Tag Archives: Silicon Alley

Crash! NYC Angel/Seed Funding Down 25% in 2017

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2017 was a down year for angel/seed funding in NYC!  Despite the continued growth in NYC’s startup ecosystem, particularly from eager first-time entrepreneurs, the number of seed deal funded in 2017 declined to 235 from 328 in 2016, a decline of 28%, according to AlleyWatch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seed stage funding in NYC declined to $361 million in 2017, from $483 million in 2016, a decline of 25%.

While the data from other markets has not been assembled, I don’t expect NYC is an outlier:  2017 was the year of me-too startups, with companies piling on and overhyping areas like AI and Big Data.  Investors saw through the clutter to be more selective in 2017.  Median round size increased to $1.25 million, up 25% from $1 million, a sign that investors were more confident concentrating more money in fewer deals.

New York City’s Hottest Startup Neighborhoods

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New York City’s Hottest Start up Neighborhoods!  The zone is Silicon Alley/Midtown South/Chelsea/Flatiron, centered around Broadway and above Broome St/Canal St and below 34th Street.  Courtesy of ERA graduate The Square Foot.

NYC Hottest Startup Neighborhoods

Silicon Alley’s Top 10 VC Deals

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Guess who’s fueling Silicon Alley’s rise?  While angels and early stage funds provide the early sparks, the big bucks are coming from the west coast.  For example, Fab’s $160 million Series D is the largest VC investment round in a NYC-based company since 2009. But Menlo Ventures and Andressen Hororwitz from the Other Coast lead the list of VC’s in the round.  Below, from CB Insights, are Silicon Alley’s top 10 VC investment rounds in NY-headquartered companies since 2009.  And note – Fab and GILT are listed twice.

Silicon Alley Top 10

For the original post, click here.

VC Investment in NY Booms in 2013 1Q, up 2x to $715 million

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NY VC Trend 1q2013

VC Investment in NY 2013 1Q more than doubles from 2012 1Q, to $715 million, according to CB Insights.

A Yodle IPO in 2013?

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Yodle, the leading Silicon Alley-based digital marketing platform for small businesses, is “strongly considering” an IPO, according to CEO Court Cunningham, as reported by Street Fight.
10590521-yodle-logo

Yodle is profitable and generating over $130 million in revenue annually, Cunningham said recently.

Yodle bought Atlanta-based Lighthouse 360, it was reported today.  Lighthouse 360 has built an advanced customer relationship management (CRM) system for dental offices which reportedly does a terrific job integrating all those systems in a dentist’s office.  Yodle plans to expand the technology each of its 30 verticals.

Read our 2012 Yodle post here.

Some other metrics of note.

  • Yodle has $130 million annual revenues, and 30,000 mostly smaller clients with an average of $4k per client per year.

ReachLocal stock closed today at $13.50, up more than 2x in 14 months.

Update:  March 7

A Yodle source gave me some other revenue numbers, expecting 35% growth this year.

2011:  $75 million

2012: $130 million

2013F:  $175 million.

NY is the Epicenter of Healthcare’s Reinvention

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NY is a hub for the reinvention of healthcare.  From Forbes, here is a snippet of recent activity:

  • New York Digital Health Accelerator: Fostering startups gaining market validation with leading healthcare providers around the state.
  • MedStartr: The first crowdfunding program specific to the unique requirements of healthcare.
  • Medicaid Managed Care: All Medicaid recipients are moving to a model that is highly successful in the private sector and abroad.
  • WebMD: By far the largest health-related Internet site for consumers and for health professionals (Medscape) is based in New York.
  • New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC): The public resource for health information technology running a number of programs.
  • Statewide Health Information Network of New York (“SHINY”): Arguably the Health Information Exchange that has the broadest reach and momentum.
  • IBM: Another NY-based company that has done more to vitalize primary care than any other organization. This is critical because primary care is the foundation of any well-functioning health care syste
  • StartUp Health: A 3-year academy program that selects “healthcare transformers” that are enabled by a sophisticated program to get startups through the various milestones pivotal to their growth.
  • Blueprint Health: A healthcare incubator for early stage companies just getting off the ground that has already fed companies into StartUp Health.

More here from Dave Chase in Forbes.

Yodle Challenges the Conventional Local Sales Wisdom

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NYC-based Yodle is perfecting a telemarketing approach to small businesses across the USA.  Yodle sells digital advertising solutions to 30,000 customers and generates about $130 million in revenue.  This post from Kelsey Group explains some of CEO Court Cunnigham’s methods:

Cunningham tells us that by analyzing the metadata around the call activity (call duration, outcome, etc.) it generates for customers, as regular analysis of nearly 150 million keywords has led Yodle to a number of insights that have led Yodle to make tactical decisions that defy conventional wisdom.

One such example involves the number of times a company can contact a sales prospect unsuccessfully before “burning” the lead. Yodle has determined from statistical analysis that it is possible to contact a record (sales prospect) considerably more times (more than 2X) than conventional wisdom suggests.

Cunningham also has a lot of unconventional things to say about sales effectiveness.

“Drive, persistence and optimism are the attributes that equate to success in a sales reps, and everyone knows that,” Cunningham says. “Yet most companies don’t interview for these attributes.”