Venture

A Spreadsheet To Solve Layoffs, The Future Of Women In Venture, And An Email Startup Nabs $59M

Illustration of woman wearing a Sassy t-shirt.

Now that it is 27 days into January I think it’s fair to talk about resolutions. For those of you who kept yours, kudos. For those of you who have failed, also kudos, at least you tried.

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And perhaps most importantly, for those of you who roll your eyes at everyone else’s resolutions: Congratulations, you just missed 27 opportunities to lean into the tradition and try something new.

Now that we’ve addressed the grumps in the room, on to fresher news. We released our final installment of our year-end quarterly series, this time taking a look at the numbers around diversity. Per Crunchbase data, 20 percent of newly funded startups in 2019 have a female founder. Once you finish that, check out my recap of a panel I moderated this week about the future of women in venture. I promise, there are concrete takeaways.

Moving on to dollar signs, it’s time for funding news. Skylo launched out of stealth, and frankly into the sky, with $116 million in funding for its internet connectivity software. And in news about an email startup that isn’t Superhuman, Front raised $59 million to help people collaborate in their inboxes. We also reported on how Life House, a tech-enabled lifestyle hotel startup, raised a $30 million Series B and, keeping it in-house, Punch List nabbed $4 million seed for the home renovation process.

Finally, I wrote about a trend I’m sure many of us have seen on Twitter following a layoff: a crowd-sourced spreadsheet of ex-employees. The solution has increasingly become a common response to massive layoffs, especially in tech companies which thrive on the belief that your network is everything.

If you’ve been recently laid off from a tech company and have any thoughts to share on this topic, I’m all ears. Best of luck to those on the job hunt right now.

Take care,
Natasha

P.S. Follow me (@nmasc_) and Crunchbase News on Twitter and Facebook for daily updates.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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