Hello and welcome to issue 4.
There are lots of really punchy takeaways in this week’s newsletter including some great insights from Cecelia at Talis Capital about the EdTech space but before we get into the insights I wanted to talk more about working from home life.
Many of us are entering month 8 of working from home and it looks as though we’re not going back into the office soon. With that in mind I’ve been thinking about how we can keep effective.
Google ‘How to be’ and the first result is ‘How to be happy’. The search for happiness is one that goes back millennia and is even more relevant in today’s climate.
I sought out an expert in happiness– Dr Tal Ben-Shahar. He is a New York Times bestselling author and lecturer, whose classes on Positive Psychology were among the most popular courses in Harvard University's history. He had this to say
“Relationships are potentially the number one predictor of both physical and mental health. Spending quality time with people you care about and who care about you is always important; it is especially important during stressful times. And while the lure of computer screens with their real-time updates and other virtual sirens may be stronger than that of real people, they cannot provide the psychological and physiological benefits of face-to-face interactions. Whenever possible, therefore, disconnect (from technology) in order to connect (to people). And if for some reason actual get-togethers are not possible—being quarantined or too far away—then virtual get-togethers will do.”
Have a great week and see you next weekend.
Insights from this week
Why you have to pay attention to the Indian Startup scene. Yale’s endowment fund may have turned institutional investing on its head with its new diversity edict. Chelsea Clinton’s Venture Capital fund continues to scale as they announce their investment in Oula a modern maternity center. B2B fintech in Europe is receiving significantly more funding than B2C. Why Europe is a decade behind in PetTech.
From the investors
Cecilia Manduca from Talis Capital on mapping the EdTech ecosystem.
Lilian Li on opening up China’s internet https://lillianli.substack.com/p/what-enterprise-software-sectors
We know that quality deal flow is important and here Shruti Gandhi of Array Ventures talks about how you create a network to generate deal flow.
From the operators
If your company isn’t growing as fast as you want then read this from Sophia Sunwoo
Start-up Hiring 101 how to hire and retain the best people by Steve Bartel the co-founder and CEO of Gem
How to find a technical co-founder by Amanda Daering CEO of Newance
Events
Tuesday 3 November
The next ‘Ecosystem Giants’ event with Oliver Holle Managing Director Speedinvest at 5pm BST
Thursday 5 November
Ascension Ventures are holding their next Debut sessions event with start-up pitches and a panel including Check Warner and Carmen Rico. Message Kieran Hill on Twitter to RSVP.