Good Audience: The Rising Stars of Deep Tech
How these experts are approaching a post-covid 19 world
These Rising Stars of the blockchain and crypto world had a Zoom party for the Crypto Rush world premiere!
Watch now on Vimeo
as they released this documentary for everyone locked up in quarantine.
Hello Good Audience readers!
The world is in shambles at the moment. However, there are a special bunch of engineers, designers, marketers, and technologists that are here defining what the post-Covid 19 world will look like. This is an incredibly important thing to highlight. Most of the world is waiting for things to return to normal. However, there is a non-zero chance that how we are living is the new normal. There are both founders and investors who are willing to bet on this new future.
How VCs and angel investors are evolving
We have seen how top VC firms are addressing this situation. It was generally believed in February/March that all investors are slowing down and waiting to see how this will all play out. They simply wanted to gather data to figure out their own next steps. Some VCs have raised and closed their funds before the pandemic and are starting to deploy capital now. Some VCs are raising a new fund knowing that great companies will be built during this time at cheap valuations. Some VCs are doing nothing.
NFX FAST Seed Funding: 9 Days to Decision
Founders can apply for a $1-2M seed round for 15%, and receive a commitment in 9 days or less. They have allocated $20M for this initiative to start. It’s a rolling review process and each company will be evaluated separately. The sooner founders apply, the sooner they receive funding. The first window for NFX to make FAST investments will be between April 14 and May 22.
Link: https://www.nfx.com/post/fast-announcement
Andreessen Horowitz aims to raise $450m for second crypto fund
A16Z might close the new fund soon according to one source who told the Financial Times. Fundraising will be difficult for both venture capital and cryptocurrencies, as tech investors grow cautious about the impact of coronavirus on lossmaking companies. In a post-pandemic world, being heavily invested into blockchain and crypto companies is not a bad idea. Our situation is accelerating the adoption of decentralized technologies.
Link: https://www.ft.com/content/329ca57b-5b57-4c81-9037-e704ef5c4476
The Reset Fund —A Joint Venture Between the UK Government and Private Investors.
A new fund that was born out of COVID-19. They believe the global landscape has changed. And that the companies of the future will have focus on societal impact in sectors such as Medicine, Health, Education, and Climate. Through The RESET Fund, the private sector will match and fund government grant funding with equity funding to safeguard future national abundance.
Link: https://resetfund.org
Covid Incubator for Social Enterprises
Take this time of disruption and distancing to plan how you're going to launch or grow a social enterprise to create a better, post-COVID19, future. Over ten weeks you will learn from Tom Dawkins and a dozen other social enterprise founders all sharing what they know about creating sustainable impact.
Shape the System by Angel Investor Vincent Turner
Great podcast that inspires more people to rethink the way the world works. This is super relevant for a post-covid world. They interview people from all over the world who are changing our systems.. this might be food, energy, finance, education, health, environment, charitable.. anything really. They may be involved as founders or CEOs or providers to the specific vertical. The ventures they operate may be non-profit or for profit but they will have found a way to create success, sustainability and impact.
Link: https://shapethesystem.org
How startups and founders are evolving
There are many startups and founders that we’ve talked to that are still surviving during these times and even growing in terms of new users and customers. It is incredibly tough as the majority of businesses have had to cut staff or even close up shop completely. It is expected in Q2 that Covid-19 will wipe out 195M jobs world-wide. Let’s have a look at some companies we think will survive this.
Matelabs in Bangalore, India
Last Mile Analytics (LMA) is a new category with Matelabs in Bangalore, India leading the way. The world has put the consumer supply chain to the test. Demand planners are struggling to make sure products are flowing efficiently from manufacturers, to distributors, to stores, and to homes of the people. These are basic necessities. Have a listen to how LMA can help prepare for a crisis/recession on the ML Times podcast on Sound Cloud.
We’re particularly excited for their Demand Forecasting tool. They’ve made the process simple. Please sign up here and tell them Good Audience sent you for early access.
1K Project in New York and Seattle, USA
The 1K Project helps business owners nominate former employees laid off due to this pandemic to receive support directly from sponsors. Their model is to directly match a family with a sponsor committed to giving the family $1k per month for three months, for a total gift of $3,000. For a family experiencing loss of income and lacking sufficient savings, immediate cash assistance is what’s needed most.
This support bridges these families until they have new employment or other assistance flowing in. The project was founded by two prominent VCs, Alex Iskold (2048 Ventures) and Minda Brusse (Front Row Partners). If you want to nominate a family or become a sponsor, we’re happy to facilitate an intro. Email hello at goodaudience dot com with subject ‘1K Project’.
Link: https://www.1kproject.org
Fasal in The Farms of India
Fasal is building hardware IoT products for Farmers to help them grow more and grow better. Founders come from farming families so it is in their blood to make sure these products are as efficient and as low cost as it can to suit the pocket of an Indian farmer. Their engineering team recently published a post on how to properly build out your hardware product and price it. Very promising that they are able to sell into farms during this time. This means more food will possibly make it families in need at a cheaper price.
Link: https://medium.com/fasal-engineering/factors-influencing-the-cost-of-your-product-171357c3851a
UTU in Nairobi, Kenya
Jason Eisen, the CEO of UTU, recently wrote a thought provoking piece on trust and privacy. He is an American living in Africa so I guess he knows a thing or two about trust. Watch the interview at AI Expo Africa below.
The world is currently being asked to forego their privacy in the name of protection from COVID-19. UTU has repurposed their privacy research and pursued to eliminate this tradeoff with a decentralized, privacy preserving (non-tracking) contact tracing system. Moreover, they are collaborating with academics, developers, and designers across Africa to fine-tune the idea and bring it to fruition.
If you want to get involved in this non-tracking contact tracing system to help with the COVID-19 situation, please let us know! They are looking for more developers, designers, and volunteers to make a huge impact in Africa. If you don’t have time and looking to support it by backing it, we are happy to facilitate an intro. Email hello at goodaudience dot com with subject ‘UTU’.
Is there anyone you would like to nominate as a Rising Star in Deep Tech? They could be an engineer, professor, VC, designer, growth hacker, writer, etc. Drop an email to hello at goodaudience dot com to let us know!