TAM, SAM & SOM: How To Calculate The Size Of Your Market

Katherine McConnell, Founder & CEO of Brighte shares her journey to building her startup, as well as how she’s been able to achieve 912% revenue growth over the past three years and built relationships with investors such as Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian.

I've been an active angel investor for about ten years now. Since we started Antler back in 2018 I've been part of many of our investment committees (IC) around the world. Every IC member and angel investor is different and will have different views on what makes a good investment. For me, there are three specific things I focus on when a team pitches to Antler for investment: The people, the product, and, of course, the potential.

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Sophie Jokelson, co-founder and CMO of Cove.

Cove is a coliving company putting renters first. They make it easier, faster and more flexible to rent comfortable homes at honest prices. Their flatshare rooms, studios and apartments are hand-picked in top city locations, thoughtfully furnished and include utilities. The bookings process is digital and hassle-free, and the community of 'Coveys' get access to a network of like-minded people as well as exclusive events and perks.

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In episode 16, we speak to Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch, the world's leading social video platform and community for gamers. Kevin led the Twitch team as COO for a decade before serving as Culture, Strategy, and Innovation Officer, following the company's staggering $970 million all-cash acquisition by Amazon. In this episode, he shares his origin story as an entrepreneur, tips for early-stage founders and advice on how to create a culture of transparency in your startup from the early days. How do you stay true to your identity and culture as your company scales rapidly? What's the secret to success when building remotely and gathering customer feedback? Tune in to find out.

In Episode 18, we speak to Nicole Quinn, General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Lightspeed Ventures is an iconic Silicon Valley fund that has 10 billion dollars in assets under management. Nicole's focus is on early-stage consumer internet and fintech companies, with a portfolio that includes mental wellness app Calm, Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop, Lady Gaga's Haus Laboratories, cult shoe brand Rothy's, Zola and Girl Boss. Nicole talks about consumer behaviour that is going to stick post COVID, the incredible value of Influencer Marketing for customer acquisition, and shares her predictions for the next big trend in the consumer world.

For episode 17, we speak to Colin Bryar, an early employee at Amazon and co-author of the book Working Backwards: Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Colin joined Amazon's leadership team in 1998 - only four years after its inception. He worked side-by-side with Jeff Bezos as his Chief of Staff (and "Shadow") for 2 years. Colin was instrumental in bringing several Amazon businesses to life, including Kindle, Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services. After Amazon, Colin relocated to Singapore and served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce giant RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. In this episode, Colin discusses the importance of always having a customer-first mindset, the benefits of Amazon's unique narrative meeting culture, his key lessons for early-stage founders, and lots more.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a group of aspiring angel investors in Australia. The theme of the presentation was about evaluating products. During the discussion, we explored the different ways to assess a startup, ways to evaluate ideas and products, and some resources that can help you along the way.

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Welcome to Antler's circles series, where we bring industry leaders, founders, and experts working in the same  sector together to problem solve, share emerging trends and technologies. Through this series, Antler will provide unparalleled access to closed room discussions around the challenges and opportunities experienced by those innovating at the forefront of the industry.

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The step from software engineer or senior architect to CTO can feel like a quantum leap. Knowing when to make the transition, and how, is often a barrier that prevents people from taking the leap sooner.

With that in mind, Antler recently hosted a CTO panel to share first-hand advice of those who have done it, with those who are aspiring to get there.

A conversation with Tudor Mihailescu and Valentin Kassarnig, co-founders of SpeechifAI, Antler Amsterdam portfolio company.

Bahadir embodies the purest definition of entrepreneurship. From his early days in Turkey to living in the States in his youth and suddenly taking the leap and emigrating to Singapore, he has never given up on his dream: having a Global impact and improving the lives of millions. He left us thinking that we all have a role to play and that it is never too late to start dreaming big and change the world. Besides living and breathing entrepreneurship, he is a philosopher at heart, and ended this interview with life lessons that will stay with us during our entrepreneurial journey!

The founder’s series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Mira Gleisberg, CEO & co-founder of RespiQ.

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We love our visionaries because of their captivating and provoking stories. A visionary is extraordinary because of his/her unparalleled level of energy and enthusiasm. Charlotte filled the room with joy and electric energy from the first second, making it impossible for us not to smile. Her positivity and drive were contagious and made us realize that inner fire is the most crucial trait anyone can possess. What a force of nature Charlotte is!

A conversation with Aleks Orlic, former co-founder of Penta

Our team of venture capitalists, domain experts and entrepreneurs at Antler are always on the lookout for exceptional talent with the potential to build the defining companies of tomorrow. Read on to find out what we look for in a successful founder and how you can kickstart your entrepreneurial journey.

Welcome to Antler's circles series, where we bring industry leaders,  founders, and experts working in the same sector together to problem solve,  share emerging trends and technologies. Through this series, Antler will  provide unparalleled access to closed room discussions around the challenges  and opportunities experienced by those innovating at the forefront of the  industry.

Working in venture capital offers insights into the problems, challenges, and new markets today’s entrepreneurs are addressing at the very earliest opportunity, a window on disruption and innovation. Business models are being redefined at an ever-quickening pace, and this is particularly visible in FinTech. We recently sat down with the founders of all of our FinTech investments with the following key learnings and insights.

Since 2017, Antler has created a distinct culture in the way it operates based on nine guiding principles. Women represent 42% of Antler's leadership team (including Partners, Associate Partners, and Directors), and we have over 30 nationalities represented in our 12 locations globally. Every Antler team member has a clear and easily identifiable strength --- the synergy of these diverse mindsets works really well together. Read about how we are striving to build this unique culture and how we apply it to thinking of diversity as a layered and multi-dimensional concept.

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Wisnu is one of the humblest of our visionaries. During our conversation, he never mentioned that he just raised $5 million or that his tools were used by 850,000 workers across Indonesia. Wisnu doesn’t care about impressive numbers; he simply wants to create a positive impact around him. The calm and optimistic energy surrounding him is magical and made us forget all our everyday life concerns.

Every year, two million Americans are denied mortgage loan applications. Those rejection rates are disproportionately higher for minority communities and millennials. The homeownership rate clocks in at nearly 74% for white populations, but only 44% of black households own their homes. Today, millennials are significantly less likely to be homeowners than baby boomers and Gen Xers.

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Venture capital (VC) financing to startups founded by women exceeded $20 billion for the first time in 2019. This is up from $2 billion 10 years ago. Despite that, in Germany, just 16% of founders are female, while this number is steadily increasing, there is still much work to be done.

We invest in the defining companies of tomorrow. But we know it all starts with you. We help exceptional people build startups from the earliest stages. When you join Antler, you join a community of founders, get support from a global platform of experts, resources, and receive investments to scale your ideas.

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Following an investment of DKK 50 million into Antler's Nordic Fund from the Danish state's investment fund Vækstfonden, Antler is launching in Copenhagen to attract and support highly specialised founders from across the world and invest in the most promising 'green' companies of the future.

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The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Jiawen Ngeow, co-founder of DayOne.

DayOne is revolutionising offline operations for stores by providing a turnkey solution that optimises and streamlines frontline staff communication and collaboration. Their mission is to make offline businesses as easy to run as online ones.

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Oslo
January 29 2021

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Antler welcomes Nitin Sharma, who is joining as a Partner and co-lead for all India efforts. To help accelerate the tremendous innovation and value creation in the Indian tech ecosystem, Antler aims to invest over US$100M in India across funds in the next 4 years. These funds will support exceptional founders from the idea stage, all the way to Series A/B. Nitin will co-lead the India efforts with Rajiv Srivatsa, co-founder of Urban Ladder.

Singapore
January 18 2021

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In this article, we discuss the things that you should not be doing while dealing with investors.

In this episode we speak to Sten Tamkivi, the Chief Product Officer at Topia, where he builds products to break down the barriers between people and places. Prior to co-founding Teleport (acquired by Topia in 2017) he served at Skype as an early executive and played a key role in its transformation from a startup to a leading telecom player with 300 million active users and a whopping $8.5 billion exit to Microsoft. A native Estonian, Sten has entrepreneurship in his blood. He started his journey when he was just 18 by founding Estonia's first digital media agency.  

Behind every successful company, there is a whole team of great minds. Having a strong co-founding team is key but having incredible early employees onboard can be equally important for a company's success at the very beginning. Finding the right early employees can be hard as oftentimes they need to have a certain mix of skills, as well as be go-getter, have an entrepreneurial mindset, and be willing to operate both on a strategic level and doa the groundwork. We built The Talent Network - to help our portfolio companies scout and hire the best talent from the very beginning.

Jordi Hays and Matt Jung, co-founders of Antler US portfolio company Likewise, know their way around e-commerce. Prior to Likewise, Jordi founded Branded Native, a creator ad network used by leading DTC brands. And over the span of fifteen years as a serial entrepreneur, Matt built companies in the consumer space like Wellen (acquired by Huckberry.com), Sonne Care, and Grover, while simultaneously consulting for Companion Medical (acq. by Medtronic), Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort, Esby Apparel, Fitness19, Western Rise, and FitScrubs, among others.

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Starting a company is a big deal. At Antler, we believe in empowering entrepreneurial talent with the right tools to make an impact on the world. Here's a snapshot of what we look for in prospective founders.

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The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This month, we speak to Preet Gona and Alexis Zirah, co-founders of ARR Squared.

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After 2,000 registrations, the world tuned in to hear from 13 local portfolio companies

Antler US portfolio company Werkit, which connects high-growth software companies to remote self-managed teams, received the Covid-19 Innovation Award from the Smart City Expo World Congress today. The Covid-19 Innovation Award recognizes companies that have contributed to the successful transformation, adaption, or response of the world's cities to the pandemic. Werkit has connected workers in Zambia to remote digital jobs, digital banking services, skill advancement assistance, and a virtual community of support throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Antler opens its office in Berlin to strengthen the local start-up ecosystem, promising pre-seed investment at unprecedented scale.Partners of the fund covering Germany and Central Europe are Alan Poensgen and Dr. Christoph Klink.

A typical pre-seed to seed fundraising process consists of the following steps: defining fundraising targets & timing, mapping target investors & fundraising materials, having first intros and coffee meetings, pitching to multiple investors, and finally, negotiating and signing.

Antler US portfolio company Casting Depot, the professional network for media and entertainment, is emerging as the industry's premier marketplace for all facets of the talent booking process. Co-founders Lacey Kaelani and Brad Larson have led Casting Depot through a 446% month over month increase in talent user growth. The Casting Depot team is working with Antler to drive user traction and refine their product offering as they field casting calls from industry players like Netflix, HBOMax, Twitch, Bumble, Verizon, and MTV.

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Antler portfolio company Caria is the first AI-powered platform for women in menopause. To celebrate World Menopause day, they introduced Caria Premium Memberships last week. Co-founders Arfa Rehman and Scott Gorman collaborated with the Antler US team to build and refine this membership and launch several new features, which include a new digital behavioral health program and more advanced health tracking.

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In this episode, we speak to Anurag Srivastava, serial entrepreneur and founding partner of Jungle Ventures, Southeast Asia's largest independent venture capital firm. Over the last two decades, Anurag has played a crucial role in building and scaling companies in the tech and startup ecosystem Globally. Some of the companies in Jungle's portfolio include hotel booking platform, RedDoorz; cloud-based software provider, Deskera; interior home design platform, Livspace, and Thai fashion e-commerce startup, Pomelo Fashion.

We received 2600 applications for our second UK cohort, which was a 50% increase from the previous cohort. 71 founders were selected to join Antler, half of whom had previously launched a startup. After two months, we invested in seven startups which were built by these entrepreneurs. In keeping with our focus on supporting companies with diverse co-founding teams, over half of the companies that we invested in (four out of seven) had at least one woman founder, which is significantly above the London average of 21%.

In this episode we speak to Nir Eyal, a lecturer, consultant, and best-selling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches Behavioral Design, which is an intersection of psychology, technology, and business. He is also an active investor in habit-forming technology companies. Some of his recent investments include Kahoot!, Eventbrite, Anchor.fm, and Product Hunt. In our latest episode, Nir talks about his "Hook Model" to increase customer engagement, the internal trigger required to make your product a habitual one and how to plan your time to get the most of it without getting distracted.

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After interviewing hundreds of founders and working with dozens of teams to build and grow their startups from scratch, Antler Partner Winnie Khoo shares some insights on her experiences and doles out some advice to aspiring founders.

London
August 10 2020

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Watch the video to get to know the team behind BrightBee - an Antler-backed AdTech startup that continuously explores the best audience to fully optimize social media ads using Machine Learning.

These six Antler-backed companies are now ready to tackle some of society’s toughest challenges through innovations such as revenue-based financing for SaaS startups, autonomous robots that handle meticulous farming tasks and software that maximizes the returns of building sites.

Due to the growing interest in responsible investment and therefore from VCs, the industry will need to become familiar with the concept of ESG. ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance which are a set of criteria used to measure an investment’s sustainability and societal impact.

Here at Antler, we are on a mission to fundamentally improve the world by enabling the world's most exceptional people to build the sector-defining companies of tomorrow. Here is our take on ESG from the VC perspective.

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In this episode, we speak to Helen Wong, a partner at Qiming Venture Partners, about the fascination with social commerce, different cultural mindsets of founders, and the differences in China and Southeast Asia's tech ecosystems. Helen is a veteran in the VC industry, ranked among the top 100 VCs and top 25 female VCs in China in 2018 by Forbes. She has led investments into Akulaku, a new Southeast Asia finance platform, and Jingling Group, a Chinese social E-commerce platform, and was also involved in the investment into Alibaba.