where should you HQ your startup?

We’ll always have Paris

Hi there,

Sometimes, Twitter is amazing.

Recently, Paris Hilton asked “What’s on your mind?”

And some of the responses are really quite profound.

So I wanted to share.

Here’s one. Is this true? No idea.

Just being honest

The Honest Company, the family- and eco-friendly consumer products brand, is raising $75M in new VC financing at a valuation lower than its previous $1.64B valuation, according to a new state filing we uncovered as part of our enhanced valuation data.

Despite seeing a rapid rise, beginning with its nearly $90M valuation during its Series A all the way to its $1.64B valuation at the time of its August 2015 Series D, our previous analysis late last year predicted that the company’s valuation would come under pressure.

VC funnel fun

We analyzed the VC funding funnel by region to see what percentage of companies in each region were able to raise funding between Series A through Series E rounds, and what percentage ultimately exited.

Yes — this analysis will tell you what region is the best for raising financing.

Talking a big game

We recently surveyed 1000+ corporate innovation, M&A, and venture folks about innovation at large companies as part of our State of Innovation Report.

Note: the report will be coming out soon.

Here are some early results.

In good news and not surprisingly, 85% of corporate respondents agree that innovation is important.

But the problem is that only 43% actually have a well-defined process for innovation.

Translation: only 1/2 of the companies who think innovation is important are actually doing something organized about it.

The other 1/2 are likely visiting Silicon Valley doing the petting zoo tours to talk to VCs or doing lots of PowerPoint decks but are actually doing nothing meaningful.

In a future newsletter, we’ll detail why this is so dangerous to your long-term employment prospects if you are an executive.

Related: we wrote a blog post that won’t make your corporation more innovative.

Corporates in India

We looked at where the top 10 corporate investors in India tech are placing their bets. The Times Group takes the No.1 spot, followed by Qualcomm Ventures.

More Paris

Here are a few more questions inspired by Paris Hilton’s tweet that got me thinking.

Apple goes 3D

Apple recently acquired a patent for an AR-compatible 3D printing system. The patent uses visuals – either from cameras or augmented reality systems – to understand the pose and alignment necessary to create a 3D printed object that will attach to an existing object.

The Industry Standard

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

e27. Kevin McSpadden (@kevinmcspadden) references a CB Insights presentation on 68 things to never do at your SaaS company.

Bloomberg. Manuel Baigorri (@manubaigorri) writes about insurance tech company PremFina’s $36M raise and cites CB Insights financing data.

Miami Herald. A look at real estate startup Home61’s latest round of financing with a reference to CB Insights investment data.

I love you.

Anand
@asanwal

P.S. We’ll be diving into the future of fitness tech next Thursday. Sign up for the briefing.