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In Case You Missed It: Launch Links - Week of April 10, 2022

  • 4.15.2022

Some interesting links we found across the web this week:

Why entrepreneurs need a market-integrated, data-driven approach to valuing startups 
Face it: You’re emotionally attached to your . This can get in the way of valuing your with an objective approach. Data shows that 96% of 1,300 polled M&A executives either use or plan to use data analytics to help close deals. Therefore, you need to value your using performance and market data. By using these metrics, your is better positioned to sell. This article from VentureBeat discusses how you can understand your valuation and explains the benefits of a market-integrated valuation.

Why Diversity is Necessary To Make Venture Capital Future-Ready
Simply put, venture capital must increase diversity in its investment management. According to the latest VC Human Capital Survey, only 4% of VCs are Black, with only a 1% increase from 2018. Just over 1% of VC-funded companies have a Black founder, a distribution that does not reflect the make-up of our country. This article by Reggie Tucker in Crunchbase presents solutions to how VC can address the root of this problem, including a call to action for both VCs who fund founders and LPs that invest in the fund managers.

A great disruption is coming for venture capital 
As mainstream funds focus their time and dollars on the most profitable customers, they are ignoring the scrappy upstarts. Leslie Feinzaig hypothesizes in this Fast Company article that the venture capital industry is in the process of getting disrupted. She points to four factors: the incumbents, the customers at the top of the market, the customers at the bottom of the market, and the disruptors entering with simpler, easier, cheaper and more accessible products. Using these factors, she highlights how founders are taking control of their own , raising in smaller amounts and disrupting the industry.

How Cofounders Can Prevent Their Relationship from Derailing 
There is no relationship more intimate in business than cofounders and that relationship must work. According to Noam Wasserman, author of The Founder’s Dilemma, 65% of fail because of cofounder conflict. In this Harvard Business Review post, Alisa Cohn presents five principles cofounders can implement to prevent destructive antagonism amongst cofounders: create a cofounder prenup, clarify roles in detail, conduct scenario planning, spend unstructured time together, and hold conflict meetings.

How To Build A Culture Where Every Employee Can Flourish 
“Kaizen” is Japanese for “continuous improvement.” It takes continuous improvement to create a workplace where employees can thrive. This article in Forbes highlights how companies must develop, and continue to improve, a positive culture for employees because employees determine success. To build a safe and collaborative environment, Serenity Gibbons proposes that companies must build diverse teams, engage in internal and external communities, organize an open line of communication and choose inclusivity.

Links compiled by Michaela Rosen.