Sourcing Amazing Talent, Building Web3 Communities, and Unscalable Startup Hacks

A newsletter for founders & friends (17th edition)

Hey 👋

Welcome to the 17th 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 finding a technical co-founder, 4 types of product-market fit, and lessons from an experienced operator? Subscribe below so you never miss another👇

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Top 3 Tweets

🥇 Building Web3 Communities

Jaime Schmidt @jaimeschmidt

I co-founded two of the most hyped communities in web3: @MyBFF and @CPGclub. How & why I got here:

🥈 Engaging with Investors and Other Founders

Clarence Bethea @Clarence_Bethea

Founders/CEO’s of early stage companies: it’s your job to engage with investors and other founders. Seeing way too many folks sending assistants, ops managers and others. Out the gate, the bet is 99% on you!

🥉 Sourcing Amazing Talent for Early-Stage Startups

Some of the best responses to this tweet:

Joshua Grollman @grollman_j

@justingordon212 Layoffs.fyi compiles lists of employees that were laid off from other startups. Great resource of so many talented individuals caught in wrong place at wrong time. Great talent acquisition opp for startups actively hiring.

layoffs.fyiLayoffs.fyi - Tech Layoff Tracker and Startup Layoff Lists[LIVE] Tracking all tech startup layoffs — and lists of employees laid off — since COVID-19. This page is constantly being updated.

Arlan 👊🏾 @ArlanWasHere

@justingordon212 @hirerunner is one option. @TheEdlyft @Career_Karma @BitwiseInd are great @Backstage_Cap headliners.

Keith Lynn @lynnastyie

@justingordon212 Maybe a non-obvious one but founders from pre-seed / seed who didn't make it. Many go quietly though so I'd be keeping tabs on select pre-seed / seed companies who raised ~15-18 months ago and haven't raised their A rounds. They can make cracking first hires.

Lisa Russell @lisaadrienne_

@justingordon212 Here’s a helpful list of resources:

medium.comOur Resource on DEI Job Boards & Portals Has a New LookOver the past couple of years, we’ve had quite a few folks reach out to us regarding a blog post we published highlighting job boards and…

Mathew Roberts @caritas3t

A mini-thread of answers. 1) Social events + clubs. Many high-performing, talented, motivated students will attend the local chapter of engineering or other identity clubs. BMES, IEEE, etc. Many of those clubs are looking for industry speakers on a *weekly* basis. If you're 1/x

Justin Gordon @justingordon212

Where are the best places to source amazing talent for early-stage startups?

Read all the responses here

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Resources

• The best marketing newsletters

• A tool for finding out what your photos say about you

• A crowdsourced collection of unscalable startup hacks and stories

• A tactical guide to working with executive assistants

• A tool for compensation benchmarking

• Los Angeles founders and investors to connect with

• How to create eye-catching PowerPoint presentations

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Future of Work Reads

• How to Build a Thriving Corporate Culture in a Hybrid World (Inc.)

• Google tweaks its products for new reality: Hybrid work (The Washington Post)

• The future belongs to businesses that can evolve with an adaptive workforce (Fortune)

• Hybrid models and digitization: The future of work in 2022 and beyond (Fast Company)

• Busting three myths about the future of work (Computer World)

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The World of VITALIZE

• Suma Wealth Co-Founder, Beatriz Acevedo, was featured on the 100 Latinas List, a compilation of trailblazing women

• This week, The VITALIZE Podcast featured Jon Morris, CEO and Founder of NOWHERE, an online metaverse platform that aims to revolutionize gathering with patent-pending video presence technology that allows serendipitous social mingling between conversations with friends or colleagues at conferences, meetings, or parties all within dynamic web environments.

  • Watch on YouTube

  • Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Larissa hosted an AMA with Zuby Onwuta, a VITALIZE Angels member, about the future of disability and how we get more investment for disabled innovators

• Justin (yea, that’s me 👋 ) was interviewed on The Most Interesting People in the World and Portfolio Career podcasts

• Open jobs at Vitalize portfolio companies

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Future of Work Funding Rounds

• Chainalysis raised a $170M Series F

  • Chainalysis provides blockchain data services to detect and track crypto fraud for governments, banks, and businesses worldwide.

  • Top Investors: Digital Currency Group, Techstars, Accel, FundersClub, Paradigm

• Stord raised a $120M Series D

  • Stord provides brands with an integrated platform combining freight, fulfillment, warehousing, packaging, and parcel / last-mile delivery that offers full visibility and insight across their supply chains.

  • Top Investors: Lineage Logistics, Lux Capital, BoxGroup, B Capital Group, Founders Fund

• WizeHire raised a $30M Series B

  • WizeHire is a hiring platform built for SMBs.

  • Top Investors: Tiger Global Management, Mercury, Amplo, Sandeep Jain, Ruchit Shah

• Walnut raised a $100M Series A

  • Walnut is a point-of-sale lending company that helps patients pay for healthcare over a period of time. Walnut works with healthcare providers so that a patient’s bill can be paid back through $100-a-month increments for 30 months, instead of one aggressive credit card swipe.

  • Top Investors: AngelList, Pareto Holdings, Gradient Ventures, 2048 Ventures, Goodwater Capital

• OtterTune raised a $12M Series A

  • OtterTune automates the complex and time-consuming process of database performance optimization. The technology uses machine learning to safely analyze and continuously optimize those settings to help companies of all sizes run their databases more efficiently at a lower cost.

  • Top Investors: Accel, Intel Capital, Race Capital, 10X Capital

• Heard Technologies raised a $10M Series A

  • Heard Technologies operates as a financial back office software platform for therapists.

  • Top Investors: Footwork, Tom Williams, Founders' Co-op, Charley Ma, Act One Ventures

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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.