Fintech VC  funding hit a fresh quarterly record of $22.8 billion in the first three months of 2021, according to CB Insights data. While mega-rounds helped propel overall funding, new cash was spread across 614 deals. 

Insider has been tracking the next wave of hot new startups that are blending finance and tech. 

Check out these pitch decks to see how fintech founders are selling their vision and nabbing big bucks in the process. You'll see new financial tech geared at freelancers, fresh twists on digital banking, and innovation aimed at streamlining customer onboarding. 

Personal finance is only a text away

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the growing preference of mobile banking as customers get comfortable managing their finances online.

The financial app Albert has seen a similar jump in activity. Currently counting more than six million members, deposits in Albert's savings offering doubled from the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to May of this year, from $350 million to $700 million, according to new numbers released by the company. 

Founded in 2015, Albert offers automated budgeting and savings tools alongside guided investment portfolios. It's looked to differentiate itself through personalized features, like the ability for customers to text human financial experts.

Budgeting and saving features are free on Albert. But for more tailored financial advice, customers pay a subscription fee that's a pay-what-you-can model, between $4 and $14 a month. 

And Albert's now banking on a new tool to bring together its investing, savings, and budgeting tools.

Rethinking debt collection 

For lenders, debt collection is largely automated. But for people who owe money on their credit cards, it can be a confusing and stressful process.  

Relief is looking to change that. Its app automates the credit-card debt collection process for users, negotiating with lenders and collectors to settle outstanding balances on their behalf. The fintech just launched and closed a $2 million seed round led by Collaborative Ventures. 

Relief's fundraising experience was a bit different to most. Its pitch deck, which it shared with one investor via Google Slides, went viral. It set out to raise a $1 million seed round, but ended up doubling that and giving some investors money back to make room for others.

Check out a 15-page pitch deck that went viral and helped a credit-card debt collection startup land a $2 million seed round

Blockchain for private-markets investing 

Securitize, founded in 2017 by the tech industry veterans Carlos Domingo and Jamie Finn, is bringing blockchain technology to private-markets investing. The company raised $48 million in Series B funding on June 21 from investors including Morgan Stanley and Blockchain Capital.

Securitize helps companies crowdfund capital from individual and institutional investors by issuing their shares in the form of blockchain tokens that allow for more efficient settlement, record keeping, and compliance processes. Morgan Stanley's Tactical Value fund, which invests in private companies, made its first blockchain-technology investment when it coled the Series B, Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo told Insider.

Here's the 11-page pitch deck a blockchain startup looking to revolutionize private-markets investing used to nab $48 million from investors like Morgan Stanley

E-commerce focused business banking

Business banking is a hot market in fintech. And it seems investors can't get enough.

Novo, the digital banking fintech aimed at small e-commerce businesses, raised a $40.7 million Series A led by Valar Ventures in June. Since its launch in 2018, Novo has signed up 100,000 small businesses. Beyond bank accounts, it offers expense management, a corporate card, and integrates with e-commerce infrastructure players like Shopify, Stripe, and Wise.

Founded in 2018, Novo was based in New York City, but has since moved its headquarters to Miami. 

Here's the 12-page pitch deck e-commerce banking startup Novo used to raise its $40 million Series A

Blockchain-based credit score tech 

A blockchain-based fintech startup that is aiming to disrupt the traditional model of evaluating peoples' creditworthiness recently raised $30 million in a Series B funding led by credit reporting giant TransUnion.

Four-year-old Spring Labs aims to create a private, secure data-sharing model to help credit agencies better predict the creditworthiness of people who are not in the traditional credit bureau system. The founding team of three fintech veterans met as early employees of lending startup Avant.

Existing investors GreatPoint Ventures and August Capital also joined in on the most recent round.  So far Spring Labs has raised $53 million from institutional rounds.

TransUnion, a publicly-traded company with a $20 billion-plus market cap, is one of the three largest consumer credit agencies in the US. After 18 months of dialogue and six months of due diligence, TransAmerica and Spring Labs inked a deal, Spring Labs CEO and cofounder Adam Jiwan told Insider.

Here's the 10-page pitch deck blockchain-based fintech Spring Labs used to snag $30 million from investors including credit reporting giant TransUnion

Digital banking for freelancers

Lance is a new digital bank hoping to simplify the life of those workers by offering what it calls an "active" approach to business banking. 

"We found that every time we sat down with the existing tools and resources of our accountants and QuickBooks and spreadsheets, we just ended up getting tangled up in the whole experience of it," Lance cofounder and CEO Oona Rokyta told Insider. 

Lance offers subaccounts for personal salaries, withholdings, and savings to which freelancers can automatically allocate funds according to custom preset levels. It also offers an expense balance that's connected to automated tax withholdings.

In May, Lance announced the closing of a $2.8 million seed round that saw participation from Barclays, BDMI, Great Oaks Capital, Imagination Capital, Techstars, DFJ Frontier, and others.

Here's the 21-page pitch deck Lance, a digital bank for freelancers, used to raise a $2.8 million seed round from investors including Barclays

Digital tools for independent financial advisors

Jason Wenk started his career at Morgan Stanley in investment research over 20 years ago. Now, he's running a company that is hoping to broaden access to financial advice for less-wealthy individuals. 

The startup raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners with participation from investors Vanguard and Venrock. The round brings the Los Angeles-based startup's total funding to just under $67 million.

Founded in 2018, Altruist is a digital brokerage built for independent financial advisors, intended to be an "all-in-one" platform that unites custodial functions, portfolio accounting, and a client-facing portal. It allows advisors to open accounts, invest, build models, report, trade (including fractional shares), and bill clients through an interface that can advisors time by eliminating mundane operational tasks.

Altruist aims to make personalized financial advice less expensive, more efficient, and more inclusive through the platform, which is designed for registered investment advisors (RIAs), a growing segment of the wealth management industry. 

Here's the pitch deck for Altruist, a wealth tech challenging custodians Fidelity and Charles Schwab, that raised $50 million from Vanguard and Insight

Payments and operations support 

While countless small businesses have been harmed by the pandemic, self-employment and entrepreneurship have found ways to blossom as Americans started new ventures.

Half of the US population may be freelance by 2027, according to a study commissioned by remote-work hiring platform Upwork. HoneyBook, a fintech startup that provides payment and operations support for freelancers, in May raised $155 million in funding and achieved unicorn status with its $1 billion-plus valuation.

Durable Capital Partners led the Series D funding with other new investors including renowned hedge fund Tiger Global, Battery Ventures, Zeev Ventures, and 01 Advisors. Citi Ventures, Citigroup's startup investment arm that also backs fintech robo-advisor Betterment, participated as an existing investor in the round alongside Norwest Venture partners. The latest round brings the company's fundraising total to $227 million to date.

Here's the 21-page pitch deck a Citi-backed fintech for freelancers used to raise $155 million from investors like hedge fund Tiger Global

Fraud prevention for lenders and insurers

Onboarding new customers with ease is key for any financial institution or retailer. The more friction you add, the more likely consumers are to abandon the entire process.

But preventing fraud is also a priority, and that's where Neuro-ID comes in. The startup analyzes what it calls "digital body language," or, the way users scroll, type, and tap. Using that data, Neuro-ID can identify fraudulent users before they create an account. It's built for banks, lenders, insurers, and e-commerce players.

"The train has left the station for digital transformation, but there's a massive opportunity to try to replicate all those communications that we used to have when we did business in-person, all those tells that we would get verbally and non-verbally on whether or not someone was trustworthy," Neuro-ID CEO Jack Alton told Insider.

Founded in 2014, the startup's pitch is twofold: Neuro-ID can save companies money by identifying fraud early, and help increase user conversion by making the onboarding process more seamless. 

In December Neuro-ID closed a $7 million Series A, co-led by Fin VC and TTV Capital, with participation from Canapi Ventures. With 30 employees, Neuro-ID is using the fresh funding to grow its team and create additional tools to be more self-serving for customers.

Here's the 11-slide pitch deck a startup that analyzes consumers' digital behavior to fight fraud used to raise a $7 million Series A

AI-powered tools to spot phony online reviews 

Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay host millions of third-party sellers, and their algorithms will often boost items in search based on consumer sentiment, which is largely based on reviews. But many third-party sellers use fake reviews often bought from click farms to boost their items, some of which are counterfeit or misrepresented to consumers.

That's where Fakespot comes in. With its Chrome extension, it warns users of sellers using potentially fake reviews to boost sales and can identify fraudulent sellers. Fakespot is currently compatible with Amazon, BestBuy, eBay, Sephora, Steam, and Walmart.

"There are promotional reviews written by humans and bot-generated reviews written by robots or review farms," Fakespot founder and CEO Saoud Khalifah told Insider. "Our AI system has been built to detect both categories with very high accuracy."

Fakespot's AI learns via reviews data available on marketplace websites, and uses natural-language processing to identify if reviews are genuine. Fakespot also looks at things like whether the number of positive reviews are plausible given how long a seller has been active.

Fakespot, a startup that helps shoppers detect robot-generated reviews and phony sellers on Amazon and Shopify, used this pitch deck to nab a $4 million Series A

New twists on digital banking

Consumers are getting used to the idea of branch-less banking, a trend that startup digital-only banks like Chime, N26, and Varo have benefited from. 

The majority of these fintechs target those who are underbanked, and rely on usage of their debit cards to make money off interchange. But fellow startup HMBradley has a different business model. 

"Our thesis going in was that we don't swipe our debit cards all that often, and we don't think the customer base that we're focusing on does either," Zach Bruhnke, cofounder and CEO of HMBradley, told Insider. "A lot of our customer base uses credit cards on a daily basis."

Instead, the startup is aiming to build clientele with stable deposits. As a result, the bank is offering interest-rate tiers depending on how much a customer saves of their direct deposit.

Notably, the rate tiers are dependent on the percentage of savings, not the net amount. 

"We'll pay you more when you save more of what comes in," Bruhnke said. "We didn't want to segment customers by how much money they had. So it was always going to be about a percentage of income. That was really important to us."

Check out the 14-page pitch deck fintech HMBradley, a neobank offering interest rates as high as 3%, used to raise an $18.25 million Series A

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When it comes to startups, Boulder, Colorado, has seen major growth in the past few years as a midsize city. Workers love its college-town feel and closeness to the mountains, and Growjo, a database of fast-growing companies, named it the second-best metropolitan area for high-growth startups in the US.

It's also home to the venture firm Foundry Group, cofounded by the prominent venture capitalist Brad Feld. Foundry has backed companies such as Rover and Spekit, as well as other venture-capital firms, including Hustle Fund and Founder Collective. It's also the birthplace of TechStars, the startup accelerator that Feld cofounded, which backed unicorns like ClassPass, Digital Ocean, and Outreach.

Insider looked through funding reports, reviews on Glassdoor, company profiles on LinkedIn and Built In, and internal job boards to find Boulder startups that employees love working for and are hiring now. 

Details on the number of employees and total funding come from the companies unless otherwise noted.

AMP Robotics

What it does: AMP Robotics uses artificial intelligence and robotics to modernize the recycling industry.

Size: 150 employees

Total funding: $74.5 million 

Why it's on the list: AMP Robotics scored a 4.3 rating out of 5 on Glassdoor, based on nine reviews.

"What I get excited about the most is seeing how the environmental impact is scaling over time," one reviewer wrote. "When we deploy a new feature, or break into a new market, you can see how that part of the recycling industry has truly been changed. I love that."

Hiring: AMP Robotics has 33 open jobs in the Boulder metro area, according to its website.

Automox

What it does: Automox provides a cloud-based system for companies to manage all of their IT services.

Size: 300 employees

Total funding: $152 million 

Why it's on the list: Automox scored 4.6 out of 5 on Glassdoor, based on 22 reviews. One reviewer said they appreciated how "leadership is talented and brings comfort, confidence and reciprocated trust through the company."

Hiring: Automox has 31 remote-first job openings, according to its website.

Bonusly

What it does: Bonusly lets company managers track and give recognition to high-performing employees.

Size: 85 employees 

Total funding: $13 million 

Why it's on the list: Bonusly scored 4.3 out of 5 on Glassdoor, based on 20 reviews. One reviewer said: "The team respects everyone's working styles and hours and so far, we've maintained an actually-functional unlimited PTO policy with a strong WFH culture."

Hiring: Bonusly has 22 open remote-first roles and four in-office jobs in Boulder, according to its website.

Floify

What it does: Floify is a software platform used to streamline mortgage lending. 

Size: 44 employees, according to Built In

Total funding: No funding disclosed

Why it's on the list: Floify scored 4.3 out of 5 on Glassdoor, based on 22 reviews. "One thing that consistently impresses me about Floify is the ownership you're encouraged to take over your own projects," one engineer at the company wrote.

Hiring: Floify has six open roles in Boulder, according to its website.

Inscripta

What it does: Inscripta is a streamlined digital platform for CRISPR genome editing.

Size: 161 employees

Total Funding: Over $450 million

Why it's on the list: Inscripta scored 5 out of 5 on Glassdoor, based on eight reviews. One reviewer said they liked that the startup was "very transparent with goals and where you and your team contribute to the company success." They added that the work mainly focused on "clear deliverables tied to challenging, but reasonable timelines."

Hiring: Inscripta has 10 open jobs in Boulder and three remote-first openings, according to its website.

Stream

What it does: Stream provides software for enterprise companies to add chat services and activity feeds to their apps.

Size: 130 employees 

Total Funding: $58.1 million 

Why it's on the list: Stream scored 5 out of 5 on Glassdoor, based on 15 reviews. One reviewer wrote that it feels "easy to communicate with anyone at any level within the company," including top executives.

Hiring: Stream has 12 open roles that are either in Boulder or remote-first, according to its website.

TeamSnap

What it does: TeamSnap helps sports teams and recreation groups organize and schedule practices and games.

Size: 125 employees, according to Built In

Total Funding: $53.1 million, according to Crunchbase

Why it's on the list: TeamSnap scored 4.3 out of 5 on Glassdoor, based on 46 reviews. One reviewer said they loved that at TeamSnap, "you are trusted to be the expert that you were hired to be with the autonomy to do your job. No egos allowed."

Hiring: TeamSnap has 19 postings remote-first jobs on its website.

Wunder Capital

What it does: Wunder Capital provides technology to manage solar-energy projects, from financing to engineering and installation.

Size: 38 employees, according to Built In

Total Funding: $216.8 million, according to Crunchbase

Why it's on the list: Wunder Capital scored 5 out of 5 on Glassdoor, based on 13 reviews. One reviewer wrote that "the common mission to address climate change means everyone is motivated and it makes the occasional frustrating day worth it to know you are making a difference."

Hiring: Wunder Capital has seven open roles, either in Boulder or remote-first, posted on its website.

Dealmaking in the technology sector surged to a record high in the first half of 2021, with $672 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions. 

Most industries lean heavily on investment bankers to advise on transactions. The technology sector is different. It relies more on in-house dealmakers who scour the startup scene for interesting new businesses to buy. 

These corporate-development teams have a busy task because there are so many smaller startups that get snapped up regularly by big tech companies including Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Uber.

Read more: 46 of the most promising startups of 2021, according to top VCs 

There's a network of venture capitalists who negotiate and oversee startup funding rounds and keep in touch with the large publicly traded tech companies. When a startup may be ready to sell, there's often no need to hire an investment bank to gather bids from interested parties. Instead, the internal corporate-development teams handle the communication, deal pipelines, and acquisition process. 

Insider researched some of the top corporate-development players in the US technology scene. The list is below.

Do you work on deals in the tech sector? Let us know who else should be included and why. Contact reporter Madeline Renbarger via the encrypted-messaging app Signal (+1-512-968-0540) or email (mrenbarger@insider.com).

Adrian Perica, Apple's deals guru

Perica has worked at Apple for over a decade. In 2019, he was listed on the company's leadership web page as vice president of corporate development, with him reporting to CEO Tim Cook.

Perica was instrumental in Apple's $3 billion purchase of the Beats electronics and music-streaming businesses in 2014, and later in Apple's strategic investment in the Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi. Perica sits on Didi's board, according to Apple's website, which also says he has overseen the integration of vital technologies and new businesses across hardware, software, and services.

Before Apple, Perica worked at Goldman Sachs for eight years.

Amin Zoufonoun, Facebook

Zoufonoun has been at Facebook since 2011, serving as the vice president of corporate development. Before that, he spent eight years at Google and was its director of corporate development. He was responsible for strategic initiatives, including new businesses, M&A, and investments.

During his time at Facebook, he has led several major acquisitions, including those of WhatsApp, Oculus, and Instagram.

Kathrin Buvac, Amazon

In July 2020, Amazon Web Services hired Buvac, Nokia's chief strategy officer, to run its business-development team.

Buvac's responsibilities include finding business opportunities and strategic partnerships across regulated industries such as energy, manufacturing, and healthcare. Buvac's hiring reflects AWS's effort to prioritize its business-development team.

Her team includes Martyn Mallick, the director of corporate business development, and Justin Burks, who runs worldwide sports partnerships and strategic programs.

Chris Young, Microsoft

Microsoft hired Chris Young in November to take over for Peggy Johnson, who left the company to become the CEO of the startup Magic Leap.

Young, who reports directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, was the CEO of the cybersecurity company McAfee until February. In announcing Young's hiring, Microsoft pointed to his experience spinning McAfee out of Intel and leadership positions at Cisco, VMware, RSA, and AOL. 

In addition to his work at Microsoft, Young is a member of the president's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

Bonita Stewart, Google's scout for AI startups

Stewart joined Google in 2006, first as the national industry director for automotive. Since then, she has served in multiple corporate-development roles, including vice president of global partnerships, which made her the first Black woman vice president in Google's history. 

She is the board partner for Gradient Ventures, Google's venture fund focused on early-stage AI companies. While serving as the vice president of global partnerships, she oversaw the largest US publishers across media and entertainment, news and publishing, mobile apps, search, and commerce.

Donald Harrison, Google

Harrison has worked at Google for over 16 years, starting as its vice president and deputy general counsel in 2005. 

As head of corporate development, Harrison manages Google's global mergers and acquisitions and investments team. He has worked on Google's largest deals, including those with Nest, DeepMind, DoubleClick, Admob, and Motorola. Harrison also manages Google's Area 120 incubator as well as Google for Entrepreneurs.

Read more about Harrison's strategies for corporate development here.

Peter Krawiec, Amazon

Krawiec has worked at Amazon since 2004. As Amazon's most senior corporate-development executive, he runs the company's vast M&A team.

Over his time at Amazon, Krawiec has steadily moved up the ranks, and in 2019, he joined the company's most senior group of decision-makers, the S-team, as the senior vice president of worldwide corporate development. He reports directly to Amazon's new CEO, Andy Jassy.

Madhu Kannan, Uber

Kannan joined Uber in 2017 as its chief business officer for India and emerging markets, according to an internal Uber blog post. He was promoted to the global head of corporate development in December. 

Before Uber, Kannan worked at Tata Sons as the group head of business development and served as the CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange. 

Under his watch at Uber, the company has expanded further into the delivery and logistics sectors, acquiring alcohol-delivery app Drizly and freight technology company Transplace. 

Michelle Gonzalez, Microsoft

Gonzalez in July became the new leader of Microsoft's venture-capital fund M12, formerly known as Microsoft Ventures.

She joined Microsoft from Google, where she was the managing partner of Area 120, Google's internal incubator.

Gonzalez's team includes the M12 general managers and managing directors Mony Hassid, Samir Kumar, and Tamara Steffens. M12's founder, Nagraj Kashyap, left the fund earlier this year to become a managing partner at SoftBank.

Mark Pols, Facebook

Pols works on strategic projects and acquisitions for Facebook's corporate-development team and has been involved in the company's minority investments in the US and Asia.

Before Facebook, Pols was a venture-capital investor at GGV, where he backed startups including OfferUp, SoFi, Airbnb, and Slack. Pols also worked on the corporate development team at Amazon for three years, where he oversaw investments and acquisitions across Asia. 

Last year, Facebook invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms, India's popular mobile-internet service. That deal made the US social-media giant the largest minority shareholder in the internet service, which is a part of Reliance Industries.

David Segrera, Apple

Segrera has worked on the business-development team at Apple since last year, focusing on new and emerging technology areas. 

Before Apple, Segrera was the director of business development and corporate development at Graphcore, an AI-chip startup. He also worked at Samsung Electronics for over seven years, where he focused on business development and strategic partnerships related to autonomous vehicles.

Over the course of his career, Segrera has handled over $8 billion in M&A-related transactions. 

Segrera also serves as an industry advisor for MIT. 

Lori Wright, Microsoft

Wright has worked at Microsoft since 2017. She leads business development for Microsoft's consumer business, which includes Xbox and other gaming.

Her purview includes one of Microsoft's largest acquisitions, its $7.5 billion deal with ZeniMax Media — the company behind video-game franchises like "Fallout" and "The Elder Scrolls." 

Sanjay Kapoor, Google

Kapoor has worked at Google for over 15 years. In his current role, he leads global M&A, corporate development, and investments.

Before this, he was the chief of global business development for Google's ads and commerce businesses, which included payments, shopping, travel, and measurement. 

In 2018, Kapoor helped launch an early-investment program for startups that could enhance the features of Google's digital assistant. 

Read more of Insider's coverage on Kapoor here.

Alex Ceballos, Amazon

Ceballos, who reports directly to Krawiec, is one of the key members of Amazon's corporate-development team, overseeing the company's investments in the US, EU, and India. 

A West Point and Harvard Business School graduate, Ceballos has spent most of his career at Amazon after joining the company in 2006. Previously, Ceballos was also part of Amazon's global credit team.

Jonathan Tinter, Microsoft

Tinter has been working in business development for Microsoft since 2007.

He now runs M&A and growth strategy for two of the company's most important businesses: cloud computing and the organization called Experiences and Devices, which includes the Teams chat app, the Windows operating system, and the Microsoft 365 suite of cloud software.

Ajamu Baker, Google

Baker joined Google in January 2019 from Harman International. 

He is helping the company invest up to $100 million in Black-led organizations, along with Jeremiah Gordon, the general counsel of CapitalG, a unit of Google's parent, Alphabet.

Baker also serves on the board of the Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program, which helps Black and Hispanic students in the city gain access to STEM educational resources. 

Carlo Bertucci, Amazon

Bertucci, who's been part of Amazon's corporate-development team since 2011, is in charge of sourcing, evaluating, and executing deals for the company.

He is part of Krawiec's team. He joined Yes Network's board of directors in 2019 after Amazon bought a stake in the TV broadcaster.

Nick Komorous, Amazon

Komorous, a 10-year Amazon veteran, started as a corporate-development manager and has since worked his way up to vice president.

He led Amazon's acquisition of Ring in 2018 and proposed a hands-off approach after the startup joined the e-commerce giant, according to internal emails reported by Bloomberg.

In the past three decades, Rami Tamir has achieved a founders' dream three times over: he cofounded three separate startups and successfully sold each one to a different major tech firm for more than $700 million in total.

But the experience of being acquired by those companies — Cisco, Red Hat, and Oracle, respectively — bore stark differences, Tamir told Insider. The Israeli entrepreneur says the experience has made him more selective when mulling potential offers for his current startup — if he pursues an acquisition at all.

Tamir is currently CEO at Salto, a startup he cofounded in 2019 alongside the company's president Benny Schnaider, and CTO Gil Hoffer. The Tel Aviv-based startup has raised $69 million for its subscription-based platform that lets companies manage and configure the slew of business apps that have become commonplace in offices, especially amid the rise of remote work.

He founded his first company, Pentacom, in 1998. The firm offered technology for managing networks in high-density areas like cities with greater efficiency, and within two years of its founding Pentacom was acquired by networking giant Cisco for $118 million. Tamir ended up working at Cisco from 2000 to 2005, during which it was on an acquisition spree and was one of the most prestigious firms in Silicon Valley.

"They were a machine of acquisitions back then. They were professionals, they were trying to make things happen," Tamir said.

Despite Cisco's size, Tamir recalls being given a high level of flexibility to "move things around" within Pentacom after the business was acquired. He credits Mike Volpi, Cisco's chief strategy officer at the time, with running the acquisition smoothly.

"Having been acquired a few times after that, I can say the experience was very good," Tamir told Insider. "It was  like being schooled on how to do a proper integration acquisition."

Tamir left Cisco in 2005 to cofound Qumranet, a platform for enterprises to run virtual machines. That startup was acquired by Red Hat in 2008 for $107 million.

Unlike Cisco, which employs over 75,000 people worldwide, Red Hat has roughly 12,000 people on staff, which lent Tamir more leverage once inside the company.

"Red Hat is obviously a smaller company, so it was completely different," Tamir said. He added that Red Hat is an open source company, meaning its a product's code is publicly available whenever possible. That meshed with the mission of Qumranet, which was founded by Moshe Bar, who also created the open-source Xen project: "We shared that culture," Tamir said.

His next venture was Ravello Systems, a company providing tools to let companies run applications across multiple different cloud environments. Oracle bought the startup in 2016 in a deal that VentureBeat reported was worth $500 million.

Oracle was "a machine" much like Cisco, Tamir told Insider. But he noted that the company wasn't as accustomed to streamlining acquisitions because it wasn't buying companies at the same rate as Cisco, "So the overall dynamic looked different over that period of time," he said.

Now, Tamir isn't sure if he wants to go through another acquisition, and may instead opt to go public via a direct listing. While he praises how Cisco handled the last acquisition, he says the company's core networking hardware business might make it a tough fit for Salto given that "there's a different DNA between a pure software company and between other companies."

"I'm not sure it's something I'm aiming for any more," Tamir said. "But things happen, so you never know."

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OnlyFans has no trouble drumming up user interest, but investors may be more hesitant to buy into the NSFW brand.

The online creator platform that allows users to sell or purchase original content — usually of the pornographic variety — is struggling to find investors, according to a report from Axios. The company is actively seeking a "strategic partner," a source close to the company told the publication.

OnlyFans has been actively looking for investors since the spring, but several investors have passed on the opportunity to support the company, Axios said.

The startup is valued at over $1 billion and the company is extremely profitable — taking a 20% cut of the more than $2 billion its creators generated in 2020. Based on its profit margin, if the company sold almost anything other than porn, it would be luring in investors in droves.

Startups that cater to people's vices have often been overlooked and underfunded when it comes to major venture capital firms. This is in part due to vice clauses that bar institutional funds from investing in companies within the more forbidden arenas of cannabis, gambling, and sex.

But these companies are also notoriously profitable. The porn industry itself was valued at $97 billion as of 2020, but the industry also comes with several risks. For example, MindGeek — a company that runs several porn sites, including PornHub, and amasses over 115 million visitors per day— has created issues for investors when it comes to its depiction of underage people in videos, as well as allegations its videos feature sex trafficking victims. For some companies, a porn startup could create a massive public relations nightmare.

When it comes to OnlyFans, some investors have expressed concern over minors creating accounts on the platform, Axios said, though the company says it has controls in place to prevent the issue. Others worry the company's reputation could inhibit brand partnerships, the publication reported.

In June, Bloomberg reported that OnlyFans was looking to shift away from its adult content and raise new funding with investors that would help the site become more of a mainstream platform, catering to more celebrities and social media influencers.

So far, the startup appears to have been unable to distance itself from the porn content that made it successful in the first place.

Axios reported that the money OnlyFans is hoping to raise would allow its majority owner porn mogul Leo Radivinsky to partially sell off his stake. The investors could also help give the company "more legitimacy," a VC told Axios.

Read Axios' full story here.

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Venture capitalists want to be convinced.

Ask David Rose, and he'll tell you VCs wouldn't be hearing your pitch in the first place if they weren't interested in investing. Rose runs Gust, a digital platform for early-stage entrepreneurs and investors, and Rose Tech Ventures, an angel investment fund and incubator.

He said investors are just hoping you'll give them a compelling argument for why they should partner with you.

We asked Rose, plus a series of other successful investors (listed below), what persuades them to sign on — and what leaves them skeptical. Below, we've compiled their best advice, on everything from building a pitch deck to writing a thank-you note.

• Patrick McGinnis is the managing director of the investment and advisory firm Dirigo Advisors.
• David Selverian is an investor at Bessamer Venture Partners.
• Laura Sachar is a cofounder and managing partner of StarVest Partners.
• Dan Estes is a partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners.
• Dave Munichiello is a general partner at GV.
• Anu Duggal is the founding partner at Female Founders Fund.
• Ashton Kutcher is cofounder of Sound Ventures.
• Vanessa Dawson is founder and CEO of the Vinetta Project. 

Mark Stenberg contributed to an earlier version of this article.

Show how your product will benefit people

Estes previously told Business Insider's Lydia Ramsey that biotech investors want to know how a new tool will fit into the current standard of care. "The biggest mistake I see is when someone spends more time talking about how a product would affect the market than they do talking about how it would affect the disease it's designed to treat," Estes said.

The same is true for any investor, who wants to know how your business will make people's lives easier.

Don't be cocky

In an interview with Business Insider's Becky Peterson, Munichiello pointed to Stewart Butterfield, founder and CEO of Slack, as an example of an entrepreneur who didn't pretend he had all the answers. (GV invested in Slack in 2014 as part of a $120 million round that valued the company at $1.12 billion, Peterson reported.)

"Stewart's conversation with me wasn't about all of the reasons why Slack was awesome," Munichiello said. "It was, 'Here's how I think about the business. And you may think about it in a different way.' And 'Here are the metrics that I use to measure the business. How do you think about the business?'"

Hold your ground on the issues that matter most

"Entrepreneurs can, and should, articulate deal breakers to their prospective investors,"Selverian wrote on Business Insider. "If there's something that's important to you and your business, don't compromise. As long as the entrepreneur's reasoning is justified, many investors will be impressed by the vision and leadership conveyed through deal breakers."

Read more:A CEO who launched her company 14 years ago says too many founders have it all backward

Show that you can sell your idea

"One of the critical tests that I try to run when I'm sitting across from a founder is: Can you sell me your idea?"Kutcher said at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2018. If not, he worries about the company's future.

"If you can't sell me, how are you going to sell your first hire, your second hire, your third hire?" Kutcher said.

Demonstrate your path to execution

At Business Insider's Startup 2012 conference, Sachar said she needs to believe the entrepreneur can turn their idea into a successful business.

"If you can't execute, you don't have a company," she said. "A lot of people have ideas."

Read more:The glitz of 'entrepreneurship porn' leads startup founders to make fatal business mistakes. Here's how to avoid them

Create a comprehensive pitch deck

The pitch deck is your chance at a solid first impression. According to McGinnis, creating "a decent-looking pitch deck" is crucial in convincing investors "that you can build an app or a product that will be excellent."

Explanations as to how you will run your company, why and how your product will work, and any other necessary details must be clearly explained in the deck. A decent pitch deck should be exciting, but also error-free. All information regarding  your company metrics, competitors, or the current market must be accurate. Inaccurate information will cause investors to question your preparedness and the legitimacy of your proposed success.

Typos or grammatical errors are other mistakes to check for. Even the smallest oversight could distract from the key points of your business proposal, McGinnis says. 

And even if the investor decides they are not the best fit for your company, a flawless and comprehensive pitch deck could encourage them to connect you with an investor who might be. 

Tell investors how you plan to expand

Duggal previously told Business Insider every pitch deck should include a five-year growth plan.

Duggal added that she wants to see the costs of building your product or service, the potential profit "on a unit basis," and how that changes at scale. In other words, she said, "As your business grows, do the margins get better?"

Prepare a detailed appendix in addition to the deck

Your deck should be simple and straightforward. During the pitch meeting, Selverian recommends having a detailed appendix that will answer any questions that come up.

Address the potential competition

One common mistake Duggal sees in pitch decks is "not addressing competition or figuring out the market landscape."

She added, "When we think about investing in a company, we want to understand — that's great that you have an interesting idea or you spotted something that has the potential to be an exciting business — but we also want to understand what is already in the market."

Explain why you could fail

In 2009, when entrepreneur Jim McKelvey began raising money to launch Square, McKelvey did something very few founders do when trying to secure funding: he listed all the reasons his company would fail, 140 in total. 

"We had robot uprising, Amazon attacks — we had all this stuff — and we made a serious examination of all the things that can kill a startup, and it turns out that nobody does that," McKelvey said in a webinar address.

VCs loved McKelvey's candor. They loved being presented with problems to solve, rather than watching yet another founder try to paste over their startup's weak spots. And they loved how different the pitch felt.

Propose an action plan in a thank-you note

In your follow-up note after the pitch meeting, McGinnis said, "propose concrete next steps for them to react to — amorphous communication conveys amorphous management." Reiterate specifically what you're asking for, and ask whether there are other people you should meet who the investors can introduce you to.

You can also create FOMO by letting them know when another VC has already agreed to invest.

Determine whether you need to raise capital in the first place

If you're bringing in a maximum of $1 million a year in revenue, "it may be a great, wonderful, much-needed business," Rose said. "You may enjoy it and support your family." But he emphasized, "the economics are just such that there is no way that you can get an investment from me at any reasonable number for that to make economic sense."

This is because outside investors expect outsize returns on their money, often a large multiple of what they put in. And if there's a low-millions ceiling on the revenue your startup can generate or eventual exit price, there's not much incentive for a venture capitalist to write you a check.

In other words, your company may be a "lifestyle startup," which doesn't require venture capital and probably won't ever be worth $1 billion.

Wait to raise capital until you have proof of concept

An entrepreneur's pitch is a "combination of science and faith," said McGinnis — but you want to stay more on the side of science than faith.

McGinnis often sees founders who don't have any proof their idea is viable. You'd be wise to keep your day job and acquire customers and data before you ask a VC for money.

Read more: Keep your day job, move slowly, and don't worry about building a unicorn: A New York 'startup school' eschews everything Silicon Valley ever preached

Meet your 'B list' investors first

Start with the "B team," McGinnis said, i.e., the VCs who would be nice to have but aren't your first choice. Get feedback from them so you're more than prepared when you meet the VCs you're really targeting.

Show why you — not just your business — are worth investing in

Remember that you're pitching yourself, Rose said — not just your business plan. "You bet on the jockey, not the horse."

Show why yours is a "no trade off" product

Vanessa Dawson, founder and CEO of the Vinetta Project, is looking for businesses with "no trade off," meaning customers get your service or product without having to sacrifice something in return. For example, consumers want to clean their home but don't want to use chemicals that can do harm, such as adding to the increase in antibiotic-resistant bugs. 

"How are you producing opportunities and products that service the customer without a trade off?" Dawson asked. "I call it a triple bottom line: What's positive for the environment, health, and all other things?"

What to do when you're turned down

One failed pitch doesn't mean investors are uninterested in your business. It may just indicate that you're pitching to the wrong people or at the wrong time. Take it from founders who have been rejected by numerous VCs.

One of those founders, Kathryn Minshew, who is the cofounder and CEO of job-search platform The Muse, said in a podcast that she was rejected 148 times during the company's seed round.

She took any meetings she could get, but in her Series A round, she was more deliberate and gave investors a specific timeframe to meet. She found that the investors who fit her into their schedules were really interested in her company, whereas the investors who didn't make the time were probably not going to back her anyway. 

Jon Werner is the cofounder and CEO of a gift payment app Koya Innovations. One of his previous ventures was an app that pioneered using GPS in mobile phones before it was built into cell phones. He told Business Insider that investor rejection didn't deter him, rather, it gave him time to refine his technology and connect with customers.

"We stuck to our guns, we talked to our customers, we did our research, and we kept going," he said. Once customers were sold on the idea, investors began approaching him. 

Steve Martocci is the CEO of the music-creation platform Splice and the cofounder of GroupMe, which he sold for $85 million. In an interview with Business Insider, Martocci said timing is a major factor to meeting the right people.

He met one of his first lead investors at the same conference where he met his Splice cofounder and VP of engineering. "Timing and luck is at least one third of anyone's success in entrepreneurship," Martocci said. 

SEE ALSO: The best advice for entrepreneurs, from 16 real people who started their own companies

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Sneaky ways stores like H&M, Zara, and Uniqlo get you to spend more money on clothes

Startups that pioneer a "circular economy"— decoupling commercial growth from the consumption of finite resources — want to win over a new generation of climate-conscious consumers.

The clothing-repair app Sojo is among the startups leading the charge.

The London-based company offers clothing repairs and alterations through a food-delivery rider-style model. Users book through an app, and a rider collects the item, which is taken to a seamster and returned within five days.

The average consumer in 2016 bought 60% more clothing compared to 2000 but kept each item half as long, according to a McKinsey report that year. At the same time, protecting the environment is a top stated concern for millennials and Gen Zs, more than a quarter of whom say their buying habits have been influenced by a business's impact on the environment, according to Deloitte.

Despite buying secondhand, Josephine Philips, Sojo's founder, found herself purchasing clothes that didn't quite fit, with the intention of altering them herself. 

"But I have absolutely no idea how, like much of my generation," she told Insider. "I don't even know where to go,  and even if I did, it's too much time and effort because we're used to everything at our fingertips."

The entrepreneur is now on a mission to modernize the "incredibly fragmented" tailoring and repairs industry that "has been the same since the 1800s." 

Philips isn't alone. 

The sharing app Olio enables communities to give away food and other household items that would otherwise be thrown out. The company, which also plans to introduce a borrowing section, allows people to list foods nearing their sell-by date for their neighbors to collect.

Tessa Clarke, Olio's cofounder, says the root cause of the climate and biodiversity crisis is the consumption model that underpins economic growth.

"Olio has gone from being a food-waste app to an app that connects people," she said. "Really our end vision is about reinventing consumption so that when you want to consume, the first thing you will think is, well what already exists in my local community? What can I kind of take for free that my neighbors don't want? What can I borrow that my neighbors are not currently using?" 

There are a host of other players. Whirli is a subscription service for toys. Grover recycles electronics. LastPad is creating reusable sanitary items. Fat Llama is pioneering the "rental revolution" through borrowing. Kitche helps consumers save money and prevent food waste by tracking receipts and suggesting recipes. 

Investors are betting on the shift in habits.

Globally, VC investors have poured $375 million so far this year into circular-economy startups, with Europe leading the way, according to data from PitchBook.

European startups have lured $248 million while companies in the US have landed $116 million, compared with $180 million and $330 million totals in 2020, respectively. 

The venture-capital firm Octopus Ventures, whose portfolio includes Olio, predicts a rise in marketplaces that let people take, borrow, or rent food, clothing, and electronics.

The early-stage investor Rebecca Hunt says Gen Z is driving the shift toward the sharing economy and for "big-ticket items" in particular.

"The reality is that we have probably only seen about 10% of the innovation on retail and sustainability that I'd expect to see over the next decade," Hunt said. "This inevitably means there is an enormous amount of opportunity for entrepreneurs and distributors to build very meaningful businesses."

The trend is visible in wider society. This year's medals at the Tokyo Olympics were made from recycled electronics, while the luxury department store Harrods last month announced it will rent out clothes from high-end designers, allowing customers to bag a $1,000 dress for $20 a day.

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NOW WATCH: How long humans could survive in space without a spacesuit

The venture-capital firm founded by Bill Ford — the executive chairman and former CEO of the automaker his great grandfather Henry created — just closed on a funding round worth $104 million. Its partners are looking to invest the money in promising startups in the mobility and transportation world, and some of them are likely to be led by veteran entrepreneurs who have done this once or twice before. 

"A lot of teams that were part of first-generation success stories in the mobility space are starting to spin out and create the next companies that are coming up," Chris Stallman, a partner at the firm, Fontinalis, told Insider. 

"Being able to build off of those is really exciting for us because there are a lot of founders that bring a lot of relevance and experience in this space. It's a different profile to what we're investing in today, and it's favorable going forward as well."

Fontinalis, founded in 2009, is a Detroit- and Boston-based VC firm that exclusively invests in global startups working on self-driving technology, delivery, ride-sharing, robotics, logistics, or similar industries — all of which Fontinalis says are "enabling efficient movement."

Most noteworthy of the 55 companies Fontinalis has backed since its inception are the food-delivery service Postmates (ultimately acquired by Uber), the ride-hailing giant Lyft, and the driverless-truck startup Gatik, among others. Fontinalis, which considers as many as 1,500 startups per year, typically invests $3 million to $10 million in Series A and Series B rounds for early-stage companies and $100,000 to $500,000 in seed rounds. 

This new funding round is the firm's third; Fontinalis now has about $270 million in assets under management. 

The firm's partners are now paying special attention to startups innovating in electrification, clean mobility, e-commerce, and even technologies that apply to a variety of industries — and it's a bonus if those companies are led by those who were around for the early days of the mobility business. 

"It does come back to the people," said firm cofounder and longtime partner Chris Cheever. "Over time, our firm has really elevated the bar in terms of the quality of the entrepreneur that we're seeking to back. We place some value on prior experience, so when you have repeat founders, that's certainly a big plus."

But Fontinalis still values founders who haven't yet been around the block, especially if they bring strengths beyond simply breaking into a new space.   

"Also, have strong communication skills, have a true vision for what they want to build, have big, audacious thinking, and are the types of parties that are coachable, too," Cheever added.

Regardless of their experience level, they must have a big vision with plans for big returns, Stallman said.

"The vast majority of returns in venture are driven by the really big outcomes," he explained. "When we look ahead 20, 30 years, the way people and goods move is fundamentally going to change. If there's one thing we're betting on, we're betting on that change and we're hoping to find some great companies that are a big part of that."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: One bite from this tick could ruin red meat for you — or even kill you

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the Insider Tech newsletter, where we break down the biggest news in tech, including:

• Elon Musk's Mr. Roboto dream
• Amazon's secret slack channel
• Team Travis: Who's who at CloudKitchens

I'm Insider Tech Features Editor Alexei Oreskovic, and I'm always eager to hear your thoughts, feedback and tips, so hit me up at aoreskovic@insider.com.

Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.

This week: Elon Musk dreams of electric robots

Never underestimate Elon Musk's indefatigable desire to make people go 'WTF?!'  During Tesla's "AI day" event this week, the electric carmaker's CEO stunned the audience by unveiling something that looks very different than a car: a humanoid robot.

• The "Tesla Bot" stands nearly 6 feet tall and will relieve humans of performing "boring," repetitive physical tasks like lifting and carrying stuff, Musk said. 
• What do robots have to do with cars? The robots will use the same AI and sensors technology that Tesla cars use for their autonomous driving features. Yes, that's the same autonomous driving technology that federal highway regulators began investigating days earlier, in the wake of 11 crashes (one of them fatal), and which two US Senators want the FTC to probe.
• Chutzpah points: If Tesla doesn't build this robot, Musk said, "someone else will, and so I guess we should make it and make sure it's safe."

Musk says a prototype will be coming soon, but for now the Tesla Bot is just a pretty picture on a screen. That said, the technology for robots is evolving in amazing ways:

• Here are 5 ways machines can now mimic the human senses.
• And don't miss Boston Dynamics' latest video of its Atlas robot's new skill: parkour.

Amazon's slack problem

Less than two months into his tenure as Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy has his first case of employee unrest to deal with. As Eugene Kim exclusively reports, hundreds of Amazon employees have created an internal slack channel to openly criticize and vent about the company's opaque performance review system.

The channel is called "I got pipped," in reference to Amazon's brutal performance-improvement plan that's known for ending more careers at the company than it improves.

Read the full story here:

And check out some of Insider's other reporting on Amazon's internal culture:

Some Amazon managers say they 'hire to fire' people just to meet the internal turnover goal every year

Inside Amazon's complex employee-review system, where workers feel left in the dark and managers expect to give 5% of reports bad reviews

Lists-o-mania:

Here at Insider we love to find out who the key players are within various companies and industries, and to track the team rosters and all the big hires and departures. Here's a couple of our latest lists of people worth watching:

50 behind-the-scenes investors in the venture capital world that control billions of dollars

62 power players at Travis Kalanick's secretive food startup, plus 26 who left in the last two years

Quote of the week:

"Customers that have been participating in these IPOs have been relatively diamond-handed, so to speak."

— Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, speaking on the company's first earnings call since going public, busts out a bit of meme-stock lingo. To have "diamond hands"— as anyone in Reddit's Wall Street Bets community will tell you — means to hold on to a stock or cryptocurrency when the price is falling. It's the opposite of "paper hands." 

Recommended readings: 

Hedge fund Tiger Global is blowing up the unwritten rules of startup investing right now with its speed, tons of cash, and hands-off approach

Apple is scaling back a key health project that grew out of its care clinics, and some workers could lose their jobs

Broken tech is causing a mounting environmental disaster. It's time for tech companies to give us the right to repair our stuff instead of needing to throw it away

Uber is showing ads in its core app for the first time — a feature former CEO Travis Kalanick once rejected as bad for users — as it seeks profitability

The CEO of Cisco says the $239 billion networking giant is signing up more 'web-scale' customers than ever before as a 'transition' in the cloud drives more demand for cutting-edge data center gear

Not necessarily in tech:

Thanks for reading, and if you like this newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues they can sign up here to receive it.

— Alexei

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The shortest route for a road trip across the US to see 50 national landmarks

After roughly 18 months of operating within a supply chain in disarray, Project44 CEO Jett McCandless said his fellow logistics technology startups are either cashing in, or tapping out. 

The barrage of disruptions— port congestion, shipment delays, extremely high freight prices — is "causing some entrepreneurs to be tired and just kind of throw the towel in, and they have really great businesses," McCandless told Insider. 

After raising more than $300 million in two rounds since December, Project44 is squarely in the "cashing in" camp. The Chicago-based startup specializes in bringing much-needed visibility to the traditionally opaque world of shipping container movements. 

Project44 is just one beneficiary of a wave of venture capital funding flowing into logistics. Main competitor Fourkites, data-driven freight brokerage Flexport, trucking tech startup KeepTruckin, and others brought in rounds of $100 million and above this year. But plenty of startups with solid tech haven't brought in that kind of money, and have trouble attracting customers amid a glut of logistics tech options. 

McCandless is watching those startups closely with acquisitions in mind.

Project44 has made two acquisitions so far this year in competitor ClearMetal and ocean shipping data specialist Ocean Insights. McCandless expects at least two more in 2021 and between two and 10 next year. He's building a dedicated M&A team of eight to 15 people. Here's what they'll be after. 

Software that solves a problem 

Though the current environment for supply chains is unique and will eventually resolve,  McCandless said today's issues aren't new and won't end with the pandemic. 

"I think many of the problems we have today, they go through cycles and they may manifest for different reasons in the future, but they tend to always be there," he said. His next few acquisitions will be aimed at cracking the evergreen problems that customers struggle with in any shipping environment. 

Cultural fit 

McCandless called Project44 a "generation two logistics company." To him, that speaks to the type of technology the company sells, but also the "hyper growth" he's aiming for. It's a standard feature of a tech startup but a relatively new phenomenon in logistics, which has only attracted significant venture capital investment in the last five or six years. 

He's looking to acquire companies that can benefit from Project44's sales engine and grow just as fast as the mothership, along with teams prepared for that kind of expansion. 

Extending reach 

Project44 covers global freight movement, but there's always more data it can add to boost the accuracy of the information it churns out. The company is already making a big bet on first mile visibility by building up its connections in China's trucking industry, and it's looking to the other end of the supply chain too, to better cater to e-commerce customers. Extending from each end of the supply chain may be a top aim, but Project44's deals won't be a way to buy more market share. McCandless said in the current environment — and with the disruptions still mounting—  he has a pipeline 40 potential customers long. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A major supplier of fuel to the East Coast has been down following a cyberattack. This animated map shows all the major oil and gas pipelines in the US.

Andee Harris took over as CEO of the sales coaching and training startup Challenger, Inc. in January, 2021 — and still has yet to meet the majority of her new team in person. Oh, and that new team? During the pandemic, about 40% of them moved away.

Harris, an adjunct lecturer of innovation and entrepreneurship at Kellogg who has more than two decades' experience leading young technology companies through rapid-growth stages, knew that taking over a company during the pandemic would be tricky. But finding a new way of working as the nation, and many offices, reopen is proving more challenging than expected.

So what will reentry look like at Challenger, and what can other companies facing similar challenges learn from Harris's experience? Harris spoke with Kellogg Insight to share one startup's road back to the office.

Read more: Verizon is letting job functions determine if its 133,000 employees should work from home, in the office, or both. 3 staffers shared how their routines will change.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Insight: So what does reentry look like at Challenger?

Harris: We have about 200 employees in the US, mostly based at our headquarter office in DC, and about 100 internationally, mostly in the UK.

The biggest surprise is that about 40% of our workforce moved during COVID-19. That really snuck up on us: individual managers knew, but there was no one at our organization gathering all that information.

Our workforce spans a wide age demographic. A lot of our younger employees moved back home just to save money. The DC area is fairly expensive, so a lot of them felt like why pay rent if they're just going to be holed up in little apartments? Then a lot of our 30-somethings, many of whom have young families, also moved to save money. They bought or rented homes in cheaper areas because they didn't have to be so close to the office. A lot of them have now resettled.

And then we had a whole group of employees who took it as an opportunity to live somewhere that they've always wanted to live. They moved to Colorado and California during the pandemic, and now want to stay.

Now we're trying to figure out how to wrangle the team, what the new normal looks like, and how to get people energized to be back at work.

This includes simple, tactical things like how we file unemployment in the different states where people live now. But now we also have to think about company culture. All of a sudden, a lot of members of our team have become remote workers. Do we let them stay remote?

Insight: This seems to be a big question in the tech industry. What steps are you taking to determine whom to bring back?

Harris: I hired a chief people officer because I knew this transition back was going to be really hard. We did have an HR generalist and a recruiter, but I felt like we really needed someone to focus on our people and culture.

So we're working with our chief people officer to figure out how we can transition collaboratively. Our policy is to have team members and their managers figure out if their jobs can be remote based on the parameters and expectations around the job.

For some of our employees, it's okay. But for others, it's not. To give you an example, our inside sales reps feed off of the energy of the office — you don't really want people making cold calls in the basement by themselves. But for our senior consultants, who are typically working with remote clients anyway, it's not as big of a deal.

But we're trying to be as sensitive as possible and slow roll into the return to work. Even for the people who are still in the DC area, the idea of coming back to the office five days a week is not landing very well — understandably. In these 12-plus months, people have adopted new behaviors.

Insight: How do you get people to want to return, whether for five days a week or even just a few? And is that return picture complicated by your status as a startup?

Harris: It's harder when you have a startup. The difference between a startup and a more mature company is a more mature company may still be growing, but they're growing at a much slower pace.

When you're trying to move really fast to scale a startup, it's a lot easier to have people right there, because you don't have a lot of the infrastructure and processes that a big company has in place. That gives you flexibility, but it makes a question like bringing a workforce back more complicated.

Insight: Do you feel like the answer is to bolster the infrastructure or to retain the flexibility? Or is it somewhere in between?

Harris: I think it's a combination of both. We are trying to be flexible, but not at a harm to our business. If we feel like someone being remote is a detriment to the business, or it doesn't make sense based on their job and their role, then we are trying to either transfer them to different departments or different roles — or transition them out.

Luckily our business model changed enough that we can still retain some of those employees even though they moved. We re-platformed our entire training system, so now people can swipe a credit card and do virtual training sessions. Before, training was pretty inaccessible unless you worked for a large company that had a pretty significant sales-training budget. This has enabled a lot of smaller businesses to access our training and coaching and allowed us to scale.

This has allowed us to switch some jobs that were always in-person to be remote.

Incidentally, we can now get talent all over the country, which is a change. We would typically not recruit outside of DC, Chicago, and the UK. It's great that we have a much bigger talent pool. I think a lot of companies are excited about that opportunity.

But now we don't want to just mandate that everyone come back to the office. Instead, we have to decide what to do with this huge office in DC. Do we need that office space? Does it make sense? We had a satellite office in Chicago, and we let the lease lapse during COVID-19.

We're trying to figure out: What does our new office space look like, and what do we need it to do? We're thinking about creative solutions to bring people together that don't necessarily involve them physically working together.

Insight: You're really asking a fundamental question, which is: What's the function of socialization within the organization, and how can that be achieved in ways that are not necessarily the same as they have been in the past?

Harris: Companies and leaders have to look at it differently. I still think it's important that teams are together, and that there's bonding and collaboration. I still think that most conflict in the workplace could be resolved through better communication.

I was brought on as CEO at Challenger during COVID-19, so I've been remote the entire time. I met my leadership team, but I haven't met most of the people I work with. I'm still a little bit of a stranger to them. If this were a normal time, I would've met the entire team by now, and would've had lunches and drinks with them, and gotten to know how many kids they have, and what they like to do for fun.

I can pick up on people's energy when I'm in person with them. Over Zoom, it's harder. And so, I can often say like, "Hey, it looks like you're having a rough day. Are you feeling okay?" And as a CEO, it's really important to be able to tune into that.

I think that it's important that we get back together. I don't think anything replaces that human connection. But I'm not advocating that people need to be in the office five days a week.

Insight: You lead a company that trains other companies, which might give you a particularly interesting perspective on this question: How do you see other companies responding to the challenges of bringing people together without them physically being together?

Harris: Not surprisingly, we've seen other companies as well as ours invest heavily in technology and people to fill this gap, things like paying for employees to get better internet and investing in Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Intra-office relationships drive competition, obligation to the team, and a sense of urgency to succeed. We have found that these bonds — made through team lunches, happy hours, and "watercooler" chats — improve employee retention and overall engagement, especially for young salespeople. Over the past year and a half, companies have needed to restore that engagement through other means. Virtual happy hours are great, but companies realized it would take much more to build a fair and motivating environment. Some made major changes to compensation plans to improve extrinsic motivation. Some changed their hiring strategies and assessed future employees on different behavioral traits than in the past, such as proof of their ability to work autonomously and stay self-motivated. Managers needed to increase their overall communication and the quality of their coaching and training sessions.

As important as that internal shift has been, a larger challenge for companies was in how they managed their interactions with external clients. Think about an account manager who used to go on-site with a customer for days or even weeks at a time. Yes, they would spend most of that time on project work, but much of that time was spent on relationship-building activities. Suddenly, an eight-hour project day was cut down to four — and then divided into 30-minute Zoom sessions to accomplish specific tasks relating to that project. Sellers who had relied heavily on relationship-based selling suffered immensely. So companies are reevaluating how they train sellers to sell and consultants to consult. As customer conversations changed, client-facing employees needed to change, too.

Insight: Any final thoughts about reentry?

Harris: We are really focusing on appreciation of our employees — just really going above and beyond to let our employees know that we care. We've launched a lot of initiatives around that.

Leaders and companies are going to have to be very empathetic as people transition out of this. There are going to be a lot of lasting effects of COVID-19, whether it's people with long-hauler syndrome, people who lost loved ones, lost jobs. As companies, we need to be supportive of our employees' mental health.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How heart disease created America's wine industry

Is office hustle culture about to end?

Hybrid working looks like the new normal for tech firms, with Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter, and Amazon all laying out plans asking most workers to return to the office a few days a week. Some employers, like Twitter, will allow permanent remote work.

It's a psychological shift, with bosses like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella fretting that fully remote work will result in workers burning up the "social capital" generated by years of working in-person with colleagues. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon has explicitly said remote work is incompatible with hustle.

Fast-growing startups are also adapting to this new world, potentially spelling an end to a culture of employees working long hours in the office to ship products or software.

We spoke to founders about how they're planning hybrid work and returning to the office — and it's clear the era of 100 hour-weeks in the office is over:

1. Startups will treat geographies differently

Dataiku, a French $4.6 billion enterprise software startup, will make decisions about returning to the office on a geographical basis so they "actually make sense."

The company has offices around the world, including in the US, Europe, and Singapore.

"There are cultural and political differences in terms of remote work and practicalities," chief executive and founder Florian Douetteau told Insider. Heading into the office may not be practical for some employees, he said, depending on the travel infrastructure in place. Vaccination rates also differ between countries.

US employees are not afforded the luxury of moving between states in the way that Europeans can across the bloc. "What people expect and want in terms of flexibility is also not the same from one country or one continent to the other," he added. 

Another French startup, call software startup Aircall, is also expanding through Europe and says it will make return-to-office decisions by market. "Every geography is different," said chief executive Olivier Pailhès.

2. Sales will be in the office more often than engineering

Aircall's Pailhès said the startup is prioritizing flexibility, not "counting the clock" as long as work is getting done. There is a general expectation for staff to come in once a week, but this depends on the team.

"Some teams, like sales … we expect them to be back like five days a week, in the office," he said. "In engineering, less."

Dataiku's Douetteau added: "There are teams that do benefit from actually connecting frequently with one another, and in fact, we do believe a lot in the virtue of human face-to-face connection from time to time, and there are other teams that actually can operate remotely, fairly seamlessly." 

3. Firms are mandating specific days in the office

Venture capital firm Forward Partners said its approach is "flexible-hybrid."

Team members are expected to make the commute on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but the rest of the week is flexible. "I'm super excited to be getting everybody back in the office," said managing partner Nic Brisbourne.

This means that the whole team will be in the office together, which may make negotiations, brainstorming sessions, and onboarding new employees — each identified by McKinsey as potential sticking points for remote workforces — easier.

4. Startups are changing up their office space around employee wishes

Paddle, which provides billing services to software startups, is letting its employees decide. 

The startup asked employees what they wanted from its back-to-office plans via a series of surveys. The results were split, so Paddle has shifted to a mixture of office-based, home-based, and remote working. The company took on new office space in London and has designed it around this feedback.

Aircall hopes to get back to "normal" over the summer, having recently found a new New York office after letting the previous lease expire. The company also has offices in Paris, Sydney, and Madrid. Its headcount will reach 700 by the end of the year, with the addition of offices in London and Berlin. 

There is little desire to give up the office for good. According to a survey by PwC, just 13% of executives are prepared to wave the office goodbye, while 87% of employees said it is important for collaboration and relationship building.

5. People still like face-to-face

"We believe in celebration and in intense moments, the fun moments that really make the journey enjoyable. So we're going to invest a lot to gather people together," Aircall's Pailhès said. "And then the rest of the time, you can be more flexible."

While Forward's Brisbourne said Zoom has worked "so much better" than he would have thought, he also wants people together in person as "we are social animals."

He said: "What you don't get with all of this is little interactions that kind of build those small connections … The big things are fine, everyone knows what they're doing, but relationships are kind of not quite so close as they were. So when we have little disagreements, it just takes a little bit longer to figure out what the right path is. 

"I think that's just going to get much better when we're all back in the office a couple of days a week."

Pailhès said Aircall has two permanently remote employees, who have "separate treatment and compensation," but said he does not want Aircall to be "a fully distributed company" due to the value of in-person experiences. 

6. There's still a risk of overworking remotely

Paddle's employee-led policies have seen the startup go "digital-first", removing the hybrid label so staff can work at a time and place that best suits them. This includes its "navigate" policy, allowing its 150-strong workforce to log in from anywhere for up to six weeks a year. 

There are some practical issues around this. To tackle any potential bottlenecks in workflow, Paddle communicates asynchronously, project approval layers have been tinkered with, and there is a cap on time zone differences for those working remotely. 

While hybrid working might end hustle culture in its current format, Paddle chief people officer David Barker warned there's still a risk of overwork.

"Productivity actually increased during the pandemic," he said. "And that's also a little bit of a concern, because of the blurring of lines between the home life and work life."

Barker said Paddle had put several employees through in-depth mental health awareness training, adding that "anxiety and putting people under pressure is something that we don't want to advocate."

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Immigration lawyers hold the keys to a startup's No. 1 competitive advantage: its people.

They help growing companies hire the best talent from anywhere, steering them through a daunting US immigration system that places higher scrutiny on startups than big corporations. The best attorneys know how to translate legalese into clear guidance, and they handle the paperwork drudgery so entrepreneurs can focus on building their businesses.

For this list, our senior legal-industry reporter, Jack Newsham, and our most tenured startups reporter, Melia Russell, worked together to identify the top immigration attorneys helping startups and their founders secure work visas. We relied on references from founders and the venture capitalists who fund them, as well as an open nominations form.

We took into consideration a lawyer's accomplishments, clients, and reputation in the startup community, though many of the lawyers asked that we not name the startups on their rosters to protect attorney-client privilege.

Did we miss any? Contact the authors Melia Russell and Jack Newsham at mrussell@insider.com and jnewsham@insider.com.

Yana and TJ Albrecht, Bay Immigration Law

Yana and TJ Albrecht are the mother-son team behind Bay Immigration Law, helping startups and founders achieve their immigration goals. Forty-one people nominated them for this list.

Most of the firm's clients are young entrepreneurs who are "laser-focused on coming to the US to grow their startups and raise investments," TJ said. Bay Immigration Law works out the strategy and logistics of immigration so clients can focus on their work, he added.

Botond Bognár, the cofounder of startup REscan in Menlo Park, California, said the firm had a "perfect hit rate" for its international team of five. And the entrepreneur Harshita Arora said many attorneys denied her case as a 16-year-old programmer from India before she hired Bay Immigration Law. Yana and the team helped her obtain an O-1 visa, and now she runs a payments startup funded by Y Combinator, Bloomberg Beta, and AngelList's Naval Ravikant.

Sophie Alcorn, Alcorn Immigration Law

Sophie Alcorn, the daughter of an immigrant and an immigration attorney, is the choice attorney for startups funded by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Y Combinator. She was nominated for this list by talent partners at two venture firms, Homebrew and Menlo Ventures.

She runs her own practice from Mountain View, California, but serves the community in other ways: through a weekly advice column for TechCrunch and a podcast called "Immigration Law for Tech Startups," where each week she dives into a policy issue, visa type, or news.

Alcorn also serves as a mentor at the startup accelerator 500 Startups and said she helped draft a new federal bill that could create a "startup visa" for foreign-born founders.

Hiba Anver, Erickson Immigration Group

Hiba Anver, a managing director at Erickson Immigration Group, works with clients from scrappy startups to publicly traded corporations, helping them hire the talent they want.

She tells clients that visa applications for startups face higher scrutiny, and a successful strategy includes a hefty amount of documentation to show the business is "real," funded, and growing.

It takes a little creativity, too. Anver said she represented a stealth startup that had little paperwork to show it could afford to pay a foreign worker. But she used net current assets, instead of cash in the bank, to prove the ability to pay — and won approval for the visa. 

Anver, the daughter of immigrants, said she is the first woman and person of color to lead an internal legal team at Erickson, where she focuses on tech, finance, and investment clients.

Marcela Bermudez, Greenspoon Marder

Marcela Bermudez works with corporations, artists, athletes, and banks, but her specialty is helping startups in Latin America or other Spanish-speaking countries grow their businesses in the US. She led the formation of Greenspoon Marder's Latin American immigration practice.

She's helped startups and their executives and investors secure O-1, E-2, and L-1 visas.

Bermudez was also a lead attorney for Base Miami's Market Entry Bootcamp, which provides Latin American startups with coaching and a network as they look to expand into the US.

Susan J. Cohen, Mintz

Susan Cohen started Mintz's immigration practice as a junior associate in the '80s when she realized there was an unmet need for sophisticated immigration lawyers who also understood corporate law.

That tenacity has been a hallmark of Cohen's career. She said she often tells entrepreneurs to meet with both corporate and immigration experts before they have incorporated a business, so they can design the corporate structure and equity distribution with the right considerations.

Mintz's immigration practice also does a fair amount of counseling for venture-capital firms, she said, to secure visas and save the immigration status of the foreign-born founders they are investing in.

Jeptha Evans, McCown & Evans

Jeptha Evans has made a name for himself among startups and investors since starting his own firm in 2003. He's worked with alumni of Y Combinator, the prestigious startup incubator, and he was nominated for this list by Emergence Capital, a venture firm that's backed Zoom, Box, and Gusto.

He's helped clients secure H-1B, O-1, and E-2 visas, which are investor visas available only to people from certain countries. He tells clients that while visa approvals have become more "rational" under the Biden administration, it's essential to be honest in the application process.

"A misrepresentation can cause a lifetime ban," he told Insider, adding that fraud investigations can be aggressive, and "noncompliance comes to light during M&A due diligence."

Elizabeth Goss, Goss Associates

Elizabeth Goss, who runs her own firm in Boston, is particularly experienced with international student entrepreneurs. She has helped professors and healthcare researchers get visas and has the distinction of securing the first "parole" under the International Entrepreneur category.

The program lets foreign-born founders stay in the country without a visa, but the rule has a difficult set of requirements that prevents most people from applying. Goss helped a Greek founder — whose startup, Selfie Networks, is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners — get parole. 

Goss said she has also helped startup clients secure OPT-, H-, E-, and O-class visas, as well as the EB-5 investor visa.

Suhi Koizumi, Minami Tamaki

As head of Minami Tamaki's immigration practice, Suhi Koizumi works closely with executives and human-resources leaders to help growing companies hire elite international talent.

"The US immigration system moves slowly, and the standards can seem arcane," Koizumi said. "The case strategy and preparation process takes time and is iterative."

Koizumi's name was shared with Insider by Renegade Partners, a new venture firm started by the venture capitalists Renata Quintini and Roseanne Wincek and the veteran operator Susan Alban.

Nhu-Y Le, Legalpad

Hundreds of startups have placed their trust in a fellow startup, Legalpad, to secure their work visas. Founded in 2018, Legalpad uses data-driven processes to simplify the immigration system for founders, including top graduates from Techstars, Y Combinator, and 500 Startups.

Nhu-Y Le, who goes by Y, pronounced like the letter E, is the director of legal and "the glue that holds the entire client services and attorney teams together at Legalpad," a spokeswoman said.

Before Legalpad, she worked as an immigration attorney at Microsoft, where she managed a high volume of visa cases and led internal training on immigration law and best practices.

Anna Morzy, Greenberg Traurig

Anna Morzy, herself an immigrant, is an attorney and shareholder in the Chicago office of Greenberg Traurig. She's helped startups and their executives secure O-1 and H-1B1 visas, available only to people from Chile and Singapore.

Morzy's clients include startups backed by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Accel. 

She tells startup clients that it's important to show regulators what the company does and how it will grow in order to win approvals. "It is key to show that your business has appropriate funding and can effectively explain its plans in the US," she said.

Ting Ni, ImmiPartner

Ting Ni's client roster varies from entrepreneurs who are just getting their businesses off the ground to unicorn companies with hundreds of employees. She locks arms with them through funding rounds and acquisitions, which she said often lead to immigration considerations.

Ni began her career working with scientists, academics, artists, and musicians needing visas and green cards, but being based in the Bay Area, she fell into working with startups as well. In 2018, she started her own firm, ImmiPartner, to help growing companies build their workforce.

Infinilake, a startup created by former Uber and Confluent engineers, said Ni took the company from "zero to one" in terms of hiring its first foreign worker and learning best practices. And the healthcare company TigerConnect said she's secured four different visa types for its staff alone.

Peter Roberts, Roberts Immigration Law Group

Peter Roberts is the go-to immigration attorney for entrepreneurs and executives entering the storied startup accelerator Y Combinator. The program nominated him for this list.

Roberts, who started his own firm seven years ago, also spends hours each year giving free advice to entrepreneurs on Hacker News, the online messaging board run by Y Combinator.

He said he's undeterred by tricky cases. "As tough and confusing the US immigration system is, there's almost always a solution for accomplished and smart founders," Roberts told Insider.

Michael Serotte, Serotte Law

Michael Serotte has one foot in immigration law and another in the world of startups. He's an immigration partner at Unshackled Ventures, a venture firm that invests in immigrants, where he helps the firm's growing portfolio of companies hire and retain the best talent from anywhere.

Serotte also serves as immigration counsel to StartX, an accelerator associated with Stanford University.

He tells clients to apply the same determination they have at work to the immigration process.

"Just because other lawyers said it can't be done doesn't mean it can't be done," Serotte told Insider, adding that attorneys are like founders. "If you give up, you lose. We hate to lose."

Jason Susser, Siskind Susser

Jason Susser has built a practice advising foreign-born entrepreneurs and their startups, venture capitalists, and other innovation-centric clients on immigration. He's helped hundreds of students from one of the top US business schools, teaching them how to build the kind of track record that will help them secure an O-1 visa, for example.

"It's so much more difficult to start a process like that when the founder is weeks away from running out of work authorization," he said.

A coauthor with his partner Greg Siskind of "Immigration for Startups: A Guide for Founders," Susser has seen startups he's advised grow from one employee to dozens and hundreds. He became an immigration lawyer after five years as a paralegal and clerk in the same field.

Tahmina Watson, Watson Immigration Law

Tahmina Watson, an immigrant herself, got high marks from the 13 people who nominated her for this list. They describe her as a passionate lawyer who goes the distance for her clients.

System1, an ad-tech company, has been able to hire 20 employees through the H-1B visa program with Watson's help, according to one of the company's human-resources leaders.

Watson already wrote a book on startup immigration, titled "The Startup Visa," now in its second edition. She's also a podcast host and frequent contributor to Entrepreneur magazine.

Watson said she tells her clients that "every case is a story, and we need to make sure your story is presented as simply yet as effectively as possible to ensure your case is successful."

Katie Wu, Global Immigration Partners

Katie Wu, an associate with Global Immigration Partners in Los Angeles, understands that there's no one-size-fits-all immigration solution for startups. She works closely with clients to demonstrate that they are eligible for certain visas that have difficult sets of requirements.

"Hiring a competent immigration attorney will save a lot of heartache and grief in the long run," Wu said.

Wu's name was shared with Insider by 17 people, including startup founders and human-resources leaders. They said Wu stands out from other attorneys because of her attention to detail, responsiveness, and her rare ability to translate legalese.

Wu said she's helped workers with exceptional abilities seek O-1 and EB-1A visas and national-interest waivers, which spare companies from the cumbersome labor certification process.

David Zaritzky Brown, Brown Immigration Law

Not many top law firms have a footprint in Lincoln, Nebraska, but Brown's 40-person shop has been hired by some of the biggest names in tech. He worked for EY Law and a predecessor firm of what is now Dentons in Toronto and the Bay Area before launching his firm 15 years ago.

He's worked with brand-name tech companies, and he said his business has grown alongside his clients as they acquire other companies. The venture powerhouse Sequoia Capital, which shared Brown's name with Insider, is among the firm's more than 300 corporate clients.

Brown tells clients that it pays to hire the best job candidates. "There is a war for talent, and they should recognize premium processing fees are just a cost of doing business."

I'm Head of Platform at Bread and Butter Ventures, an early stage venture fund where I work with our General Partners Mary Grove and Brett Brohl. 

The three of us all do open office hours that are available to anyone, and we accept cold pitches — meaning pitches from founders that have no prior connection to us. 

Between the three of us, we read a lot of cold emails from founders pitching our fund for investment. A lot. 

Here are three major mistakes that startup founders make when sending cold emails to venture capitalists:

1. Not personalizing your greeting

Address your email to a person, not the fund. Not personalizing the email with a name is a quick indicator that you haven't done much research and indicates that we may be part of a mass email that you sent out. 

Which reminds me! Be careful using a mail merge. We've gotten lots of emails that start out "Hi Bread,".

The way to get around this is pretty simple: use Google! Most funds include their team on their website. Search for their site, a blog, or a social media presence— anything you can do to identify who works at the fund. 

Next, do your best to pick out the person who you think should receive the email. For example, Mary on our team runs our healthtech practice, so if you are emailing our fund about healthtech, you may want to address your email to Mary. Otherwise, you could address your email to all three members of our team or just pick one. 

2. Not including why you're reaching out to the specific fund

Include why you're sending the email in the first place. Maybe the fund's thesis is focused on social impact CPG brands, and you're a social impact CPG brand. Maybe you heard one of their partners on a podcast recently and really enjoyed it, or you identified with a blog post they wrote. Mention those things!

By doing so, you're indicating that you've actually spent time doing research on whom you're reaching out to. Again, I go back to my favorite tool — Google! As a starting point, find the fund's website, a recent news article about them, or some content they've created and try to thoughtfully incorporate it into your note. 

3. Not including teaser information in the email itself

Unsuccessful emails in this category usually fall into two types. The first, while it includes an attachment, has a message along the lines of "here's a great opportunity, check out my deck" with little to no additional information. Frankly, this is a pretty easy email to ignore because I don't know the stage, the sector, the opportunity, or anything about the team to compel me to open the attachment.

The second type of email simply asks if I'd like to be sent a deck to review an investment opportunity. These tend to include one or two bites of information that might hint at sector or stage but lack anything to make me want to take action and request details.

If you're going to send a teaser-type email like this, don't forget to include something that grabs my attention and makes me think it's something I can't miss out on. Oftentimes this includes metrics. It may be traction numbers around usage, your ACV, your CAC, or anything that stands out!

Writing a great cold email

As I've made clear above, a great cold email is customized and includes some key information to catch the eye of an investor. I'd also recommend that it includes a hook: something memorable that makes me want to not just open the deck, but keep learning more.

This might be a bit about your founder story, a key piece of traction, the enormity of the problem you're solving, or a clear articulation of your differentiation.

Let's take a look at an example of a great, short email sent to an investor:

My name is Aneesh and I am the founder of Knit.  At Knit we are building the Qualtrics for multimedia, starting with video. 

Video is 6x more data rich than text and customer feedback in the form of video enables brands to get richer insights, go to market faster and generate more revenue.

However, 1 hour of video requires 10 hours to analyze and draw insights - making it impossible to leverage at scale. Until Knit.

Knit uses AI to pull insights from video 10x faster at 70% less cost than today's methods. Since launching in January 2021, we've booked $XYZ+ in revenue and have built a pipeline of ~$XM in Q2 alone.

Given XYZ Fund's investments in companies like ABC, I'd love to share more about what we are building.

Are you or someone on your team open to connecting in the coming days for me to share more?

Aneesh introduces the company, identifies what they do very succinctly and then goes straight into the problem they solve. Plus, the momentum and traction that the company has seen recently serves as a great hook. 

He also demonstrates that he's done research on the fund by mentioning a company they have previously invested in that is in the same vertical as Knit. He's done his homework, personalized his email, and made me want to learn more, resulting in a great cold email.

Stephanie Rich is Head of Platform at Bread and Butter Ventures where she works to add continuous value to portfolio companies and founders. She is also Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator in partnership with Cargill and Ecolab. She is the founder of Starting Up North, a publication focused on telling the stories and sharing the insights of Minnesota startups, innovators and their ecosystem, and Goby Partners, a marketing consultancy for startups and growing brands. Prior to Goby, Stephanie was employee #1 at Particle, the leading development platform for the Internet of Things.

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Speak to most venture capital investors about how they pick founders to back and a few themes emerge: a warm introduction helps; as does being a serial entrepreneur.

For anyone resorting to cold emails, it's likely they're up against 999 other founders trying exactly the same thing.

How can you get onto a VC's radar if you're a new entrepreneur, or don't have the network for an intro?

We spoke to 11 venture capitalists with billions under management — here's what they said:

1. Have a presence on market maps

Seth Pierrepont, a European partner at Accel, said the investor looks at market maps as part of its outbound research, which "most venture capital firms do", so a startup should make sure it is listed.

This includes data sources such as Pitchbook, Crunchbase, Beauhurst, and Gartner. 

Although this is "more by chance", having a good description is also important as startups may be "intersected" based on the industry they are in.

How each platform collects data differs, which may lead to differences in company profiles according to Jay Wilson, investment director at AlbionVC.

"These differences may qualify a company out of an investor's sweet spot," he told Insider. "For example, some investors may focus on capital efficiency and therefore look at total funds raised to date. If this is misrepresented and too high an investor may not reach out.

"Keeping your company data relevant across myriad platforms obviously takes time but ensures the right investors reach out for the right reasons."

2. Bag a spot on an accelerator or growth list

The second type of outreach that Accel does is based on signals from the market. 

Accel mostly invests at Series A onwards, so seeks out buzzy early-stage firms.

Pierrepont told Insider that being featured on the likes of Deloitte's Fast 50 is one way to catch his eye, or winning an award. Accel has purpose-built software than looks for award-winners and will "proactively reach out" to companies of interest. 

"For young companies, whatever they can do to elevate their profile, it really matters, especially at the early innings," Pierrepont said. Accelerator programmes like Y Combinator can help, he added, but startups will likely be introduced to investors during the program.

Hendrik Van Asbroeck, partner at impact investor Astanor Ventures agreed. "Startups need to pay attention to communication," he said. "VCs can only contact startups when they are aware of them."

He told Insider that founders must make an effort to be present in the press, present at key events, communicate on fundraising, and elsewhere "VCs are listening."

3. Choose the right platform and make sure it's up to date

Enterprise investor Frontline Ventures sees "about 1,500 to 2,000" companies a year according to partner William McQuillan. "You know, we're gonna invest in about ten of those, but we don't have enough time to do full due diligence for every company that comes to us."

McQuillan said how a company comes to the firm helps it prioritize, admitting that a "warm strong recommendation" is "definitely" the best way to get high on an investor's list. For McQuillan, reaching out via LinkedIn or Twitter is the next best thing, and every investor is active on different channels.

Platforms should be kept up to date, even "super early-stage" founders should change their LinkedIn to "stealth mode" according to Emma Phillips, partner at UK seed investor LocalGlobe. "But ensure to add in what market they're building in so that only relevant VCs reach out," she said.

LocalGlobe also looks at a founder's background and profile, not just the company, to assess "why this founder for this market."

Phillips said relevant work experience showing "the deep knowledge you have acquired about the pain point you're trying to solve" should be highlighted.

Elena Mazhuha, investment manager at central and eastern European early-stage investor Genesis Investments, believes there's a delicate balance to be struck between self-promotion and demonstrating expertise.

She told Insider a savvy PR and social media presence, where a founder shares their specific knowledge and dedication to the industry, may encourage VCs to reach out. 

"At the same time, startups should avoid branded or self-praising publications as they can work the other way round," she added. 

4. Keep potential backers updated even if they're not right for now

QVentures runs a pre-seed fund and, according to managing partner Robert Walsh, knowing when a company has been founded or is fundraising at this stage "is the hardest piece."

He recommends that founders build out a list to keep investors updated.

Startups may get a lot of "no, not this round" responses, Walsh told Insider, but will "rarely find resistance" when asking VCs if they want to be added to an investor update list. "This means founders can be passively updating those investors over the subsequent 12 months, which can lead to an early cold outreach from a VC," he said. 

5. Choose the right seed investors 

McQuillan expects to hear about standout startups from seed investors shouting about their portfolio. "Make sure your seed investor is propping you up to all the Series A investors they're talking to, and make sure they're armed with the right things to be telling them."

Face time with others in the wider startup ecosystem is never a bad thing. 

David Grimm, investment director at UCL Technology Fund, told Insider that founders should build their network. "More than ever VCs are asking their founders who they think are the most interesting startups around," he said. 

6. Hire the right people 

Frontline monitors LinkedIn, looking for people in senior at prominent tech companies who leave and change their title to CEO or founder.

"The only thing that you can say is that 'I'm a senior person in tech and I'm starting a company,'" McQuillan said. "Then we decide if the company is suitable for us.

"There was someone I saw and I was like, 'That person is amazing.' They're starting an ice-cream company, which is super cool but like not suitable for Frontline so I didn't reach out, although I'm actively watching to taste the product."

Phillips also watches out for startups that attract impressive talent and clients. 

"If you have interesting customers or partnerships, make those known publicly, if allowed, as it adds a lot of credibility early on," she said. "Likewise with early employees who look impressive on paper and reference well. We always love to see that founders can convince great talent."

Others agree. OMERS Ventures managing partner Harry Briggs said his firm gets "particularly excited" when startups hire "great people", while Blossom Capital founder Ophelia Brown  is "certain" that VCs will "come knocking" if founders focus on building a great team and product. 

7. Understand the VC's investment strategy 

Frontline wouldn't invest in an ice-cream company, but a food-oriented venture firm might. Understanding the investor's focus and investment strategy, and tailoring your company's description and content output to this, could help startups gain traction. 

Blue Horizon is an impact investor in the future of food. Partner and chief operating officer Sedef Köktentürk told Insider the importance of understanding the investment strategy of the funds "can't be understated".

8. Be solution-focused 

Köktentürk, like many impact investors, is "always interested" in meeting startups that are solving hard challenges. "You've got to also get our attention on the real impact and its role in the transformation of the food industry," she said. 

Astanor Ventures' Van Asbroeck also said founders must "clearly illustrate" the purpose of the startup so that VCs understand its scalability and impact.

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Plentific, a software startup aiming to speed up the process of repair and maintenance work for big landlords, has raised a $100 million Series C round.

Founded in 2013 by a team with their own real-estate portfolio, the firm works with clients such as UK housing association Peabody to offer a marketplace through which local contractors can be booked for jobs. The startup says the result is faster, trustier repairs.

"It was a pain point I wanted to solve for myself," Cem Savas, chief executive and cofounder, told Insider. "I knew from firsthand experience speaking to tenants speaking to contractors, and estate agents. There's a lot of manual processes, a lot of pain points, and people complaining about service levels."

Tenants are able to log into their landlord's portal, which integrates with Plentific, and request a repair with a description and photos of the problem. The property manager then approves the job, which goes to a marketplace of contractors who offer quotes.

The manager approves the contractor, who is then put in touch with the tenant to organise a time and date for the job. The tenant is consistently updated with the job's progress, and there is opportunity for feedback after it is completed. 

The company also gives managers oversight of all their properties in one place.

Plentific hopes to replace legacy software across the entire industry.

Property technology is a hot sector as entrepreneurs try and digitize a market that has been slow to innovate. The pandemic has slowed investing, according to Pitchbook data, but the overall trend has been upwards. Commercial proptech deals hit $13.7 billion in 2019, more than double the $5 billion invested in 2018.

Plentific will use its cash injection to expand into the biggest potential market, the US, as well as cementing its presence in the UK and Germany. It hopes to have 2.4 million residential units in the US on board in the next five years, and currently has 350,000 across the three markets, with a marketplace of 20,000 contractors. 

It brings the company's total raised to $140 million.

Headcount, which has doubled in the past year, is expected to increase from 200 to 650 in the next five years. Savas said there are currently 80 vacancies. 

Plentific will also enter new markets through strategic acquisitions to expand its market share and product offering. For example, a company managing asbestos risk may be of interest. Last year it acquired a compliance software service, and bosses are currently in discussions with three other companies. 

The round was led by new investors Highland Europe and Brookfield Technology Partners alongside Mubadala and RXR Digital Venture. Existing investors A/O PropTech and Target Global also participated.

Scroll on to see Plentific's pitch deck:

Big car companies are in the middle of working toward the future of electrification. Meanwhile, nascent electric-vehicle startups are doing the same.

The legacy companies have the resources, established supply chains, institutional knowledge, and years of experience needed to enable the shift away from gas-powered engines. But the younger companies have the talent, agility, technology, and faith from Wall Street that some of the legacy automakers couldn't dream of. 

As a result, many longstanding Big Auto executives and engineers are jumping ship for the promising — and risky — world of startups. This includes Rivian, China's Nio, and companies focused on the energy side of the equation, like Fermata.

In addition to engineering, manufacturing, and operations chiefs leaving the likes of Ford and GM, there is an exodus of talent from Tesla — which many say meets the criteria of Big Auto — to even younger companies in the space. And they're headed to not just new manufacturers but also companies focused on a variety of areas within electrification.

These 17 former executives have left their posts at major auto companies in hopes of driving innovation in electrification at a startup.

Anil Paryani, CEO, Auto Motive Power

Formerly: Senior engineer, Tesla; senior engineer, Honda R&D

Paryani, an industry veteran, has three decades of experience in EV development. He has dabbled both in Big Auto companies and in startups, beginning with the seven years he spent as a senior engineer testing batteries at Honda. 

Most notable is Paryani's stint at Tesla. He was a senior engineer of battery management there from 2007 to 2013, developing and implementing battery algorithms for the Model S and Roadster, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before that, Paryani spent two years leading electrical-engineering architecture and software development, as well as battery and charging, at Faraday Future, a troubled Los Angeles EV startup.

Now Paryani is the CEO of Auto Motive Power, a Paramount, California, startup specializing in EV charging and battery-management systems. He cofounded the company in 2017 with the goal of becoming the dominant supplier of energy management. 

Scott Brierley, director of automotive and strategic partnerships, Fermata Energy

Formerly: Manager, corporate strategy and planning, Nissan North America

Brierley recently made the shift from traditional auto to the startup world. At the nascent energy and battery company Fermata Energy, Brierley develops partnerships with legacy automakers and other industry stakeholders interested in integrating vehicle-to-grid technology. 

The Charlottesville, Virginia, startup seeks to leverage EVs for their energy, allowing them to return power to the grid in cases of emergency or during energy-demand peaks. 

Brierley joined the company in July after five years at Nissan overseeing commercialization of the automaker's bidirectional-charging initiative in North America. Brierley was also the manager of fuel cell, Chevrolet Volt, and autonomous programs at GM for four years.

Dan Grossman,president, Pyka

Formerly: Chariot CEO and global vice president of microtransit, Ford; Maven CEO and director, vehicle sharing, GM

Even throughout his time working at legacy auto companies, Grossman has been on the brink of innovation and new business models, some of which have seen success, while others have folded. 

At Ford, Grossman helped oversee the company's microtransit initiatives and led Chariot — the company's app-based shuttle service that it acquired in 2016 — as CEO. Before that, he oversaw GM's Maven mobility division and vehicle-sharing subscription services. Chariot eventually closed in 2019, and Maven shut down last year. Grossman also served as the vice president of the car-sharing service Zipcar for six years.

Grossman, who was recently named president at Pyka, a San Francisco autonomous-electric-aircraft startup, is taking his experience from the road to the sky and hoping to steer the future of electric passenger planes.

Celina Mikolajczak, VP, manufacturing engineering, QuantumScape

Formerly: Senior manager for cell quality and materials engineering, Tesla

Mikolajczak joined the battery startup QuantumScape in July as its vice president of manufacturing engineering. Formerly of Tesla, Mikolajczak is most known for working on the launch of the Model S. 

She also led battery development as the vice president of battery technology at Panasonic Energy of North America.  

Having experienced the fast-paced environment of Tesla, Mikolajczak is well poised to take on an auto-industry startup. QuantumScape is looking to rethink EV battery technology, especially as it relates to solid-state lithium-metal batteries. The company has backing from Bill Gates and Volkswagen. 

Charly Mwangi, EVP, manufacturing engineering, Rivian

Formerly: Senior director of engineering, Tesla

Mwangi joined RJ Scaringe's team at Rivian as manufacturing chief last year. Mwangi oversees the launch of the company's manufacturing plants. He spent six years at Tesla, including time as the senior director of engineering.

Mwangi and other Tesla alums have jumped to Rivian in hopes of playing a consequential role in the launch of its R1T pickup and R1S SUV.

Before Tesla, Mwangi worked at Nissan as a senior manufacturing engineer and at Toyota. 

Laura Schwab, VP, sales and marketing, Rivian

Formerly: President of the Americas, Aston Martin 

Having served as the president of the Americas at the luxury British sports-car manufacturer Aston Martin, Schwab knows the world of gasoline-powered cars well.

Schwab was the company's first female president of the Americas. She also has 14 years of experience at Jaguar Land Rover, including a stint as director of marketing. So when Schwab joined Rivian in December, she came with the marketing chops and sales savvy that Rivian could benefit from — she's the first to hold the post at the EV startup.

It's not the shift from gas to electric that will test Schwab's skills. The primary change she must overcome is handling sales and marketing for the company's flagship truck and SUV without a dealer network.   

Christian Treiber, senior VP of global customer journey and aftersales, Canoo

Formerly: VP of customer service, Mercedes-Benz USA 

During his career, Treiber spent nearly three decades with Germany's Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz, most recently serving as vice president of customer service for Mercedes-Benz USA.  

He made a dramatic jump earlier this year when he joined Canoo, a Los Angeles EV startup. Canoo is planning to launch a seven-seat subscription-only vehicle and two delivery vans next year. 

At Canoo, Treiber will have the chance to flex his skills in scaling aftermarket sales, retail, parts, and service, by leading the startup's customer journey from purchase and ownership, to warranties and service, to after sales operations.   

JB Straubel, founder, Redwood Materials 

Formerly: Chief technology officer, Tesla

Straubel, a Tesla cofounder and its former chief technology officer, is known for being Elon Musk's former right-hand man. Lately, he's been involved in an even-younger EV company, the battery-recycling startup Redwood Materials. He founded Redwood in 2017 but began to develop the company more intensively after leaving Tesla in 2019.

The startup is developing a process to "remanufacture" spent EV batteries by extracting the precious raw materials in them to recycle and return to production.

With Straubel at the helm, the 4-year-old company is preparing for an accelerating battery-recycling market. The connections he has from working at a major automaker certainly don't hurt. 

Josh Ensign, chief operating officer, Proterra

Formerly: VP, manufacturing, Tesla

As chief operating officer at the electric-truck startup Proterra, Ensign leads the company's Silicon Valley, Southern California, and South Carolina manufacturing operations. He also oversees procurement, facilities, IT, and human resources. 

Proterra, headquartered in Burlingame, California, designs and manufactures commercial electric vehicles, including electric transit buses, and charging and energy-storage systems. The company is 17 years old and went public earlier this year via a merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company.

As it scales, Proterra could use the Big Auto expertise of Ensign. He was the vice president of manufacturing at Tesla responsible for the company's Fremont, California, production site, including the Model S high-volume production line, according to his company bio. Ensign also oversaw the launch of Tesla's dual-motor platform and the Model X, as well as its new seat-manufacturing plant. 

Gareth Joyce, president, Proterra Powered and Energy  

Formerly: CEO, Mercedes-Benz Canada 

At Proterra, Joyce is growing the company's business of supplying tech to commercial manufacturers and equipping heavy-duty electric fleets with charging-infrastructure solutions. 

Before joining the Proterra team last year, Joyce spent many years in senior leadership at the luxury brand Mercedes-Benz. Joyce, who started at Mercedes in 2004, spent time working for the automaker in South Africa, Europe, and North America, according to his Proterra bio.

He has experience in aftersales, customer service, and parts sales, having spent time as the vice president of customer service for Mercedes in North America, and had a brief stint as the CEO of Mercedes-Benz Canada.

Darren Post, VP, engineering, Lordstown Motors 

Formerly: Vehicle-line director, Chevrolet, GM

Post has been the vice president of engineering at the struggling EV startup Lordstown Motors since November 2019. Before that, he had a nearly four-year stint at Karma Automotive as its chief engineer.

He joined Lordstown — an Ohio company riddled with controversy— with more than 30 years in traditional automotive under his belt, primarily at GM. There, he was a vehicle-line director, manufacturing director, and manufacturing superintendent for several years across different product lines, according to his LinkedIn profile, most recently serving as the vehicle-line director for Chevrolet. 

Post may not be enough to help the embattled Lordstown recover from its challenges with image, finances, and production, but he has the longstanding automotive-manufacturing expertise to try.  

J. Eric Purcell, VP, global quality, Lordstown

Formerly: Director of manufacturing, quality, Tesla; senior manager, Weld Shop, Kia Motors

Lordstown poached Purcell, an industry veteran, to head up its global quality operations earlier this month, just ahead of the company's start of production of the Endurance pickup truck.

He joined with substantial legacy auto experience, having held senior-level positions at both Kia and Nissan. Purcell oversaw daily production at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia for more than four years. Before that, he was in charge of body and stamping engineering for Nissan North America, including for the company's first light-commercial-vehicle program in the US, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He also was responsible for Tesla Model S and Model X body and stamping shops as the company's director of manufacturing between 2013 and 2019.

Feng Shen, EVP, Nio

Formerly: Vice president, Volvo Cars

Over the past seven years, the EV startup Nio has been making a name for itself in the Chinese market— and experts expect its success to continue. Credit that partly to the company's billionaire leader, William Li, and partly to the talent it's attracted from major global automakers like Volvo.

Shen, an executive vice president at Nio, previously spent seven years as the president of Volvo China R&D Co. and another seven as the vice president of Volvo Cars, according to his LinkedIn profile. He's also spent time at Ford.

Shen's stark transition from Big Auto to a startup like Nio was tempered by a stop in between at Polestar, Volvo's performance-EV brand. There, he gained experience as Polestar China's president and global chief technology officer.

Burkhard Huhnke, chief technology officer, Fisker

Formerly: SVP, e-mobility, Volkswagen

Huhnke has helmed technology development for Fisker Inc., the EV company founded by the entrepreneur and automotive designer Henrik Fisker, since last year.

Before signing on, Huhnke had roles such as Volkswagen AG's head of system testing and senior general manager of the electronics development, and as the executive director of research and development, vice president of product innovation, and senior vice president of e-mobility with Volkswagen of America.

With Fisker's approach to let others handle its manufacturing — like the iPhone maker Foxconn and the Canadian company Magna, one of the largest auto suppliers across the globe— the idea is that the company will have more time to focus on the vehicle's digital experience. Perhaps that was the reasoning behind bringing on Huhnke.

Fisker is working to launch its flagship $37,500 Ocean SUV next year. 

Rohit Makharia, president, chief operating officer, SES

Formerly: Partner, GM Ventures;  Battery-cell product lead, GM

SES, a lithium-metal-battery startup formerly known as SolidEnergy Systems, was spun off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012.

The company has been steadily growing since and bringing on key team members with extensive automotive experience like Makharia. Makharia joined the company as its president and chief operating officer in March after spending 19 years at GM. He spent his first 12 years there in electric-vehicle technology, eventually becoming the lead on the Chevrolet Bolt's battery cell. He then spent seven years as a venture-capital partner with GM Ventures, focusing on startups in battery technology.

SES plans to go public this year through a merger with the SPAC Ivanhoe Capital Acquisition Corp. in a deal that will likely value the company at $3.6 billion. It already has backing from key global automakers including GM, Hyundai Motor Co., and Kia, as well as other stakeholders. 

Barry Engle, founder, Qell

Formerly: President, GM North America

Engle left Ford and GM after several years in the business to pursue electric-mobility startups through a slightly different route: a SPAC. At GM, Engle served as an executive vice president and president at GM for North America, the Americas, International, and South America. Before these roles, Engle had a long tenure at Ford, including a run as the president and CEO of Ford Canada.

Engle founded Qell Acquisition Corp., a SPAC focused on sustainable mobility, last year. He's since agreed to take public Lilium, a German electric-vertical takeoff and landing startup (eVTOL) — aka a flying-car company. 

Engle now channels his longstanding auto experience to propel Lilium forward. The company, which is developing a seven-seat air taxi that has a 155-mile range and top speed of 175 mph, is hoping to capitalize on an emerging market. Morgan Stanley said the eVTOL market could grow to as much as $1 trillion by 2040.

Rob Ferber, CTO, Xos Trucks

Formerly: Founding member, Tesla

Ferber seems to enjoy being at the forefront of innovation. After all, he was a founding member of Tesla's team and served as science director there.

He took a break between what one might consider legacy auto experience and the EV startup world, spending two years with Hyperloop One as its chief engineer.

He's now the chief technology officer at Xos Trucks, a Los Angeles startup focusing on commercial electric vehicles. His know-how and leadership have helped land the company deals with customers like UPS and FedEx. His focus of late has been taking Xos public via a $2 billion merger with the SPAC NextGen Acquisition Corp.    

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The pandemic's disproportionate effect on racial and ethnic minorities highlighted the lack of diversity in clinical trials for drug and vaccine developers— and tech companies are rushing to help them reach more diverse participants. 

These startups are raising millions of dollars to use marketing and messaging technology — including through online advertising — to increase awareness among racially and demographically underrepresented groups who might be a good fit for specific clinical trials.

The search for a COVID-19 vaccine accelerated investors' interest in technology that could diversify trials, said Ivor Clarke, the CEO of SubjectWell, a clinical-trial-recruitment tech company.

More diverse clinical-trial groups would help scientists understand how treatments affect certain patients differently, including because of socioeconomic and demographic factors. In turn, that could help medically underserved groups trust the treatment once it's past the clinical-trial phase — and clue in researchers to any barriers that might prevent them from accessing it, said Enrico Castillo, a health-policy researcher with the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Having diverse research recruitment helps make the scientific innovation more acceptable to underresourced communities because they can see themselves represented in the research itself," Castillo said. But it's not a lack of awareness that keeps underrepresented groups out of clinical trials, he added.

Equity experts say that buzzy venture-funded technology won't address the larger systemic barriers keeping underserved groups out of clinical trials, including a lack of trust in biomedical research. A recent study suggested that Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Hispanic or Latino patients were underrepresented in vaccine clinical trials compared with their percentages of the US population, as were older adults. White people accounted for more than 77% of participants, according to that study. 

Still, the string of startups and their investors say that sophisticated marketing technology and messaging blasts could at least improve representation and help researchers comply with pandemic-era Food and Drug Administration recommendations for more diverse trials.

They could also be a save money for pharmaceutical companies that lose money when clinical trials are delayed because of low enrollment, said Tom Krohn, the chief development officer at Antidote, a clinical-recruitment tech company. Krohn was formerly the head of clinical open innovation at the pharma giant Eli Lilly.

Venture-capital investors are taking note. Antidote raised $23 million in June to use targeted marketing technology to recruit patients for specific clinical trials. The company would not disclose specific names of customers but said it worked with seven of the largest global pharmaceutical companies researching treatments for COVID-19, Crohn's disease, Parkinson's, and other conditions. 

Until recently, it has "a space that's been completely fossilized and not improved upon," said Enmi Kendall of Healthy Ventures, which has a stake in SubjectWell. "There's a lot of money to be made in bringing new therapeutics to market."

SubjectWell, which raised $10 million in 2019, works with drug companies and research institutions to push out broad messaging blasts, including online advertising and phone calls to individual patients who sign up for other health services, like screening services or online communities dedicated to certain conditions.

Clarke said that SubjectWell's customers had increased representation of racial minorities in clinical trials beyond the industry average of about 20% and that the company's goal was to prove to drug companies and research institutions that it was possible to enroll diverse patient populations without sacrificing the speed of research.

While better messaging can help familiarize diverse patients with clinical trials, "technology will not address deeper-seated historical challenges and even trauma that minoritized communities have had, when it comes to biomedical research," Castillo said.

The Tuskegee experiments — in which researchers examined the progression of syphilis in Black male patients from 1932 to 1972 but did not treat them — are just one example, Castillo said. Too often, "research has been done against communities rather than for them," Castillo added.

And other access barriers — like a lack of transportation to clinics or lack of job coverage — prevent underserved groups from joining trials even if they know about them, Clarke said. Technology that allows patients to join clinical trials from home — such as remote patient monitoring — is more likely to address those issues than recruitment technology, Krohn said. 

Castillo urged tech companies hoping to diversify these trials to work in tandem with local community organizations to ensure they're accounting for these systemic barriers.

Castillo said: "It's a question about who scientific innovations are designed for, who do researchers have in mind, and who are part of the studies when the latest scientific innovations are being developed."

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In an unusual move for a retailer, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) has quietly acquired a logistics startup called AirTerra, the retailer confirmed to Insider. 

AirTerra is a Seattle-based logistics startup cofounded by former e-commerce logistics leader at Walmart and Nordstrom, Brent Beabout. It claims to "level the playing field for small and mid-size shippers" by aggregating packages from multiple senders to get better pricing, and designing efficient routes to the final destination using regional parcel carriers and the USPS. 

AirTerra had not raised any publicly disclosed funding when it was acquired, and the companies did not publicly announce the acquisition.

In an industry that tends to outsource the work of moving goods, it's unusual for a retailer to acquire a logistics company, but not unheard of: Target, for one, purchased Shipt for $550 million in 2017. But compared to Shipt, AirTerra is tiny: It shipped its first packages just this week, according to sources familiar with the company, and offers shipping to 61% of the US population. (American Eagle's two publicly disclosed acquisitions in the last 10 years were both clothing brands.)

American Eagle painted the acquisition as part of an ongoing supply chain transformation — a plan it fast-tracked due to the pandemic, COO Michael Rempell told Insider in February. Priorities included opening smaller urban distribution centers and using data to make sure inventory was stored in the best possible place for fast delivery. The company said in June it had increased shipping efficiency and cut 1.5 days off of its average shipping time. 

But medium-sized shippers like AEO are in need of even more delivery capacity going into their second holiday season in a pandemic. Last October, AEO began a partnership with ShopRunner (recently acquired by FedEx) to offer free same-day shipping to six major cities, and expanded the program to 50 cities in June. Rempell said the team prides itself on being "aggressive adopters of new tools and technologies," in a Medium post announcing the expansion. 

Working with AirTerra could be another step in that direction. 

"We have already made tremendous strides in our efforts to increase speed, resiliency and diversification; yet believe we have an incredible opportunity before us to become even faster, more agile and more efficient," AEO Chief Supply Chain Officer Shekar Natarajan, told Insider. "The acquisition of a leading logistics business, AirTerra, and the deep experience its leadership team brings, only further fuels our excitement in the pursuit to provide a differentiated, best-in-industry experience for our customer."

(Natarajan worked with Beabout when the two overlapped at Walmart from 2014 to 2016.)

Beabout was a top-tier e-commerce leader at Walmart when the retailer acquired Jet.com in 2016 and placed startup cofounder Mark Lore at the helm of its online strategy. In early 2017, Beabout left to become Chief Supply Chain Officer of Nordstrom. He has also held engineering and supply chain roles at Amazon, DHL, and Office Depot. 

Other leaders at AirTerra include Walmart transportation alum Erik Milici, warehouse operations expert and Prologis alum Jim Bowes, and Larry Arnstein, who spent 11 years at Impinj, the company behind the RFID technology that enables checkoutless stores.  

AirTerra will operate independently, with AEO and other retailers as customers. American Eagle's CEO is billionaire Jay Schottenstein, who also serves as chairman of AEO's board, and executive chairman of the board for footwear retailer DSW. A source familiar with the deal predicted DSW would also likely work with the startup.

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Elopage, a startup that helps individuals and businesses set up and sell online courses, has raised $38 million in Series A funding.

The German startup raised funds from Target Global, with participation from Bolt backer Partech Ventures, and US-based Avid Ventures.

Founded in 2015, Elopage enables entrepreneurs and small businesses to manage and automate invoicing, billing, and membership for the sale of digital products like webinars, courses, and online consulting.

In its fundraising pitch deck, published in part below, Elopage describes the "rise of a new middle class", tapping into the idea that individuals have a growing roster of tools such as Substack to build paying audiences.

Cofounders Tolga Önal, chief growth officer, and Özkan Akkilic, chief executive, say they built the platform to solve pain points they had experienced when building their own businesses.

Akkilic previously launched and managed restaurants and built a portfolio of accompanying apps, while Önal started up and closed or exited from seven projects prior to Elopage.

Önal told Insider: "We saw where the bottlenecks were and I was like, oh my God, these bottlenecks are exactly the same ones that I have.

"We saw even companies doing multi-millions a year have issues with payments, simple checkout, and all of these solutions. We were like, huh, interesting … Let's fix it for ourselves."

The company said its growth has been fueled by trends in e-commerce, flexible working, and education technology, as well as the wider creator economy.

CB Insights estimates that startups in the creator economy raised $1.3 billion in funding up to June 2021, nearly triple last year's $464 million.

The fresh cash will be used to grow Elopage's presence across Europe. Headquartered in Berlin and with offices in Ukraine, the company has set its sights on the UK, followed by France and Italy. It is also growing its team from 70 to 190 by the end of the year.

With a stated user base of 40,000, the company hopes to have 1 million customers by 2025. The startup targets customers with annual sales between $5,800 (€5,000) to $47 million (€40 million). There are dozens of creators who have earned $1 million on Elopage, the company said.

Elopage says one differentiator is that its users can cancel subscriptions flexibly.

See the pitch deck Elopage used to raise from investors: