The end of the demo day, thinning and other startup accelerator resolutions

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh look at what’s new and trends from startups this week. To get this in your inbox, Subscribe here.

In April 2020, NextView VC has launched its first accelerator in the middle of the pandemic, while historic incubators like Y Combinator and 500 startups are also rethinking their independent strategies. Key tweaks like full remote batch control and the elimination of the cohort model gave us a glimpse of how some of the most active pre-seed and seed investors are rethinking their jobs.

Fast forward, maybe too many months, NextView partner Melody Koh tells me about the accelerator starts his third cohort with some important optimizations, which again signal some interesting changes for the startup scene in the seed phase.

The first big change is that NextView is increasing its check size from $ 200,000 for an 8 percent stake to $ 400,000 for a 10% stake. Big check sizes in this economy are far from surprising, but Koh’s perspective is that the money will “equip companies with a little more ammunition they can really build”. Beyond market pressures, the company realized that they were the only source of funding for many cohort startups – which meant they had to make larger initial investments to really get those companies to keep funding.

“It just offers a little more flexibility and the ability for teams to really experiment and execute and reach the next level of milestones that this market is now looking for,” she added. So far, more than 50% of the NextView accelerator alumni describe themselves as underrepresented founders and come from cities such as Miami, Seattle, Boston, Birmingham, San Diego and New York.

Given its dispersed format, the company had to update its mentorship. This time it pairs each of its six to eight batch startups with a primary partner for weekly meetings and a secondary for monthly meetings. The former will provide an ongoing resource to the company while it is in the weeds and is the result of the feedback NextView has received from previous cohorts. The more complex partnership model could bring startup founders more activation energy when you need it most.

Finally, the company is doubling its no-demo-day rule. Part of the argument here is that the idea of an annual, high profile event may no longer be necessary for founders to get the coveted attention.

“We don’t feel like the deadlines are artificial and the date format for the demo day is the best use of your time,” said Koh. “The way we interact with each company is… ‘OK, each of you have different milestones that make sense to you,’ so we’re not really focusing on demo day as the right way to get your To consume energy or our energy. ”

NextView isn’t the only one rethinking the demo days and its broader investment strategy. Firms like Contrary Capital and startups like Launch House are also looking for smarter ways to do business and power startups.

Even in a world where Capital is a commodity, investors are preparing – perhaps even more – to find innovative ways to make their money even more rewarding for founders. The talk of “adding value” can be annoying at times, but to me it only signals that an emerging class of investors is figuring out what they do best (other than discovering ambitious founders). It’s fun to watch, and even something as small as tweaking the accelerator format can get us thinking.

For my full opinion on the matter, see my TechCrunch + column: The startup accelerator definition of “value creation” needs to be updated.

In the remainder of this newsletter, we’ll cover the trends of CES 2022, a fintech startup with a contrary view on CAC and a feature about the future of Black Girls Code. As always, you can follow my thoughts on Twitter @nmasc_ or listen to me and my friends Equity capital.

Light bulbs with vital functions and neat cat collars

Credit: TechCrunch

from smart cat collars to color changing cars, CES continues to surprise us. While the TechCrunch team chose to remotely cover the annual tech conference due to the rising COVID-19 cases, our reporters were nonetheless informed of the latest and greatest technology previews. All of our CES coverage can be found under this nice link, but I recommend starting with Brian Heaters CES 2022 themes just to moisturize your taste buds.

Here’s what you should know: Outstanding announcements so far include BMW’s plan Turn cars into rolling cinemas, one Mission to scale paper-based toothbrushes and more seriously a statement about that Importance of a pillow that measures your child’s temperature.

Other “wait what” moments are:

And the starting shot of the week is …

Credit: Peshkova (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

to the bank! As our own Mary Ann Azevedo reports, this Mexican fintech is choosing a non-traditional strategy when it comes to customer acquisition: going offline. The early stage new company targets 50 million people with underserved people with personal advertising: think street vendors and debit card kiosks strategically placed in vaccination centers.

You should know that: Just a year after it started, Bankaya co-founders Mauricio Cordero, Ramón Chedraui and Diego Vargas claim to have won 450,000 clients. And in addition to its counterintuitive strategy, the company is fully booted to this day.

Recognitions:

Kimberly Bryant and the Future of Black Girls Code

Credit: Sean Mathis / Getty Images

Over the holidays it became known that the co-founder of Black Girls Code and CEO Kimberly Bryant has been suspended “indefinitely” from the nonprofit it started almost a decade ago. I spoke to the nonprofit board that decided to take her off, former employees who claim rising tensions between Bryant and the organization, and of course Bryant himself, to hear the full story.

Here’s what you should know: There are too many nuances in this story to sum it all up in a perfect blurb, so I would really recommend it to anyone interested read the whole story. The board claims it is currently forming a special committee to review complaints from past and current employees against Bryant and to put Bryant on paid administrative leave last week “to ensure a full and fair review process.”

Starter boards 101:

All about TechCrunch

Our calendar of events has been leaked (by us) so now is your chance to Check out our legendary line-up for this year. I’m very excited to announce that TechCrunch Disrupt, our flagship event, is returning as a face-to-face event. Three days, lots of startup chatter and too much caffeine. Buy tickets ASAP