Bobby Ellett

Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App, aims to leverage its dual ownership to create synergy between its point-of-sale software and peer-to-peer payments app. Jack Dorsey, Block's founder, highlighted the advantage of having relationships with both merchants and consumers, stating it's a rare position in commerce and payments. Ryan Budd, Cash App's head of financial products, hinted at plans to integrate a small business experience into Square and incentivize Cash App users to engage with Square merchants. Block is focused on connecting Cash App's consumer base with Square's merchant network, aiming to transform Cash App into a consumer app for interacting with Square merchants. This move aligns with Block's strategy to dominate various aspects of the consumer ecosystem and potentially monetize consumer spending data for advertising purposes. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/eh-8KS9V Eugene Tsay Wade Robison John O'Beirne Emily C. Chiu Eileen Wiens Jim McKelvey Branded Hospitality Ventures #innovation #venturecapital #hospitality #technology Owen Jennings (OBJ) Brooke Ellis Jamie (Russo) HicksMing-Tai Huh

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At Highbeam we believe that D2C brands should have access to fair, responsible capital to fund their growth. Ampla was one of the earliest lending innovators in this space, with transparency around APRs (when most lenders focused on fixed fees) and revolving lines of credit (when most lenders only offered cash advances). Therefore it's unfortunate to hear about possible issues with ongoing lending operations at Ampla. We know how stressful a time this must be for Ampla team members and customers and hope things stabilize and resolve soon. Despite potential issues at Ampla, there is a robust ecosystem of well capitalized lenders and most brands we've worked with recently have had multiple options to chose from. As a banking partner in this space, our relationship led approach means we're committed to ensuring operators can access the right credit stack for their stage of growth. With Highbeam capital providing the flexibility needed, and insights built into the banking platform -- we can help find the right solution. If we can be helpful to you, please DM me and the team will take it from there.

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Super helpful #Startup #Equity Calculator to determine the equity for early hires, thanks to Pear VC head of talent Matt Birnbaum! Thanks for sharing Pejman! 🙏🏼 You can read more here How to structure startup equity for early hires: https://lnkd.in/ggmpT5-Y Google Doc: https://lnkd.in/gjsvths6

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NYC, the capital of fintech. Over the last year, VC investment in NYC Fintech companies outpaced SF by 135%. This is not surprising for industry insiders. In fact, I expect the gap to become even wider as NYC early stage Fintech companies mature and raise large growth rounds in the coming years. SF is still the place to be if you’re in Hardware, Deep Tech, and many other industries. But if you’re building a US fintech company, NYC is the place to be. At Gilgamesh Ventures we’ve invested in a dozen NYC Fintechs and we’re looking to back a few more in 2024. We’d love to meet you if you’re getting started! Fintech Leaders Peter Walker

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When I first read Jevgenijs Kazanins's very excellent fintech take on why Cash App Pay could be the next major driver of Block’s growth, I was floored by his initially compelling case that if Cash App can incentivize more payments payments volume to go through Cash App Pay, they can drive massive gross profit uplift, because Cash App Pay’s take rate is substantially higher than Cash Card’s take rate on purchase volume (2-3x). But if it were true, why hasn’t Cash App taken advantage? Whereas Jevgenijs is more optimistic about the ~$2.5bn in GPV that Cash App Pay has generated in its first ~2.5 years of existence, I find it downright embarrassing. That’s less than 1% of Square’s GPV after two years in the wild? And that’s despite it being essentially pre-installed on every terminal with no change in hardware required. I started to have a sinking feeling that maybe something was missing in the calculus. And as I dove deeper, it became clear that the “magic” take rate uptick we thought we’d found was more of a magic trick, relying on some deception. The seeming increase in take rate comes about like this. Normally, when a Cash App user makes a purchase, Cash App acts as the Issuer which means there are several intermediaries between what the merchant is charged and what Block earns on the transaction, meaning its ultimate take rate is relatively low. But in the case of Cash App Pay, there’s potentially a few magic tricks at work. The first is that in this case, Block is facilitating the Square merchant’s acquiring POS AND it’s issuing the Cash App user’s debit card, thereby cutting the intermediaries down in the typical payments flow and seemingly increasing Cash App take rates by 35-50% (instead of just interchange, you’re now getting interchange and markup). But then gets even better with the second trick, because if you’re both the acquirer and the issuer, *you don’t even need the payment network at all*. You can simply move money by book transfer between your merchant’s bank account and your user’s bank account in a perfectly closed loop payment network. Suddenly, Cash App Pay has a magical 2.9% take rate with no money movement costs at all. The problem with these magic tricks, like the ones in life, is that they are actually using some deception to hide what’s truly happening. Let’s play it out. In the status quo, without Cash App Pay, Square would earn ~1.85% in acquirer markup and Cash App would earn 0.90% in interchange for a total of 2.75% in take rate. In the Cash App Pay case, Square and Cash App would split the 2.90% Merchant Discount rate they artfully charged without having any money movement. So instead of the 2-3x markup, the uptick is more like +15bps (+5%). So maybe there isn’t a massive take rate arbitrage, but Block should still be focusing on its closed loop payment network because it represents huge opportunity for other reasons. Read the full post at https://lnkd.in/d93nkn29.

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New Private SaaS M&A data available for Q1/24! 📊 Software Equity Group just released its latest quarterly report for 1Q/24 on the private SaaS M&A space.* It is packed with interesting insights into buyer types, valuations, preferred segments/verticals, etc. _____ 📄 Brief summary: ➡️ Software Industry M&A Trends The first quarter of 2024 (1Q24) saw steady M&A activity with 823 deals, consistent with last year and significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. This trend reflects a sustained interest in the software sector. ➡️ SaaS Sector Dynamics SaaS M&A experienced a slight dip recently, influenced by economic factors and interest rate hikes. Nevertheless, activity remains robust, showing a 50% increase from early pre-2022 averages. ➡️ Valuation Insights M&A valuations have stabilized, with a median EV/TTM Revenue multiple of 3.8x and an average of 5.1x. As interest rates are expected to drop, we may see an impact on future valuations. ➡️ Vertical Market Focus Vertical SaaS made up nearly half of the Q1 deals, dominated by Healthcare and Financial Services. There’s growing interest in sectors like Hospitality, Retail, and Manufacturing, indicating a diversification in investment focus. ➡️ Private Equity Influence Private equity continues to drive SaaS M&A, involved in 59% of the deals this quarter. This is driven by PE-backed strategics (48%) that continue to leverage an ideal mix of product synergies and capital allocated to M&A _____ Doesn't look so bad after all. If you ask me, there is cause for slight optimism. What do you think, are we through the worst? *Link to the full report below! 🙂 #saas #startups #vc #venturecapital #funding #exit #valuation #mergersandacquisitions #privateequity

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As oversight requirements of banks over their fintech partners increase, one of the oft-overlooked channels is ads. As consumers spend a lot of time online, fintechs rely on search (Google, Bing) and social media (Meta, Linkedin) ads to funnel their growth. Banks must include ads alongside websites and social media channels in their program monitoring. Fortunately, Meta, Google, and other platforms provide transparency on the ads and the advertisers by listing down all the ads, the assets used, and the dates. All you need to do is search for keywords or advertisers and review the ad results that come up. At Sei AI (backed by YC & PayPal) - we have built a real-time system that polls these channels for new ads launched by either advertisers or keywords and lets you validate the assets against your compliance policies. We have already increased the surface area of the "Ads Analysed" metric by 10X and reduced the review time spent by 40% for one of our customers. Reach out if you are looking for a holistic platform to monitor the websites, social media, and ads of your partners! #compliance #regulatorycompliance #ai #LLM #adsmonitoring #banks #fintechs

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Did you know that 68% of small businesses report having cash flow problems, and many small businesses rely on the owner's personal funds to stay afloat? Relay exists to solve this and the best part is it's actually working! Which makes this announcement even sweeter: We raised a USD $32.2 million Series B round. What does this mean? - More spend management tools to improve financial visibility - More products to give small business owners flexibility - More integrations to streamline operations - And ultimately more businesses making better and smarter financial decisions Exciting times ahead! PS We're hiring: https://lnkd.in/gMT2mN25

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The biggest missed deals of Bessemer Venture Partners: As one of the time-honored venture capital firms, Bessemer's investment portfolio includes glitters like Twitch, Pinterest, Shopify, LinkedIn, Skype, DocuSign, and many others. Each shining brighter than the last. What sets them apart? Their Anti-Portfolio - a candid showcase of 'the ones that got away.' This includes those golden opportunities they could've seized, but didn’t. In retrospect, those prospects blossomed into titans of industry. Bessemer’s audacious transparency is not just a lesson, but a revolution in the venture capital hemisphere. They display their 'misses' with as much pride as their 'hits'. PS. check out 🔔 for a winning pitch deck the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel https://lnkd.in/eDkT27Kt

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Non-Engineering Roles at Early-Stage Startups Offering $120K+ Base Salary with Meaningful Bonus and Equity: Chief of Staff @ Milo (Consumer), Remote Biz Ops Lead @ Fractal Agriculture (FinTech), Remote; Backed by Virta Ventures Chief of Staff @ CakeAI (AI SaaS), NY; Backed by Primary Venture Partners Demand Generation Specialist @ Rootly (Consumer), Remote; Backed by YC, 8VC, Gradient Ventures Account Executive @ CommandBar (Enterprise SaaS), Remote; Backed by Soma Capital, YC, Insight Partners Product Marketing @ Slope (Enterprise), Remote; Backed by YC, Union Square Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures Supply Planning Manager @ PROVEN Skincare (Consumer), Remote; Backed by YC, FJ Labs, Soma Capital, Social Capital Account Executive @ Accrue Savings (Consumer), NY; Backed by Ground Up Ventures, Tiger Global Chief of Staff @ UNIGRID Battery (Climate), CA; Backed by Union Square Ventures, LiquidMetal Ventures Job details and the full list (40+ opportunities) are in the comments below. If you're interested in non-tech jobs focused on specific industries like HardTech, HealthTech, Climate, etc., then DM me or let me know in the comments.

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Datadog quarter: - $611m rev (+27% YoY) vs $590m consensus (4% beat) - $622m next Q guidance vs $616m consensus (1% raise) - Raised full year guide 1.4% from last Q ($2.6B vs $2.565B) - ~115% net dollar retention - 27 months GM adj. CAC payback - 82% GM - 31% FCF Margin Some charts on quarterly net new ARR added below:

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Please check out my latest newsletter where I share insights from Carta's "State of the Private Markets: Q1 2024" report: 📉 New funding rounds down by 29% from last quarter, with bridge rounds dominating seed and Series A financing. 📈 Down rounds surged to 23%, reflecting market challenges but also opportunities for resilient startups. 💰 Despite fewer deals, total cash invested increased to $16.3B, with the West region leading VC investment. ⏳ Median time between rounds is increasing, impacting startup runway and strategy. Plus, learn about Oklo Inc's SPAC debut and the latest research on immigrant entrepreneurship's impact on innovation. Read the full report for in-depth insights: https://lnkd.in/g7Q3Ud34 #PrivateMarkets #VentureCapital #StartupTrends #EconomicIndicators #Innovation #Carta #Oklo #Entrepreneurship #InvestmentTrend

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Looking for some spicy fintech takes? Marqeta’s CEO Simon Khalaf & Plaid's CEO Zachary Perret have thoughts 💡 With the candor and humor that only fintech OGs can bring we cover how👇 - Credit modeling and fraud detection will undergo massive transformation in the next 3-5 years - Digital payment cards are more addictive than TikTok! GenAI can offer personalized, real-time rewards, turning payment cards into powerful engagement tools. - Al companies will integrate financial services too (i.e. every company will be a fintech company!) New episode of Andreessen Horowitz's "In the Vault" featuring our conversation at our 3rd annual Connect/Fintech (full episode link in comments)

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🎙️ Amy Saper is a force of nature, having held senior product roles at Uber, Twitter, and Stripe, as well as being a partner at Accel and a Sequoia Scout, before joining forces with Jeff Clavier Tripp Jones Susan Liu Andy McLoughlin and team at Uncork Capital. Amy and I had a great conversation recently (Podcast in the comments below), but here are the main areas we covered: 1)Transitioning from product roles to VC: The adjustments that needed to be made and the similarities and differences of VC and working at startups. 2) Capital Constraints and Creativity: Drawing from her Twitter days, where the original 140-character limit spurred creative communication, she believes that today's capital constraints can be a large net positive for companies in unlocking creativity. 3) Being Client centric as VC: A strong parallel exists between operating companies and venture firms in their customer focus. What does being client centric mean in the context of VC firm and what is VC's version of Product-Market Fit? 4) Talent Attraction and Development: Her non-negotiable is a founder's ability to attract and develop top talent as it's a huge correlation to startup success. listen to the full conversation in the link in the comments: #VentureCapital #Startups #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #fundraising‍‍‍‍‍

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Letter AI (YC S23) has raised $2.7M in a seed round and is nearing $1M in revenue within just 10 months of operating. The team is building the first unified revenue acceleration platform powered natively by AI, empowering B2B sales teams at companies like Lenovo and Redpanda with training/coaching, sales content generation, and buyer engagement in a single platform. Ali Akhtar and Armen Forget built Letter after personally experiencing pain points enabling revenue teams. In their previous roles at McKinsey, Samsara, and project44, they found it was nearly impossible to scale sales coaching and equip sellers with the right personalized content they needed to close deals. They saw AI as a technology advancing the productivity frontier and reimagined revenue enablement with an AI-first lens. The result is an AI-powered revenue acceleration platform helping their customers deliver engaging onboarding programs in less than 1 week and influencing $100M+ in TCV through more effective buyer engagement. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/g5h9fxYm. Congrats to the team on the round!

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Well said, Jen Abel. And even beyond these ARR guardrails, startups often instinctively throw in enterprise and SMB as dual strategies. Or direct and PLG. Outbound and channel. And more! #startup #sales #GTM #SMB #channel #enterprise #PLG #directsales

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If you're building a fintech startup, you likely know of this investor, but just in case... This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Neil Kapur from TTV Capital. He: 🛫 Is based in SF & Atlanta 💲 Has spent time at Google in consumer-facing payments & at two fintech startups  🏔️ Loves alpine mountaineering and has climbed Kilimanjaro, Denali, Rainier, and more!! Amongst founders, Neil and the team at TTV Capital , including Gardiner Garrard, Mark Johnson, Sean Banks, Lizzie Guynn, and Laney Lewis are known for saying “lift, not lean.” They believe that their job as investors is not to create work for founders, but instead ask the right questions and help navigate to the best outcomes. Knowing Neil well personally, he's not only my go-to person for anything related to fintech but I can also highly recommend having him on your cap table - he's the kind of human you want to have in your corner during both good times and bad. Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him at nkapur@ttvcapital.com ➡️ Follow TTV Capital on LinkedIn For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with TTV Capital's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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