Hi there, 

Do you like mistakes?

I’ve got an ishtload of them for you.

Here are 68 things NOT to do in your SaaS company.

This was a presentation I gave at SaaStr prob 5 years ago (here’s the transcript). It was a lot of fun to deliver as the audience was super engaged and having fun, and also because of the conversations it spurred afterwards

The CB Insights positioning in it is horrible though and makes me laugh and cringe :( — see the slide on CBI being the illegitimate love child of Google, McKinsey, and Salesforce. What the heck were we thinking?

We’ve come a long way since then. Now on to the research.

Now from the top 

There are currently 750+ unicorn companies valued at $1B+.

My mama told me, you better shop around

Retailers have been placing bets on new AI solutions to adapt to market disruption, driving retail funding to a record high in 2021 so far. 

From investment in micro-fulfillment infrastructure to AI-enabled e-commerce fraud prevention, we examine 7 AI trends that will shape retail in 2021 and beyond in this report. 

The F word

As you may have heard, $1 of every $5 in venture last quarter went to fintech.

Take a look at the market caps of Square and Paypal vs. legacy financial services players and it’s clear that the financial services space is rapidly changing.  

It’s why the likes of JPMorgan Chase have caught the M&A bug — the firm announced 2 acquisitions in the last ~30 days.

The fintech freight train will not be stopped at this point.  

Block by block

What should enterprises that want to use a blockchain look out for?

Our friends over at Blockdata asked 5 companies to share their challenges, struggles, and learnings from working with enterprise clients. Read the roundup here.

Need for speed

AI platforms are reducing cost — in some cases up to 90% — and time in drug discovery. 

For pharma companies to compete, investing in AI has become necessary. Find out which vendors are leading the way in this client-only report.

Bring your questions

136 new unicorns. Record financing tally. 109% YoY increase in exits.

Get insights and answers to your questions about what happened in venture capital last quarter in our webinar next week (July 27). Register here. 

The Economist. The Economist reports on the growing group of tech unicorns and cites CB Insights data.  

MedTech Dive. Susan Kelly covers medical device funding and cites the CB Insights State Of Healthcare Q2’21 report.

Glossy. Liz Flora (@Liz__Flora) digs into the men’s grooming market, citing CB Insights data and quoting CB Insights analyst Kenya Watson.
 

P.S. We’re growing our sales team and are hiring experienced strategic account executives to work with our largest, global clients. Apply here.

Off the lot. Some car owners are selling their vehicles for more than they originally paid for them as used cars prices soar. 

WSJ 

Untied. In the US, tie sales peaked at $1.3B in 1995, dropping to $418M ($300M in 1995 dollars) by 2009. 

The Atlantic 

Around the world. Beyond Silicon Valley, tech hubs like Lagos and Bengaluru are rising in prominence. 

Rest of World

Eat, drink, and be married. Marriages are expected to see a 50% rebound in the US this year, putting pressure on some guests’ wallets. 

Bloomberg

Game time. Peloton has announced plans for an in-app video game in which users control a rolling wheel by pedaling. 

The Verge