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What happens to the smaller VC firms in a conservative market?

In the dynamic world of venture capital (VC), market conditions play a significant role in shaping the fortunes of firms. When confronted with a conservative market, characterized by risk aversion and cautious investor sentiment, smaller VC firms face unique challenges. This blog explores the potential consequences and strategies available to navigate such circumstances.

In a conservative market, investors tend to gravitate towards safer, established companies with proven track records, often overlooking riskier early-stage startups.

This reduced appetite for risk impacts smaller VC firms, which primarily focus on early-stage investments. As a result, these firms may struggle to attract sufficient capital, making it challenging to deploy funds and support new ventures.

With limited investor interest, smaller VC firms may face difficulties in raising the necessary funds to sustain their operations. The conservative market environment often leads to decreased commitments from existing limited partners and makes it more challenging to attract new investors.

Consequently, smaller VC firms may experience a decline in their available capital, hindering their ability to participate in lucrative investment opportunities.

Also Read: Why is Microsoft Teams integration being removed from Win11?

Conservative markets tend to have a ripple effect on portfolio companies within the VC firm’s investment ecosystem. As startups face reduced funding options, they may encounter difficulties in securing subsequent financing rounds.

Smaller VC firms may be forced to allocate more resources to support existing portfolio companies rather than making new investments. Consequently, the overall growth and success of the portfolio may be limited, potentially affecting the firm’s reputation and ability to attract future investments.

To adapt to a conservative market, smaller VC firms may need to adjust their investment focus. They may shift towards industries or sectors that are more resilient in such conditions, such as healthcare or essential services.

Additionally, they might concentrate on later-stage investments or seek out more established startups that demonstrate stability and a clear path to profitability.

By adapting their investment strategy, smaller VC firms can increase their chances of generating returns even in a conservative market.

In a conservative market, smaller VC firms face significant challenges due to limited investor appetite, funding constraints, and portfolio company struggles.

However, by adapting their investment focus, exploring alternative funding sources, and providing extensive support to existing portfolio companies, these firms can navigate the conservative landscape and position themselves for success in the long run.

B. Pagles Minor, a first-time fund manager who established DVRGNT Ventures seven months ago, has encountered challenges in the fundraising landscape.

Contrary to expectations, limited partners are demanding more extensive metrics and data, resulting in unexpected expenses. Additionally, emerging managers like Minor are facing financial burdens as certain insurances, previously not commonly required, are now being requested.

Another emerging trend is limited partners seeking concessions such as waiving certain management fees or requesting lower carry in the fund. These circumstances further strain fund managers’ ability to establish and effectively run their funds.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Netflix Tudum 2023: Everything Announced

Netflix recently held its annual Tudum event where it made several exciting announcements.

They revealed Season 3 of Extraction, starring Chris Hemsworth, and concluded with Heart of Stone featuring Alia Bhatt, Jamie Dornan, and Gal Gadot. In between these announcements, they showcased a glimpse of what was to come.

One of the highlights was a spinoff show centered around Berlin, a beloved character from Money Heist (La casa de papel), played by Pedro Alonso.

Also Read: Microsoft notches record high valuation of nearly $2.6 trillion

The teaser introduced a new cast for the spinoff. Additionally, they unveiled The Archies, a teen musical drama set in India’s 1960s, providing a desi twist to the popular series Riverdale. Another upcoming series is 3 Body Problem, created by the showrunners of Game of Thrones. Lastly, there was a sneak peek at the highly anticipated live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

During the Netflix Tudum event, Chris Hemsworth and director Sam Hargrave announced the third movie in the successful Extraction franchise.

The cast of Squid Game, including Lee Jung-Jae, Lee Byung-Hun, Wi Ha-jun, and Gong Yoo, will be returning for the highly anticipated second season, joined by new cast members Yim Si-Wan, Kang Ha-Neul, Park Sung-Hoon, and Yang Dong-Geun.

The Netflix Tudum event also showcased a teaser for The Archies, a musical drama set in 1960s India, featuring an all-Indian cast including Suhana Khan, Agastya Nanda, Khushi Kapoor, Mihir Ahuja, Dot, and Vedang Raina. Netflix unveiled the first trailer for Heart to Stone, an upcoming movie starring Gal Gadot, Alia Bhatt, and Jamie Dornan.

Netflix is taking the popularity of Squid Game to the next level by creating a reality show based on the series. The show will feature 456 participants competing in schoolyard games across 10 episodes, with a chance to win a whopping $4.56 million prize.

While the games will resemble those in Squid Game, there won’t be any life-or-death elimination. In other news, Lily Collins will be returning for the fourth season of Emily in Paris, as shown in a teaser where Emily prepares for a Roman holiday.

Also Read: LinkedIn to test ad product for video streaming services

Unfortunately, fans of Stranger Things will have to wait longer for Season 5, as filming has been delayed due to a writers’ strike. However, Netflix offered a glimmer of hope by announcing that Linda Hamilton, known for her role in Terminator, will join the cast for the show’s fifth and final season.

Other announcements made during the event included Lift, an action-comedy, Love is Blind Season 5, the hiatus of Cobra Kai Season 6, Heartstopper Season 2, All the Light We Cannot See, images from Bridgerton Season 3, Elite Season 7, and You.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Microsoft notches record high valuation of nearly $2.6 trillion

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Since public enthusiasm over the potential of AI (artificial intelligence) has contributed to lifting the tech conglomerate to a peak market value of 2.59 trillion dollars, Microsoft Corp stocks went up to a new all-time high finish on Thursday.

Because of its substantial funding in OpenAI, which is based in San Francisco that created the hugely successful chatbot ChatGPT, Microsoft has been recognized as a leader in the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the software industry.

To compete with Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., Microsoft started releasing several AI enhancements, such as ChatGPT, the company’s Bing search engine, and Azure cloud services within the past month.

Also Read: LinkedIn to test ad product for video streaming services

On Thursday, Microsoft’s prices increased 3.2 percent and closed at 348.10 dollars for each share. The price of the stock, which has increased by more than 45 percent so far this year, hit its previous record close of 343.11 USD on November 19, 2021. On November 22, 2021, the share’s intraday highest level ever was 349.67 USD.

Additionally, on Thursday, the stock of Apple Inc. closed at a record high of 186.01 USD, while those of the manufacturer of graphics chips Nvidia hit a brand-new intraday record of 432.89 USD.

The increasing demand for Microsoft’s items is being driven by AI, according to JPMorgan experts who increased their price objective on the business’s stock sooner on Thursday. Following data from Refinitiv, 44 of the 53 experts that follow Microsoft suggested purchasing the stock, with a consensus price objective of $340.

“We reaffirm our bullish-outlier viewpoint on generative AI and continue to see it driving a resurgence of confidence in key software franchises,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note to clients.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

On June 5, the Microsoft 365 software suite, which includes Teams and Outlook, was unavailable for over two hours to over a thousand customers, with a brief reappearance the next morning. For Microsoft, it was their fourth of these events in a calendar year.

Also Read: Why is Microsoft Teams integration being removed from Win11?

Microsoft has claimed that cyberattacks were to blame for the outages that the firm had during some of the first days of this month, but it claimed that there was no proof that any information about clients had been obtained or compromised.

“Beginning in early June 2023, Microsoft identified surges in traffic against some services that temporarily impacted availability'” the company said in a blog post.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

LinkedIn to test ad product for video streaming services

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft Corp., announced on Thursday that it was developing a video advertising solution that would enable advertisers to target LinkedIn users as they watched content on streaming platforms.

In an effort to grow its advertising business during a period of economic uncertainty, LinkedIn has released AI technologies to aid marketers in creating ad content.

Penry Price, vice president of marketing solutions at LinkedIn, told Reuters that in-stream video advertisements might alter how businesses and consumers connect with and engage with their audiences.

Also Read: Google launches AI-powered advertiser features

With trailing 12-month sales of over $14 billion and an 8% year-over-year revenue growth as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, LinkedIn is doing well.

LinkedIn makes money by selling ads and subscriptions to salespeople, job searchers, and recruiters. A significant revenue stream for LinkedIn is its Marketing Solutions.

This includes advertising and marketing tools such as Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, Text Ads, Dynamic Ads, and Display Ads. These offerings enable businesses to promote their content, products, and services to LinkedIn’s professional user base, reaching a targeted audience for their marketing campaigns.

It provides advertising opportunities for businesses and marketers to reach its professional user base. One of the key advertising products available on LinkedIn is Sponsored Content, which enables businesses to promote their content directly in the LinkedIn feed.

Sponsored Content can consist of text, images, and videos, allowing companies to increase brand awareness and engage with their target audience effectively.

Another advertising option is Sponsored InMail, which allows businesses to send personalized messages directly to LinkedIn users’ inboxes. This feature facilitates targeted messaging and can be used to promote events, products, or content.

Text Ads are also available on the platform, appearing on the right-hand side of the desktop version of the app. These ads typically include a headline, description, and a small image.

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Additionally, it offers Dynamic Ads that utilize a user’s LinkedIn profile data to create personalized and engaging ad experiences. Banner-style Display Ads are another option, appearing on the website and mobile app with images, videos, and interactive elements.

Video Ads, which can be placed within the feed and autoplay while users scroll, are also part of LinkedIn’s advertising offerings. It’s advisable to visit LinkedIn’s official website or contact their advertising team directly for the most up-to-date information on their advertising products and features.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Why is Microsoft Teams integration being removed from Win11?

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

Nearly two years after the first announcement of the integration, Microsoft is getting ready to remove the built-in Microsoft Teams client from Windows 11.

This integration aimed to provide seamless communication and collaboration for Windows 11 users, enabling them to connect with colleagues, join meetings, and share files easily.

The more adaptable free edition of Microsoft Teams, which is also accessible as a Windows 10 app, will replace the Chat capability. Microsoft revealed the improvements this week in a fresh Windows 11 test build.

Also Read: Why Music Publishers are suing Twitter?

According to a blog post by Microsoft’s senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc, “Starting with his build, Chat is now Microsoft Teams – Free.” “Microsoft Teams – Free is pinned to the taskbar by default and can be unpinned like other apps on the taskbar.”

The operating system was tightly integrated with the first Teams integration in Windows 11, known as Chat. The Chat app was pinned to the taskbar by default and has to be disabled by navigating to Settings.

Up until now, Microsoft has been steadily introducing new features to Chat inside of Windows 11, including enhanced video conferencing capabilities in October, Discord-like communities in early November, and an AI art tool.

The Microsoft Teams 2.0 client served as the basis for the new MS Teams software that is currently being sent out to organizations, and it also served as the basis for the built-in Chat capabilities in Windows 11.

Days after announcing intentions to discontinue support for Cortana on Windows 11 later this year, Microsoft has decided to remove the built-in Teams client from the operating system. Microsoft is almost at the beginning of a new fiscal year, and it is evident that the corporation is concentrating its resources on brand-new Windows initiatives, such as its AI-powered Windows Copilot tool.

When speaking at CES earlier this year, Windows CEO Panos Panay hinted at the significance of AI for Windows, saying that “AI is going to reinvent how you do everything on Windows.” Undoubtedly, AI will be a significant component in Windows 10 as well.

Also Read: Why are other automakers chasing Tesla’s ‘Gigacasting’?

Additionally, Microsoft apparently agreed to discontinue bundling Teams with Office only a few months prior to the modifications to Teams. In an effort to placate EU regulators, Microsoft has decided to stop requiring Office customers to install Teams on their devices in April, according to The Financial Times.

After competitor Slack complained about Microsoft’s bundling of Teams in 2020, the European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation on Microsoft’s practices.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

From Code Enthusiast to Tech Titan: Chris Wanstrath Journey

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Suhani Jain

In partnership with Tom Preston-Werner and PJ Hyett, executive chairman Chris Wanstrath along with other software engineers launched GitHub in 2008 based in San Francisco.

Having over twenty-four million user accounts, the firm has expanded into the biggest hosting service provider for software programs over the globe in a decade. The previous year, GitHub informed CNBC that it had been on the path to bringing in $200 million in subscription income annually.

While GitHub was estimated at 2 billion USD in 2016, Forbes assessed Wanstrath’s total value to be 360 million USD. Wanstrath’s financial assets will probably increase in addition after the sale is completed because Microsoft’s purchase of the business is expected to almost quadruple that.

In a blog post, Wanstrath wrote that he “could have never imagined” the Microsoft acquisition when GitHub launched 10 years ago. ”[GitHub] was a powerful but niche tool, clouds were just things in the sky, and Microsoft was a very different company,” he said.
Source: cnbc.com

Chris Wanstrath attempted to teach himself software programming while still, a young child growing up in Ohio. He wished to create websites & video games as a software developer. In 2017, he stated to Entrepreneur that He had always desired to be a member of a team creating products that others love.

Also Read: From Dreamer to Achiever: The Unforgettable Journey of Lucy Guo

Wanstrath still had a passion for computers in the early years of the 2000s, but he changed his University of Cincinnati degree to English.

He still desired a career as a software engineer.

He enrolled in a few computer programming courses, which assisted him to become seriously interested in software development to the point where he thought he could make a living at it.

Chris Wanstrath received a job offer from the tech website CNET owned by CBS in 2005 after around two years of education.

Wanstrath was concerned regarding his chances of success since he was a mostly self-taught coder. But he decided to leap. He dropped out of school and moved to San Francisco to work as a software developer.

In January 2008, Wanstrath and Preston-Werner released an exclusive beta edition of GitHub. The following month, they welcomed Wyett as the third co-founder. Wyett had previously worked at CNET on the Chowhound project alongside Wanstrath as an experienced software engineer.

According to a blog post, Wanstrath stated that GitHub’s beta version reached 2,000 members by March 2008. Just over a decade until Microsoft revealed the merger on Monday, GitHub began for public usage in April 2008. After the site became life, GitHub slowly gained popularity among developers, surpassing 100,000 registered users by July 2009.

Over the years, GitHub was named to CNBC’s Disruptor List five times, with CNBC noting that the site has “been described as a Facebook for developers because it encourages collaboration and interaction around code.”
Source: cnbc.com

Besides hosting coding projects for huge organizations like NASA as well as companies like IBM, Airbnb, and Spotify, GitHub is utilized by a billion software professionals worldwide.

Suhani Jain

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