by Aaron Holiday Recently, there has been a pattern of founders raising multiple note rounds before Series A that result in upside down cap tables. An upside down cap table occurs when investors (in aggregate) own more of a startup than the management team and its employees. Example Upside-Down Cap…

by: Nnamdi Okike 2019 appeared to be a banner year for the technology markets. The year ushered in a boom in public market liquidity, with unicorns such as Uber, Lyft, and Pinterest going public before the end of Q2. Total capital raised in 2019 IPOs was projected to rival the…

By Alessio Fanelli The advent of machine learning has been one of the major catalysts for innovation in this decade, powering products like Alexa and Netflix’s recommendation system. At a high level, the goal of machine learning is to use historical data to train models that will help inform future…

We’re excited to announce that Meha Patel has joined 645 Ventures as the newest member of our Investment & Research Team. We’ve seen first-hand from our portfolio companies how new hires have a tremendous impact on organizational culture and help catalyze long-term success. When we seek to add new members…

The Anatomy of Authentication Password vs. Passwordless, Centralized vs. Decentralized By Linda Lu authentication | ɔːθɛntɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n | noun The process or action of proving or showing something to be true, genuine, or valid; In computing, authentication is a process or action of verifying the identity of a user or application. Authentication: Why? …

By: Aaron Holiday, Nnamdi Okike, and Linda Lu At the time of company formation, a startup founder’s decision to begin a new venture rarely appears to be a logical choice, due to the high risk and significant probability of failure for any startup. This decision is especially risky for founders…

Interview with Michael Rubenstein: President, AppNexus — Background: When the history of the ad-tech industry in New York is written, Michael Rubenstein will surely be a protagonist. Rubenstein has helped shape the ad tech industry, playing a key role in two of the largest exits in ad tech in history: the $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick by…

By Dessy Levinson What do avatar skins, dainty gold rings, and face sticks have in common? And how can understanding their success help you win the market at viral speed? Aside from impressive margins, the above examples are all part of the whirlwind third act of digital consumerism. We are…

The Top 7 Reasons Why VCs Miss Billion-Dollar Outcomes — By Nnamdi Okike and Aaron Holiday “The biggest investing errors come not from factors that are informational or analytical, but from those that are psychological” — Howard Marks This post is Part II in our series on venture capital investment strategy, following the “Circle of Competence and the Venture Capital…