What we're doing through COVID-19

Plus: The future of work is remote [AngelList]( [View Online]( What AngelList is doing through the COVID-19 crisis First and foremost, we're ensuring continuity of our services. Anything you have underway at AngelList—financings on AngelList Venture, recruiting and job-seeking on AngelList Talent, product launches on Product Hunt—will continue uninterrupted. We love the startups and makers that are working hard to help during this crisis. For example: - [Cabify](, a ride-hailing company, is offering free transportation for Madrid government workers who can’t take public transportation. - [Babyscripts](, a virtual care company for managing obstetrics, is helping disseminate credible and trustworthy information about COVID-19 to new and expecting mothers. - [Give Local]( is helping support local restaurants during this trying time. - [School Closures]( is providing guidance to parents while their children remain at home. - We've outlined [a number of startups around the world]( that are doing their part. Any startup helping during this crisis can use our premium talent products for free. If you know of a startup or project providing relief, let us know by [filling out this form](. For job-seekers, our job search tools (as always) are free, with [18K remote jobs and 3K fully remote teams]( actively recruiting on the platform. Be well and ✌️, Amit Matani (CEO, AngelList Talent) Avlok Kohli (CEO, AngelList Venture) Ryan Hoover (CEO, Product Hunt) [The Future of Work is Remote]( It’s possible that coronavirus will change how we work. As companies encourage employees to move to remote working environments, entire countries are being placed on lockdown and markets are becoming more volatile. The future may seem bleak right now, but there are upsides. In 1665, Cambridge University closed because of the plague. Issac Newton quarantined himself at his childhood home. It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered the calculus and the laws of motion. We can only guess on the extent of great discoveries, ideas, and innovations that could arise from this ongoing crisis. GitLab surveyed 3,000 professionals who work remotely or have the option to work remotely across various industries, roles, and geographic locations, creating a platform for understanding how remote is changing society and how individuals interact with their vocation. There are several key takeaways we can draw from this. All-remote is surging 43% of remote workers feel that it is important to work for a company where all employees are remote. Currently, more than 1 in 4 respondents belong to an all-remote organization, with no offices, embracing asynchronous workflows as each employee works in their native time zone. Everyone can contribute The real power of remote teams is unleashed when everyone is empowered to move the organization forward. 56% of remote workers said that everyone in their company could contribute to process, values, and company direction, with 50% also defaulting to shared documents and relying on meetings only as a last resort. Debunking remote work myths Remote workers aren’t all traveling nomads. Findings showed 38% saw lack of commute as a top benefit, with that time instead spent with family, working, resting, and exercising. 52% of employees find themselves to be more productive overall. Accessibility and opportunity to grow your career as a parent The benefits of working remotely have enabled employees to focus on their families without having to give up their careers. 34% percent found the ability to care for the family a top benefit of remote work, in addition to 53% citing schedule flexibility and 38% saying lack of commute. Remote work levels the playing field 14% of remote workers surveyed have a disability or chronic illness. 83% of those workers were able to work because of remote work. Remote work levels the playing field: it fosters a better sense of work/life harmony and creates an opportunity for everyone to contribute in the workplace. Remote is becoming second nature Nearly 90% of those surveyed are satisfied with existing tools and processes that enable remote team communications and feels that their leadership team provides autonomy while working remotely. Remote is here to stay 86% of respondents believe remote work is the future. But it’s also the present, as evidenced by 84% of those surveyed saying that they are able to accomplish all of their tasks remotely right now. Remote is the ultimate hiring advantage 62% of respondents said that they would consider leaving a co-located company for a remote role. Why? Everyone values remote benefits differently - from reduced anxiety to improved health to reduced office politics. Said another way, the freedom of remote universally matters for a remarkably diverse array of reasons. The work from anywhere opportunity 47% said that managing at-home distractions were a top challenge. It’s time to phase out the phrase “work from home”, empowering team members to work from anywhere that they’re optimally productive. Reimbursing for co-working spaces and external offices is a good place to start. All the feels Nearly half of those surveyed consider themselves lucky to work remotely with practical, valued, smart, and proud rounding out the top 5. Fewer than 10% associated with the terms alone, tired, and misunderstood. Remote ≠Alone When in-person interactions are intentional, as is the case in a remote setting, they matter more. 82% of remote workers say their company supports in-person gatherings through events, summits, meet-ups, and more. Meanwhile, 66% are already connected to remote work communities. [View Story]( More from Today in Tech [5 lessons from Tandem on raising a $7.5 million seed round and rising to the occasion in uncertain times]( SUBSTACK Brianne Kimmel interviewed Tandem Founder, Rajiv Ayyangar, on lessons from raising a $7.5M seed round and rising to the occasion in these uncertain times. He provides five critical lessons for founders who are on the cusp of graduating from Y Combinator and wondering about life beyond the accelerator: - Build your product with a specific vision of the future - Approach fundraising with a problem-first mindset - Hire owners and people who have worked on hard problems - Build an advisory board that’s additive, not duplicative - Adapt and rise to the occasion, even in uncertain times [2020 European SAAS benchmark]( MEDIUM At the end of 2019, Serena Capital launched a survey to build a comprehensive data set about European SaaS companies. Here are the main takeaways: - SaaS startups go global from their early days, often before they reach product-market fit - Remote-first companies are emerging mainly to attract the best talents, but it requires a strong company culture as well as the right processes and tools - SaaS companies tend to achieve healthy unit economics and focus on monetization, even in the early days [Empathy in Venture Capital]( MEDIUM Nick Soman shares an email from Core Innovation Capital to their portfolio founders on how to deal with the current situation. It is admirable how much farther their focus extends: to employees, end-users, and everyday people. This is what empathy in venture capital looks like. Here are some things you can do: - Figure out your cash position and financial situation - Allow the team to work from home - Make sure your laptops are inventoried and distributed to workers; keep some extra just in case - For those in highly regulated industries, there are vendors that can help work from home to be compliant - For support folks that aren’t working from home, give them extra paid sick days and stress that if they are sick, they should stay home - If you can, keep paying your workers as you would have in ordinary circumstances - this will help gain loyalty - Interview virtually [Startup founders are building companies on WhatsApp]( TECHCRUNCH For many years, WeChat has been the default app for daily life and business in China. It is estimated that more than 30% of all internet traffic in China goes through WeChat and in 2017 they introduced “mini-programs” via which businesses could build apps inside WeChat. There is a similar trend in Southeast Asia now. WhatsApp is the dominant social platform there and, while it has not built the same infrastructure for building apps, startups have found a way around that and now run many services on top of WhatsApp, validating with customers quickly and cheaply. These companies are not only mobile-first, but they are also WhatsApp-first. [How to close your office and operate your startup under lock-down]( KLINGER What a week. The US declared a state of emergency. Many leading startups closed their office. In this blog post, Andreas Klinger shares what you need to do to continue functioning as a startup and what you need to watch out for over the next several weeks. Right now: - Understand the situation - Own the moment and communication - Working from home - help your team to optimize their daily routine - Remote work - set your processes up to function remotely In the next weeks: - Get ahead of the problems you might face next - Create confidence and focus by going the extra mile Hot startups hiring now 🔥 [SafeGraph]( - We predict the past - data for physical places [Explore 10 jobs](. [Blend]( - Better lending, for all. [Explore 34 jobs](. [C3.ai]( - Helping industry leaders leverage enterprise AI at unprecedented scale to thrive in the digital era. [Explore 69 jobs](. [Imply]( - Exploratory Analytics Powered By Druid[Explore 16 jobs](. [WanderJaunt]( - Bringing the reliability and service of hotels to short term rentals[Explore 45 jobs](. Funding and Acquisitions GitHub is acquiring JavaScript package manager npm and noted that they plan to [keep the npm registry available as open-source and free to developers](. GitHub, which is already the largest open-source code repository, will further strengthen its position in the software ecosystem as it takes stewardship of the largest package registry. Indonesian ride-hailing startup Gojek raised $1.2 billion, bringing the total funding [for its Series F round to nearly $3 billion](. This new investment was finalized over the past week, making Gojek’s funding one of the largest deals to emerge since the Coronavirus outbreak started. Fox has acquired the ad-supported streaming platform Tubi for $440 million.[Fox's acquisition follows similar moves from entertainment companies]( looking to take a slice of the booming streaming segment. Most companies are concentrating on subscription-based offerings, though some are experimenting with free-to-stream services. Cloud computing firm HashiCorp has raised [$175 million in Series E funding](, giving the company a valuation of $5.1 billion. Hashicorp, which provides multi-cloud infrastructure automation, is riding the latest trend of enterprise cloud adoption and app modernization, offering a suite of automation tools to help enterprises shift to a cloud operating model. Crypto firm Bakkt has raised a $300 million Series B round, [one of the largest cryptocurrency venture rounds ever](. It announced a consumer-facing app that will enable users to aggregate a wide variety of digital assets, such as airline miles, loyalty points, and in-game assets into a single digital wallet. Users will also be able to use the app to hold, trade, and convert their cryptocurrencies to cash. AngelList Weekly 90 Gold St San Francisco, CA 94133 [Unsubscribe]( | [Update Preferences](