Enterprise Weekly #423: Cloud's Slowing Growth, Pitching a CIO, and More
It’s been a busy week, and our teammate Kelley Mak just returned from RSA where he caught up with CISOs and startup founders at the annual security conference. Check out his top takeaways 👇
On another note, the Big 3 cloud providers announced earnings this week - read specifics on Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon’s performance.
All three beat analyst expectations with Microsoft reporting the strongest cloud revenue, gaining a bit of market share from Amazon. However, growth across the board is decelerating. Amazon has been aggressively slashing costs to mitigate slowing sales in cloud computing and online sales divisions. As part of that, Amazon laid off 9,000 employees primarily in its cloud and HR departments this week. This brings their total layoffs to 27,000 employees, the largest job cuts in its 29-year history.
Even in these challenging markets, research says companies are still spending on software. According to Spencer Kimball, CEO of our portfolio company Cockroach Labs, “Five years ago companies weren’t interested in the public cloud. They sunk costs into data centers that lacked security and reliability. Now cloud is at a tipping point.”
While there’s no magic formula for an effective sales pitch, there are some specific questions, conversations, and metrics founders should build a narrative around to break through the noise when pitching a CIO. Join our next Sales Masterclass webinar on Tuesday, May 2nd with 7x CIO Mark Settle to learn how to efficiently define value and close the deal.
💃 ICYM our Womenterprise Summit:
On Wednesday, we returned with our iconic Womenterprise Summit - the only conference exclusively dedicated to celebrating women in enterprise software!
With over 250 female founders, operators, executives, and investors from pre- and post-IPO companies, fast-growth startups, and Fortune 500 companies, the impact of the event has already extended far beyond the Summit walls with such overwhelmingly positive feedback. Plus, see our own recap here.
📚 Read more news:
Axios: Cybereason Cuts Valuation By More Than 90%, Loses Unicorn Status
Deloitte: VC Human Capital Survey
TechCrunch: Chief, A Professional Network for Women Leaders, Cuts Staff Amid Restructuring Effort
TechCrunch: Dropbox Lays Off 500 Employees, 16% of Staff, CEO Says Due to Slowing Growth and 'The Era of AI'
NYTimes: What to Watch as the Fed Releases Its Look Into Silicon Valley Bank
WSJ: First Republic Lost $100 Billion in Deposits in Banking Panic
WSJ: How to Psych Out Your Adversary, According to ‘Succession’
Company: FireHydrant
Role: Engineering Manager
Technology: Site Reliability & Incident Management Platform
Funding: $32.5M from Work-Bench, Menlo Ventures, Harmony Partners, Salesforce Ventures
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Operant raises $3M led by Felicis
Risk / Security • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Founders: Vrajesh Bhavsar (CEO), Priyanka Tembey (CTO)
WunderGraph raises $3M led by Aspenwood Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Miami, FL
IDPartner Systems raises $3.1M led by Abstract Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Stack Identity raises $4M led by WestWave Capital and Benhamou Global Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Menlo Park, CA
Openlayer raises $4.8M led by Quiet Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
AaDya Security raises $5M led by Left Lane Capital
Risk / Security • Series A • Detroit, MI
Kluster raises $5M led by Foresight Group
Future of Work • Series A • London, UK
Sonet.io raises $6M led by The Hive and WestWave Capital
HR Tech • Seed • San Jose, CA
AirOps raises $7M led by WingVC
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Miami, FL
Riscosity raises $7M led by S3 Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Austin, TX
NetRise raises $8M led by Squadra Ventures
Risk / Security • Venture • Austin, TX
Ctrl raises $8.8M led by LocalGlobe and Earlybird
Sales / Marketing • Seed • London, UK
Quickpass Cybersecurity raises $12M led by Arthur Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • North Vancouver, Canada
Relay raises $13M led by Sovereign’s Capital
Future of Work • Series A • Raleigh, N.C
M3ter raises $14M led by Notion Capital
Future of Work • Series A • London, UK
Levitate raises $14M led by Bull City Venture Partners
Future of Work • Series C • Raleigh, N.C.
Bobsled raises $17M led by Greycroft and Madrona Venture Group
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • Los Angeles, CA
Riverlane raises $18.7M led by Molten Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • Cambridge, UK
Katmai raises $22M led by Starr Insurance Cos.
Future of Work • Series A • New York, NY
Replit raises $97.4M led by Andreessen Horowitz
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Pinecone raises $100M led by Andreessen Horowitz
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • San Mateo, CA