The Flex - Feb '24
A collection of topics on tech and the startup industry brought to you by Flex Capital.
Our Latest Thinking.
CEO Perspectives for 2024
As a venture partnership of current founders, the Flex team is not merely keeping tabs on how things are going with portfolio companies, we’re living it day to day. Coming into 2024, we were seeing a host of factors conspiring to create a pretty challenging environment, so in our latest network survey we wanted to hear if our CEO contemporaries agreed and how they are preparing for the year ahead. Click here if you’re interested in joining our CEO network.
Supplemented by the intel from almost 80 CEOs, our view of the challenges and opportunities for the coming year has come into focus. First and foremost, we were struck by the powerful optimism of founders going into 2024, even in the face of some ongoing macro uncertainty and roadmaps that did not necessarily go to plan in 2023.
We’re well aware that downturns can often present some of the best proving grounds for up-and-coming companies, and this is energizing for us as investors and founders ourselves. The question of course is how companies respond when presented with that make-or-break moment.
As we all buckle up for 2024, here were our main takeaways from the survey data.
News from the Flex Portfolio.
Funding Announcements:
Arbital Health, co-founded by Travis May (former founder & CEO of Flex portfolio company Datavant) and Brian Overstreet to accelerate the healthcare industry’s transition to value-based care, announced a $10 million Series A
Ternary, a cloud cost management platform helping companies track spend across multiple providers, announced its $12 million Series A
Media Features:
Truleo was highlighted in a recent article detailing the challenges police departments face in reviewing reams of data from body camera footage and how AI-enabled software solutions can help with analysis and training to improve outcomes
M&A Activity:
Health data platform H1 announced the sale of its Carevoyance medical device product line to Definitive Healthcare, streamlining and adding resources for its core operations
Product Releases:
Gorgias continues to level up their multi-channel e-commerce helpdesk offering with AI-driven automation to reduce response times and improve customer experience
Strapi introduced Releases, a comprehensive view of all content to be published for smoother content rollouts. This is the latest in a series of recent feature adds, including feature flags, drag-and-drop content blocks, and an integration with Vercel’s Visual Editing. Great to see two of our companies working together!
Humi shared a look back at at the many features and releases from 2023, including streamlined employee benefits management, integrated payroll and time tracking, a new mobile app, and more.
What We’re Listening To.
SafeGraph CEO & Flex Capital GP Auren Hoffman hosted Rewind AI CEO Dan Siroker on World of DaaS. Tune in for a packed episode in which Auren and Dan discuss AI wearables, persistent recording, fundraising in public, and more.
Some hot takes from the conversation:
☢️ 80% of VC advice is net negative
🧯 YC pushes people toward “safe” companies
⚡️ Energy will be 100% free
☠️ Death will eventually be elective…and people will still do it
🎧 Audio versions are available here. World of DaaS is a weekly podcast for data enthusiasts. For more episodes, visit https://www.safegraph.com/podcasts.