look: a dumb startup

Black Swan in the house

Hi there,

Has anyone told you that you look lovely today?

Well, you do.

And I thought you should know.

Ok. Enough small talk.

Today, we’ve got dead horses, one dumb startup’s mistakes, and a black swan.

Let’s go.

Om nom nom

We created a timeline of food delivery startup M&A activity between 2012 and 2016. Last year saw the acquisitions of two of the most well-funded startups in the space, foodpanda and RedMart.

The highly improbable

I’m excited to announce that Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of The Black Swan, will be joining us at The Future of Fintech Conference.

For those not familiar, The Black Swan “examines the influence of highly improbable and unpredictable events that have massive impact.”

Taleb is a statistician, former trader and risk analyst who has been critical of the risk management practices of financial services for some time.

For those who’ve read his work, heard him on TV, or followed him on Twitter, you know that he is smart and not shy to speak his mind so it should be a fascinating conversation.

Prices went up last Friday but if you sign up by tomorrow and use the code “blackswan17,” you’ll get $1000 off.

The CRISPR economy

We looked at 7 of the most promising private companies working with CRISPR genomic editing technologies. Synthego, featured below, offers CRISPR gene editing kits and custom-built synthetic RNA in order to increase the speed and decrease the cost of genetic research.

Reminder #1 – Don’t be dumb like us

Back in the day, our team used to obsess about getting our posts onto page 1 of Hacker News. And we wasted so much time on this.

Man, we were so dumb.

It’s one of the 68 screwups of building a SaaS company we talked about here (pdf).

Lawyered up

We examined financing trends to the legal tech category as well as which regions around the world are seeing the most investment. On an annual basis, deal count increased by 12% in 2016 to 67 deals, while funding declined by 46% to $155M.

Reminder #2 – we don’t do briefings with VCs/startups

If you want to get in front of our research team, don’t email or call the office asking to do a briefing with our team.

We don’t do those.

Just update/add your company or investor profile here.

Please no more emails about doing a briefing.

Southeast Asia fintech on the rise

We looked at Southeast Asia fintech funding trends over the last 5 years. Financing to fintech companies in the region has gone from minimal investment in 2012 to over $150M invested in each of the past two years.

Reminder 3: How not to be evil

When introducing 2 people, the proper email etiquette is to always always always use the double opt-in intro.

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but it appears many folks have forgotten this in 2017.

The Industry Standard

CB Insights data is the most trusted by those in the industry and the media. A few recent hits.

Fast Company. Ainsley O’Connell (@ainsleyoc) writes about how fintech startups are using behavioral science to give themselves an edge over incumbents and cites CB Insights investment data.

Inc. Sonya Mann (@sonyaellenmann) on why investors are bullish on some sharing economy startups with a reference to CB Insights data on financing to the space.

Zee Business. A report on VC investment into bitcoin & blockchain startups with a mention of CB Insights research on the subject.

Happy Monday.

I love you.

Anand
@asanwal

P.S. If you’re involved in startups and are ignoring corporate VCs, you’re being foolish. Here’s a history of corporate venture capital you should grab a cup of coffee and get familiar with.