FundersClub Weekly Newsletter - June 30, 2017

FundersClub Portfolio News

Alex Mittal of FundersClub hosted a Q&A on FC Live with James Cham of Bloomberg Beta about AI and machine learning, and the full video can now be watched here: Q&A / AMA with James Cham of Bloomberg Beta – FundersClub Live Series.

Teespring, a commerce platform that empowers anyone to design and sell products, raises $5 million in funding in "ECommerce Startup Teespring Raises $5 Million."

Lingokids, a developer of language-learning services for early childhood, raises $4 million in new funding, and Wonderschool, a network of boutique early childhood programs, raises $2 million in "K-12 Dealmaking: Hero K12 Takes In $150 Million; Lingokids Raises $4 Million."

Outschool, an online marketplace where professional teachers to everyday professionals can sell modular, online, live-streamed classes to students from kindergarten to high school, raises $1.4 million in new funding in "Outschool goes to Sesame Street and picks up $1.4 million for its K-12 online learning marketplace."

BlueSmart is launching a new line of connected travel items, called Series 2, which is accompanied by a new iOS / Android app to track lost items using 3G and GPS tracking in "BlueSmart’s new Series 2 line adds more bags to be paired with an app."

Mentat is listed as one of the top job search platforms for being easy to use, offering unique features, and having a low-cost in "6 Awesome Job Search Platforms."

Coinbase and ClearTax are listed as two emerging fintech companies that will change the face of financial services globally in "The Fintech 250."

EquipmentShare is the most well-funded construction tech startup in Missouri, which has seen 5% of total US construction tech deals, in "New Build: Construction Tech Deal Pace Slows Slightly After Steady Rise."

Suiteness, the only online booking platform for luxury hotel suites, is featured on The Knot with eight luxurious suites in Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Los Angeles in "8 Epic Suites for an Unforgettable Bachelorette Party."

Slack is used by the Hartford Police Department as their primary method of intelligence sharing for more than 450 investigators and officers from all over the state in "Fighting crime with Slack."

Investor Thoughts

Jerrod Engelberg and Kevin Lee of FundersClub discuss board of directors, why they exist, how they work in public companies vs startups, what founders should be thinking about when dealing with a board of directors, and more in "Transparent VC, Episode 6: It’s All About That Board."

Christopher Steiner of FundersClub gathers insight from experienced AI hands to put together tips and tactics on moving, cleaning and preparing data in "Hardest Part Of AI Is Cleaning Up Your Data - Tips From Experts."

Ethan Kurzweil of Bessemer Venture Partners chats with Harry Stebbings of The 20 Minute VC about how to view pattern recognition and deal with the anti-portfolio, the next frontier in developer focussed businesses, and why eSports is interesting again in "20VC with Ethan Kurzweil, Partner @ Bessemer Venture Partners."

Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures looks to Ron Adner of Wide Lensto explore Adoption Chain Risk, as it applies the idea of a supply chain to innovation in "Adoption Chain Risk - The Importance Of Selling To Everyone In Your Startup's Supply Chain."

Ashley Minogue of OpenView Partners shares an infographic uncovering the state of SaaS marketing, uncovered from a survey of more than 500 SaaS leaders to evaluate how they market their software products in "The State of SaaS Marketing."

Christopher Janz of Point Nine Capital takes a look at what some of the smartest people in the industry have said and written about Product/Market Fit in "WTF is PMF? (part 1 of 2)."

Brittany Laughlin of Lattice Ventures shares how more investors and entrepreneurs can take action to be allies and innovators to end harassment in the workplace in "A Better Path to Decency: Will tech lead the way?"

Cankut Durgun of Aslanoba Capital dives into the ways we can reverse entropy in our lives by exerting effort in "Effort and entropy."

Founder and Operator Thoughts

Scott Noteboom of LitBit (FC Portfolio) shares his vision to use artificial intelligence (AI) to extend the capabilities of data center teams in "Startups Foresee Future Where AI, Robots Manage Data Centers."

Mentat (FC Portfolio) hosts a 12-hour AMA to offer advice to people switching careers or looking for new jobs in "AMA: Professional career advisors/resume writers here to help the reddit community for 12 hours. Ask Us Anything!"

Tomas Barreto of Box explains principles that anyone can start implementing today to be a happier, healthier person and ultimately, a more effective professional in "Box’s VP Engineering on Biohacks For A Better Career."

Andrew Chen of Uber discusses the trends happening now that have major implications for launching new products and growing existing product categories in "Growth is getting hard from intensive competition, consolidation, and saturation."

Josiah Humphrey of Appster shares five essential strategies for forming and sustaining successful co-founder relationships in "5 Strategies for Building Successful Co-Founder Relationships in Startups."
 
Blockgeeks breaks down some basic concepts about Ethereum that are necessary to grasp before understanding what Ethereum tokens are all about in "What is An Ethereum Token: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide."

Jason Fried of Basecamp lists four common situations they found that triggered people to actively shop – the key step before ultimately buying  – in "The Why before the Why."

Jason Lemkin of Saastr shares his rule for when it is acceptable to build "custom" features in "One Simple Rule on When to Build a “Custom” Feature."

Larry Kim of MobileMonkey offers five research-backed secrets on how to increase your productivity as either a team member or manager in "This Is How to Be More Productive at Work: 5 Secrets from Research."

In Other News

Google hires Danielle Brown, Intel’s former head of diversity, as their new VP of Diversity, and she will be responsible for managing their diversity and inclusion strategy, partnering with their senior executives, and more in "Google hires Intel’s former head of diversity as VP of Diversity."

Amazon announces their third annual Prime Day, marking the first time customers are getting the actual date and previews of some of the sales in "Amazon’s 2017 Prime Day sale will be July 11th."

Apple's iPhone turns 10 this week, as they have also sold more than 1 billion iPhones since the first release on June 29, 2007 in "Apple's iPhone turns 10, bumpy start forgotten."

Did You Know?

Did you know that The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) is the world's only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms? 

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