Avichay Nissenbaum’s Post

Pivoting is more than just a survival tactic—it's a path to growth and innovation. Avichay Nissenbaum, explores this concept in his latest article for Calcalist כלכליסט, where he delves into how strategic pivots can lead startups to extraordinary outcomes. From redefining business models to shifting customer focus, Avichay shares valuable insights on how investors can support these crucial transitions.

This by Sunil Nagaraj of Ubiquity Ventures on how he missed out on investing in LaunchDarkly early at Bessemer, because he relied excessively on geekspeak, and didnt translate the tech features to business impact, was very interesting. Loved the way he sets up the importance of 'speaking nerd', but also 'later stage VC.' From his podcast appearance in Venture Unlocked. Good podcast, worth a listen / read, especially for practioners of venture craft. Broadly I found three points interesting, though there are perhaps other interesting points as well, and others may find, well, other points interesting! The first one, in my opinion, was on how venture fundraising is different from startup fundraising, and how the same rules of fundraising don’t apply, then the second was on the importance of vernacular or patois in describing certain contexts or situations and why that matters (as shown in the LaunchDarkly example below) and finally why deeptech is not always more capital-guzzling than consumer apps. Transcript organised by me at https://lnkd.in/gKm5zZNM

How Big Tech's Investments are Accelerating Global Innovation 🚀 Big tech companies are not just driving innovation within their walls; they're fueling it globally through corporate venture capital (CVC) investments. These investments transform the innovation landscape by providing startups with the resources, mentorship, and market access they need to scale. For example, Google Ventures, Microsoft’s M12, and Intel Capital lead the charge, investing billions into emerging technologies. CVCs do more than just fund startups—they foster ecosystems where innovation can thrive. By strategically investing in startups, big tech firms can tap into external innovation and accelerate the development of cutting-edge solutions that align with their strategic goals. Take a look at this good example of Microsoft M12 investing with Peter Berg https://lnkd.in/ef6hUfni #Innovation #CorporateVentureCapital #BigTech #StartupGrowth #TechEcosystem #CVC #EmergingTechnologies #TechInvestments

Seed stage founders, when you finally receive that check, do this: Optimize for metrics that will help you reduce churn on good revenue. In this current VC environment, VCs will look for your startup's aptitude or capability for revenue growth rather than the revenue dollar currently generated.  In the past few years, you only need a compelling story about the team's growth, the product's development, and a better understanding of the market. These days, you must deliver more than this to move from seed to Series A. You need to convince the VCs that you have commercial traction. To reach that stage, you need the right metrics to show you the data and help you identify leaks and opportunities. Beyond getting much love during sales demos, are your customers staying on the platform and using your product? ****************** Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures, Kirby Winfield of Ascend, and Nate Williams of Union Labs Ventures shared many more insightful views on the current seed funding environment in Samir Kaji's latest Venture Unlocked episode. You can listen to it here:

Max, Head of Research at WW Ventures, shares insights on his Web3 journey, the future of venture capital, and more. Here are some key takeaways: Game Theory: Understanding user behavior through game theory helps create models that drive decisions. WWVentures & Social Capital: WW Ventures uses social capital to drive user acquisition through unique, organic strategies that integrate LPs into portfolio companies. Web3 vs. Web2: The future is about integration, making trustless processes that protect users and allow them to monetize their data. #WWVentures #Web3 #VentureCapital #Tokenomics #GameTheory #UserAcquisition #Innovation #FutureOfTech #ContangoPodcast Podcast link in comments 👇

Twitter originated as a podcast subscription network named Odeo. However, when iTunes emerged, Odeo found itself unable to compete. Instead of being deterred, they pivoted their focus towards building a micro-blogging platform, and a history was made. As Steve Blank right stated, "A startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model." This means startups are adaptable organizations whose primary objective is not to execute a business model but to discover one. Upon finding a viable business model and scaling up to execute it, startups transition into conventional companies. They operate within the "build, measure, learn" loop, commencing with the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or the simplest possible customer-ready product to gather early feedback. They subsequently utilize this feedback to iterate, refine, and optimize their offerings. If a hypothesis fails, it doesn’t mean the business is doomed. A Startup can always pivot or radically change its focus.  #startupjourney #startupbusiness #innovation #enterpreneurship #mvp #feedbackloop #fridaythoughts #salesstation SparxIT

Next up on Embracing Erosion? Alex Pattis, the General Partner of Riverside Ventures and founding team member of Hampton. Alex is also the co-founder of Last Money In Media, a leading VC newsletter that delves into Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) within the Venture Capital ecosystem. Alex has become a leading voice advocating for the SPV investment format versus the traditional VC fund model. So it won’t surprise you got super deep and into the weeds on all things investing, but we touched on plenty of other topics such as: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups Give it a listen 👉 https://lnkd.in/gEKv5ghE The Compete Network

Great time on the Embracing Erosion podcast w/Devon O'Rourke! We talked about: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups and much more!

Spotting the Best Applied AI Startups with Neville Teagarden 🎙️ Join Neville Teagarden, Managing Partner at AI Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in early growth stage, enterprise applied AI software companies. Neville shares his journey from leading in data management to becoming an advisor and investor. He discusses his experience in venture investing, lessons from raising a VC fund, and how to spot and secure great deals. Don't miss this exclusive interview—click the link to watch now. Do you want more exclusive insights from top-tier VCs? Follow VNTR Capital and tune into our #podcast

One of the most underrated startup stories of all time: how Niels Hoven turned a viral Twitter post from a hater into enough waitlist sign-ups for his company Mentava to become cash flow positive (and launch its product a year ahead of schedule!) Something New with Leeor Mushin is back with Season 2 (and will have new episode drops every Tuesday)! On this episode with Niels, we talk about: - why having haters is a good thing for your startup (and how you can productively channel it into positive results for your company) - how he was able to successfully raise from 50+ high-profile angels including amazing folks like Garry Tan, Tim Ferriss, Eric Ries, Balaji, and more as a solo founder with little pre-existing network. (Spoiler alert: it was all about iterating on storytelling/the fundraising process) - challenges of building a startup in EdTech, and what mindset differentiates successes vs failures Links to listen to the full episode in the comments: