Early-stage founders still have currency: Fundraising in times of greater VC scrutiny

There’s no question about it: The market going into 2023 isn’t going to be what it was when 2021 ended, when growth at all costs sometimes trumped common sense.

But the market isn’t as “down” as it may seem. There’s plenty of money to be invested, and founders who have the right mix of purpose, business model and traction need to remember that opportunities for funding can still be found.

Sky-high valuations and questionable investments in 2021 have brought investors back to Earth and prompted more thorough analysis of investment opportunities. This return to discipline, demonstrated by a more tempered and stabilized volume of investor weekly pitch deck interactions, isn’t a big surprise. The pace in 2021 was unsustainable and there was bound to be a slowdown in the funds invested. However, it’s not because there is no money left.

As of September, there was around $290 billion in “dry powder” floating around — enough to fuel startup investments for the next four years — but founders are finding it harder to raise money than they have in many years. Instead of demanding growth at all costs, VCs are taking a deep breath and erring on the side of patience.

Unlike in 2021, unsuccessful early-stage decks today aren’t getting as much investor time as successful decks.

Founders may be discouraged in this environment, but they need to remember that they have “currency,” too. Founders should do their own due diligence by identifying investors who best suit their needs and focus on their core strengths and value propositions.

Due diligence isn’t only for investors

Founders should always be eager to set up meetings with investors, but they should aim to reach out to a variety of investors, too.

Much as a product is dependent on its market, a founder is dependent on their investors. Not all investor meetings are equal, so founders need to research their potential investors thoroughly.

DocSend’s recent pre-seed report found that the average number of investors contacted dropped from 69 to 60 in 2022, but the average number of meetings scheduled increased from 39 to 52. This could be a sign that early-stage founders are starting to practice due diligence on their end as well, vetting investors and bringing different expectations to every meeting.

Early-stage founders still have currency: Fundraising in times of greater VC scrutiny by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

As Dropbox heads into earnings, it desperately needs a win

Consumer and business file storage and sharing service Dropbox will report its first-quarter earnings tomorrow, and for the former unicorn and present-day public company, the stakes appear quite high.

Dropbox is coming off a year of growth stuck in the low teens, with growth forecasted to prove even slower growth in 2022.

The performance Dropbox reports Thursday could bolster the company’s growth narrative, boost its guidance for the year, encourage its share price, and assuage investors. Alternatively, the opposite is possible; if Dropbox reports earnings that disappoint the investing community, the company could see its share price fall further.

The company has a 52-week high of $33 per share. The stock was down over 2% this morning at $21.30, but up from the 52-week low of $19.90. Dropbox has a market cap of just over $8 billion.

That kind of performance, with falling valuation, decelerating growth, and a stagnant share price, is bait for takeover deals, meaning that Dropbox’s ability to rip cash out of its operating business could help make it an enticing target for a hostile acquisition.

The idea is not mere theorizing; erstwhile Dropbox competitor Box recently tangled with investors about its leadership, and Zendesk’s performance put it at odds with external investors, forcing the customer support company to fend off a takeover offer.

With tech valuations far from recent historical highs, Dropbox could find itself in the crosshairs of private equity firms, and a poor earnings report could kick off unwelcome dealmaking. Let’s talk about the company’s recent and expected results, how vulnerable it may be, and, finally, who might want to buy it (if it comes to that).

Looking for sustainable growth

In the fourth quarter of 2021, Dropbox reported revenues of $565.5 million, up 12.2% from the year-ago period. For the full year, Dropbox did even better, posting 12.7% growth as it reached some $2.158 billion in revenue for the year.

Fast growth? No. Solid? Sure. But when Dropbox looked ahead in its guidance during its final earnings call concerning 2021, the company’s expectations for this year were less encouraging. For 2022, Dropbox anticipates $2.32 billion to $2.33 billion in total revenue, figures that work out to growth of 7.51% to 7.97%, which, to be blunt, is not great.

Single-digit growth is not a place that any public company wants to hang around in — unless it has a fat dividend and is content to keep costs low. Dropbox is not such a company.

It is worth noting that Dropbox’s Q1 guidance of $557 million to $560 million worth of revenue brackets current analyst expectations, according to Yahoo Finance data. At the same time, we wonder whether investors would be enthused if Dropbox posted in-line revenue of $558.95 million.

What would a narrative-changing result be for Dropbox? In our view, to shake the malaise, a beat on revenue in Q1 and at least some modicum of guidance expansion for the year. Else, we could be looking to start a countdown clock.

Could buyers begin circling?

There are a few places where Dropbox could find a new home. The most obvious is private equity — selling the company to a financial entity. Such deals tend to target slower-growing, cash-generating entities that could support a heavy debt load and perhaps have a shot at lower costs, or even accelerated growth.

TechCrunch+ roundup: Credit Karma post-exit, recruiting developers, re:Invent recap

The same day in February 2020 that Credit Karma planned to announce that it had been acquired by Intuit for more than $7 billion, the stock market tanked, spooked by news that a novel virus had the potential to start a pandemic.

“I’m up at 5 o’clock in the morning, the Dow is flashing red … and we’re all like, ‘Are we going to do this?’” said Credit Karma CEO Ken Lin.

That deal eventually closed in December 2020, but in the intervening months, the U.S. Department of Justice forced the company to divest its tax business, and credit markets tightened considerably.


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Fintech reporter Ryan Lawler interviewed Lin, Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi, Credit Karma’s chief people officer Colleen McCreary and other executives to learn about how they weathered COVID-19 and divestment while simultaneously crafting a new management structure.

“What had been a very profitable business for a very long time is all of a sudden very unprofitable, because you can’t pivot on a dime,” said Lin. “We had a lot of decisions to make.”

Thanks very much for reading,

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

Samsara could become a decacorn in upcoming IoT-themed IPO

Initially founded to create wireless sensors, IoT platform company Samsara reached a $3.6 billion valuation in 2018, but its latest S-1/A filing could boost that “from $10.1 billion to $11.6 billion,” reports Alex Wilhelm in today’s edition of The Exchange.

Two weeks ago, he delved into the company’s inner workings, but “today, we’re more interested in the resulting numbers, not how they were achieved.”

AWS re:Invent 2021 was more incremental than innovative

AWS re:Invent 2021

Image Credits: Amazon

We’re used to Amazon making news: it’s the world’s third-largest company, and its founder is planning to build his own private space station.

But at last week’s re:Invent, the annual conference for AWS customers, “it felt more like Amazon was checking boxes and filling in holes in the product road map,” writes enterprise reporter Ron Miller.

After going virtual in 2020, this year’s in-person return to Las Vegas saw updates from incoming CEO Adam Selipsky, CTO Werner Vogels and others, but “nothing came out of the 2021 re:Invent that felt really cool.”

A few highlights: AWS unveiled the Gravitron 3, its latest Arm-based processor, along with re:Post, a managed Q&A service that replaces AWS forums, and Amplify Study, a no-code/low-code service for devs building cloud-connected applications.

But notably, “this is the first re:Invent in a long time where AWS did not announce a new database,” said Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research.

Ron’s recap of the week’s announcements — and the lack thereof — points to a company in transition: “Perhaps Amazon is becoming a bit more like Apple.”

Essential steps to thriving and surviving while fundraising

Close-Up Of Eyeglasses Against Grassy Field

Image Credits: Nilou Van Soest/EyeEm (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

For a founder, raising seed money can be the hardest part of the puzzle, and depending on the sector, can take dozens of weeks to accomplish.

A data-driven approach to the process, however, can help founders tackle fundraising efficiently while minimizing headaches, writes Russ Heddleston, CEO of DocSend.

“Having very clear data on where VCs focus their time on pitch decks or in meetings will guide you to deliver a finely tuned pitch to the right investor.”

3 ways to recruit engineers who fly under LinkedIn’s radar

Close-up of binoculars on table by the sea during sunset, the sunset is reflected in the glass of the binoculars (Close-up of binoculars on table by the sea during sunset, the sunset is reflected in the glass of the binoculars, ASCII, 113 components,

Image Credits: the_burtons (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Last week’s announcement by LinkedIn that it would start offering its services in Hindi highlights a problem facing startups trying to recruit software developers — many of them don’t use the platform.

Potential hires who live in emerging markets are less likely to use LinkedIn, but a lot of devs just don’t take a strong interest in building their brands on social media.

Making an effort to meet developers where they are will help your company as an attractive place to work, writes Sergiu Matei, founder of Index.

In a TechCrunch+ post, he shares three tips you can use to attract engineers in an increasingly competitive market:

  • Open up your content, chats and code
  • Make EQ, not IQ, your hiring criteria
  • Say “yes” to more candidates

SenseTime’s IPO to test market demand for high-growth, high-loss shares in Hong Kong

The market is ripe for AI companies to go public, but for SenseTime’s Hong Kong IPO, demand may be less than that of the wider market, writes Alex Wilhelm.

The company’s new IPO target of up to HK$5.99 billion (US$768 million) is a far cry from its previous $2 billion IPO, possibly reflecting the fact that investors aren’t excited about its steadily increasing losses, Alex writes.

Essential steps to thriving and surviving while fundraising

The road to a successful funding round can be a long and arduous one.

From your first meeting with a VC to money in the bank, a seed round takes on average 18.5 weeks. Within that time frame, you are pitching your heart out to multiple investors and ideally setting a number of meetings, either virtual or in-person.

You’re also busy building and constantly tweaking your narrative (and pitch deck) and managing each of those meetings and the necessary followup. Then, if things go well, you’re negotiating term sheets and final closing details. All the while running a startup with equal intensity.

Having transparency into how investors engage with your pitch deck gives you an advantage.

So how do you prepare for this important stage in your company’s growth, navigate the challenges of a fundraise, and not let the process overwhelm the responsibility of still running your business? While not every fundraise is the same, founders can tap the experience of others who have been down this path to ensure their fundraising efforts are efficient and, most importantly, successful.

This can be done both qualitatively and quantitatively. Tap your network to learn from both peers that have been through the fundraising process recently as well as more seasoned experts that can impart useful wisdom and perspective. And quantitatively, there’s a ton of data out there on the fundraising process that can remove the mystery and uncertainty for you as a founder. Having very clear data on where VCs focus their time on pitch decks or in meetings will guide you to deliver a finely tuned pitch to the right investor.

This year has shown growth in the fundraising landscape like we’ve never seen before. Records in deal dollars have been continuously broken, and VC demand and startup supply have increased consistently since April 2020. While the tides have seemingly turned in the favor of founders, there are different investor expectations for each stage of funding, from pre-seed to Series A and beyond.

As more founders pitch their startups, funding rounds are competitive, so you need to prepare accordingly. Below I’ll lay out a few essential steps every founder will take during their fundraising journey, with proven and data-driven strategies to approach them.

The right pitch deck

A good pitch deck is key to opening the door to funds. It’s the first impression you make on a VC, and with them breezing through decks at record speeds (2 minutes and 34 seconds per deck), yours has to count. It needs to clearly communicate purpose and value, demonstrating that your company is a solid investment and that your idea is worth their money and time.

By analyzing deck compilation and comparing it to metrics, DocSend has found that startups that have successfully fundraised have commonalities across their pitch decks. This can be broken down by different stages and help you understand the order of your slides, which sections to include more detail on, which sections will get the most attention and more.

The Roblox final fantasy

Hello friends, and welcome to Week in Review.

Last week, I talked a bit about NFTs and their impact on artists. If you’re inundated with NFT talk just take one quick look at this story I wrote this week about the $69 million sale of Beeple’s photo collage. This hype cycle is probably all the result of crypto folks talking each other up and buying each other’s stuff, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be lasting impacts. That said, I would imagine we’re pretty close to the peak of this wave, with a larger one down the road after things cool off a bit. I’ve been wrong before though…

This week, I’m interested in a quick look at what your kids have been talking about all these years. Yes, Roblox.

If you’re reading this on the TechCrunch site, you can get this in your inbox from the newsletter page, and follow my tweets @lucasmtny.


David Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox - Roblox Developer Conference 2019

(Photo by Ian Tuttle/Getty Images for Roblox)

The big thing

Roblox went public on the New York Stock Exchange this week, scoring a $38 billion market cap after its first couple days of trading.

Investors rallied around the idea that Roblox is one of the most valuable gaming companies in existence. More than Unity, Zynga, Take-Two, even gaming giant Electronic Arts. It’s still got a ways to go to take down Microsoft, Sony or Apple though… The now-public company is so freaking huge because investors believe the company has tapped into something that none of the others have, a true interconnected creative marketplace where gamers can evolve alongside an evolving library of experiences that all share the same DNA (and in-game currency).

The gaming industry has entered a very democratic stride as cross-play tears down some of the walls of gaming’s platform dynamics. Each hardware platform that operates an app store of their own still has the keys to a kingdom, but it’s a shifting world with uncertainty ahead. While massive publishers have tapped cloud gaming as the trend that will string their blockbuster franchises together, they all wish they were in Roblox’s position. The gaming industry has seen plenty of Goliath’s in its day, but for every major MMO to strike it rich, it’s still just another winner in a field of disparate hits with no connective tissue.

Roblox is different, and while many of us still have the aged vision of the image above: a bunch of rudimentary Minecraft/Playmobile-looking mini-games, Roblox’s game creation tools are advancing quickly and developers are building photorealistic games that are wider in ambition and scope than before. As the company levels-up the age range it appeals to — both by holding its grasp on aging gamers on its platform and using souped-up titles to appeal to a new-generation — there’s a wholly unique platform opportunity here: the chance to have the longevity of an app store but with the social base layer that today’s cacophony of titles have never shared.

Whether or not Roblox is the “metaverse” that folks in the gaming world have been hyping, it certainly looks more like it than any other modern gaming company does.


SHENYANG, CHINA – MARCH 08: Customers try out iPhone 12 smartphones at an Apple store on March 8, 2021 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Other things

Apple releases some important security patches
It was honestly a pretty low-key week of tech news, I’ll admit, but folks in the security world might not totally buy that characterization. This week, Apple released some critical updates for its devices, fixing a Safari vulnerability that could allow attackers to run malicious code on a user’s unpatched devices. Update your stuff, y’all.

TikTok gets proactive on online bullying
New social media platforms have had the benefit of seeing the easy L’s that Facebook teed itself up for. For TikTok, its China connection means that there’s less room for error when it comes to easily avoidable losses. The team announced some new anti-bullying features aimed at cutting down on toxicity in comment feeds.

Dropbox buys DocSend
Cloud storage giants are probably in need of a little reinvention, the enterprise software boom of the pandemic has seemed to create mind-blowing amounts of value for every SaaS company except these players. This week, Dropbox made a relatively big bet on document sharing startup DocSend. It’s seemingly a pretty natural fit for them, but can they turn in into a bigger opportunity?

Epic Games buys photogrammetry studio
As graphics cards and consoles have hit new levels of power, games have had to satisfy desired for more details and complexity. It takes a wild amount of time to create 3D assets with that complexity so plenty of game developers have leaned on photogrammetry which turns a series of photos or scans of a real world object or environment into a 3D model. This week, Epic Games bought one of the better known software makers in this space, called Capturing Reality, with the aim of integrating the tech into future versions of their game engine.

Twitter Spaces launches publicly next month
I’ve spent some more time with Twitter Spaces this week and am growing convinced that it has a substantial chance to kneecap Clubhouse’s growth. Twitter is notoriously slow to roll out products, but it seems they’ve been hitting the gas on Spaces, announcing this week that it will be available widely by next month.

Seth Rogen starts a weed company
There’s a lot of money in startups, there’s really never been a better time to get capital for a project… if you know the right people and have the right kind of expertise. Seth Rogen and weed are a pretty solid mental combo and him starting a weed company shouldn’t be a big shock.


A Coupang Corp. delivery truck drives past a company's fulfillment center in Bucheon, South Korea, on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. and that could raise billions of dollars to battle rivals and kick off a record year for IPOs in the Asian country. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Extra things

Some of my favorite reads from our Extra Crunch subscription service this week:

Coupang follows Roblox to a strong first day of trading
“Another day brings another public debut of a multibillion-dollar company that performed well out of the gate.This time it’s Coupang, whose shares are currently up just over 46% to more than $51 after pricing at $35, $1 above the South Korean e-commerce giant’s IPO price range. Raising one’s range and then pricing above it only to see the public markets take the new equity higher is somewhat par for the course when it comes to the most successful recent debuts, to which we can add Coupang.” More

How nontechnical talent can break into deep tech
“Startup hiring processes can be opaque, and breaking into the deep tech world as a nontechnical person seems daunting. As someone with no initial research background wanting to work in biotech, I felt this challenge personally. In the past year, I landed several opportunities working for and with deep tech companies. More

Does your VC have an investment thesis or a hypothesis?
“Venture capitalists love to talk investment theses: on Twitter, Medium, Clubhouse, at conferences. And yet, when you take a closer look, theses are often meaningless and/or misleading…” More


Once more, if you liked reading this, you can get it in your inbox from the newsletter page, and follow my tweets @lucasmtny.

Can you beat Google with Google’s brains?

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace were all here to chat through the week’s biggest tech happenings. Like every week, we had to leave a lot of great stuff on the cutting-room floor. But, we did get to touch on a bunch of news that we feel really matters.

Also we do wind up talking about a few Extra Crunch pieces, which is where our deeper analysis on news items lives. If the paywall is a bother, you can get access while saving 50% with the code “EQUITY.”

Here’s what we got into:

  • Crypto-art and the NFT boom continue. Check out what Beeple just did. Danny has an opinion on the matter.
  • The Roblox direct-listing does very little actually solve the IPO pricing issue. That said, well done Bloxburg.
  • We talked about the Coursera S-1, which gave us the first financial peek into an education company revitalized by the pandemic.
  • The numbers needed context, so our follow up coverage gives readers 5 takeaways from the Coursera IPO.
  • Language learning has a market, and it’s big. We talked about Preply’s $35 million raise and why tutoring marketplaces make sense.
  • Dropbox is buying DocSend, which makes pretty good sense. Even if the exit price won’t matter much for bigger funds. We’re still witnessing Dropbox and Box add more features to their product via acquisitions. Let’s see how it impacts their revenue growth.
  • Zapier buys Makerpad. We struggled to pronounce Zapier, but did have some notes on the deal and what it might mean for the no-code space.
  • Sticking the acquisition theme, PayPal bought Curv. If you were looking for more evidence that big companies are taking crypto seriously, well, here it is.
  • And to close we nerded out about Neeva. Can a Google-competitor take on Google if it was founded by ex-Googlers?

The show is back Monday morning. Stay cool!

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:00 AM PST, so subscribe to us on Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotify and all the casts!

Can you beat Google with Google’s brains?

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace were all here to chat through the week’s biggest tech happenings. Like every week, we had to leave a lot of great stuff on the cutting-room floor. But, we did get to touch on a bunch of news that we feel really matters.

Also we do wind up talking about a few Extra Crunch pieces, which is where our deeper analysis on news items lives. If the paywall is a bother, you can get access while saving 50% with the code “EQUITY.”

Here’s what we got into:

  • Crypto-art and the NFT boom continue. Check out what Beeple just did. Danny has an opinion on the matter.
  • The Roblox direct-listing does very little actually solve the IPO pricing issue. That said, well done Bloxburg.
  • We talked about the Coursera S-1, which gave us the first financial peek into an education company revitalized by the pandemic.
  • The numbers needed context, so our follow up coverage gives readers 5 takeaways from the Coursera IPO.
  • Language learning has a market, and it’s big. We talked about Preply’s $35 million raise and why tutoring marketplaces make sense.
  • Dropbox is buying DocSend, which makes pretty good sense. Even if the exit price won’t matter much for bigger funds. We’re still witnessing Dropbox and Box add more features to their product via acquisitions. Let’s see how it impacts their revenue growth.
  • Zapier buys Makerpad. We struggled to pronounce Zapier, but did have some notes on the deal and what it might mean for the no-code space.
  • Sticking the acquisition theme, PayPal bought Curv. If you were looking for more evidence that big companies are taking crypto seriously, well, here it is.
  • And to close we nerded out about Neeva. Can a Google-competitor take on Google if it was founded by ex-Googlers?

The show is back Monday morning. Stay cool!

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:00 AM PST, so subscribe to us on Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotify and all the casts!

Daily Crunch: Dropbox acquires DocSend for $165M

Dropbox acquires a secure document-sharing startup, Sonos announces a new speaker and Google makes hotel listings free. This is your Daily Crunch for March 9, 2021.

The big story: Dropbox acquires DocSend for $165M

Dropbox already acquired electronic signature company HelloSign in 2019. By acquiring DocSend — which allows customers to share and track documents using a secure link — it’s giving its platform an end-to-end, secure document-sharing workflow.

“We’re announcing that we’re acquiring DocSend to help us deliver an even broader set of tools for remote work, and DocSend helps customers securely manage and share their business-critical documents, backed by powerful engagement analytics,” said Dropbox CEO Drew Houston.

One thing the two companies have in common: Both of them launched, years apart, at TechCrunch events.

The tech giants

Sonos goes full portable Bluetooth speaker with the $169 Roam — The smaller, lighter, more ruggedized and waterproof design puts it more in line with popular offerings from companies like JBL.

After similar moves for Shopping and Flights, Google makes hotel listings free — This change should give users a more comprehensive look into hotel room availability.

French startup lobby targets Apple with ‘privacy hypocrisy’ complaint — Apple is facing another privacy complaint in Europe.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Wefarm adds $11M to expand its network for independent farmers, now at 2.5M users — The startup has built a social networking platform to help independent farmers meet each other, exchange ideas and sell or trade equipment and supplies.

Entertainment payroll startup Wrapbook raises $27M round led by a16z — The money comes from noteworthy names in both the tech and entertainment worlds.

Eye surgery robotics startup ForSight raises $10M — ForSight looks to bring its offerings to international markets, pending the sorts of regulatory approvals that go into launching a robotic surgery platform.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Four ways startups will drive GPT-3 adoption in 2021 — The introduction of GPT-3 in 2020 was a tipping point for artificial intelligence.

Global-e files to go public as e-commerce startups enjoy a renaissance — The company’s business exploded in 2020.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Memes for sale — We talk to Chris Torres, the Nyan Cat creator who has organized an informal collection of meme originators into a two-week-long auction of their works.

Backstage Capital’s Arlan Hamilton discusses how to find the next unicorn — Hamilton joined us at TC: Sessions Justice to chat about how she vets founders, the changing role of venture capital and how raising money from the community versus institutional LPs can impact Backstage strategy.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.