Amazing Startup Teams, Building a Baby Berkshire Hathaway, and How to 10x Your Writing

A newsletter for founders & friends (23rd edition)

Jun 24, 2022

Hey 👋

Welcome to the 23rd edition of Re:VITALIZE, a newsletter with tactics, strategies, and stories on building companies plus cool things we’re seeing in the future of work.

Did you miss last week’s newsletter about the best product launches, amazing customer service, and the people needed in every startup? Subscribe below so you never miss another👇

Top 3 Tweets

🥇 Building a Baby Berkshire Hathaway

Sieva Kozinsky @SievaKozinsky

We’re building a baby Berkshire Hathaway. The crazy part? We plan to pay 0% capital gains, compound w/ low taxes, and give our investors the same luxury. Here’s the playbook (that you can use too):

🥈 How to 10x Your Writing

Effective writing is a critical skill for everyone, especially founders, and this thread had some great insights to improve your writing

Dickie Bush 🚢 @dickiebush

Most people suck at writing. Why? Because schools do a horrible job teaching it. Luckily, learning to write is simple — if you know where to start. And unlike college, it won't cost you 120k. Use these 6 dead-simple steps to 10x your writing (without the student loans):

🥉 How Investors Judge if a Startup Has an Amazing Team

A few replies to this tweet:

Christopher Langford @clangfordvc

@justingordon212 1. Expertise (education, industry experience, startup experience, complimentary team) 2. Character (trustworthy, coachable, make the hard decision) 3. Propensity for excellence (discipline, risk taker, leader, resiliency)

🎙Randii.eth @randras_

@justingordon212 I can tell you from a founder point of view when I'm looking to hire I look for: - Genuine creativity and curiosity - Attitude towards real-life problems and how they make tough decisions - They need to have a skill they are better at than most people

Zécca 🌱 @Zecca_Lehn

@justingordon212 Remarkable teams we look for at @ResponsiblyVC: Inclusive, diverse, collaborative, empathetic, focused, fun, ethical, driven by impact, and geared toward venture. 💚

Lucas Timberlake @luketimber7

@justingordon212 Data that they have on competition (eg fundraise comps, product offerings) and ideas on what unit economics would look like at scale even if they end up being way off, as it shows how critically they are thinking about their business

Matt Wilson @MattWilsonYYC

@justingordon212 I look for a history of resiliency. Not necessarily in business, it can include sports, academics, military service, non-profit work, personal circumstances, etc. Something that exemplifies their ability to persist & overcome challenges.

Resources

A Twitter AMA on Audience Research
A fun Twitter AMA from Shaan Puri
Fundraising 101 (A guide to fundraising)
A platform to visualize data from any source without SQL
A platform for hiring military spouses as personal assistants
A story on the value of positioning

Future of Work Reads

The Future Of Work: How Much Flexibility Is Good For Employees? (Forbes)
Yelp to shut offices in New York, Chicago, D.C., saying future of work is remote (Morningstar)
Gen Z on Gen Z: What your young employees really think of the future of work (ebn)
What the future of hybrid work will (and won’t) look like, according to 27 business leaders (Fast Company)
Reimagining a New York City Landmark for the Future of Work (TIME)

The World of VITALIZE

This week on The VITALIZE Podcast we had on Tony Jamous, Founder & CEO of Oyster, a Global Employment Platform that empowers companies to hire, pay, and care for team members wherever they are in the world.
- Watch on YouTube
- Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Gale hosted her first “Angel Investing Playbook” webinar with the second one coming up on June 28th
We had our June pitches for VITALIZE Angels
Gale outlined The Work Revolution, our investment focus at VITALIZE
Open jobs at Vitalize portfolio companies

Future of Work Funding Rounds

Vendr raised a $150M Series B
- Vendr helps corporate clients buy and manage their business software.
- Top Investors: Tiger Global Management, Y Combinator, Craft Ventures, Garage Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund
Prime Trust raised a $100M Series B
- Prime Trust powers innovation in the digital economy by providing fintech and digital asset innovators with financial infrastructure.
- Top Investors: Gaingels, Kraken, Akkadian Ventures, Commerce Ventures, FIS
airSlate raised a $51.5M Series C
- airSlate is a SaaS technology that provides no-code business process automation, e-signature, and document management solutions.
- Top Investors: UiPath Ventures, General Catalyst, Silicon Valley Bank, G Squared, HighSage Ventures
Join raised a $16M Series A
- Join is a replacement for Excel and other email-based workflows that many construction stakeholders use to make decisions about projects.
- Top Investors: Bolt, SignalFire, MetaProp, Building Ventures, Ironspring
Neuron7 raised a $10M Series A
- Neuron7.ai is a service Intelligence platform that enables companies to deliver crucial service outcomes.
- Top Investors: Nexus Venture Partners, Battery Ventures

Written by Justin Gordon, Director of Marketing at VITALIZE, a venture capital firm and 300+ member angel investing community for everyone investing in U.S.-based B2B software founders in the work revolution. Find us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Re:VITALIZE