Thursdays at Abnormal Returns are all about startup and venture capital links. You can check out last week’s links including a look at why Chicago is so hospitable to B2B startups.
Quote of the Day
"I believe one of our greatest assets to our portfolio companies is to be an early warning sign of trouble."
(Fred Wilson)
Companies
- Patreon just raised money at a $450 million valuation. (techcrunch.com)
- Slack just got a big investment from the Softbank Vision Fund. (ft.com)
- Breakout Labs wants to back companies that are "lab science aided by computing power." (fortune.com)
- Labdoor wants to sell supplements that have been thoroughly tested. (qz.com)
- Loftium will help you buy a place as long as you rent out space on Airbnb. (nytimes.com)
Burn rates
- Some rules of thumb on burn rates. (avc.com)
- Why CFOs get 'finance guilt' and how to combat it. (medium.com)
Venture capital
- Semil Shah, "It is easy to get a company or fund off the ground these days, but eventually, the belief in inputs shifts to a demand for outputs." (blog.semilshah.com)
- Chamath Palihapitiya of Social Capital wants to single-handedly fix the IPO process. (wired.com)
- The comprehensive case for investing more money in female-led startups. (hbr.org)
- What the founder of Pebble learned about building hardware. (techcrunch.com)
- Your new e-commerce brand will likely fail. (collaborativefund.com)
- A Q&A with Brad Feld of Foundry Group. (alleywatch.com)
- Mike Collett, "Life is just too short to work with jerks." (medium.com)
