Now we’re moving our attentions to our CAC, help me keep it low by forwarding this to a colleague or sharing on social media 🙏🏻

In YC’s Winter 2017 batch 8.6% of the companies had a black founder, with 4.3% of the startups having a Latinx founder. Despite being a low %, this is an improvement on recent batches, with diversity something that Sam Altman has specifically stated as a strong focus for YC right now ~> Y Combinator’s quest for diversity 

Costanoa Ventures have started a fellowship to help women take their first steps in venture capital ~> Costanoa Access Fellowship

Depressing stats on how all male founders raised more than 50x more VC money than women in 2016 ~> Venture Capital’s funding gender gap is actually getting worse

Interesting read on the struggles that came with pitching a female-focused product to a male dominated industry ~> Ida Tin’s battle to build Clue, a period-tracking app

Damien Hooper-Campbell shares how he believes we can humanise diversity and inclusion in tech ~> eBay’s first Chief Diversity Officer on humanizing diversity and inclusion

Abdulrahman Tarabzouni is back in his native Saudi Arabia with a mission to bring the country’s national phone carrier, Saudi Telecom Co., into technology investing ~> Ex-Google Executive wants Saudi Telecom to be the next Softbank

Square Peg Capital has officially closed on a $US180 million raise for its first fund, in another sign of the revival of the venture capital asset class in Australia ~> Square Peg has $US180m to invest in tech start-ups as 500 Startups also sense the opportunity down-under ~> Silicon Valley accelerator 500 Startups launches in Melbourne

The London-based accelerator showcased the 12 startups of its inaugural Singapore cohort in an Investor Day at the Google APAC headquarters ~> Entrepreneur First unveils the 12 startups of its inaugural Singapore cohort

Fight for the Future is an organisation offering to fund activism with $15,000 for one month’s backing of a project that makes a positive impact on the world’s future ~> Terrified about Trump? Quit your job, start an A-Team. We’ll fund it. 

Family offices making acquisitions as Providence Equity sells scuba certifier PADI for $700 million

Right now, there are multiple sectors that you could make a strong case for “being the next internet”. As an investor, should you be a generalist and try and keep track of all of them, or should you pick one now and double down? This is a great post from Stefano Bernadi on ~> The accelerating pace of innovation and what it means for startup investors

Y Combinator Partner Daniel Gross announced that the accelerator-turned-venture-fund will offer its first “vertical” track ~> Y Combinator has a new AI track, and wants startups building ‘robot factory’ tech to apply

Subscriber Nathan Benaich’s excellent presentation on the AI opportunity ~> So, you want to found an AI startup?

Build karma, be an altruist ~> VC attitude: Altruism by default

How should companies think about strategy in a world awash in money ~> Strategy in the age of superabundant capital

Know more about your space than anyone else - and prove it constantly ~> Why Venture Capitalists don’t do marketing like the rest of us

Steve Schlafman, a VC in NYC with RRE Ventures elaborates on why he is in VC ~> Why I Invest

A timely reminder for those of us who deal in the long-term ~> Everything always takes longer than you think

Substituting debt for growth equity is a risky bet but doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done, Fred Wilson explains ~> Using debt like growth equity

There’s an easier way to sell companies ~> The Berkshire Hathaway of the internet

Figuring out the Return The Fund (RTF) percentage ~> Why your startup idea isn’t big enough for some VCs

Practical lessons from 3 years of putting capital to work ~> The Future of family office investing

Thanks to everyone who provided me with feedback following the first edition last week, I implemented a lot of it into this issue.

A couple of you asked me the best way to bring posts to my attention (either by yourself or by others), so here is a reminder of my email: neil@thenordicweb.com and Twitter: @neilswmurray

Have a great Sunday and don’t forget to help me with my CAC (I really should see a doctor about that…) 😜