Startups

Auto Added by WPeMatico

Equity Shot: All about the Qualtrics IPO

Published July 27, 2020

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

After the morning show went out, the Equity crew could not shut up about the Qualtrics-SAP deal, so we had no choice but to jump back into recording mode for an off-the-cuff Equity Shot. As always, Shots are short-form Equity episodes that focus on a single, news topic.

Why is SAP spinning Qualtrics out via an IPO?

Building off of Danny’s SAP knowledge, Natasha’s curiosity about the future Qualtrics S-1, and my own recent dive into the SAP and Qualtrics numbers, we managed to cover quite a lot of ground. So, if you wanted to know:

Why did SAP have to pay so much for Qualtrics back in the day?
Why is SAP willing to part with Qualtrics so soon after buying it?
How much might Qualtrics be worth?
And, of course, did the Equity team expect to see this news in 2020?

Then you are probably going to like what we have in store for you.

Spoiler on that last as the answer is a firm no, but, all the same, what fun. That’s about it for this Equity Shot, hit play, have fun, and we are back Friday morning unless something else happens, like a Palantir S-1.

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PDT and Friday at 6:00 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

Without desks and a demo day, are accelerators worth it?

Published July 27, 2020

As a result of the pandemic, accelerators have moved operations fully remote to abide by social distancing. The shift has forced well-known programs like 500 Startups, Y Combinator and Techstars to go fully online, while encouraging existing venture capital firms to launch new digital-only fellowships like Cleo Capital and NextView Ventures.

Before the pandemic, accelerators could advertise their value by lending desk space once used by Airbnb, Twilio and Brex’s co-founders, plus a glitzy demo day. Now, stripped of their in-person element, the actual value of an accelerator program — and the network they provide — is being tested in new ways.

So a question remains for participating founders: Are they getting the benefits of what they thought they signed up for?

In the Zoom where it happened

The last thing Michael Vega-Sanz wanted to do was was join another Zoom get-together for entrepreneurs. But the car-sharing company he co-founded with twin brother Matthew was in the middle of a pivot, so they joined NextView Ventures’ inaugural remote accelerator program.

“I envisioned an accelerator with awkward happy hours, mass Zoom calls,” Vega-Sanz said. Fast-forward one month into the program, he says it “has been quite the opposite.”

Before joining NextView’s accelerator, Vega-Sanz did an in-person incubator at Babson College in Boston, but there’s “a lot less fluff” in being virtual, he told TechCrunch.

“[With in-person] the reality was you’d go to lunch, and by the time you drove over there and had all your side talk, small talk, chit-chat and actually got into the nitty-gritty of the event, there was a lot of time loss,” he said. “You could have been working for your company during that time.”

If possible, Vega-Sanz still recommends that first-time founders attend a physical accelerator instead of a virtual one for the energy it brings, even with the downside of useless events.

Just 5 days left: Save up to $300 on passes to Disrupt 2020

Published July 27, 2020

We’re T-minus five and counting, startup fans — counting the days you have left to save up to $300 on passes to Disrupt 2020. The early-bird clock stops ticking on July 31 precisely at 11:59 p.m. PT. Be a savvy saver. Beat the clock, buy your pass and keep that extra cash in your wallet.

Disrupt 2020 runs from September 14-18, giving you five magnificent days to meet attendees from around the world, explore new technologies, discover the latest trends, expand your startup knowledge and connect with the people who can help your business grow.

Let’s talk about two of the main features of Disrupt 2020 — Digital Startup Alley and the Startup Battlefield. Head on over to Digital Startup Alley and discover hundreds of pre-Series A startups — including the TC Top Picks, a cadre of outstanding startups selected by discerning TechCrunch editors — exhibiting their latest tech products, platforms and services. Schedule video meetings to watch product demos, talk with founders and discover opportunities for collaboration, investment or employment.

And CrunchMatch, our AI-powered networking platform, makes it easier than ever to find the people and startups that align with your goals and interests — or for those folks to find you. Fill out a few quick questions and get ready for efficient networking done right.

“The CrunchMatch networking platform, which is basically speed-dating for techies, was very helpful. I scheduled at least 10 short, precise meetings. I learned about startups in stealth mode, what big corporations were up to — things not yet picked up by the press. It was great, and I followed up on three or four of those connections.” — Jens Lehmann, technical lead and product manager, SAP.

Don’t miss the gem of every Disrupt event — the Startup Battlefield pitch competition. Early-stage startups from around the world applied, and only a small cadre met TechCrunch editors’ exacting standards. They’ll have just six minutes to deliver their best pitch and demo to a tough panel of expert judges.

What’s at stake? The coveted Disrupt Cup, massive exposure to global media and investors and — drum roll please — $100,000 in equity-free cash. Who knows, you just might witness future tech giants launching on a world stage.

We haven’t even touched on the dozens of speakers, panel discussions and breakout sessions you can enjoy across the Disrupt stages — and we’re announcing more speakers every week.

Disrupt 2020 takes place on September 14-18. If you want to be a savvy saver, you need to play “beat the clock.” Buy your early-bird pass before July 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT to save up to $300.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Stanford students are short-circuiting VC firms by investing in their peers

Published July 27, 2020

Stanford’s success in spinning out startup founders is a well-known adage in Silicon Valley, with alumni founding companies like Google, Cisco, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and, yes, even TechCrunch. And venture capitalists routinely back more founders coming out of the Stanford business program than any other university in the country.

One group of Stanford graduate students is well-aware of their favorable odds, and think that they should be able to cash in their classmates, too — not just accredited investors and the super-wealthy.

They have put together Stanford 2020, a new fund created entirely by Stanford classmates to invest in their fellow students’ ventures.

The idea was spurred by six students, who after a year of working with Fenwick & West law firm to find a suitable legal structure landed on creating an investment club — multiple parties can invest together as long as they have some form of shared ties.

Steph Mui, a founding member of Stanford 2020 and former venture capital associate at VC firm NEA, formed the club in defiance of the inaccessibility of angel investing, which she described as an elite Silicon Valley status symbol.

“Especially in Silicon Valley where it seems kind of a status symbol and only accredited people can do it, it feels very elite” she said. “We started thinking more about if we can actually make this something that the whole class could participate in, or at least make it more accessible to more than just like these small pockets of people that do it behind closed doors.”

Stanford 2020 club members must put up a minimum of $3,000 to join the investment club, and any eventual returns will be distributed proportionally to the investment each makes. So far, Mui tells TechCrunch that $1.5 million has been raised across 175 investors, with 50 investors willing to give $500,000 on the waitlist. In fact, the club is so “oversubscribed” that it is working to give money back.

Mui estimates that roughly 40% of the class is participating in the club. The founding members are being defined as “board members” who were recruited for passion and for diversity in background, professional interests and past leadership experience.

The group plans to invest $50,000 to $100,000 in startups depending on round size and valuation.

Mui thinks that Stanford 2020’s competitive advantage is largely the personal relationship it has with the companies it will invest in. After all, success might be just an arm’s reach away. Indeed, Cloudflare, Rent the Runway and ThredUp were all born in the same HBS classroom after being assigned a class project, according to Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince.

“We have such strong pre-existing relationships, we know what people are working on way before they even raise,” Mui said.

Anyone who has been part of a club or team knows that loyalty runs deep, but we’ll see if that closeness is enough for a founder to dole out a stake in their company. While Stanford 2020 doesn’t take any management fee or carry, equity isn’t casual; in that vein, a famed Silicon Valley firm might be of better utility than your classmates.

Stanford 2020’s set up sounds similar to StartX, the university’s attempt at investing in its own, leafy backyard, which shut down in 2019. Launched in 2013, StartX offered to invest money in exchange for equity in any startup that went through its auxiliary accelerator and has $500,000 from professional investors.

Looking at Stanford 2020’s set up, the rules are almost exactly the same. Mui tells TechCrunch that startups must fulfill two criteria in order to automatically invest: first, the co-founder must be a member of the class, and second, they must raise a round of $750,000 or more from a reputable institutional investor. They define reputable as a list of 80 investors they got guidance on from advisors in the industry.

The concept of a rule-based automatic investment strategy comes with a big red flag: what if the founder has a bad idea or is a bad person, and still meets the criteria?

“I actually literally can’t think of a single person and I’m like, that person is so bad or so immoral, that we wouldn’t invest in them,” Mui said. “That’s part of the benefit of investing only in your classmates.”

But in case a Stanford-born class does have a problematic founder, Stanford 2020 has a veto voting mechanism.

In the grand scheme of things, Stanford-born startups are in a better spot than most when it comes to securing cash. They don’t desperately need another fund to invest in them. Mui’s ambition for Stanford 2020 is that other schools can copy and paste the legal structure they took a year (and a lot of hard work) to figure out.

She says they’re already getting inbound from incoming Stanford classes, other Stanford Schools and undergraduates. Now that it’s closed, she hopes they hear from other business schools, too.

Submit your pitch deck to Disrupt 2020’s Pitch Deck Teardown

Published July 27, 2020

We’re excited to announce a new event at Disrupt 2020. Called Pitch Deck Teardown, top venture capitalists and entrepreneurs will evaluate and suggest fixes for Disrupt 2020 attendees’ pitch decks.

First impressions are everything, and pitch decks are often the first glimpse of companies by investors and business partners. It’s critical that these decks accurately present and illustrate the company’s goals and potential concisely and effectively.

We’ve enlisted the help of some of the best venture capitalists. During these sessions, VCs will step through each slide, talking about what works, what doesn’t work and what needs to be changed to make the most impact. Along the way, expect to hear valuable insight on how investors evaluate pitch decks and the red flags that can shut down a potential investment.

What’s more, we’re looking for pitch decks to feature in these sessions. We want to showcase real pitch decks from actual companies. Anyone can submit their deck, though we’re looking for decks from early-stage companies. Submit your pitch deck here.

Some guidelines:

When submitting, please use the email you used when you registered for Disrupt 2020
Only pitch decks of registered Disrupt attendees will be selected
Early-stage companies are more likely to be selected for this session
If selected, you’ll be notified and told in which session your deck will be featured

Here are the investors signed up for the Pitch Deck Teardown:

Aileen Lee (Cowboy Ventures)
Charles Hudson (Venture Forward)
Niko Bonatsos (General Catalyst)
Megan Quinn (Spark Capital)
Cyan Banister (Long Journey Ventures)
Roelof Botha (Sequoia)
Susan Lyne (BBG)

Pitch Deck Teardown is part of a much larger event focused on all aspects of building technology companies. For the first time, TechCrunch’s big yearly event, Disrupt, is going fully virtual in 2020, allowing more people to attend and interact with speakers, investors and founders. And Disrupt will stretch over five days — September 14-18 — in order to make it easier for everyone to take in all the amazing programming. Prices increase this Friday, so get your pass now and then submit your pitch deck for invaluable feedback from our panel of VCs.

Why is SAP spinning Qualtrics out via an IPO?

Published July 27, 2020

Over the weekend, software giant SAP announced that it will take Qualtrics public, with the German software company retaining a majority stake in the Utah-based “experience management” firm after its forthcoming debut.

SAP paid $8 billion in cash for Qualtrics back in 2018, right before the smaller firm was set to go public. Chatting with the CEOs of both companies around the time of the deal, they were pretty pumped about the combination. Since then, SAP has swapped CEOs.

The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. You can read it every morning on Extra Crunch, or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.

At the time, the deal not only made waves within the business realm, it also helped put Utah’s startup scene on the map. (An $8 billion deal makes an impact.)

Current commentary on the spin-out idea seems to rotate on the idea of unlocking value: That if SAP can float a good chunk of Qualtrics’ shares, the market may give that equity a good price. Then, the value of Qualtrics that SAP will retain will gain implicit value, perhaps boosting the value of its own shares. Making the point, CNBC quoted analysts from Bernstein Research, which said it believes “many SAP investors do not fully understand Qualtrics,” and that the spin-out might “help at least as it relates to better understanding its value.”

What is Qualtrics worth? If we can understand that, we’ll know if the current commentary regarding the spin-out makes sense. So this morning, let’s remind ourselves how big Qualtrics was heading into its IPO, what it might have been worth, how much it has have grown since and what that might be worth at today’s super-high software valuations.

Did SAP overpay? Did it get a deal? Let’s find out what Qualtrics might look like in 2020.

2018

Before SAP stole it from the public markets, Qualtrics was looking for $18 to $21 per share on the public markets, valuing the company at around $3.9 billion to $4.5 billion. SAP had to pay up for Qualtrics stock, obviously, to get the deal done given how hot the Utah-based firm was at the time.

Qualtrics had growth and profits, two things that combine to create lots and lots of market value. Here are some key Qualtrics numbers from the time:

Five key lessons from founders who launched social impact startups

Published July 27, 2020

Shannon Farley
Contributor

Shannon Farley is co-founder and executive director at Fast Forward, a tech accelerator for social impact startups.

1. Get to know the problem intimately

You have a big idea. You’ve identified a social problem you can’t help but try to fix, and you think you just might have a world-changing, tech-driven solution. But you can’t solve the issue you’ve identified without a deep understanding of the community you’re serving. Not doing so is a recipe for failure. If you haven’t lived the problem, bring on a co-founder who has. Then, go meet others who have firsthand experience with the problem. Interview these individuals with a user-centered lens to allow insights and opportunities to reveal themselves.

To see this in action, consider Upsolve, the TurboTax for chapter 7 bankruptcy, helping low-income Americans recover from crippling financial crises. During their user research phase, the co-founders asked brick and mortar legal aid organizations for their waitlists, and passed out their cards in legal aid clinics where people were seeking help around debt lawsuits. These strategies enabled Upsolve to consider a broad sample of perspectives and develop a deep understanding of the problem from the users’ point of view. Don’t skimp on this — your user research should inspire and inform your initial product idea.

2. Build a tech for good product, but don’t start from scratch

Now, it’s time to put your product idea to the test by piloting a minimum viable product, or MVP — an early version of a product that surfaces learnings about your users with little effort. Your MVP needn’t be a fully fleshed-out product. In Upsolve’s case, it was a physical space where they helped users file for bankruptcy in real life. Run a small-scale pilot of your MVP to confirm, deny or alter your hypothesis. Once you’ve piloted your MVP for enough time that you’re confident you have a viable solution, it’s time to build a beta product.

To build your beta product, or an almost ready-to-launch product, leverage existing tech solutions to address your new use case — don’t start from scratch. For Upsolve, it was a Typeform, an online plug-and-play form. From less technical products like website and communication tools, to more technical ones like app development tools, databases and APIs, piecing together existing tech building blocks will drive your startup costs down and ultimately make it easier to maintain your product. With your solution out in the world, build user feedback into your product as you continue testing, refining and iterating to more closely serve your mission.

3. Learn the art of nonprofit judo

Being a tech nonprofit comes with a pretty unique set of advantages that, when leveraged, are what we like to call nonprofit judo. A critical nonprofit judo tactic is forging aligned partnerships with other organizations, funders and companies to create mutually beneficial relationships that drive sustainability for your tech nonprofit and increase user acquisition.

Take CareerVillage.org, which crowdsources career advice for millions of underserved youth. For the first few years, recruiting volunteers and fundraising each took a lot of the founding team’s time. But a solution arose when they learned that Fortune 500 companies were looking for easy and scalable volunteering programs for their employees. CareerVillage.org built a sustainable “earned income” revenue model centered around volunteering engagements for corporate employees.

This nonprofit judo has become a major driver of the organization’s rapid growth. Win-win.The Tech Nonprofit Playbook digs into more strategic advantages nonprofits can leverage, and shares real-world examples of nonprofit judo. Rather than going into your tech nonprofit journey imagining an uphill battle, turn the scenario around by tapping into the unique opportunities it presents.

4. Your people will make or break your organization

To achieve your mission, find the people who believe in your cause and can help you get there.

Most importantly, find a complementary co-founder early on who is either technical or an issue expert. Co-founders fill in each other’s gaps, distribute the work and build a strong foundation for the team.

Next, focus on hiring talented, mission-driven people (they exist!) who can help you build and scale. This doesn’t mean hiring as many people as possible once you have the funding for it — something CommonLit, the free reading platform for students, learned the hard way. After winning a $4 million grant, founder Michelle Brown raced to hire 15 people in 40 days. After the fact, Brown realized that you cannot hire people as individuals, you must hire a team. The individuals powering your organization will define what it becomes. Choose wisely.

5. Be intentional about how you measure impact

Impact is a tech nonprofit’s true north. Before you can get down to creating impact, you have to figure out your “who” and your “why,” or distribution ethics. Distribution ethics, the framework shared by Josh Nesbit, founder of Medic Mobile, is the concept that deciding who you are going to help and why they need your help over others is an ethical stance — and will impact everything you do as an organization.

When Nesbit first launched Medic Mobile, the organization was implementing healthcare tools in partnership with on-the-ground organizations. In doing so, he was providing tools to local partners who already had human and financial capital. Nesbit realized this framework wasn’t reflective of his moral stance — he wanted to help those with the least access to medical care. This realization helped him refocus the organization and redefine its product vision to serve those most in need. Since then, Medic Mobile has been building open-source tools that enable a decentralized network of community health workers to deliver effective last-mile healthcare. And it has made a huge impact: Last year, Medic Mobile supported a global network of 27,477 health workers, which provided more than 11 million services for their community.

As you grow, be intentional about how you measure your impact. Impact measurement dictates your organization’s architecture by aligning your work with the value you want to create for the world. It’s a critical practice that not only centers your output around your mission, but helps you raise support for your work through funding and partnerships.

Equity Monday: SAP, Qualtrics and oh boy are we excited

Published July 27, 2020

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest big news, chats about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here, and myself here, and don’t forget to check out last Friday’s episode.

Here’s what we talked about today:

Headlines: SAP is spinning out part of Qualtrics, Dave leaked customer data and Asian markets were mixed while the U.S. shared opened green. Cryptos and gold are up at the same time, marking the moment as a melt-up.
The Qualtrics news was the loudest note from the weekend’s jam, coming a few years after SAP bought the Utah-based tech giant. SAP will retain a majority stake even after the debut, but the plan should give Qualtrics more freedom, and SAP a better valuation for the piece of the smaller company that it retains. That’s if the spin-out goes well, of course.
Dave’s leak looks bad, and will test what happens to more nascent fintech properties when they endure this sort of breach.
Looking ahead, this is a huge earnings week. We’ll see results from Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook and others.
And, finally, rounds from StashAway, cargo.one and Blueheart.

Closing, we’re in exciting territory on the public markets given that high share prices are giving big companies more ammunition than ever. Let’s see what they can get done with it before the window closes.

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PT and Friday at 6:00 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

VCs and startups consider HaaS model for consumer devices

Published July 27, 2020

I’ve been following consumer audio electronics company Nura with great interest for a few years now — the Melbourne-based startup was one of the first companies I met with after starting with TechCrunch. At the time, its first prototype was a big mess of circuits and wires — the sort of thing you could never imagine shrunk down into a reasonably sized consumer device.

Nura managed, of course. And the final product looked and sounded great; hell, even the box was nice. If I’m lucky, I see a consumer hardware product once or twice a year that seems reasonably capable of disrupting an industry, and Nura’s custom sound profiles fit that bill. But the company was unique for another reason. A graduate of the HAX accelerator, the startup announced NuraNow roughly this time last year.

Hardware as a service (HaaS) has been a popular concept in the IT/enterprise space for some time, but it’s still fairly uncommon in the consumer category. For one thing: A hardware subscription presents a new paradigm for thinking about purchases. That is a big lift in a country like the U.S., which spent years weaning consumers off contract-based smartphones.

That Nura jumped at the chance shouldn’t be a big surprise. Backers HAX/SOSV have been proponents of the model for some time now. I’ve visited their Shenzhen offices a few times, and the topic of HaaS always seems to come up.

In a recent email exchange, General Partner Duncan Turner described HaaS as “a great way to keep in contact with your customers and up-sell them on new features. Most importantly, for startups, recurring revenue is critical for scaling a business with venture capital (and will help appeal to a broad set of investors). HaaS often has a low churn (as easier to put onto long-term contracts).”

Tire Agent, with a new financing platform, raises $5 million

Published July 27, 2020

Tire Agent, an Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator-backed startup that is looking to bring the tire industry into the 21st century, has today announced the close of a $5 million funding round led by American Family Ventures, with participation from ERA, Sidekick Fund, NY Angels and HBS Angels.

According to Consumer Reports, the average tire costs about $97. Four new tires costs a little less than $400, and that doesn’t include added costs like taxes, fees or installation. Tire Agent wants to make tire shopping more convenient and accessible to customers, while also making the process more affordable.

The startup works with tire brands (more than 50, to be exact) to give users a place to browse tires online. Moreover, Tire Agent layers in educational, easy-to-understand content about these tires to help users understand the difference between brands, models and how get the best value. Tire Agent also helps users find an installer near them and shows the cost of installation upfront, so there are no surprises.

Plaid founder and CEO Zach Perret recently said on an episode of Extra Crunch Live that every company is a fintech company, and Tire Agent seems to agree.

The company has built out a tire financing platform called PayPair that connects customers of any credit score and matches them with a variety of lenders, financing and payment plan companies to give them options on how to cover the cost of new tires.

Tire Agent also has a partnership with AllState to offer warranties to customers, including a warranty on installation, so their investment is protected.

“The biggest challenge for Tire Agent is getting people to change the habit of going to an old-school tire shop and being so used to people pushing a brand on them,” said Tire Agent founder and CEO Jared Kugel. “On Tire Agent, you can read through the content we’ve generated for each tire, even if you know nothing about a tire, and make an educated decision.”

Tire Agent has a network of 500+ tire distribution warehouses with 50 tire brands and 20 wheel brands offered on the platform, with 15,000 partnered installation centers across the country.

Though the company won’t share concrete numbers, Kugel added that revenue and tires sold grew by nearly 300% from the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2020.

This latest round brings Tire Agent’s total funding to $6 million.