Startups Africa investor survey, biz model basics, video marketing tactics • businessroundups.org Ana LopezFebruary 10, 20230133 views If your marketing plan doesn’t include TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, can you really call it a marketing plan? Video content is essential for driving early engagement. That’s why growth expert Jonathan Martinez (formerly of Postmates, Uber and Chime) shares four tactics for getting started: Leverage marketplaces for creators Make short videos Build lasting relationships with makers Cross-fertilize your videos Full businessroundups.org+ articles are available to members onlyUse discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% on a one or two year subscription “If you go into 2023 without a video content plan for your startup, you are missing out on an important resource for building brand awareness and reaching more consumers,” Martinez writes. Check out his recent series of five articles to find more growth marketing tactics and strategies you can implement yourself: Thank you so much for reading TC+ this week, Walter ThompsonEditorial Manager, businessroundups.org+@your protagonist Table of Contents How to manage third-party cybersecurity risks that are too expensive to ignoreAfter a Record Year 2022, 8 Investors Explain Why It’s ‘Only Day 1’ for Africa’s Startup EcosystemDear Sophie: Will published articles improve my chances of getting an O-1A or H-1B visa?Pitch Deck Teardown: Spinach.io’s $6M seed deckThink about your business model as part of a VC pitch How to manage third-party cybersecurity risks that are too expensive to ignore Image Credits: Alexander Zubkov (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images Every early-stage startup relies on third-party vendors to handle some aspects of their operations: no one wants to build a shopping cart, credit card processing, or ID verification app from scratch. But with third-party data breaches becoming a regular occurrence, teams need to make managing that risk part of their day-to-day operations, writes Jon Siegler, co-founder and chief product officer of LogicGate. “No matter how well you clean things up, the reputational damage to your organization will continue to cost you lost business later,” he writes. After a Record Year 2022, 8 Investors Explain Why It’s ‘Only Day 1’ for Africa’s Startup Ecosystem Image Credits: Natalia Ivanova (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images Despite the downturn, Africa had a record year in 2022, with 1,100 investors pouring $6.5 billion into the region’s startups, Tage Kene-Okafor reports. To learn more about “what drove such volumes as the rest of the world curbed the collective enthusiasm of 2021,” he interviewed eight investors: Kola Aina, General Partner, Ventures Platform Zachariah George, managing partner, starts Africa Ventures Olumide Soyombo, co-founder, Voltron Capital Stephen Deng, co-founder and managing partner, DFS Lab Karima El Hakim, Country Director, Plug and Play Egypt Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, founder of Future Africa Maya Horgan Famodu, Founder and Partner, Ingressive Capital Kyane Kassiri, partner, RaliCap Dear Sophie: Will published articles improve my chances of getting an O-1A or H-1B visa? Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/businessroundups.org Dear Sophie, I am the founder and CEO of a startup in Istanbul and I have heard that articles in publications about an entrepreneur or a startup can be a big plus when applying for an O-1A or H-1B visa. Is that true? Which publications are valid? Should they be tier-1 or in English? Thank you for your help! — Tenacious in Turkey Pitch Deck Teardown: Spinach.io’s $6M seed deck Image Credits: Spinach.io (Opens in a new window) Before the pandemic, tech teams usually started their days with face-to-face stand-up meetings so members could coordinate their efforts and monitor each other’s progress. Once those sessions were remote, Spinach.io developed a service that integrates with project management tools, such as Jira and Slack, as well as online meeting tools, such as Google Meet and Zoom. “What we were trying to do here is really solve a very specific use case for technical teams following the Scrum Agile development process,” said co-founder and CEO Matan Talmi. Last August, Spinach.io raised a $6 million seed round; here’s the pitch deck they used: Cover slide Team slide Problem slide Mission slide Product slide Traction slide Customers slide Investors are slipping Sliding plan for 18 months Thank you dia Think about your business model as part of a VC pitch Image Credits: Andrii Yalanskyi / 500px (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images No one needs an MBA to build a credible business plan, but if you want an investor’s attention, you have to show that you have a solid understanding of the fundamentals. Haje Jan Kamps shares a framework for developing a plan slide for a pitch deck that focuses on five aspects: Price of the goods sold Customer acquisition costs Lifetime value R&D costs Price model Breaking down those numbers and presenting them properly can greatly benefit the way you tell your startup’s story to investors,” he writes.