Semil
Investor via @Haystack_Fund in @Hired_HQ @Instacart @DoorDash @Hashicorp @Giphy @eShares @OpenDoor @AirmapIO // Venture Partner w/ @GGVCapital
Thought Leader
| #30 | Startups |
Last synced from Twitter 19m ago
Introducing Envoy Deliveries
We’re thrilled to announce our newest product, Envoy Deliveries. It’s the simple solution for package management.
J.P. Morgan to Buy Payments Firm WePay in First Major Fintech Acquisition
J.P. Morgan Chase said that it agreed to buy payments company WePay in the bank’s first sizable acquisition of a financial-technology startup.
“Leveling Up” – Haystack
I have been emailing Haystack founders a bit more often with some stream-of-conscious thoughts, and many of them have encouraged me to publish them publicly. Below, I was thinking about how relatively easy it is (in the Bay Area) to raise a seed...
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Semil
[new post] "Leveling Up" - blog.semilshah.com/2017/10/18/lev… (potential learnings from a VC fundraise, applied to going from seed to Series A/B stage)
25h
The Pre-Seed FAQ
One of the people I respect the most in the VC/PE media ecosystem is Dan Primack. I’ve been an avid reader of Dan’s Term Sheet while he was at Fortune, and now Pro Rata at Axios. His writings and knowledge of the inner workings of the VC/PE...
Semil
.@manukumar on state of pre-seed VC: k9ventures.com/blog/2017/10/1… ("Pre-Seed investors should *not* be looking for any kind of traction.")
3d
Silicon Valley’s Russian ads problem, explained
Why Facebook, Google and Twitter find themselves in the middle of an investigation into the 2016 election.
Semil
Recode on Russia leveraging FB & TWTR. Real insight & execution, we pay for the results, indeed: recode.net/2017/10/6/1641… via @Recode
3d
Twitter Needs a Public Police Blotter
Twitter’s general policy is to not comment on the actions taken against a specific account deemed to be in violation of its Terms of Service. Occasionally in high profile or controversial cas…
Semil
Twitter Needs a Public Police Blotter by @hunterwalk - buff.ly/2xK3T5X (one of many much-needed product improvements for Twitter) pic.twitter.com/1cqi3NUYOg
3d
The Rebundling of Craigslist
For the last 7 years, we’ve seen this classic picture of the attack on Craigslist. Spark Capital analysts Andrew Parker and David Haber did a great job with this unbundling chart.
I’ve always had a...
Semil
Rebundling of Craigslist buff.ly/2yuxNu4 (great observation by @jbreinlinger, next evolution of @andrewparker's infamous annotation) pic.twitter.com/w5KFhbYXHB
3d
Home Base & Social Club for Women in New York - The Wing
The Wing was born out of the belief that women need a multi-purpose space designed to make their lives easier, and that magic is created when women gather together.
Wine Country Fire - Fire Engine response and firefight, Stopping the Flames (Firefighter view)
Semil
Unreal & real-time, 10-min clip of Berkeley Engine #6 to NorCal fires, caravanning into hell: youtube.com/watch?time_con… (h/t @gregbettinelli)
4d
Pitchbot
Want to ace your investor meetings? Chat with Pitchbot to perfect your VC pitch in 10 minutes.
TS: Semil Shah on Instacart, Amazon and the Future of Retail and Groceries
Semil is the founder of Haystack.vc a pre-seed VC fund which is a proud early investor in Instacart, DoorDash, Hired, Hashicorp, eShares, Giphy, OpenDoor, Chariot, Managed By Q, and many other comp…
20VC: What Does It Take To Raise A Venture Fund Today, An Analysis of The Explosion of Seed Financing & Why IRR No Longer Takes Centre Stage with Samir Kaji, Senior Managing Director @ First Republic Bank
Samir Kaji is a master of seed stage & micro VC financing having assisted 700 companies & 300 VC firms and completing $4.0 billion in committed capital.
October 2017 Northern California wildfires - Wikipedia
Semil
This is what confuses me a/b these fires - hard to know the cause, # of fires, etc: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2… (i guess too early to know)
7d
What founders really want from VCs – Fred Destin
We all know that VC “value add” is an elusive notion and that venture, from the outside, looks like a completely undifferentiated product…
Semil
“What founders really want from VCs” by @fdestin medium.com/@fdestin/what-… (interesting to visualize the disconnect; next step, ask LPs!)
7d
CarGurus' IPO proves you don't need early venture funding to succeed on Wall Street
A story about a founder who didn’t plead for early cash.
Notes From The 2017 Cendana MicroVC Summit – Haystack
Yesterday, I attended my fourth Cendana Micro VC Summit in San Francisco. As I’ve done in years past, I wanted to briefly summarize how I perceived the mood of both LPs (the money source) and GPs (those who allocate to founders) in today’s current...
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Semil
[new post] Notes From The 2017 Cendana MicroVC Summit; blog.semilshah.com/2017/10/12/not… (yesterday was a blast & great to see everyone!)
7d
Meet the start-up making it easier to buy and sell shares in private companies
A startup called eShares raised $42 million to make it easier for privately-held companies to issue shares to investors and employees.
How To Transform A VC Fund Capital Base From Individuals To Institutional LPs – Haystack
Lots of people have raised small VC funds. There are more startups, and there’s more LP capital from various sources to meet that demand. After the rise of institutional seed funds in the late 2000’s, we’ve obviously witnessed a pure explosion of...
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Semil
[new post] How To Transform A VC Fund Capital Base From Individuals To Institutional LPs: blog.semilshah.com/2017/10/10/how… (I hope this helps others)
9d
The 25th Amendment | Brookings Institution
THE ISSUE: If the president of the United States is no longer able to execute the duties of the office, the vice president, Cabinet, and Congress have the ability to remove his powers under Section…
Why Would Anyone Invest in Startups?
I love investing in startups. So do my partners at Social Leverage Gary and Tom. I had no idea I was going to invest in startups until I made my first investment in my mid 20’s. I started angel investing during my first job as a stockbroker in...