Hunter Rosenblume

#Restaurant prices are rising due to rising food and labor costs, and a whopping 80% of consumers say they're eating out less due to rising prices. 📈 𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭? These apps and websites will save you money every time you eat out... 1. Groupon: Discounts and BOGO's at select restaurants. 2. Too Good To Go: App gives discounts on surplus food at reduced prices. 3. Feedplan: Discounts at restaurants you already love. 4. Honey: Discounts via app and browser extension. 5. Dining Advantage: Discounts and BOGO's at local restaurants. 6. Restaurant.com: Deals at local restaurants 7. LivingSocial: Discounts at local restaurants 8. Entertainment Coupon Book: More discounts at local restaurants Dušan Šenkypl Brice Gumpel Mette Lykke Win Feigle Alex Chriss Ketan Thakker

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When you're scaling a DTC brand from $5m to $30m, don't try to optimize for lowest cost of capital when you raise debt financing... The lenders out there who can offer the lowest cost of capital usually can't offer the capital flexibility and deal terms that you need as you scale. Low cost of capital lenders don't love DTC. It scares them because there is little to no A/R and inventory is a riskier collateral base. As such, they'll either offer you way too little capital availability or their offer will come with hefty protective provisions that feel punitive. Non-bank lenders tend to be the best fit for a DTC-heavy brand that is scaling profitability beyond $5m in annual sales. Traditional bank lenders, which offer lower cost of capital, tend to become a better option after you hit $30m+ in annual sales. Obviously, there are always exceptions to this rule, but the advice I'm offering here turns out to be true most of the time in my experience. __ Want more tips like this? Consider reposting or giving me Jon Blair a follow.

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About to go live... Startup Studio portfolio VC fund. $8.5 mil. with room to oversubscribe. All deals warehoused and ready to allocate. Built in equity on day 1. Low 1 time management fee. $35k minimum investment. 506c so accredited investors only. GP's are personally invested. Multi tiered exit strategy in place. Liquidity options available at year 2. *** This presentation of Sidecar Portfolio Fund (the “Company”) is for information only and shall not constitute an offer to buy, sell, issue or subscribe for, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or issue, or subscribe for any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.***

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What's (arguably) the most important thing when choosing your restaurant tech stack? Simplicity. Running a restaurant is like a daily battle, the last thing operators need is navigating complex dashboards or struggling to understand data charts. That's why when we designed Tattle, we prioritized restaurant operators' perspectives—from executives all the way to franchisees and GMs—so that we can offer the most intuitive, easy-to-use dashboard with zero training required. Michael Schatten at Carrot Express explained it really well in this clip. With his decades of experience, he knew that internal adoption of any new technology is going to be key—and he absolutely made the right choice. You can check out our full interview with Mike in the comments below! #restaurants #restauranttech #restaurantoperations #cx

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Big rounds are back. VC Funding is flowing. In April, there were 28 fundraising rounds announced with >$10M in funding. We've seen private market (pre-launch) deals valued >$3B recently. Private Markets are hot. Public Market comps (FDVs) are hot. But who will buy our multi-billion dollar bags? Deal Flow Digest April w/: - Recap of largest web3 funding rounds - Airtable with ALL the data - Hackathons & Demo Days - VC Fundraises Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g7V4KrAj

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We're teaming up with some amazing speakers for Chicago's free networking/panel event on May 15th: This time, we're going beyond founders, giving you access to investors, VCs, and industry experts. This is your chance to pick their brains, uncover insider tips, and make some quality connections. Roland Siebelink: Roland, founder & CEO of Midstage Institute, brings over 30 years of startup experience, having coached 2 unicorns and achieved 3 successful exits. As a certified Scaling Up facilitator and Forbes Coaches Council member, he specializes in helping early-stage startups grow into unicorn after the first product-market-fit. Roland, has been featured on prestigious podcasts like The Product Startup and Founders Space. Paulo J Machado: Paulo, Founder and CEO of Health Innovation Inc., is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor, with a keen focus on improving care and outcomes in healthcare, startups, Agetech, Femtech, and AI. Having invested in over 40 companies at What If Ventures, he brings a wealth of experience to the table. Paulo has also served as a mentor at esteemed programs like AARP, SXSW accelerator, and Techstars Austin, among others. Ibraheem Alinur: Ibraheem is a serial entrepreneur and venture fund/studio builder in biotechnology and digital health. As Vice President of 2Flo Ventures, he builds businesses and facilitates the bi-directional flow of resources to improve the health of communities. Ibraheem’s work has been featured in publications like the Obama Foundation and Forbes. At TheTechGiveBack's last event in SF, some of you said that there wasn't enough time to network with the panelists. So this time, we're limiting registration spots to make sure you get ample time to network and learn from our speakers. Make sure to grab your spot before spots fill up. 👇 Don't miss out—RSVP now, it's 100% free 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gRrkarhd 🗓️ May 15th, Wednesday 6PM to 9PM 🕴 Hosts: Jairo Garcia, Ricardo Olmos, Brian Lung Special thanks to: mHUB | Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation | The Garage at Northwestern University | BlackRock #startup #entrepreneurship #founders #chicago #firesidechats

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Alternative Resources for founders, geared for startups with generous free tiers: 1) Papermark - Docsend alternative. 2) Tally - Typeform alternative. 3) Cal.com, Inc. - Calendly alternative. 4) Supabase - Firebase Alternative. 5) Sender.net - Mailchimp Alternative. What else are people using and loving in the founders stack?

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Despite the headwinds many software companies (even public ones) are facing today, there are still those that are delivering great results. Check out how the top decile companies in our Beyond Benchmarks survey are performing. And don't forget to review the full report for many more insights on the state of private software businesses.

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If you like making more money DTC- this post is for you: This one simple tool is going to save Toto tens of thousands (if not more!!) money as we continue to grow and scale DTC, and it feels unfair to gatekeep. Here’s how: First - some context; Affiliate marketing fraud is… expensive. Like, over $1.4 billion annually kind of expensive. And if you have any sizable biz online, chances are you’re probably affected too. You know those coupon sites like Honey? Those are enemy #1- and that's where your affiliate codes are getting leaked. These leaks used to cost me thousands in overpaid commission and discounts before I even notice a leak occurred. To prevent this and make sure we’re saving every dollar we can, we started replacing our influencer’s static coupon codes with Safelinks from Social Snowball ☃️. This allows affiliates to share a discount to their audience WITHOUT the risk of a code leaking to a coupon site. Here’s the gist: 1. Affiliates share a link to their audience instead of a static code 2. Every shopper who clicks on the link has a unique single use code generated for them instantly to use while they're shopping. 3. If any of the codes leak to a coupon site, they won’t work because they’re all single use. :) If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard of this before, yeah- that’s exactly what I was thinking too when I discovered this. All I have to say is two words— Life hack. If you want an intro to their team- they’re absolutely amazing, and I think this has the potential to bring so much value to you too. Brick by brick! #entrepreneurship #leadership #dtc

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It was a real honor to interview Brad Burnham co-founder of Union Square Ventures and partner Placeholder on the history of hype cycles in technology and the value they bring to capital and market formation. Brad has had tremendous success across decades investing at the frontier - when it was the frontier/ before it was obvious. Crypto is still the underdog and his views on the opportunity and its nuances are prescient. Specifically it is both a technical and financial innovation which can lead to excess volatility and a unique muscle as it relates to being a venture manager. But the returns are real. And the innovation is real despite some of the the common narratives. No one debates the breakthrough applications in AI at M13 we have been very active. It is also very clear that incumbents have massive data and distribution advantages which can make it challenging to find the right pockets to invest. AI is on its own hype cycle and as always the best teams (typically with contrarian takes) win. Very exciting times to be a venture investor.

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Instacart is now expanding into restaurant takeout thanks to a new partnership with Uber! “Consumers will see the same restaurant menu prices on Instacart that they do on Uber Eats, and couriers will be paid the same way they would be for orders directly from Uber Eats,” Uber says the motivation behind these is to drive more orders to Uber Eats restaurant partners while Instacart gets to add new businesses to its delivery platform without having to build it from the ground up. Read More Here: https://bit.ly/3JS3yAX #Restaurants #Hospitality #Technology #Business #Innovation #AI #investing #venturecapital Branded Hospitality Ventures Matthew O'Hearn Courtney Berman Jinwoo Song Ahmed Beshry Josh Rider Chris Rogers Nick Giovanni

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The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick

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Spicy Mustard VS Special sauce. Tech companies often want to create a new category because their products feel unique. However, positioning experts advises against this. "You should almost always anchor your product to an existing category," they say. Pitfalls of creating a new category: 1. No existing demand to tap into. 2. Low product understanding. 3. Mixed buyer profiles. The takeaway: Disrupt an existing category instead. For more, check out Growth Unhinged (https://lnkd.in/evxjWjfv) Subscribe to ‘Siliconnector’ Telegram channel for insights and news from Tech world and Silicon Valley: https://t.me/siliconnector

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2,725 venture firms disappeared over the last two years. To be better than average, you need to be different than average. To make money, you need be right when others are wrong. The same applies to choosing fund managers, and understanding the fund models you’re investing in. Inception funds and pre-seed institutions are a different product for allocators than early stage VC funds. Different underlying math. Different nuances to understand. https://lnkd.in/eu5j4Dr4 #venturecapital #vc #familyofffice #fundoffunds Antler

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Ibotta, Inc., a platform that helps CPG brands deliver promotions to millions of consumers went public today, and you probably didn't hear about it. My guess as to why? It hasn't raised money from any big-name VC firms with big marketing teams. Ibotta was started 12 years ago after Bryan Leach saw someone take a photo of a receipt for an expense report and realized there were tons of interesting data contained in that picture that was going to waste. Fast forward 13 years and Ibotta is a profitable, fast-growing business helping over 2,400 of the most notable brands like Kraft Heinz, General Mills, and Unilever. They touch over 91% of US households... Ibotta offers shoppers cash-back on in-store purchases funded by its advertisers, while also collecting all sorts of valuable data like cart makeup and much much more. They've paid out over $1.8B to consumers over the course of the company Quick 2023 Numbers: Revenue: $320M (+52%) Gross Margin: 86% (best in class despite not being traditional "SaaS") Net Income Margin: 12% (a quick turn around from a $50m loss in 2022) Adjusted EBIDTA Margin: 26% In 2022, they inked a MASSIVE partnership with Walmart that made up for a huge amount of 2023 growth via 3rd Party revenue. As a part of that deal, Walmart also owns a significant amount of the company There are some fun case studies in the S1 showing off some hot up-and-coming brands as well including poppi and Chomps. When you dig deeper, one of the more concerning parts of the business is the revenue concentration inside of Walmart, but with their significant ownership %, it's unlikely they go anywhere. Seed investors paid $0.74.share and it's going public at $88/share so that's a pretty good day at the office. Excited to see how this trades!

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Machine Learning is revolutionizing Venture Capital in ways that may not be widely recognized yet. In the past, building billion-dollar companies required hefty investments upwards of $200M, typically at a late-stage growth round. However, today, small teams of 4-6 individuals with a few contractors are achieving multi-billion dollar valuations right now. Today. The ability to leverage Machine Learning for tasks such as source code development, architecture building, lead generation, marketing content creation, and customer support is enabling these lean teams to operate capitaly efficient. This trend is expected to keep company sizes small throughout their growth trajectory. As AI and ML technologies continue to empower entrepreneurs, the barriers to entry in the startup space are significantly decreasing. This shift is likely to drive a surge in the number of startups, with projections indicating that 90% of companies in the near future will emerge from the startup ecosystem. Exciting times lie ahead for the startup landscape as technology reshapes the entrepreneurial journey.

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The practical application of AI to help manufacturers eliminate unplanned downtime is key to our current and future offering. We do not label ourselves as purely an AI company, as that is one component of our value delivery, but I can say we have a world class team of AI Engineers building incredible tech alongside a team of world class Condition Monitoring Engineers. I am bullish and excited to see how Central Ohio emerges as a global AI hub with Intel as an anchor. cc: Brian Graham, Seyed Mohammad Parvasi, Ph.D., Jaidev Krishnan, Matt Longhouse, Chris Berry

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What makes some founders so successful? Here are the Top 3 Indy Tech Entrepreneurs (and their superpowers): — Kicking off at number 3, we have Scott Jones. Scott is the mastermind behind Boston Technology, the company that revolutionized voicemail. They cashed out in 1997 for a cool $845.2 million. As the founding CEO at Gracenote, Scott assembled the team and key technologies to dominate the music identification and discovery space, which Sony bought in 2008 for $260 million. Superpower: He has a reality distortion field and vision that makes the impossible seem inevitable. — Sliding into number 2 is Angie Hicks. She's the co-founder of Angie’s List, which we all know as Angi today. Founded in 1995, the business went public on Nasdaq in 2011. By 2017, the private equity folks behind HomeAdvisor, acquired the company, which kicked off a major rebrand. That deal pegged Angie’s List at over $500 million. Angie’s Superpowers: Marketing and customer service, which helped create a trusted brand that millions rely on. — And at the top spot, number 1 is Scott Dorsey. Scott co-founded ExactTarget in 2000, and by 2006, they grew to over $30 million in revenues. They didn't stop there – they acquired several companies and went public in 2012, raising $161.5 million. Just a year later, Salesforce swooped in and acquired them for a jaw-dropping $2.5 billion. Scott’s superpower: He has a serious knack for business strategy, which helped steer ExactTarget to achieve remarkable growth. — All of these founders also had awesome co-founders and leaders with amazing skills of their own. Give me a follow (Matt Hunckler) if you want to hear some crazy stories about my personal experience working with these 3 founders as well as entrepreneurs around the world. Who is your favorite founder of all time?

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