Enterprise Weekly #438: Demo Day Debates, VC Seed Model Comparisons, and More
Enterprise Weekly #438: Demo Day Debates, VC Seed Model Comparisons, and More
It’s YC Demo Day Week.
It’s no secret that YC’s lofty valuations have stirred up some controversy in the past few years. With many investors vocal against such raises, YC partners, including founder Paul Graham, generally stand by them - their rationale rooted in the incentives of their fund model, which bets on a few breakout companies generating extraordinary returns.
While we’ve previously discussed valuation issues (here, here and here to name a few), yesterday Jon Lehr published a TechCrunch article with the goal to better educate founders on the biases and incentives of various Seed investor archetypes.
The TL;DR: Too many YC founders are raising $2M on $20M cap SAFEs too early in their startups’ journeys. As long-time Seed investors at Work-Bench, we've seen many founders make fundraising decisions without realizing the long-term impacts on their companies. Pricing too high at such an early stage is rife with issues that can plague the company’s growth and ability to raise a Series A if it doesn’t operate to perfection. Not to mention, many of these investor models who would participate in such raises don’t provide hands-on support or resources when their companies hit natural challenges in scaling. So, our advice…trade an incremental amount of dilution for the opportunity to work with a concentrated Seed specialist who can provide a hands-on support model to help accelerate finding product market fit and amplify early growth efforts.
Check out the full TechCrunch article and let us know what you think.
You can also read more of Jon’s thoughts on “realigning funding rounds” in a recent WSJ interview.
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Company: Courier Health
Role: Software Engineer
Technology: Patient Engagement Platform
Funding: $4M from Work-Bench
🌟Company of the Week🌟
SaaSGrid raises $3.3M led by Craft Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • New York, NY
Founders: Ethan Ruby (CEO), David Sacks, Teddy Ruby (Head of Eng)
MessageDesk raises $1.6M led by Reno Seed Fund
Future of Work • Seed • Reno, NV
Weekday raises $2.2M led by Venture Highway
HR Tech • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Lex raises $2.8M led by True Ventures
Future of Work • Seed • Los Angeles, CA
Metabase Q raises $3M led by SYN Ventures
Risk / Security • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Numeral raises $3M led by Bienville Capital
Future of Work • Seed • San Francisco, CA
ScribeUp raises $3M led by Mucker Capital
Future of Work • Seed • Cambridge, MA
Automat raises $3.8M led by Initialized
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Enzai raises $4M led by Cavalry Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Belfast, UK
TeamSense raises $4M led by Bonfire Ventures
HR Tech • Seed • Mukilteo, WA
Pynt raises $6M led by Joule Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Confirm raises $6.2M led by Spero Ventures
HR Tech • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Translucent raises $6.3M led by Chalfen Ventures and LocalGlobe
Future of Work • Seed • London, UK
Panobi raises $5M led by Index Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Modyfi raises $7M led by New Enterprise Associates
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • Los Angeles, CA
Qase raises $7.2M led by Chrome Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tool • Series A • Austin, TX
Massdriver raises $8M led by Builders VC
Infrastructure / Dev Tool • Venture • Littleton, CO
Strise raises $10.8M led by Atomico
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Oslo, Norway
Teale raises $10.8M led by Alter Equity, ISAI, and Bpifrance
HR Tech • Seed • Paris, France
Atomicwork raises $11M led by Blume Ventures and Matrix Partners
HR Tech • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Cypago raises $13M led by Entrée Capital, Axon Ventures and Jump Capital
Risk / Security • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Cerby raises $17M led by Two Sigma Ventures
Risk / Security • Series A • Alameda, CA
Beamer raises $20M led by Camber Partners
Sales / Marketing • Venture • Boulder, CO
Ikagai Labs raises $25M led by Premji Invest
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Hyperproof raises $40M led by Riverwood Capital
Risk / Security • Venture • Bellevue, WA
Grip Security raises $41M led by Third Point Ventures
Risk / Security • Series B • Boston, MA
Rockset raises $44M led by Icon Ventures
Data / AI / Data Machine Learning • Series B • San Mateo, CA
ThetaRay raises $57M led by Portage
Risk / Security • Venture • Tel Aviv, Israel
Elemental Cognition raises $60M led by Breyer Capital and Bridgewater Associates
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Venture • New York, NY
Mediafly raises $80M led by BIP Ventures
Future of Work • Venture • Chicago, IL
Apollo.io raises $100M led by Bain Capital Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series D • San Francisco, CA
D-Matrix raises $110M led by Temasek
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • Santa Clara, CA
Hugging Face raises $235M led by Salesforce Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series D • New York, NY