Tractor Ventures’ Post

Sharing a part of our Tractor Ventures newsletter today for all of those not collecting easter eggs this weekend, or even for those that are: 🐰 Some people want to spend their long weekends eating chocolate eggs. Some people want to spend their weekends doing calculations. Some people want to do both.   To each their own, but when we say we understand founders, as a team of founders ourselves...well.   Case in point ☝ Get Calculating - https://lnkd.in/gZ-rgWT8 We fund companies that are sustainably growing. This means revenue and this means runway.   It's always good to know how much fuel is in the tank, for any type of journey. And what each journey might look like over time. Have fun playing with our new calculators and dreaming big over this long weekend! 💸

I hear so many FoodTech founders talking about the solution they're developing and not the problem they are tackling.   Before starting NewMoo , I first set out to learn: *What is the specific pain of my ideal client?  *How much does that pain point cost them in terms of dollars and time?  *Is it a wide enough problem so that it’s an industry problem? *Does unit economics scale enough so that it’s a problem that may interest VCs? If you’re building a spaceship to Pluto, but no one’s interested in visiting it - you’re developing for the drawer. At NewMoo we do a lot of good. Climate, sustainability, animal free food. But we actually solve one specific, huge, problem for dairy brands:  We don’t change anything in their production process when creating animal-free dairy cheese. That’s it.  Sounds simple? If you move machinery in a factory by even just (!) 100 meters - you affect the taste of the product and delay time to market by weeks. Fall in love with the problem. Not your solution.  #ProblemSolving #MarketFit #Pluto

I think about this quote from Charles Koch often. We’ve seen businesses rise to meteoric overnight success by focusing on the product and the profits. But I’ve never seen a company achieve long-term sustainable success without a laser sharp focus on delighting the customer and improving their lives in some way.  Running a portfolio of companies, like we do at Nesnah Ventures, we operate in a wide variety of industries. One common thread though is that the work we’re doing, whether it’s providing exceptional livestock feed to farmers, high quality carbon fiber violin bows to musicians, or delicious burritos to hungry shoppers, is all aimed at improving the lives of someone else. It’s the driving force behind how we operate, innovate, and grow.

Next up was Sahil Lavingia, Founder & CEO of Gumroad to talk about aiming for profitability over growth. Three takeaways: 1. Sahil chose profitability over growth after failing to raise Series B and bought back Kleiner Perkins's $7M investment in Gumroad for $1. 2. He’s VERY bullish on AI, predicting major changes in roles like design and support. 3. Prefers contracting over hiring and focuses on building dividend-producing assets. He's building antiwork.com.

Developing a scalable product starts with finding shark bite problems in a big ocean. 🌊 But where do you look? Kalev Kaarna from CDL-Estonia has wide experience in coaching #startups in effective customer discovery and early sales, and recently hosted a #workshop for our team and wider Kiilto. On the surface, great problems are ➡️ Popular ➡️ Growing (at least +20%) ➡️ Urgent ➡️ Expensive ➡️ Mandatory (by law) ➡️ Frequent But with discovery, you have to distinguish between 🦟 mosquito bite problems vs 🦈 shark bite problems and get to the bottom of the context, struggles, goals and outcomes of customers, which trigger certain levels of awareness and decisions. Applying the buying journey framework to your interview questions can help uncover little details, particularly when you follow the Mom Test principles of 🔎 Talking about their life, not your idea 🔎 Asking about specifics in their past, not opinions on the future 🔎 Listening intently However, practice > theory, so we split into groups of 3 three times and tested out different techniques in a controlled and, better yet, a safe environment. This helped people get comfortable with swimming away from their solutions and towards bloody painful experiences. 😣🩸 ___ #customer #discovery #research

How the desire to track their aging dogs turned into a startup for tracking solutions for underpowered fleets? Get to know Ittay Hayut, CEO and Founder of Hoopo: 🦊“Hoopo's creation was inspired by a unique blend of personal need and professional expertise. Initially, two of the five co-founders sought to track their aging dogs, which sparked the idea for a reliable and long-lasting tracking solution. Today, Hoopo addresses a critical gap in the logistics industry: the lack of comprehensive tracking solutions for unpowered fleets.” 🦠From COVID-19 to rocket hitting my apartment building: “For us CEOs, the number of challenges we encounter is unimaginable: from COVID-19 that had a severe impact on our sales targets, to a Hamas rocket hitting my apartment building. For me, the best way to face these challenges is to first eliminate the immediate concern. The best way to solve a challenge is to execute quickly and iterate as needed.” 🎸⚽️Recharging outside of the CEO role: “The best advice I got from other founders regarding unwinding is to keep doing music and sports. For me, that would be my guitar and soccer on Saturday evenings.  However - if the question is whether I find time for these activities - the simple answer is no :) So my two cents - enjoy the journey and what you're doing, including the challenges. It makes it all look easier.” This is a part of our special TAU Ventures “Know the CEO” spotlight series, where we meet the stories behind some incredible leaders (and companies) in TAU Ventures’ portfolio.

🚀 Exciting times at SulPont as we prepare for our next big step! As we prepare for fundraising, my co-founder Artur and I have been diving deep into due diligence and refining our strategy. After bootstrapping for 2 years, it’s incredible to reflect on how far we’ve come—our vision has evolved beyond what we initially imagined. All the hurdles? They've only made us stronger. Now, we have a crystal-clear understanding of market needs, a bigger vision, and a powerful strategy to back it up. SulPont may operate as a marketplace today, but our long-term vision is bold: We’re building a game-changing platform—a seamless blend of a marketplace and project management tool where businesses and private clients can access top-tier creative services at a fraction of a cost. How? Not by replacing people with trendy AI, but by scaling their ability to manage projects. Our platform will empower customer success agents to handle 20+ projects, instead of 3-5 as traditional agencies do. For our clients, this means: - Reduced costs - Seamless project management - Higher delivery standards - Less time spent on communication You tell us what you need, and we get it done. 💬 Would love to hear your thoughts! How do you see the future of managing creative projects evolving?

Every once in a while, I share "Call for Technology" announcements from our enterprise customers like Modelo Continente (https://lnkd.in/g_aRX68N), LVMH (https://lnkd.in/gAwdsAcD), PepsiCo (https://lnkd.in/gH3UCmQR) and more. This one is from Tyson Foods. Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods has announced its call for applications for the third installment of Tyson Demo Day: https://lnkd.in/gdxF3Keg #Startups with #innovations in #logistics software, #distribution, #warehousing, #traceability and #transparency, animal welfare, #coldchain management, #inventorymanagement, #forecasting and #predictiveanalytics, supplier management and sourcing technology and beyond, are encouraged to apply by the May 3, 2024, deadline. Looking forward to seeing many of the Microsoft for Startups partners apply for this. #retail #CPG #msft4startups #innovation #supplychain Jerome Rose, Jared Prins, Felice Miller, Angelina Nijadi-Govghani, Nina Lund, Joanna Wiewiorowska, JR Geoffrion

We are ready to start canning the Strawberry Sequoia today! It took 19 hours to carbonate to the perfect level. Stay tuned for a behind the scenes look. #expowest #newhopenetwork #startupcpg #beverage #beverageindustry #beveragetrends #beverageinnovation #beveragecpg #beveragemanufacturing