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“I believe you have my stapler.” - Milton, Office Space
Reverse job fair Q1 2021 set a record for total funds raised by startups. That’s great news for startups and even better news for prospective employees. With this much cash in the startup ecosystem, it’s never been harder to compete for talent. Some candidates are accepting offers and then walking away for higher offers. Founders also need to reconfigure option pools to counter larger cash offers from later stage companies. The available talent pool is growing too. Lots of folks are itching for a change of jobs to keep the benefits of work from home. One in four workers plans to look for a job with a different company (per Axios). And while remote remains the top location for many startups, new research from the University of Chicago shows productivity challenges (working remote means working more hours for roughly the same results). There are also perceived disadvantages to being a remote team member. When others on the team are back in the office, they may develop better relationships with key decision-makers.
We’re trying something new to match the best people to the best companies—a Reverse Job Fair. Founders from six Urban Us portfolio companies will pitch prospective team members. These startups are working on wireless charging, building performance, carbon sequestration, fintech for climate disasters, and more. And they’re looking for help with software and hardware, customer success, and business development. Please do share this (really just forward this email to anyone you think might be interested). Learn more at www.urban.us/fair/.
Climate and cities Severe and extreme weather has given way to exceptional drought in the western U.S. That means smoke in the sky in Los Angeles from fires in Arizona. And the consequences are being felt around the world. Brazil is also experiencing its worst drought in nearly a century. And since the U.S. and Brazil are the number one and two exporters of soy and corn, food prices are up by 40%. Climate chaos rarely strikes directly. Its effects are elliptical. Not all systemic impacts are negative. Covid provided a once in 100 years chance to reallocate public spaces in cities—away from cars and over to bikes and outdoor dining. From NYC to Paris, the changes are evident. And, for the moment, it seems that most people are happy with their new curb space. Even so, in cities like Rome, mayoral candidates will likely be debating cars versus curbside dining. It would be a shame to revert and also give up the climate benefits of driving less.
Startups Over the last few months, we’ve seen an explosion in funding options. Record-setting venture fundraising is only part of the story. Urban Us founders are now receiving multiple term sheets for a growing variety of non-equity products ranging from traditional debt to new forms of factoring. Perhaps most notably, these products are being pitched as an alternative to VC—to avoid dilution. This trend has been building for a while. Klarna allowed Peloton to turn an expensive initial hardware purchase into a subscription, as we’ve done with other major purchases, from homes to cars. Firms like PIPE and Capchase are enabling startups to unlock cash from their recurring revenue contracts. Perl Street and Urban Us Credit have been inundated with deals and questions about emerging alternatives. This is welcome news for climate and urbantech. But more money means more problems.
Urban Us We’re excited to share our latest investment in Partsimony. Rich and Roland have repeatedly demonstrated that they can cut lead times and costs for manufacturers. But they’re also able to sneak in two critical climate benefits—resilience and, eventually, reduced Scope 3 Emissions. For our latest URBAN-X cohort, we opted to use a new summit format to meet our teams. Day 1 covered resilience and communities, Day 2 was the built environment and real estate, and Day 3 the energy grid and climate. Alumni continue to thrive, with Near Space Labs featured in the upcoming ABC show, American by Design. Blueprint Power announced its deal with LeFrak in NYC to deploy 150 EV chargers as part of its work to transform real estate portfolios into power plants. In other portfolio news, One Concern announced their $45m round and a $100m deal to scale across Japan. And LogCheck announced its acquisition by Building Engines.
Edited by: Shaun With support from Shilpi, Liz, Stonly, Mark, Zeev, and Anthony
How did we create this update? The content comes from our conversations with people like you, mostly on slack. So you can help by replying here or join us on Slack. You can find our previous emails here.
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