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If you are building or plan to build, we want you to consider Tekedia Startup Masterclass

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If you are building or plan to build, we want you to consider Tekedia Startup Masterclass. More and more founders & entrepreneurs are coming there to master deeper mechanics of building great companies. Check it, register and I want to meet you in the class. Eight weeks, $400 or N180K and all virtual 

Tekedia Startup Masterclass: from Start-Up to Unicorn is designed to help founders, entrepreneurs, and those generally working in the startup ecosystems, to master the mechanics of building category-king startups. The program runs for 8 weeks and it includes an hour-long one-on-one Zoom session every week, per participant, with Tekedia Institute’s Lead Faculty, Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe.

This program is on-demand which means you can enroll and begin anytime. The goal is to help the participant master modern mechanics which are used to scale and blitzscale ideas into unicorns (startups with a minimum of $1 billion in valuation).

Startup Masterclass: from startup to unicorn | Immediate Access

The best business plan is to START now

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Most times, the best plan is to go out and START. No planning can eliminate the START phase.

How do I create a perfect business plan after many trials? My response: the best business plan is to START now. Once you do, measure what matters and with customer feedback as a compass, work to navigate to the opportunities in the market.

It is a big illusion to ever expect to have a perfect business plan or pitch deck when the customers are moving targets!

Do not PAY customers to be using your product

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Do not PAY customers to be using your product. It is happening often these days. Yes, startups actually pay users to use their products, well past the initiation phase but at growth phase. Instead of paying customers, use a double play strategy and capture value differently while having a clearview to ascertain a product’s viability.

Avoid the trap of using payment to acquire customers at the early phase of your startup. It is a very bad idea because doing so introduces many fudge factors which will make it impossible to know the product viability. 

As I have noted, do not pursue customer growth unless you are able to RETAIN customers. Why? You can spend all the money and if you are unable to retain customers, once you stop paying those customers, they go.

Focus on what matters: make customers become FANS and that means loving your products because you offer value.

You can spend money on initial launch to kickstart a business. It is one way of breaking customer inertia. But sustained paid-driven growth strategy will fail. Focus on what matters and stop chasing vanity metrics.

Anchorage, Crypto Custody Provider, Raises $350 Million At $3 Billion Valuation

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The crypto market is riddled with uncertainties orchestrated by its volatility and governments’ body language that has, at every given time, impacted the market either negatively or positively. The situation has fueled the indecision of many investors, who have been watching the crypto industry from the sideline, waiting for a global political backing or a sign that its volatile concern has been solved.

Despite this situation, the crypto market keeps witnessing rise in institutional and individual investment amidst investors’ search for hedge against inflation. This means, crypto startups witnessing huge investment funds, shooting their valuation to billions of dollars.

In line with this trend, crypto company Anchorage has announced that it has raised a $350 million Series D round at more than $3 billion valuation. This is coming less than a year after raising an $80 million Series C round, TechCrunch has the report.

Anchorage offers a custody solution for big institutions, such as publicly traded companies or funds. On top of that, Anchorage lets you trade crypto assets, stake assets to earn returns and participate in protocol governance if you own a lot of tokens for a specific protocol.

For instance, one transaction has been particularly commented. Back in August, Visa acquired a CryptoPunk for 49.5 ETH. At the time, it represented around $150,000. Behind the scenes, Anchorage handled the transaction for Visa.

KKR is leading the round with many different investors also participating. They are Goldman Sachs, Alameda Research, Andreessen Horowitz, Apollo credit funds, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Blockchain Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, Elad Gil, GIC, GoldenTree Asset Management, Innovius Capital, Kraken, Lux Capital, PayPal Ventures, Senator Investment Group, Standard Investments, Thoma Bravo and Wellington Management.

This big group of investors are betting their money in Anchorage because the startup received a federal banking charter, turning it into a digital asset bank. It differentiates Anchorage from many custodian products out there.

With this funding round, the company plans to improve its product, especially for global financial firms and other fintech companies. Customers can also expect more features with more integrations with DeFi products.

“As a pioneer in enabling institutional investors to access digital assets, Anchorage has built a best in class, institutional grade digital asset platform that combines the best practices of both modern security and usability. We are thrilled to lead this Series D round and work with Diogo, Nathan and their talented team as they continue to support the institutional adoption of digital assets through their differentiated, regulated and integrated suite of solutions,” KKR’s Technology Growth Equity senior leader Ben Pederson said in a statement.

Over the past year, Anchorage has increased its number of clients by 96%. The company’s head count has also increased by quite a lot with a 175% jump compared to the same period last year.

With its federal banking charter, Anchorage has a good barrier to entry in case other companies want to compete in the same space. As companies realize that crypto assets are more than a fad, they’ll increasingly look for trustworthy partners to interact with in the crypto ecosystem. And some of them will certainly end up working with Anchorage.

Reddit Files Confidentially to Go Public

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Reddit has confidentially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public, according an announcement by the social media company.

The company did not say how many shares would be offered nor the price range for the proposed offering, which has been anticipated since earlier in the year when Reddit raised new funding.

“The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The initial public offering is expected to occur after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions,” the company said in a press statement.

In August, Reddit received ground-breaking $410 million financing led by Fidelity, putting its value at $10 billion. The company’s CEO Steve Huffman told the New York Times that Fidelity’s investment would give it more time to decide when and how to go public.

So, it didn’t come as a surprise when the unique social media platform, on Wednesday, broke the news that it’s going public. It rather shows how resilient it has been in driving revenue growth and in scaling the ladder of success.

Reddit was created in 2005, and was acquired in 2006 by Conde Nast Publications. The social media services remained a part of the publication company until it was made an independent subsidiary in 2011. Since then, it raised a series of funding rounds from venture capital firms.

Reddit has raised $1.3 billion in funding so far, according to public information.

In 2019, when Tencent led Reddit’s $300 million Series D investment, there was concern that the Chinese company having a huge share will expose the community site to censorship.

The company has come off a monument of challenges, including the increase of hate speech on its platform, which is a peculiar problem to other social media platforms, to increase its audience and revenue.

In August, Reddit said it had reached $100 million in advertising revenue during the second quarter of 2021, up 192% from a year prior. The company also said it attracted 50 million daily visitors and hosted 100,000 active subreddits.