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more than TC+, Pilgrim Put a lot of effort into trying to create the perfect presentation. Oh, and Euro Startups: Here’s your chance to apply to Startup Battlefield 200!
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- Side quests are always distracting.: Here’s what Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke had to say today when talking about why Shopify had to reduce its workforce by 20%. Also talk about “main missions,” which is another video game analogy in case you were wondering. Oh, and Shopify also sold its logistics business to Flexport. pee He has more deets. while, Daryl He also has some ideas.
- AI knew this was coming: Microsoft is planning its next feature set for Bing, and it’s no surprise here that it includes artificial intelligence. but, Kyle He writes that, “They’re not reinventing the wheel so much because they build on what Microsoft has achieved with the Bing experience over the past three months or so.”
- written in the stars: Kyle He also wrote on Hugging Face and ServiceNow launched StarCoder, a free alternative to DeepMind’s AlphaCode, Amazon’s CodeWhisperer, and OpenAI’s Modeling Codex.
Startups and VC
In a sign that investments in the supply chain sector remain strong, Pando, a startup developing fulfillment management technologies, today announced that it has raised $30 million in a Series B round, bringing its total to $45 million. Kyle reports.
Tellus, a financial technology company backed by Andreessen Horowitz that claims it can offer people higher returns on their savings balances by using that money to fund some US single-family home loans, is under scrutiny by the US government. Senate banking chief urges FDIC to look into company, Mary Ann reports.
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Acquisition, Retention, and Expansion: Why SaaS Founders Should Understand GDR and NDR
Image credits: Konstantinos (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Investors have raised their expectations about SaaS profitability and growth since the downturn began. As a result, it is critical that founders have a solid grip on the key metrics that venture capitalists consider before saying yes or no.
In his latest article on TC+, Paris Heymann (Partner, Index Ventures) shares formulas for calculating Gross Dollar Retention and Net Dollar Retention, key performance indicators that provide deep insights into the health of your business.
“Businesses that are predictable are more durable, easier to manage, and are usually rewarded with higher valuations,” Heymann writes, “than unpredictable ones.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
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BigTech Inc.
Ron I covered this week’s Salesforce World Tour event and found out more details about Slack’s plan to put AI at the heart of the user experience. He writes that examples include helping someone get the gist of a long chain without having to read every message and generate messages. We can’t wait for teleportation technology to get better so we can just think and Slack will write a message.
Dallas, Texas, found itself in a bind, confirming that a ransomware attack forced the city to shut down courthouses and disrupt some 911 services while the chaos resolved. Carly he has more.
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