Yesterday was Singles Day in China, celebrated on 11/11 each year and theoretically to honor young adults who are not in relationships. In practice it is essentially an invention by retailer Alibaba who holds massive online sales on this day across their platform (Taobao, Tmall, etc). Alibaba reported over $30B in GMV yesterday across its platform of […]
Almost seven years ago, I wrote a post about the difference between a “no” answer and a “no yet” when pitching early-stage VCs. This was back in January 2012, a simpler time… when there was only one kind of seed round, when Series A firms invested pre-revenue, etc. No, this is not some waxing nostalgic post. But […]
It’s almost exactly 5 years since Aileen Lee first coined the term “unicorn” in reference to startups with $1 billion+ valuations. I was wondering what ever ultimately happened to that group of OG unicorns, so I looked back at her original post in TechCrunch from November 2013. To analyze what’s become of the OG Unicorns, it’s […]
Nearly every aspect of the Everyday Economy is being changed by the internet and digital technologies. Transportation, which accounts for nearly 10% of the broad economy in the U.S., is no different. We’ve seen how the ubiquity of internet-connected, GPS-enabled smartphones gave rise to new mobility services like Uber, Lyft, Didi Chuxing, Ola, and others […]
As you may know, NextView now has a thematic investing focus on the redesign of the Everyday Economy. We’ve shared our thoughts on how the internet and associated digital technologies are creating massive shifts in home, apparel, and other categories. Next up is the topic of work and money. What we call “work and money” covers a […]
In recent years we’ve seen more and more corporations become more active or establish strategic VC arms. When there are many waves of innovation (AI/ML, voice, IoT, genomics, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, etc) propagating across many industries, it’s natural for corporations to use strategic investment as one way to harness that innovation for their own purposes. […]
Editor’s note: The NextView team periodically holds internal “shootarounds,” where we discuss a startup topic or trend and try to make sense of it for everyone involved: entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers. We’ve decided to share these publicly. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our discussion on drones. You can also read past shootarounds on voice interfaces and […]
Many folks have discussed the role and value a board of directors can bring to a startup, even very early in the company’s lifecycle. The purpose of a board is not simply to be the founders’ friend…
Basketball or football? I realize sports analogies for startups can feel trite, but as you think about the different phases of team-building in a startup, this one is actually pretty spot on. Your recruiting strategy should be adapted to a few distinct phases just as the approaches to building different kinds of sports teams varies. Below, I […]
At NextView, we’ve long had a set of ethos or guiding principles behind all we do, which includes internal work as a team, external work as investors, and the lens through which we view seed-stage startups and their founding teams. The ethos we mention most often is authenticity — we firmly believe that the best companies are borne out of authentic […]
