The Flowlie Times #41
Discover more from The Flowlie Times
The Flowlie Times #41
Amazon Ad Revenue, Sequoia Capital loses partners, Slack AI tools, pay transparency startup, and more
Welcome to The Flowlie Times,
This edition is brought to you by Ariyh.
Flowlie exits Beta period
For founders, we have expanded the product significantly to create an all-in-one fundraising hub, allowing you to run an efficient process and close your rounds faster. Among the changes is a fully revamped Access Manager tab which now collects view sessions from anyone looking at your one-pager and deck, including anonymous users (if your privacy setting is set to Public). Moreover, we now support full deck version control allowing you to store "change reasons" and remember what you changed with each update. The best part? All view sessions show you the latest deck version seen so you don't have to wonder what did they see ever again.
For investors, we revamped the deck viewer experience making it easier than ever to review new opportunities. We also took a hard look at the UX and improved the Screening and FlowLink tabs making it easier than ever to get started.
Articles we enjoyed:
1️⃣ Amazon's $43B ad business, explained
In Q1 2022, the e-commerce firm officially separated its ad business in company filings (for years, ads had been classified under “other revenue”). The punchline: Amazon’s ad platform is currently on an annual revenue run rate of ~$43B, which is more than the combined revenue of Bing, Snap, Twitter/X, Pinterest and TikTok.
2️⃣ FTX Investor Sequoia Capital Loses Partners Amid Rising US Tensions With China.
Five partners have left Sequoia Capital due to reputational damage stemming from their investment in FTX and entanglement in US-China geopolitical tensions, including crypto VCs Michelle Fradin and Daniel Chen. The departures follow the firm's significant losses in the FTX investment and its decision to spin off Asian entities amid geopolitical conflicts.
3️⃣ Slack’s AI tool that can recap channels and threads starts testing this winter. Additionally, Slack plans to test Slack lists, allowing users to track team projects, and is rolling out a Workflow Builder for integrating third-party apps.
4️⃣ Claude.ai (ChatGPT competitor) is launching Claude Pro, a paid plan offering 5x more usage of their latest model, Claude 2, for $20 (US) or £18 (UK) per month. Subscribers gain longer context windows, faster outputs, complex reasoning capabilities, and priority access to new features, enhancing productivity and creativity.
Podcast highlight
A new episode of The Fundraising Debrief podcast is available now. This week, Maddy Alcala of Gooten joins Vlad Cazacu, co-founder and CEO of Flowlie, to discuss her ascension to the role of President and the incredible story of how she raised a $11M Series A round while pregnant. There’s a lot of fundraising tactics to unpack so if you’re currently in the market for capital, you do not want to miss this!
Venture announcements that caught our eye:
1️⃣ Bandana aims to help hourly wage workers find better-paying jobs with benefits, focusing initially on the New York City area. The company secured a $3.8 million seed investment to support its mission of creating a two-sided job marketplace, planning to offer free access for a year and eventually charge employers for job postings while expanding geographically and adding features like certifications and financial tools for workers.
This edition’s sponsor: ✅ Ariyh. 3-min marketing recommendations based on the latest scientific research from top business schools.
2️⃣ Loops has secured $3.2 million in funding led by Craft Ventures and is launching its no-code email tool, aiming to simplify email communication for SaaS companies. The platform offers unlimited team seats, user-friendly email editing, reliable deliverability, and a streamlined email workflow, catering to both developers and non-developers.
3️⃣ Automat, formerly Lasso, has raised $3.75 million in a seed round led by Initialized, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, and others. Automat simplifies automation by allowing users to describe or demonstrate workflows through video or plain text instructions, reducing the cost and complexity associated with traditional robotic process automation (RPA) tools while making AI-driven automation accessible to a wide range of businesses.
Have a great week,
Mike from Flowlie