Thursdays at Abnormal Returns are all about startup and venture capital links. You can check out last week’s links including a look at how the launch of Andreessen Horowitz ten years ago changed venture.
Quote of the Day
"If Michael Milken was 25 today — he’d be creating a bond market for unicorn companies."
(Ali Hamed)
Softbank
- Softbank wants to build closer ties between its portfolio companies. (ft.com)
- Softbank's Vision Fund just made its first energy-related investment in Energy Vault. (finance.yahoo.com)
Fintech
- Neo-banks are raising a lot of venture capital. (news.crunchbase.com)
- Flyhome seeks to streamline the home-buying process for its clients as an alternative to the traditional realtor model (fortune.com)
Companies
- Matt Mullenweg on what's next for Tumblr. (theverge.com)
- Some more WeWork numbers from the S-1. (news.crunchbase.com)
- Some people are questioning the data used by disaster response app maker One Concern. (nytimes.com)
The Midwest
- Four key trends impacting the Midwest venture capital space. (medium.com)
- Chicago's Loop is becoming a hot destination for startups. (chicagobusiness.com)
Funding
- What areas of seed finance are hot (and cold). (tomtunguz.com)
- It's not surprising that angel investors get treated like second-class citizens by those higher up on the cap table. (pointsandfigures.com)
Startups
- Is Unicorn status still worth the hype? (npr.org)
- Startups need to hire people with the proper risk tolerances. (avc.com)
- Why 'bridge rounds' are tricky for founders and investors alike. (pointsandfigures.com)
- Five lessons learned from selling a startup. (hbr.org)
- Why DTC startups are drawn to related services. (modernretail.co)
- Tyler Cowen, "Wearing clothes is something almost all of us do every day, for almost the whole day. The great stagnation in clothing needs to end." (finance.yahoo.com)