Headline

Everyone wants to understand Gen Z, from their spending habits to their work culture needs. Headline investor Zehra Naqvi, creator of The Z List, sat down with Allie Garfinkle at Fortune Brainstorm Tech to discuss what Gen Z wants at work — and in life. Here's why this generation hits different. Read more. ➡️➡️➡️

Building a company has as much to do with thinking on your feet as planning your steps. Shane Hegde, co-founder & CEO of Air, a digital workspace for creative assets, likens the process to his ideology around cooking. “Whether you’re cooking or starting a company, you have to wing it,” he explains. “I’m not following a recipe. You’re going to make a million mistakes, and they don’t matter.” What other lessons has Shane learned as a founder? 🌟 Bring people on your cap table who you can ultimately learn from. 🌟 Acknowledge your founder skill gaps and find creative ways to bring those skills into your business. 🌟 Don’t simply force others to mold to your working style; learn from theirs. 🌟 Every modern company is a media company. It’s important to tell the story of your business. Check out the rest of Shane’s interview with Headline Partner Jett Fein in our Air Founder Spotlight. ➡️➡️➡️

Great news for startups! Helcim is launching integrated payments, which is "the easiest way for developers and software platforms to offer credit card and ACH payment acceptance" for their clients. This offering comes complete with world-class customer service and a built-in revenue-share. Check out more about integrated payments below! https://lnkd.in/gTMdhKp3

Startup funding shows signs of recovery, with valuations rising and $55.6 billion in deal value in Q2 2024 — the highest in eight quarters. But VC headcounts are shrinking, with many leaving the industry. Is it because of AI? Our Christian Leybold doesn't think so, and spoke about it with PitchBook: “Ultimately, our business is about relationships. The best people in VC are the ones who can build trust very fast with entrepreneurs,” he said. “You will get a deal by building trust with an entrepreneur faster than other people do. And for that, you’ll always need people—that is where the value is.” Full article: https://lnkd.in/eJw4ZAn5 (Side note: With this mindset, Headline has never hired as much as in the past months!)

For Daniel Nathan, France-based CEO and co-founder of Homa, his itch to build came from reading inspiring stories of entrepreneurs, like in the early days of TechCrunch when Michael Harrington the publication's sole contributor. For our Founder Spotlight series, Daniel chatted with Jonathan Userovici, Partner at Headline in Paris, about what it's really like being an entrepreneur — and what he'd write a book about one day if he could. (Spoiler alert: Daniel wants to elevate the way people think about life and the impact of peer pressure.) Check out the full interview. ➡️➡️➡️ https://lnkd.in/es_vbqzJ

"Berlin was once the center of Germany's tech scene. But over the years, startup growth has happened around the country. A third wave is now here." Our General Partner Christian Miele (investor in Mistral AI, Numa, Robco, Planradar, Sparetech, and many others) sat down with CNBC for the latest episode of the podcast "Beyond the Valley," whose name closely matches our view that great companies can be built anywhere 🌎 Link to the episode in the comments! #venturecapital #startups

Headline Partner King Goh, CFA is hunting for some ideas in AI. He recently told Fortune Term Sheet writer Allie Garfinkle how he's hoping founders will leverage AI tech to support B2B businesses (especially small businesses) in closing the payment loop with check digitization, invoicing, and CRM software that automatically requests payment, follows up, and reconciles errors. King is also looking for AI-centered businesses that can help small shops truly unlock new vehicles for growth. “Imagine a world where a mom-and-pop manufacturing company uses AI software that knows all the safe but relevant information about their customers—payment reliability, growth potential, industry performance," King said. "Then, this information actions these insights in an automated fashion, so the mom-and-pop business can finally grow?” Read more about what King is looking for where fintech meets AI. ➡️➡️➡️

The One-Person Billion-dollar Company? Defacto, a flexible B2B financing solution, has initiated over half a billion euros in loans in three short years with a lean team of 20 people who leverage AI. Our venture partner and serial fintech founder Michael Kent sat down with Sifted's Tim Smith and Tom Matsuda to dive into some of the most immediate AI & Fintech use cases, like fraud prevention and credit approvals. "AI — as software did before it — is eating the world, and pretty much every industry is trying to work out how to get the most out of the technology. Fintech, which has created some of Europe’s most valuable tech companies to date, is particularly keen to cash in," they write. Here's a recommended read, featuring our Paris-based portfolio company being cooked by co-founders Jordane Giuly, Morgan O'hana, and Marc-Henri Gires: https://lnkd.in/ehrURVKN

Building a startup is challenging, which is something Victoria Li and Andrew Riesen learned quickly as founders of Heard, an all-in-one financial platform to support therapists. In a recent discussion with Headline, the co-founders detailed how they invested deeply in themselves early on in their business journey. What does it mean to invest in yourself? Finding outlets and support systems to help you maintain balance, like: 💼Executive coaches 🏃♀️Fitness coaches 💛Therapists and counselors ⚽Hobbies and sports 👩❤️👨Time with friends and family 🌿Nature ➕ …whatever brings you joy and helps you separate from your endless founder to-do list. “If I had words of advice [to founders], it’s find something outside of the startup that you can hold onto,” Victoria said. Learn more about Victoria and Andrew’s journey with mental health here:

Headline Vice President Matthew Brown and Investor Georgina McMillan had so much fun bringing together our #consumer scouts, operators & friends for dinner in LA! 🌴Thank you to all who joined us. Next stop in the series: NYC! 🍎 Reach out to Matthew Brown if you'd like to join future Headline consumer friends dinners across the US.