FundersClub Weekly Newsletter - May 25, 2017

FundersClub Portfolio News

Jerrod Engelberg of FundersClub will host a Q&A on FC Live with Adam Draper of Boost VC on June 13th. Submit questions and watch the full event here: Q&A with Adam Draper of Boost VC — FundersClub Live Series.

LedgerX raises $11.4m in a Series B funding round as they await final approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for its bitcoin options trading service in "Bitcoin Options Service LedgerX Raises $11.4 Million in Series B Funding."

Slack now allows their paid users to share live videos of their screens during video calls, coming in two years after Slack bought Screenhero (FC Portfolio, acquired by Slack), a collaborative screen sharing startup in "Slack adds screen sharing two years after acquiring Screenhero."

Wheelys launches the Wheelys Mini mobile café, a full service café on wheels, now for sale at "Wheelys Mini: Your Own Green Café."

Coinbase users at Fidelity Investments will now be able to see their holdings of bitcoin and other virtual currencies on the company's website in "Fidelity to allow clients to see digital currencies on website."

Thalmic Labs, the maker of the Myo armband, has doubled the size of its workforce in the past year and is moving into a second building in Waterloo in "Thalmic Labs expanding into former furniture store."

Proven is a mobile app that lets small businesses post job openings to more than 100 job boards with a single submission, making recruiting much easier in "Tech tricks that make running your business a breeze."

EquipmentShare, a leading provider of construction technology solutions for contractors and OEMs, expands into Houston and San Antonio in "EquipmentShare Expands Construction Rental Marketplace into Houston and San Antonio."

Investor Thoughts

Kevin Lee and Jerrod Engelberg of FundersClub share their best practices and learnings regarding fundraising in "Transparent VC, Episode 5: Fundraising 101."

Christopher Steiner of FundersClub describes how the age of tinkering is playing out in the world of AI, and expands on the interesting side effects of this rush to AI in "For Now, AI Tinkering Has Outpaced The Cloud."

Lars Dalgaard of Andreessen Horowitz discusses what to do when the senior executive you hired may not be performing as expected in "It's Never Too Early to Fire."

Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures explains how there is a vast realm of opportunities for unbundling Excel into other businesses and is a big trend in workflow software in "The Unbundling of Excel."

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures dives into the difference between “can do” and “must do” and how companies often confuse the two in "Can Do Vs Must Do."

Lee Hower of NextView Ventures emphasizes the power of a perception of success, and details the very real consequences that founders should consider in "Not Everyone Is “Killing It.”"

Mar Hershenson of Pear VC chats with Harry Stebbings of The 20 Minute VC on her journey from professor at Stanford to Founding Managing Partner, the biggest indicators of success in founding teams, how to balance vision and operations, and more in "20VC with Mar Hershenson, Founding Managing Partner @ Pear.VC."

Tristan Pollock of 500 Startups details how in the 21st century, the pop-up shop is going to be the main way retail reclaims its top spot in real estate in "Taking it Offline: How to Bring Life Back to Your Neighborhood’s Empty Spaces."

Founder and Operator Thoughts

Pablo Fuentes of Proven (FC Portfolio) shares a new episode in his weekly podcast series, Small Business War Stories, on the difference between selling to small businesses vs large corporations or consumers in "The Secret to Selling to Small Businesses."

Sharon Pope of YC Continuity walks through how to think about PR and the best practices for working with the press, also featuring a Q&A with Steven Levy of Backchannel in "How to Think About PR – Sharon Pope."

Jason Lemkin of SaaStr offers his top 5 items that entrepreneurs should remember when starting a company in "What are top five things to remember when starting a company?"

Danielle Morrill of Mattermark chats with Shira Abel of Hunter & Bard and offers four main takeaways about sales teams and product development enabling businesses to stay focused and scale in "Why Marketing Automation and Problem Solving Should Guide Your Business Strategy."

Fraser Williams of Repairly highlights the importance of understanding your mental health and points towards techniques to improve it in "Mental Health and Entrepreneurship."

Jessica Baker of The Valuable Channel shares her top 5 scenarios that should be on every CEO’s radar to show they are ready for an indirect channel strategy in "5 Signs You're Ready For An Indirect Channel Strategy."

Alexey Pisarevsky of Mobio describes their process for scaling that applies to business in general and affiliate marketing in particular in "The concepts of Run & Change approach in Business."

In Other News

Lyft Inc. is rolling out black cars with offerings called Lyft Lux and Lyft Lux SUV in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and San Jose in "Lyft Courts Uber’s High-End Clientele With Black Car Service."

Bitcoin extended its surge by 10% to a record-high $2,690 today, bringing gains this year to 182%, after an agreement to upgrade the speed of processing transactions in "Pact to Speed Up Bitcoin Drives Digital Currency to Record High."

Did You Know?

Did you know that Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in our Solar System rotating on average once in just under 10 hours?

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