Page Text: Natasha Mascarenhas @nmasc_ / 19 hours
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
I’ve been thinking a lot about silos, or the lack thereof, within startupland. There’s sometimes an artificial wall that is put up between companies at different stages of growth, when in reality, everyone is in the same room, clinking glasses and tripping over the same rug.
Let me be more precise. As the late-stage market has cooled down for tech companies, many early-stage investors say their portfolio companies aren’t too impacted because they’re years away from an exit and have enough capital to weather uncertainty. The same energy was on display this week at TechCrunch Early Stage. Stellation Capital’s Peter Boyce II coyly told me that, based on the term sheet he wrote yesterday, we’re still definitely in a founder-friendly market, while a pair of entrepreneurs not-so-subtly reminded me that experimental bets are still landing significant funding rounds.
I believe in optimism, and think of this time in early-stage startups as a recorrection , not a reckoning. But, new PitchBook and NVCA data does show that dollars are changing across the board.
For my full take, read my TechCrunch+ column: “ Let’s stop pretending there are silos in startupland. ” In the rest of this newsletter we’ll talk about social fintech, a new TC-1 on Kindbody and some history about hostile takeovers. As always, you can support me by forwarding this newsletter to a friend, following me on Twitter or subscribing to my personal blog.
Deal of the week
I covered Braid, a social fintech play that wants to make shared wallets with friends more mainstream. The startup recently launched a new twist on consumer payment links: People can set up a Braid Pool around any effort — a fund for this summer’s Italy trip, shared car gasoline expenses, or a kitty to put toward monthly book club snacks — and then send a link to friends who want to put cash in. The money then goes directly into the wallet and the creator can either manage it solo or together with participants.
Here’s why it’s important: Fintech can’t just build for the smartest, most pro-active person in the room, so I like that Braid is the middle ground between the friend that is always on top of splitting the bill at the end of dinner and the one who gets overwhelmed at calculating and dividing up the tip. Ahem, me. Sharing something as emotional as money definitely brings challenges — which I outline in my piece — but it also starts a fascinating conversation.
Honorable mentions: