Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the weeks noteworthy startups and venture capital news.
Before I jump into todays topic, lets catch up a bit.
Last week, I wrote about the flurry of IPO filings.Before that, I noted the differences between raising cash from angels vs.
traditional venture capitalists.Remember, you can send me tips, suggestions and feedback to [email protected] or on Twitter @KateClarkTweets.
If you dont subscribe to Startups Weekly yet, you can do that here.Whats newVenture capitalists look for companies poised to disrupt markets untouched by innovative technology.
Believe it or not, a very small percentage of jewelry shopping is done online, which means theres a big opportunity for the right team to bring jewelry buyers and sellers to the 21st century.Enter Pietra, a new startup thats just raised $4 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitzs Andrew Chen (Substack - Hipcamp investor).
Robert Downey Jr.s VC fund Downey Ventures and Will Smiths fund Dreamers Fund also participated, as did Hollywood manager Scooter Braun, Michael Ovitz and supermodel Joan Smalls.I spoke to the founding team, which includes Uber alum Ronak Trivedi and Ashley Bryan, who hails from fashion e-commerce site Moda Operandi.
The pair bring a healthy mix of technology and fashion expertise to the mix.
Trivedi tells TechCrunch hes drawn on his Uber experience to recruit engineers from top tech companies and to advocate for fast growth.
Meanwhile, Bryan has leveraged her fashion industry connections to establish relationships with luxury designers.Fashion is typically really under-resourced in terms of tech, Bryan tells TechCrunch.
[The fashion industry] is great at the creativity part but its tough, especially with jewelry because you really have to put up a lot of capital.Pietras plan is to create a high-end marketplace for consumers to connect with jewelry designers.
To do this, the team has adopted the standard marketplace approach, taking a 30% marketplace fee from sellers, as well as a 7% fee from buyers commissioning jewelry on the platform.Whether you do custom jewelry or engagement jewelry or you do jewelry for celebrities like Drake, you can come on Pietra and connect with a global marketplace, says Trivedi.The jewelry market is expected to be worth more than $250 billion by 2020, according to McKinsey research.
And where theres a billion-dollar market, there are VCs.Even though gemstones and jewelry have been at the center of art, commerce, and culture since the dawn of human civilization going from stone jewelry created 40,000 years ago in Africa to the trade routes between East and West to Fifth Avenue in New York to the Instagram feed on your phone the technology for discovering, designing, and purchasing jewelry online hasnt evolved much at all, writes a16zs Chen, who overlapped with Trivedi during his Uber tenure.Pietra completed its official launch this week.
It has 100 designers on the platform and counting, along with what the founders say is a lengthy waitlist.In other newsThis week I published a long feature on the state of seed investing in the Bay Area.
The TL;DR? Mega-funds are increasingly battling seed-stage investors for access to the hottest companies.
As a result, seed investors are getting a little more creative about how they source deals.
Its a dog-eat-dog world out there and everyone wants a stake in The Next Big Thing.
Read the story here.Demo DayY Combinator graduated another batch of 200 companies this week.
We were there both days, taking notes on each and every company.
To make things easy on you, Ive put together the ultimate YC reading list:Heres a look at some of the profiles weve written on the S19 companies:ListenWe recorded two great episodes of Equity, TechCrunchs venture capital podcast, this week.
The first was with YC CEO Michael Seibel, in which he speaks to trends at the seed stage of investing, changes at the accelerator program, including its move to San Francisco and more.
You can listen to that one here.
Plus, we had on Unusual Ventures co-founder and partner John Vrionis, who talked to us about direct listings versus IPOs and the future of DoorDash and Airbnb.
You can listen to that one here.Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us onApple Podcasts,Overcast and Spotify.Tips for B2B startupsContributors Tyler Elliston and Kevin Barry share advice for B2B companies: Over the years, weve seen a lot of B2B companies apply ineffective demand generation strategies to their startup.
If youre a B2B founder trying to grow your business, this guide is for you.
Rule #1: B2B is not B2C.
We are often dealing with considered purchases, multiple stakeholders, long decision cycles, and massive LTVs.
These unique attributes matter when developing a growth strategy.
Well share B2B best practices weve employed while working with awesome B2B companies like Zenefits, Crunchbase, Segment, OnDeck, Yelp, Kabbage, Farmers Business Network, and many more.
Read the full story here.
(Extra Crunch membership required.)