on Android, iOS, Facebook, Google Cloud, and AWS, leaving Microsoft feeling the bitter sting of unrequited love. 💔

Microsoft is fighting back by embedding itself into developer workflows. The most important tool for many developers is their text editor: Microsoft VS Code has become the editor of choice amongst many AngelList engineers. Microsoft acquired a beloved product central in the lives of developers: only time will tell whether everybody sticks around.

Learn how to GitHub

GitHub isn’t easy to learn. Instead of guessing your way through tutorials for hours, enroll in the Github Learning Lab. The friendly bot will teach you:

📝 Markdown, the internet’s favorite formatting tool

🖥️ Github Pages to build free websites in minutes

😬 Merge conflicts, or when you and your coworkers disagree

This isn’t the only bot-based education tool to launch recently: a SMS-based university launched over the summer, with entrepreneurship lessons from UCLA, USC, and Babson professors.

Bots really are everywhere 💅

Bots are much bigger than chatbots. Meet Lil Miquela, a completely CGI Instagram influencer with over 1.2M followers and features in Vogue.

Her creators are pulling in real money: she’s modeled for Lululemon competitor Outdoor Voices and Highsnobiety. The company behind her looks just raised $6M from Sequoia Capital to design CGI influencers.

She looks eerily real. 😳

Lucky for us humans, a new wave of Augmented Reality and AI tools are here to help us compete with Lil Miquela:

💅 Wanna Nails (launching this week!) lets you try on nail polish in AR. Buy the perfect shade directly in-app and snap a picture for Insta. Nifty.

📸 FaceApp uses neural networks to make you look younger, older, a different gender, or even smile, all with one tap.

🤳 Meitu makes your selfies gorgeous. Downloaded by over 1 billion, powered by facial recognition and AR tech.

GitHub acquired for $7.5B 😮 was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Evan Spiegel predicted the future.

Last February, the Snapchat founder predicted that Tim Cook and Apple would be moving in on the social media giant’s territory. “We face significant competition in almost every aspect of our business,” Snap said in their IPO filing. “This includes larger, more established companies — like Apple.”

It didn’t take long for the Spiegel prophecy to come true: this week, at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference, Cook unveiled their attack plan.

Meet Memojis, a personalized version of Apple’s Animoji that launched last year — and an almost direct copy of Snapchat’s Bitmoji.

These avatars are a natural evolution of how we communicate digitally. In the early days of the internet, online communities were text-based. We hung out on IRC channels and AIM (RIP). Message boards sprung up for every niche.

As smartphones became more accessible, everything’s changed.

Existing platforms, like Twitter and Messenger, adopted photos, GIFs, and stickers. As the entire world discovered the professional camera in their pocket, newer entrants like Snapchat and Instagram flourished as visual mediums.

Video was next, with the explosion of YouTube and Facebook’s new emphasis on videos. 300 hours of user-generated video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Snapchat videos drive 10 billion views a day.

Unfortunately, not every video goes #viral. Creating great content is harder than ever, with an entire industry of Youtubers competing to capture your attention. Even the most basic special effects require a massive CGI team.

Tech’s solution? Augmented and virtual reality, blended seamlessly into your phone. Snapchat filters and Memoji are just the beginning. Completely immersive virtual avatars are coming.

It’s a brave new digital world, and both Apple and Snapchat are competing to control your portal into their virtual realities.

Apple’s portal? Your iPhone X, with seamless transitions between augmented real-world experiences like Pokémon Go and completely virtual experiences through the eyes of your Memoji.

Snap’s portal? Your camera, experienced through the Snapchat app and your Spectacles. Evan Spiegel sells Snap as a “camera company” first.

There’s no clear winner… yet. It’s entirely plausible that Snapchat and iPhone X will be the winning combination. Apple and Snapchat partnered up last September to design hyper-realistic filters that can track your face movements.

The future of communication isn’t here quite yet: iOS 12 will come later this year, jam-packed with new features to help you take control of your digital privacy. Get an iOS 12 sneak peek. 📱

Apple is taking on Snapchat 📸 was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Alexia Bonatsos is renowned in the startup world. The former co-editor of TechCrunch was among the first to cover Uber, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Pinterest back when they were still dreaming of unicorn status.

Alexia, now a venture capitalist, just announced a new seed fund focused on investing in automation-related startups.

We asked Alexia about what she looks for in founding teams, so you can get hired by the next unicorn. Below is Alexia’s response, including a list of 15 rocketship startups that are hiring aggressively. 🦄

— —

5 Attributes of Rocketship Startups, By Alexia Bonatsos

Picking great startups is a critical skill for anyone in the tech ecosystem. You pick startups when you look for a job, select vendors and business partners, or make an investment.

But… identifying rocketship startups is easier said than done. While I work hard to suspend disbelief and get onboard with wild visions, I still look for five specific things in every team:

🎒 A lust for learning. Founders that obsess about learning every part of their business and the world at large are better prepared to lead.

🚀 Competitiveness. My friend Ashley Mayer once said, “Elon Musk approaches life like a man who’s competing with a thousand parallel selves in a thousand simulations. He’s determined to win, but also somewhat bored by it all.” I look for whatever that is, but for women too.

😠 Resilience. Successful startups solve difficult problems; founders never get things right on their first or second try, so they’ve got to have the resilience to keep at it.

📝 The ability to take feedback. I never have to give great teams the same piece of feedback on loop; after the first or second time, they’ll have fixed it either by learning quickly or hiring for it. This requires lots of humility and self-awareness.

🏆 Unbridled ambition. This one speaks for itself.

You’ll also need to analyze the product and business itself. Jason Kincaid, my former colleague at TechCrunch, taught me these in a journalistic context, and they transfer pretty well to venture capital:

• What problem are they trying to solve? Focus on companies that are building “need to have” products, not “nice to have” solutions.
• Who are their biggest competitors, and what are they doing differently? Most founders say they don’t really have a competitor, which is short-sighted. My favorite answers allude to something grand and analogue, like taxis, travel agents, or funeral homes.
• What are their biggest challenges? Founders need to be self-aware, thorough, and “know what they don’t know” as far as roadblocks are concerned.
• What are their future plans? If you hit every green light on your path to success, what would your company look like in 5 years, 10 years? If you can’t see this palpably, then it will be tough getting over the aforementioned road blocks.

If you’re ready to ride a rocketship, here are 15 that are hiring. 🚀

15 Rocketship Startups that are Hiring, from Alexia Bonatsos 🚀 was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Founders and investors will face buyout offers for their equity at every point in a company’s lifecycle. It can be tempting to sell.

Our advice? Don’t. If an investment is doing well, people will try to buy it from you. Say ‘no’ unless you can return your fund for a small piece of the stock.

Instead, consider doubling down with your pro rata. Offers are a signal to hold onto the investment — not sell it. Selling early eliminates the startups at the head of the power law.

The market wants to steal your winners

The market doesn’t want your dogs, it wants to steal your winners before they’ve realized their potential.

Inbound offers are often from insiders with more information than you. Recently, investors in a unicorn got an offer to buy their stock at a $2B valuation. But the people making the offer secretly knew that the company was closing a round at an $8B valuation.

Offers are a signal to hold onto the investment — not sell it. The market thinks there’s upside in the stock.

Don’t kill the power law

Your strategy is to create a portfolio with a power law distribution. Most of your returns will come from a few outsized winners. Selling early eliminates the startups at the head of the power law.

The goal is to get one 1000x return in your portfolio. Getting a 20x return from selling early isn’t the plan. It’s okay if this startup goes to zero; there are other ones in your portfolio.

This strategy is ‘risky’. But that’s how you make money: with concentrated risk. You protect money with diversification in a large pool of safe investments — but that’s not how you make a lot of it.

So don’t sell on the way up. You don’t know how high it will go.

Sell if you can return your fund

You may want to sell ~20% of your stock if:

1. You know the price is fair because you know a lot about the company,
2. Other good investors are selling at the same time, and
3. You can return at least 1x your fund and make your LPs happy in the process.

Learn more about this in Taking Money “Off The Table” by Fred Wilson.

Another strong reason to sell is if you’re going to take the returns and invest in more compelling startups.

If you’re tempted to sell because you want life-changing cash right now, consider waiting. If the market wants the stock now, it will probably want it later too. And they’ll pay more later if the company keeps doing well.

Double down with your pro rata

Instead of selling, consider doubling down with your pro rata. If you don’t have the money, you can always raise it with an SPV on AngelList if the company’s a winner.

You didn’t start investing to make a quick return, you’re investing to build monster franchises that help society and spawn new investment opportunities. Supranormal returns in venture capital are built with conviction and a steadfast grip on your winners. Hedging results in industry standard returns. Be bold.

Rebalance your portfolio at exit

You can rebalance your portfolio when the company goes public. Sell all your stock or hold on to some if you think the company is still undervalued.

If the startup is acquired by a breakout company, convert your stock into the acquirer if that’s an option and the price is right. The price is often right because it’s anchored on the breakout’s last round valuation, which is often undervalued in the first few rounds. Congratulations, you just got a free ride on a rocketship.

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Disclosure: This is not investment advice — don’t blame us if you lose all your money with this strategy.

Say no to early liquidity was originally published in The AngelList Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.