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Technology
To learn more about the next wave of consumer startup investment outside Silicon Valley, I&m speaking to leading B2C-focused investors in various hubs about the trends they&re excited about right now.
Recently, I shared the responses from several London-based investors; today, we spoke to eight of New Yorktop consumer VCs:
- Rebecca Kaden, Partner at Union Square Ventures
- David Tisch, Founding Partner at BoxGroup
- Anu Duggal, Founding Partner at Female Founders Fund
- Craig Shapiro, Partner at Collaborative Fund
- Jeremy Levine, Partner at Bessemer
- Beth Ferreira, Partner at Firstmark Capital
- Graham Brown, Partner at Lerer Hippeau Ventures
- Eric Reiner, Partner at Sinai Ventures
- Chris Paik, Partner at Pace Capital
Consumer health and banking startups were recurring areas of interest, and therea sense that apps and product brands which provide a deeper sense of community are an untapped opportunity.
Rebecca Kaden, Partner at Union Square Ventures
At USV, we are focused on opportunities that broaden access by leveraging technology to increase value and decrease cost in big buckets of consumer spend. In doing so, we are looking for ways to make products and services previously available to a select segment available to many more. In particular, we have been investing in areas of consumer health where the delivery mechanism not only makes the care more convenient but also more affordable and higher quality; products and platforms in financial services that change the traditional underlying model to drive financial health for a mass customer; and opportunities that create new access to education both for kids and lifelong learners.
Within each of these segments, I&ve been very interested in how new communities are forming inside products&users that come for a specific offering are forming allegiance and increasing engagement by interacting with other users. I think that is a trend we will only see accelerate.
David Tisch, Founding Partner at BoxGroup
People are bored on their phones, not of their phones. I am most excited to meet founders working on consumer apps that bring happiness and fun to a mass consumer audience, as I continue to believe we are in the early days of mobile and the app store is not dead.
These apps may look like a game, they may be a game, or they may be a new feed, but TikTok, Twitch, HQ, Yolo and other Snap app kit apps, Tinder and others have shown consumers want new apps, the barrier for adoption and retention is just very high. All apps and games have a half-life, creating something with a very long one is really hard, but the demand is sitting on the phone scrolling thorough feeds, waiting for some new fun. We are excited about apps that allow people to interact with others in different ways, in new worlds, using new hardware, or new interfaces.
Anu Duggal, Founding Partner at Female Founders Fund
With the rise of the sober curious movement, we invested in Kin Euphorics, offering consumers a sexy option to an alcoholic drink, creating a social experience around a non-alcoholic beverage that doesn&t exist in the market today. With beer sales decreasing five years in a row, brands like Heineken are offering alcohol-free alternatives catering to this growing audience.
With the decline of religion, we have seen the rise of what we call the &rise of the alternate community.& Consumers are looking for ways to connect online and offline based on specific interests. Examples of this in our portfolio include The Wonder, a membership model for familyhood, Peanut, a social network for modern motherhood, and Co-Star, an astrology app.
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Read more: A look at the top trends exciting NYC’s consumer VCs
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Last month, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) general partner Chris Dixon announced at TechCrunch Disrupt that the VC firm would run a free crypto startup school. And the company is officially launching its school today. Applications are now open and you have four weeks to apply.
With this initiative, a16z wants to democratize cryptocurrencies. Dixon and the a16z team has been involved in the cryptocurrency/blockchain space for seven years, and the firm now wants to share some of its learnings with entrepreneurs.
This way, it could give a boost to the crypto community, which could create investment opportunities for a16z down the road — a16z says clearly that participating in the crypto startup school doesn&t mean you&ll receive an investment from a16z. It also positions a16z as a thoughtful investor when it comes to crypto startup investments — not just for participants of the crypto startup school but for the crypto community at large.
The a16z Crypto Startup School will be a seven-week program that starts February 21, 2020. The program is free and a16z doesn&t take any equity.
Lectures will take place in Menlo Park, so you have to be based in Silicon Valley or willing to spend a couple of months there. And because a16z knows that it can be challenging to move to another country just to attend this program, the firm will also be recording all lectures. Anyone will be able to watch videos and download curriculum materials later.
Herea sneak peek of the course outline:
- What are Crypto Networks, and Why Do They Matter?
- Blockchain Computing Primitives: Cryptography and Consensus
- Overview of Application Development Tools
- Applications: Today and 2025
- Crypto Business Models
- Cryptoeconomics
- UX, Product Development and Security
- Go-to-Market Strategy and Developer Relations
- Community Participation and Governance
- Regulatory Landscape and Considerations
- Guide to Fundraising
As you can, ita mix of lectures purely focused on cryptocurrencies as well as broader startup 101 lessons (fundraising, go-to-market strategy, etc.).
The program is looking for 20 to 25 teams, which should represent approximately 40 participants. You should have prior experience when it comes to building software products, but you don&t need to be a crytpo expert. Participants can expect 12 to 15 hours of lectures, workshops, mentorship and networking opportunities per week.
At the end of the course, participants will showcase a project idea or a prototype during a demo day.
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As technology progresses supporting legacy platforms becomes… well, practically impossible. Image sizes get larger and take up more room, software becomes bigger with new features and system processes that at one time worked at lightning speed have since slowed to a crawl.
For all those reasons and more, Netflix has decided to stop supporting older
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It's no secret that Red Dead Redemption 2 has had a bit of a rocky launch on PC. When the game first hit the streets, it couldn't even run on our test systems, and we weren't the only ones facing this issue. Now, Rockstar has patched the game to make it playable, which means we can finally ask "how does it run?".
Well, the answer is a bit
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Of all the wireless headphones we tested in 2019, only one was crowned the best noise-cancelling headphone of 2019 – and that’s the Sony WH-1000XM3.
Why? Well, they offer some of the best noise-cancellation in their price range, plus are Hi-Res Audio compatible and sound great.
Typically this pair of noise-cancelling cans go for $350 brand-new, but
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Read more: Sony WH-1000XM3 early Black Friday deal: $70 off the top noise-canceling headphones
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Black Friday 2019 is just around the corner and HP is giving us a preview with a 'Holiday Sneak Peek' sale that's happening right now. You'll get early access savings on HP's best-selling laptops, monitors, desktops, and more.
Our top HP laptop sale pick is the HP Spectre x360, which is on sale for $1,099.99. That's a $300 discount and the best
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Read more: HP laptop sale: save up to $700 ahead of Black Friday
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