Ivan Altsybieiev

Atomico, founded in 2006 by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, raised two new funds worth $1.24 billion to back European technology firms. • The two new funds are comprised of a $754 million growth-stage fund for startups raising Series B to pre-IPO financing and a $485 million early stage fund. • The fresh fundraising comes as two of Atomico’s key portfolio companies, Stripe and Klarna, have been circled by speculation of upcoming IPOs. Read more from CNBC: https://lnkd.in/d8nDDTha This raises a significant question: several fund managers have personally told me that fundraising is challenging right now. Yet, at the same time, Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former chief scientist of OpenAI, recently raised $1 billion in just three months for his new AI startup... Are we witnessing a disparity in the fundraising landscape, where select individuals or firms have easier access to capital? #capitalraising #vc #investments #skype

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BUILDING IN PUBLIC #13 - We have run many outbound campaigns in the past for our different dev agencies but… around a month ago we launched a new LinkedIn outreach system that has gotten promising results (40-50% reply rate). What we have noticed: 1) Building the infrastructure is the easy part. It is really all about targeting and messaging. And you can’t figure these about by just sitting and thinking. You have to launch, evaluate, adjust, reiterate. 2) Value first. You must give to get, and give honestly, not with an immediate ask. Think of it like this, you will have to help 100 people, and maybe only 1 of those people will be able to help you, but that 1 person usually makes it worthwhile. 3) Attention is everything. People get drained with messages everyday, why are they going to respond to yours? Truly think about this and write down the answers when crafting your messaging. It’s a hard process. It’s annoying, confusing, and highly competitive. But it’s also hard to not have any clients. Choose your hard.

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From 12-18 to 24+ months: Raising between two rounds is getting longer, but is it really bad for founders? •In the past couple of weeks several data points showed that the time between two successive financing rounds is getting significantly longer. •Pre-2022, most VC backed startups raised money every 12 to 18 months until the Series B. •It concretely means that startups had to hit specific milestones every 12 to 18 months to be able to raise again. •And these milestones depended on the “VC zeitgeist”. It could be growth rate, revenue level, product milestones etc… •Fast forward today it’s around 24 to 32 months between two rounds. While it shows that access to funding is getting tougher, is it really a bad thing? First of all, what does it fundamentally change for founders? ----------------------------------------------------------- •Obviously founders need to adjust their burn rate so that they can survive longer than 12/18 months with what they have raised. •They need to focus on sustainable growth. The current “VC zeitgeist” is not about “growth at all costs” milestones anymore but about “sustainable growth” oriented ones. To raise the next round you need to have healthy unit economics. •Board meetings have often dramatically changed. It’s sometimes an almost schizophrenic experience to go from a board that asks you to be super aggressive with growth to a board that asks you to build a sustainable business. •It’s better to have VCs that can support you through bridge rounds over a longer period of time. I know a couple of early stage founders that have raised €1-1.5M with syndicates and small VC firms and are now stuck because they cannot do bridge rounds. So, all in all is it a bad thing? ---------------------------- •If you make the correct adjustments (and most early stage founders have probably done it) I do not think that it’s such a bad thing for founders. •I know many founders that were uncomfortable with the pre-2022 VC Zeitgeist and didn’t feel good when they were pushed by VCs to hire aggressively or spend more money to grow faster. •And many prefer the current situation where the emphasis is on building a real business from day one and accelerate only when it makes sense. And not the other way. The real problem for most SaaS founders is not the longer time between two rounds, but rather to get the very first checks with VCs that are ready to support them over a longer period of time (through bridge rounds).

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🚨You might never look at startup validation the same way after reading this.🚨 Hi am Nick, some of you know me as a seasoned Product Strategist and owner of axiomy - Product Validation and Design Studio, organizer of the Startup Activator 5.0 or even an owner of pizza places in Varna. I will share in a second, what unconventional techniques I use when validating business ideas (I have a lot), features or a whole software product. As It is just a LinkedIn post, I can't put everything I know in one piece but if you are interested in how I use these techniques, write a comment below and I will send you my case studies. My experience spans from FinTech to FoodTech, equipping me with a unique understanding of the diverse challenges faced by entrepreneurs. Having walked the challenging path of startup validation alongside numerous clients, I am well-versed in navigating the complexities of launching successful ventures across various industries. Long story short: We all know the orthodox ways to validate ideas but I've discovered some potent validation techniques that are often the least conventional. Here we go: 🔴 Wizard of Oz MVP - Don’t have the product yet? No problem. Create the facade of a functional product and manually handle the operations behind the scenes. It sounds deceptive, but it’s a goldmine for gathering user feedback without full-scale development. I’ve seen clients amass invaluable insights this way, shaping their products to precisely meet user expectations. 🔴 Prototyping on Social Media - This is where you turn likes, shares, and comments into a gold standard for product validation. I've worked with brands that crafted product mock-ups, shared them on social platforms, and gauged interest based on real-time user interactions. It's fast, it's public, and it can significantly pivot your product direction with minimal spending. 🔴 Fake Door Testing - Place a button for a non-existent feature and measure interest by the number of clicks it receives. This method helped one of my clients scrap a feature that would have wasted $200K in development costs. Turns out, not many were keen on clicking that shiny new button. 🔴 Sell Before You Build - Imagine selling your product before it even exists. Sounds tricky, right? But it's incredibly effective. This approach not only validates the market demand but also secures some initial funding. I’ve guided startups to use pre-sales as a litmus test for their product viability. 🔴 Letter of Intent - Nothing screams ‘market validation’ louder than a signed letter of intent from a potential buyer. It's a commitment that validates your idea like no other. Whether it’s a bulk purchase or a subscription before launch, these letters have helped my clients lock in demand and attract further investment. Whether it’s your first venture or the next big pivot, let’s validate your idea and pave the way for your startup’s success. #startup #ideavalidation #productdevelopment #strategies

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#notetoself 1,000,000 Users DAU =2 $1b Fund - First close $3.86 for the ❤️ of startups __________________________________ Connect or Follow DeReK WaTSoN Fusion42 F42 In Real Life ___________________________________ #startups #founders #cofounders #venturecapital #angelinvestors

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Every Pre-Seed founder has heard this: VC: "We just want to see a little more traction." 😳 But it doesn't have to be like this. Revenue isn't the only way to show traction So how do you raise capital without significant revenues? I collaborated with GTM expert Maja Voje to come up with the 6 best KPIs you can use to communicate your traction. Want more details of how to use them? What tools can help you track and grow them? Check out her post today* (*link in comments) __ Was this helpful? 👍 like and ♻️ repost it to help other entrepreneurs.

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Our clients called 170 top VC funds and angels in the last 6 months including A16Z, General Catalyst, Sequoia, Index Ventures, and many more well-known funds. Here is how it happened 👇 I do believe outreach can fuel a successful fundraise. But you need to ‘think smart and react fast’. Here's my checklist for getting great results from your outreach: 1. Carefully prepare all your materials before you start reaching out. Make sure your pitch deck, P&L, cohorts, and other key documents are in top shape. 2. Start with warm outreach. Think about anyone in your network who can make an introduction to a relevant investor. Personal connections can open a lot of doors. 3. Stay active in the startup community. Attend conferences and events, engage with other founders online, and work to expand your network with useful contacts. Personal offline connection is always better than a Zoom call. 4. Make sure your LinkedIn profile and email are ready to outreach. No funny emails, random photos, and no info in bio. 5. Find the right contacts to write to. NOTE: You can have 1000 contacts, but if they don't invest in your industry or stage - you are wasting your time. 6. Follow up potential investors with traction and product updates. To really fundraise like a pro, be sure to check out the first link in the comments. I'm launching a course that dives into groundbreaking strategies for effective outreach and fundraising. Will be glad to see you! #startups #fundraising #investors #seed #round #outreach

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Founders, when you are in a fundraise process and pitching, remember an important fact: you are sharing good news. You're sharing good news to an investor about your awesome mission; a product/service that can help a lot of people; an opportunity for many to make a lot of money together. Fundraising can be tedious at times, but if you really believe in what you're building--then you should ground your fact that you're essentially just sharing good news to investors. If you ground yourself on this principle, I guarantee that the energy and quality of pitch will naturally improve. You've got this!

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Starting the day this way was nothing short of fantastic. I’ve previously shared how I believe Bolt outmaneuvered Uber in Nigeria and how I became the first person to book a Bolt ride in Owerri, Imo State. They would later partner with us for our event in Owerri back in 2018. Hearing Markus affirm their strategy of prioritizing network effects and deep localization was incredibly satisfying. In Nigeria, their localization efforts were key. They recognized early on the complexity of our structure, understanding that while Lagos is the commercial hub, there’s substantial movement between it and other major cities like Port Harcourt and Enugu in the South, as well as Kaduna and Kano in the North. While Uber focused on Lagos and Abuja and required card payments, Bolt expanded to more cities and even introduced options like tricycles in places such as Uyo. In a private chat, I encouraged Uche to consider writing a book or starting a podcast about his experiences managing this operation. Fingers crossed he takes that advice! Some key insights I took away from Markus: 1. Leverage your network early: Family and friends are a universal resource. For Markus, it was his parents. For you, it could be an uncle or even a significant other’s parents. 2. Capital efficiency is crucial: The goal is to bring in talented, mission-driven people from day one. Avoid “mercenaries” who lack long-term commitment. 3. Africa is undervalued: I wish Harry Stebbings had asked about Markus’s current top cities—I’m convinced African cities are still ranking high. 4. Stay open-minded: Opportunities can resurface better than before. Sequoia passed on investing early, only to return at a $4.5B valuation. Daimler’s (Mercedes-Benz) initial $100M offer to buy Bolt was declined, but later, they invested $100M at a $1B valuation. 5. Focus on the business, and the money will follow: When you build a strong, sustainable business, investors will naturally take notice. 6. Traditional businesses in Africa are an untapped goldmine: Africa’s startups have enormous potential to collaborate with traditional businesses, but we must approach them with solid business propositions and demonstrated traction—not just fancy ideas. A huge thank you to Harry Stebbings and Markus for this session—it felt like a masterclass MBA experience this morning!

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🚀 The Top 100 SaaS Startups to Watch in 2024 🚀 Sifted has just released their 2024 Rising 100 ranking, showcasing the most promising SaaS companies in Europe and Israel. Here are a few key trends from this year's list: AI Dominates: No surprise, AI continues to lead the pack. Seven AI-focused startups made the list, with V7, a London-based GenAI company that automates office tasks, taking the top spot. Other standout AI companies include Parloa (Conversational AI) and Poolside AI (code-writing automation) 📈. Enterprise Software Leads: 45% of the ranked companies operate in enterprise software, catering to the growing need for businesses to streamline processes. Yokoy (ranked #8) exemplifies this trend by helping finance teams automate spend management. Younger Startups, Lower Funding: This year’s cohort is significantly younger, with almost 50% in seed or Series A stages, and their average funding has dropped by 24% compared to previous editions. The youngest company on the list, Adaptive ML, was founded just last year! 💡 Geographic Powerhouses: London continues to dominate with 31 companies on the list, followed by Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Paris. This reflects the sustained strength of London as Europe’s leading tech hub. Diversity Still Lags: Only 17% of the startups have women founders, showcasing the ongoing challenge of diversity in the SaaS sector. While this number is low, it’s crucial to acknowledge the progress and push for more inclusive growth in the future 🌍. 💼 Investors Take Note: VC firms like Balderton Capital and Speedinvest are leading the charge, backing 12 companies each. This indicates where major investors are placing their bets for the future of SaaS in Europe.

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Out of some 42,000 startups, 288 have been bought so far in 2024.  The old adage that startups are bought, not sold seems to be holding true. I enjoyed speaking with Peter Walker, Head of Insights Carta, on The Lonely Office to talk about the "Startup Gamble: What are Your Odds?" I've been following his posts for a while and I love the way he stitches together startup insights and advice with a data driven perspective using the Carta database. And I believe I'm not the only one who finds his insights valuable. So we thought we'd bring him on to speak about the best cities to raise angel and pre-seed money (it's no longer just SF and NY), the most common exit periods for startups, and why the VC phrase "lifestyle startup" is a term that needs to be phased out. Check in below for more discussion.

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Why aren't more CEE founders getting to Y Combinator? 1. They don't ask for recommendations. YC is a network. The partners rely heavily on recommendations from former alumni. If you have none, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. When our portfolio companies apply (we have three companies that went through YC in SMOK portfolio: Polish Alokai (previously Vue Storefront), Authologic and Bulgarian Slicker), we try to make sure they talk to every YC alumni from our network possible, get to know them, get their feedback regarding the pitch and the product and potentially also earn a recommendation that would help them get through the noise of thousands of other applications. 2. They don't put enough effort. Getting to YC is a month-long project. It starts with talking to dozens of people in the YC network - former managers, YC alumni from your country, university or state - getting their feedback and applying that feedback to make the application stand out. A quick application written by ChatGPT won't nail it. You need to work on your communication, make sure what you do is as easy to understand as possible, remove all the non-essential stuff, focus on how you got the insights, why what you're building matters, how excited your customers are and why this team is the best team in the world (literally!) for the job. 3. Lack of ambition / belief in themselves. People just don't believe they can get to YC as so many founders from all around the world apply. What they don't understand is that by putting in the work you can beat 90% of them easily. Only about one in ten applications are actually good enough for YC to take notice, so if you put in the work, you can increase your chances of getting in tenfold. YC alumni from CEE should be your main source of knowledge and mentorship when you decide to apply from a country like Poland or Croatia. Use them and abuse them as it's in everyone's interest to get more YC founders from Central & Eastern Europe. Ana Marija K. put together a nice piece on how to increase the number of CEE founders at YC. Link in the first comment.

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🔍 From Guesswork to Precision: How Miros is Redefining Product Discovery 🧠 Imagine finding your next favorite product without typing a single word. At Miros, we’re making that a reality with Wordless Search, thanks to the brilliance of our Head of UX, Ahto Pärn. Through the power of micro-interactions, our AI learns from subtle user behaviors, delivering highly personalized recommendations. It’s not just about finding what you like—it’s about finding what you love. Learn how we’re blending AI and UX to make shopping effortless. 🚀 👉 Get to know Ahto in our blog: https://lnkd.in/d6EhiWbT #EcommerceInnovation #AI #UXDesign #ProductDiscovery #MirosAI #FutureOfShopping

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After 1000+ user conversations over the past 3 years, 3 pivots, and analyzing signals from similar startups, Aaron Torres and I decided, after a bunch of consultations, to sunset Klotho and return the remaining funds to our investors. It came down to believing there's no market for the problem we're trying to solve that sustains a startup, and that the closest problems we could solve with a reasonable degree of risk would require a harder reset in both team and tech which means limited time. I still firmly believe in the vision - it was beautiful seeing early customers and users realize parts of it when using Klotho and InfraCopilot. I'll be cheering from the sidelines for folks looking for a way to get us closer to it. It's never a happy moment to stop a dream before it's realized, but it feels like the right thing to do. A big thank you to believers! The team, users, customers, friends and investors - everyone risks something when believing in what could be next. We are forever grateful! If you want more details, feel free to reach out - I'm happy to share more. I'll be taking a stretch of time off (first time since 2006), reading books, talking to friends, and thinking about what I'd like to do next. So if you need an excuse to re-connect, this is a wonderful opportunity <3 DMs are welcome!

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Founders should be able to sell secondary whenever they’d like to do so. If you make something - and that thing is valuable - you should be able to sell it. Actually selling that secondary can be tricky. Let's go through the actual steps (or read the whole essay https://lnkd.in/eajr238N): 1. Get the term sheet. 2. Negotiate “normal” major terms: dollars in, price, board, etc. 3. Don’t forget about re-vesting. Founders often do. 4. Sign the term sheet. Go out and start figuring out allocations for the remaining dollars. 5. If you’re lucky enough to have more demand than you do space, you have the opportunity to sell some secondary. Figure out how much excess demand you have. 6. Talk to your lawyer and your accountant about what you want to do. Ask them to explain the pros and cons of selling secondary as common shares vs. preferred shares (which is a bit out of scope for this essay). 7. Decide how much secondary you want - ideally this is “reasonable,” which is a moving target. One good way to frame “reasonable” is to give a clear reason as to why you want to sell. This is particularly important in early rounds. Good reasons include: “Need to pay off student debt” and “Just had our first kid after years at below market salary.” Less good reasons include “Need a new Porsche” and “LinkedIn ghostwriter prices went up.” 8. Go to your new lead investor and say “Hey! Great news! We have 2x demand for available shares. It would mean quite a lot to me and my cofounder if we could take (insert reasonable amount here) off the table because (insert reasonable reason) here. Obviously as our lead, you get first access. Sound good?” 9. Work with the buyer to figure out if you are selling common shares or preferred shares. (a) If you are selling common shares, and the buyer is willing to buy these at the same price as preferred, great! Just make sure that you aren’t creating any challenges around voting by giving those shares to an outside party. Also, talk to your lawyer and accountant. (b) If you are selling preferred shares, go back to your lawyer and accountant to make sure you’re not creating any issues for yourself. You’ll also need to confirm with your existing investors that they are ok with you doing this because it will change the preference stack - which impacts them. 10. Triple check your numbers. 11. Complete your transaction and close the round.

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We built our company from a previous failure. How? A market need became clear. Thanks to not finding the right development agency. And not doing our due diligence. We decided to address this need ourselves. To help companies, small and large, hire developers with confidence. We lost a lot of money, but we gained founding Pangea.ai. Our solution: Create a standardized due diligence process for development agencies. This simplified a complex and crowded market. And so, Pangea.ai was born.

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The AI landscape is evolving rapidly! If you want to stay ahead, it's time to get curious and dive in. So GPT got a major update today with GPT-4o. And now we will see more tools supporting myriads of use cases. However, I think it's moving faster than what a normal person can process. One thing is absolutely clear, if you want to be one step ahead, you should love playing around with tools. You should be curious to explore how AI can help solve your problems! This is something I am strongly feeling these days. Recently, while hiring a designer for a client, I asked candidates about AI’s impact on their roles and their usage of it. Surprisingly, both candidates had similar responses—they mainly used AI to replace Lorem Ipsum text with real-world copy. Like is that it? Already some tools can help you provide initial wireframes or even give basic feedback. And I am pretty sure developer handoff would have been also solved as well. I'm thinking of writing a blog post about various AI use cases in design. How are you using AI? What tools do you recommend? Share your experiences in the comments, and I’ll give credit in the blog post! P.S: The above post is edited with the help of ChatGPT :) #gpt #ai #design

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Why do many founders feel stuck in a world full of information? A common theme stands out in talks with many founders: despite vast online resources, they crave real human interaction for their projects - just to make the first step. We have endless access to information and tutorials. Yet, often, we need someone to listen, challenge us, give feedback, and clarify the next steps. I once spoke with a founder aiming to create an automated real estate valuation service. He planned to include crowdfunding and detailed reports. He thought all this was essential. However, our chat made him realize he only needed the valuation model to start. That's where the demand was. Sometimes, a conversation is all we need for clarity and the confidence to move forward. #startups #MVP #productdevelopment #founders

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