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☆ Startup Workspan raised $30 million to keep growing as it helps top tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and SAP manage relationships with partners
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ecosystem management tool Workspan has raised a $30 million Series C round. Workspan's tools help companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services co-sell with partners. It was there that he came up with the idea for what would become his next company, WorkSpan. Workspan was able to gain momentum quickly because of how necessary its tool is to large technology companies, Bawa said. Workspan has raised a total of $66 million in funding from investors like Insight Partners, Mayfield Fund, M12, and Redline Capital Management.

☆ This founder went from scoring millions in Battery Ventures investments to joining the firm as a VC. Here are his tips for how to land a deal.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-04 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Battery Ventures is bringing on the Guidewire Software cofounder Marcus Ryu as a new partner. The venture-capital firm Battery Ventures is bringing on a new investing partner with hands-on startup experience. The move is rare given that Battery Ventures doesn't bring on new partners very often, and Ryu is the founder of one of Battery's portfolio companies. Battery Ventures invested in the firm's $24.8 million Series C round before it went public. He's not focused on investing at any particular stage in a company's journey, since Battery Ventures invests across stages.

Insider asked top VCs what cybersecurity startups excited them the most this year. In turn, venture-capital firms are pouring billions of dollars into cybersecurity startups to help keep businesses secure. Additionally, VCs told Insider that cybersecurity isn't an area where companies are likely to cut spending in a downturn. Insider asked several VCs to pick the most promising cybersecurity startups both in and out of their portfolios. Here are the cybersecurity startups investors say are worth betting on, from least to most capital raised:

☆ 9 top cloud VCs share the trends they're following and how founders can pitch them right now
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

After a boom over the last two years, the venture capital market for cloud startups has slowed. Insider spoke to nine cloud VCs across a variety of firms about how to pitch them right now. So, venture capitalists are considering investments at a slower, more measured pace, several VCs told Insider. Insider spoke to nine venture capitalists across different firms who focus on cloud infrastructure, software, and enterprise technology. Here's what 9 top VCs look for in a founding team, what trends they're following right now, and how to pitch them:

☆ Two Vertex Ventures partners: types of founders, companies they're betting in the downturn with firm's new $200 million early-stage cloud-startup fund
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Vertex Ventures, an early-stage cloudtech-focused VC firm, raised $200 million for its third fund. Insider spoke to two partners about what they look for in a founder and why they raised a fund now. Vertex Ventures, an early-stage venture-capital firm focused on cloud and enterprise technology, has raised its third fund. Data security is another adjacent area they're interested in, as well a vertical software, or software focused on serving specific industries. Along with this new fund, Vertex has promoted Bhadra to the rank of general partner alongside the three existing general partners, including Heiliger.

☆ Designers say Figma gave them 'superpowers.' With Adobe's $20 billion takeover, some think the beloved startup is as good as dead.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | Jessica Xing | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

When Adobe announced its $20 billion bid for Figma, the design community was immediately concerned. When Adobe announced it was acquiring the design startup Figma for $20 billion, designers were quick to express their discontent over the blockbuster deal. So when Adobe announced its intention to buy Figma, much of the design community was immediately concerned. Designers worry Figma will become less accessibleWhile Field's committment to keeping prices the same for now may reassure some, others are skeptical. And some designers Insider spoke to say the acquisition could even benefit companies that have been paying a hefty bill for both.

☆ Adobe's product chief opens up about why its Figma competitor failed: 'XD was made in the image of the old'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Before acquiring Figma, Adobe had a similar product, Adobe XD, that failed to take off. That's one of the main reasons Adobe wants to join forces with Figma, Scott Belsky, Adobe's chief product officer, told Insider. He acknowledges that Adobe's rival tool for product design, called Adobe XD, wasn't successful. Why Adobe XD never took offAdobe created Adobe XD in 2016 because it saw a lot of people using Photoshop for website building. As a desktop product, XD used local files and wasn't collaborative.

☆ The 15 cloud-software companies most likely to be acquired after Adobe's $20 billion Figma deal, according to research analysts and Wall Street experts
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Adobe's $20 billion bid for Figma reopens conversations about what's ahead for software startups. These are 15 private and public software companies that analysts think could be acquisition targets. The Wall Street deal expert spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the business dealings. Other options to build out these platforms internally are limited due to their high cost and the tough funding market, the Wall Street deal expert told Insider. Here are 15 private and public software companies that analysts and experts think are likely acquisition targets.

☆ Meet Dylan Field, the 30-year-old college dropout who built Figma, one of Silicon Valley's most beloved companies, and is set to become a billionaire when it sells for $20 billion to Adobe
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Adobe's $20 billion bid to buy Figma makes CEO Dylan Field's stake worth $2 billion. When the design-software startup Figma was just starting out, Dylan Field, its cofounder and CEO, and his colleagues would pitch prospective customers' design teams, but they struggled with one major problem. While customers were excited about Figma's product, they hesitated to switch from existing tools. Now, Adobe's $20 billion bid to buy Figma makes Field's stake in the company worth $2 billion. Field's rise to successEvan Wallace and Dylan Field are the cofounders of Figma.

☆ Meet Dylan Field, the 30-year-old college dropout who built Figma, one of Silicon Valley's most beloved companies, and then will become a billionaire when it sells for $20 billion to Adobe
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

When design-software startup Figma had just started out, cofounder and CEO Dylan Field and his colleagues would pitch potential customers' design teams, but they struggled with one major problem. While customers were excited about Figma's product, they hesitated to switch from existing tools. Now, Adobe's $20 billion bid to buy the design software startup makes Field's stake in the company worth $2 billion. Field's rise to successEvan Wallace and Dylan Field are the cofounders of Figma. After taking time off to do a product design internship at news-sharing service Flipboard, he decided not to return to school.

☆ Adobe's product chief sees its $20 billion bet on Figma as a way to fast-track into virtual-whiteboarding tools, which he says will soon become as important as PowerPoint
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Adobe's $20 billion bid for Figma would bring one of its own biggest competitors on board. Adobe's $20 billion bid to buy the design-software company Figma shocked many in the design community, especially as IPOs and acquisitions have slowed amid the downturn. Since Dylan Field, the CEO of Figma, founded the company in 2012, it quickly became one of Adobe's biggest competitors. Belsky said that right now, there's no clear integration between Figma and Adobe's tools like Photoshop or Illustrator, but joining forces brings the opportunity to do that. Belsky said he sees whiteboard tools becoming as important as PowerPoint or other slide-presentation tools.

Analysts were skeptical of the Broadcom acquisition from the startFrom the get-go, Broadcom's plan to buy VMware seemed far-fetched. Read more:Customers and employees tell Insider the worst is yet to comeWork at VMware quickly lost meaning for employees under the threat of Broadcom's impending acquisition. Meanwhile, VMware customers are starting to feel the ripple effects. Since the Broadcom deal was announced, VMware employees have reported "aggressive" recruiter outreach from giants like Amazon Web Services, Google, and IBM. They told Insider about their plans to use the buyout to get closer to VMware customers.

☆ Notion found love from power users and TikTok influencers. Now, it's going after the office.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-07 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But despite its popularity among individual users, Notion is eyeing large companies for growth, the company's chief product officer, Madhu Muthukumar, told Insider. And last week it announced new product updates meant to simplify Notion for IT administrators. "There's always been this set of folks who are using Notion to run their companies or run their teams," Muthukumar said. Notion is also rolling out new tools meant to allow IT administrators to manage their organization's Notion use, including by allowing certain company roles to create a Notion account for a new user. Notion's product lead, Birkan Icacan, told Insider that Notion had many more features like this in the works.

☆ Some VMware partners say they're optimistic about the $61 billion Broadcom buyout and see it as an opportunity to cozy up to customers who fear they'll get lost in the deal's fallout
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-01 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | Jessica Xing | Jacob E. Robbins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But some partners say they're optimistic and see an opportunity to cozy up to VMware customers. In fact, several VMware partners view the seismic buyout as an opportunity and hope to use it to their advantage. Even those who weren't as optimistic about Broadcom's takeover told Insider the 24-year-old company was in need of a shake-up. Why VMware partners are optimisticBefore the acquisition announcement, Broadcom told investors the firm was "totally focused on the priorities" of 600 top strategic accounts. "Broadcom is where good software goes to die," an employee from a VMware partner told Insider.

☆ Broadcom CEO makes surprise appearance at VMware's big conference amid customer and employee concerns about the $61 billion takeover deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-30 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | Jessica Xing | Jacob E. Robbins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

VMware's conference for customers, employees, and partners kicked off this week in San Francisco. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan made a surprise appearance at VMware's big annual conference, VMware Explore, which kicked off this week in San Francisco. Prior to the acquisition announcement, Broadcom told investors the firm is "totally focused on the priorities" of 600 top strategic accounts. "What typically happens with acquisitions like this is that innovation stops," an IT professional for a smaller VMware customer in the oil industry told Insider at the conference. Several smaller customers told Insider they're worried that when the buyout closed, they may be forced to switch to bigger vendors like Microsoft, despite preferring VMware services.

☆ These cloud startups were pandemic darlings. Now the downturn is helping giants like Google and Microsoft gobble them up.
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-29 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Productivity startups boomed as a result, but the downturn will give large suites an advantage. Only productivity tools that carve out new niches or address new challenges will have a chance. Startups building new categories are more likely to surviveWhile the downturn makes it harder for productivity and collaboration startups to grow, experts say it's not impossible. Many of the most popular productivity startups address collaboration problems that aren't solved by the existing software tools or are creating a new category of workplace tools. Companies like Miro, Figma, and Canva are creating a new category of visual collaboration tools aimed at remote teams.

☆ $6.1 billion cloud startup Benchling hired executives from top software companies like Atlassian, Workday, and ServiceNow as it looks to its next phase of growth
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-25 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Benchling, which makes cloud R&D software for life sciences companies, boomed during the pandemic. Benchling has grown in size and valuationBenchling makes cloud software to help life sciences companies make their research and development more efficient. He sees a huge opportunity to bring life sciences companies into the cloud, especially given that there aren't many other software companies serving that specific market. The company's new CTO and product chief will be key to making that happen. Shawna Wolverton, chief product officer at Benchling BenchlingWolverton, meanwhile has experience in helping build out Salesforce's platform, which in turn fostered an ecosystem around the cloud giant's products.

☆ Read the pitch deck customer management startup Catalyst used to turn some of its top customers into investors in a $20 million round
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-24 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Customer management startup Catalyst raised a $20 million round, partially from its own customers. Here's the pitch deck Catalyst used for this $20 million strategic funding round. Customer management startup Catalyst wasn't looking to raise funding. The result was a $20 million non-traditional round with participation from 20 execs or leaders from companies in their customer base. Here is the pitch deck Chiu used to convince customers and key investors to invest.

☆ Salesforce CFO Amy Weaver says the secret to managing the cloud giant's growth is to scale up efficiently but not to be afraid to make big bets
▼ + stars: | 2021-12-01 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Over the past year, Salesforce has been balancing investing in the future and managing risk. CFO Amy Weaver is spearheading Salesforce's efforts to spur innovation while spending wisely. For example, Weaver said much of Salesforce's sales and product marketing is now done virtually via apps like Zoom, reducing travel expenses. Finally, Weaver said, Salesforce must be willing to make big investments where it sees a real opportunity, as it did with Slack. Making smart bets now means more revenue later, which will allow it to invest even more in its own efficiencies.

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