Category Archives: Uncategorized

Angel Resiliency during COVID-19

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Angel investing in the US has been remarkably resilient during COVID-19 as angels have adjusted to remote operations and actively sought new opportunities, as well as loyally supported their portfolio investments.

Angel investing showed the greatest growth in the number of deals done in the Fourth Quarter of 2020, according to On Grid Ventures analysis of Pitchbook/NCVA quarterly data.

Angel investing deals done grew 9% in the Fourth Quarter, while Seed and Early Stage, activity contracted -35% and -26%, respectively, and Late Stage increased 6%.

What’s going on?  I suspect Angels think like entrepreneurs, and see opportunity in times of extreme change.  Since they are basically accountable just to themselves (and, as some angels are quick to point out, their spouses!), they are freer to take risks as they seek opportunities. 

VC’s may have similar instincts, but are more heavily influenced by fund investment considerations and LPs.  Fundraising for some has been severely limited, and available funds were diverted to support troubled portfolio companies.  LP’s also tend to be far more conservative, and many lobbied their VC funds to cut back investing, and not make planned capital calls.

This is nothing new. It repeats the pattern from the Global Financial Crisis in 2009 when Angel investing grew 45%, while Early Stage and Later Stage VC contracted -35% and -21%, respectively.

  • Angel Resiliency During the 2009 Great Recession

The Knowledge LUMAscape

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LUMA Partners debuts a useful map of the knowledge players in the digital world.  A helpful guide surely to be updated.2016-4-15-Knowledge-LUMAscape_v3

 

Why SMB Digital Marketing is a Huge Opportunity

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Hard to believe, but 63% of local businesses still have no website, despite the evidence that 88% of local mobile searches for a business result in a visit or call to that store in the next 24 hours.  And 25% of local businesses don’t show up at all in search results.  While there are now a glut of competitors, SMB digital marketing is still a huge opportunity.  This infographic from Marketecture has the data and sources.

SmallBusiness_Infographic

My 10 Favorite Maya Angelou Quotes

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  1. maya“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
  2. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
  3. “I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.”
  4. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
  5. “No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
  6. “I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”
  7. “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
  8. “We need much less than we think we need.”
  9. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud”
  10. “I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.”

The Big Trends in Fashion Now

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There are five big trends in fashion right now, according to Metamorphic Ventures Partner David Hirsch.  I think he is spot on.  They are:

1.  Personalization and Curation.  How I hate sorting through clothing racks in stores.  It’s a pleasure to click on your size, fabric, and other preferences and avoid all that wasted time.

2.  Experiential and Aspirational.  Branding and marketing are here to stay.  Not a new trend, but I’ll go with it.

3. Omnichannel.  Offline and online have blurred. David calls this ubiquitous commerce. The end user experience needs to incorporate both.  Readers of this blog know I’ve been big champion of this.

4.  Collaborative Consumption. Sharing clothing?  And not among family members?  Yup.

5.  Wearables.  Dick Tracy is here.  Wearable tech is in.  OK, it may look goofy but give it time.  The possibilities are vast.  Also, the connected home is in, but that’s for another post.

c-IONTIME-Dick-Tracy-Watch-2013-1

For the full post:  http://www.metamorphic.vc/devilwearsprada/

Disclosure:  On Grid Ventures LLC is a investor in Metamorphic Ventures.

 

StarcomMediaVest: The Agency Customer View of GeoTargeting

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Derek Thompson is global managing director of mobile practice at ad agency StarcomMediaVest’s (SMG).  He was interviewed by Steven Jacob of Street Fight, and here are a few excerpts.  The full story is here.  In his words, somewhat condensed:

starcom

  • Broad appeal. Across Starcom MediaVest’s portfolio, I cannot think of one client that is not interested in this space. You have consumer-packaged-goods…auto manufacturers…travel companies.  Across the board, brands are curious about location.
  • KFS:  Integration with ad serving, real time optimization, scale vs objective.  The ability to integrate third party ad-serving is a critical component. And the ability to manage and optimize accounts in real time in real time in terms of delivery, execution and results is also extremely important…the minimum requirements to get going. The other one across this space is to have access to the right inventory…if you cannot get distribution of that great idea because your first-party publisher partners are not there or you’re only working with a certain segmentsof applications, then you’re going to be limited. 
  • Location trumps third-party reporting: To identify where a consumer is at a special time and message them based on that information. to help us understand audience based on where that device has been seen.  We can try to do it through third-party reporting, likes, and content but that’s often misleading.
  • Complexity.  The space is so fragmented, there are so many different offerings, or alleged offers, for brands, that they need help understanding it, they need reasons to get behind it…to test and learn.
  • In April, SMG announced a partnership with PlaceIQ to build out a new KPI.

 

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