An $8 billion weekend acquisition 🦄

[Republic Weekly] Republic Insider November 16, 2018 [32 1542223206]( SAP acquires Qualtrics for $8 billion Over the weekend, [SAP announced their acquisition of the Utah-based company, Qualtrics](. The former survey company turned "experience management" platform was supposed to IPO in mere days, targeting a valuation of $5 billion. Qualtrics allows “brands to have a conversation with their people at scale,” giving product owners insights into how people are using a specific product or feature. They call it, "x data," short for "experience data," a perfect match for "o data," or "operational data" that SAP provides through software like their CRM. Together, "x data" and "o data" can identify the "Loyalty Effect" and reduce user churn. And, in an industry that likes to "move fast and break things," a combination of x data and o data can help companies move and iterate even faster. While the acquisition received little press over the weekend despite its impressive size, venture capitalist, Bryce Roberts, called it "One of the greatest strategic moves that cost [SAP] nothing." In [a Twitter thread]( on Sunday, Roberts highlighted Qualtric's shift in narrative from surveys to experiences. "You stopped hearing them talk about competitors," he said, "because they didn’t have any competitors in the 'Experience Management' space." Rather than try and dominate an existing category of survey software, Qualtrics created their own category to dominate — an underutilized startup power, according to Roberts. "Category kings," as highlighted in the book, [Play Bigger]( capture 70%-80% of the categories of which they lead. Just like the move from taxis to Uber, or software to cloud applications, category kings have the ability to introduce an entirely new point of view and spending patterns, to dominate their brand new market. Invest in [category kings on Republic]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Startup updates [Quarters]( [Quarters: November Update]( [Quarters has been making terrific progress!  Let's dive right in. 💜 Team We are pleased to welcome Ron Franco, who joins...]( [BANDWAGON]( [BANDWAGON: Bandwagon Webinar coming up on November 15th]( [Hey folks! If you're anything like me, you've been hearing lots of applications for how blockchain can revolutionize...]( [Neopenda]( [Neopenda selected for Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge]( [Neopenda has been selected as one of Hello Tomorrow's Top 500 deeptech startups, in the Global Health track, from over 4,500...]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended reads [The rise of "veteranpreneurship" in America]( [The rise of "veteranpreneurship" in America]( Nov 12, 2018 [On this Veteran's Day, we'd like to honor the more than 20 million US military veterans who served their country, and the more than 2...]( [A down market can be a good time to reflect on the big issues facing crypto adoption]( [A down market can be a good time to reflect on the big issues facing crypto adoption]( Nov 14, 2018 [If you've been following crypto news over the past few months, you've likely come across the narrative that 'Ethereum is dead'. The ma...]( [Recommended Reading and Viewing List for New and Aspiring VCs]( Medium · Jul 22, 2018 [I'm often asked by new and aspiring VC's, "What are the best resources to learn about being a VC?" I find this is actually a trick questi...]( [Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is taking a stand against “hustle porn”]( · Nov 10, 2018 [Over the past decade, entrepreneurship has steadily become synonymous with “hustle.”]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Events [Women & Investing: Practical Tips for Evaluating Startups]( [Women & Investing: Practical Tips for Evaluating Startups]( November 29, 2018 12:00pm–1:00pm EST [This webinar is brought to you by Republic and SheWorx. SheWorx is a leading global platform and event series empowering 20,000+ female entrepreneurs to build and scale success...]( [RSVP]( [View details]( [View all events]( Like this newsletter? Forward it to a friend. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Republic]( On Republic anyone can invest in promising early-stage startups Crowdfunding investments can result in total loss, and may be impossible to resell. [Learn more »]( Republic · 335 Madison Ave · New York, NY 10017 [Email preferences]( — [Unsubscribe from Republic Insider emails]( 🙋 Republic is growing. We're [hiring the best full-stack engineers »](