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Table of Contents
The businessroundups.org Top 3
- Crypto wallet in disguise: Ledger, a company that designs and manufactures crypto wallets, now has real money. Roman writes that after raising more than $380 million in 2021, in today’s dollars, Ledger raised $108 million, at the same valuation and from a long list of investors.
- Even contact centers need technology: Customers have a lot of questions and to provide the best experience you need more than just a friendly voice on the other end of the line. That’s where Parloa comes in, raising $21 million to add a little bit of automation to contact centers, Kyle writes.
- Capitalizing on the generative AI frenzy: In KyleFixie, the second most important story of the day, aims to make it easier for companies to build on language models with $17 million in venture capital.
Startups and VC
“Our story starts 15 years ago,” said Frédéric Utzmann, founder and CEO of Effy. Roman. After 15 years of bootstrapping, the energy renovation company is at a crossroads and has just closed a $22 million funding round from Felix Capital to capitalize on the energy renovation opportunity.
The layoffs continue: Indian edtech Unacademy is cutting another 12% of jobs, and online used car marketplace Shift is cutting its workforce by 30%.
Another handful of wisdom and nuggets:
How to build a representative sales development strategy that will fill your B2B pipeline
Image Credits: camp patisena (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
Marketing teams deserve all the credit for creating innovative campaigns that cut through the noise: convincing someone to try a new product or service takes real skill!
In practice, however, Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) do most of the work needed to bring in new customers, “making cold calls, writing emails, or sending outgoing mail,” says GTM strategist Mike Tong.
Because it takes “about 15 touches for a prospect to want to see a demo,” Tong wrote a TC+ guide for budding CEOs who need guidance on how to hire and nurture SDR teams.
“Generating pipelines at early stage companies is expensive and time consuming, often more so than the sales process itself. That said, it’s probably the most important thing you can do for your business to get it right.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
businessroundups.org+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
It seems we can’t go many days without more news about a company cutting jobs. This time, Roku is implementing a second round of layoffs, this time of 200 employees, or 6% of the workforce, citing “a larger plan to reduce year-over-year operating cost growth and prioritize projects which it believes will provide a higher return on investment, Sara writes. This comes four months after Roku initially laid off 200 people.
In the meantime, if you want to book an eco-friendly ride, you’re in luck. Uber expands its Comfort Electric offering to 14 new markets in the US and Canada, Rebekah reports. You can choose from Tesla Models S, 3, X and Y; the Polestar 2; the Ford Mustang Mach-E; the Audi etron; the Porsche Taycan; and the Hyundai Ioniq.
And we have five more for you:
