Tech Between The Coasts 025 | Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Board negligence, transportation’s tech troubles, the collapse of the ”millennial urban lifestyle,” unicorn-sighting in Raleigh, Galileo! (galileo)
Want to receive our newsletter every Wednesday? Subscribe on our website.
TL;DR
What We’re Thinking: board negligence
What We’re Reading: Heartland Forward, transportation’s tech troubles, the impending collapse of the “millennial urban lifestyle,” Start Us Up
Deals & More: unicorn-sighting in Raleigh, Galileo! (galileo), banana…milk?, stay Nymbl
What We’re Thinking
This week’s issue is coming to you from…my couch, after I picked up a pretty nasty bug during my travels last week. Apologies for the brevity!
I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about WeWork by now, but I wanted to call attention to one part of this debacle that isn’t getting enough attention: board oversight.
As news of what was really going on at WeWork has trickled out, much of the board response has been some flavor of “We had no idea!” How is it that board, particularly in the wake of the high profile, venture-funded, board-absent fiascos at Theranos, Uber, etc. was either not paying attention? Or worse — implicated themselves?
There’s an important point that shouldn’t be lost here: being founder-friendly and being a good board member are not mutually exclusive. It is entirely possible — and necessary — to be respectful of the founder’s crucial role as the chief visionary and operator of a company, while also keeping them in check. A board member’s responsibility isn’t to enable the founder. It’s to promote and protect the interests of the company, whose stakeholders include not just the founder(s), but also employees, and, of course, shareholders. In fact, from our perspective, the best founders are those who are willing to be challenged and defend a point of view. Rarely does being surrounded by yes-men (or yes-women) lead to good outcomes.
Axios’ Dan Primack sums it up best: “Investors can be founder-friendly while still packing some emergency parachutes into term sheets. And if an entrepreneur objects to even the loosest of restraints, then maybe it’s not a deal worth winning.”
What We’re Reading
Correction: In last week’s issue I mistakenly referred to Steve Case as former CEO of IBM. Obviously, Mr. Case is the former CEO of AOL. There’s my one mistake for the year!
The Bentonville, AR-based Walton Family Foundation has announced the formation of Heartland Forward: a research institute set to “foster economic growth in the central US,” describing the institute as a “think and do” tank. I attended the Walton Family Foundation’s inaugural Heartland Summit last year and found it to be an incredible gathering of folks who are genuinely interested in revitalizing #BetweenTheCoasts economies through entrepreneurship, technology, and community development. It seems like they’re actually “putting their money where their mouth is,” as I often say.
Axios has some quick thoughts on the regulatory, social, and technological complexities innovators face in trying to massively overhaul our transportation industry.
Derek Thompson, author of Hit Makers, writes at The Atlantic on why the “Millennial Urban Lifestyle Is About to Get More Expensive.” This quote made me feel a bit triggered: “If you wake up on a Casper mattress, work out with a Peloton before breakfast, Uber to your desk at a WeWork, order DoorDash for lunch, take a Lyft home, and get dinner through Postmates, you’ve interacted with seven companies that will collectively lose nearly $14 billion this year.”
The Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation has announced a new initiative called “Start Us Up” that seeks to “provide policymakers at the local, state, and federal level a bipartisan roadmap for reducing barriers to entrepreneurship and spurring more startups across the country to create new jobs as a potential recession looms large.” This is the latest in a long string of commitments from the Kauffman Foundation to fostering entrepreneurship in the middle of the country.
Deals
Raleigh, NC-based Pendo — a customer analytics platform — raised $100M at a reported $1B valuation led by Sapphire Ventures; other investors included General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Battery Ventures, Meritech Capital, FirstMark, Geodesic Capital, and Cross Creek.
Salt Lake City-based Galileo Financial — a fintech company that has developed an API for card-issuing upstart banks — raised $77 million led by Accel.
Washington, DC-based Aurora Insight — a digital signal mapping and analytics platform — raised $18M co-led by Alsop Louie Partners and True Ventures; other investors included Tippet Venture Partners, Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Promus Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, ValueStream Ventures, and Intellectus Partners.
Austin-based Literati — operator of a subscription book service for kids — raised $12M led by Shasta Ventures; other investors included #Angels, Springdale Ventures, Founders Fund, Silverton Partners, and Wheelhouse Entertainment.
San Antonio-based Dura Software — a software company that identifies and acquires “hyper-niche” software companies — raised $10M led by Ozone Capital Management.
Dallas-based Mooala — a producer of dairy-free beverages (including “bananamilk”) — raised $8.33M.
Charlotte, NC-based Ekos — a maker of software for the independent craft beverage industry — raised $8M led by Noro-Moseley Partners.
Austin-based Tenfold — a CRM and voice integration platform for customer service — raised $7.5M led by Next Coast Ventures; other investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Geekdom Fund, and Salesforce Ventures.
Atlanta-based Reibus — an independent online marketplace for industrial materials — raised $3.25M led by Bowery Capital; other investors included Initialized Capital and Stage 2 Capital.
Denver-based Nymbl — an app-based digital balance training program fall prevention — raised $1.55M led by Rockies Venture Club.
Chicago-based Rentgrata — a referral platform connecting prospective renters with current renters — raised $1M led by M25; other investors included Syndicate Fund and Right Side Capital Management.
Atlanta-based Verady — a cryptocurrency accounting and audit platform — raised an undisclosed amount led by TTV Capital; other investors included including Fenbushi Capital.
Funds
Austin-based Vista Equity — a cross-sector VC and PE firm — has closed on $700M for its third credit fund, which is targeted at $2B.
Exits & Acquisitions
Austin-based SailPoint — a publicly traded enterprise identity management company — acquired Denver-based OverWatchID and Las Vegas-based Orkus for a total of $37.5M.
Events
The 2019 Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit will be held in Bentonville, AR from October 20–23.
This year’s Startup Connection, which facilitates informal interactions among early stage startups, investors, and other members of the innovation community in the St. Louis region and beyond, will be held in St. Louis on November 6. The event, in its 11th year, is the anchor event of the inaugural STL Startup Week, which runs November 1–9.
The 2019 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, which brings together investors and early stage companies from Wisconsin and the surrounding areas, will be held November 5–7 in Madison, WI.
The first-ever 2019 Flyover Fintech conference — “a conference bringing innovators, financial services leaders and policymakers to the center of everything fintech” — will be held in Lincoln, NE from November 11–12.
FreightWaves Live, a conference bringing together freight logistics and supply chain experts, investors, startups, and legacy players, will be held in Chicago from November 12–13.
The OnRamp Manufacturing Conference, which “brings together the manufacturing industry’s leading corporations, investors and startups,” will be held in Indianapolis on November 14.
