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Top Hat Raises $22.5M Series C in a Tough Vertical: What Can We Learn from their Success

Version One Ventures

Union Square Ventures – one of our favorite co-investors – added to Top Hat’s existing investors and USV’s Albert Wenger joined their Board of Directors. Generally speaking, Ed Tech has proven to be a tough vertical, primarily due to the fact that it’s hard to charge consumers (students) directly. They hustle.

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Why Online Video Just Took One More Big Step to Legitimacy

Both Sides of the Table

Anyone who reads this blog frequently will know that I am a big believer in low-cost video content and specifically the power of YouTube as a content creation & distribution platform. Distribution costs have, too. The industry finally has one of their own at the helm of the largest YouTube network. They read less than 30 minutes.

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Why the Future of Tesla May Depend on Knowing What Happened to Billy Durant

Steve Blank

When Sloan arrived at GM in 1920 he realized that the traditional centralized management structures organized by function (sales, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing) were a poor fit for managing GM’s diverse product lines. If you’re following Tesla, you might be interested to know that Sloan wasn’t the founder of GM.

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From Generalist to Specialist: The Blueprint for Vertical Market Domination

Duct Tape Marketing

Corey is also the author of ‘Anyone, Not Everyone,’ a comprehensive guide for agency founders looking to move beyond founder-led sales. He is currently on a mission to empower 1,000 agencies to become vertical-market specialists, leveraging his extensive experience and insights. Not everyone.

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SXSW Pitch Finalist: LexSet

Austin Startup

The LexSet Co-Founders (left to right) CEO Francis Bitonti , President Leslie Oliver Karpas , and COO Azam Khan won $250,000 in Verizon’s Built on 5G Challenge The Forrest Four-Cast: March 3, 2020 LexSet serves AI engineers, especially those with limited resources, with a better way to annotate photos.

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The only 2 ways to build a $100 million business

Version One Ventures

A great product is always the foundation but a clear distribution strategy becomes essential to cut through the noise. Your business has a high viral co-efficient (or perhaps even a network effect) that lets you amass users cheaply without worrying too much about the monetization per user or spending money on paid acquisition.

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2023 Predictions

Eric Friedman

I still want this to happen, but as I love to tell founders Hope isn’t a strategy. I am still a huge fan of this co and use mine (mainly for the screen!) Your entire experience and process will be governed by a authentication. Identities can be real or not, but if if you don’t have an auth you don’t have an experience. -1: