BUCKLE UP. This is a fun one. As we all know, building is hard. Building a business, a family, a career, it's all hard. But we owe every ounce of progress humans have ever made to people who build. I'll get to the point. Where the old Divvy billboard used to shout out customers there's going to be a new and even better campaign. Pelion has partnered with the best firms in Utah to make building just a little bit easier. Starting today&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/pelion-venture-partners/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Pelion Venture Partners</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/kickstartfund/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Kickstart Fund</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/mercato-partners/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Mercato Partners</a>&nbsp;(and Prelude),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/peterson-ventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Peterson Ventures</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/sorenson-ventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Sorenson Ventures</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/epicventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">EPIC Ventures</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/convoi-ventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Convoi Ventures</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/signal-peak-ventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Signal Peak Ventures</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/tandem-vp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Tandem</a>&nbsp;are going to use billboards in the heart of Silicon Slopes to highlight the builders in our community. Highlighting the folks in the arena who are making our ecosystem and the world a better place. Some companies will already be large and successful, some will be just starting out their journey, and others might need some help. We're starting by highlighting&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/redo-tech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Redo Tech</a>. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAABMnbdsBU5Ire07FO2qtfp1XCQ-lixRWF0s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--color-action); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Taylor R. Brown</a>&nbsp;and team have a beautiful (and free) software that allows all e-commerce brands not only track their returns but also to offer free return shipping. 😳 The business is taking off in a big way. Thank you for building, Redo. On behalf of the state of Utah and the rest of the builders, we're cheering you on. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sterling-snow-051baab5_buckle-up-this-is-a-fun-one-as-we-all-activity-7075143885882085377-jeny?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read Sterling's full LinkedIn post here</a>

Pelion Launches "Build Utah" Initiative

LEHI, Utah — June 20, 2023 — Owlet (NYSE: OWLT, “the Company”), the pioneer of smart baby monitoring, announces clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.owletcare.com/babysat-fda-clearance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit; background-color: transparent;">BabySat™</a>, Owlet's first medical pulse-oximetry device featuring its advanced, wire-free sock design. Owlet is a leader in infant health data, having monitored more than 1 million babies, and with BabySat, combines its consumer-first expertise with hospital-grade monitoring accuracy. “Our mission is to provide caregivers with the right information at the right time to make informed decisions about their baby’s health,” said Kurt Workman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. “Today, parents whose babies need additional monitoring are sent home with traditional solutions that can be restrictive and more cumbersome for parents. BabySat pushes forward the modernization of hospital-grade technology for at-home use, and underscores our commitment to transforming baby care solutions.” Innovation in the baby care space matters because some of the largest issues facing caregivers and healthcare providers have yet to be solved. For example, there are roughly 92 million infant care visits covering a child’s first four years of life, significantly straining the availability of hospital beds and quality of care. BabySat is a step forward in solving some of these exact challenges by bringing real-time medical grade infant monitoring into the home, while under the supervision of a physician. Available through prescription, BabySat uses pulse oximetry technology to provide a real-time display of their baby’s pulse rate and oxygen saturation level (SpO2) and alerts parents when these readings fall outside of prescribed ranges. With access to this information and under the supervision of a physician, caregivers are enabled to feel confident in providing at-home care for their families–helping to reduce the strain on our valued medical resources. The addition of the FDA-cleared BabySat device expands on Owlet’s existing portfolio of consumer products designed to bring peace of mind to caregivers. BabySat will be available in the U.S. only and is targeted to launch later this year. Customers can learn more and sign up to receive the latest information and details on product availability here:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.owletcare.com/babysat-fda-clearance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit; background-color: transparent;">https://www.owletcare.com/baby...</a> About Owlet, Inc.Owlet was founded by a team of parents in 2012. Owlet’s mission is to empower parents with the right information at the right time, to give them more peace of mind and help them find more joy in the journey of parenting. Owlet’s digital parenting platform aims to give parents real-time data and insights to help parents feel calmer and more confident. Owlet believes that every parent deserves peace of mind and the opportunity to feel their well-rested best. Owlet also believes that every child deserves to live a long, happy, and healthy life, and is working to develop products to help further that belief. To learn more, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://www.owletcare.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit; background-color: transparent;">www.owletcare.com</a>. For full press release visit: <a href="https://www.owletcare.com/fda-response" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.owletcare.com/fda-response</a>

The addition of the FDA-cleared BabySat device expands on Owlet’s existing portfolio of consumer products designed to bring peace of mind to caregivers.

Owlet announces clearance from the FDA of BabySat™, Owlet's first medical pulse-oximetry device featuring its advanced, wire-free sock design.

Crypto wallet startup Giddy has raised $6.9 million in new funding, bringing total investments to in the company to more than $15 million to date. Investors in this round included Pelion Venture Partners, Peak Capital Partners, Clarke Capital and others, including a strategic investment from Fortnite co-creator&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/geremy-mustard-72b5aa1/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(26, 137, 23);">Geremy Mustard</a>, the company said in a press release. Pelion led Giddy's $8 million funding round in 2022. Giddy said proceeds from the fresh capital will be used to further its strategy to bring crypto adoption to masses through its "recoverable self-custody smart wallet technology." After the collapse of centralized exchanges such as FTX, self-custody, or having control of your own digital assets, has taken the spotlight to ensure safety of users funds. Most recently, Block (SQ), the payments company led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, said that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/01/06/block-manager-sees-self-custody-as-future-of-crypto-post-ftx/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(26, 137, 23);">future of crypto is self-custody</a>&nbsp;and is working on developing a new digital digital wallet to let customers hold their own bitcoin (<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/price/bitcoin/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(26, 137, 23);">BTC</a>). "Crypto users understand now, more than ever, that there are serious risks with a third-party holding their tokens for them," Giddy said in its statement. "Crypto, at its core, is about taking back control of your finances and embracing financial freedom, but this cannot happen as long as the mainstream continues to rely on centralized, custodial, trust-based platforms." In Giddy's self-custody wallet, the private key to access user's fund is split and those individual shares are encrypted and stored across multiple locations controlled by the user, the company said. This ensures safety of the user's private key in case any shares are lost or compromised, since multiple shares are required for recovery. The firm also claims that its&nbsp;<a href="https://giddy.co/what-is-giddy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(26, 137, 23);">MPC technology</a>, will let users recover their wallet even if they lose a recovery share by following a few steps. For the full article visit: <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/27/crypto-wallet-giddy-raises-new-69m-funding-to-further-self-custody-adoption/#:~:text=Crypto%20Wallet%20Giddy%20Raises%20%246.9,to%20Further%20Self%2DCustody%20Adoption" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/27/crypto-wallet-giddy-raises-new-69m-funding-to-further-self-custody-adoption/#:~:text=Crypto%20Wallet%20Giddy%20Raises%20%246.9,to%20Further%20Self%2DCustody%20Adoption</a>

Fortnite co-creator Geremy Mustard took part as a strategic investor in the round.

Crypto Wallet Giddy Raises $6.9M in Funding to Further Self-Custody Adoption

J.P.&nbsp;Morgan (NYSE: JPM) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aumni, a leading provider of investment analytics software to the venture capital industry. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed and closing is expected in the first half of 2023. Founded in 2018, Aumni’s proprietary data analytics engine structures, tracks and analyzes essential legal and economic terms underpinning growth-stage private market transactions, placing critical portfolio investment terms within users’ easy reach. With a diverse client base of over 300 institutions ranging from emerging and established venture managers to leading, multinational asset managers, Aumni has evaluated more than $600 billion in invested capital across more than 17,000 private companies. The strategic acquisition of Aumni solidifies J.P.&nbsp;Morgan’s commitment to building the leading private markets platform for companies, their employees and investors, as well as its confidence in the resilience of the venture-backed ecosystem. Aumni also complements the recent launch of&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalconnect.jpmorgan.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(26, 123, 153);">Capital Connect</a>&nbsp;by J.P.&nbsp;Morgan and the acquisition of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globalshares.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(26, 123, 153);">Global Shares</a>. Through continued investment in Aumni, and its other private market assets, J.P.&nbsp;Morgan is positioned to deliver an industry-leading suite of innovative solutions to the private markets. “We’re thrilled to see this collaboration come to fruition as J.P.&nbsp;Morgan first invested in Aumni in 2021 and quickly realized shared synergies of providing more transparency to the private markets,” said Michael Elanjian, Head of Digital Investment Banking, Head of Digital Private Markets, J.P.&nbsp;Morgan. “Aumni’s market-leading data structuring and portfolio monitoring solutions, combined with the capital raising and cap table management services of Capital Connect and Global Shares, further enhances the ecosystem of digital solutions that J.P.&nbsp;Morgan is building for companies and investors in both growth and later-stage private markets.” “We are excited to partner with J.P.&nbsp;Morgan, expediting the realization of our vision to bring more structure, transparency and liquidity to the historically opaque private markets. Together, we can create a best-in-class suite of services for private market participants, enhancing the experience for all current and future clients,” said Tony Lewis, CEO, Aumni. Aumni remains committed to enhancing services to their clients, and will continue to be headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. J.P.&nbsp;Morgan was advised by J.P.&nbsp;Morgan Securities, LLC as financial advisor and Sullivan &amp; Cromwell LLP as legal counsel. Aumni was advised by DLA Piper LLP as legal counsel.&nbsp; About J.P.&nbsp;Morgan’s Corporate &amp; Investment BankJ.P.&nbsp;Morgan’s Corporate &amp; Investment Bank is a global leader across banking, markets and securities services. The world’s most important corporations, governments and institutions entrust us with their business in more than 100 countries. With $28.6 trillion of assets under custody and $649.7 billion in deposits, the Corporate &amp; Investment Bank provides strategic advice, raises capital, manages risk and extends liquidity in markets around the world. Further information about J.P.&nbsp;Morgan is available at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jpmorgan.com/global" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(26, 123, 153);">www.jpmorgan.com</a>. About AumniAumni is a leading investment analytics company delivering the most reliable data and insights for the private capital markets. Founded in 2018, Aumni has developed a cloud-based, global technology platform that provides portfolio monitoring and market analytics to private market investors. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT with significant operations in the Philippines, Aumni has more than 350 employees globally. For more information please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aumni.fund/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(26, 123, 153);">www.aumni.fund</a>. For full article visit: <a href="https://www.jpmorgan.com/news/jpmorgan-acquire-alumni-leading-provider-investment-analytics-software" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.jpmorgan.com/news/jpmorgan-acquire-alumni-leading-provider-investment-analytics-software</a>

Acquisition to bolster firm’s suite of private market solutions  

J.P. Morgan To Acquire Aumni, a Leading Provider of Investment Analytics Softwares For Venture and Private Market Investors

Most recently, Banks was Chief Executive Officer at Utah-based Weave and led the firm’s Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2021, the firstBlack CEO to do so in Utah. A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Banks has servedas CEO or President five times during his career and increased aggregateenterprise value by over $4 billion during the process.&nbsp;SALT LAKE CITY — March 28, 2023 — <a href="http://www.pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">Pelion Venture Partners</a> today announced that <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybanks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">Roy Banks</a> has joined the leading Utah-based venture capital firm as a Venture Partner.&nbsp;During a professional career spanning over 30 years in technology, Banks has served as Chief Executive Officer and/or President five separate times, roles that included corporate &nbsp;recapitalizations, initial public offerings, and/or acquisitions at each firm.&nbsp;Most recently, Banks was selected to take over the leadership of Lehi, Utah-based Weave as its CEO in December 2020, a position he held until last fall. During his time with the company, Banks led Weave’s Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2022, the first Black CEO to conduct an NYSE IPO for a Utah-based company.&nbsp;Pelion General Partners, Blake Modersitzki and Chris Cooper (who previously worked with Banks at WordPerfect), recruited him out of semi-retirement to help bolster Pelion’s position as the leading venture capital firm in Utah.&nbsp;“We had the privilege of working with Roy for many years, even before he was tapped to lead Weave,” Modersitzki said. “So not only are we energized by Roy’s wealth of experience as an operator and the impact that he will have within our portfolio, we’re also excited to work shoulder to shoulder with him in finding the next great companies here in Utah and beyond.”&nbsp;Prior to serving as Weave’s CEO, Banks served in top executive positions for Authorize.Net, Accelerated Payment Technologies, Network Merchants Inc., Truckstop.com, and Complete Merchant Services.&nbsp;Earlier in his career, Banks also worked for WordPerfect, Novell, and PowerQuest, as well as five years spent serving in the U.S. Navy with a final rank of Petty Officer Second Class. After his time in the Navy, Banks received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.&nbsp;“This is now the second time that Blake and the Pelion team have pulled me out of retirement to put me on a new path, something I greatly appreciate,” Banks said. “The reality is that I’ve been truly blessed throughout my life and career, yet nothing I’ve done or accomplished will compensate for sharing what I’ve learned and done. At this ‘Elder Statesman’ point in my career, I’ve recognized that not only can I help other companies and other executives to succeed, I have an obligation to do so.&nbsp;“I look forward to helping and mentoring entrepreneurs and founders to help them overcome the challenges of growing and building their companies. I believe a great leader sees the potential in others which they often cannot see in themselves. As a Venture Partner, I’m excited to be an example, and to inspire people to believe that they can accomplish the impossible. My experience over the years has taught me that with strong mentors, focus, hard work, perseverance and an unconquerable spirit, virtually anything is possible.”&nbsp;In his Venture Partner role at Pelion, Banks will support existing Pelion portfolio companies, and incubate new businesses alongside very early stage founding teams. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Pelion Venture Partners Names Roy Banks as a Venture Partner

Hogge led the product and risk organizations at Divvy as SVP of Product through its&nbsp;$2.5 billion&nbsp;acquisition by BILL. Prior to Divvy, Hogge led core product teams at&nbsp;Wealthfront, spent time at SaaStr and Andreessen Horowtiz, and led sales for&nbsp;Clearwater Analytics. Since the Divvy acquisition, he has personally invested&nbsp;in nearly 30 startups through his investment fund, Kindling Capital. SALT LAKE CITY,&nbsp;Jan. 18, 2023&nbsp;/PRNewswire/ --&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3759697-1&amp;h=1903809216&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pelionvp.com%2F&amp;a=Pelion+Venture+Partners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Pelion Venture Partners</a>&nbsp;today announced that seasoned product executive and active angel investor,&nbsp;Tyler Hogge, has joined the venture capital firm as a Venture Partner, where he will invest in early-stage startups, support existing Pelion portfolio companies, and incubate new businesses alongside very early-stage founding teams. During his career, Hogge led the product and risk organizations at Divvy as Sr. Vice President of Product through its acquisition by BILL for&nbsp;$2.5 billion&nbsp;in&nbsp;May 2021. Previously, Hogge spent three years with&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3759697-1&amp;h=3434720221&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wealthfront.com%2F&amp;a=Wealthfront" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Wealthfront</a>&nbsp;where he led core product teams. At&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3759697-1&amp;h=3852678507&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fclearwateranalytics.com%2F&amp;a=Clearwater+Analytics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Clearwater Analytics</a>, he oversaw the inside sales and business development teams. Hogge also spent time at Andreessen Horowitz and at SaaStr, helping with VC due diligence and building the SaaStr training program called SaaStr Pro. "We've learned a lot about Tyler during his time with Divvy, especially during the crazy crucible of the COVID-19 pandemic," said&nbsp;Blake Modersitzki, Managing Director of Pelion Venture Partners. "Not only was he rock-solid during that insane time, but as we have reviewed his decisions and progress during his career, we're 100% sure that he will be an absolute rockstar for our investors, our portfolio companies, and for Pelion itself. For these reasons, I'm happy to welcome him onboard as a Venture Partner." Since the Divvy acquisition, Hogge formed&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3759697-1&amp;h=627897534&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fkindlingcapital.notion.site%2Fkindlingcapital%2FKindling-Capital-a1da3c6d0a6d47e6b1cca9e1cad185cb&amp;a=Kindling+Capital" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Kindling Capital</a>, an investment fund that has invested in 29 companies since its founding in 2021, including startups like Nursa, Neighbor, Seis, Flexport, Merge, and over 20 others. Hogge's investments have been made alongside such notable VC firms as a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Accel, Insight, Pelion Venture Partners, and Y Combinator, to name a few."For over 20 years and across seven funds, Pelion has been a quiet monster that's produced exceptional returns by investing in some of the best companies in tech. From Riverbed Technologies many years ago to Cloudflare and Divvy more recently, Pelion has a track record few firms can match. In addition, the current portfolio has&nbsp;multiple&nbsp;behemoths in the making. "Something special is happening in&nbsp;Utah&nbsp;and across all of tech. The excess has been wiped out, and now only the hardcore will thrive. I believe that venture capital will go back to its purest form, which looks much more like company-building instead of dart-throwing. That means more conviction, more urgency, and less sloppiness. This&nbsp;will prove to be one of the best times in history to both build and invest in tech, and I am excited to be doing that at Pelion." For more information visit <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-product-executive-from-divvy-and-active-angel-investor-tyler-hogge-joins-pelion-venture-partners-as-a-venture-partner-301724393.html?tc=eml_cleartime" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-product-executive-from-divvy-and-active-angel-investor-tyler-hogge-joins-pelion-venture-partners-as-a-venture-partner-301724393.html?tc=eml_cleartime.</a>

Utah-based Pelion Venture Partners Snags Former Divvy SVP of Product, Tyler Hogge, As Its Newest Venture Partner

HitPiece has collaborated with the multiplatinum superstar rapper and entrepreneur, Rick Ross to launch limited edition&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/nft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">NFTs</a>&nbsp;aimed at building new engagement for the artist and his fans. The&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/music" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">music</a>-driven NFT platform and&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/metaverse" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">metaverse</a>&nbsp;experience builder, HitPiece is releasing 200 NFTs for Rick Ross fans to receive VIP access to the rapper’s upcoming metaverse, “Boss Land” – an interactive digital twin of Rick-Ross’s IRL Promise Land property. Aimed at allowing Rick Ross to interact with his fans like never before, the NFTs also include a wide range of real-world experiences like signed merchandise worn by Rick and a one of one custom-made&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/jewelry" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">necklace</a>&nbsp;featuring the holder’s own NFT. “I thought I crashed the NFT market, but now I’m here to make it even bigger,” said Rick Ross. “You know, if the Boss is in the metaverse, then it’s the place to be.” Concerts were once the best way for artists to share experiences with their supporters. However, with the rise of new technologies and digital environments, the entertainment industry has been tasked to reshape itself to meet the new demands of the next generation of fanbases. In order to provide experiences through the channels that his followers prefer today, Rick Ross has turned to&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/web3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Web3</a>&nbsp;to foster a fresh take on personalized engagement and deeper relationships with his fans. With the&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/blockchain" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">blockchain</a>, creators are able to offer fan opportunities that are exclusive, secure, and contain true value. For instance, Rick Ross will grant select token holders to receive an annual FaceTime session with the rapper or an invitation to hang out at his real-life property right outside of Atlanta, Georgia – rare experiences that a price tag could never be attached to. Rick Ross has always prioritized building relationships with his fans as he credits them for supporting his remarkable career. Last month, Rick perhaps became one of the first celebrities to actually interact with a fan that was found stalking the artist outside of his home. For those unable to achieve the IRL perks, HitPiece has launched the Boss Land metaverse in hopes of touching the artist’s fans worldwide. As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.euromonitor.com/article/fan-engagement-and-sponsorship-in-the-metaverse" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">50% of millennials</a>&nbsp;are extremely interested in entering an immersive virtual world to take part in an experience that is not possible IRL, it may make sense why branded metaverses are starting to appear all across Web3. Other artists such as&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/steve-aoki" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Steve Aoki</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/Paris-Hilton" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Paris Hilton</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/Snoop-Dogg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Snoop Dogg</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/georgia-sinclair" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">DJ Georgia Sinclair</a>&nbsp;have all launched their own metaverse plots to better serve and connect with their fans globally as well. Despite the countless number of musical amounts of artists just starting to enter the digital setting today, it is clear to say that the impact of Web3 is already being felt. Rick Ross previously entered the Web3 space in June 2021 for a groundbreaking project with the&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/luxury" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">luxury</a>&nbsp;car designer, Rich B. Caliente. Combining the passions of music, luxury,&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/automobile" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">automobiles</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/art" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">art</a>, Caliente and Rick created the first Porsche 911 art car and matching NFT for a&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/miami" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Miami</a>&nbsp;auction. Additionally, Rick’s favorite fast&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/food" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">food</a>&nbsp;joint, Wingstop, which he surprisingly owns and operates several franchises for, has also turned to Web3 for future campaigns and fan activations. According to the&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/KondoudisLaw/status/1498997236096770053?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1498997236096770053%7Ctwgr%5Eb0d7427cc8f011edd525e9efcb7121f4d3ac237f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.cryptoflies.com%2Fwingstop-plans-to-enter-the-metaverse-with-virtual-food-and-drinks%2F" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">trademark patent</a>&nbsp;filed in February 2022, Wingstop has plans to utilize NFTs, virtual food, and wing sales in the metaverse. For full article visit <a href="https://hypemoon.com/2022/10/rick-ross-looks-to-web3-in-building-deeper-relationships-with-fans" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://hypemoon.com/2022/10/rick-ross-looks-to-web3-in-building-deeper-relationships-with-fans.</a>

Unveiling 200 exclusive NFTs and the rapper’s very own immersive metaverse.

Rick Ross Looks To Web3 In Building Deeper Relationships With Fans

Siri, show me fintech companies, founded in the last two years, that haven’t raised over the past year but have grown headcount by 100% in the same time frame; and can it be founded by Stanford alumni whose Twitter traction has grown by at least 50% in the last six months? This is Harmonic’s vision; well, only if you swap out Siri for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.harmonic.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">Harmonic</a>’s text-based startup search query tool. The data platform, built by co-founders&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/bryancaseyy?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">Bryan Casey</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">Max Ruderman</a>, thinks it can help executives discover the next big startups without hundreds of hours of manual sourcing and research. Harmonic is a more specific version of its largest competitors, Crunchbase and PitchBook, which aggregate and organize private startup data. “We go out and look at every nook and cranny of the web where there might be information about companies and we take that structured and unstructured data and figure out how to merge it all together into some canonical representation of a company,” Ruderman told TechCrunch. Harmonic’s aggregation differentiation, per Ruderman, is the intelligence it uses to help recognize which public data is more accurate for certain fields, and then merges those sources to develop the “most accurate, fresh representation at any point in time.” Harmonic joins a flock of other startups trying to make venture more data-driven, transparent and equitable. In theory,<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/22/algorithmic-investing-cant-entirely-eliminate-the-emotional-element-of-deal-making/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">&nbsp;algorithmic investing hedges against investors’ preconceived notions&nbsp;</a>and pushes emotions to the side. Fintech unicorn Clearco and venture firm SignalFire have spent years implementing data-focused investment processes, joined by AngelList and Hum Capital. In a landscape where investors are re-learning discipline, data feels safe. But, as other solutions have matured, the cleanliness and reliability of said data&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-07/startup-data-integrity-vexes-crunchbase-cb-insights-pitchbook" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">has come into question.&nbsp;</a>(One founder even played a prank once, listing that Andreessen Horowitz was an investor in his startup on Crunchbase; when other investors piled on looking to put money into his upstart, he explained it was a joke to show the poor quality of data on the platform,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-07/startup-data-integrity-vexes-crunchbase-cb-insights-pitchbook?sref=gni836kR" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">reports Bloomberg).</a> Another question to consider is if Harmonic truly helps investors break out of their pattern matching tendencies, or just helps reinforce already existent values. “The core thing is the way they searched for [the ideas they believe in] now is more implicit than explicit, meaning they lean on their networks a lot, right?,” Ruderman said.&nbsp;“The associates, networks, and the partners and their alumni networks…they work with founders that are already in their portfolio companies that can help connect them with other people. Step 1 is just bringing all information about all companies into our index so that when they are doing that search explicitly, they end up finding lots of companies that meet that criteria that they may not have identified through their networks.” Ruderman admitted that data reliability and consistency is one of the hardest problems to get right — and that their strategy is a big differentiator for them. “We’re able to keep data up-to-date at scale, and merge together fragmented bits of structured and unstructured data from all over the web with confidence,” Ruderman said, adding that its main measure of success is an internal score they use that captures freshness, inventory and taxonomy. When asked for more specifics on how they gain an upper edge on freshness, Ruderman didn’t share many specifics (and given that it’s a competitive moat, I’m not too surprised by this). He also said that pricing will evolve as the product evolves, but currently the startup charges licensing and API usage fees. Ruderman’s background adds some color to why he is confident in a better way to search. The co-founder was at Google for around six and a half years — with his last role being a senior software engineer on a team in Search that was all about building tools to help Google do UX research and design at scale. Before that, he spent time learning about behavioral economics in the people operations department, technical infrastructure on the business intelligence team, machine learning on the finance team and, ultimately, Search. So far, his direction and the company behind him has landed Harmonic at least 150 customers, including SaaS startups such as&nbsp;Brex, Vouch, Notion and Carta, and venture firms such as Floodgate, a16z and Accel.&nbsp;Some of those early adopters have even turned into the startup’s largest investors. Harmonic announced today that it closed a $23 million Series A round led by Sozo Ventures, with participation from Craft Ventures, which led its $7 million seed round last year. Floodgate, another customer, was Harmonic’s first investor. “By creating a really powerful discovery tool in venture, it lets capital flow out to more innovation in a more efficient way…if we bring this to sales teams, it lets teams bring their service and push forward at the right time,” Ruderman said. “And then eventually, we want to make it the case that talent can find startups to match their talents, driving startups forward.” For the full article visit <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/07/harmonic-helps-investors-query-the-startup-searches-of-their-wildest-dreams/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tLw&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAyLSusfvZ_PAnb5aEPzwOK5-IqUqF-0sDHNXaudKaPwS6rdIVLgUV_Y3KfZU3VC5GT1990MM9J-es4EFLfBInX5FKq3ivzNNy_w-eXWG76dIdvnK1S_2a2ft2jyXBaAWHUKDxHnq22KkEYqjSCxWo74l-dnwRBydM-kQzL2fumJ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/07/harmonic-helps-investors-query-the-startup-searches-of-their-wildest-dreams/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tLw&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAyLSusfvZ_PAnb5aEPzwOK5-IqUqF-0sDHNXaudKaPwS6rdIVLgUV_Y3KfZU3VC5GT1990MM9J-es4EFLfBInX5FKq3ivzNNy_w-eXWG76dIdvnK1S_2a2ft2jyXBaAWHUKDxHnq22KkEYqjSCxWo74l-dnwRBydM-kQzL2fumJ.</a>

Harmonic helps investors query the startup searches of their wildest dreams

I’m less than a month into VC and unraveling from more than a decade operating in startups and enterprise, my most recent years spent as a senior executive managing global CX teams, thousands of customers, M&amp;A, and reporting within two PE firms. I’m currently straddling a strange limbo of what feels like an outsider to both VC and Ops. Do I still wear a modest, collared button-up and slacks? No. When do I speak up or shut up? Striking this balance will be my life’s work. Am I bringing enough value? I hear I won’t know the answer to this question for another 8–10 years. Great.I’ve had a lot of philosophical conversations with myself lately about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challenge/dp/0385483821" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Andrew Grove’s ‘Only the Paranoid Survive’.</a>&nbsp;But, this ain’t my first rodeo navigating change or cross-roads. In the past decade I went from being a single-mom living on welfare, in a one-bedroom apartment with my three girls sleeping on the floor next to my bed, to exiting my startup, receiving an issued patent, managing large-scale M&amp;A, growing tens of millions of dollars, and leading global enterprise teams (I also bought a house!). I know how to do everything from making payroll to building and managing scale. I understand the founder/operator perspective and I understand the hard work and humility that any good thing in life takes.&nbsp;This is the perspective I want to bring to VC.A few weeks back (before I started in VC and upon hearing that I was leaving my previous role) a friend and mentor,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davecblake/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Dave Blake</a>, Founder and CEO of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.clientsuccess.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">ClientSuccess</a>, asked me to speak on a VC panel at the&nbsp;<a href="https://cs100.clientsuccess.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">CS100 Summit</a>&nbsp;hosted at Sundance, Utah. This is the mecca event for Chief Customer Officers and was the perfect way to blend my colliding worlds of founder/operator and VC!&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaynathan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Jay Nathan</a>&nbsp;moderated our panel on ‘Driving Impact in the Boardroom’ with me,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenejylee/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Eugene Lee</a>&nbsp;of Omers Ventures, and K<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/koryknell/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">ory Knell</a>&nbsp;of RainFocus.*Editor’s note: all founders/CEOs should attend CS100 Summit, it’s a masterclass in building customer-centric organizations and it is invaluable to hear from folks like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sterling-snow-051baab5/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Sterling Snow</a>, CRO of Divvy (also a Pelion portfolio company) who shared trade secrets that led to&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/06/why-did-bill-com-pay-2-5b-for-divvy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Divvy’s billion-dollar exit.</a>Whether you are a founder, exec or someone looking to grow in their career, knowing how to be an all-around badass in the boardroom is a good skill to sharpen. Here are my five takeaways from the event: <ol><li>Be brief. Be brilliant. Be gone.&nbsp;If you are speaking in any capacity to a board don’t make the mistake of 100-page pitch decks or lengthy diatribes of your knowledge, expertise, and justifications. If you are explaining you are losing. You have two jobs: demonstrate competence and build trust. The board is there to verify their assumptions and learn from the experts. Follow their lead and bring every point back to the story (i.e. known value props and insights) you prepared beforehand. Also, be honest.</li><li>Establish yourself as the expert.&nbsp;Many people make the mistake of thinking the board is the expert or giving the board too much power over them. Whether you are a one-person startup or an executive of a 150 person team, the board is looking to you for domain knowledge, role expertise and influence. They need you. Don’t be afraid to push back, ask clarifying questions and speak confidently to the vision, insights and what you know to be true. If you don’t know the answer be prepared to say, “I’d hate to speculate, let me get back to you on this.”</li><li>Understand the process of diligence.&nbsp;Whether you are going through investment/acquisition OR want to understand the POV of any board you go in front of, everyone should go through the exercise of diligence. You will understand your business better than ever. Remember, your job is to be the expert! Do a simple Google search and you will find material for your education.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2014/12/19/20-key-due-diligence-activities-in-a-merger-and-acquisition-transaction/?sh=4240ee4b4bfc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">This</a>&nbsp;article from Forbes is a good 100,000 ft view on diligence, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smartsheet.com/sites/default/files/IC-M-and-A-Buyer-Due-Diligence-Checklist-Template-10584_PDF.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">this</a>&nbsp;Smartsheet’s checklist is a decent start. Additionally, take time to understand who you are pitching. Look up authored LinkedIn articles, company blog posts and personal websites. These are all data points you can leverage to craft your message.</li><li>D̶a̶t̶a̶,̶ ̶d̶a̶t̶a̶,̶ ̶d̶a̶t̶a̶!̶ Insights, insights, insights!&nbsp;Bring insights, don’t regurgitate data. Should you be able to regurgitate all the important business metrics and be able to show your work if asked? Absolutely. But, for in-person presentations your job is to synthesize data points to tell compelling stories. Bringing together the story of let’s say a global pandemic, increase in NRR, decrease in logo count and a product development pivot makes for a compelling story that helps the board understand holistic impact and then make educated and informed decisions. Always know your story.</li><li>Remember your personal brand, because the world is a small place.&nbsp;One of my biggest pet-peeves is when people put themselves down in front of others: “I’m so stupid, I can’t believe I missed that” or “I’m so sorry to have missed this.” Don’t apologize for existing. Be polished, be professional, be authentic! My mom once gave me the advice to ‘leave flowers wherever I go.’ Leaving flowers instead of bombs doesn’t mean you’re not assertive or bold, but it does mean that you haven’t burned a bridge. If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s that you will need as many people in your corner as possible. People change, people grow up, people learn. Have integrity to yourself and your community when interacting with others, because the world is a small place and people talk.</li></ol> See full article at <a href="https://medium.com/@kristymuir/from-operator-to-vc-5-tips-on-how-to-pitch-or-present-like-a-badass-in-the-boardroom-8ecd08aac6bb#4449-37d3457976dc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://medium.com/@kristymuir/from-operator-to-vc-5-tips-on-how-to-pitch-or-present-like-a-badass-in-the-boardroom-8ecd08aac6bb#4449-37d3457976dc</a>

From Operator to VC: 5 Tips on How To Pitch or Present Like a Badass in the Boardroom

LOS ANGELES, September 8, 2022&nbsp;– Open Raven – the data security posture management company helping enterprises prevent leaks, breaches, and compliance incidents – announced it raised $20M in Series B funding. The round was led by Pelion Ventures with participation from existing investors Kleiner Perkins and Upfront Ventures. This increases Open Raven’s total funding to date to $40M. Jeff Kearl, Partner at Pelion, joined Open Raven's Board of Directors along with Seksom Suriyapa from Upfront Ventures.&nbsp;"If you are a cloud-first company and your business depends on data, the first thing you should be doing is using Open Raven," said Jeff Kearl. "They have a level of visibility at scale and completeness that other platforms simply can't provide. Their execution keeps getting better and better across product expansion, customer acquisition, and retention.""Everything security teams are responsible for, from incident response and risk management to regulatory compliance, requires accurate and thorough cloud data intelligence," said Gary Miller, DVP of Information Security at TaskUs. "The understanding we get from Open Raven of our total data landscape in AWS helps us make better decisions about how to protect what is most important to our business."With the new funding, Open Raven is making additional investments in engineering, sales, and marketing to accelerate their roadmap and expand support for their increasing portfolio of large enterprises. Already, this month, Open Raven released new data intelligence capabilities including structured data classification and a new set of APIs for both pulling data and triggering scans. Also, earlier this year, Open Raven joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program to co-sell with AWS field sellers globally."I'm extremely proud of what our team has achieved in such a short amount of time. Our platform simply works," said Dave Cole, CEO of Open Raven. "We took head on and solved one of the biggest problems in security, specifically data classification at a massive scale that also satisfies budget and privacy sensibilities."For more information,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.openraven.com/blog/open-raven-at-3-new-customers-fresh-funding-and-an-expanded-platform" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;">read the blog post.</a> For full article visit <a href="https://www.openraven.com/press-releases/open-raven-raises-20m-in-series-b-from-pelion-ventures-kleiner-perkins-and-upfront-ventures." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.openraven.com/press-releases/open-raven-raises-20m-in-series-b-from-pelion-ventures-kleiner-perkins-and-upfront-ventures.</a> <h3>About Open Raven&nbsp;</h3>Open Raven is the data security posture management company that prevents leaks, breaches, and compliance incidents. For security teams with modern cloud infrastructures to locate and secure sensitive, toxic, and exposed data within hundreds or thousands of accounts, billions of objects, and petabytes of data, existing tools don’t work. The Open Raven Data Security Platform is the secure, private, budget-safe solution that closes data visibility gaps – and just works. Learn more at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.openraven.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;">openraven.com</a>&nbsp;or follow us&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/openraven" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;">@openraven</a>.

Investment comes amid strong customer growth and significant expansion of its data security platform

Open Raven Raises $20M in Series B from Pelion Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Upfront Ventures 

<a href="https://www.denim.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(220, 161, 13);">Denim</a>, the fintech platform for freight and logistics formerly known as Axle Payments, today announced that it raised $126 million in a Series B funding round led by Pelion Venture Partners with participation from Crosslink Capital, Anthemis, Trucks VC, FJ Labs, Tribeca Early Stage Partners and Refashiond Ventures at a “nine-figure” valuation. CEO and co-founder Bharath Krishnamoorthy tells TechCrunch that the new cash, a combination of equity ($26 million) and debt ($100 million), will be put toward scaling the business and providing Denim’s customers with working capital. Krishnamoorthy and Denim’s other co-founder, Shawn Vo, had been friends for 16 years before they launched the company. Vo was in the credit risk department at Barclays and a full-stack developer at Fintria, a fintech company, while Krishnamoorthy was an associate at several law firms, including Gibson, Dunn &amp; Crutcher. “We witnessed a significant gap in the freight broker market, where legacy systems — i.e. paper checks, physical filing — were still in place, and developed an intuitive payments technology to help streamline broker operations and attract the best carrier relationships through the platform,” Krishnamoorthy told TechCrunch via email. To that end, Denim provides financial products, operations tools and automated workflows for freight brokers — the middlemen between shippers and carriers. The company handles broker invoicing, collections and payments, and in addition provides access to debt financing. “The industry has shown reluctance to abandon its legacy processes — many shippers still pay freight brokers on 30 to 60-day terms despite carriers expecting near-instantaneous payments. These longer time frames can create cash flow problems,” Krishnamoorthy added. Denim uses algorithms to reduce the amount of time its operations team spends evaluating the risk of invoices it purchases from brokers. For each shipment, these algorithms review 20 data points and either approve the purchase or flag that a manual review is required. Beyond this, the Denim platform integrates with accounting software like QuickBooks to allow brokers to share data between various existing systems. From a dashboard, users can see metrics like pending or completed jobs, total factored amounts, the most frequently used carriers and the fastest-paying customers. “This combination of automation, financial stability and accurate reporting enables&nbsp;freight&nbsp;brokers and their partners to navigate volatile shifts in the economy. And most importantly, it ensures the entire supply chain continues moving in the right direction,” Krishnamoorthy continued. “In our current economic environment, companies can’t afford to ignore back-end risks and slow processes.” Denim competes with other fintech firms in the space, including TriumphPay, HaulPay and OTR Capital. Curiously, Krishnamoorthy declined to say how many customers the company currently has or where its revenue stands. But he did volunteer that Denim has connected more than 7,000 freight brokers, shippers and carriers since its launch three years ago. “Despite the slowdown, Denim is uniquely positioned to continue scaling its platform and workforce. We’ve established a financial model based on healthy unit economics,” Krishnamoorthy said. “We’re bringing new solutions to market to give freight brokers the ability to seamlessly operate at full capacity and adapt to changes in the supply chain. And we’re hiring talent that not only aligns with our business goals but with our core values.” Denim has 100 full-time employees and plans to reach 120 by the end of the year, funded in part by the new equity. To date, the startup has raised a total of $165 million. For Tech Crunch article visit, https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/15/denim-a-fintech-platform-for-freight-brokers-raises-126m-in-equity-and-debt/.

Denim, a fintech platform for freight brokers, raises $126M in equity and debt

Traditional employment models are not flexible enough to meet the needs of the most in-demand executives. These seasoned practitioners want optionality and career development outside of traditional career development. Nolan Church (former Chief People Officer at Carta) and Greg White (former Head of DevOps at Carta) recognized this highly-skilled, in-demand group’s unmet needs and founded Continuum in August 2020 as a solution.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.joincontinuum.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 56, 145); background-color: transparent;">Continuum</a>&nbsp;is a fractional executive marketplace to connect seasoned industry professionals with venture capital-backed high-growth startups. The Salt Lake City, Utah-based startup raised a $12M Series A led by Pelion Ventures, with participation from Uncork Capital, Day One Ventures, and angel investors including (but not limited to) Blake Murray, Vivek Sodera, Matt Mickiewicz, Sander Daniels and Joseph Woodburry. Continuum has fifteen team members. The startup will use the Series A funds raised to invest in product development, with the goal to build an “executive storefront.” Continuums competitors are established, legacy executive search firms. Continuum CEO Church says, “We want to help executives drive business and automate their entire back-office. Eventually, startups will be able to click on an executive, book time with them, and start working with them almost immediately.” Frederick Daso: When did you first notice the demand for seasoned executives performing project-based work or consulting engagements instead of traditional employment? Nolan Church: I realized there was a gap in the market when I was Chief People Officer at Carta. I wanted access to consulting/advising/angel investing opportunities, but I didn’t have time to market myself to startups or network with VCs. I started wondering if other non-CEO execs were experiencing the same problem. It turns out that after talking to 1000+ execs, every exec we’ve talked to wants fractional deal flow. These execs are typically not hyper-active on social media, want their work to speak for itself, and need software to help them manage their back-office and operations. Daso: What are the critical issues with traditional employment models (e.g., W-2 employees) in today’s dynamic, inflationary economy? Church: Traditional executive recruiting is expensive (recruiters charge $100k-$150k+), slow (searches usually take 6-9 months+), and has a low success rate (most executives depart within 18 months of their start date). It was constant pain for me as a company operator and an exec looking for my next role. Working with a fractional exec is cheaper, immediate, and gives companies and execs the flexibility to trial each other before committing to a full-time relationship. Daso: Given the current dismal stock market performance and companies firing workers, how will Continuum play a role in ensuring layoffs are conducted in a fair, empathetic manner with the companies it chooses to partner with? Church: It’s extremely important for companies to optimize for humanity versus efficiency. Layoffs are terrible, but there is a way to do it where it can strengthen a company’s culture, morale, and reputation. We’re launching our layoff product to help startups during this difficult time. ​​For tech companies considering a layoff, Continuum is offering one free hour of advising with an HR executive who has run them before. For leadership teams needing more support, Continuum offers an HR executive to build a communications plan, run a DEI impact analysis to ensure underrepresented groups are not disproportionately impacted, and be available for general support. Daso: How has Continuum increased the supply and demand on its fractional executive marketplace by 20-fold? Church: Executive acquisition (supply) has organically grown through word of mouth. It’s the easiest thing we do. When we ask executives if they’re interested in consulting, advising or angel investing, it immediately sparks their interest. They get more excited when we then tell them that Continuum offers them access to the next generation of upcoming startups, runs their back office, and gives them a storefront to generate new business. Execs love the idea of not being owned by one company. They’re able to work with multiple startups simultaneously and have the flexibility to design their lives how they choose. On the demand side, startups often lack in-house expertise when issues arise and only have the option of running a lengthy and costly executive search. Continuum gives these startups on-demand access to top talent who can plugin at every stage/size to solve problems immediately. Sometimes, they’re working with Continuum executives while running a full-time employee search in parallel. We hear from many of our customers that it’s a no-brainer to work with fractional executives. Daso: What behaviors have you observed in Continuum’s marketplace that necessitate the development of future products with its company’s freshly-raised Series A funding? Church: There are three types of executive personas on Continuum. First is the curious executive, who has a full-time job today, joined Continuum to consult and advise for 4-5 hours a week. They often turn into our second executive persona (full-time fractional) when they fall in love with the work because of the flexibility to invest their expertise across a few different startups. Lastly, some execs go from fractional to full-time, essentially trying before they buy. No matter where on the continuum these executives are, they need a back office to support their consulting, advising and angel investing pursuits. We’re deploying the capital from our Series A to completely automate the executive back office, build the executive storefront, and give companies a portal to tap into world-class executive talent quickly. Daso: How can Continuum’s coaching program accelerate the growth and development of future world-class executives outside of their traditional roles? Church: The most effective form of learning is doing the job while learning from someone in similar shoes, who has successfully solved the problem you’re tackling and can help you see around corners. While it’s important to have mentors within a company, having a coach outside of your organization is also valuable to help you view problems from different perspectives, reach your goals, and learn firsthand.

Continuum Raises $12M To Build The Fractional Executive Marketplace

SALT LAKE CITY &amp; NEW YORK, JUNE 21, 2022&nbsp;–<a href="https://www.rivethealth.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.rivethealth.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Rivet</a>,&nbsp;the modern healthcare billing platform, raised&nbsp;$20.5 million in a Series B funding round led by growth equity firm&nbsp;<a href="http://www.catalyst.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Catalyst Investors</a>&nbsp;with participation from co-investor Ankona Capital and existing investors Menlo Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners and Lux Capital. Tyler Newton, Partner with Catalyst Investors, will join Rivet’s Board of Directors. Founded in 2018, Rivet's revenue cycle operating platform is used by healthcare providers across the country to collect what they are owed from payers and bring greater price transparency to patients. Using Rivet, customers have modeled more than one billion payer contracted rates, created over 400,000 patient cost estimates, and detected denials and underpayments in over 100 million claims, reducing the administrative burden felt by providers while increasing their total income as well. “Medical payer contracts are often very complicated, resulting in reduced transparency from payer to provider to patient. Rivet deciphers contracts for providers so they can offer patients transparent pricing with our Estimates product while also ensuring proper insurance payments with our Underpayments and Denials products,” said Ted Ferrin, CEO and Co-Founder of Rivet. “Rivet shines light on some of the most complex but important data in all of healthcare so that providers, patients, and payers can all be on the same page and have a much more efficient financial experience.”&nbsp; “Rivet has a keen ability to identify pain points in the market, execute on a product vision, deliver a high-quality product and achieve product-market fit in rapid succession,” said Newton. “The team has a compelling blend of revenue cycle management, technology and sales experience that allows them to identify issues that have plagued the healthcare industry for decades and make great strides towards solving it. We look forward to working with the Rivet team to increase market penetration in the outpatient segment and expand into larger facilities, hospitals and health systems.”&nbsp; Rivet currently offers three software products: Patient Cost Estimates, Underpayment Detection Workflow and Denials Appeal Management. The company has historically focused exclusively on outpatient practices, offering a level of sophistication and automation typically reserved for larger health systems and inpatient facilities. Capital from the new funding round will be used to build out the Rivet team and continue investing in the platform, allowing the company to continue delivering unparalleled products to a market that is in dire need of innovation. About RivetRivet, based in&nbsp;Salt Lake City, UT, is dedicated to promoting transparency throughout the healthcare billing process, from payer to provider to patient. Rivet’s unique platform offers tools for Estimates, Underpayments and Denials, giving patients more transparency around the cost of care and providers the ability to hold payers accountable to their contracts. The company currently operates largely in outpatient facilities, but it aims to elevate the healthcare billing experience across all settings, regardless of size or specialty. About Catalyst InvestorsCatalyst Investors is a growth equity firm based in New York. The firm’s mission is to earn superior returns by helping entrepreneurs build great growth companies. Over the past 20 years, Catalyst has invested in rapidly-growing companies across the SaaS, tech enabled services and internet infrastructure sectors, and has established a successful track record of partnering with entrepreneurs and helping companies scale. Recent investments and exits include Pax8, LinkSquares, Ekos, Weave, Clinicient, ChowNow, EDB, and PresenceLearning. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2955371-1&amp;h=1753764514&amp;u=http://www.catalyst.com/&amp;a=www.catalyst.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">www.catalyst.com</a>.

Modern healthcare billing platform provides greater transparency for patients and healthcare providers.

Rivet Raises $20.5 Million Series B Led by Catalyst Investors

<a href="https://www.lvt.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">LiveView Technologies</a>&nbsp;(LVT), a manufacturer of intelligent safety and security ecosystems, raised a $50 million Series B. The round was led by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sorensoncapital.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">Sorenson Capital</a>&nbsp;(Lehi, Utah), with participation from new investor,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lhmauto.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">The Larry H. Miller Group</a>&nbsp;(Utah), with<a href="https://leadedge.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">&nbsp;Lead Edge Capital</a>&nbsp;(New York) and&nbsp;<a href="https://pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">Pelion Venture Partners</a>&nbsp;(Cottonwood Heights, Utah), both returning investors. Rob Rueckert, Partner at Sorenson Capital, will join LVT’s board of directors.&nbsp; “LVT prevents crime and saves lives, period. You simply don’t get the opportunity to partner with a company like that very often,” says Rueckert in the LVT press release. “Their unique technologies are found on the properties of small retailers up to Fortune 100 companies, they are serious about 100% customer satisfaction, and they never stop innovating. You can see their direct impact across various industries, and we are excited to support LVT as they expand even further into the global market.” LVT plans to use funding to advance product research and development and to expand the company through recruiting technical, manufacturing, and business talent.&nbsp; “LVT’s mission is to make the entire world safer and more secure. While theft-related savings and real-time site awareness are a significant benefit for many of our customers, preventing violent crime and saving lives are the most important goals of our company, and at the forefront of everything we do,” says LVT Co-founder and CEO, Ryan Porter, in the LTV press release. “Our accelerated growth is a testament to the solutions we work tirelessly to provide, the value we place on forging strong partnerships with our customers every day, and the belief that we are realizing our mission one safer community at a time.” Based in Orem, LVT is both a SaaS and a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service). The company offers deployable commercial security systems, powered by solar panels, that connect to a SaaS platform. The platform offers security solutions for remote live video, safety, surveillance, IoT, and analytics gathering processing, and delivery. LVT’s hardware is portable and customizable and only takes about 30 minutes to set up. Built with surveillance cameras, sensors, lights, and speakers, LVT’s security ecosystems are meant to ward off theft and deter crime. LVT currently has more than 6,000 security units in use that protect over 2.5 billion sq/ft around the globe. These security ecosystems have many uses and reduce crime up to 62%. LVT customers like the Kansas City Chiefs, Marathon Oil, and the City of Camden use its security systems to ensure public, employee, customer, and facility safety. Yellowstone Park uses LVT’s hardware to track weather and traffic patterns and one well-placed security ecosystem assisted the Miami Police Department in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/miami-police-arrest-suspected-serial-killer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">identification and arrest of a serial killer.</a>&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.techbuzz.news/brandon-fugal-and-the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch-on-the-history-channel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">Skinwalker Ranch</a>&nbsp;uses LVT’s systems to track paranormal activity.&nbsp; “Skinwalker Ranch considers LiveView a key strategic partner,” says Brandon Fugal, owner of Skinwalker Ranch and Chairman of Colliers International, “We value the relationship with LiveView. Their security surveillance systems provide an ideal complement to our existing scientific monitoring and security platforms.” The company was founded in 2005 by Ryan Porter and has grown to over 200 employees. LTV’s recurring revenue has grown 133% in the last year, and averaged over 100% in the last five years.

LiveView Technologies Raises $50 Million Series B

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. led a consortium of banks that gave Deserve Inc. a credit facility,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220511005760/en/Deserve-Secures-250M-Credit-Facility-from-Goldman-Sachs-Cross-River-and-Waterfall-Asset-Management" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(37, 79, 156);">according to an announcement on Wednesday.&nbsp;</a>Cross River, a New Jersey financial services company, and New York-based NewWaterfall Asset Management also participated in the deal. The new financing comes after Deserve&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2021/10/28/visa-invests-in-bay-area-fintech-deserve.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(37, 79, 156);">raised $50 million in equity funding</a>&nbsp;from Visa, Mastercard and others last summer at a valuation of about $500 million.Deserve offers white-label and co-branded credit card programs to banks and other financial institutions as well as universities and associations. It leverages Visa’s (NYSE: V) instant issuance technology and security features to allow consumers to apply, activate and place their cards in digital wallets within minutes. The company said it plans to use the new financing to help it continue to scale the business. It said that it enjoyed 650% growth in transactions volume and 800% growth in receivables in 2021. "We're excited about what this new financing will enable us to do as we amplify our reach and help more fintechs, financial institutions, SMB lenders, and brands connect with and grow their customer base," CEO Kalpesh Kapadia said in Wednesday's announcement. The biggest concentration of Deserve's 250 employees work at offices in West Valley City, Utah, where it has 90 workers. About 50 work out of its Palo Alto headquarters and there are 80 more in India.

A Palo Alto startup that says it can help its business customers issue digital credit cards in minutes has $250 million in new financing to help it grow.

Digital credit card startup Deserve wins $250M Goldman Sachs-led financing

<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Naas-Cunningham-46109988" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 75, 130);">Naas Cunningham</a>, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2024 class, is heading to Overtime Elite, he told ESPN's Jonathan Givony. With that, the quickly changing landscape of high school basketball and college alternatives during the NIL era has taken another turn. While that news is notable in itself, the most notable part of the news is that Cunningham will not receive a salary from Overtime Elite - becoming the first athlete in the program to do so. Instead, he will follow the NCAA guidelines to profit off his name, image and likeness. A source told 247Sports that Overtime Elite and the NCAA have been in talks regarding this issue in recent months and the current understanding and expectation is that players who do not receive a salary and instead profit off their name, image and likeness will preserve their college eligibility. With Cunningham choosing to go this route, he maintains his amateur status and should remain as the No. 1 overall prospect in the class and a high priority target for schools currently pursuing him which includes: Duke, UCLA, UConn, Maryland, St. John's and others. This decision is a potentially game-changing moment in grassroots basketball and is a massive win for Overtime Elite, which was only announced last spring and launched in the fall of 2021. Cunningham is their highest ranked addition to the program and now with the current option to profit off NIL within NCAA guidelines, we could certainly see a flood of the top prospects in high school basketball to follow suit. Overtime is a multi-media company with millions of followers across all social media platforms. The company's ability to provide a platform for these high school stars to profit off their NIL will be second to none and could be a major draw for these young athletes. Overtime Elite is based in Atlanta with a state-of-the art facility, an academic structure and immense resources that have been invested into by investors including&nbsp;<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Kevin-Durant-64594" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 75, 130);">Kevin Durant</a>, Jeff Bezos,&nbsp;<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Carmelo-Anthony-82545" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 75, 130);">Carmelo Anthony</a>&nbsp;and many others. Previously, Overtime Elite was operating on a salary-structure with high school athletes. That meant when players were presented with the opportunity join OTE they were forced to weigh the decision of sacrificing their college eligibility for earlier financial opportunity. There will still be plenty of athletes who choose to stay home and go the traditional high school route but Overtime Elite now has a new and potentially lucrative way to lure top talent while keeping college options alive. The changes, could help them land many more top players and usher in a major change in the path elite players take towards approaching their futures. The ripple effect of this development and Overtime's platform could be felt far and wide as we will also see other leagues and high schools adopting similar platforms to remain competitive in national high schools basketball and in keeping top talent on their rosters.

2024's top player Naasir Cunningham picking Overtime Elite could be a game-changer

SAN FRANCISCO, April 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=19QPNm6RcHHN4rEQy17V_pC5JuPwSG9AENnmf5hc3fN4AHn4iHkJGCcns0beBpsOCAhTlTF7ozsqXjICwtCMtg==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">BigPanda, Inc.</a>, the leader in AIOps Event Correlation and Automation, announced it was presented with a Bronze Stevie® Award in the customer service department of the year category in the 16th Annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service. This is the second year in a row BigPanda has been recognized for this award. BigPanda was selected based on its relentless commitment to customer service the past two years, including notable achievements in record-breaking response times and customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. Winners will be recognized during a virtual awards ceremony on May 11. The 2022 Stevie Award recognition reflects the superior work and impact of BigPanda’s customer service department during the pandemic. Over the past year, BigPanda’s customers have quadrupled as well as the number of users and support requests. With the tremendous growth of their customer base, BigPanda saw a record 25 percent year-over-year increase in ticket volume between 2020 and 2021, and the team was still able to set record response times of 2.72 hours for support tickets, also receiving a 99 percent CSAT score. Average industry response times at companies such as Google and IBM range between 1-2 business days for normal priority tickets and 3-5 business days for incident resolution. Additionally, BigPanda has helped customers attain mean time to repair (MTTR) reductions up to 80 percent by introducing automated prioritization, incident routing and assisting operators with event de-duplication and providing them with enhanced alert data sets through enrichment. “Businesses run on digital services, so any outage or degradation, regardless of the cause, results in business impact, oftentimes impacting revenue or productivity. Our customers depend on BigPanda to detect and prevent those impacts, to keep their digital services running, 24/7,” said Jason Walker, Chief Customer Officer at BigPanda. “Our customer success teams have consistently outperformed on service-level agreements, while achieving impressive CSAT scores over the past year, in what is arguably the most difficult and neglected area of modern technology organizations (ITOps). This recognition validates our commitment to lifetime partnerships with our customers delivered by our Support, Outcomes, Professional Services, and Value &amp; Adoption teams.” BigPanda has recently expanded its customer operations team in multiple regions, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), to support customer demand. The customer service department is comprised of four teams who handle a range of services for today’s leading companies, including troubleshooting issues, providing best practices for IT Ops network operations center (NOC), DevOps and site reliability engineer (SRE) teams and ensuring the continued success and adoption of its platform across otherwise siloed teams. Recent customer service success BigPanda is chosen by Fortune 1000 and Midsize enterprises to help them improve incident automation and prevent IT outages across the most complex IT environments around the world. Some recent customer highlights include: <ul><li>INOC, a global leader in the network operations center industry, was looking for a solution to handle automated incident management and reduce the time humans were spending on event correlation so the team could focus on higher-value projects. BigPanda’s Customer Success team supported INOC through a rapid implementation with a proven deployment methodology and is by their side to ensure they are able to deliver exceptional NOC services to their clients every day.</li><li>Visionworks, one of the US’ fastest-growing optical retailers, was in search of a solution to deduplicate and correlate IT alerts to better manage and resolve technology-related incidents. The company engaged BigPanda to help streamline and improve uptime of digital services and are seeing very encouraging results in early days of pilot. The technology leadership team at Visionworks are pleased with the level of customer service BigPanda delivers and eager to see the trends continue into production.</li></ul> These examples demonstrate BigPanda’s commitment to customer success and reflects its ranking in this year’s Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service.“The nominations we received for the 2022 competition illustrate that business development, customer service, and sales professionals worldwide, in all sorts of organizations, have continued to innovate, thrive, and meet customer expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher Miller. “The judges have recognized and rewarded their achievements, and we join them in applauding this year's winners for their continued success. We look forward to recognizing them on May 11.” The Stevie Awards for Sales &amp; Customer Service are the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals. The Stevie Awards organizes eight of the world’s leading business awards programs, also including the prestigious American Business Awards®&nbsp;and International Business Awards®. More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry, in 51 nations, were considered in this year’s competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals worldwide on eight specialized judging committees. Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=QOiOFmEJFLZCKUTibZcnNd3yfeQ557PViJoWrqkigRo3pwuz7Wqj2CZZ_7jojHpFL_WK3iJcKdLiFq9VQxAFkk6Yuj_Pl6uyExlB3pYQXL9scFq5l45Olod8wL805dqy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">www.StevieAwards.com/Sales</a>. To learn more about BigPanda, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=Pwyxo6vKDYSUmK8PjZPDZsI6hxiJQuAxHpI5PtsWs2Bkt-XarMjA2planSv9T-uCL-hI7w7BxrKyPlaKW9v-Xg==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">www.bigpanda.io</a>. About BigPanda BigPanda keeps businesses running with AIOps that transform IT data into insight and action. With BigPanda’s AIOps platform, businesses prevent IT outages, improve incident management and deliver extraordinary customer experiences. Without BigPanda, IT Ops, NOC, and DevOps teams struggle with a tsunami of data and highly-manual, reactive incident response processes that are poorly suited for the scale, complexity and velocity of modern IT environments. This results in painful outages, unhappy customers, growing IT headcount and the inability to focus on innovation. BigPanda’s AIOps Event Correlation and Automation platform helps Fortune 500 enterprises such as Intel, Cisco, United, Abbott, Marriott and Expedia take a giant step towards Autonomous IT Operations. BigPanda is backed by Advent International, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, Battery Ventures, Glynn Capital, Mayfield, Greenfield Partners and Pelion. Visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=Pwyxo6vKDYSUmK8PjZPDZu22woNExMiyP0hNp3SN9SuoMEYkyeexHylWQWGgW2nHhT_mmrifNlPLGI61lsJA6g==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">www.bigpanda.io</a>&nbsp;for more information. About The Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East &amp; North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales &amp; Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=m7W5HdmyuXm-iQhUjMvPjXSnE_YNSZYyyGY4ZW1XDKsVMLddZrvCoo1V8favsRHrI3kKWrNqEeobfNhlMm9Ii7jCMjc6ToWmrd1A_jSfvs8=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">http://www.StevieAwards.com</a>. Sponsors of the 16th annual Stevie Awards for Sales &amp; Customer Service include Sales Partnerships, Inc., Thought Leadership Leverage, and ValueSelling Associates, Inc.

AIOps leader recognized for customer success with 99 percent customer satisfaction score and record-breaking responses times two years in a row

BigPanda Wins Bronze Award in 16th Annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Trace, a sports video technology company focused on making personalized highlights of youth athletes, has raised $47 million in a Series C round.The funding gave Trace a $190 million post-money valuation, five times higher than following its previous round, according to David Lokshin, the company’s co-founder and chief executive. Pelion Venture Partners, a Salt Lake City, Utah, venture capital firm, led the Series C funding. Jeff Kearl, a Pelion managing partner since 2019 and co-founder of the Stance apparel brand, joined Trace’s board of directors in conjunction with Pelion’s investment. Kearl has been friends with and a mentor to Lokshin for several years, and he had invested in the company in its early days as an angel investor. Lakestar, a Zurich, Switzerland, VC firm, Toba Capital, a Newport Beach, Calif., VC firm and NextGen VP, a Baltimore VC firm, also participated in the round. All told, Trace has raised $65.2 million in funding, including a $15 million Series B&nbsp;<a href="https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/61806-43#overview" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 56, 145);">round</a>&nbsp;in late 2019. Trace sells subscriptions consisting of its proprietary wide-angle cameras, artificial intelligence and GPS sensors technology primarily to youth soccer clubs across the United States. The clubs install the cameras at their games, and Trace’s cameras record the games and automatically edit and personalize the videos for each player. For instance, the videos show every time a player touched or kicked the ball during a game, which allows parents not to have to wade through the entire game and edit the film themselves. The videos are then sent via email to the players and/or their parents, who can share them with family members, college coaches and others.

Sports Video Tech Company Trace Raises $47 Million Series C Round, Valued At $190 Million

<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=4183032711&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cocodelivery.com%2F&amp;a=Coco" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Coco</a>, the LA-based remotely piloted delivery service, continues to build out its expert leadership team, bringing on executives from DoorDash, Lyft, Eaze, Amazon, Google and more amid its rapid nationwide expansion. The new hires include&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=2212692762&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fsahil-sharma-a09659%2F&amp;a=Sahil+Sharma" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Sahil Sharma</a>&nbsp;as Chief Operating Officer,&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=498314986&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fpquinn86%2F&amp;a=Pete+Quinn" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Pete Quinn</a>&nbsp;as Vice President of Revenue and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=2454781724&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fandrea-ambrose-lobato-009b7023%2F&amp;a=Andrea+Lobato" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Andrea Lobato</a>&nbsp;as General Counsel. Strengthened by these industry experts, Coco's growing leadership team will work together to bring the company's vision of the future of last-mile delivery to life. "The current food delivery industry underserves merchants with excessive service fees, inefficient logistics, and driver shortages – a cycle Coco aims to break," said&nbsp;Zach Rash, CEO of Coco. "With these leaders on board, we have the expertise and skills we need to transform the food delivery experience for merchants in cities everywhere. These individuals are some of the best in the world in their respective domains. They've solved hard problems in related industries and built products and teams from the ground up. I'm thrilled to welcome them to Coco."&nbsp; Sahil Sharma, COO, will oversee Coco's operations, vehicle engineering team, and service and support functions while scaling the company's delivery service globally. Sharma brings more than 15 years of experience to Coco, having previously served in various operations and senior leadership roles at Snap, Google, Motorola, Amazon and Apple. "I am incredibly excited to work alongside such an accomplished team of professionals as we develop and scale the perfect last-mile delivery service which works for merchants, their customers and the communities we serve," said Sharma. "Every delivery made by Coco takes a 4,000-pound car off the road, reducing emissions and traffic across the country. I'm proud to be part of a company making an immediate contribution to local communities' environmental and economic growth." Pete Quinn, VP of Revenue, will manage sales, customer success and revenue operations at Coco. Quinn previously served as Senior Director, Head of U.S. Enterprise Partnerships at DoorDash, where he developed and led the company's strategic restaurant partnership ecosystem across&nbsp;North America&nbsp;from the bottom up.&nbsp; "Over the past seven years at DoorDash, I've witnessed first hand the need for a platform that enhances the quality and consistency of last-mile delivery while reducing the cost burden on businesses and the environmental impact on our communities," said Quinn. "Coco's technology has the power to enhance the delivery ecosystem for all parties – local businesses, consumers and even marketplaces. I couldn't be more thrilled to work at a mission-first company that will change the world for the better." Andrea Lobato, General Counsel, will provide strategic legal and business advice to Coco, building on her experienced track record of in-house counsel for industries with emerging, complex regulatory structures. Prior to Coco, Lobato served as General Counsel at Eaze Technologies, the largest cannabis delivery marketplace in&nbsp;the United States, and as Director of Compliance at Lyft. "Coco is poised to become the leader in sustainable, affordable delivery services that improve the bottom line for our local businesses," said Lobato. "I'm proud to join this mission-driven company and lead its legal efforts as we shape the future of last-mile logistics across the country." Coco's leadership team expansion comes on the heels of its recent launches in&nbsp;Austin&nbsp;and&nbsp;Houston, with additional growth plans on the horizon. The company's rapid scaling is supported by its Series A funding round of&nbsp;$56 million.&nbsp; Business owners based in&nbsp;Los Angeles,&nbsp;Austin, or&nbsp;Houston&nbsp;interested in partnering with Coco can contact the company at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:info@cocodelivery.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 131, 126);">info@cocodelivery.com</a>. About Coco&nbsp;At Coco, we're dedicated to perfecting the last-mile delivery experience by using remotely operated vehicles. We strongly believe the delivery service industry in its current state is massively underserving merchants, and we are committed to creating a frictionless, reliable, consistent, and sustainable delivery experience for merchants and their customers in cities everywhere. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=2901828889&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fcocodelivery.com%2F&amp;a=cocodelivery.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 131, 126);">cocodelivery.com</a>.&nbsp;

Executives from DoorDash, Lyft, Eaze, Amazon, Google and more join the leading robotic delivery company

Coco Bolsters Leadership Team with Top Executives Amid Rapid Nationwide Expansion

LEHI, Utah--(<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254); color: rgb(73, 158, 214);">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--Weave CEO Roy Banks (NYSE: WEAV) has been named as a CEO of the Year by Utah Business magazine. Every year, Utah Business honors a select group of CEOs who have led their organizations with strength, courage, and endurance and have made it their mission to change the way we do business in Utah. Banks was recognized due to his exemplary leadership since taking the helm of Weave as CEO in December 2020. Under Banks’ leadership, Weave went public in 2021, added new expertise and experience to the executive team, and expanded the company’s hiring footprint into India. This is the second recognition of Banks’ leadership so far this year, as he was recently honored as a finalist for the CEO of the Year award at the first-ever Silicon Slopes’ Hall of Fame gala. “I am so honored to be named as a CEO of the Year by Utah Business magazine,” Banks said. “Being the CEO of Weave has been the highlight of my professional life. Weave has had incredible growth year over year, and a world-class culture to boot. Our teams’ customer obsession and emphasis on cultivating a people-first culture makes Weave well-positioned for our next era of growth.” Roy is the only black CEO of a Utah tech unicorn and has a rating of A+ on Comparably, putting him in the top 5% of CEOs of similar sized companies. With over 900 employees and a brand-new six-story headquarters in Lehi, Weave is focused on a continued upward growth trajectory that involves hiring across the U.S. and internationally, having recently expanded its recruiting base to India. You can learn more about open opportunities to join the People First team at Weave by visiting&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetweave.com%2Fcareers&amp;esheet=52593354&amp;newsitemid=20220310005820&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=our+Careers+page&amp;index=1&amp;md5=72ffb2dd4ee3965cc25e85e085041f09" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(73, 158, 214);">our Careers page</a>. About Weave Weave is the all-in-one customer communication and engagement platform for small business. From the first phone call to the final invoice and every touchpoint in between, Weave connects the entire customer journey. Weave’s software solutions transform how local businesses attract, communicate with and engage customers to grow their business. The first Utah company to join Y Combinator, Weave has set the bar for Utah startup achievement &amp; work culture. In the past year, Weave has been included in the Forbes Cloud 100, Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies in America, and Glassdoor Best Places to Work. To learn more, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.getweave.com%2Fnewsroom%2F&amp;esheet=52593354&amp;newsitemid=20220310005820&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.getweave.com%2Fnewsroom%2F&amp;index=2&amp;md5=6415aea5d7911a0e741d9b4f6cb5c9ba" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(73, 158, 214);">www.getweave.com/newsroom/</a>

Nominated among Utah’s leading tech CEOs, Roy Banks is selected for his skilled leadership of Weave

Utah Business Honors Roy Banks as a CEO of the Year

Overstock is a limited partner in blockchain fund SALT LAKE CITY, April 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.overstock.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Overstock.com, Inc.</a>&nbsp;(NASDAQ:OSTK), today announces it has closed its blockchain fund transaction with&nbsp;<a href="https://pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Pelion Venture Partners</a>, a third-party venture capital firm with a proven track record of successfully investing in early-stage companies. Overstock’s wholly-owned blockchain-focused subsidiary,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediciventures.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Medici Ventures</a>, has been converted into a limited partnership (the “Fund”) and will be managed by Pelion MV GP, LLC, which will act as the general partner of the Fund. Overstock.com, Inc. is the sole limited partner of the Fund. As the limited partner, Overstock has committed $45 million over the eight-year life of the Fund. The Fund will return invested capital to Overstock first and then split profits on successful exits as set forth in the Fund’s Limited Partnership Agreement. The Fund will hold a significant minority ownership stake in tZERO Group, Inc. (“tZERO”) and Overstock will retain a direct minority equity interest in tZERO. “We remain bullish on blockchain technology and are excited for Medici Ventures to enter this new post-closing phase,” said Overstock chief executive officer Jonathan Johnson. “Pelion has spent the last three months getting to know these portfolio companies better. I expect Pelion, which will oversee the portfolio and make follow-on investment decisions, will take these companies to the next level and help guide them to economic success. I’m pleased we closed this transaction ahead of schedule. Overstock can now focus on our core e-commerce business, which continues to realize tremendous revenue, profit, and market share growth.” Pelion MV GP, LLC now has sole authority and responsibility regarding the Fund’s investment decisions and in exercising all shareholder rights Medici Ventures holds in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediciventures.com/companies/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">portfolio companies</a>.“I am pleased this transaction with Overstock came together and has now closed,” said Pelion Venture Partners founder and managing director Blake Modersitzki. “Pelion recognizes the value in these disruptive companies and the world-changing potential of blockchain technology. We look forward to jumping in immediately and working with each of the portfolio companies to maximize the value of these assets.” About Overstock Overstock.com, Inc&nbsp;Common Stock (NASDAQ:OSTK) / Series A-1 Preferred Stock (tZERO ATS:OSTKO) / Series B Preferred Stock (OTCQX:OSTBP)&nbsp;is an online retailer and technology company based in&nbsp;Salt Lake City, Utah. Its leading e-commerce website sells a broad range of new home products at low prices, including furniture, décor, rugs, bedding, home improvement, and more. The online shopping site, which is visited by tens of millions of customers a month, also features a marketplace providing customers access to millions of products from third-party sellers. Overstock was the first major retailer to accept cryptocurrency in 2014, and in the same year founded&nbsp;Medici Ventures, its wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to the development and acceleration of blockchain technologies to democratize capital, eliminate middlemen, and re-humanize commerce. Overstock regularly posts information about the Company and other related matters on the&nbsp;Newsroom&nbsp;and&nbsp;Investor Relations&nbsp;pages on its website,&nbsp;Overstock.com. O, Overstock.com,&nbsp;<a href="http://o.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">O.com</a>, Club O, and Worldstock are registered trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. Other service marks, trademarks, and trade names that may be referred to herein are the property of their respective owners. About Medici Ventures Launched in 2014,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediciventures.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Medici Ventures</a>&nbsp;was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Overstock.com, Inc. created to leverage blockchain technology to solve real-world problems with transparent, efficient, and secure solutions. It is now a limited partnership managed by Pelion MV GP, L.L.C. Overstock.com, Inc. is the sole limited partner. Medici Ventures’ companies are introducing blockchain technology to industries including identity, land governance, money and banking, capital markets, supply chain, and voting. About Pelion Venture Partners Pelion is an early-stage technology venture capital firm with a national track record of investing in software-based businesses that manage the exponential growth in the movement of information, or “bits,” across wired and wireless networks. Founded in 1986, Pelion has been a partner to leading technology innovators CloudFlare, Fusion-io, MX Logic, RedHat, and Riverbed. More at&nbsp;<a href="https://pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">www.pelionvp.com</a>. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including but not limited to statements regarding expectations with respect to the performance of Pelion and the Fund. Additional information regarding factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, which was filed with the SEC on February 26, 2021, and in our subsequent filings with the SEC. Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.overstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/overstock-closes-transaction-pelion-venture-partners-oversee/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Read the press release on Overstock</a>