From Harvard Business Review Covid-19 and the global recession it has caused have us all girding for a long period of extremely challenging conditions in the global market.  This situation is uncharted waters for the traditional Silicon Valley startup model, which is geared toward fast growth and creating “unicorns.” Instead of the unicorn, the camel is the more fitting mascot. Camels can survive for long periods in extremely adverse conditions. Startup camel enterprises offer businesses in all industries and sectors valuable lessons on how to survive and grow in adverse conditions. They do this with three strategies in mind: they execute balanced growth; they take a long-term outlook; and they weave diversification into the business model. Read the full HBR article here. #startup #unicorns

The drop was another fallout of rising inflation and widespread economic uncertainty, and a retreat after years of a funding boom. For the first time in three years, start-up funding is dropping. The numbers are stark. Investments in U.S. tech start-ups plunged 23 percent over the last three months, to $62.3 billion, the steepest fall since 2019, according to figures released on Thursday by PitchBook, which tracks young companies. Even worse, in the first six months of the year, start-up sales and initial public offerings — the primary ways these companies return cash to investors — plummeted 88 percent, to $49 billion, from a year ago. The declines are a rarity in the start-up ecosystem, which enjoyed more than a decade of outsize growth fueled by a booming economy, low interest rates and people using more and more technology, from smartphones to apps to artificial intelligence. That surge produced now-household names such as Airbnb and Instacart. Over the past decade, quarterly funding to high growth start-ups fell just seven times.But as rising interest rates, inflation and uncertainty stemming from the war in Ukraine have cast a pall over the global economy this year, young tech companies have gotten hit. And that foreshadows a difficult period for the tech industry, which relies on start-ups in Silicon Valley and beyond to provide the next big innovation and growth engine.“We’ve been in a long bull market,” said Kirsten Green, an investor with Forerunner Ventures, adding that the pullback was partly a reaction to that frenzied period of dealmaking, as well as to macroeconomic uncertainty. “What we’re doing right now is calming things down and cutting out some of the noise.”

The most active VC investors in the industry have not slowed down regardless of the market, according to a recent report. The investment numbers from certain VC firms in 2022 match their 2021 numbers. More: According to the Crunchbase report, the cohort of 40 VC firms matched their investment number from 2021, even though they had increased investments by 50% during that year. Investments in new startups in 2022 stand at 55%, an increase compared to the 50% VCs invested in 2021. The only statistics that are in line with the current market downturn are the overall amount of dollars invested and Series C investments. Series A investments, however, have increased. The report claims that, unlike the 2008 financial crisis, VC investments are not slowing down, and therefore the industry is not mirroring the investment pace post-2008. Source: Inside

Andreessen Horowitz revealed it is leading a $50M seed round in VeeFriends, an NFT project by VaynerMedia founder Gary Vaynerchuk. VeeFriends claims to have generated 200,000 ETH in primary and secondary sales since its inception in May 2021. More: The project plans to use the funds to expand its intellectual property across physical and digital platforms. The collection is based on 283 cartoon characters. Token holders have admission rights to the VeeCon conference, which first took place in May in Minneapolis. VeeFriends released new characters through a second collection, which includes a trading card game as part of the utility of the tokens. Zoom Out: A16z recently led a $25M seed round in Co:Create, a protocol for NFT projects to launch their own native tokens. Vaynerchuk also participated in the round through VaynerFund. Source : Inside

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