Charles Amadon

Amplitude Announces Second Quarter 2024 Financial Results: - Second quarter revenue of $73.3 million, up 8% year over year - Annual Recurring Revenue of $290 million, up 8% year over year - Number of customers representing $100,000 or more of ARR in Q2 grew to 547, an increase of 10% year over year This quarter was all about meeting our customers where they are. In Q2 we took our Snowflake Native offering GA, doubled down on our open ecosystem, and unveiled a self-serve portal that makes it easier than ever to integrate with Amplitude. To our customers, partners, and Ampliteers, thank you! Your trust, partnership, and hard work is invaluable! #PLG #ProductLedGrowth #DigitalAnalytics #ProductAnalytics #Retention #Acquisition #Monetization

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When Thrive Capital first invested in Unify, Avery sent Connor and I the book Working Backwards: Insights, Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon. At Unify, we believe that building great product stems from working backwards from a customer's need. An example of how we do this at Unify: Solomon recently shipped our Unify intent client that lets us identify more individual people on a website, boosting our person-level reveal rate. How we approached building this feature: ➝ We picked 7-10 customer sites ➝ We found places on them that were collecting emails that we were not gathering ➝ We built the product to solve for those specific cases The end result? A feature customers love, because it was literally* built for them. Start with the customer, and work backwards.

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🎉 🎉HUGE congratulations to the whole Infinity Ventures team on raising $184M Fund II! To all my fellow Commerce/Fintech entrepreneurs out there - This team is the real deal and exactly who you want to have in your corner when you're building, and preparing for scale. They have helped Team Vizit tremendously. Can't wait to see all the new faces and big ideas at next year's Founder summit! 📈 🚀 Jay Ganatra Jeremy Jonker Mario Ruiz Levi King Samantha Klingelhofer Check out the story below 👇 #commerce #ai #fintech #vc #venturecapital #digitalcommerce

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🌟 SVB's Streamlined Closing Form is here to simplify your venture debt process. The micro point is that this should help save $10,000+ legal fees when a founder raises venture debt. The macro point is that SVB is more or less back in business. 💡 Don't miss out on this startup-friendly option. Link to the article in the original Kruze Consulting post. #Startups

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Did you see the news? Excited to have TechCrunch announce that in addition to acquiring three new companies, Capacity is continuing our transformational growth with a Series D round. I sat down with TechCrunch to give a little more insight on our roadmap: “Our growth strategy reflects what our customers are asking for: an all-in-one AI platform that delivers across all communication channels.” As we keep pursuing our goals, we’ll keep expanding our AI offerings and growing our team to become a leading provider of AI-powered support solutions. Read the full interview with TechCrunch -> https://lnkd.in/gTWagawR #supportautomation #artificialintelligence #customersupport #automation

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🚀 Scaling New Heights: Cribl's Strategic Growth 🚀 In a remarkable stride within the competitive market of data infrastructure, San Francisco-based startup Cribl has recently clinched a substantial $319 million in its latest Series E funding. This momentous investment spearheaded by GV (Alphabet’s venture arm) pushes Cribl to a towering valuation of $3.5 billion. 🌟 🔍 Here's Why This Matters for Startups and Small Businesses: 🔹 Innovation and Expansion: Cribl's trajectory illuminates the potent impact of innovative solutions in data management amidst an ever-expanding corporate data environment. 🔹 Significant Growth Potential: With the company boasting an impressive portfolio including 25% of the Fortune 500, the journey reflects significant growth potential and scalability that startups can aspire to. 🔹 Strategic Partnerships: The involvement of heavyweight investors like GV and others underscores the importance of strategic partnerships in accelerating business growth. Key Takeaways: - 🌐 Adapting advanced data solutions is crucial in leveraging the voluminous data generated today. - 📈 Embrace growth by seeking impactful investments and forming strategic partnerships. - 🚀 Aim for scalability by continuously innovating and expanding your solution offerings. Stay updated, engage with current trends, and continuously seek to innovate. The path Cribl is carving out highlights the robust possibilities within tech and data management sectors. For a deeper dive into Cribl’s funding news: https://lnkd.in/gQhmrYUK #DataManagement #StartupGrowth #Innovation This post was generated by an AI. Please contact us for more information.

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Crypto is complex. We make it simple. Take CryptoEQ Premium for a test drive with our brand-new EQ Dashboard walkthrough video. A Texas-sized shout-out to Rebecca Correa, Michael Thoma, and team for putting this together! Learn more at CryptoEQ.io. 🚀

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KNOW YOUR REAL BUSINESS ECONOMICS • GAAP Revenue • Cash Flow • Cash • Contribution Margin • CAC • CAC Payback FUNDRAISING: PRESENT & SUBSTANTIATE FINANCIALS • Investor needs to know what your forecasts are • They need to believe them David Weiden, Khosla Ventures

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We've got a killer sales team across media (Jennifer Watson Laws, Christi Lingard, Samantha Stein, Bryan Cink), data licensing (Mike Atwell), Altos SAAS (Jeff Graves 😎, Amanda Luzsicza), and HW+ (Caroline Abad). One thing I appreciate about them is speed to lead. We're following up on leads in most cases within 5 minutes. But like most growing companies, we need more leads! We've invested in a custom Salesforce integration, have the leads flowing nicely from our HubSpot email platform, have everyone on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and recently started testing Apollo.io. How have sales leaders integrated BDRs into businesses with multiple products and sales teams? Are there lead generation platforms in B2B that my peers have had success with? My DMs are open, what are we missing?

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Today, GTMfund’s is excited to announce to launch of Operator, its first incubated company. Max Altschuler (founder of GTMfund) teamed up with co-founder Adam M. (design engineer and 0-1 builder) and co-founder Mark Kosoglow (Outreach employee #1 and former SVP of Global Sales) to create Operator.ai alongside an insanely talented team Pleasant Middelhof, Jeremy Jonas, Carl Gunderson. We've entered a period called “The Great Ignore”. Spam and irrelevant, poorly-automated outbound campaigns are running rampant.   Operator gives you an easy-to-use Growth Engineer that allows you to build and enrich lists with accurate data, and run experiments and queries using AI to generate highly targeted outreach.    Check out their website to get updates, early access, and see how they are taking the world back to 2 touches meant to attract buyers into conversations that convert, instead of 20 touches meant to make sure you hit your activity number: https://www.operator.ai/

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Great article on the history and evolution of Capital One...

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A PATH FOR SMALLER IPOs From Carl Chiou (quoted verbatim), an example of a smaller IPO and what it takes. Thanks Carl! ---- I’ve been busy working on a complex transaction we announced yesterday morning. Powerfleet (AIOT), a ~$500mm market cap vertical software company announced a $200mm acquisition of a privately owned competitor concurrently with a $70mm equity issuance via a PIPE as part of a larger financing package. Why is this relevant to you? Because it demonstrates the art of the possible for smaller companies that aspire to become public companies. First, investor demand absolutely exists for smaller market cap issuers as the company raised nearly 20% of its market cap to finance a transformative acquisition. While it may feel like the path to IPO for private companies requires $500mm+ of revenue, that’s simply not the reality. But… Second, success doesn’t happen overnight as many investors had already met with the company multiple times at conferences and their familiarity with the business and management team allowed them to move quickly. For private companies, that means being active and targeted in investor outreach in the 12-18 months leading up to an IPO. Third, giving up some of the pie to grow the pie can be a win-win for everyone. The equity offering priced at $3.50 versus a prior day close of $4.66, but two days post-announcement, shares are trading comfortable above $5. As much as I’ve written about optimizing IPO pricing, I’m also realistic that for smaller cap issuers, investors are going to underwrite more conservative valuations to accept the risk of less liquid, potentially higher volatility stocks. Fourth, the consolidation thesis resonates with investors as it simplifies the competitive landscape, adds revenue scale and drives improved operational and financial efficiency that improves the bottom line. I continue to believe that as much as the large strategics and private equity will play a role in clearing out the private tech pipeline, small – midsize companies will also be key participants going forward. End of day, Databricks, Stripe and other large scale, high-fliers are going to garner instant investor attention and a high multiple out of the gate when they eventually go public. But for everyone else, it’s important to know that with the right expectations, there is a clear path to an IPO. 1:10 PM · Sep 19, 

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What is the most exciting thing about the fintech and payments space today? 💸 ZoomInfo Founder and CEO Henry Schuck shares his thoughts while at Money20/20 on how ZoomInfo empowers companies to pinpoint and understand their total addressable market—unlocking new growth opportunities. #Money2020

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What’s the secret to Payroc becoming the fourth-largest non-bank payment processor? Strategic acquisitions. Since 2018, Payroc has been on an aggressive acquisition spree, targeting independent software vendors (ISVs) and smaller players in the payments industry. With a clear vision for growth, the company now has around 50 potential acquisition targets in its sights, actively pursuing about eight of them, according to Payroc President Adam Oberman. This focused strategy has resulted in the acquisition of companies like Banquest, Retriever Merchant Solutions, ACheck21, Beanstalk, ECS, Dynamics Payments, Iroquois, WorldNet, Atlantic Merchant Services, and IMS Holdings. These moves demonstrate Payroc’s commitment to diversifying its offerings, expanding its market reach, and solidifying its leadership in the M&A space. This is exactly why I chose to partner with Payroc. They’re not just participating in mergers and acquisitions—they’re leading the charge.

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Big News 🎉 @Gong just dropped some MAJOR AI capabilities that deliver new levels of automation, deep customer insights, and standardized knowledge sharing across the entire revenue org. With Gong’s new capabilities, you can: ✨Create smoother collaboration workflows across teams ✨Make coaching more efficient and consistent  ✨Deploy ready-to-use Smart Trackers ✨Centralize process, systems, and data ✨Bring AI-powered context to your sellers   Game. Changer. Learn more about these exciting new capabilities here: https://lnkd.in/gE9Hu8N3

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Excited to host a 30-minute panel at Andreessen Horowitz Tech Week in SF on Wednesday, October 9. If you're a founder or sales leader at a high-growth startup who predominantly sells into the enterprise, you won't want to miss this discussion. Our expert panelists will share invaluable insights on: - Breaking through to key decision-makers - Structuring an efficient sales process - Proven techniques for closing high-value deals

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The second update that I wanted to share was an investment that we've been working on for quite some time. Excited that the announcement has finally gone out. Citi Ventures has invested in Lakera, to build the next-generation of security tools to protect the next-generation of applications (those powered by LLMs). We got to meet David Haber and his co-founders, Matthias Kraft and Mateo Rojas-Carulla, just as the year started and were blown away by their vision of the future. Humans use LLMs today but in the not too distant future LLM-agents will talk to LLM-agents at rapid speed. Lakera's Guard product protects LLM-based applications from malicious prompts (made by bad actors trying to steal data) by inserting a layer of trust where bad prompts are detected and only valid/safe prompts reach your applications. The term in vogue today is an "LLM Firewall". We conducted an exhaustive search of the category and came away believing Lakera had built the most robust and scalable product in the market. Can't wait to get started with the team and work with them on this journey! Matt Carbonara ✅, Vibhor Rastogi, Arvind Purushotham, Blaze O'Byrne, Avi Arnon, Çağla Kaymaz, Olivia Zhang, Max R. Mailman https://lnkd.in/ewMmennJ

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Cap Table guidance from Cake Equity and my former colleague Chris Hoffmann, ECA 🚀🧢 VALUATION & EQUITY MANAGEMENT: Companies should aim for balanced equity plans that are fair yet practical, involving vesting schedules to ensure employees earn their shares. Giving employees sufficient time to exercise options post-vesting can also prevent punitive exercise costs. This approach encourages loyalty and values employee contributions without overwhelming the cap table. HIGH ADMIN DEMAND IN LATER STAGES: In growth phases, especially Series C and D, managing cap tables becomes complex, with frequent hires, exits, and equity grants. Software platforms (e.g., Cake) are essential to keep cap tables organized, as manual systems like Excel can't handle the volume and complexity efficiently. IMPORTANCE OF DAILY & MONTHLY AUDITS: Regular audits are crucial to keep track of terminations, new grants, and board consents. Errors in terminations and grants can lead to costly issues during audits, financial reporting, or funding rounds. SECONDARY TRANSACTIONS & LIQUIDITY OPTIONS: Allowing limited liquidity for employees and early investors, such as through tender offers or company-facilitated secondary transactions, is valuable. These mechanisms offer flexibility without requiring a full exit or IPO, which has become less common due to the IPO market slowdown. CAP TABLE ERRORS CAN BE COSTLY: Historical errors in cap tables can create major headaches. Two examples highlight this:    - In one case, a series D company had to spend $100,000 to $150,000 on cap table corrections, which delayed planned transactions by six months.   - Another company had converted multiple financing rounds incorrectly, requiring a year and a half of back-and-forth with attorneys and investors to correct the errors. These situations emphasize the need to organize and verify cap table data from the outset to avoid costly fixes later. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FOUNDERS: Early-stage companies should seek expert help in setting up and maintaining cap tables, even if through fractional CFOs or specialized attorneys. Organizing all equity-related documents digitally, using reliable software, and conducting regular audits can save time, money, and stress in the long run.

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