企业沟通协作工具 Slack 获得8000 万美元融资用于的应用开发基金Slack Raises $80 Million Fund to Support Platform Strategy
据华尔街时报消息，企业沟通协作工具 Slack 透露已获得 8000 万美元新一轮融资，此轮融资将用于应用商店的投资基金。另外，Slack 还宣布将更新手机端App，这次更新将整合一些功能，如将支持亚马逊的网页服务。
Slack 的创始人兼 CEO Stewart Butterfield表示，希望这次融资能为投资者带来回报，但这并不是融资的目的，而是希望融资能激发大家更好地开发 App。
据悉，Slack 曾在 11月被华尔街日报评为 2015年的技术创新者（Technology Innovator），Slack 去年客户规模增长了 10 倍，达到了 125 万，其中 50% 为海外客户。
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商旅计划应用 Travo 获 240 万美元融资 Startup pitch: Travo raises $2.4M to simplify business travel
这家 base 在洛杉矶的出行应用 Travo 便将商旅预订流程化，通过数据分析，帮助商旅人士快速找到匹配的航班、食宿和本地交通，并且实现动态打包。
举例来说，一个人要在周四上午 10 点，在巴黎参加一个活动，下午 5 点结束，那么这里面需要的相关信息：
你知道什么时候达到和离开？
达到之后，你准备做什么？
你要住在哪里？
活动完结后，根据航班时间你什么时候赶赴机场？
总预算是多少，结合舒适度、价格、时间来看又是怎样？
而 Travo 得到这些信息之后，能够在一分钟左右构建你的出行行程。Travo 在 11月 上线了 beta 版本，目前仍是邀请制。
近日，Travo 也宣布完成 240 万美元种子融资，投资方包括 Great Oaks Ventures、Baroda Ventures、Valence Ventures、 TYLT Lab，以及个人投资人，包括高盛执行董事（managing director）Rob Sweeney ，IVP 投资 GP Dennis Phelps 等。
关于盈利模式，Travo 会跟 OTA 或者酒店等上游资源合作，达成利益分成。创始人 Tae Lee 预计，商旅市场目前能占到整个旅行市场的 1/3，他们只是初步聚焦在出行计划工具上面。
不过，Travo 在国外也会面临竞争对手，比如 NexTravel、Rocketrip以及潜在的 Expensify。另外还有 Cinch Travel 和30 Seconds to Fly 这样的小型公司。
本文参考：Tnooz.com 作者：孝羽，如若转载，请注明出处：http://36kr.com/p/5040725.html
以下是英文访谈：
A Q&A with Tae Lee, founder:
Tell us how you founded the company, why and what made you decide to jump in and create the business.
For many small businesses I’ve been a part of, signing up with a travel agency or a managed travel service is very low on the priority list.
At the same time, I’ve always felt that the gap for trip planning assistance between managed corporate travel vs. DIY leisure focused OTAs is too great. Even though I had no experience in the travel industry, I knew there was a significant market being underserved.
I’ve had successes with startups bringing innovation in a wide-range of industries. I’ve previously grown companies from 20 to 250 employees as the chief operator and been part of three successful exits in digital media, ad tech, and consumer electronics. So why not travel?
After all, the trait I saw for what determines an entrepreneur to bring disruptive technology to market has never been industry experience. More than anything, every successful startup I’ve been part of had one common trait: speed. Move fast, fail fast, and when something works, as Jeff Weiner would say, “next play”.
Size of the team, names of founders, management roles and key personnel?
Travo is comprised of 10 employees. Every employee is in product and/or engineering with a background in big data, game theory, and algorithms.
Funding arrangements?
We raised a $2.4 million funding round led by leading institutional and angel investors.
Estimation of market size?
Business Travel is approximately 1/3rd of travel – but we start with a much smaller segment of business travel. Our initial target market is focused on travel planners and travellers within a specific demographic we have yet to disclose.
Competition?
Short term, it’s everyone trying to make travel planning fast and easy. There are a LOT of solutions out there and we’ll learn from their successes and failures.
Long-term, our competitors are corporate travel agencies who currently help business travellers plan and book travel.
Although our product won’t be able to completely replicate the services offered by travel agents, we believe many travellers prefer to have control over their trips as long as it’s fast and easy.
Revenue model and strategy for profitability?
We have partnerships with some of the best OTAs and directly with brands in the hotel space. As we do not book on our site, we’re happy to pass along highly qualified traffic to our partners for commissions.
What problem does the business solve?
Let’s say you’re going to an event in Paris that starts at 10AM on a Tuesday and ends 5PM on a Wednesday. Now think about the logistics for that trip.
Do you know what day you need to leave to get there on time?
Once you’re there, how are you going to get around?
Where are you going to stay?
After your meetings, based on traffic conditions and your transportation, when are you going to need to leave to get to the airport on time so you don’t miss your flight?
How much is all this going to cost, and does it combine the right level of comfort, price, and timing that is in tune with a business trip?
With Travo, we can generate a scientifically calculated end-to-end itinerary in around a minute so you can feel confident in your trip planning.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
We tested many features and even platforms at different stages of developing the product. In the beginning we started too wide and too feature heavy.
In fact, our first version of the product (which was completed in February) had more features than our product does today.
However, I believe this is a death sentence for many startups. In the beginning, nobody knows who you are. Which means, if it takes you longer than a sentence to describe what your product does, people tune out and don’t know what you really do.
Throughout all the changes and pivots we’ve made, the biggest realization we came to was determining we WON’T do.
For example, we don’t do post-booking itineraries like TripIt or Worldmate does. We don’t do bookings on our site because that would lead to a need for a massive customer service team (which is not our core competency).
We don’t do corporate travel restrictions and backend financial integrations that companies such as Egencia and many others are doing. Rather, we are partnering with the best companies who do these things extremely well.
Why should people or companies use the business?
We make business travel planning simple, fast, and cost effective.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition (apart from PR)?
We’re going to be razor focused on a particular demographic of users. This means marketing at events that they attend, being where they are on the web, and offering promotions that encourage change in user behavior.
Where do you see the company in three years time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?
We’re not interested in turning TRAVO into a nice little business. I think the investors and I started this company to shoot for the moon in what is arguably the largest and the most competitive industry.
So, in three years we’ll either be out of business or we’ll be one of the most successful startups in travel.
I’m obviously betting on the latter but it won’t be easy. The biggest challenge with any travel startup is customer acquisition and how much your spending to acquire that customer.
The other challenge comes after you’ve successfully acquired a customer to try your product – how you’re going to change user behavior?
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that it requires a startup like yours to help it out?
I think “wrong” is a strong word as there’s pretty much a solution to any travel need at this point. Companies in this space have been around for a long time and have innovated a great deal.
However, there are parts of the travel industry that I think would benefit from applying more focus.
For us, that is helping business travellers with the actual planning of the trip before they make selections to book.
Logistically, it’s pretty complex piecing together a unique trip based on preferences of the traveller while simultaneously taking into account price, location and time requirements.
What other technology company (in or outside of travel) would you consider yourselves most closely aligned to in terms of culture and style… and why?
One of the companies I have a ton of respect for in the trip planning space is Roadtrippers. They have a fantastic road trip planning tool that is easy to use and like Travo, looks at your trip from start to finish and recalculates based on choices you make.
Developing this product, we can certainly appreciate how complex things are to make a product like that run smoothly.
I’m not sure how big the road-trip market segment is in the US, but these guys do 3+ million unique users per month. That’s a whole lot of Roadtrippers!
Which company would be the best fit to buy your startup?
Great thing about the travel industry is there is no shortage of companies making investments in the travel space. I think software companies from Microsoft to pure-play travel companies like Priceline all can make acquisition in this space.
As for us, it’s not a topic we even think about. We’re more focused on turning Travo into the best solution for business travellers and building a profitable, fast growing business that can stand on its own.
Describe your startup in three words?
Business travel simplified
“技术泡沫”来临，科技创企将何去何从
编者注：Rob Hayes是硅谷早期风险投资公司First Round Capital的合伙人，他曾投资多家公司，其中包括Square、TaskRabbit和Uber。
Rob Hayes真的很不喜欢“技术泡沫”这个词。在他眼里，技术泡沫总会定期出现。在出现技术泡沫的那段时间里，会大量出现各类新的初创企业；也会出现对大片公司进行泡沫估值的现象。但对于风险投资机构First Round Capital的合伙人Rob Hayes来说，这些已经见怪不怪了。
Hayes解释说道，在Google和Facebook这种大公司工作的人，会经常看到昔日一起工作的伙伴在获得某次融资后发展得越来越好。
“它看起来好像很简单，”Hayes说，“我是说融资看起来并不是件难事，而且现在每家初创企业都会加入像企业孵化器一样的组织。”
Hayes在1999年、2006年和2007年亲眼见证了技术泡沫对科技行业的影响，而今天他仿佛再次看到了技术泡沫。
现在，创业的人越来越多，我们要想在这茫茫创业大潮中寻找那些真正拥有极佳创业点子的企业创始人越来越难了。现在的初创企业都很单调，它们无非就是想成为某某领域的Uber或是直接将原有的企业翻新罢了。
“有的人见到周边的人都开公司了，自己也就眼红了，心急火燎地也想跟着创业。”Hayes说道。
Hayes没有进行市场预测，所以也就说不准初创企业存在的这种现象会在何时有所改变，也无法知晓投资者们在何时能更加容易地找到自己中意的创始人。
抢座位游戏
“在技术泡沫时期，公司的运作资金用完了，那么接下来会发生什么呢？公司垮了，公司的每个人又想回到Google和Facebook上班，可这时他们就不得不挤破脑袋去争抢那名额有限的职位（就跟玩抢座位游戏一样）。在2002年、2008年或是未来的某个时候，你会看到一帮疯狂的创始人，不论何时何地，他们都在创办企业。可他们其中也不乏那些有极佳创业点子的人，他们极富创业热情，他们就是你想要投资的对象。”Hayes说道。
这并不是说Hayes要暂停自己的投资道路。目前为止，他所在的First Round Capital对医疗保险初创企业Clover Health投资了其投资史上空前的一笔资金，投资了400万美元。平均算下来，First Round的交易规模在500美元到70万美元之间。
达成一项交易需要花很多的时间，但是Hayes知道那些真正有想法的创始人在等你去发现。Hayes正在寻找能创造自己产品市场的企业，而不是那些跟风者。
“现在，很多人正在开始创办自己的公司，可他们身边总是会出现一些盗取别人创业理念的人来影响他们。虽然这意味着想找到拥有极佳创业点子的创始人变得更加困难了。”Hayes说道，“但我们一向来只投资那些我们自认为很有发展前景的公司。”
Here’s what happens in tech when the money runs dry
Rob Hayes doesn't like the term "tech bubble." Instead, Hayes thinks of it in cycles, and the First Round Capital partner has seen this stage of frothy valuations and startup founders before.
People working at big companies like Google and Facebook see other friends raising money and getting rich, Hayes explained.
"It almost looks easy," Hayes said. "It seems easy to raise money. Everyone is joining incubators, all this kind of stuff."
Hayes saw it in 1999, in 2006 and 2007, and he's seeing it now.
However, this rise of entrepreneurship means there's a lot more noise to cut through to find the signal of a founder with a big idea. Those are droned out by the "Uber for X," or the gaggle of startups that want to recreate everything their mom did for them.
"The people that are starting a company because they see everyone else starting a company tend to come up with the derivative ideas and small things," Hayes said.
Hayes doesn't make market predictions, so there's no time frame when it will change and the signal-to-noise ratio will become easier.
Musical chairs
"What happens is the cycle changes and the money runs dry. Companies fail, and everyone goes back in a giant game of musical chairs to find a job at Google or at Facebook, wherever," Hayes said. "In those times, in 2002, in 2008, and some time in the future, you'll have just the bats--- crazy founders who will start a company no matter what and no matter when. And those are the people with good ideas and are crazy and you want to invest in."
That doesn't mean Hayes is taking a pause from investing. His firm, First Round Capital, just made its largest investment ever in Clover Health, pouring $4 million into the healthcare startup. On average, First Round's deal size is between $500 and $700K.
It may take more time to find the deal, but Hayes believes the founders with big ideas are still out there. And he's looking for those who are creating markets of their own rather than piggybacking off of another startup.
"They're starting companies today, but there's just so much noise. It's harder to find that signal. They're out there — I promise," Hayes said. "We're investing in companies all the time that we think can be really big."
Source:BI
编译：圈圈
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