NVTC Newsletter No. 7
Oct 18, 2022
Kaley Ubellacker
Market Stirrings 🚩
Here's what the week looked like in pre-seed:
Data aggregated from proprietary research and Crunchbase; valuation estimate based on 10-20% ownership stake.
Back at you again with another Tech Tuesday. For those new here, welcome to the NVTC weekly newsletter! Here you’ll find recent updates from the tech world, insightful articles related to startups and highlights from NV portfolio companies.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURES ⚡
🤝 Got Questions Keeping You Up at Night? – Fellow member Mariano Pennini, a software engineer who left Bloomberg for fintech startup Spade, will be answering any questions you have for him for next week’s newsletter.
⭐ An AWSome Deal – BMW’s “Neue Klasse” features new AWS software.
⭐ The Lowdown on LBOs – No, it doesn’t stand for lobotomy.
⭐ Chef’s Specialty Petri Dish – Lab-grown meat. Yummy!
📈 Tech Failures – Does anyone remember Google Glass?
GET TO KNOW NVTC 🤝
Meet fellow NVTC member, Mariano Pennini. Mariano is a software engineer with software development experience across numerous initiatives. During his time at Johns Hopkins, he interned at Paypal and Tile, the pioneer in “finding” technology that was eventually acquired by Life360. Mariano went on to work on ESG data infrastructure at Bloomberg LP before joining Spade, a fintech startup backed by YCombinator. Spade is building a transaction enrichment API which allows fintech companies to underwrite, identify fraud, and better understand their customers.
For next week’s newsletter, Mariano will be answering any questions NVTC has for him. This is a great opportunity to ask the hard questions I’m sure many of you have about what it’s like to switch from a big tech company to the startup world. Reply to this email with any questions you’d like me to include for Mariano.
Some example questions I’ll be asking:
What most influenced your decision to make the switch from Bloomberg (a large tech company) to Spade (an early-stage startup)?
What draws you to working in the fintech sector?
How has your role transformed as a software engineer at Spade compared to Bloomberg?
NV PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHT 🎢
What happens when a former growth and operations manager at Uber and a former financial controller at Amazon meet? This is the story of Carlos Lau and Luis Ubillas and how they founded Kurios. Lau and Ubillas noticed a gap in digital skills in Latin America. They combined their knowledge in tech to build a company solely dedicated to digitalization in Latin America and supporting the exponential growth tech companies in the region are already experiencing.
Kurios offers state-of-the-art training programs for professionals. The company’s service is a unique combination of self-paced learning and live sessions, allowing employees to work and study with ease. Students receive top-notch instruction from highly talented professionals coming out of tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Stripe.
Kurios offers four major programs that cater to B2B businesses. Large enterprises represent 80 percent of its client base, and the remainder consists of startups and small- to medium-sized businesses. At the pre-seed stage, Kurios has seen incredible results so far, boasting a course completion rate of 90% and an annual customer retention rate of 100%. In addition to NV, other investors include YCombinator, Harvard Management Company, Austen Allred (CEO of Lambda School / Bloom Tech), and ed tech investors like Rethink Education and Dunce Capital.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
For the less rushed reader …
BMW will be the first automaker to use Amazon Web Services’ cloud platform
AWS software will be integrated into BMW’s future lineup of electric vehicles for its “Neue Klasse” platform. This platform will process three times the amount of data compared to the current generation of car models. The data will be used to develop new digital products and will lay the groundwork for future autonomous driving features.
Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal Is Different Than Most LBOs, Here’s How
Here’s a more in-depth review of the Twitter Deal and the workings of leveraged buyouts (LBOs). Musk is playing the role of the private equity firm, financing $46.5 billion through a combination of equity contribution and a debt package from big Wall Street banks. If the LBO happens, Twitter is on the hook for billions of dollars more in debt on its balance sheet.
Self-Driving Tech Startups Are Driving Off A Cliff On Public Markets
Over the past few years, we’ve watched as autonomous driving trended in investor circles, increasingly hailed as the go-to tech of the future. Now, profits are down, and stocks related to LiDAR and self-driving vehicles are being sold off. A Crunchbase analysis showed that 14 companies that went public over the past couple years experienced an average post-debut decline of more than 80%.
Fire Up the Pre-Seeds🔥
Highlights from this week’s pre-seed raises:
STARTUP SNIPPETS 🔮
Pillow: an all-in-one platform designed to help newbies save, spend, and invest in crypto
The raise: $18 million in Series A financing
Telda: an Egyptian consumer money app
The raise: $20 million in seed funding from GFC, Sequoia Capital, and Block
TripActions: a Californian business travel startup near decacorn status
The raise: $304 million at a $9.2 billion valuation
Alloy Therapeutics: a company developing new biologic modalities to accelerate drug discovery
The raise: $42 Million in Series D financing
This social media app to mitigate isolation on college campuses is taking over Stanford.
TWITTER HIGHLIGHT 📈
Warren Craddock, a Senior Software Engineer who describes himself as having led a “fun and meandering career” at companies like Google, Lytro, Intersil, and now Waymo, took to Twitter to explain his perspective on why tech fails.
In a hefty, 21-tweet series, we get a glimpse into some of the most interesting downfalls in tech. He guides readers on a product development journey from the Lytro lightfield cameras to Google Glass to Google Clips.
Here are some highlights I picked out, but head over here to get the full story:
Outro🚪
Have any questions, feedback, or comments? Just reply here. We iterate and curate the newsletter according to your interests!
Some last matters of business:
If you’re a technologist (engineer or product manager / designer with a technical background) join us on the NVTC LinkedIn group if you haven’t. We’d love to have you!
Sign up here if you’re interested in co-investing with Necessary.
If you’re a startup founder, we’d love to help where we can! Brex provides full-stack finance solutions for startups. Sign up via Necessary and get bonus points.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
