Reddit IPO: They meme it this time

Exclusive: Reddit seeks to launch IPO in March

“It would be the first IPO of a major social media company since Pinterest's (PINS.N) debut in 2019”

Is 2024 going to be the year of IPO’s? As we wrote about a few days ago, there have been rumors of multiple IPOs coming this year. Well, the first one has come to fruition as a long anticipated Reddit IPO is likely coming in March. The company plans to sell 10% of current shares.

Full article from Reuters

Venture capital firm General Catalyst to buy Ohio health system Summa Health

“Building trust starts with working with the [Summa] management and thinking through the low-hanging fruit to build trust with the workforce, then bring innovation in.”

In an unusual play, General Catalyst, known as a top-tier VC firm, has thrown their hat into the healthcare ring. The transaction details were not disclosed, but GC wanted to spend $1b-$3b on the transaction.

Full coverage from Axios

Space startup funding jumps in fourth quarter in a positive sign for 2024

“Despite a relatively slow start to the year, 2023 investment ultimately was in line with 2022. If the quarterly trajectory continues, 2024 should be a healthy year for investment in space"

As one of the newest investment themes in recent years, space investing hit a wall for most of 2023. But with a 31% bump in the fourth quarter, tied with an increase in government contracts, the industry is sitting pretty to start off 2024.

Full article from Reuters

Hot Links

Mark Zuckerberg indicates Meta is spending billions of dollars on Nvidia AI chips

Spot bitcoin ETFs draw nearly $2 billion in first three days of trading

Briq, a startup that uses AI to automate finances in construction, brings in $8M extension at a $150M valuation

OpenAI announces first partnership with a university

Staking technology provider Kiln raises $17 million in rare crypto funding round

Demo Days Are Back!

Tune in on January 25th at 3pm EST to watch 5 6 exciting founders present what they’re building to a great group of panelists and a live virtual audience.

Packy McCormick’s favorite investing tool.

A YC backed wholesale marketplace that just hit an inflection point.

An Indian super app that crossed 1,000,000 users in private beta.

An AI driven shopping experience that just presented to Nike.

…don’t miss it!

Click here to RSVP

AI & B2B SaaS

Join us live on Tuesday, February 6th at 3pm EST to learn more about the role of AI in B2B SaaS from two world class operators:

​Wade Foster is the Co-founder and CEO of Zapier.

​Zapier is a leading automation tool that connects over 5,000 third-party apps and services, enabling businesses to automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows. Founded in 2012, Zapier has grown to serve over 2.2 million customers.

​Des Traynor is the Co-founder and CSO of Intercom.

​Intercom is a customer messaging platform that helps businesses build strong customer relationships. Founded in 2011, Intercom has grown to serve over 25,000 customers.

(Pretty cool to be able to casually pull in this caliber of founder. Exciting step for Sandhill in general and big thank you to Walter from Sacra for helping organize!)

[Clips] Carta and the Future of Liquidity

Thinking long-term in private markets is easier said than done.

"We have consistently turned away opportunities in favor of plugging those deals into our partners... because what's far more valuable to us than that short term revenue is the data that comes into the ecosystem."

See the full clip on X here.

The power of trust in financial services.

"Trust is your currency no matter what you do and especially for financial services or cap tables, or deposits, etc... I don't think that's ever changed for Henry and the way in which he thinks about it."

See the full clip on X here.

Letters From The Editor

I thought about being a rocket designer, but I figured being a part-time newsletter writer would be more glamourous.

Correction

After sending the Wednesday newsletter a reader named Taylor replied with this:

Adam - I don't get the "Uber decides to shut down Drizly 3 years after their $1B purchase and proves once again that startups are hard."

Having led revenue/growth @ drizly I agree that building a startup is never easy... but what just happened with Drizly's branding wind down has nothing to do with "startups being hard." 

Uber bought Drizly for it's delivery network, reg know how and equally important catalog filtering. They ingested those into the core Uber Eats app. They also scooped up all of the excellent human talent that created it. Having to support 2 brand messages for something the same driver delivers made no sense. 

Happy to give more insight but this is not the right take (you usually have pretty good ones).

I really appreciate Taylor reaching out and we went back and forth a bit from there.

A couple of thoughts:

1. Pretty sweet to have the former revenue/growth lead of Drizly reading the newsletter and being willing to engage.

2. He’s right.

I stand by my little rant about “startups being hard” and the points I made about timing. However, having learned more (with Taylor’s help) about the Drizly brand wind down and the deal dynamics there - I don’t think it’s a great example of startups being hard.

Instead, Drizly is an example of a team that beat the odds.

Would you want to learn more about the Drizly deal and brand wind down? I asked Taylor if he’d be willing to do a live discussion and he said yes 🙂 

Talk soon,
Adam

PS - Not super surprised that the generic referral CTA doesn’t work super well. Going to have to rethink this part. Maybe if you can actually see the rewards? Experiments incoming.