The Crimson Insider (V. #5)
Insights and happenings from the Harvard startup & VC ecosystem
👋 Hello, Insiders! We made it to the fifth edition - your strong sentiment has made all the hard work worth it. Thank you. Help us celebrate by (1) forwarding this email to your favorite Harvard / HBS classmates, and/or (2) replying to this email letting us know what you think of The Crimson Insider so far. We greatly appreciate all feedback.
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🚀 Phoenix Fund Research
Last week, we were thrilled to announce Phoenix Fund Research, The central hub for data, stories, and analysis of Harvard’s startup ecosystem. Our research strives to be a cornerstone for quantifying Harvard’s profound startup success and a catalyst for continued innovation.
Have you checked out our Q3, 2023 Harvard Startup report? In our next research post, we will explore Harvard’s 27 IPOs from 2018-2023. You won’t believe the stats we have coming your way!
🚀 Recent Harvard Startup Financings / News
→ Sawyer was acquired by DaySmart, a leading provider of vertically-focused business management software. Founded by Marissa Evans Alden (HBS, 2008), Sawyer connects parents with providers of childhood experiences. More here.
→ Comprehensive was featured on Forbes’ Future of Work 50 list. Founded by Roger Lee (Harvard College, 2008), Comprehensive is an all-in-one compensation platform that eliminates the use of spreadsheets in employee compensation management. More here.
→ Vida Health raised a Series D extension. Founded by Stephanie Tilenius (HBS, 1996), Vida Health is a virtual care platform that provides health coaching from experienced health care providers and medical institutions.
→ Charlie raised a Series A. Founded by Kevin Nazemi (HBS), Charlie provides financial and banking services to retirees. More here.
→ BrightGO raised a Seed Round led by Index Ventures. Founded by Saagar Deshpande (Harvard College), BrightGo is a janitorial operating system that stops time theft and terminations. More here.
→ Blue Apron was acquired by Wonder Group for $103M - a far cry from the companies $1.89B IPO in 2017. Founded by Matt Salzberg (HBS, 2010), BlueApron was once the leading meal kit provider - Blue Apron’s blue box even showed up on my doorstep weekly.
To-date, Phoenix Fund has invested in 152 Harvard-Founded startups. Know a pre-seed or seed founder we should meet? Please reply to this email or send us a note: devon@phoenixclub.vc
🚀 HBS Class Years with the Most IPOs
HBS Class of 2009 & 2011 have founded more public Unicorns of any other HBS class year. Four unicorns from one graduating class? Amazing!
→ 2009: 4 Unicorns, $14.3B in value
→ 2011: 4 Unicorns, $86B in value
Stay tuned as Phoenix Fund Research will publish the full analysis on # of startups and value created by each HBS class year soon.
🚀 Celebrations!
→ Founder Collective announced the closing of a new $95M seed fund. We previously profiled Founder Collective founders, David Frankel (HBS, 2003) and Eric Paley (HBS, 2003), who invested in the seed rounds of Uber ($96B MC), The Trade Desk ($41B MC), Coupang ($33B MC), Airtable ($11B latest valuation), Seatgeek ($1B latest valuation), among others in their first fund, Founders Collective Fund I. Since 2009, the firm has made 350+ investments with two dozen earning a $1b+ valuation. Despite the success, the firm has intentionally kept the fund small—$95M. Legendary! More here.
→ Danielle Waldman (HBS) was named a Rising Star dealmaker in The Wall Street Journal’s Special Report on Women to Watch. More here.
→ Zoe Weinberg (Harvard College) launched ex/ante with a $33M debut fund. The funds backers include the likes of Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Fred Wilson, Cendana Capital, The Ford Foundation, among others. More here.
→ Kouki Harasaki, PhD (HBS) announced the launch of Bioluminesence Ventures with a $477M debut fund, making it among the largest first-time US biotech VC funds to close in 2023. More here.
→ Vlad Loktev (HBS) joined Index Ventures as a Partner. Previously, Vlad was a VP at Airbnb and a Senior Product Manager at Zynga, two exceedingly successful Harvard-founded companies. More here.
→ Cameron Clarke (Harvard College) joined Drive Capital as a Partner. Previously, Cameron Clarke was the Founder & CEO of Alight, a cloud video infrastructure company.
*Please reply to this email with a tip / celebration to share
🚀 More Harvard Unicorn Research
According to Ilya’s research, Harvard founders are 40% more likely to found a Unicorn. This is a significant difference. At Phoenix Fund Research, we are writing our own reports on Harvard’s outlier production rate and expected value of outcomes, among other topics, to further highlight the success of Harvard’s startup ecosystem.
🚀 Klaviyo Update
It has been 55 days since Klaviyo, founded by Andrew Bialecki (Harvard College, 2007) IPO’d at a $9.2B valuation. Last week, the company released their first 10Q as a public company, and the performance was great:
→ 19% YoY customer growth (109K to 135K)
→ 89% YoY increase in customers generating $50K+ ARR
→ 119% Net Revenue Retention
→ 48% YoY Revenue Growth ($119M Q3, 2022 to $176M Q3, 2023)
→ 73% Gross Profit Margin
However, the software recession is manifesting across the board; multiples on top performing software companies, like Klavyio, have compressed from the 2021 highs of 45.4x EV/NTM Revenue to 7.6x EV/NTM revenue.
Source: Saanya Ojha, on LinkedIn
Phoenix Library 📚️ 🎙️
🎙️ Great Listens
🔗 Link: Brad Gerstner (HBS) - Investor, Essentialist, Patriot, Art of Investing.
🔗 Link: Elizabeth Zalman & Jerry Neumann - Founder vs Investor - [Invest Like the Best, EP.351]
📚️ Great Reads
🔗 Link: How to Know if you Have Product Market Fit. This article aggregates advice and sentiment from some of the best founders and investors in the world, giving you several ways to measure product market fit.
🔗 Link: The Warning Label That Should Come with Venture Capital, by Eric Paley (HBS, 2003). This is a fantastic article on key considerations when raising venture capital. The takeaway: capital has no insights.
Thank you for taking the time to read. If you enjoyed, please consider sharing and/or replying to this email with your thoughts. See you in two weeks.
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Cheers,
Phoenix Fund