Through the Extra Crunch EC-1 on Patreon, I dove into Patreon’s founding story, product roadmap, business model and metrics, underlying thesis, and competitive threats. The six-year-old company last valued around $450 million and likely to soon hit $1 billion is the leading platform for artists to run membership businesses for their superfans. As a conclusion […]
View More Patreon’s future and potential exitsCategory: Endeavor
What’s next for podcasting?
The podcast market will discover the answer to a foundational question about its future in the next few years. Will it continue along the path of music streaming, where all podcasts are available everywhere on free, ad-supported tiers? Or, will it follow the path of streaming TV into paid subscription services with exclusive content? Today, effectively […]
View More What’s next for podcasting?Unifonic, dubbed the Twilio of emerging markets, closes $21M Series A round
Those of you familiar with the incredible rise of Twilio, which came along to utterly disrupt the communications world, will be interested to hear that another player plans to do the same, but this time in the staid and tricky area of emerging markets. Unifonic, which has been dubbed “the Twilio of emerging markets” has […]
View More Unifonic, dubbed the Twilio of emerging markets, closes $21M Series A roundSoftBank leads $35M investment in sports engagement startup Heed
Heed, a startup looking to create new ways for sports leagues and clubs to engage with fans, is announcing that it has raised $35 million led by SoftBank Group International. As laid out for me by CEO Danna Rabin, the company sits at the intersection of sports and IoT — which makes sense, since it was […]
View More SoftBank leads $35M investment in sports engagement startup HeedLive streams of karate and niche sports are terrifying major sports leagues
Of the 100 most-watched live telecasts in the US in 2005, 14 were sporting events; in 2015, sporting events comprised 93 of the top 100 telecasts. That shift occurred because TV shows are shifting to online or on-demand viewing, and live broadcasts of the biggest sports are the main thing TV networks have left to […]
View More Live streams of karate and niche sports are terrifying major sports leaguesSome of the top female founders in the U.S. are backing the latest Female Founders Fund
Roughly five years after the launch of its first fund in 2013, Female Founders Fund (F3) has closed on $27 million for its latest seed fund — backed by some of the startup world’s top women entrepreneurs and investors. Backed by a clutch of seriously impressive names in the startup and tech community, entrepreneurs financed by F3’s latest […]
View More Some of the top female founders in the U.S. are backing the latest Female Founders FundWith $250 million, Peter Diamandis’ new startup is all about taking stem cells from placentas
Stem cells derived from a human placenta hold the key to unlocking a myriad of potentials in regenerative medicine and are the focus of X-Prize and Singularity University founder Peter Diamandis’ new endeavor. Called Celularity, the startup is a spinout from Celgene, a global biopharmaceutical company creating gene therapies. Diamandis teamed up with Dr. Robert Hariri, the founder of… Read More