VC Theses #99 | Opportunities in Insurance, Rooftop Solar, Virtual Worlds & more

Oct 24th–30th | Insights from Mouro Capital, Alpaca, Redpoint, Coatue, Acrew, and others

Welcome to our new subscribers! SandHill.io aggregates and shares the latest investment themes, market insights, and best practices for operating and investing from 650+ VCs, analysts, and operators.

This newsletter curates a selection of posts featured on the website each week.

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Investment Themes, Theses, & Outlooks

• Opportunities in insurance – The intersection of technology and risk (Mouro Capital Team)

• Field Study: Future Trends in Rooftop Solar Energy (Alpaca VC Team)

• 9 Predictions for Data in 2023 (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Redpoint)

• Thesis Spotlight: Crypto Gaming (Acrew Capital Team)

• Thesis Spotlight: Virtual Worlds (Acrew Capital Team)

• 3 Things: Pipe for Drug Copays, Next Gen Wix, Twitter Intel (Elaine Zelby, Partner @ SignalFire)

Industry Developments & Analyses

• Fintech and the Pursuit of the Prize: Who Stands to Win Over the Next Decade? (Coatue Team)

• DeFi Is Getting Stress-Tested with Celsius–Here’s the Silver Lining (Acrew Capital Team)

• Grey Skies in Cloud Earnings (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Redpoint)

Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating

• Companies Build "Capabilities" Before They Build "Moats" (Rick Zullo, GP @ Equal Ventures)

• Landing Your First Payor Contract: Lessons Learned From Both Sides (Greycroft Team)

• How to Target The Right Investors (Alex Iskold, GP @ 2048)

• Sales Messaging Falling Flat? Hook Customers By Focusing On Them, Not You (Bill Binch, Partner @ Battery)

• Two Questions To Ask During Hiring Reference Checks Instead Of “Where Can They Improve?” (Hunter Walk, GP @ Homebrew)

• The economy is changing how startups recruit and compensate — here’s how (Beth Karlsson, Partner @ Lightspeed)

Additional Reads

• The Hype Cycles of Venture Capital (Kyle Harrison, GP @ Contrary)

• Cumulative vs. Cyclical Knowledge (Morgan Housel, Partner @ Collaborative Fund)

• Getting off the ‘flywheel of hype’ in tech: putting outcomes over outputs (Rayan Dawud, ex-Partner @ Outliers VC)

• Return on Talent for tech companies (Tanay Jaipuria)

• Krispy Kreme, Crocs, and Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing (Rex Woodbury, Partner @ Index)

• The Revenue Equation, PMF at Wakefit, and Benchmark Capital (Sajith Pai, Director @ Blume)

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