Battery Ventures

“A company can survive bad decisions and bad hires, but cannot survive bad strategy,” according to Partner Marcus Ryu, former CEO and co-founder of Guidewire Software, in “The Startup as Insurgent,” a call to arms for fellow technology founders. At Guidewire, the strategic vision was clear: to change the P&C insurance industry by eliminating outdated core systems. As Marcus puts it, "Our diagnosis revealed a $2.4 trillion industry hampered by obsolete technologies." Watch the full video to learn more about Guidewire's insurgent path and how other companies can learn from its successes: https://lnkd.in/eJ6k7Vy7

We had a blast co-sponsoring the CapTable Pitch Competition in London with the Forbes Family Group, Corten Capital and HSBC this year. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

From flight delays before a pivotal meeting, to AuditBoard CEO Scott Arnold's post-deal selfie sent to his wife, The Wall Street Journal got the inside scoop into how the company's $3B acquisition by Hg came together. 🍨 🚀 Check out the full story from Maria Armental here: https://lnkd.in/g3Dh4jnr

Calling all product, data science and engineering pros! Are you looking to join an organization where your skills make a difference? 🌟 Check out these opportunities with Battery Ventures portfolio companies: 🌟 VP Engineering at Wunderkind (NYC/Remote): https://lnkd.in/gQru9ffD 🌟Head of Engineering at 🔭 Galileo (SF/Bay Area): https://lnkd.in/gV_-MYHC 🌟 VP Engineering at Procurement Sciences AI (East Coast/Remote): https://lnkd.in/gzQbC65W 🌟 Head of Product, Ecosystem Platform at Postman (SF/Bay Area): https://lnkd.in/gcaCnqf4 🌟 Senior Manager of Data Science at Ontra (Remote): https://lnkd.in/gmCmtvp8 🌟 Product Designer at Hummingbird (Remote): https://lnkd.in/gr6KjHPv 🌟 Software Engineer at CHEQ (NYC): https://lnkd.in/gNS6e-gd For more great opportunities, be sure to check out (and bookmark) our portfolio jobs page: jobs.battery.com or reach out to me directly!

We’re “Just Checking In” to let you know that the latest season of everyone’s favorite corporate-communications podcast is back, again co-hosted by our Marketing Partner Rebecca Buckman and Keyana Corliss, vice president of global corporate communications at Tanium. Forbes’ Alex Konrad joins Becky and Keyana on the first episode to discuss everything from the IPOs to the impact of AI to what headlines catch readers’ attention (and why). Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dCxWJh8W

Looking for a good book to add to your summer reading list? 📖 Vice President Lauren Wedell shared her favorite with the The Wall Street Journal for its annual summer reading list from private-equity leaders. Read more about Lauren’s pick, "The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality" by Amanda Montell, and see others in the full story from Laura Kreutzer, Luis Garcia and Maria Armental: https://lnkd.in/eMqh9S_H

Founder-investor alignment is critical for a company’s long-term growth, according to Jack (Tato) Bigio, co-founder and co-CEO of our portfolio company UBQ Materials. Per Tato, “There are so many sad stories because there is no right alignment between partners. So getting partners that align those is not easy, but it assures a much easier future. [Battery] proved to be extremely good in their corporate, legal and business advice, their network and their heart.” Read more in Forbes: https://lnkd.in/e3UjwPr4

Bootstrapping a software business is an incredible accomplishment. A growth-focused investor can help to take your company even further. 🚀 We bring decades of experience in serving as a supportive partner for bootstrapped founders, as our General Partners Chelsea Stoner and Morad Elhafed write for Inc. Magazine. Per Chelsea and Morad, "We believe there’s no better time to be running a software business. The broader economy may be choppy, but the potential for growth and innovation at software companies in many different industry sectors is vast. Every day we meet new, whip-smart entrepreneurs from across the U.S. who have identified a unique market need and used grit, determination, and their personal know-how to build incredible businesses. Many of them just need help taking them to the next level. That’s where we come in." Check out the full post here to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gA5TbsD5

Marketers, it’s time to partner with product teams, according to Stephanie Buscemi, chief marketing officer at Confluent! 🎙Stephanie joins Bill Binch on the latest episode of “Sound Bites” to share best practices and advice on how to do marketing right. 📈 Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eCraGKaZ

Among a technology startup's key advantages is that it is unburdened by the bureaucracy, risk aversion and bulk of larger, more established incumbents. This weightlessness is at the core of every asymmetric military victory in history, as our Partner Marcus Ryu, former CEO and co-founder of Guidewire Software, argues in "The Startup as Insurgent," a call to arms for fellow technology founders. Per Marcus, "The insurgent is unburdened by prior conceptions of the problem. He has no surface area to defend and can bring his whole force to bear on the enemy’s weakest joint. There are only two ingredients to a pure strategy: a diagnosis and a plan. The diagnosis is an account of how things are and why they are that way. It is a high-resolution map of the enemies’ assets and their vulnerabilities. The plan is the theory of attack. Maybe it’s a new offering with 10x benefit for a specific segment. Maybe it’s a way of coopting a discontent channel. Maybe it is a neglected persona who longs to become a hero. Or perhaps some combination of these. Informed by the diagnosis, the plan defines a vector of attack, identifying where a breakthrough can be achieved and then how to exploit that breakthrough. A diagnosis without a plan is vacuous, and a plan without a diagnosis is wishful thinking."