After sales software startup TigerEye closed its Series A and established a board of directors, its co-founders put them on notice:
One thing we’d prefer to never do is the three-hour, too-in-the-weeds, non-strategic board meeting.
“Every board deck I’ve made and seen is greater than 80 pages long,” says Tracy Young, co-founder and CEO of TigerEye. “I’m not exaggerating.”
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On this TC+ article, she explains structure a one-hour board meeting that creates real value for founders and investors. The first step: Replace your enormous deck with a three-page memo.
We’re taking Monday, May 29 off to have fun Memorial Day, so I’ll be back with one other TC+ roundup every week from today.
Have a implausible weekend!
Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist
Why aren’t enterprise capitalists flocking to fund cybersecurity startups?
Image Credits: RobertAx (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
The accelerated shift to digital has been great for mature cybersecurity firms: Palo Alto Networks, Scaler and CrowdStrike are showing strong revenue multiples, reports Alex Wilhelm.
But there doesn’t look like a halo effect for venture-backed cybersecurity startups. Based on Crunchbase, funding for firms on this sector fell 58% in Q1 2023 in comparison with Q1 2022.
“Provided that valuations are down across the board, today’s cybersecurity equity prices have been dramatically depressed, even when they continue to be costlier than other tech subcategories,” writes Alex.
Profitability over growth: 5 investors explain their mantra for South Korean startups
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch
South Korea saw a unicorn boom in recent times, but like the remainder of the world, it’s feeling the impacts of a world market correction.
“Enterprise funding in Asia in the primary quarter of 2023 declined 33% from Q4 2023 and 57% from Q1 2022,” reports Kate Park, who surveyed five investors to get their predictions for 2023 and learn how they’re advising their portfolio firms:
- Han Kim, general partner, Altos Ventures
- Tim Chae, managing partner, 500 Global
- JP Lee, CEO and managing partner, SoftBank Ventures Asia
- Yeemin Chung, managing director, BRV Capital Management
- Eunse Lee, founder and managing partner, 541 Ventures
Ask Sophie: What are my options if an organization rescinds my OPT job offer?
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
Dear Sophie,
I’m a global student graduating this month, but the corporate I used to be imagined to start working for on OPT has rescinded my job offer.
What are my options?
— Grappling Grad
3 things businesses must do to secure their applications within the AI era
Image Credits: Henrik Sorensen (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Firms with AI-enabled applications give bad actors a broader attack surface relating to phishing, bots and other attempts to access customer accounts.
“We’re already seeing examples of reverse engineering AI-powered sites to get free AI computing,” says Reed McGinley-Stempel, co-founder and CEO of Stych, a customer identification and access management (CIAM) platform.
Enterprise leasing: The unsung hero for hardware startups struggling to lift capital
Image Credits: bagi1998 (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Hardware startups have at all times been challenged relating to high initial capital expenditures and open-ended R&D timelines.
Fortunately, enterprise leasing creates “a blissful medium between costly debt loans and VC funding that works particularly well,” says Felipe Chávez Cortés, CEO and co-founder of robotic food delivery firm Kiwibot.
To bring products to market faster while avoiding dilution, his company closed a $10 million enterprise leasing deal.
“Hardware firms shouldn’t feel limited to VC funds to finance their high-risk, high-growth operations,” in keeping with Cortés.
Pitch Deck Teardown: Faye’s $10M Series A deck
Image Credits: Faye
Insurtech startup Faye shared a redacted version of the 19-slide deck its founders used to land a $10 million Series A round.
“Let’s get this out of the best way right off the bat,” says Haje Jan Kamps. “It is a truly excellent pitch deck.”
- Cover slide
- Summary slide
- Team slide
- Problem slide
- Market-size slide
- Insurance market overview slide
- Product overview slide
- Product features slide 1
- Product features slide 2
- Product features slide 3
- Product features slide 4
- Go-to-market slide
- Financial growth metrics slide
- Customer growth metrics slide
- Customer validation slide 1
- Competitive landscape slide
- The Ask slide
- Customer validation slide 2
- Closing slide with mission statement
