I live in San Francisco, but I work on an east coast program to get a jump on news day. So I was already at my desk for a couple of hours on Wednesday morning when I looked up and saw this:
As disturbing as it was to see the natural environment so transformed, I still got my work done. This isn't to brag - I have a desk job and a working air filter. (People doing toxic air deliveries or home schooling their children while working from home during a global pandemic, however, impress me to death.)
Not surprisingly, two of the Extra Crunch stories published in our Tuesday newsletter link directly to what's going on outside my window:
As predicted by this guest post, a suboptimal attempt I made to track down a delayed packet using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) has actually poisoned my customer experience and;
Protecting yourself to avoid the new coronavirus and wildfire smoke is fueling growth in the video game industry, perhaps a factor in Unity Software Inc.'s plan to go public before competitor Epic Games. In a two-part series, we examined how the company expanded beyond games and shared a detailed financial breakdown.
We've covered a lot of topics this week, so scroll down or visit the newly redesigned Extra Crunch home page. If you would like to receive this summary by email every Tuesday and Friday, please click here.
Thank you so much for reading Extra Crunch; I hope you have a relaxing and safe weekend.
Walter Thompson
Senior publisher
@yourprotagonist
In a two-part series that ran on ProWellTech and Extra Crunch, former media columnist Eric Peckham returned to share his analysis of Unity Software Inc.'s S-1 repository.
The first part is an in-depth analysis explaining how the company has grown beyond games to develop multiple revenue streams and where it is heading.
For the second part of Extra Crunch, he studied the company's numbers to offer context for its valuation of approximately $ 11 billion.
As we explained earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic is making the world a lot smaller.
Investors who focus on their own backyards still have an edge, but the ability to arrange a quick meeting with a promising investor is no longer one of them.
Even though some VCs are cutting their first checks after Zoom calls, regional investor personal networks are still a trump card. However, tourists will always rely on tour guides, which is why we continue to survey investors around the world.
A Dealroom report released this summer determined that 97 VC funds supported more than 1,600 funding rounds in Poland last year. With over 2,400 early and late stage startups and 400,000 engineers in the country, it's easy to see why foreign investors are noticing.
Chief Editor Mike Butcher reached out to several investors who focus on Warsaw and Poland in general to learn more about the startups fueling their interest in fintech, gaming, security and other industries:
- Bryony Cooper, managing partner, Arkley Brinc VC
- Anna Wnuk-Błażejczyk, Head of Investor Relations, Experior.vc
- Rafał Roszak, Investment Director, YouNick Mint
- Michal Mroczkowski, partner, Market One Capital
- Marcus Erken, partner, Sunfish Partners
- Borys Musielak, partner of SMOK Ventures
- Mathias Åsberg, partner, Nextgrid
- Kuba Dudek, SpeedUp Venture Capital Group
- Marcin Laczynski, partner, Next Road Ventures
- Michał Rokosz, partner, Inovo Venture Partners
Next Tuesday we will carry out the conclusion of your survey.
Even for novice startups, building a solid customer service channel - or at least one that doesn't bother people - is a reliable way to keep users in the sales funnel.
Using AI and automation is fine, but now that consumers have grown accustomed to asking smart phones and speakers to predict the weather and read recipe instructions, their expectations are higher than ever.
If you're trying to figure out what people want from hyper-personalized customer experiences and how you can get AI up and running to give them what they're looking for, start here.
For today's edition of The Exchange, Natasha Mascaren joined Alex Wilhelm to examine how the pandemic-fueled wave of interest in edtech is manifesting itself on the funding front.
The numbers suggest funding will far exceed the industry high set in 2018, so the two studied the numbers up until Aug.31, which included a number of mega rounds that exceeded $ 100 million.
"Now the challenge for the sector will keep its growth alive in 2021, showing investors that their bets for 2020 weren't just bets made during a single overheated year," they conclude.
Chances are low that someone will enter my house and steal my things. However, I still close the door when I leave the house and my valuables are insured. I am an optimist, not a fool.
Likewise: Is your startup's cybersecurity strategy based on optimism, or do you have an effective response plan in the event of a data breach?
Security reporter Zack Whittaker has seen some chaotic reactions to security drops, which is why he delivered an autopsy on a company he got it right.
"From time to time, a company's response almost compensates for the daily deluge of hypocrisy, obfuscation and outright lies," says Zack.
There is a lot of buzz about special purpose acquisition companies these days.
The used car market Shift announced its SPAC in June 2020 and is on track to complete the process in the coming months, so co-founder / co-CEO George Arison wrote an Extra Crunch guest post to share what he has learned.
Step One: "If you follow the SPAC path, you will need to become a financial engineering expert."
Dear Sophie: I am a software engineer and have reviewed US job postings that I have heard from my friends on J-1 Visa Training or J-1 Research. What is a J-1 state? What are the requirements to qualify? Do I need to find a US employer willing to sponsor me before applying for one? Can i get a visa? How long can I stay? - Determined in DelhiAs we count down to the September 23rd premiere of NYSE: PLTR, Danny Crichton looked into the "robust secondary market" that has allowed some investors to buy shares early.
"Given the number of people involved and the number of shares bought and sold over the past 18 months, we can get an idea of how insiders perceive Palantir's value," he writes.
Zack Whittaker interviewed Bugcrowd CTO, founder and president Casey Ellis, about the best practices he recommends for creating a startup culture that takes security seriously.
"It's everyone's problem," said Ellis, who encouraged the founders to promote the notion of "productive paranoia."
Now that the threat envelope includes everyone from marketing to engineering, employees must "internalize that bad things can and do happen if they're wrong," Ellis said.