Virtru, the security startup that came out of research at the NSA, announced a $37 million Series B financing round today led by Iconiq Capital.
The company also announced the formation of Virtru Labs, an entity to be led by company co-founder and CTO Will Ackerly. The Lab will act as an innovation engine for the company, while trying to make Virtru’s underlying technology, Trusted Data Format (TDF), an industry standard for exchanging data securely in a similar manner that PDF developed into a standard way of exchanging documents.
CEO and co-founder John Ackerly (and brother of Will) says this has been a goal since the earliest days of the company and starting the lab is one of the reasons they wanted to raise this round. “My brother and I firmly believe you need an open framework in order to achieve the vision of true default security,” he told TechCrunch.
They believe by investing time and dollars to get third parties to adopt the TDF and adopting all tiers of this data format, it could remove the friction we have today when data is being shared across systems, while eliminating vendor lock-in.
The company currently offers tools for end-to-end email encryption in G-Suite and Office 365, but they hope to expand to file sync and share applications and chat. They also want to promote technical partnerships through the SDK they launched earlier this year. Finally, they want to expand globally by growing a channel partner system.
Ackerly says all of that takes money and that’s why they went looking for this round. It didn’t hurt that the company has experienced explosive growth over the last year adding 3000 new customers for a total of over 8000 using their products, while tripling revenue (they did not provide an exact figure).
Ackerly says one of the reasons for this growth is an increasing desire on the part of users to have a trust mechanism for sharing information online. “If you look at our partnership with Google, with Microsoft, with Amazon; these are all platform companies that are coming to grips with this privacy imperative. We are in a crisis of trust as a society and Virtru has always taken the approach of partnering closely because these workflows matter to end users,” he said. He adds that this really wouldn’t work if the company tried to create a new set of tools.
Vitru has around 80 employees today and Ackerly expects that to grow by around 50 percent over the coming year as they move into new markets, grow the lab and expand channel and partner support.
The round was led by Iconiq Capital with participation from returning investors Bessemer Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Samsung, Blue Delta Capital, and Soros Capital. Today’s round brings the total raised to over $76 million since the company was founded in 2011.
Finding the right location for your brick-and-mortar store is a huge part of whether it will be successful. Small Business Trends spoke with Bruce Schultz, co-founder and CEO of Boardroom to get some tips just after the men’s grooming salon chain opened its 30th location in Dallas.
Finding a Shopping Center Location for Your Store
Match Places and Demographics
If you’ve already made up a business plan and done the research, you’ll know who your target market is. Schultz says matching this data up with locations is the first step in narrowing down your choices.
“We start with the big picture and look for the areas and markets that meet our general demographic,” he says.
Look for Vibrancy
Narrowing down your choices further means looking for the most successful and vibrant area in that market. There’s a couple of key metrics that you need to be looking for here like high occupancy coupled with low turnover rates.
Look for Brand Recognition
Of course, you’ll want to have successful businesses that draw in customers around you without poaching clients from your target market. Schultz suggests an excellent benchmark to use here.
“Overall, you’ll want to pick the center that has some of the best and current brands so it’s bringing in a lot of shoppers” he says.
Look at the Competition
You might think establishing a brick-and-mortar store around competitors is a bad thing, but that’s not necessarily so. There are a few benefits including the fact that you’re choosing a location your target demographic already knows.
Look at Traffic
Taking a look at any information you can get on the people who drive by and walk through the center can be helpful. The marketing people for the shopping center itself might have some numbers for you to look at.
Look for Complimentary Businesses
Another way to find a great shopping center location for your brick-and-mortar business is to look for complimentary tenants. For example, Schultz says he favors neighboring restaurants because people waiting to get seated will often use the time to get a haircut.
Look for Visibility
You need to be seen to sell your goods and services. Another metric to picking a good shopping center location is visibility. The best locations have great exposure so you shop can be seen be seen by folks who walk or drive by in their cars.
Having a location with one side fronting the parking lot and the other facing the inside of the mall is best.
Look at The Long Term
It’s also important to find a shopping mall that is currently busy and has a good forecast for the future. One good litmus test is to check the brands already in the store to see how long they’ve been around.
“You can tell the brands that have been around since the early 1980s and 1990s,” Schultz says. Those are generally the ones that stay put in a successful shopping centre.
Look at Zoning
You need to consider your location from every angle and that includes the local zoning bylaws. There’s going to be rules and policies for any location. If you find that your business is incompatible with the place that you really want to be, you can apply to have it rezoned.
The local City Hall is a great place for the information you need here.
Look for Some Help
Trying to put together all this information on your own might be daunting for the average small business owner. That’s why Schultz suggests having a team of professionals on your side to pick a location like a real estate broker.
Researchers at Newcastle University have been able to 3D-print a biocompatible corneal framework using a new gel formulations that “keeps the stem cells alive whilst producing a material which is stiff enough to hold its shape but soft enough to be squeezed out the nozzle of a 3D printer.”
There is a significant shortage of corneas available to transplant, with 10 million people worldwide requiring surgery to prevent corneal blindness as a result of diseases such as trachoma, an infectious eye disorder,” wrote the researchers. “In addition, almost 5 million people suffer total blindness due to corneal scarring caused by burns, lacerations, abrasion or disease.”
The product uses “human corneal stromal cells” from a donor cornea mixed with alginate and collagen to create bio-ink that can turn into a living cornea. This means that one donor cornea can help multiple patients.
““This builds upon our previous work in which we kept cells alive for weeks at room temperature within a similar hydrogel. Now we have a ready to use bio-ink containing stem cells allowing users to start printing tissues without having to worry about growing the cells separately,” said researcher Che Connon. He built the technology with Dr. Steve Swioklo.
The corneas take ten minutes to print on a cheap 3D printer, a vast improvement on previous efforts. Further, the gel can keep stem cells alive for days, allowing you to print a few corneas over the course of a week.
“This builds upon our previous work in which we kept cells alive for weeks at room temperature within a similar hydrogel. Now we have a ready to use bio-ink containing stem cells allowing users to start printing tissues without having to worry about growing the cells separately,” said Connon.
Pinterest is continuing its push into video as a potential avenue for advertisers by today saying that it will offer advertisers a promoted video tool that takes up the width of the entire screen.
While Pinterest normally offers users a grid that they can flip through — compressing a lot of content into a small space — taking up the full width of the screen with a promoted video would offer advertisers considerable real estate if they’re looking to get the attention of users. Pinterest pitches itself to advertisers as a strong alternative to Facebook or Google, giving marketers a way to reach an audience that behaves a little more differently than when on those other platforms and coming to Pinterest to discover new things.
The company also said it’s hired Tina Pukonen as an entertainment strategist and Mike Chuthakieo as an industry sales lead. Pinterest says more than 42 million people in the U.S. come to Pinterest for entertainment ideas, and that potential tool offers an interesting niche opportunity for advertisers to capture the attention of a user for a product — say, a movie — that needs a lot of awareness marketing. Getting a user’s attention for just a few seconds can be more than enough time to at least plant the seed of potentially buying a product down the line.
It’s that argument that what gives Pinterest potential value for advertisers. The company offers an array of advertising products designed to target users at all phases of a potential buying cycle, whether that’s just clicking around on the platform looking for ideas down to actually saving an idea or buying it — through Pinterest or through a referral. Most of Pinterest’s content consists of images and other content from brands or businesses. That makes sense given that it’s a place where people tend to go to plan life events, whether that’s parties, or weddings, or home improvement — and those events center around products that they may in theory one day buy. All the while Pinterest is accumulating a lot of different plays at advertising products and an experienced level of senior hires, including hiring its first COO Françoise Brougher, who was the former VP of SMB global sales and operations at Google and business lead at Square.
Pinterest, interestingly, seems to have been a little more tolerant of making what might seem like small design changes but may have substantial user implications. The company added a tab for followers at the bottom of the app, shaking up what is often seen as a core navigation bar for any app. But the company continues to grow, crossing 200 million monthly active users in September last year.
The Europas Unconference & Awards is back on 3 July in London and we’re excited to announce more speakers and panel sessions as the event takes shape. Crypto and Blockchain will be a major theme this year, and we’re bringing together many of the key players. TechCrunch is once again the key media partner, and if you attend The Europas you’ll be first in the queue to get offers for TC events and Disrupt Europe later in the year.
You can also potentially get your ticket for free just by sharing your own ticket link with friends and followers. See below for the details and instructions.
To recap, we’re jumping straight into our popular breakout sessions where you’ll get up close and personal with some of Europe’s leading investors, founders and thought leaders.
The Unconference is focused into zones including AI, Fintech, Mobility, Startups, Society, and Enterprise and Crypto / Blockchain.
Our Crypto HQ will feature two tracks of panels, one focused on investing and the other on how blockchain is disrupting everything from financial services, to gaming, to social impact to art.
We’ve lined up some of the leading blockchain VCs to talk about what trends and projects excite them most, including Outlier Ventures’ Jamie Burke, KR1’s George McDonaugh, blockchain angel Nancy Fenchay, Fabric Ventures’ Richard Muirhead and Michael Jackson of Mangrove Capital Partners.
Thinking of an ICO vs crowdfunding? Join Michael Jackson on how ICOs are disrupting venture capital and Ali Ganjavian, co-founder of Studio Banana, the creators of longtime Kickstarter darling OstrichPillow to understand the ins and outs of both.
We’ve also lined up a panel to discuss the process of an ICO – what do you need to consider, the highs, the lows, the timing and the importance of community. Linda Wang, founder and CEO of Lending Block, which recently raised $10 million in an April ICO, joins us.
We are thrilled to announce that Civil, the decentralised marketplace for sustainable journalism, will be joining to talk about the rise of fake news and Verisart’s Robert Norton will share his views on stamping out fraud in the art world with blockchain. Min Teo of ConsenSys will discuss blockchain and social impact and Jeremy Millar, head of Consensys UK, will speak on Smart Contracts.
Our Pathfounders Startup Zone is focused purely on startups. Our popular Meet the Press panel is back where some of tech’s finest reporters will tell you what makes a great tech story, and how to pitch (and NOT pitch them). For a start, TechCrunch’s Steve O’Hear and Quartz’s Joon Ian Wong are joining.
You’ll also hear from angels and investors including Seedcamp’s Carlos Eduardo Espinal; Eileen Burbidge of Passion Capital; Accel Partners’ Andrei Brasoveanu; Jeremy Yap; Candice Lo of Blossom Capital; Scott Sage of Crane Venture Partners; Tugce Ergul of Angel Labs; Stéphanie Hospital of OneRagtime; Connect Ventures’ Sitar Teli and Jason Ball of Qualcomm Ventures.
Sound great? You can grab your ticket here:
Early bird ticket sales end on Friday! Remember, you can end up getting your ticket for free.
All you need to do is share your personal ticket link. Your friends get 15% off, and you get 15% off again when they buy.
The more your friends buy, the more your ticket cost goes down, all the way to free!
The Public Voting in the awards ends 11 June 2018 11:59: https://theeuropas.polldaddy.com/s/theeuropas2018
We’re still looking for sponsor partners to support these editorially curated panels.
Please get in touch with Petra@theeuropas.com for more details.
SPEAKERS SO FAR:
Jamie Burke, Outlier Ventures
Jeremy Millar, ConsenSys
Linda Wang, Lending Block
Robert Norton, Verisart
George McDonaugh, KR1
Eileen Burbidge, Passion Capital
Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp
Sitar Teli, Connect Ventures
Michael Jackson, Mangrove Capital Partners
Min Teo, ConsenSys
Steve O’Hear, TechCrunch
Joon Ian Wong, Quartz
Richard Muirhead, Fabric Ventures
Nancy Fechnay, Blockchain Technologist + Angel
Candice Lo, Blossom Capital
Scott Sage, Crane Venture Partners
Andrei Brasoveanu, Accel
Tina Baker, Jag Shaw Baker
Jeremy Yap
Candice Lo, Blossom Capital
Tugce Ergul, Angel Labs
Stéphanie Hospital, OneRagtime
Jason Ball, Qualcomm Ventures
The Europas Awards
The Europas Awards are based on voting by expert judges and the industry itself. But key to the daytime is all the speakers and invited guests. There’s no “off-limits speaker room” at The Europas, so attendees can mingle easily with VIPs and speakers.
The Awards celebrates the most forward thinking and innovative tech & blockchain startups across over some 30+ categories.
Startups can apply for an award or be nominated by anyone, including our judges. It is free to enter or be nominated.
Instead of thousands and thousands of people, think of a great summer event with 1,000 of the most interesting and useful people in the industry, including key investors and leading entrepreneurs.
• No secret VIP rooms, which means you get to interact with the Speakers
• Key Founders and investors speaking; featured attendees invited to just network
• Expert speeches, discussions, and Q&A directly from the main stage
• Intimate “breakout” sessions with key players on vertical topics
• The opportunity to meet almost everyone in those small groups, super-charging your networking
• Journalists from major tech titles, newspapers and business broadcasters
• A parallel Founders-only track geared towards fund-raising and hyper-networking
• A stunning awards dinner and party which honors both the hottest startups and the leading lights in the European startup scene
• All on one day to maximise your time in London. And it’s sunny (probably)!
Want to understand all the most important tech stats and trends? Legendary venture capitalist Mary Meeker has just released the 2018 version of her famous Internet Trends report. It covers everything from mobile to commerce to the competition between tech giants. Check out the full report below, and we’ll add some highlights soon. Then come back for our slide-by-slide analysis of the most important parts of the 294 page report.
Internet adoption: As of 2018, half the world population, or about 3.6 billion people, will be on the internet. That’s thanks in large part to cheaper Android phones and Wifi becoming more available, though individual services will have a tougher time adding new users as the web hits saturation.
Mobile usage: While smartphone shipments are flat and internet user growth is slowing, U.S. adults are spending more time online thanks to mobile, clocking 5.9 hours per day in 2017 versus 5.6 hours in 2016.
Mobile ads: People are shifting their time to mobile faster than ad dollars are following, creating a $7 billion mobile ad opportunity, though platforms are increasingly responsible for providing safe content to host those ads.
Crypto: Interest in cryptocurrency is exploding as Coinbase’s user count has nearly quadrupled since January 2017
Voice: Voice technology is at an inflection point due to speech recognition hitting 95% accuracy and the sales explosion for Amazon Echo which went from over 10 million to over 30 million sold in total by the end of 2017.
Daily usage – Revenue gains for services like Facebook are tightly coupled with daily user growth, showing how profitable it is to become a regular habit.
Tech investment: We’re at an all-time high for public and private investment in technology, while the top six public R&D + capex spenders are all technology companies.
Mary Meeker, analyst with Morgan Stanley, speaks during the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010. This year’s conference, which runs through Nov. 17, is titled “Points of Control: The Battle for the Network Economy.” Photographer: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Ecommerce vs Brick & Mortar: Ecommerce growth quickens as now 13% of all retail purchases happen online and parcel shipments are rising swiftly, signaling big opportunities for new shopping apps.
Amazon: More people start product searches on Amazon than search engines now, but Jeff Bezos still relies on other surfaces like Facebook and YouTube to inspire people to want things.
Subscription services: They’re seeing massive adoption, with Netflix up 25%, The New York Times up 43%, and Spotify up 48% year-over-year in 2017. A free tier accelerates conversion rates.
Education: Employees seek retraining and education from YouTube and online courses to keep up with new job requirements and pay off skyrocketing student loan debt.
Freelancing: Employees crave scheduling and work-from-home flexibility, and internet discovery of freelance work led it to grow 3X faster than total workforce growth. The on-demand workforce grew 23% in 2017 driven by Uber, Airbnb, Etsy, Upwork, and Doordash.
Transportation: People are buying fewer cars, keeping them longer, and shifting transportation spend to rideshare, which saw rides double in 2017.
Enterprise: Consumerization of the enterprise through better interfaces is spurring growth for companies like Dropbox and Slack.
China: Alibaba is expanding beyond China with strong gross merchandise volume, though Amazon still rules in revenue.
Privacy: China has a big opportunity as users there are much more willing to trade their personal data for product benefits than U.S. users, and China is claiming more spots on the top 20 internet company list while making big investments in AI.
Immigration: It is critical to a strong economy, as 56% of top U.S. companies were founded by a first- or second-generation immigrant.
Infusionsoft has unveiled a new marketing platform with a lower price, free trial and revamped CRM that’s geared to enticing smaller enterprises to tackle the marketing job themselves. Small Business Trends spoke with Infusionsoft CEO Clate Mask about changes and new direction for the powerful marketing tool.
Infusionsoft for Small Business
The company set out on the new leg of its decade long mission to help small businesses with a revamped focus aptly named to suit its lofty goals.
Mars Mission
“We started out on what we call our Mars mission at the beginning of 2017,”Mask said, adding Infusionsoft did extensive research beforehand that brought several specific insights to light.
“First we found that most small businesses aren’t marketers and don’t want to become marketers,” he said, pointing out the fact most just want to deliver goods and services to their customers so they can grow their businesses through referrals.
Personalized Service
Another insight had to do with the “chaos” created for small businesses when the desire to create a more personalized service butts up against all the different technologies available.
The last insight setting the stage for the revamp is the increased expectations and demands from consumers. Mask said it was clear from the compay’s research the small business landscape has shifted.
Consumer Interaction
“There’s a number of things that have changed in the way that consumers interact with businesses,” he said.
These have led Infusionsoft to shift it’s focus accordingly with a revamped strategy and product. The new version is dramatically simplified so you don’t need to be a marketing expert to get the word out on your goods and services. For example, it includes 50 industry-specific templates that small business owners can use as a starting point.
Central Role For CRM
While the power Infusionsoft has become known for is still behind the scenes, the new version is dramatically simpler. One of the other big differences small businesses will notice is that CRM plays a much more central role.
There are other features geared toward a more seamless experience like the drag and drop pipeline management tool that tracks deals visually. The new version in also much more mobile friendly.
Funnel Efforts
Overall, the strategy behind this latest version is to allow small businesses to funnel their efforts into the industry and toward the target market that suits them best by automating workflows. Mask explains what was behind this new impetus.
“’Personalized’ just popped again and again in the research,” he says. “It was the calling card for our customers and noncustomers as they attempted to differentiate themselves from bigger businesses.”
Single List of Contacts
Industry experts are taking notice. Ivana Taylor, Publisher atDIYMarketers.com added her thoughts in a Skype interview. Taylor noted Infusionsoft’s focus on having a single list of contacts with tags for segmentation is important so you don’t wind up paying for duplicate emails.
“I can say that it’s definitely accessible to more small business owners because they’ve dropped the price and with the new platform have included the features small business owners use most,” Taylor said. “It will make it easier for businesses who are starting out with a marketing automation platform and CRM to start small and scale their marketing platform along with their business.”
