Taylor Fox-Smith’s Post

It is all about acquiring existing businesses and scaling them up! For example, Nick Molnar co-founded Afterpay and turned it into a billion-dollar business, which was later acquired by Square, Inc. for $39 billion AUD. 💵 This smart strategy minimises startup risks and builds on proven successes. For more tips and expert help, DM INFO to learn more. 🔗 Tap the link at www.mumsandco.com.au for more info on Mums & Co experts. #mumpreneurs #mumbition #mumsandco #businessmums #smallbusinesstipsandtricks

As an Italian with a deep passion for startups and tech, I have been watching Bending Spoons growth and evolution since early days. The acquisitions of Evernote, Meetup, WeTransfer and other key apps have definitely created noise outside Italy. It was great to read this week a dedicated profile on Bloomberg Businessweek about the company, their modus operandi, and long-term strategy. The article says that the founder describes the business "like private equity had a baby with Google." You can read the article here: https://lnkd.in/eiWDFDxs #ai #startup #tech

Today, I'm pumped to share we're working with Steve Travaglini - former CRO of Linksquares ($500K to $50M ARR) and 2023 Pavilion CRO of the year - to build his new market maker, Winrate. We've also partnered with J.P. Morgan Commercial Banking to make it a reality with the full weight of York IE behind Steve on his journey! 💪 -- More details: The reason we founded our advisory and venture capital firm, York IE, was to make as big an impact on the startup and technology landscape as we could. We wanted to have a myriad of ways to engage with founders, operators and investors to create meaningful businesses across a portfolio. We wanted to provide advisory as a service for R&D, GTM and G&A to companies of all sizes. We wanted to selectively invest in our favorite SaaS businesses. One of our efforts is York IE Labs, where we co-found genesis stage startups with world-class industry experts and provide our entire 200+ person infrastructure and platform to them as a foundation and an accelerant for their idea and potential. Steve and Winrate is a perfect example of my quote in the announcement, “Founder market fit is one of the most important things we look for in startups, and Winrate has it in spades." LFG! 🚀 [FULL ANNOUNCEMENT IN THE COMMENTS]

Thanks to all the accomplished leaders who reached out to take me up on my challenge to debate at Collision Conf. Amazing to see all the passion on both sides of the topic. It was a tough decision but I have found the formidable opponent I was seeking in Alon Zieve, whom we are flying in from #Israel for the debate. Alon has had an incredible career at the highest ranks of startups, investment media, and even marketplaces. Over the last 15 years he has had significant stints in the C-suites of Bringg, a unicorn in the logistics industry, Seeking Alpha, the world’s largest investing community, and Natural Intelligence, a multi-vertical marketplace comparison platform with half a billion in revenues. One thing that Alon and I can agree on is that founders should have a way to reduce their highly concentrated exposure to their own startup before the company itself achieves an exit. However Alon does not believe that this can or should be achieved by allowing private shares to be sold more freely. Rather, his new startup Aption seeks to provide founders and early employees with the ability to contribute their shares to, and in turn take a stake in, a broader diversified pool of shares created by the contributions of other founders. While this approach does not address the need for near-term liquidity, it could reduce the founder’s personal financial risk by allowing them to diversify away from their own startup (and theoretically get distributions over time as companies in the pool achieve exits). So, each of Alon and I have a deeply vested interest in our respective sides of the debate. Hiive benefits from allowing people to sell their shares, and Aption represents an alternative to trading that at least enables employees to diversify.  While we will not be on stage to debate each other’s business models, I am curious to hear what people think of the Aption’s approach. Alon, see you Wednesday. And may the best founder win. #liquidity #secondarymarket #privatemarket #preipo #stockoptions

Thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Calin Fabri on the Venture Europe podcast on building products, venture capital and everything in between. Do give it a listen, I hope you enjoy it! (Link in comments)

"Unicorns Ruled for a Decade. Tech Needs a New Beast. The era of obsessing over lofty valuations needs to end. It’s time to refocus on revenue." - Parmy Olson in Bloomberg At #LondonTechWeek earlier this week, Phoenix Court and Dealroom.co published new insights about startup fundamentals in Europe and beyond. In the UK alone, 118 startups are bringing in more than $100 million in revenue! 785 do more than $25 million in revenues. One of the key things we discovered is also that the number of new startups with $100M+ revenues and the number of new unicorns moved pretty much in synchronous in recent years, apart 2021 when valuations went nuts! This new research marks a further step in Dealroom's mission to help unleash the potential of startup ecosystems with intelligence. At Dealroom.co we now cover financial regulatory data on 80% of the European startup ecosystem. Outside Europe, we are also making strides, although the financial disclosers are more limited. We believe this is the start of a new era with much more focus on fundamentals. This matters hugely not only for investors but also for employees and all stakeholders. #venturecapital #unicorns #revenues

🛠️ Building products generating billions - with Kaushik Subramanian, partner at EQT Ventures 💰 From offices in Stockholm, London, Berlin, Paris and New York, EQT invests in and supports entrepreneurs building the next-generation of global winners from a 1.1B Euro fund. 🛼 Prior to joining EQT, Kaushik was at Stripe and Meta where he built and scaled several products to global reach and generating billions. 💡 During this episode we discuss how to choose your design partners when building the early version of the product, why he decided to join EQT ventures and how he asses founders if they have a product first mindset. 🔗 Link in comments. Enjoy! #entrepreneruship #products #ventureeurope #venturecapital

Private markets are changing and Sim and I will be discussing how they should evolve. Looking forward to the conversation and to having a real discussion about the challenges and opportunities for the Venture industry.

Austin, exit season is coming up! 💰Seize the Sale: How to Prepare Your Startup for Acquisition 🔗https://lnkd.in/gqTuMybP As markets recover from a sluggish year, M&A activity is set to soar. Which startups are poised for acquisition? Falling valuations make understanding optimal negotiation terms crucial for startup founders. Biztech Lawyers MD, Chris Spillman, is joined by fintech unicorn Zip Co's Adam Ezra and Brad Lindenberg, and Kevin McKeand of GSD Squad LLC. This #SXSW panel will offer a strategic playbook for tech leaders and investors to exit their businesses with finesse. Gain insights into acquirers' minds, identify opportunities, optimize valuation, and secure favorable terms. This transformative session provides actionable strategies for both imminent exits and long-term planning, ensuring invaluable guidance and clarity. Make this session happen by voting for it. If you haven't registered for #SXSW2025's #PanelPicker yet, you can do so at https://lnkd.in/fNqSTf4 and use the link above to go straight to our event page where you can vote by clicking the ⬆️ button.

Big thanks to Dan Primack at Axios for talking with me about the Failure Museum.   My entire career has been as an operator or venture capitalist for enterprise software companies. I’ve also been an avid collector of sports memorabilia. The Failure Museum is my collection of artifacts from failed companies, products, toys, and sports — and combines my passion for entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and collectibles. I shared the same advice with Dan that I’ve been sharing with business school students around the country: “Don't fear failure or taking risks. Even some of the most successful companies have had to pivot. Even if a CEO doesn't come from a sales background, they need to be able to sell — to customers, to talent, and to investors.” I also discussed my "Six Forces of Failure" framework that shows the common reasons for startup failure: https://lnkd.in/gaaMx8Hd Read more from our conversation in today’s Top of the Morning: https://lnkd.in/gQQnEb4D