Why would they change math? - Bob Parr (aka Mr Incredible), Incredibles 2
Hi ,
VC math makes hardware startups hard to fund. But the math works when someone else finances the hardware. Then you get to be an “asset light” company - all the benefits of hardware and non of the capital requirements.
This works for well known assets like homes or cars, but when you have new kinds of hardware there usually isn’t someone else to finance it. It’s mostly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ all around.
We see a lot of promising urbantech hardware companies and we think there are some ways to make their math work for VCs. Here’s what we’ve been doing.
Startup Intros
Coord - beyond getting to work with longtime friends, here’s why we’re excited about Coord.
URBAN-X Cohort 5 - Here are the newest startups we’re working with. Meet them at our Celebrate Your City: Holiday Party + Cohort 05 Launch event.
Treau is improving the noise, install and efficiency of window AC units
Borrow is increasing ownership options for electric vehicles
Gearbuddy is unlocking the efficiency of construction equipment
Thrilling is reducing clothing waste
Toggle is improving construction processes with robots
The Free Ride is increasing accessible and climate friendly mass transit options in cities
If you’re working in related industries, apply to meet the founders early.
Startups
Sales Coaching for The Digital Age h/t Mark Crofton
Customer Service: When the policies win, people get dragged off planes by Leif Abraham
Broken Syndicates
An open source bias audit toolkit for machine learning developers
Cities & Sustainability
Beijing, the Cradle of Micromobility, in Pictures
You Might Find Your Next Home on Amazon
A resiliency team takes an out-of-the-box approach to America’s least sexy problem
Arnaud Sahuguet’s Notes from CityLab: Detroit (2018)
Daniel Wu’s three lessons from the Urban-X panel “Future of Affordable Housing”
How cities can fix tourism hell
11 Developments In Govtech That You Really Need To Know
Opportunities
Citymart Open Procurements: LA Traffic, Denver Smart Cities, Danish Construction
Transit Tech Lab: Subway Challenge & Bus Challenge
NSF Challenge: Mobility, Built Environment, Equity & Access, Resilience
YC Request for Startups: Carbon Removal Technologies
The Lab is holding an open call for ideas for financial instruments that can unlock investment to tackle some of the most difficult climate and sustainable development challenges.
Urban Future Prize Competition: Open House
Jobs
72 jobs at 19 Urban Us portfolio companies including Architizer, LiveStories, Urbint, ClearRoad, Rentlogic, Onewheel, SeamlessDocs, Coord and Starcity.
Associate at Energy Innovation
East Coast Director of Policy at Greenlots
Director of Network at The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership [pdf]
Urban Us
URBAN-X in WIRED
Roadbotics raises $3.9m seed
HAAS Alert awarded $1.1M from the Department of Homeland Security
Kiwi Delivery Robots Expand to LA
Robyn at Blueprint in discussion with Gotham Gal
Starcity in WSJ
Bumblebee Spaces on CNBC
Rema at Swiftera in Forbes 30 under 30
Donnel at Blocpower on building an ethical billion dollar company
Niki at Campsyte in Totem Talks
Onewheel embarks on expansion
Park & Diamond crushed their launch with over $1m sold in the first 30 days. You can still pre-order on Indiegogo
Happy holidays,
- Liz, Alice, Shaun, Mark, Anthony, and Stonly