Restructuring w/ Meta & Softbank, Working Backward w/ Amazon, and more...
What's Up Tech? #106
Welcome to our 106th newsletter. It was written with 💛 by Saish Rane, Medina Sinani and Angèle Sahraoui
The latest fundraisings with Localyze and Stockly
News from last week with Softbank, Meta and Sendinblue
Our content of the week about the Working Backward process developed by Amazon
A list of cool events taking place in October
The latest episode of “Dans la tête d’un CEO” with Géraud Paillot
Internship & Job offers of the week
Wishing you a pleasant read 💛
And before jumping into this week’s NL: massive congrats to the amazing 20 fellows who have just been selected to take part in our next French bootcamp. 🇫🇷
We’re so thrilled to have you joining the family! 😃
And of course, massive thank you to all of you who submitted an application. Our next bootcamp will take place in the spring, so the next opportunity to get involved is just around the corner! 😉🚀
🌏 Localyze raised $35M in series B funding
Localyze, a Hamburg-based startup, has raised $35M in series B funding. The round was led by General Catalyst and other investors, including Visionaries Club, Web Summit Fund and Frontline Ventures. 🤑
The startup was founded by three female founders in 2018 with the vision to facilitate international recruiting for companies but also enabling them to easily relocate international hires or temporarily transfer employees. 🌏
Localyze takes the stance that more and more talents — especially among the younger generations — are putting remote work and the possibility to work abroad on top of their wishlist when looking for a job. One of the key reasons behind these new aspirations being… (🥁) the pandemic, of course — especially as it boosted the idea of a flexible workspace, to which many international companies are now trying to adapt. 💪🏼
The next step for Localyze will be to expand to other major countries in the next two years and to reach out to more prominent companies. Their launch in America will start in January 2023, focusing on the east and west coasts. 🌊
Localyze, a SaaS for staff relocation, gets $35M as it gears up for US launch
👟 Stockly raised €12M with Eurazeo & Daphni
Stockly, Paris-based shared inventory e-commerce player recently raised a €12 million Series A led by Eurazeo & Daphni with investments from Guillaume Pousaz, Co-Founder & CEO of Checkout & Motier Ventures. 🤑
The Plaid for e-commerce helps vendors avoid customer churn when they see products that are out of stock. It does so by providing an API that is connected to Stockly’s network of sellers that can ship the product to the customer under a white label — and hence has the capability to save up to €20B of opportunity cost. This is especially true as we know that 30% of customers churn when they see that a product they wanted to buy is out of stock. 🛍
This fundraising will be used to expand its network of brands, vendors and marketplaces as well as growing its team to 50 people. 🤝
Stockly raises another €12 million to sell out-of-stock items via other retailers
😕 Hiring Freeze and Layoffs at Meta and Softbank
For the first time in history last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would restructure and cut budgets across groups. In a communication to Meta’s employees, Zuckerberg cited the uncertain macroeconomic environment: “I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now, but from what we’re seeing it doesn’t yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively,” Zuckerberg told employees during a weekly Q&A session, Bloomberg News reported. 😟
Following an even more drastic path, Softbank is reportedly laying off 30% of its Vision Fund staff (its venture capital arm), or around 150 people. This is largely explained though the fact that the vast majority of SoftBank’s record loss — approximately $17.3B — is imputable to its Vision Fund. Among the 470+ startups that it funded over the past six years, many saw there valuations slashed over the last few months. In fact, the Japanese tech firm said in its earnings call in August that it had marked down 284 of its portfolios in the latest quarter. 😬
SoftBank Vision Fund is reportedly laying off 30% of its workforce, or at least 150 employees
🤝 Sendinblue acquired SF-based Yodel.io
Sendinblue, a Paris-based startup developing a cloud-based Digital Marketing platform for SMBs so that they can build strong customer relationships announced last week that it had acquired Yodel — constituting its 5th acquisition in 12 months! 😳
Concretely, Sendinblue enables SMBs to have an all-in-one platform that combines the suitability of a CRM with that of a tool able to handle Email and SMS Marketing, but also live chat, and many more. 🙌
As for Yodel, the startup is headquartered in San Francisco and has developed an internet based phone system, letting companies easily make and receive calls from any laptop. 📞
To emphasize the relevance of this acquisition, Sendinblue highlighted how, as of today, 70% of customers look for a phone number associated with a business. Needless to say that Sendinblue seems well-equipped to offer SMBs and e-commerce companies with a super comprehensive Marketing and Sales solution! 🚀
🔙 Working Backwards — How PR/FAQs help launch successful products like AWS, Kindle & Prime Video
You may have already heard about this interesting practice implemented at Amazon: that of writing PR/FAQs even before a product enters its development phase. This week, we’ve read an article that deeps dive into it. Here are the key takeaways that we noted! 📝
So, Working Backward is a process that has been implemented at Amazon since 2004, and it’s quite a big thing (there’s even a book that has been written about it). 🧐
The main tool behind this Working Backward process is a PR/FAQ (press release/frequently asked questions), a 6 pager that will accompany the launch of a new product or feature to highlight its value-added and convince customers to buy or use it. 🤝
Concretely, the main objectives behind this practice/process are:
Helping the team achieving clarity of thought concerning what it wants the product to look like,
Ensuring that the customer is top of mind throughout the entire product development journey,
Maximizing the team’s velocity by first making sure the direction is correct.
What this means concretely for Amazon is that, every time a Product Manager wants to convince the team to build a new product, she/he has to write this PR/FAQ. And let’s note that hundreds of such PR/FAQs get authored and presented each year at Amazon. 📈
Curious to know what these PR/FAQs include — or how they are structured? 🔍
Well, the PR/FAQ is divided into three parts:
A Press Release (PR)
“A hypothetical press release that might be written when the new product is actually released.”
An External FAQ
“A list of potential questions customers or the press might have about the product along with their relevant answers that would accompany the PR.”
An Internal FAQ
“Similar to the external FAQ, but much longer and with hard questions internal stakeholders may ask the Product Development Team — including all kinds of concerns, challenges, and potential risks. Mockups are optional, but useful where products have a UI component, or where the service could be more clearly understood with a storyboard or illustration.”
Last but not least, let’s also note that this Working Backward process is supported by a strong review process. Every PR/FAQ gets reviewed during a one-hour long meeting where key stakeholders are invited. If the PR isn’t clear enough or wouldn’t incentivize someone to buy the product or service, it needs to be rewritten and resubmitted. And a PR/FAQ that leads to an implementation usually requires several such meetings. 🤓
So, are you ready to start drafting PR/FAQs? 🚀
Working Backwards — How PR/FAQs help launch successful products like AWS, Kindle & Prime Video
🤝 (IRL, Paris) GDILive #2, 04/10
Matthieu Stefani, who notably hosts the GDIY podcast is co-organizing this event with Qonto. Speakers have not been announced yet, but the goal will be to provide rising entrepreneurs w/ insights from stellar experts and entrepreneurs! Tickets & info here!
🎙 (IRL, London) Sifted Summit, 5-6/10
Join 1500 founders, startup operators and investors live at Magazine London. Tickets & info here!
🪐 (IRL, Paris) PAWA, 14-15/10
PAWA Paris is a gathering of entrepreneurs, explorers of consciousness and conscious business leaders. PAWA’s mission is to explore uncharted territories, rediscovering ancient and unveiling new technologies that offer a broader and richer perception of reality. Tickets & info here!
💟 (IRL, Paris) Making the Tech ecosystem more Inclusive, 17/10
Let’s all meet at the Ministry of Economy and Finance in the presence of Jean-Noël Barrot, French Delegate Minister in charge of the Digital Transition and Telecommunications. The goal? To meaningfully move the needle on diversity in tech! This event is organized by Tech your Place. Tickets & info here!
💻 (IRL, Dublin) SaaStock, 18-19/10
SaaStock is a global SaaS events company that connects founders, executives, and investors to build and scale B2B SaaS companies. Tickets & info here!
💵 (IRL, Paris) France FinTech Forum, 20/10
Having become a reference thanks to a selection of original speakers and structuring subjects, this 7th edition will have as its theme “CROSSROADS” and will bring together nearly 1,500 participants on the roof of the Grande Arche. Tickets & info here!
In this new episode, Yacine welcomed Géraud Paillot, founder of an NGO named Aventure Hustive. The episode gets slightly further away from tech compared to what you are used to, but it’s a gem! Géraud is a force of nature — he just completed 5 long distance triathlons in 5 days without his legs, a world record in handisports. 🥇
“Make your life a dream and the dream a reality.” — Antoine de Saint Exupéry.
So, if you’re a French speaker (and listener), go check it out! 🎧
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Take care, and see you next week,
The whole baby vc crew 💛