100 pieces of advice for Founders

It’s officially December, which means we’re hitting the traditional end of year slowdown for fundraising. US VCs check out a bit after Thanksgiving and everyone else is thinking about the holiday season. If you’ve yet to start your fundraising process, consider waiting until January - you’re more likely to make progress.

First Round Review turns 10!

I love First Round Review. I think they do an excellent job of providing actionable advice from founders and VCs who have walked the walk, not just talked the talk. So congratulations to the entire team of ten years of creating fantastic, helpful resources for founders!

To celebrate, they released their 100 best pieces of advice. Here are five of my favourites:

1. ‘Anytime you’re telling someone what to do you’re not actually solving the bug. You’re doing a really bad patch.’ Sidharth Kakkaron on architecting an in-sync startup.

2. 'Think bigger. Whatever the idea is, blow it out of proportion and see where that takes you. Come back to me when you've thought about that times 100.’ Joe Gibbia on design thinking at Airbnb.

3. ‘The longer someone works for you, the harder it is to change their behavior. The longer you don't deal with something, the less likely you can fix it.’ Michael Lopp on tough conversations.

4. ‘If I had to constrain one, I would rather pick the team and then tackle the idea. People think that a startup is only about the idea. But in some ways, the idea is the most disposable or flexible part of the company.’ Waseem Daher on the startup happiness formula.

5. ‘The business model ends up becoming the business. It’s equally important as the market you’re going after and the product that you build.’ Jay Simons on Atlassian’s unconventional moves.

Read all 100 pieces of advice here.

This week in fundraising

Here are 10 startups that announced their new rounds this week:

1. Aptus.ai - Banking and Insurance Compliance and Risk Management - $3.3m This Italian startup, based in Pisa, was founded 5 years ago. It raised funding from investors including P101 and Fin+Tech.

2. Biomel - Gut Health Care Products - $6.9m Based in London, UK, this 6-year-old startup specializes in drinks, snack bars, and powders for gut health care. Its Series A round was led by IRIS Ventures.

3. CheckRewards - Machine Learning for Consumer Cash Incentives - $1.2m A startup from Dubai, CheckRewards focuses on offering consumers cash incentives through machine learning. The round was led by Mitgo Group.

4. ClimateAlpha - Real Estate and Climate Change Analysis - $5m This four-year-old startup from Singapore leverages AI to analyze the impact of climate change on real estate portfolios. Jungle Ventures led the funding round.

5. QuantumDiamonds - Quantum Sensing for Magnetic Fields Imaging - $7.7m Based in Germany, QuantumDiamonds specializes in quantum sensing technology. Its seed round was co-led by IQ Capital and Earlybird, among others.

6. Augment - Online MBA Program - $6m This New York-based startup, founded a year ago, offers an entirely online MBA program. Its seed round included RTP Global, Motier Ventures, and others.

7. Birdseye - AI for Retail Matching - $3m This two-year-old startup from Toronto, Canada, uses AI to help retailers match products with potential customers. Drive Capital led the funding round.

8. Construex - Online Marketplace for Construction and Design - $4.6m A four-year-old startup from Ecuador, Construex is creating an online marketplace for the construction and design industries. The seed round was co-led by Zacua Ventures and Fifth Wall.

9. Expanso - Open Source Platform for Data Processing - $7.5m Founded this year in Seattle, USA, Expanso is developing an open-source platform for data processing. The seed round was co-led by General Catalyst and Hetz Ventures.

10. Letterhead - Email Newsletter Automation - $5.3m This one-year-old startup from Miami, USA, focuses on automating the creation and management of email newsletters. Its seed round was co-led by Las Olas VC and Reign Ventures.

My funding spreadsheet now has more nearly 150 startups that recently announced early stage raises. If you’d like a copy, just follow the steps below to refer a friend to subscribe to this newsletter.

Have a great weekend.

Nelson