NUMBER 09
Startups of
New
York
ONE’S LIFE AND PASSION MAY BE ELSEWHERE, BUT
NEW ORK IS WHERE YOU PROVE IF WHAT YOU THINK IN THEORY MAKES SENSE IN LIFE.
MIUCCIA PRADA Miuccia Prada is the co-CEO and lead designer of the handbag and fashion empire Prada and Italian fashion’s goto intellectual.
www.kpmg.de/smartstart
© 2014 KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft. All rights reserved.
YOUR IDEA. YOUR CHALLENGE. YOUR SUPPORT.
THE HUNDERT // FOREWORD
KEVIN P. RYAN
As one of the leading Internet entrepreneurs in New York, Kevin P. Ryan has been involved in founding and chairing businesses such as Business Insider and GILT. Currently he is the founder and Chairman of MongoDB, Zola, Workframe and Nomad Health. Combined, these companies have raised more than $500 million in venture capital funding and currently employ approximately 2,000 people. In just 20 years, New York has grown from a technology desert to a powerful ecosystem of successful companies, second only to Silicon Valley in the US. NYC started by leveraging off its inherent strengths – ad technology, fashion tech and online media. Now the second generation companies are present in every space, from enterprise software to 3D printing to healthcare. Successful internet companies don’t need a lot of space – they just need smart, driven people who have the arrogant confidence that they can beat the odds and change an industry. NYC attracts exactly this type of person, which is why there are more than 300,000 people working in tech in thousands of companies. I have spent the last 20 years building companies here in New York but I feel like the best times are still ahead of us. We now have a critical mass in engineers, venture capital firms, angel investors and
founders; people are coming here from all over to work with the best and to change the world. New York is a textbook case of a mature city continuing to reinvent itself by cannibalizing its existing industries – creative destruction at its best – which results in a new generation of leaders and companies. Therefore, I am very excited that a new generation of outstanding companies from New York can be introduced in this wonderful selection of one hundred startups. I wish all involved parties great success in the near future.
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MIC // 22
NS1 // 24
SOLS // 26
MODERN MEADOW // 28
SPOON UNIVERSITY // 30
CASPER // 42
EXO // 44
DROPEL FABRICS // 56
PERSADO // 58
TALKSPACE // 60
REBELMOUSE // 72
EPIBONE // 74
X.AI // 82
CRISIS TEXT LINE // 84
DASH // 86
THESKIMM // 98
HARRY‘S // 100
ONE MONTH // 110
NAMELY // 112
IRISVR // 114
PARIBUS // 126
PELOTON // 128
SOURCEPOINT // 130
LOVER.LY // 140
JUKELY // 142
EQUITYZEN // 154
NESTIO // 156
SMART VISION LABS // 158
RINGLY // 160
TRIPLELIFT // 162
HOMEPOLISH // 182
MEDIACHAIN LABS // 184
DIGITALUNDIVIDED // 186
COMPASS // 188
INVISION // 190
GIMLET MEDIA // 210
JUSTWORKS // 212
NANIT // 214
OSCAR // 216
ELECTRIC OBJECTS // 218
PLAYBUZZ // 230
HAPPIFY // 238
THINX // 240
WHEELS UP // 242
WIBBITZ // 244
NOWTHIS // 256
TWIST HOME // 258
ABACUS // 260
ASAPP // 32
PLATED // 34
MPOWERD // 36
PEBBLEPOST // 38
BOND STREET // 40
EDENWORKS // 62
AUTHOREA // 64
REONOMY // 66
MAVEN // 68
ACTIONIQ // 70
COMMONBOND // 88
MOGUL // 90
KISI // 92
DIGITALOCEAN // 94
OPENTRONS LABWORKS // 96
PERCOLATE // 116
BARK & CO // 118
CODECADEMY // 120
FLATIRON HEALTH // 122
MANAGED BY Q // 124
CALLIDA ENERGY // 144
ADORE ME // 146
MAKER‘S ROW // 148
THE MUSE // 150
STARRY // 152
GREENHOUSE // 164
VIA // 174
GOTENNA // 176
FLOORED // 178
BLUECORE // 180
HUNGRYROOT // 192
ANDELA // 194
FATHERLY // 196
TRIPLEMINT // 198
CLASSPASS // 208
PONCHO // 220
CROWDTANGLE // 222
UPWORTHY // 224
CANARY // 226
VROOM // 228
HANDY // 246
WHITE OPS // 248
FUNDERA // 250
COMMON // 252
HYPERSCIENCE // 254
DEAR READER, For you to be holding this magazine in your hands is a small miracle in itself. When the crazy idea was born to portray the perhaps most exciting startup ecosystem in the world, no one in our team could fathom what enormous enterprise we were undertaking. For the first time we left the safe and familiar surroundings of Europe, set sail, and risked the voyage across the pond. Having aged a good few years in the past months and after what feels like a million emails it is almost surreal to think that this ship did manage to reach its destination. Because it truly was not an easy expedition. It was marred by 16-hour days, sweat, tears, and exhaustion, which were in constant interplay with joy, admiration, enthusiasm, and a sense of “we can do it and it’s gonna be legendary”. This project was a tour de force in the rollercoaster of emotions that every startup founder will recognize all too well. But as we all know, tenacity is its own reward. And ours paid off with you holding this magazine in your hands, which makes us extremely happy. Perhaps even somewhat proud. TABLE OF CONTENTS
New York, New York – if you can make it there...
16 The Panel of Judges 46 Mindmap New York 48 New York Startup Scene 52 The New York Startup Ecosystem in Numbers 77 New York Partners 102 Greenberg Traurig – The Only Law Firm Present in All Global Tech Hubs 104 The Next Level 132 Berlin vs New York 134 The Startup Scene: One of Berlin’s Key Economic Factors 136 Going International 168 Don’t Be Afraid to Fail 170 Warum Zinsen niedrig bleiben und Aktien steigen werden 172 US Businesses Expanding Overseas 203 Berlin Partners 206 International PropTech Innovation Award Launched 232 When Looking For U.S. Investors 234 Network Partners 262 The Closing 7 264 the Hundert New York in Numbers 266 Event Partners 268 Saskia Uppenkamp 270 Christop Lange 272 NKF Media Team 274 Thank You 275 Media Partners 276 Startups & The City – Index 278 Imprint
Naturally everyone thinks that they know New York. If one talks about the city everyone can recall a certain image. Countless movies were filmed here. Everyone can name endless clichés, such as Wall Street, Broadway, the skyline, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, hot dogs and yellow cabs. New York is the epicenter of finance and power, and the sheer size of the city is astonishing. Energetic. Inspiring. A real melting pot of peers. International, loud, fast and hectic. Where one encounters soldiers of fortune with pockets full of dreams on every corner. For two months even we belonged to these adventurers. Our the Hundert team spent two very special late-summer months in New York. We got to experience the startup scene in city in a way that probably no one before us has been privileged to. In what still feels like a whirl we met and got to know the startups featured in this edition. Many of these encounters will remain in our memories for a long time to come. A well-founded selection by experts New York has more than 10,000 startups. But it wouldn’t have felt right for us as outsiders to choose the one hundred most promising companies. Who are we to judge? For this reason, we worked with a jury for the first time in the history of the Hundert. We were overwhelmed by the encouragement that we received for this idea. How does an unknown magazine from Berlin manage to win over some of the most important protagonists and aficionados in the NYC startup scene?! Our aim of identifying the “rising stars” of the city seemed to meet with the approval of many experts. This reception spurred us on in our quest. At the same time, we wanted the jury to be multifaceted. In total 40 investors, media representatives, established entrepreneurs and other insiders cast their votes. What we are excited about: the selection of startups that made it into the magazine is as colorful as the city itself. The Hundert New York portrays startups from 35 different sectors. Coming from Berlin we can recognize from the bare figures that New York is in a league of its own. The average funding of the companies in the magazine comes in at an amazing US$ 47.5 million. But this success also comes at a price, which we at times had to experience for ourselves. The NYC startups are extremely focused. On the one hand this is admirable, but on the other it also made finding a slot for the photo shoots rather a challenge.
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Exhausted but happy: the Hundert's team in New York.
The best team in the world, and much encouragement
One hundred shootings in two months is almost beyond what is humanly possible. Saskia, you have given this edition its identity. The only way to describe your images is “WOW!”. Thank you for being part of this edition and part of this team.
The magazine you hold in your hands is the ninth edition of the Hundert. More than ever it is the result of teamwork. As publisher I am wont to say that this is the “best team in the world”, lead by the amazing Kata Oldziejewksa.
There are countless people without whom the Hundert New York would not have been possible. We want to express our extreme gratitude to all of them. But there are some people who we cannot forget to mention: Joshua Cohen, Ben Lerer, Ellie Wheeler, Christian Busch, Sunny Bates, Matt Turck, Jens Müffelmann, and Claudius Senst – without your help in opening so many doors for us the only way in which we could have breached them would have been with a crowbar. Thank you for your support. Naturally we would also like to thank our partners and advertising clients, as well as Kevin P. Ryan for his introduction.
Dear Kata, for eight editions you have been the foundation of this magazine. You have pushed the Hundert to become a magazine of striking quality that is admired worldwide. Your perfectionism and superhuman dedication cannot be put into words, much less be recognized sufficiently. The Hundert New York is your masterpiece. No ifs, ands or buts about it. For this you have my boundless thanks. At the same time you were able to mold a team that has been committed to getting the best possible result. In Lena Kuhlmann, Daniela Rattunde and Sabine Petzsch you found three peers that have made the success of the Hundert New York their central mission. The four of you have realized a project that was often classified as a “mission impossible”. The result is a timeless magazine, something that transcends the velocity of the digital world. I am grateful to you for making this possible. It was worth it.
The Hundert New York is an ode to one of the most exciting metropolises on the planet – and this we say as proud Berliners! We are content in knowing that our magazine is hopefully doing its part in bringing the two ecosystems together. All the best to the one hundred companies featured in this edition, and to our readers we say: enjoy, and until next time.
And while we are on the topic of gratitude and new experiences, I would also like to thank Saskia Uppenkamp, our photographer who might have had the most challenging task.
Your Jan Thomas
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HANK WITHOUT THE HELP OF OUR SPONSORS, THIS MAGAZINE WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE.
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OU!
OUR SPONSORS
digital ventures
SPECIAL THANKS TO
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THE PANEL OF JUDGES In total 40 investors, media representatives, established entrepreneurs and other insiders cast their votes and chose the 100 startups that are featured in this magazine.
© Saskia Uppenkamp
SCOTT GALLOWAY
FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, L2; CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF MARKETING, NYU STERN
MATT TURCK
RAMEET CHAWLA
MANAGING DIRECTOR, FIRSTMARK
FOUNDER AND CEO, FUELED
BEN LERER
CEO, GROUP NINE MEDIA; MANAGING PARTNER, LERER HIPPEAU VENTURES
KARIN KLEIN
FOUNDING PARTNER, BLOOMBERG BETA
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© Saskia Uppenkamp
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
FOUNDER AND CEO, THRIVE GLOBAL; FOUNDER, THE HUFFINGTON POST
© Hannes Meier
STEFAN HEILMANN
JOSHUA COHEN
CEO, IEG - INVESTMENT BANKING GROUP
PRESIDENT, JSC INNOVATION
BRAD STEELE
GLOBAL MANAGER AND VENTURE CAPITAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, AMAZON WEB SERVICES
NED DESMOND
COO, TECHCRUNCH; GENERAL MANAGER, AOL TECH AND ENGADGET
DAWN BARBER
CO-FOUNDER, NY CREATIVE TECH WEEK
CHARLES DUHIGG
SENIOR EDITOR, NEW YORK TIMES; AUTHOR
DAVID ARONOFF
GENERAL PARTNER, FLYBRIDGE
PRESIDENT AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, DIGIDAY
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© Elizabeth Alter
BRIAN MORRISSEY
THE HUNDERT // JUDGES
JOANNE WILSON
GOTHAM GAL, ANGEL INVESTOR
ANAND SANWAL
CHRISTIAN BUSCH
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, CB INSIGHTS
CEO, GERMAN ACCELERATOR NYC
SASCHA VAN HOLT
CEO AND HEAD OF INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, SEVENVENTURES
KELLY HOEY
AUTHOR AND INVESTOR
JONATHAN JAGLOM CEO, MAKERBOT
JEFF JARVIS
ADAM CARVER
PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR, CUNY CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM
INVESTOR RELATIONS, ANGELLIST
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© Saskia Uppenkamp
SUNNY BATES
FOUNDER AND CEO, SUNNY BATES ASSOCIATES
MATTHEW HARTMAN
PARTNER, BETAWORKS VENTURES
KARL-THEODOR ZU GUTTENBERG
JOHN FRANKEL
CHAIRMAN, SPITZBERG PARTNERS
© Saskia Uppenkamp
FOUNDING PARTNER, FF VENTURE CAPITAL
JEANNE M. SULLIVAN NICHOLAS THOMPSON
CHIEF INSPIRATION OFFICER, SULLIVAN ADVENTURES LLC; CO-FOUNDER, STARVEST PARTNERS
EDITOR, NEWYORKER.COM
JENS MÜFFELMANN
CEO, AXEL SPRINGER DIGITAL VENTURES; PRESIDENT, AXEL SPRINGER USA
BRIAN COHEN
CHAIRMAN, NEW YORK ANGELS; FOUNDING PARTNER, NEW YORK VENTURE PARTNERS
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THE HUNDERT // JUDGES
ALEX ISKOLD
MANAGING DIRECTOR, TECHSTARS NYC
DAVID KIRKPATRICK
FOUNDER AND CHIEF TECHONOMIST, TECHONOMY MEDIA
JEREMY CAPLAN
DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, TOW-KNIGHT CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM, CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
PHILIPPE VON BORRIES
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, REFINERY29
TONY HAILE
CEO, SCROLL AND FOUNDING; CEO, CHARTBEAT
HENRY BLODGET
ELLIE WHEELER
CEO AND EDITOR, BUSINESS INSIDER
PARTNER, GREYCROFT PARTNERS
PETER CRYSDALE
CO-FOUNDER, RECORP; NYC DIRECTOR, STARTUP GRIND
URS CETE
MANAGING PARTNER, BERTELSMANN DIGITAL MEDIA INVESTMENTS
SPENCER B. LAZAR
PARTNER, GENERAL CATALYST PARTNERS 20
Where form and function go hand in hand. Pavilions designed by Frei Otto. Freedom of movement: IN office chair featuring TrimensionÂŽ technology. Design Wiege. wilkhahn.com
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DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2011 160 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $32M / 4 ROUNDS
Mic is a diverse news and media company that exists to help young people make sense of a rapidly changing world. Mic informs and entertains with original reporting and videos on the issues that will define the future. It reaches 65 million millennials in the U.S. and 100 million people around the world each month. The company was founded in 2011 by Chris Altchek and Jake Horowitz. In 2016, Mic has honed its editorial with breakout stories on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, the 2016 Presidential campaign, and beyond. It has grown its revenue by over 250% and doubled its employee count. In the year to come, Mic will double down on its video offerings with streaming platforms, substantially expand its newsroom, and continue to grow its advertising business. // mic.com Image: Jake Horowitz (Co-Founder, Editor-at-large) and Chris Altchek (Co-Founder, CEO)
One World Trade Center is at the heart of the complex rebuilt after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At 1,776 feet tall (the precise height being a reference to the year the American Declaration of Independence was signed), the skyscraper is currently the tallest building in the Western hemisphere. // onewtc.com
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MIC RETHINK THE WORLD
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NS1
PRECISION CONTROL OVER INTERNET TRAFFIC NS1 was founded by a team of hardcore infrastructure geeks who – after having built global content delivery networks, public cloud platforms, infrastructure APIs, and even robots – decided that the DNS and traffic management space was ripe for innovation. Why? Because DNS is ubiquitous and the ingress point for almost every website and application. That makes it an ideal place to make intelligent traffic management decisions to improve application performance, and enable the dynamic infrastructure. With its data-driven architecture and Filter Chain routing engine, their DNS and traffic management platform is purpose-built for the most demanding, mission-critical applications on the internet. The company’s customers include Yelp, Imgur, MaxCDN, Collective Media and others. // ns1.com Image: Kris Beevers (Co-Founder, CEO), Alex Vayl (Co-Founder, VP Business Development) and Jonathan Sullivan (Co-Founder, SVP Operations)
CLOUD SERVICES FOUNDED IN 2013 35 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $25.35M / 2 ROUNDS
Manhattan’s architecture provides a rich visual feast. The undulating height of its buildings, changing colors of stone, and varying designs are testament to historical trends in culture, the economy, building design, and technology.
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The streets of West Chelsea near the Hudson River were a center for printing, manufacturing, and warehousing in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The area is still full of modernist industrial architecture of the era, much of it now repurposed for the startups and industries of today.
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SOLS
THE FUTURE OF FOOTWEAR
3D TECHNOLOGY FOUNDED IN 2013 12 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $23.7M/ 4 ROUNDS
Founded in July 2013, SOLS Systems is an early pioneer of mass customization in footwear. Operating at the intersection of technology and footwear, SOLS uses computer vision, digital manufacturing, and your smartphone to solve foot pain and shoe fit. To date, SOLS has brought two successful products to market: SOLS Rx, an end-to-end solution for creating doctor prescribed custom orthotics using the SOLS Rx app, and ExoSOLS, a consumer focused custom insole, made convenient and affordable. SOLS Systems is currently developing SIZERIGHT, a platform designed to help customers find the right shoe size when shopping online – preventing returns, improving conversion and increasing satisfaction. SOLS Systems is dedicated to helping an analog, non-standard industry transform through technology. SOLS has raised more than $20 million in capital to date from investors, including Lux Capital, Founders Fund, and Tenaya Capital. // sols.com Image: Geoff Kozma (VP Engineering), Kegan Schouwenburg (Founder, CEO) and Jeff Smith (COO)
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BIOTECHNOLOGY FOUNDED IN 2011 42 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $53.5M / 6 ROUNDS
MODERN MEADOW LEATHER RE-IMAGINED
Modern Meadow is a Brooklyn-based company pioneering a new age of biologically advanced materials. Founded by Andras Forgacs, David Williamson, Susan Schofer, and Suzanne Lee, it is harnessing the power of design, biology, and engineering to produce the world’s first biofabricated leather. The company’s materials will enable new design and performance possibilities beyond those in either traditional leathers or synthetics, with ‘tunable’ properties that can be light, strong, thin, translucent, or have unique new textures. Started in 2011 in Missouri, the team moved to Brooklyn in 2014 to continue R&D. Modern Meadow has raised $53.5 million in financing, enabling it to focus on fine-tuning and scaling the innovative biofabrication process in preparation for scale-up and a commercial launch of its sustainable leather material. Modern Meadow has a talented and diverse team of over 40 people with expertise in molecular biology, material science, engineering, and design, who believe the world’s greatest challenges can be solved with creative, innovative technologies. // modernmeadow.com
Brooklyn Army Terminal was built in 1919 with an innovative, utilitarian design. As the largest military supply base in the US, this huge concrete complex even had its own railway line. The structure has been refashioned and is now home to a world class light manufacturing and business complex. // bklynarmyterminal.com
Image: Andras Forgacs (Co-Founder, CEO)
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SPOON UNIVERSITY THE EVERY DAY FOOD RESOURCE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Spoon University is an online food publication created for and by young people. From simple recipes and cooking hacks to restaurant reviews and lifestyle tips — the digital magazine covers just about anything college students and post grads need to navigate their campuses and kitchens for the first time. Spoon
was founded in 2013 by two friends and undergraduates at Northwestern University, Mackenzie Barth and Sarah Adler. What started as a campus print magazine has evolved into a national online food publication with over 5,000 contributors across 166 college campuses worldwide. Spoon University’s mission is
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2013 20 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2.5M / 1 ROUND
to be a resource for college students and post grads to eat more intelligently and serve as a platform for young people to share their voice and passion for food. // spoonuniversity.com Image: Mackenzie Barth (Co-Founder, CEO) and Sarah Adler (Co-Founder, CTO)
Bryant Park is a popular urban oasis amidst the skyscrapers of Midtown. It has a charming carousel, an open-air library, and pétanque courts. You can de-stress here with a yoga class or feel the grass between your toes at its Barefoot Ball, a summer party under the stars.
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ASAPP
AI FOR THE ENTERPRISE Each week seems to offer some new bold announcement about humanity’s march towards intelligent machines – machines that will transform nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Yet reflecting on our routines, it is clear machine intelligence remains more the stuff of science fiction movies than something that has meaningfully changed the way we work or interact with the world. How do we actually realize the promise and take the intermediate steps necessary toward the ultimate goal? ASAPP has assembled the leading minds in artificial intelligence to tackle the complex, but incredibly impactful problem of bringing intelligence to the machines we use every day while working with leading Fortune 100 enterprises to solve the most vexing issues facing their businesses. // asapp.com Image: Gustavo Sapoznik (Founder, CEO)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOUNDED IN 2014 29 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
Basketball games pop up everywhere in New York – in the city’s parks, playgrounds, driveways, and streets. The city has produced countless basketball greats, including the Manhattan-born Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, still the game’s all-time leading scorer almost 30 years after his retirement.
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FOOD FOUNDED IN 2012 500 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $80M / 4 ROUNDS
PLATED BUILDING THE FUTURE OF FOOD
Plated envisions a world where healthy, delicious, affordable food is available for everyone. By using data and technology, the company empowers consumers nationwide to easily cook restaurant quality meals at home, personalized to their tastes. Working with trusted partners who supply quality ingredients, Plated delivers everything that’s needed to create seasonal chef-designed recipes and dessert to its vast and loyal audience each week. Launched in 2012, Plated has revolutionized what it means to connect over a memorable meal at home. // plated.com Image: Nick Taranto (Co-Founder, CSO), Elana Karp (Co-Founder, Chief Culinary Officer) and Josh Hix (Co-Founder, CEO)
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The Union Square Greenmarket has been running for over 40 years. From grassfed beef to rooftop honey, it has everything a foodie could need. Amid the hustle and bustle of up to 60,000 shoppers, children can learn about food sustainability and visitors can watch cooking demos from top chefs.
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MPOWERD
SUSTAINABILITY FOUNDED IN 2012 20 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
INNOVATIVE CLEAN ENERGY PRODUCTS
MPOWERD is a growing NYC-based B Corporation that works to help people fit clean energy into their daily lives. In 2012, it created the inflatable solar Luci light – a sleek, sustainable and well-designed light that is completely powered by the sun and literally fits in the palm of your hand. The lightweight, portable Luci lets you bring a little light wherever you need it, whether you’re adding a modern touch to your home, hitting the trails or traveling off grid. The company is driven by its mission to empower the lives of the 1.5 billion people living without
electricity in low-income countries – the more lights sold, the more lights they can deliver to people who need them at affordable prices. With the help of 200+ NGO partners in over 90 countries, MPOWERD has sent clean, reliable solar light all over the world to places like Nepal, Uganda and Peru. That’s why they call Luci the little light that does BIG things. // mpowerd.com Image: Seungah Jeong (CEO) and John Salzinger (CoFounder, CBDO)
A disused railway line converted into a unique public park, the High Line stretches for one and a half miles above the streets of Manhattan’s West Side. The park has been planted with wildflowers and grasses, and is paired with attractive wooden landscaping. Modern art installations are dotted along the route. See also page number 213 // thehighline.org
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20-meter-long Bowery Wall is a huge canvas for urban art, exhibiting work by some of the world’s top street artists. Pictured here is ‘The Story of My Life’ by Logan Hicks, a detailed stencilled mural that offers a personal celebration of the artist’s friends, family, and life in the city.
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MARKETING FOUNDED IN 2015 20 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $8M / 2 ROUNDS
PEBBLEPOST
®
PROGRAMMATIC DIRECT MARKETING USING THE WORLD’S INTENT DATA
PebblePost invented Programmatic Direct Mail® to transform real-time online activity into personalized, dynamically rendered direct mail that’s delivered into postal hubs within 12-24 hours, every day. The company’s patent pending digitalto-direct mail platform delivers the world’s first real-time tools for the channel, including segmentation, campaign management, analytics, and optimization. PebblePost combines the power of intent data with the effectiveness of in-home to achieve far higher response, conversion rates, and ROAS. It is a venture-backed company based in NYC. // pebblepost.com Image: Tom Gibbons (Co-Founder, VP Product Experience and Design), Lewis Gersh (Co-Founder, CEO) and Rob Victor (Co-Founder, CTO)
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The Smile cafĂŠ opened in 2009 in the basement of a 1830s NoHo townhouse. It has a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere that has made it a favorite haunt for locals. Executive chef Melia Marden oversees a seasonal Mediterranean menu using ingredients from small and local farms. // thesmilenyc.com
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FINTECH FOUNDED IN 2014 27 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $11.5M / 2 ROUNDS
BOND STREET FINANCING SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH
Bond Street is transforming small business lending through technology, data, and design. The company was founded on the belief that small business owners are the foundation for growth of the economy, and yet today’s banking system has left them behind. Customers fill out a 10-minute online application and receive a decision within 48 hours of submission. The company provides one to three year term loans in the $50,000 to $500,000 range with rates starting at 6%. // bondstreet.com Image: David Haber (Co-Founder, CEO) and Peyton Sherwood (Co-Founder, CTO)
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CASPER
THE ULTIMATE SLEEP STARTUP Casper is a global sleep company that launched in 2014 with one perfect mattress sold directly to consumers — eliminating commission-driven, inflated prices. Its critically acclaimed sleep surface was developed in-house, has a sleek design, and is delivered in a small, “how did they do that?”-sized box. The company is one of the fastest growing consumer brands of all time, and its product line has increased to include sheets and pillows. Casper was named one of Fast Company‘s ‘Most Innovative Companies in the World’, and its eponymous mattress was crowned one of TIME Magazine‘s ‘Best Inventions of 2015‘. // casper.com Image: Luke Sherwin (Co-Founder, CCO), Gabriel Flateman (Co-Founder, CTO), Neil Parikh (Co-Founder, COO), Constantin Eis (Co-Founder, Global Managing Director) and Philip Krim (Co-Founder, CEO)
E-COMMERCE FOUNDED IN 2014 200 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $69.96M / 3 ROUNDS
Scattered across the city’s rooftops, water tanks are a symbol of New York. The weather-beaten wooden tanks may look like relics of a past age but they provide most of the water that New Yorkers bathe in and drink every day. Hundreds of new tanks are still made each year.
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FOOD FOUNDED IN 2014 6 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $5.2M / 2 ROUNDS
EXO
NORMALIZING THE CONSUMPTION OF INSECTS
Exo is normalizing the consumption of insects via their first product: protein bars made with cricket flour. Exo bars were conceived by the three-Michelin-star chef Kyle Connaughton of the The Fat Duck in England, and are made with all natural ingredients. All bars are free of gluten, soy, dairy, refined sugars, and preservatives, and crickets provide a complete source of protein that also has a much lower environmental impact (crickets produce 100x less greenhouse gasses than cows). The founders, Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz, started the company in 2014 in their dorm room at Brown University after noticing the lack of an introductory vehicle for insects in the U.S.. Fast forward to now, and they’ve raised $5.2 million in funding, launched five flavors, been stocked in major retailers across the country, and attracted supporters like Nas, Tim Ferriss, Amelia Boone, and more. // exoprotein.com Image: Greg Sewitz (Co-Founder, Co-CEO)
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Coworkrs’ 42,000 square foot coworking space in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood is home to local entrepreneurs. It is based in a onceabandoned industrial building, now filled with light and attractive design. In a neighbourhood where many work from home, it is generating a real working community. // cowork.rs
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inclusive fast-paced balanced
vibrant
energetic
strong mind-boggling
New
coffee
spastic
culturally rich
intellectually curious
opportunities everything always
These terms are based on a survey done with the startups and judges featured in this magazine. The size of the terms is relative to how often they were named.
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growing exponentially cosmopolitan
creative
diversity
grit
defiant
interconnected
hustle emerging scrappy
collaboration
real
the future
York
access
buzz stellar sparse
hungry
powerful
Michael Bloomberg hugging
WHEN I THINK OF NEW YORK AND ITS TECH ECOSYSTEM I THINK OF‌
Looking forward to navigating you on your transatlantic ventures.
NEW YORK STARTUP SCENE New York is already many people’s dream destination. Now it’s growing even more attractive for entrepreneurs and investors. Here’s our location analysis. Everyone knows New York. Just mention the name and a plethora of images leap before the mind’s eye: the skyline, Wall Street and Jordan Belfort, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, Mad Men and Friends, the New York Times and Vogue, the New York Fashion Week, the Museum of Modern Art, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, the Beastie Boys and Frank Sinatra, donuts, cronuts and 9/11. But what is the New York startup scene like? Every city has its own DNA. From the perspective of the startup scene, cities are increasingly developing into platforms. The right choice of location and surroundings can be decisive for the success or failure of a business. In summer 2016 the team of the Hundert spent eight weeks in New York researching its ecosystem. Things were heating up in New York, and not only because of the summer sun. The presidential election campaign was raging and a bomb attack had shaken up Chelsea. New York Fashion Week brought a wave of glamour, Kevin Spacey invested in Frame.io and Bill Murray mixed cocktails in his son’s bar. At the same time, a golden toilet was exhibited in the Guggenheim. In a word, the city was as colorful and multifarious as its 170 languages imply. ANYTHING GOES New York is the world capital of capital. It’s also the number-one spot for information and consumer-based industries and the home of countless global market leaders in financial services, advertising, marketing, real estate, publishing, entertainment, retail, fashion and design. The list could go on. The huge variety of industries makes for an extremely broad startup scene, whose market is practically on its doorstep. “Overall, it’s a very diverse scene characterized by extreme openness and friendly people,” says Christian Busch, director of German Accelerator. Likewise, David Aronoff, Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, observes that the New York scene shows far less of the dog-eat-dog attitude found elsewhere: “There are more than 350 different Meetup groups with thousands of members in New York, the sign of a good community.”
“Until 2008 there were only a handful of startups here” MATT TURCK, Managing Director at Firstmark Capital
The world’s most eager and talented entrepreneurs are moving to New York. It wasn’t always like this, especially not in the startup scene. When the tech bubble burst in 2000 it dealt a heavy blow to the ecosystem. Before the crash New York was home to a few flourishing adtech companies (Doubleclick, 24/7 Real Media and Linkshare), media businesses (About.com, iVillage, Theknot), online recruiters (Dice, Hotjobs) and fintech firms (Datek, Multex). Matt Turck, partner at Firstmark Capital, recalls that “in the
late 1990s there was so much enthusiasm here. Then everything suddenly fell apart, only to pick up again slowly in the mid-2000s. Until 2008 there were only a handful of startups here. But in the last few years there has been a kind of explosion. It was fascinating to watch the developments.” One reason for these developments was the boom in entrepreneur-friendly investors. At the same time, several exciting startups decided to remain in New York after being purchased. Beforehand it was the norm to relocate to the West Coast after being acquired by a firm there. This led to a constant exodus of capital and talent. David Aronoff talks about the trend of staying in New York in terms of a “Doubleclick effect.” The New York adtech firm Doubleclick was sold for 1.1 billion dollars to Hellman & Friedman in 2005, then subsequently for 3.1 billion dollars to Google in 2007. THE DOUBLECLICK EFFECT Doubleclick has, by a clear margin, spawned the most CEOs, entrepreneurs and angel investors in New York. Around 35 startup CEOs come from Doubleclick. Particular mention should be made of Kevin Ryan, the former CTO of Doubleclick, whom Forbes described as the “godfather of NYC tech” in 2013. Together with his partner Dwight Merriman, Ryan got involved in a number of hot New York trends and founded, among others, Gilt Groupe, Business Insider, 10gen and Zola Registry. His current startup, MongoDB, is one of the most exciting in New York. Of course, many other exits brought prosperity and further business launches with them. In 2012 and 2013 alone there were three mega-exits in New York: the recruiting platform Indeed, the travel search engine Kayak and the microblogging platform Tumblr were each sold for more than 1 billion dollars. Yet it is the general consensus that the Doubleclick exit had the greatest impact. The startup surge was helped by New York’s former mayor, Michael Bloomberg (2001-2013), who was close to business and kept up with technology. Constantly sinking setup costs and entry barriers for tech entrepreneurs also contributed to a new wave of business launches. Suddenly, even those without a background in technology could start a firm with a tech focus. Creative hipsters with ideas, gifted graduates and industry veterans alike have all started to turn the most diverse industries on their heads. CUSTOMERS ON YOUR DOORSTEP In this context New York can play to the strengths of its established industries. Entrepreneurs from Berlin know how difficult the growth phase is when a city doesn’t offer many potential customers. The opposite is true of New York: the presence of many key clients is a huge advantage of the city’s digital ecosystem. Nearly all important media concerns are based in New York (for example, Hearst, 21st Century Fox, Viacom, CBS, News Corp, Advance Publications, Time Warner). The same is true of the fashion industry: Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Coach, Ann Taylor and numerous other global fashion houses have their central branches in New York.
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THE HUNDERT // EDITORIAL
The current mayor, Bill de Blasio, is considered by many to be less business-orientated than his predecessor. He sees the rapid growth in New York as rooted in the so-called “hyphen-tech” firms – that is, startups positioning themselves around major industries: fintech, fashiontech, mediatech and so on. However, 3D printing is also a significant segment, with around a dozen firms, often based in New York’s countless makerspaces. Foodtech and the real-estate sector have also seen a surge in new startups over recent years. The latest Compass Startup Ecosystem Report (compass.co) places New York second worldwide (after Silicon Valley). Within the U.S.A., New York’s startup ecosystem is followed by those of Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago. For Matt Turck, this is no surprise: “The New York ecosystem has grown wider and deeper. New York has freed itself from the late-‘90s monoculture of media and adtech.” From 2005-2008 numerous businesses connected to commerce emerged, along with social companies such as Foursquare, Tumblr and Delicious. And since 2011 a third generation of businesses has developed in such diverse areas as fintech, healthtech and real estate, while commerce itself just keeps growing. “These developments are broadening the ecosystem,” says Turck. “The ecosystem has grown deeper, since there is now a whole layer below supporting all the vertical activities. Particularly striking is the emergence of deep-tech firms over the last three of four years, for example, MongoDB and Cockroach.” A new trend is also getting underway: businesses from Silicon Valley are opening offices in New York, and not only for sales. Both Google and Facebook have their artificial intelligence headquarters in New York. The side effect is clear: the number of business involved in artificial intelligence has been growing for years. Twitter, Amazon
and eBay also have offices in New York and are increasingly attracting both domestic and international tech talent.
“The city is like fuel for rebels, creatives and freethinkers” BILL DE BLASIO, Mayor of New York
Former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was also driven to New York. With his investment vehicle Spitzberg Partners he has the local startup scene in view and compares it favorably to Germany: “I think the wave of business launches is following a stable upward curve and has shown itself to be resistant to global economic pressures.” Mayor de Blasio expresses himself rather more frankly and says that New York is simply “the greatest city in the world.” He predicts a bright future for the startup scene, since “the digitalization of New York’s information-based industries has already begun.” MORE COLORFUL THAN SILICON VALLEY Of course, the New York tech industry faces constant comparison with the shining example of Silicon Valley. Yet New York has succeed in cutting itself free and has developed a fully-fledged ecosystem of its own, or at least is well on the way. With 18.9 million inhabitants, Greater New York is by some margin the most heavily and densely populated area of the U.S.A.. New York City, with a population of 8.55 million, is more than twice the size of America’s second-largest met
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ropolis, Los Angeles. More than 6,000 high-risers broadcast far and wide the city’s love for the huge and spectacular. The streets hustle and bustle between the taco stands and yellow cabs. In short, New York is a genuine big city, next to which San Francisco, with its 800,000 inhabitants, almost looks like a village. And the startup scene is also sizeable. According to Matthew Hartman, partner at Company Builder Betaworks (with 132 investments in 111 firms, clearly an expert on the scene): “The scene here is big enough that you’re constantly meeting new people, but at the same time small enough that you also run into the same people again.” Nonetheless, Christian Busch sees the advantage of size as requiring commitment: “You have to understand that relationships are the alpha and omega in New York. Not only with businesses, but also with potential colleagues and investors. You have to build up these relationships and invest a lot of time in them.” And this time must be budgeted for. The notion that you can move here for a couple of months and collect five million euros is nonsense. “Most investors aren’t waiting for you to turn up on their doorstep.” FULL OF ENERGY It’s an open secret that New York is a good location for founding a startup. In contrast to San Francisco, New York is very diverse and, thanks to the glistening worlds of fashion, art and culture, offers a better quality of life. Incumbent major Bill de Blasio is convinced: “There’s no energy more powerful than New York energy. The city is like fuel for rebels, creatives and freethinkers. It offers the environment you need for creating a great company.” Matthew Hartman elaborates, saying that the great advantage of New York startups is the city’s diversity: “I think New York’s secret recipe is its whole variety of industries.” As an example, he names Tumblr, which started out in the fashion community, or likewise Bloglevel, which is booming because of interest from the fashion world. Of course, the majority of U.S. venture capital still flows to Silicon Valley. However, the West Coast tech epicenter is, in contrast to New York, clearly a core-tech monoculture and the target of constant criticism. While hardly a day goes by in San Francisco without public complaints over rising rents, New York can profit from the Valley’s inflated living costs and play catchup. David Aronoff sees a clear trend towards returning to New York: “Brooklyn has become hipster-central of the universe and is very attractive today. Rents on the Upper East Side have become cheaper. Even office spaces in the most expensive areas of New York are still 20 percent cheaper than in Silicon Valley.” For Matt Turck, the question isn’t whether New York will become bigger than Silicon Valley: “That is very unlikely. But I think that tech in New York will grow at least as big as Wall Street in terms of numbers employed in the sector.” This is even more relevant given that more and more companies are being founded by former Wall Street boys, as David Aronoff attests. In the “war for talent” the New York tech scene now stands in direct competition for the best graduates with major banks and law firms. Luckily, New York has a larger student population than any other American city. Nonetheless, while the university landscape counts for a lot, the city still lacks a dedicated engineering research university such as Stanford or MIT. At present, most are placing their hopes of filling this gap in Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus, set to open in 2017.
THE INVESTOR LANDSCAPE Many startup founders are convinced: the U.S. is the land of milk and honey where chickens lay golden eggs. There is capital here in abundance and it’s eager to be invested. The six leading US startup metropolises (San Francisco, San José, Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Diego) account for roughly 45 percent of global venture capital investments. Industry analysts CB Insight reported that in the 18 months between the first quarter of 2015 and the second of 2016 a total of 21.5 billion dollars flowed to New York in 2,207 deals. In comparison, Berlin saw 2.93 billion dollars across 283 deals. In 2015 there were 286 exits in New York, including the IPOs of Ondeck Capital (valued at 1.32 billion dollars in late 2014) and Etsy (1.8 billion dollars). Venture capital traditionally has close ties to New York. Indeed, few know that it was actually invented here in 1951 by Intel founder Arthur Rock. Christian Busch, himself an active investor, affirms that there is a great deal of investable capital in New York. This capital may be very intelligent, but investors are also extremely approachable: “You have to understand that it’s their job to find hot startups before others do. You’ll never hear the word ‘no’ from U.S. venture capital. The worst you’ll hear is ‘maybe not right now.’” Alongside a large number of angel investors, syndicates and smaller funds, there’s a huge amount of industry-related capital in New York. In the real-estate sector, for instance, there are dozens of wealthy families who are also active as investors. One example is the Venrock fund (a name combining “venture” and “Rockefeller”), which has been investing since 1969 and nowadays finds itself a member of the tenth generation of funds. Intel, Apple and Doubleclick are but a few of the companies in which Venrock has invested during its 47-year life. According to Crunchbase, Venrock has invested a total of 2.8 billion dollars “under management,” with a total of 469 investments in 241 different business portfolios.
“New York investors pay more attention to money” URS CETE, Managing Director, BDMI
Similar conditions, even if the numbers are smaller, can be found in the fashion and sport sectors – for example, the founders of Equinox Fitness. Christian Busch estimates that around 50 earlystage funds are based in New York, alongside the couple of dozen bulge bracket funds with offices or headquarters in the city. In addition there is an increasing number of syndicates, whereby multiple investors gather up to 250,000 dollars in a pre-seed round simply to see if the idea proposed is promising. All this means that a New York startup no longer has to travel up and down the country to gather capital. Union Square Ventures, one of the most successful venture funds globally in recent years, is also based in New York. Union Square seems “to give birth to a unicorn every year,” says Urs Cete, managing director of Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments. The next issue of Berlin Valley will have an interview with Union Square partner Albert Wenger, whose family origins lie in Germany. Another star of the New York investment scene, thanks to its 275 investments, is the investor team Lerer Hippeau Ventures.
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These investors are like a lighthouse for a constantly professionalizing scene. The rumor that in New York you only have to write a business plan on a napkin to get a million-dollar investment is far from reality, according to Christian Busch: “Unlike those in Silicon Valley, New York investors are very marketing/ traction driven. They want to see a turnover and to understand business models, whereas in Silicon Valley investors prefer a binary, ‘moonshot’ approach – ‘either it works, or it doesn’t.’” Urs Cete confirms this perception: “In comparison to the West Coast, New York investors pay more attention to money – that is, to the business model and its profitability.” Without mentioning overheating, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg looks at the long-term perspective: “What in some instances are obscene over-evaluations of businesses will eventually end up being counterbalanced since things simply can’t continue at this level.”
New York is also very inspirational, especially for entrepreneurs. A lot of what’s happening in New York is happening in Berlin, only a couple of years later. Just like here a couple of years ago, there’s now a clear network effect in Berlin, sucking in the talent. All the people leaving Rocket Internet have learned something there and are now doing their own thing. Likewise you also see all these young McKinsey or Goldman-Sachs people who’ve trained their professional skills and then leave consulting to use their knowledge in their own businesses.” Urs Cete elaborates: “Choice of location is of course very important for a European startup wanting to head to the U.S. You have to ask what’s more important: proximity to major platforms like Google and Facebook or to one’s customers. One important factor could be who will eventually buy you up. In New York you can find a lot of potential M&A partners.” Christian Busch thinks likewise: “As a German you have make friends with the American mentality. German entrepreneurs here are often very honest at first. If a U.S. startup talks about their three customers, they will probably report 300 percent growth, since last month they only had one. By contrast, a German startup would tend to say ‘we’ve got three customers, but we need 300.’”
THE BRIDGE TO BERLIN There are many theories about when exactly a startup should go international and the order in which to tap new markets. Google boss Eric Schmidt, for example, is convinced that a startup should internationalize as soon as possible. Depending on the nature of a business, the U.S.A. could make sense as a direct market after the domestic market. The example of Zalando shows that e-commerce is probably simpler within the EU’s single market, since warehouses can be constructed centrally and the tax system is harmonized. Nonetheless, when the U.S.A. shows market potential and conditions are not too competitive, it makes a great deal of sense as a second market, particularly in sectors such as SaaS and consumer tech. Indeed, the startup scenes in the U.S.A. and Europe are moving ever closer together. Christian Busch affirms: “The major American funds are already keeping an eye on Europe. Nonetheless, there are specific demands to be met for foreign investment: a business has to show significant growth, have a very large market and high ambitions.” He names Researchgate and Soundcloud as examples. Nonetheless, Busch points out that New York venture capital firms already find it difficult to invest in Silicon Valley on account of its distance. Moreover, the best VCs already sit on half a dozen boards and have to take care of deal-flow. It’s already quite an effort to fly to San Francisco four times a year for board meetings on account of the six-hour flights. And a similar caution reigns with respect to Europe, especially because of German legal structures. Busch is convinced that “U.S. VCs hate investing in GmbHs.” Likewise, they have to found a U.S.-based Inc via a U.S. investor with which they can associate intellectual property – otherwise, the investment becomes even more complex owing to legal, accounting, compliance and tax structures. Another issue is that U.S. investors primarily look for businesses that could conquer the U.S. market and grow within the U.S.A. They have a clear expectation that businesses will expand to America after an investment. Moreover, U.S. investors rate a dollar of turnover within the U.S. above a dollar of turnover abroad. This may make little rational sense, but it results from exit channels, since the majority of American exit channels want to buy U.S. turnover. Matt Turck is convinced that New York is a great place for European startups that want to head to the U.S. and open a headquarters there. “It’s perfect since the timezone is closer to Europe and it has a strong ecosystem with a similar culture to Europe’s. As a German you can spend your time here with Germans. If you’re French, you can have a totally French environment if you want.
A GOOD SCHOOL Zu Guttenberg thinks of New York as a good school: “What you learn in New York is sales and pitching. The Americans have something that German businesses don’t: the skill at making an exciting pitch, worthy of the name. Presenting, how to market an idea or product – you often learn that from the schooling here.” De Blasio’s pitch for New York is appropriately simple: “If you’re a startup active in fashion, fintech, real estate, publishing or retail spaces, you won’t be out of place in New York. New York is the center of innovation for all these startups. All the biggest fish swim here. If you’re looking for customer contact, you’ll understand how beneficial it is when your customers are just a subway ride away.” Yet where there’s light, there’s also shade. Christian Busch stresses that New York turf is very pricey – apparently news to many fortune-seekers. “The city attracts people from all sectors who come here full of ambition. After one or two years either they’ll have found their way, or they’ll be spat back out.” Jan Thomas
NEW YORK IN NUMBERS New York, nicknamed the Big Apple, was founded in 1624. 18.9 million people live in the metropolitan area and with more than 8 million inhabitants New York City itself is the most populated city in the U.S.A. A total of 170 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most multilingual city on earth. New York consists of five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan. The Compass Startup Ecosystem Report counts some 8,000 startups in NYC, whereas Digital NYC lists a total of 14,000.
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THE NEW YORK STARTUP ECOSYSTEM IN NUMBERS
14,000 startups
291,000 jobs created
98
exits over the last ten years
OF ALL TECH JOBS ARE IN MANHATTAN
83%
100+ NY COWORKING SPACES
FASTEST GROWING TECH AREA: BROOKLYN
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40% PERCENT OF ALL EMPLOYEES ARE WOMEN
$
CREATING SALARIES TOTALLING MORE THAN
7% OF ALL JOBS ARE STARTUP JOBS
30 BILLION
NEW YORK’S MOST INFLUENTIAL INVESTORS
}
BY NUMBER OF DEALS IN 2015
ENTREPRENEURS ROUNDTABLE ACCELERATOR GREYCROFT PARTNERS LERER HIPPEAU VENTURES TECHSTARS RRE VENTURES 500 ACCELERATOR ALMAWORKS GENERAL CATALYST PARTNERS BESSEMER VENTURE PARTNERS FF VENTURE CAPITAL FIRSTMARK CAPITAL ACCEL PARTNERS FIRST ROUND CAPITAL ANGELPAD
19 19 19 17 15 14 14 13 12 12 12 11 11 10
VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT WORLDWIDE RANKED 4TH IN THE WORLD
$2,106 M OF VENTURE CAPITAL
4
th
5 % SHARE OF GLOBAL VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT
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NEW YORK’S 5 BIGGEST FUNDING ROUNDS IN TECH * 5 400 M 4
TOP 3 UNICORNS IN NEW YORK
175 M 2
150 M
1
150 M
* only series funding
275 M
3
$M
* does not include private equity transactions or aquisitions that took place after an initial public offering.
NEW YORK’S LARGEST VENTURE BACKED TECH EXITS IN THE LAST 5 YEARS * 3.3 B
1.8 B 1.32 B
1.1 B
2012 Buddy Media
2013 Tumblr
2014 OnDeck Capital
2015 Etsy
2016 Jet.com
727,5 M
BUZZFEED
496,55 M
FANDUEL
417,5 M
APPNEXUS
394,17 M
1000
800
* only based on series funding
OSCAR HEALTH INSURANCE
600
$
400
NEW YORK’S 4 MOST FUNDED TECH STARTUPS OF ALL TIME * 200
Sources: cbinsights.com, newworker.co, venturebeat.com, theatlantic.com, fortune.com
745 M
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MATERIAL SCIENCE FOUNDED IN 2015 5 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
DROPEL FABRICS
CREATOR OF WATER, STAIN, AND ODOR REPELLENT NATURAL FABRICS Leveraging material science and process technology, Dropel creates water, stain, and odor repellent natural fabrics. The company’s textiles can handle anything life throws your way. Rain, coffee, wine, and pretty much everything else doesn‘t stand a chance. Dropel works with clients as a textile development partner. It handles everything from sourcing to production of fabrics. Since launching in 2015, the demand for its textiles has transcended markets ranging from high-end apparel to uniforms to home furnishing. Dropel’s most recent collaborations include Mister French and AREA, with many others slated for 2017. // dropelfabrics.com Image: Bradley Feinstein (Co-Founder, President) and Simardev Gulati (Co-Founder, CEO)
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Love it or hate it, Times Square is a sensory riot. Neon lights, huge billboards, selfie-taking tourists, and semi-naked buskers compete for your attention. Over 50 million people pass through every year, making it one of the most visited places in the world. // timessquarenyc.org
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For a touch of spice, head to Pondicheri. This casual all-day eatery serves up dishes from across India. If you want something different to get you going in the morning, check out their breakfasts. From pancakes infused with cardamom to sautĂŠed goats brains, it has something for everyone. // pondichericafe.com
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PERSADO COGNITIVE CONTENT GENERATION
Persado is a cognitive content platform generating communication that inspires action in any audience. Founded on 12/12/12, Persado has developed a groundbreaking cognitive computing platform (i.e. Narrow AI) to scale, elevate, and ultimately transform content creation. The platform uses advanced statistical algorithms and neural networks to analyze and understand human behavior, then predict what language and emotions compel a person to act. Fortune 500 brands use cognitive content to improve the customer experience. The likes of American Express, Citi, Staples, Microsoft, and Verizon have seen 49.5% average uplifts in conversions across marketing campaigns and more than one billion dollars in incremental revenue. Persado’s cognitive content is currently optimized for marketing, but the system has the potential to enhance any motivational communication, be it civic compliance, pharmaceutical adherence, personal fitness, or even online dating! // persado.com Image: Alexios Vratskides (Co-Founder, CEO)
MARKETING FOUNDED IN 2012 210 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $66M / 3 ROUNDS
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THERAPY ON-DEMAND
TALKSPACE
Talkspace connects people with licensed therapists through its web and mobile apps. As the leading online therapy company, Talkspace revolutionized mental health care access by bringing the dialogue between therapists and their clients into the digital age. Created with a mission to eliminate the stigmas associated with mental illness and make therapy more available to millions of people, Talkspace’s flagship product, Unlimited Messaging Therapy™, has already become the preferred method of treatment for more than 350,000 people. // talkspace.com Image: Roni Frank (Co-Founder, Head of Clinical Services)
DIGITAL HEALTH FOUNDED IN 2012 40 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $28M / 3 ROUNDS
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The LOVE image was first designed as a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art. The work of artist Robert Indiana, this simple and bold image has since been rendered in sculpture around the world. In New York, it sits just a block away from the museum that first commissioned it.
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EDENWORKS
GREENS SO FRESH YOU CAN SPARE THE DRESSING AGRICULTURE FOUNDED IN 2013 10 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2M / 1 ROUND
Edenworks is pioneering a new level of freshness and nutrition in local food by operating aquaponic vertical farms to grow ready-to-eat greens and fresh fish for grocers. Virtually all salad in America comes from California, Arizona, or Mexico – a journey that can last a week. Edenworks’ distributed production means products are in-store a day after harvest. As a result, the company can grow crops that are flavorful and nutritious but delicate, like microgreens, rather than crops that are optimized for shipping but not very tasty, which is what dominates salad today. Edenworks both develops the technology and operates the controlled environment farms. Its engineering team focuses on two major themes: automation to improve efficiency, and using data to create the perfect spring day for each crop. Founded in 2013, Edenworks is based in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and has a multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, agronomists, and growers. Find Edenworks in NYC Whole Foods Market stores in 2017. // edenworks.com Image: Matt La Rosa (Co-Founder, Construction Manager), Jason Green (Co-Founder, CEO) and Ben Silverman (Co-Founder, Chief Design Officer)
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AUTHOREA ACCELERATING DISCOVERY THROUGH ONLINE COLLABORATION It has been said that in order to cure cancer, we must first cure cancer research. Authorea is improving how researchers work and make breakthrough discoveries by tackling one of the most important parts of the research cycle: scientific communication. Authorea’s mission is to reinvent the scientific article – the main vehicle of scientific dissemination – that hasn’t changed in format and scope since the birth of the scientific method. It is bringing the power of the modern web to a 400-year-old process in order to make research more open, collaborative, accessible, transparent, and data-driven. In scientific terms, Authorea is a paradigm shift. // authorea.com
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2013 10 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2.25M / 2 ROUNDS
Image: Josh Nicholson (Chief Marketing and Product Officer) and Alberto Pepe (Co-founder, CEO)
Shake Shack started as a hot dog stand in Madison Square Park. After two summers serving lines of hungry customers, it became a permanent fixture in 2004. Now part of a successful chain, the original ‘shack’ still draws huge crowds with burgers, shakes, and beer in beautiful outdoor surroundings. // shakeshack.com
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REAL ESTATE FOUNDED IN 2013 26 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $18M / 3 ROUNDS
REONOMY CONNECTING TO REAL ESTATE
When it comes to commercial real estate data, Reonomy turns complex intelligence into an accessible idea. In an industry often based on probability rather than high-quality information, it provides innovative solutions that help CRE professionals navigate a multi-trillion-dollar marketplace with simplicity and ease. Since its founding in 2013, the company has reached beyond technology and real estate to being interested in people. That’s why it created a tool that empowers users to make faster, more informed decisions. The CEO, Rich Sarkis, will lead the company into a national product launch in 2017 – a vision that aligns perfectly with its mission to connect everyone with real estate. // reonomy.com Image: Rich Sarkis (Co-Founder, CEO)
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The Pavilion sits in and around a Roman-style structure in busy Union Square. The decision to open a restaurant in the public square was hotly debated, but city officials pushed ahead. It’s now a popular spot for summer dining: try the fresh papaya salad with a glass of fruity white wine. // thepavilionnyc.com
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MAVEN THE FIRST DIGITAL CLINIC FOR WOMEN
DIGITAL HEALTH FOUNDED IN 2014 12 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $4.5M / 2 ROUNDS
Women in America make 80% of all health decisions for themselves and their families. But the current healthcare system is not exactly female-friendly. This fact is all too obvious for any mother who has ever had to miss work to get care for her child, or any student struggling to get birth control, or any woman who has worried all night because she can’t get a simple answer from her doctor. Founded in 2014 by Kate Ryder, Maven makes it easier for women to get immediate, professional care, from someone they trust. Wherever they are, whenever they need it. It has a network of 700+ doctors, nurse practitioners, mental health providers, and specialists in all areas of women’s and children’s health, and has made it easy for tens of thousands of women to connect with them directly via video appointment or private message — whether it’s for a prescription or just for peace of mind. The end goal? To help women across the world have better access to affordable care. // mavenclinic.com Image: Kate Ryder (Founder, CEO)
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Originally a military site from the Revolutionary War, Fort Greene Park became Brooklyn’s first park in 1847. Twenty years later it was landscaped by Olmstead and Vaux, the two men who designed Central Park and who became the fathers of American landscape architecture. // fortgreenepark.org
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It may only have a hundred or so seats, but the Comedy Cellar has become one of the best known comedy clubs in the world. Over the years, its lineup has included everyone from Robin Williams to Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K. to Jon Stewart. Make a reservation and check out one of NYC’s best laughs. // comedycellar.com
ACTIONIQ SOLVING THE BIGGEST PROBLEM MARKETERS FACE Every business leader should be asking themselves: am I getting the most out of my data? For too long, the answer to this question has been no. ActionIQ is changing that with its world class Marketing Activation Platform, dedicated to giving marketers and analysts freedom and speed. While the major marketing clouds handle only 1% of customer data and interactions, ActionIQ provides the only solution that scales to 100% of customer data, analyzes it at unprecedented speeds, and lets marketers execute campaigns in hours – all without calling IT. The platform is the fastest way for Global 2000 companies to connect all of their first party digital and offline data, generate insights on what drives customer behavior, and directly connect with all of their marketing apps. The result is improved targeting, personalization, and reach across all marketing channels. Based in New York City, ActionIQ is backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital and FirstMark Capital. // actioniq.com Image: Tasso Argyros (Co-Founder, CEO) and Nitay Joffe (Co-Founder, CTO)
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BIG DATA FOUNDED IN 2014 35 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
SOCIAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2012 80 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $18.75M / 3 ROUNDS
REBELMOUSE THE PLATFORM FOR ORGANIC, SOCIAL GROWTH
The publishing industry is going through a massive shift toward social media. Distributing content simultaneously across social platforms is becoming increasingly difficult, and growing engagement with that content is even more challenging. RebelMouse was founded in 2012 by Paul Berry, former CTO of The Huffington Post, with one goal: to build technology that enables companies to succeed in the world of distributed publishing. With that objective in mind, RebelMouse has created the first Distributed Content Management System (DCMS) for natively social publishing, which allows companies to launch fully distributed websites in a matter of days. At the core of the platform are smart distribution tools that help increase organic reach on social media. Simply put, RebelMouse technology makes it easy to publish everywhere, find and grow relationships with social influencers, and connect content with its maximum audience. // rebelmouse.com Image: Paul Berry (Founder, CEO)
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It may be based in Little Italy, but Greecologies is all about another Mediterranean food culture. Traditional Greek yogurt is made on site, using milk from grass-fed local cows. Try a cup of the original unstrained product and add some unusual toppings: sundried tomato with mint is popular. // greecologies.com
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EPIBONE GROWING BONES FROM YOUR OWN CELLS
EpiBone is a company engineering living, anatomically precise, functional skeletal grafts from patients’ own cells. EpiBone was founded by MIT and Columbia-trained bioengineers, and their patented methods combine the most advanced techniques in digital fabrication with cutting-edge stem cell science – generating grafts with a perfect fit and no risk of rejection. At this point, EpiBone has been successfully tested in animal models, and hopes to begin clinical trials with patients soon. EpiBone has received many technical awards, including the designation as World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers in 2015. // epibone.com Image: Sarindr Bhumiratana (Co-Founder, CSO) and Nina Tandon (Co-Founder, CEO)
BIOTECHNOLOGY FOUNDED IN 2013 10 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
Brooklyn Botanic Garden was founded in 1910 in an attempt to preserve green space in what was then a rapidly developing area. Spanning over 52 acres, it offers amazing variety, from bonsai trees to 5,000 different roses. It even has a Shakespeare garden, featuring plants and flowers mentioned in his work. // bbg.org
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THE HUNDERT // PARTNERS
NEW YORK PARTNERS These startups favorites in the Big Apple will have a certain amount of copies of the Hundert for you to peruse.
Alley is an entrepreneurial hub, where teams and individuals can grow their businesses surrounded by like minded people, and work collaboratively in a supportive environment. Whether you’re a journalist, an app developer, a lawyer, or an up-and-coming fashion designer, Alley’s incredible team and one-of-a-kind workspace community give you what you need to take your business and success to the next level. youralley.com
The Con Artist Collective is a creative coworking community, workspace and storefront gallery located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Founded in early 2010, we are an active community of creatives, curating group shows & social events, encouraging collaboration & inspiring imagination. conartistnyc.com
Blueprint Health is a community of healthcare entrepreneurs professionals, investors and thought-leaders that together are building the next generation of digital health innovations. At the heart of our community is the renowned Blueprint Health Accelerator. We welcome all healthcare startups, entrepreneurs and providers to join our community. blueprinthealth.org
Whether you are a freelancer, entrepreneur, high growth or established company, startup founder or service provider, Coworkrs provides the ideal environment for you and your business to thrive. Get work done, keep the team happy, be part of a community and find clients, partners and friends alike. Locations in NYC + Brooklyn. cowork.rs
We‘re a coworking space, community and launchpad for social enterprises. Located in the Starrett-Lehigh Building on the Hudson River, we are the Manhattan home for over 450 members in more than 260 organizations that are working to change the world. nyc.socialinnovation.org
The Founder Institute is the world’s premier startup launch program for talented entrepreneurs. If you are up to the challenge, our comprehensive step-bystep program will give you the structure, mentor support, and network of entrepreneurs you need to start an enduring company. fi.co
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Established in 2008 in the historic DUMBO, Brooklyn neighborhood, Green Desk is a rapidly growing coworking community with over 4,000 members. We provide affordable environmentally responsible office spaces, as well as virtual offices and modern meeting rooms for non-members. In our unique buildings within locations in Brooklyn and Queens we‘ve dedicated our team to building a comfortable work culture where your creativity and productivity are priority. greendesk.com
Fueled is a top-tier mobile design & development agency based in New York & London. An internationally recognized leader in cutting edge application development, Fueled‘s products have led to more than a billion dollars worth of sales through mobile devices. The Company’s NYC office is also home to Fueled Collective, an 18K sq. ft. startup co-working space that houses over 35 startups and 140 entrepreneurs. fueled.com
The NYC Wix Lounge is a completely free co-working, event and exhibit space for Wix users. Apply for our 4-month membership program and grow your online presence and small business with hands-on workshops and amazing events. wixlounge.com
THE HUNDERT // PARTNERS
Innovation happens when you connect smart minds in a supportive environment. At INPUT LOFTS, we don‘t rent desks, we build connections. When you join our community, you work alongside talented, driven individuals who are willing to share knowledge, contacts, skills and experience to help each other build successful businesses. inputlofts.com
We are a new kind of collaborative workspace dedicated to supporting and connecting the next generation of media + tech entrepreneurs, innovators and artists by providing industry resources, events, mentorship and educational opportunities. Our 20,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility combines workspaces, classrooms, exhibition venues and a public café, where storytellers, industry professionals and curiosity seekers come together to work, learn, innovate, explore and grow — together. nymediacenter.com
Work Better is a trusted and respected work space provider in NYC and Chicago that serves the needs of its members by combining a wide range of smart products and services with a team approach. workbetter.us
StartUp Health is a global health innovation community leading the movement to transform health by organizing and investing in Health Transformers. With more than 300 Health Transformers and 155 companies, StartUp Health spans 16 countries and 65+ cities. StartUp Health was founded in 2011 by Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes and is chaired by former Time Warner CEO, Jerry Levin. startuphealth.com
Work-Bench is an enterprise technology venture fund. We support early go-to-market enterprise startups with community, workspace, and corporate engagement. We believe that a community of enterprise startups and technologists can learn, share, collaborate together to grow and accelerate. Join our community of like-minded enterprise to share knowledge, resources, ideas, and feedback with others who get it. work-bench.com
MetaProp NYC is the world’s premier real estate technology nexus and RETech accelerator. Each year, the best technology driven real estate industry startups are selected to participate in the 22-week intensive growth program based in New York City. The program culminates in a Demo Day for partners, investors, VCs and media. metaprop.org
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Founded in Brooklyn in 2011 by Morris Levy and Richard Beyda, The Yard is New York City‘s premier, luxury, office space community with hospitality at its core. The company‘s 7 NYC locations feature beautifully designed private offices, authentic environments, coworking and innovative amenities for sophisticated, growing businesses. theyard.nyc
The Farm Soho is the most engaged community of designers, developers, social change agents, artists and entrepreneurs that have converged to share ideas, innovate and learn in a collaborative and nurturing environment. Located in the heart of SoHo, the hippest district in Manhattan, close to the hottest tech companies such as Squarespace, Meetup.com. thefarmsoho.com
Startupbootcamp FinTech is the leading accelerator focused on financial innovation. We provide funding, mentorship, office space in the heart of Manhattan and access to a global network of corporate partners, mentors, investors, and VCs for up to 10 selected FinTech startups across the globe. startupbootcamp.org
connecting Collab is a Fabrication Lab and Innovation Studio in New York City, known for its vibrant community of 21st century creatives with skill sets that cross a wide range of disciplines --from Architects to Technologist to 3D Printing Experts -- who work on their own endeavors and then collectively on much larger projects, collaborating to bring ambitious experiential work from their imaginations to life. collab.nyc
Spark Labs is the sole NYC-based coworking ecosystem dedicated to supporting Tech & Innovation companies expanding to the US. They provide workspace and a complete support infrastructure including access to investors & mentors, network & resources, legal & accounting support, and events & workshops. Currently helping 100+ startups, Spark Labs is host to a collaborative community of founders & innovators. spark-labs.co
and supporting startups in the
capital region
ner tors' Din s e v n I t x Ne 017 4th May 2 *
accepted s n io t a Applic 7 th arch 201 till 10 M
We are a dynamic community of tech startups, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and visionaries in Hoboken. Our community focuses on connecting with each other and bringing in outside resources from marketing to funding. All of it is designed to take each of our member‘s ventures to the next level. mission50.com
join us! www.startupnet-bb.de The initiative of media:net berlinbrandenburg gives the growing startup scene in Berlin-Brandenburg its own platform. startup:net berlinbrandenburg connects startups and investors, the old economy, politics and institutions, universities and businesses. Events, trade fairs as well as established formats such as the Investors‘ Dinner strengthen the digital economy and the regional business scene. Because we believe in working togehter.
YOUR ONE-STOP-SHOP FOR MASTERING US – GERMANY EXPANSION CHALLENGES
We pride ourselves on our clients building a relationship with one partner, at home and abroad, and across the range of services we offer, from Accounting, Payroll, HR Services, and Compliance to Tax Structuring.
RUETERPARTNER.COM/DE/START-UP S A N F R A N C I S C O M U N I C H N E W Y O R K B E R L I N
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The World Trade Center Transportation Hub was designed by the acclaimed architect Santiago Calatrava and completed in 2016. It now serves 250,000 Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) daily commuters and millions of annual visitors from around the world, with its ultramodern, light space hosting a shopping mall. At approximately 800,000 square feet, the Hub is the third largest transportation center in New York City.
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X.AI DEMOCRATIZING THE PERSONAL ASSISTANT
PRODUCTIVITY FOUNDED IN 2014 70 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $34.3M / 3 ROUNDS
Founded in 2014 by Dennis R. Mortensen, Alex Poon, Matt Casey, and Marcos Jimenez Belenguer, x.ai makes an AI-powered personal assistant who schedules meetings for you. The interaction interaction happens as it would with any other person, but “Amy” takes care of all the tedious email ping pong that comes along with scheduling a meeting. x.ai is backed by blue chip investors, including IA Ventures, Firstmark, and Two Sigma Ventures, and is located in New York City. It sees itself as a hardcore technology company developing invisible software, with the central mission being to build business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers — and ensuring every single team member, scientist or not, delivers exceptional customer service at all times. // x.ai Image: Marcos Jimenez Belenguer (Co-Founder, Chief Data Scientist), Dennis R. Mortensen (Co-Founder, CEO), Matt Casey (Co-Founder, CTO) and Alex Poon (Co-Founder, COO)
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CRISIS TEXT LINE FREE CRISIS SUPPORT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, 24/7
Crisis Text Line was born out of DoSomething.org, the largest organization for young people and social change. Dozens of DoSomething.org members were texting in to ask for personal help and Nancy Lublin came up with the idea for Crisis Text Line and launched it in August 2013. Within four months, it was being used in all 295 area codes in the U.S.A. Crisis Text Line believes that every person who texts in deserves a human response, which is why they have a community of 1700 trained crisis counselors who respond to every text message that comes to their short code, 741741. To date, it has processed over 22 million messages, and continues using technology to improve their service. The company house the largest open mental health data set in the world, which aims to empower journalists, researchers, and citizens to understand the crises Americans face. In the future, Crisis Text Line looks to expand internationally, and offer their services in different languages. // crisistextline.org Image: Nancy Lublin (Founder, CEO)
DIGITAL HEALTH FOUNDED IN 2013 55 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $25M / NON PROFIT
West 28th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues has been the heart of the American flower industry since the 1890s. The pavement is filled with flowers, plants, and even palm trees for sale. At 6am, it throngs with florists buying supplies – visit later in the morning for a more relaxed browse.
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Not many parking lots have views this good: Pier 40 at Hudson River Park was originally a passenger ship terminal but now hosts a parking garage and sports pitches. It is the largest pier on the Hudson and from its end there are magnificent panoramic views of lower Manhattan and New Jersey. // hudsonriverpark.org
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DASH
SMARTER. DRIVING. EVERY DAY. INTERNET OF THINGS FOUNDED IN 2012 10 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
Dash is the world’s leading open connected car platform, with a vision of making any car a ‘smart car’. Its telematics solutions harness the driving data exhaust – what they call the ‘automotive graph’. For every day drivers, the products make driving smarter, safer, greener, and more affordable. For enterprises, Dash’s solutions help make transportation operations more efficient. Dash partners include OEMs, fleets, insurers, and government agencies – and enterprises leverage the company’s data and machine learning capabilities to develop predictive maintenance algorithms and advanced analytics. Dash’s developer platform (Chassis API), as well as its IFTTT channel, allows third parties to build lightweight connected car solutions. The company’s products have won awards from the White House, Dept. of Energy, Ford, and Edmunds, and have been used by nearly 350,000 drivers in more than 100 countries. // dashmobile.co Image: Brian Langel (Co-Founder, CTO) and Jamyn Edis (Co-Founder, CEO)
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COMMONBOND USING DATA AND TECHNOLOGY TO LOWER THE COST OF STUDENT LOANS FINTECH FOUNDED IN 2012 75 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $78.6M / 4 ROUNDS
CommonBond, New York City’s top-funded fintech startup, is a tech-enabled student lender tackling one of the biggest challenges facing millennials in the US: student debt. With over $1.3 trillion of outstanding student debt in the US, this problem impacts more than 43 million Americans. Founded in 2012 by three MBAs who faced the challenge of paying for business school with student loans, CommonBond believes student loans should be more affordable, more transparent, and easier to manage online. To make this a reality, CommonBond offers an online student loan evaluation tool to help everyone with student loans, regardless of income, determine the best ways to manage their debt. Student loan refinancing options help members save an average of $14,581 and an employer platform enables companies to attract and retain top talent by contributing directly to employees’ student loan payments. CommonBond was recently named one of Inc. Magazine’s ‘50 Best Workplaces in the US’. // commonbond.co Image: David Klein (Co-Founder, CEO)
The Egg Shop is all about eggs. This bright and breezy diner serves them up all day long. Come in early for an egg and avocado breakfast, or late for a cocktail and El Guapo: slow cooked pork shoulder with spaghetti squash and egg white queso fresco. // eggshopnyc.com
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Photography: Audrey Froggatt Jewelry: GoldtinkerÂŽ Jewelers Location: Manhattan Penthouse on 5th
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MOGUL
SHARE INFORMATION WITH WOMEN WORLDWIDE
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2014 50 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
Mogul is an award-winning technology platform reaching 18 million women per week across 196 countries and 30,470 cities. Founded in 2014 by Tiffany Pham, Mogul is ultimately democratizing information, creating economic and educational opportunities for women worldwide by enabling users to connect, share information, and access knowledge from each other. Headquartered in NYC, with offices in San Francisco and Paris, Mogul was the recipient of the Cadillac ‘Innovator Award’, ‘Top Website for Marketing Your Company Online’ by Forbes, ‘Best Website for Finding Top Talent‘ by Inc. Magazine, ‘Top Online Learning Platform’ by Entrepreneur, and has been honored and recognized by Business Insider‘s ‘30 Under 30’, ELLE Magazine‘s ‘30 Under 30’, Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, and Harvard Business School. // onmogul.com Image: Tiffany Pham (Founder, CEO)
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Kisi was founded in 2013 by Bernhard Mehl, Max Schuetz, and Carl Pfeiffer in Munich, Germany. Today, Kisi helps hundreds of organizations streamline their operations and enhance security. The company’s applications range from small brick-and-mortar operations to multi-location enterprises looking to overhaul outdated systems. Kisi is also the top access control system choice among coworking spaces, with other clients including Casper, DigitalOcean, Cushman & Wakefield, Yesware, Percolate, and Harry’s. Its keyless entry solution has been recognized as one of the most innovative advancements in smart office technology on the market today. If you’re looking to improve security and help revolutionize access control, give them a buzz. // getkisi.com Image: Maximilian Schuetz (Co-Founder) and Bernhard Mehl (Co-Founder)
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KISI
INTERNET OF THINGS FOUNDED IN 2013 15 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $1.5M / 1 ROUND
KEYS MADE EASY
New Lab is a cathedral of manufacturing: an 84,000 square foot working space in the shell of a Brooklyn Navy Yard building. This former epicenter of ship building is now state-ofthe-art once again. Fifty companies work here on challenges in artificial intelligence, robotics, and more. // newlab.com
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Walk into Balthazar in Soho and you are transported across the ocean to Paris. This brasserie has become an institution in the NYC dining scene since opening in 1997. In a large space with a buzzy atmosphere it serves onion soup, oysters, steak frites, and other French favourites. // balthazarny.com
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DIGITALOCEAN
CLOUD COMPUTING DESIGNED FOR DEVELOPERS
CLOUD SERVICES FOUNDED IN 2011 300 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $123M / 4 ROUNDS
DigitalOcean, known for its “developer first� mentality, was founded in 2011 with the mission to simplify the complexities of infrastructure by offering one simple and robust platform for developers to easily launch and scale their applications. It has become the second largest and fastest growing cloud computing platform in the total number of public facing apps and websites, according to Netcraft. More than 750,000 registered customers have launched more than 20 million Droplets (cloud servers) combined on DigitalOcean, nearly doubling from 10 million six months ago. The company is now investing heavily in advancing its platform to further support growing teams and larger applications. It has raised $123 million in fun-ding from Andreessen Horowitz, Access Industries, IA Ventures, CrunchFund, and Techstars and has data center regions throughout the world. And, getting started on DigitalOcean takes less than a few minutes! // digitalocean.com Image: Mitch Wainer (Co-Founder, CMO), Moisey Uretsky (Co-Founder, CPO) and Ben Uretsky (Co-Founder, CEO)
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OPENTRONS LABWORKS MAKING ROBOTS FOR BIOLOGISTS
ROBOTICS FOUNDED IN 2014 14 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2.3M / 1 ROUND
Today, biologists spend too much time pipetting by hand. Very few scientists have access to experimental automation because current pipetting robots cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and require experts to program. But OpenTrons makes robots biologists can easily afford and use. OpenTrons robots cost less than $5,000 and let scientists download and run an experiment like an app on an iPhone. OpenTrons got its start at Haxlr8r, the hardware accelerator in Shenzhen, China, where the company still makes all its robots. When the team got back from China, it launched on Kickstarter and sold its first 30+ machines. One year later, OpenTrons was a part of the W16 batch of Y Combinator, and it is now backed by Khosla Ventures. Currently over 120 academic and industrial biotech labs around the world are using OpenTrons robots to automate experiments. // opentrons.com Image: Will Canine (Co-Founder, CPO) and Chiu Chau (Co-Founder, CEO)
Manhattan’s skyline has one of the most varied collections of skyscrapers in the world. Among functional office and residential blocks lie countless gems, from the Art Deco Chrysler Building to the Roman Imperial Manhattan Municipal Building. Head to Brooklyn’s waterfront for the best views.
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DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2012 35 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $16.3M / 3 ROUNDS
THESKIMM MAKING IT EASIER TO BE SMARTER
Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg co-founded theSkimm from their couch in 2012. Drawing on the founders’ backgrounds as NBC News producers, theSkimm is reimagining the idea of morning television and changing the way female millennials receive news and information. The company’s inaugural product – The Daily Skimm – is the fastest growing email newsletter on the market, with an engaged community of well over four million active subscribers and an industry-crushing open rate. theSkimm’s suite of products has grown with the launch of theSkimm for iPhone, which debuted as #1 in news and #9 overall in the Apple App Store. The company recently announced the launch of Skimm Studios, marking its upcoming expansion into video. Carly and Danielle have been named to the Forbes ‘30 Under 30 in Media’, Vanity Fair’s ‘The Next Establishment’, Adweek’s ‘Young Influentials’, and Fortune’s ‘40 Under 40’. They still prefer to work from a couch. // theskimm.com Image: Danielle Weisberg (Co-Founder, Co-CEO) and Carly Zakin (Co-Founder, Co-CEO)
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Photographer: Christoph Lange
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HARRY’S
A GREAT SHAVE AT A FAIR PRICE
E-COMMERCE FOUNDED IN 2013 600 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $287.1M / 6 ROUNDS
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Harry’s is a company that manufactures and sells razor blades and grooming products to brands and consumers all over the world. Harry’s Inc. is headquartered in both New York City and Eisfeld, Germany. Its New York offices are home to Harry’s, the direct-to-consumer men’s grooming brand founded in 2013. The company was created to provide men with a return to the essential shaving experience – simple, well-designed products offered at a fair price. The German team oversees blade manufacturing at the century-old razor factory that Harry’s merged with in 2014. // harrys.com Image: Andy Katz-Mayfield (Co-Founder, CEO) and Jeff Raider (Co-Founder, CEO)
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Photographer: Christoph Lange
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GREENBERG TRAURIG THE ONLY LAW FIRM PRESENT IN ALL GLOBAL TECH HUBS the Hundert spoke to Richard Rosenbaum (Executive Chairman) and Henrik Armah (Partner/Shareholder in the German office) of Greenberg Traurig about the firm’s expertise, startups, and the differences between Germany and the U.S. I saw that Greenberg Traurig is the second largest law firm in the U.S. Can you tell us about the firm’s history and how you’ve evolved as a company? Richard Rosenbaum: Yes, actually we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary next year. We started in Miami. Then we began expanding, first across the U.S., and then internationally. Today our largest office is in New York, where we have about 250 lawyers. The firm has 29 offices across the U.S. and nine offices outside the U.S., with Berlin being our newest office.
We respect local culture and empower local partners to a great degree in terms of what it will take to build and compete in their local markets. Do you agree, Henrik? What’s your perspective from Germany? Henrik Armah: Yes, I totally agree. Greenberg Traurig stands for a strong entrepreneurial spirit and practice strengths. This is the ideal basis for successful and continuous growth – in Germany and on a European or global level. What industries does the firm focus on? Richard Rosenbaum: Historically, we’re probably best known for Real Estate, but today we are a major player in M&A and
Henrik Armah, Partner/Shareholder
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THE HUNDERT // ADVERTORIAL
Richard Rosenbaum, Executive Chairman
Corporate. We have the largest media and entertainment practice in the U.S. and a renowned and fast-growing global technology group. Henrik Armah: Indeed, tech is at the forefront of our strategic growth. This is an ever-growing area that affects all industries. With offices in Silicon Valley, Miami, Boston, Austin, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Seoul, New York and now Berlin, we’re active in all major tech hubs. What can you offer companies from the startup or tech scene? Henrik Armah: Well, first of all we have a serious orientation towards business and business advice. Early-stage companies often need that kind of counsel. They don’t just want technical legal advice, they also want sound business judgment and networking relationships, which we can provide. And as I said – there is only one law firm in the world that is present in all global tech hubs, and that is Greenberg Traurig. If a potential client wants to get in touch with you, what is the best way, apart from just calling you? Are there events, is there something that you would recommend? Henrik Armah: Yes, we do numerous events and are very active in this space. For example, we are supporting the leading internet conference NOAH 2016 in Berlin and London. In Berlin, we welcomed 250 investors and technology entrepreneurs for after-show drinks at our rooftop terrace. In November we hosted the #medialawcamp, covering a broad range of compliance topics as well as an event in Tel Aviv on FinTech evolution in Israel and Germany.
Richard Rosenbaum: In the U.S., we sponsor and participate in a wide range of technology events. These have included, for example, the 28th Annual All Hands Meeting for in-house counsel at technology and life science companies; the 2016 ANA/BAA 38th Marketing Law Conference on Marketing and Advertising Law and Digital Media; and the Massachusetts Association of Technology Transfer Offices’ 2016 New Venture Showcase. Henrik, it’s been one year since the German team joined the firm. Regarding the two business cultures – are there any differences between the U.S. and Germany that you have come across? Henrik Armah: In the U.S. there’s a greater willingness to take risks, which makes the access to venture capital easier than in Germany. The American way of dealing with mistakes also differs from our German approach. In America, failure is part of one’s wealth of experience. This risk affinity as well as the business acumen creates a business culture at Greenberg Traurig that is both strong and nimble. Richard, you are from New York. What is your personal perspective about the city? Richard Rosenbaum: New York is booming, and it has become a true global center. The most interesting to me is how all new areas of New York – from downtown Manhattan to the west side of Manhattan to Brooklyn and now even Queens and the Bronx – are all becoming areas that are seeing brand new development and are kind of hip places to be, where art and technology companies are found. So New York is alive and well and it is great to see.
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THE NEXT LEVEL
The German publishing house Axel Springer is officially launching in the U.S.A., underlining its ambition to become the leading digital publisher in the world.
A pompous skyscraper at 300 Park Avenue. First impressions promise glamor and glitter. Entry to the building is only possible with an app. From now on, this opulent address will be home to German publisher Axel Springer’s U.S. headquarters. Indeed, first impressions bring to mind the popular expression “dumb German money,” which is often ploughed into the U.S. with gaudy ceremony. Does Axel Springer risk falling into the same trap? We’ve only just arrived at the twelfth floor and these worries are swiftly dispelled. To call the U.S. team’s nine square meters (!) of office space unpretentious would be an exaggeration. “Cosy” suits it best. There are three desks at most and the view is nothing to write home about. The sole luxury is a mini-fridge with Red Bull and Coke Zero. Will one of Europe’s leading
publishers really conquer the U.S.A. from here? Yes, it will! And it means serious business. Recently, the New York Times reported that Springer sees its growth potential in Germany as nearly exhausted: “In Europe, home to around 100 million native German speakers, we already have an extremely strong market position, but we are reaching the limits of further growth.” Axel Springer had already announced in early 2016 that his publishing house would focus it’s growth ambitions on the English-language world. ONWARD TO GROWING MARKETS In the new headquarters we meet Jens Müffelmann, in a good mood and already assured of success. The 49-year-old
No easy task: Developing Axel Springer into the leading digital publisher and at the same keeping it as agile as a startup
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Axel Springer in New York: 4,65 m x 1,95 m = 9,07 sq m office space ♩ 300 Park Avenue ♩ 2 executives ♩ > $500M investment within the last 12 months ♩ Approx. 1,000 employees in their portfolio companies
from Hamburg was, in addition to being the chief executive of the group’s digital ventures, recently named ‘Axel Springer President U.S.A.’ As with the pompous foyer, you would expect receptionists and chauffeurs. But Müffelmann has been breathing startup air for many years. He is Springer’s digital man and, in Mathias Döpfner’s words, was “responsible for the successful establishment of Axel Springer’s digital portfolio.” Springer’s most important investments – from the online real estate platform Immonet and the job portal Stepstone to online marketers Zanox – all bear his signature. Müffelmann knows that golden doorknobs won’t help him on his mission. Springer also wants to make an impression. The publishing house didn’t come to the U.S.A. to waste money. “It’s not a matter of setting up a huge apparatus here, rather of efficiently managing our U.S. portfolio,” says Müffelmann. The setup is appropriately streamlined – and it’s not going to change soon. Also on board is Claudius Senst, recently chosen by the media service Kress as one of “tomorrow’s movers and shakers” and responsible for collaboration. Two people on site. No more. Müffelmann doesn’t see himself as an operational manager. “Our holding isn’t responsible for daily operations. The two New York headquartered companies which we acquired employ more than 500 people. They have excellent managers who run the companies excellently.“ Even though the branch has only been established a few months, Axel Springer is nonetheless already deeply rooted in the New York startup scene – and not only because Springer has already made investments. The acquisitions that caused the biggest stir were certainly Business Insider and eMarketer. If they wanted to make a strong impression, they succeeded. The U.S. expansion is part of Mathias Döpfner’s overall business strategy. He wants to develop Axel Springer into the leading digital publisher in the world, but at the same time keep it as agile as a startup. No easy feat. And certainly not at time when traditional media are experiencing an existential crisis. Many companies have not yet succeeded in bringing their traditionally secure positions into the digital age.
Fewer and fewer people are prepared to pay for journalism. Declining sales of print editions and advertising revenues are the name of the day. The survival of traditional publishers is hence closely connected to the role that other media can play in the future. INTO SILICON VALLEY – WITH 80 EXECUTIVES! “We always had a certain pioneering role within our industry,” says Jens Müffelmann. “That started with the launch of BILD, or when we were the first in Germany to use four-color printing for newspapers. We were the first German media company with paid content. And we were the first media business to fly all our top 80 executives into Silicon Valley.” Listening to Müffelmann, it seems the U.S. expansion – for all its agility – was prepared long in advance. “We don’t feel like foreigners here, rather we see the U.S.A. as a second home. You shouldn’t forget that Axel Springer has close historical connections to America. We drew up five Essentials for the company, one of which was transatlantic relations. And we have all kinds of links, whether with Stanford University in the business school or Columbia University in journalism studies. Strictly speaking, we’ve been in America since 2006, when Mathias Döpfner became a board member at Time Warner.” No less important was the year 2012, when Springer sent three of its executives – Kai Diekmann, Martin Sinner and Peter Würtenberger – to Silicon Valley as part of an intensive research project. Their job was to develop new business ideas for digital growth. The following year saw Springer’s first financial engagement in the U.S.A. Müffelmann had to cut short his vacation when Mathias Döpfner heard a presentation by Airbnb-founder Brian Chesky at the annual media-mogul gathering in Sun Valley. The phonecall reported by Wall Street Journal – “I just listened to a presentation here about Airbnb, sharing economy… we need to invest, it’s amazing” – led to Springer’s first U.S. investment. As it later turned out, it was a very successful one. “It was certainly driven by opportunism,”
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In good company: One of the neighbors of Axel Springer in New York — the Waldorf Astoria at Park Avenue
Müffelmann acknowledges, “but since then we’ve been very strategic. We’ve made fund investments, both on the East and West Coasts. These fund investments led, for example, to contact with Lerer Hippeau Ventures. Through Ken and Ben Lerer we had a great gateway into the New York media network, which led to investments in Thrillist, NowThis and Business Insider.” NEW YORK IS A SHARK TANK In New York alone Springer has investments in six companies. “We are the largest foreign media investor in digital media here and New York is by some margin Axel Springer’s strongest location outside of Europe,” says Müffelmann. “For all its friendliness, New York is first and foremost a shark tank. It’s all about making business and earning money. Whoever gets dazzled here, lacks a clear roadmap and isn’t in the right networks can quickly lose a lot of money.” And what will the presence in New York change? “From our perspective, we are moving to the next level.” says Müffelmann. “We can now say, we’ve arrived. Beforehand, we were really just taking preparatory measures. But now, with a centralized location and investment volumes of over 500 million euros, we’ve reached the next dimension.” At the same time, however, he repeats that “investments on the scale of Business Insider and eMarketer still remain exceptions.” In total, Axel Springer now has over a dozen investments in U.S. businesses, the majority of which are digital-native
startups. Müffelmann, who is now responsible for Springer’s entire U.S. portfolio, nonetheless sees their strategy as fundamentally unchanged. “As a digital publisher we’re building on three bases: content models, marketing models and classified models. This strategy doesn’t only apply to the German market. It is global. The particularity here in America is the emphasis on journalism/content. That’s especially true of New York, since we’ve made six investments here in journalism/ content over the last year.” DICE Does a European publisher have any chance in a highly competitive market such as the U.S.A.? This is the realm of giants such as Google and Facebook, as well as journalistic challengers like Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Vice. New York in particular is home to the largest broadcasters and publishers such as Hearst and Condé Nast. Müffelmann appears confident. “We’ve developed our own strategy for the U.S. market: DICE.” DICE stands for Developing, Investing, Collaborating and Expanding. “Developing” for Springer means traditional portfolio development. This involves, for example, consolidation efforts, such as the contribution of its investments in Thrillist and NowThis to the founding of Group Nine Media along with Discovery. The portfolio is developed via further investments – for instance, the acquisition of eMarketer, after Business Insider the second-largest anchor investment for the publishing house in New York. Müffelmann is clear: “There’s a lot of noise about
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THE HUNDERT // EDITORIAL
investing, but for us, collaborating is just as important.” Axel Springer makes good use of its growing portfolio. Thus, for example, both Business Insider and Finanzen.net launched a new offering for financial market data, MarketsInsider.com, together in the U.S. in October this year. Another dimension of Springer’s U.S. developments is the expansion of established, local business models into new markets. Clearly one example of this was the internationalization of Business Insider to more than ten countries. As another example, Müffelmann names Bonial. Germany’s “Kaufda” is “Retale” in the U.S.A. Intriguingly, Springer does not only follow the classic road of “imports from the U.S.A.”, but also travels in the opposite direction. THE NEW YORK–BERLIN BRIDGE The choice of New York as a location may appear clear to those on the outside. From the perspective of Berlin, New York is in a much more convenient timezone than Silicon Valley, simplifying both travel and communication. Nonetheless, the decision wasn’t taken automatically: “We considered for a long time whether to set up our headquarter in Silicon Valley or here in New York. And now we know that New York was the right choice. I’m quite astonished by the size and diversity of the startup scene here. There are now more than 10,000 startups in New York. And the scene has become even more diverse. Before, New York meant media and adtech. Now it’s much broader,” Müffelmann says. “With fintech, healthtech and fashion, for example, several very strong segments have grown up where New York is far in the lead.” A recent New York Times headline read “An Old-Media Empire, Axel Springer Reboots for the Digital Age.” For Jens Müffelmann, who was born in New York, returning to the city is also like a return to his roots. His father was an engineer and worked for a while in New York – for a publishing house. No wonder he’s so pleased about his present job.
Name
Description
Returning to the roots: Jens Müffelmann, ‘Axel Springer President U.S.A.’, is happy to be back in New York
Office Location
Key facts
Employees
AS Investment
Type of Investment
Business Insider
“Wall Street Journal of the digital generation”
• >100m UU per month • 2.4bn Video Views per month
Midtown Manhattan
>375 U.S./U.K.
01 & 09/2015
Majority
eMarketer
“Go-to source for authoritative business information in digital marketing, sales, and trends”
• >65,000 citations per year • >1,100 corporate accounts with majority of Fortune500 companies
Midtown Manhattan
>180
07/2016
Majority
.Mic
“Premium news for Millennials”
• >20m UU per month Social reach >65m Millennials per month
Financial District
>160
06/2015
Minority
NowThis (Group Nine Media)
“Leading video news publisher on Social”
• #1 video news publisher on Facebook • 2.4bn Video Views per month
Lower Manhattan
>120
12/2014 & 10/2015
Minority
Thrillist (Group Nine Media)
“Leading lifestyle destination for Millennials”
• ca. 20m UU per month on owned & operated site Social reach >450m per month
Lower Manhattan
>230
10/2015
Minority
Lerer Hippeau Ventures
“Most active tech investors in New York”
• >200 investments since 2010 (incl. BuzzFeed, Refinery29, ...)
Lower Manhattan
>15
06/2014 & 08/2015
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THE HUNDERT
ONE MONTH BUILDING A BETTER WAY TO LEARN
EDUCATION FOUNDED IN 2013 10 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2.55M / 1 ROUND
Started in 2013 by Mattan Griffel and Chris Castiglione, One Month makes online courses that don’t suck. Everybody wants to develop a website, but few people know how to get started. At One Month you can learn the fundamentals of Ruby on Rails, Python, JavaScript, UX, HTML, and Programming for Non-Programmers (for those of us who don’t even know where to start!) all in less than 30 days. And the best part? Each class comes with live access and feedback from your teachers. So when you get stuck (which we all do sometimes) you’ll have someone by your side cheering you on. One Month has been described in the press as ‘Harvard meets Netflix’, which really says it all. With more than 50,000 students having graduated from One Month, now it’s your turn! What if you could learn anything in One Month? // onemonth.com Image: Mattan Griffel (Co-Founder, CEO) and Chris Castiglione (Co-Founder, Dean)
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THE HUNDERT
The Bowery Market is a year-round openair food market. It has little kiosks, each with a different vendor offering delicious bites. Grab a La Porchetta Italian sandwich, some carne asada tacos, or wagyu beef sushi, find a sidewalk bench, and watch the world go by. // thebowerymarket.com
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THE HUNDERT
NAMELY
ALL-IN-ONE HR TECHNOLOGY
HUMAN RESOURCES FOUNDED IN 2012 340 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $107.8M / 8 ROUNDS
Namely is the first HR platform that employees actually love to use. It is powerful, easy-to-use technology that allows mid-sized companies to handle all of their HR, payroll, benefits, and talent management in one place. In addition to dedicated support and benefits consulting, every Namely client gets the software and service they need to deliver great HR and a strong, engaged company culture. Namely is used by over 500 clients with more than 100,000 employees globally. Headquartered in New York City, the company is funded by Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, True Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Greenspring Associates, Vayner/RSE, Bullpen Capital, and others. // namely.com Image: Matt Straz (Founder, CEO)
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Cooper Square is named after 19th century New Yorker and industrialist Peter Cooper, who built the first American steam locomotive and had a hand in the invention of Jell-O. In 1875, at the age of 85, he ran for president as a candidate for the short-lived Greenback Party.
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THE HUNDERT
IRISVR
INSTANT VR FOR THE BUILDING INDUSTRY
IrisVR creates tools that empower everyone in the building industry to better communicate and understand design using virtual reality. The company started in 2014. Shane Scranton (CEO) had an architectural visualization company where he saw how difficult it was for project stakeholders to understand building models and blueprints. Nate Beatty (CTO) was an avid programmer. After the release of the Oculus Rift DK2, Shane and Nate partnered to find a way to allow people to immerse themselves in their models so they could make more informed design and construction decisions. After months of work, Prospect was born. Now, anyone can navigate through the Prospect 3D model in seconds using the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive without having to learn new software. IrisVR has also created Scope, a VR software for mobile phones, where users can share 360-degree views of a space using Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR. // irisvr.com Image: Nate Beatty (Co-Founder, CTO) and Shane Scranton (Co-Founder, CEO)
VIRTUAL REALITY FOUNDED IN 2014 14 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $1.625M / 1 ROUND
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THE HUNDERT
MARKETING FOUNDED IN 2011 250 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $74.5M / 4 ROUNDS
PERCOLATE
THE SYSTEM OF RECORD FOR MARKETING
Percolate was built by marketers for marketers. In 2011, Noah Brier and James Gross founded Percolate to help brands grow in a world transformed by social and mobile technology. They wanted to do so with software that is beautiful and works the same way marketers work. Today, Percolate’s all-in-one software platform helps marketers plan, create, and execute all their marketing. Over 800 brands including GE, Unilever, Mastercard, Marriott, Levi’s, Chobani, Lyft, and WeWork trust Percolate to manage their global marketing supply chains and help grow their business. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and GGV, Percolate is one of the fastest growing companies in enterprise software. // percolate.com Image: Noah Brier (Co-Founder, CEO)
Staple Street in Tribeca was originally an alley between a hospital and its laundries. It features New York’s lowest sky bridge, built in 1907 to make movement through the hospital easier. The street is a great secret spot, perfect for Instagramming.
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BARK & CO BUILDING A DISNEY FOR DOGS
Bark & Co is the New York-based startup dedicated to making dogs and their people happy. Since launching in 2012 with BarkBox, a monthly box of funny toys, treats, and chews that you can’t find together anywhere else, the dog-obsessed humans at Bark & Co have shipped more than 25 million products to date. The company has since expanded with a goal of building a Disney for dogs, having the backs of dog parents for all their dog needs, and creating its own products, experiences and entertainment with BarkShop, BarkLive, and BarkPost. BarkBox is designed – from the packaging to products – to create moments of insane joy for dogs. There is a new, fun theme each month. Bark & Co paw-picks the best treats and innovative toys to match a dog‘s unique needs, including allergies or heavy chewers. While the BarkShop is loaded with products for dogs to play, eat, nest, and more, BarkPost creates original content for dog people, helping dogs share their stories with the world using the power of humans. // barkbox.com Image: Henrik Werdelin (Co-Founder), Carly Strife (Co-Founder, COO), Molly and Matt Meeker (Co-Founder, CEO)
E-COMMERCE FOUNDED IN 2012 160 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $77M / 3 ROUNDS
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Columbus Park in Manhattan’s China Town is a popular gathering place and full of local life. Many come to the park in the early morning to do Tai Chi routines. Later on, people play chess, mah jongg, and checkers, while groups of spectators gather to watch, commentate, and socialise.
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Doughnut Plant’s all natural and all fresh confections have been popular since it started baking in 1994. Its ‘Tres Leches’ is a particular favorite: a fabulously indulgent creation infused with a triple mix of condensed milk, evaporated milk, and cream. // doughnutplant.com
EDUCATION FOUNDED IN 2011 35 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $42.5M / 3 ROUNDS
CODECADEMY LEARN TO CODE INTERACTIVELY, FOR FREE
Codecademy, founded in 2011 by Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski, teaches more than 25 million people around the world an invaluable skill: coding. As an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in different programming and markup languages, the company’s focus is on creating an interactive, engaging learning experience paired with practical courses that have helped students in nearly every country in the world become more employable. Codecademy works with governments around the world, including The White House, as well as companies like Bloomberg. They have also raised more than $40m from top tier investors, including Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Naspers. // codecademy.com Image: Zach Sims (Co-Founder, CEO)
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Built in 1902, the Flatiron Building has a shape with a peculiar effect, causing swirling wind that lifts the skirts of passing women. It has other quirks: men’s bathrooms are only on even floors, women’s on odd; and getting to the top floor requires two elevators, as it was a late addition to the building.
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FLATIRON HEALTH
FIGHTING CANCER WITH ORGANIZED DATA
Flatiron Health is a healthcare technology company that’s raised over $320 million from Google Ventures, Roche, and others to transform cancer treatment using organized data. The company believes the biggest revolutions in cancer treatment will happen by creating the digital infrastructure to organize patient data and track it more efficiently. Typically, when someone has cancer — unless they are among 4% of the population part of a clinical trial or research hospital — their records won’t be aggregated as part of a larger, collaborative system. Flatiron is building a “learning healthcare” platform that will enable all patients’ cancer experiences to help others facing the disease. Flatiron’s 300-person team includes some of the best minds in healthcare, tech, and cancer including oncologists, nurses, data scientists and engineers. It has a hugely ambitious plan, but it’s working — it recently entered into a major collaboration with the FDA to study real-world effects of immunotherapy treatment. // flatiron.com Image: Zach Weinberg (Co-Founder, President, COO) and Nat Turner (CoFounder, CEO)
DIGITAL HEALTH FOUNDED IN 2012 302 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $328M / 3 ROUNDS
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MANAGED BY Q RUNNING THE OFFICE – THE EASY WAY
Known as the operating system for offices, Managed by Q was built on the idea that running an office isn’t easy. Q is the platform for office management that makes it easy to run an office, as it takes on all aspects of managing a physical space and integrates them into one beautiful interface. The Q platform centralizes office management services through software that coordinates regularly-scheduled cleaning, maintenance requests, supply stocking, and hundreds of other office services. It allows users to leave feedback on tasks completed, request special projects, and more. All services are managed through robust web and mobile applications, and fulfillment is handled by Q’s exceptional network of specialists. Q has raised $42 million in funding to date, is headquartered in New York City, and currently operates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. // managedbyQ.com Image: Dan Teran (Co-Founder, CEO)
OFFICE SERVICES FOUNDED IN 2014 500 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $42M / 4 ROUNDS
Coleman Square Playground on the Lower East Side is named in tribute to a local man, Army Corporal Joseph Francis Coleman, who served and died in World War I. Lying in the shadows of the Manhattan Bridge, the park today has a great urban ambience, and it boasts a popular skate park and ballfield.
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BIG DATA FOUNDED IN 2014 12 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2.22M / 2 ROUNDS
PARIBUS GET MONEY BACK WHEN PRICES DROP
Paribus is based on a simple observation: stores are collecting more and more data with each passing day to drive up what consumers pay. Online retailers algorithmically alter the information customers see, influence their perceptions, and push them to pay more for less. Founders Karim Atiyeh and Eric Glyman wanted to turn the tables and empower consumers by using advanced algorithms. When you are owed money, Paribus’s algorithms automatically get it for you by handling everything from instantly detecting purchases, monitoring and comparing price changes in real time, and automatically filing out claims to get you paid. The team at Paribus believes that technology should work in the background for you rather than asking you to constantly interact with something to glean value from it. The roadmap includes reducing costs on any transaction, from travel and insurance to student loans and utility bills. Paribus was recently acquired by Capital One in October 2016. This presents new opportunities to both the startup and its users. // paribus.co Image: Karim Atiyeh (Co-Founder, CTO)
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Cooper Union was founded in 1859 as an educational institute for science and arts. The largest of its schools is the prestigious Albert Nerken School of Engineering, housed in a futuristic building. The innovative and vibrant design is intended to reflect the character of the school itself. // cooper.edu
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PELOTON USING TECHNOLOGY TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE FITNESS INDUSTRY
In 2012, Peloton founder John Foley brought top talent together in the Silicon Valley headquarters to create a new concept in fitness. John and his wife Jill loved cycling but had a hard time finding a workout that consistently fit their schedules, and at-home workouts never felt quite up to par. So, John, along with co-founders Yony, Tom, and Graham set out to create Peloton: a world-class indoor cycling studio experience on your time, and in the comfort of your own home. // pelotoncycle.com Image: Tom Cortese (Co-Founder, COO), Yony Feng (Co-Founder, CTO), Graham Stanton (Co-Founder, SVP Performance Marketing) and John Foley (Co-Founder, CEO)
FITNESS FOUNDED IN 2012 300 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $120M / 2 ROUNDS
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Photographer: Christoph Lange
THE HUNDERT
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THE HUNDERT
Madison Square Park has been a public space since 1686. It had a role in the birth of baseball: in the 1840s, amateur teams gathered here to play and rules were first codified. Today it is a pleasant space with artworks, greenery, and free Wi-Fi.
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2015 23 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $10M / 1 ROUND
SOURCEPOINT
CREATING COMPENSATION CHOICE FOR PUBLISHERS AND CONSUMERS Sourcepoint is a content compensation platform that works with the world’s largest publishers to offer consumers a range of compensation choices to enjoy the content they love, aiming to create a more balanced and sustainable media ecosystem. Sourcepoint’s technology enables publishers to engage in dialogue with their audience at scale about content compensation preferences. By doing so, publishers can offer their users a more customized experience, where consumers are agreeing to compensate the publisher for their content in a transparent and explicit way. Founded in 2015, Sourcepoint is led by CEO Ben Barokas and a founding team with 50+ years of collective experience catering to the unique needs of premium publishers. Investors include the Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Greycroft, and Accel Partners. // sourcepoint.com Image: Maxwell Newbould (Co-Founder, VP of Engineering), Brian Kane (Co-Founder, COO), Jeroen Seghers (Co-Founder, CMO), Benjamin Barokas (Co-Founder, CEO), Geir Magnusson Jr. (Co-Founder, CTO)
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THE HUNDERT // INFOGRAPHICS
BERLIN VS NEW YORK LOCATION 27,493 BILLION $
2,432
0.47
46,269 BILLION $
ECOSYSTEM VALUE
8,330
NUMBER OF STARTUPS
0.41
OUTPUT PER CAPITA
OUTPUT PER CAPITA
FUNDING 0,563 MILLION $
AVERAGE SEED AMOUNT
0,875 MILLION $
5,880 MILLION $
AVERAGE SERIES A
7,774 MILLION $
12,249 MILLION $
AVERAGE SERIES B
11,869 MILLION $
1.66
1.33
TIME TO RAISE VERSUS SILICON VALLEY (=1)
TECHNICAL TALENT TIME TO HIRE ENGINEER
64 DAYS
TIME TO HIRE ENGINEER
50 DAYS
COST OF ENGINEER
116,693 $
COST OF ENGINEER
60,122 $ 18 %
EXPERIENCE
12 %
47 %
ROUNDS WITH FOREIGN INVESTORS
132
34 % 14 %
50
40
35 %
FOREIGN EMPLOYEES
38 %
30
20
10
0
10
GO GLOBAL FOREIGN CUSTOMERS
49 %
100 %
AT LEAST ONE TECH CO-FOUNDER
20
30
50
40
95 %
Source: Compass – The Global Startup Eco System Ranking 2015
HYPER-GROWTH EXPERIENCE
Start local – Go global The EXIST program supports students, graduates and scientists as they set up technology and knowledgebased start-ups in Germany. www.exist.de
The German Accelerator supports high-potential technology and life-sciences start-ups from Germany to successfully enter the U.S. market, scale up their business, and go global. www.germanaccelerator.com
THE HUNDERT
“THE STARTUP SCENE: ONE OF BERLIN’S KEY ECONOMIC FACTORS” Dr. Stefan Franzke, CEO of the business development organization ‘Berlin Partner for Business and Technology’, on the German startup capital and a program with which startup entrepreneurs can establish themselves internationally.
Why is Berlin the perfect place to set up a business? Stefan Franzke: Young entrepreneurs and creative talents flock to Berlin like moths to a flame. After all, Berlin can offer them everything they need to successfully set up their businesses: creative freedom, skilled specialists, the necessary funding, and the cooperation of business and science. In Berlin, there is an ever increasing number of attractive partners for startups: e.g. 13 out of the 30 DAX companies are now in Berlin in order to collaborate with startups.
© Fotostudio Charlottenburg
Startups come and startups go – is the startup capital Berlin more illusion than reality? Stefan Franzke: No, absolutely not. The startup scene has evolved into one of Berlin’s key economic factors. Just take a look at the number of jobs: if you add all the jobs in the startup scene together, it ranks as the fifth-largest employer in the city with 13,200 employees. Additionally, with regard to investment, startup entrepreneurs are very active: in the first half of 2016, the 500 startups currently mentored by Berlin Partner invested approximately €55 million in Berlin.
Dr. Stefan Franzke, CEO of Berlin Partner for Business and Technology
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(c) Blogfabrik - Christoph Neumann
THE HUNDERT // ADVERTORIAL
Berlin Partner offers individual trips to coworking spaces in Berlin
Business funding can sometimes sound slightly conservative. How do you adapt to the dynamic startup scene? Stefan Franzke: We have purposefully adapted to the needs of startups. Of course, the required funding is initially vital in order to realize a business idea and make it become something big. Berlin Partner advises startup entrepreneurs about subsidy programs and establishes contacts with investors and Family Offices. Furthermore, we help startups to create networks with important industry players and suitable research partners by holding over 100 “matchmaking” events annually. We also help with the location search and offer individual trips to the most popular coworking spaces.
The first steps abroad are not easy. What should startup entrepreneurs watch out for? Stefan Franzke: Proper preparation is vital. How does the target market differ from Germany’s? To what does the target group attach importance? What are the business practices? All of these questions should be clarified beforehand. For example, in the U.S.A. it is especially important to highlight the benefit to the customer. In China, on the other hand, customers are very technology-oriented. Further information about Start Alliance Berlin can be found at www.start-alliance.berlin
What does the startup need to bring to the program? Stefan Franzke: Primarily, they need to bring a finished product, but also a desire to expand or to create international partnerships, as well as to gather international capital or to recruit new talent.
© Tobias Everk - Berlin Partner
To make it big, you have to go beyond Berlin. What is the best way to go about this? Stefan Franzke: By using our exchange program for startups. I am frequently travelling the world with Berlin startups: their business ideas are in great demand. For this reason, Berlin Partner created Start Alliance Berlin, the startup exchange program. Those that take part in the program receive a free coworking space for up to six weeks, therefore having the opportunity to immerse themselves in the startup ecosystem of the partner city – New York, Tel Aviv, Shanghai and Paris are the cities to choose from.
Dr. Stefan Franzke (r.) and Christian Herzog (l.), Head of Division Digital Business at Berlin Partner, congratulate Frank O’Brien, COO and co-founder OdemGlobal for his successful pitch at the launch of Start Alliance Berlin in N YC.
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GOING INTERNATIONAL Shopkick is a mobile shopping app that lets users earn rewards simply by being in a store. They don’t have to buy anything – just walk through the door and say, “Hello, I’m here.” It was founded in the US in 2009 and launched in Germany in October 2014. The service has over 20 million users and has driven a lot of sales for partners – over a billion dollars’ worth annually in the U.S. right now. It also tells you about current deals and let’s you know what is interesting in a store.
Fast Company ranked Shopkick as one of the world’s 10 Most Innovative Companies In Retail, along with Apple and Starbucks. It was acquired for $250M by SK Telecom/SK Planet two years ago. A major reason for the acquisition was that Shopkick showed their model was good to roll out internationally. Together with SevenVentures, investment arm of the German media powerhouse ProSiebenSat.1, they successfully rolled out their business model in Germany. Cyriac, Shopkick was based in the Valley when you started. How important is it today where a company is based? Cyriac Roeding: Shopkick was started in Silicon Valley, literally
in the basement of Kleiner Perkins, one of the venture capital companies that had initially invested in Google, Amazon and so on. So it was a true Silicon Valley startup. The initial goal was to become a break-out leader in the United States market because of the size of the market and we obviously expected Silicon Valley’s pool of talent, venture capital and connections to help. Sascha, this might be a good moment for you to explain how you help companies expand to Europe or Germany. Sascha von Holt: Unfortunately, there is still more imitation than innovation happening in Germany or in Europe in general. American companies at first have a unique business model,
Cyriac Roeding co-founded and led Shopkick for seven years until January 2016. He is a Silicon Valley–based entrepreneur and investor who works with consumer-focused startups and venture capitalists. He is a limited partner in Founders Fund, Andreesen Horowitz, KPCB, IVP, ZhenFund, SV Angel and SVB, and a direct investor and advisor in over a dozen startups, including Karma Science (acquired by Facebook), Cardspring (acquired by Twitter), Grofers, Curbside, Zumper and Brilliant. The World Economic Forum named Roeding a Tech Pioneer 2013.
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Sascha von Holt is CEO of SevenVentures, the leading TV media investor worldwide, launched in 2011 as the investment arm of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. SevenVentures is the partner for B2C growth companies that have the potential to achieve sustainable success through the use of TV advertising. They take a flexible investment approach that includes cash investments for minority interests and media partnerships. SevenVentures helps companies understand and enter the German market, creating a German nucleus via marketing strategies, team-hiring and cooperation with businesses in their network
since the big innovation happens in Silicon Valley or New York, but at second glance things are not so bright, because if they want to expand to Europe they often find themselves cloned, meaning they face competitors who might be behind in terms of company development but who are already in the market and have secured users. These clones may have set market entry barriers and may understand the consumers and domestic territory, as well as potential regulations, better than the original company. This is especially true for special technology companies. So the big challenge for U.S. businesses is to enter the foreign market in Europe early but still to exploit their biggest advantage, which is their much larger domestic market. We help American companies, or companies from other countries, enter Europe via Germany and build a base here. We not only advise these companies on how to reshape their product and adjust their customer position strategy, but also keep an eye on TV stations to scale up quickly. We take some of the effort and risk of expanding to Germany and Europe on our shoulders and let them launch very efficiently and successfully, without losing focus on their core domestic market. We’ve done this a couple of times now. Shopkick is one of the examples where we could hopefully add some value in internationalizing. Cyriac, could you explain how you entered the German or European market? How do you see the partnership with SevenVentures? How necessary or important is a partner when you enter a market?
Cyriac Roeding: When international companies come to Europe they face the problem that it is not one big market but many smaller markets that come together as a big market. And it is not easy to enter. Language barriers exist and there are regulatory issues, cultural barriers and consumer differences. It’s very different from Silicon Valley. Shopkick faced just this situation. I’m German by background, so I understand the German market a little bit, but it is still a daunting task for an organization. And that’s where SevenVentures and the entire ProSiebenSat.1 Group network comes in. We had done a ton of research about how to go into Europe and who to go with. We actually refrained from going into Europe for several years. The first time the CEO of a German retailer came to Shopkick was in 2011, which was one year after we launched in the market. And they said, “When are you finally coming to Europe?” We were like, “Well, we just launched 12 months ago and we have a team of 35 people and we are strapped to the bone and have no idea what to do next because we have so much to do. Internationalization is just about the last thing we have on our minds right now. But it’s great to meet you.” This retailer was Karl-Erivan Haub from the Tengelmann group, who was clearly thinking light-years ahead compared to other retailers in Germany. SevenVentures stood out in multiple ways from the other players we talked to, which included the other big media companies in Germany, as well as U.K. media companies and retailers. The main reason we went with the ProSiebenSat.1 Group and SevenVentures as a strategic partner was that it
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is lead by a team of entrepreneurs. That may be a little bit surprising. You may think we were drawn to their media power. But it was because of their culture. Right at the beginning the CEO of ProSiebenSat.1, Thomas Ebeling, personally showed up in our offices in Silicon Valley and we had a great heart-to-heart meeting. He is a true entrepreneur running the company. You have to understand that media space is something you can buy with cash. But if you believe in your startup, then the most valuable currency the startup has is not cash, but equity. SevenVentures understood from the beginning that we wanted to build a market together, gain expertise from the entire ProSiebenSat.1 Group, understand regulatory issues, understand the retailers in Germany and so on. SevenVentures put three people on the project. It was never contractually agreed. I have never seen a single bill from them for all the travel costs that these people had because they were constantly on the road with us. It was always entrepreneurial and focused on the outcome. And the result was that we travelled Germany, literally went on a Germany tour, and we met with 20 retailers, a lot of them at CEO-level. All this happened before we launched. When we launched in Germany we launched with every store of Douglas MediaMarkt, Saturn, OBI, Karstadt… The list goes on, and that was only possible because of SevenVentures and the entire ProSiebenSat.1 Group. Sascha, can you talk a bit from your perspective about the process when Shopkick entered the European and German market? How did you manage that? Sascha von Holt: Working with Shopkick was a delight. Several elements were critical for our success. First of all was connecting with entrepreneurs. Even though we are a large organization and work with organizations that are very small and fast-growing, it is very important that the right people fit to collaborate with the entrepreneurs in the right way. Secondly, what we liked about Shopkick is that they thought big. There were some local competitors in Europe popping up at the time during the expansion of Shopkick, but we didn’t really see the same vision. That’s very important for us as a mass media company. We’re not in for small things, we’re in for household brands. We used our TV power in order to launch and that helped us build up a million users within a six-month period, which was pretty unprecedented. Right. Then maybe a question for Cyriac: How important is speed these days? Usually you say “scale or fail,” but has that changed within the last couple of years? Not only because of the Samwer brothers – do you think that companies have to scale much faster than they did before? Cyriac Roeding: The short answer is yes, speed is critical. In fact, there is a whole range of reasons given in a new book by Reid Hoffman, called “Blitzscaling” (which we Europeans or Germans might not like as a title because of its connotations). The idea is simply to be so fast in rolling out a market that you are basically taking it over at a rate unsustainable for anyone else. What would you say is the right moment to internationalize? Cyriac Roeding: I would say the companies that are ready to internationalize are the ones that have shown product-market fit in their own market. The way to discover product-market fit is to see that if you do no marketing, you have an exponential user adoption rate. In other words: are users adopting your product
and telling one another about it if you don’t do anything, and what is the sustainability of that rate and also what is the repeat rate – in other words, what is the user retention? If the numbers show that you have a really good product then you have to think about whether it is mass-scalable, if is it going to be interesting for people of different cultures and if it scalable in other markets. One last question to Sascha. Which companies are you looking for? Sascha van Holt: We are looking for innovative companies whose products or services are already successfully established in their home market, but feel ready now to take the critical next step towards growth with a tailored marketing strategy in Germany. We would love to support those companies through our seven nationwide free TV channels and our entire digital group network.
5 TIPS FOR BRANDS TO ENTER THE GERMAN MARKET 1. Know Why You Are Going to Germany Before you expand your business to Germany you have to understand that it’s the biggest economy on the European continent you are dealing with. You might be a big fish in your country but here you might face competition from smart big players on their home turf. Specialize your USP and be ready for that! 2. Do Your Homework — Especially the Boring Stuff Know the market you are planning on conquering! If you want to expand to Germany you need to get familiar with a lot of German laws like Arbeitsschutzgesetz, Sozialabgaben or Einkommenssteuergesetz (yes, that’s a word). You also need a strategy to deal with other regulatory issues, consumer differences or simply language barriers. 3. Don’t Underestimate Cultural Differences Amazon, Facebook and even Google, they all had to learn it the hard way: there is often a pretty big cultural gap between U.S. costumers and German ones – especially when it comes to privacy or security matters. Look out for those sandtraps! 4. Set Entry Barriers Fast — Once You Are In It might be hard to get in, but the point is, to make it even harder for your followers. Don’t rely on marketing channels that are hyper competitive or that take time to win momentum in. Come with a big bang and get everybody scared to come near you. 5. Find a Strong Partner To scale internationally plus keep on exploiting the domestic market is a tough thing to do simultaneously. That’s why it is crucial for your success that you find the right partner like SevenVentures that knows and understands the German market, helps you tear down barriers of all kinds and accelerate your business.
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Deutsche Bank deutsche-bank.de/startups
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LOVER.LY
MEET YOUR VIRTUAL WEDDING PLANNER ™ Lover.ly is a digital destination that has helped plan and inspire weddings for over hundreds of thousands of brides, all of which have been oh-so-special! In just a few years, the company has become the most sought-after source for all things “I Do,” serving up expert advice, inspiration, product recommendations, celebrity insider scoops, fashion and beauty hacks that modern couples, bridal parties, and wedding guests can use to stay organized and in-the-know. Lover.ly is the first-ever, app-based Virtual Wedding Planner, offering perfect, flat-fee wedding planning packages and round-the-clock support for couples looking for extra help with their big day. // lover.ly Image: Kellee Khalil (Founder, CEO)
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2012 8 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $7M / 3 ROUNDS
Buttercup Bake Shop has been offering old fashioned sweet treats since 1999. Its mouth-watering menu combines old favorites like red velvet and classic vanilla with a modern take on cupcakes: it has its own version of the famous Hummingbird bakery’s carrot cake using a banana and pineapple base. Grab Buttercup’s recipe book and try making your own! // buttercupbakeshop.com
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Devociรณn is a coffee roastery with a mission: to promote the finest beans from Colombia while helping their growers to establish better lives. Its huge, airy space in Williamsburg with brick walls, stylish seating, and vast skylight is the perfect place to grab a coffee or a cold brew. // devocion.com
MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT FOUNDED IN 2014 15 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $11.3M / 3 ROUNDS
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JUKELY THOUSANDS OF CONCERTS FOR A SINGLE FLAT RATE
Jukely is a live music membership. As part of a monthly membership, members attend concerts and shows buffet-style – all you can listen to. Using the Jukely app or website, members can discover new musicians and DJs, stream music, explore things to do near music venues before and after shows, and put themselves on the guestlist to any of the thousands of shows Jukely members attend each month. The membership is available in 14 U.S. cities (New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Austin, Houston, Dallas) as well as London and Toronto. // jukely.com Image: Bora Celik (Founder, CEO)
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CALLIDA ENERGY
REINVENTING THE WAY BUILDINGS WORK Enabling facility managers to reduce energy waste, sustainability managers to reduce carbon emissions, and building occupants to achieve a healthy and comfortable workplace, Callida is reinventing the way commercial buildings work for everyone. The Callida App lets every occupant have a voice in office comfort ratings that are visualized in real-time on the facility manager’s dashboard, and Callida lets the facility manager know when the office is empty to turn down cooling/heating to generate savings with no discomfort. Callida also monitors demand and energy consumption to prevent setting new peak usage and to increase overall cooling/heating efficiency. Incubated in 2013 at the Dreamit NYC Accelerator, Callida has been installed in commercial real estate and municipal sites, achieving HVAC energy savings of more than 30%. Callida is dedicated to its mission: to make every commercial building the most efficient, sustainable, and productive workplace possible, globally. // callidaenergy.com Image: Timothy Lynch (Co-Founder, VP of Energy Engineering) and Raphael Carty (Co-Founder, CEO)
SUSTAINABILITY FOUNDED IN 2013 4 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
Astor Place subway station opened in 1904. Today it is known for its replica of an original, ornate cast-iron station entrance. Inside you can find more period detail including depictions of beavers: the station’s namesake John Jacob Astor made his fortune selling beaver furs.
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ADORE ME Adore Me is an e-commerce startup disrupting the lingerie market with affordable, fast-fashion and stylish lingerie. In four years, Adore Me raised $11.5 million in funding and has 6.5 million users, over 1 million Facebook followers, and 100 employees across the U.S. and Europe. In 2015, Adore Me was ranked #14 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in America, topping the charts as the #2 fastest-growing company in retail and #2 fastest-growing company in NYC. Up until now online-only, Adore Me is expanding into retail and TV advertising and the brand has big plans to dethrone Victoria’s Secret. // AdoreMe.com
THE NEW FACE OF LINGERIE
Image: Morgan Hermand-Waiche (Founder, CEO)
E-COMMERCE FOUNDED IN 2012 100 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $11.5M / 5 ROUNDS
At 443 meters, the Empire State Building was the tallest in the world when completed in 1931. It has 102 floors, over 6,000 windows, 10 million bricks, and 73 elevators. If you feel like walking, there are 1,860 steps to the top. // esbnyc.com
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MAKER'S ROW MANUFACTURING MADE EASY
Maker’s Row is the destination for American made. The company helps brands and businesses connect with local factories through an academy, project bidding software, and marketplace of factories. With a network of 11,000 American factories and 120,000 brands, it has helped millions of products come to life. Doing its part to reshore the production of goods back to the USA, the company connects businesses of all sizes with opportunities to discover and communicate with domestic manufacturers, as well as offers courses dedicated to production, sourcing, quality-control, etc. for people starting out on the maker path. // makersrow.com Image: Matthew Burnett (Co-Founder, CEO) and Tanya Menendez (Co-Founder, CMO)
MANUFACTURING FOUNDED IN 2012 20 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2.5 M / 2 ROUNDS
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Main Street Park on the East River is a popular spot, and for good reason. You can dip your toes in the water at its pebble beach, check out installations by local artists, or take a ride on the vintage carousel nearby. Combine it with a visit to DUMBO’s flea market for a great Sunday out.
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THE MUSE THE CAREER SITE FOR MILLENNIALS
Founded in 2011 by Kathryn Minshew and Alex Cavoulacos, The Muse delivers quality advice, skill-building resources, and personalized coaching services to over 50 million job seekers and ambitious professionals every year. The Muse is the only online career resource that offers candidates a behindthe-scenes look at hundreds of companies across all industries and sizes to illuminate company culture – not just job descriptions. The Muse also works with employers to improve their employer branding, promote content, and hire top talent, helping companies create authentic and lasting connections with candidates before they even apply. Ultimately, The Muse’s mission is to become the most beloved and trusted career destination in the world, to the extent that every single person considering their next career move, or company considering talent solutions, thinks of The Muse. // themuse.com Image: Alex Cavoulacos (Co-Founder, COO) and Kathryn Minshew (Co-Founder, CEO)
HUMAN RESOURCES FOUNDED IN 2011 135 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $28.7M / 4 ROUNDS
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Grand Central Terminal is famed for its light-filled central concourse and ceiling depicting the night sky. Beside the main hall lie curious and romantic whispering walls: when two people stand at opposite arches and whisper, they can hear each other’s voices transported across the room. // grandcentralterminal.com
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STARRY
CHANGING INTERNET CONNECTIVITY FOR THE BETTER
Starry believes the future of connectivity is wireless. Because connecting people and things to highspeed broadband internet should be simple, effortless, and affordable, Starry (a Boston- and New York-based startup) is reimagining what it means to be an internet service provider by developing an ecosystem of products and services designed to simplify your connected life. The company is using high frequency spectrum to deliver ultra fast internet wirelessly to the home. In developing and building an entire technology stack, it is also rewriting the book on customer experience and in-home connectivity with its touchscreen Wi-Fi hub, Starry Station. The innovatively designed Station (with accolades including Inc.’s ‘Most Brilliant Product Designs of 2016’) gives users at-aglance updates on their home’s Wi-Fi health and device performance while proactively surfacing problems and potential fixes. Starry is all about better internet and better Wi-Fi for a more seamlessly connected life. // starry.com Image: Chet Kanojia (Co-Founder, CEO)
COMMUNICATIONS FOUNDED IN 2014 80 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
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A beloved institution, the New York Public Library has provided New Yorkers with books, learning, and inspiration since 1911. The Beaux-Arts building is famous for its 90-meter-long reading room and its two guardian lions, Patience and Fortitude. // nypl.org
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EQUITYZEN WHERE PRIVATE INVESTORS ACCESS PROVEN STARTUPS
Founded in 2013, EquityZen is reinventing private market investing. Just as E-Trade provides the ability to buy and sell public stock, EquityZen provides the ability to buy and sell private company stock, with the companies’ approval. Twenty years ago, Amazon went public just four years after being founded; today, companies remain private for over a decade before they IPO. This longer timeline creates a gap between the company’s exit and personal timelines of the employees and investors who have helped build the company. Having conducted ~1,000 private placement transactions already, EquityZen is bridging this gap with a transparent and digital platform. The impressive team’s background means EquityZen has the hybrid DNA of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Its relentless focus on building a business with integrity has allowed EquityZen to attract 10,000+ sophisticated and wealthy investors from 15+ countries. // equityzen.com Image: Phil Haslett (Co-Founder, Investments), Atish Davda (Co-Founder, CEO) and Shri Bhashyam (Co-Founder, Shareholders)
FINTECH FOUNDED IN 2013 10 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $3.5M / 1 ROUND
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Known for its arch honoring George Washington, Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village is a great spot for people watching. You can listen to jazz, join in some yoga on the grass, or chat to a student from the local NYU. On a sunny afternoon it feels like all of New York life is here.
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NESTIO
POWERING THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY
REAL ESTATE FOUNDED IN 2011 40 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $11.92M / 4 ROUNDS
Birch Coffee has outposts across the city, and a loyal following for its strong coffees and friendly baristas. Birch prides itself on the quality of its beans, which are roasted on Long Island. No time to leave your desk? Order a delivery of Birch’s famous cold brew. // birchcoffee.com
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Caren Maio and Mike O’Toole started Nestio because they believed that renting apartments should be easy. They spent thousands of hours talking to key industry players to discover the root problem as to why the rental experience was so inefficient. Rental listings were often wrong, missing information, or outdated because the industry was relying on legacy technology. This resulted in a terrible experience and wasted time and money for everyone involved. In 2013, Caren and Mike built a product to change that, enabling everyone in the industry to manage and communicate information in real-time. Nestio enables real estate professionals to manage inventory, track leads and deals, advertise listings, and access performance analytics – all from one system. Today, Nestio employs 40 people, has raised nearly $12 million in venture capital, and their SaaS platform is being utilized by some of the most well known real estate companies throughout the country. // nestio.com Image: Caren Maio (Co-Founder, CEO) and Mike O’Toole (Co-Founder, CTO)
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SMART VISION LABS
DISRUPTING TRADITIONAL VISION TESTING
DIGITAL HEALTH FOUNDED IN 2013 18 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $8.1M / 2 ROUNDS Smart Vision Labs is making vision care less expensive, less complicated, and more accessible. The company offers a mobile-phone based eye exam where patients can obtain an eyewear prescription in minutes without the need for a doctor on-site. Smart Vision Exams’ proprietary technology shrinks expensive, bulky equipment to a portable device that is adapted to a telemedicine platform. The company partners with optical stores and other retailers to bring Smart Vision Exams to consumers. It is currently available in 30 locations in New York and California, and the company is looking to expand to other states in the coming months. Founded in 2013, Smart Vision Labs aims to increase access to vision care by leveraging technology and innovation. Over 40,000 vision tests have been performed to date in 23 countries. // smartvisionlabs.com Image: Yaopeng Zhou (Co-Founder, CEO) and Marc Albanese (Co-Founder, COO)
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Payley Park is a tiny urban oasis tucked away off East 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan. A 20-foot-high waterfall does a great job of bringing peace to the space, camouflaging the sounds of the city. Green ivy and honey locust trees add to the sense of calm.
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RINGLY JEWELRY, MEET TECHNOLOGY
Maintain peace of mind and lead a more balanced and healthy lifestyle with Ringly, the world’s most stylish smart jewelry. Ringly helps women stay on top of their daily activity and notifications discreetly. Their newest collection of rings and bracelets pairs with a mobile app and tracks steps, distance, and calories burned. It allows the wearer to set health goals, view progress, and earn Ringly rewards for success. The jewelry also receives mobile alerts, such as calls and texts, through different vibration and color patterns. Whether it‘s at the dinner table, out with friends, or in an important meeting, Ringly will set your mind at ease and keep technology stylishly integrated into your life. // ringly.com Image: Christina d‘Avignon (Co-Founder, CEO) and Logan Munro (Co-Founder)
WEARABLES FOUNDED IN 2013 15 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $9M / 2 ROUNDS
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Grove Street in Greenwich Village owes its name to a grove of trees that used to stand there, and it remains a leafy spot to this day. The revolutionary Thomas Paine died at number 59 Grove Street in 1809 but the other famous residents are fictional: the apartment building from TV’s ‘Friends’ is here.
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TRIPLELIFT PROGRAMMATIC NATIVE ADVERTISING
MARKETING FOUNDED IN 2012 130 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $16.5M / 3 ROUNDS
TripleLift makes native programmatic simple, scalable, and effective. Leveraging pioneering computer vision technology, the company seamlessly transforms content like images and video into engaging in-feed native ads that match the unique look and feel of a publisher’s website. Accessible via the industry’s first and largest real-time, native programmatic exchange, TripleLift helps marketers reach millions of consumers across any device, at scale. Since 2012, TripleLift has delivered meaningful results for some of the world’s biggest brands through what it calls the next evolution of display advising. TripleLift was named 2012 NYC and The New York Times ‘Ad Tech Startup of the Year’, joined the Forbes list of ‘Most Promising Companies in America’ in 2015 and was named one of Crain’s New York Business’s ‘Best Places to Work in NYC’. // triplelift.com Image: Eric Berry (Co-Founder, CEO)
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Alleyways in Manhattan are surprisingly rare. That’s a result of the 1811 Commissioner’s Plan which set the blueprint for the city’s grid that exists to this day. The city elite who developed the plan saw alleys as dangerous for health and well-being, so almost none were built.
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Washington Mews is a quaint, historical street in Greenwich Village. The mews were originally stables for the grander houses behind. Today its low-sitting carriagehouses, climbing vines, and cobblestoned road give it a charming, European feel.
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GREENHOUSE SOFTWARE MAKING RECRUITING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Greenhouse Software designs tools that help companies source, interview, hire and onboard the right talent. With locations in NYC and San Francisco, their central goal is to teach an entire company how to hire by optimizing the recruiting process. This means they find better candidates, conduct more focused interviews, and make data-driven hiring decisions. Founded by Daniel Chait and Jon Stross, Greenhouse was recognized as one of the ‘Best Places to Work’ by Crain’s New York Business. The Greenhouse team currently works with over 1,500 of the world’s most innovative people-driven companies, including Airbnb, Slack, IDEO, Oscar Health, and more. // greenhouse.io Image: Daniel Chait (Co-Founder, CEO) and Jon Stross (Co-Founder, President)
HUMAN RESOURCES FOUNDED IN 2012 215 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $60.13M / 6 ROUNDS
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BUILDING
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DON’T BE AFRAID TO FAIL Founded in 1996 in Amsterdam, part of The Priceline Group, and now one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world with operations in over 200 countries worldwide, Booking.com is one of the most successful European tech startups in history. For our issue on New Amsterdam, as New York was originally known in the 17th century, CEO Gillian Tans shares her take on how this Dutch travel tech company has quietly transformed itself from start-up to one of the world’s most influential international players.
How did Booking.com get its start? How did the company grow? Gillian Tans: Booking.com was founded with one entrepreneur who had a really great idea, which was to leverage technology to make travel easier. He built one of the world’s first websites to allow people to book places to stay (think hotels, apartments, villas, even treehouses and igloos) instantly with the click of a button. From this idea and a single server, the company was born. It started with one hotel and slowly grew from there. Even when I joined the company in 2002, we were still only a few people and could all fit in one office. Now that we have more than 13,000 employees in 184 offices all over the world, it seems unbelievable to think about how quickly we’ve grown, but it’s really been an amazing journey. Growth in those early days was—and still is—all about building an incredible product
for our customers, which means testing constantly, remaining flexible, and not being afraid to make mistakes. What do you think has been the secret to Booking.com’s success? What have you done differently? Gillian Tans: From the very beginning, we were always told that we were doing everything wrong, from our business model to the look and feel of our website. We were the first digital travel platform to deploy a pay-after-you-stay model. The industry didn’t think it was feasible, but knew that this was critical to a great customer experience. Our website is not built for aesthetics. It’s all about incredibly functionality that instantly takes the friction out of the booking process. But these differences, while questioned by many, really set us apart and have been fundamental to our success.
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We’re also a company ruled by data, not opinion. We don’t believe in telling consumers what they want or relying on an employee’s “gut instinct.” Instead, we deploy technology in different formats, and experiment like crazy. At any given time, we’re running more than a thousand experiments on Booking.com on everything from the color of a button to how we present photos. Every little change is tested and measured to see what people like best. This data dictates the design and functionality of the platform, and I find it very liberating and egalitarian to operate in such an environment. If you’ve got a great idea—you’re empowered to test it at Booking.com and that creates a stimulating, diverse and uniquely high-performing work environment.
with a commitment to change on a whim if the data tells you to. Even if it feels uncomfortable or it seems like it sets you back. Ultimately, it’s this ongoing incremental improvement that will allow you to scale your business and achieve sustainable growth.
WHAT ARE YOUR TRAVEL TIPS FOR NEW AMSTERDAM? Gillian Tans: Whether it’s your first time or your 50th trip to the Big Apple, you can’t go wrong with the Meatpacking District. It’s full of great restaurants and bars and has such an incredible vibe. With some of the best views of the city, staying at The Standard is both convenient and a real treat. Not only are you really close to Chelsea Market, with all its specialty vendors and tasty food, but the entrance to the amazing High Line is only a few steps away, which is a wonderful way to see the city from a completely different perspective.
Has being headquartered in the Netherlands been an advantage for you? Is Amsterdam a great city for startups? Gillian Tans: Absolutely, the Netherlands, and particularly Amsterdam is an incredible environment for a startup. It’s naturally diverse and the city’s multi-cultural atmosphere has influenced our ability to create a product that can scale to serve cultures and languages all over the world. Being surrounded by large and influential countries in Europe, the Dutch have always had to have an entrepreneurial spirit and an almost innate outward-looking philosophy in order to compete and succeed. When you combine all of this with the amazing energy of a city like Amsterdam it’s really the perfect petri dish for creativity and exciting new business ventures. What advice do you have for other startups to grow? Gillian Tans: Stay flexible, listen to your customers, empower your people to make bold decisions—but most importantly, don’t be afraid to fail. You should celebrate your mistakes as an opportunity to learn and improve your product. Keep coming back to work every day determined to succeed. We’ve failed more times than I can count, but it’s all about consistent hard work
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WARUM ZINSEN NIEDRIG BLEIBEN UND AKTIEN STEIGEN WERDEN Das vorrangige Ziel der Europäischen Zentralbank ist es, die Preisstabilität zu gewährleisten. So lautet sinngemäß Artikel 127 Absatz 1 des Vertrages über die Arbeitsweise der Europäischen Union. „Vorrangig“ – ein interessanter Terminus, der zu weiteren Tätigkeiten einlädt. Und so heißt es dort auch weiter: „Soweit dies ohne Beeinträchtigung des Zieles der Preisstabilität möglich ist, unterstützt die EZB die allgemeine Wirtschaftspolitik in der Union.“ Angesichts einer kaum nennenswerten Inflation ist die Neben- längst Hauptaufgabe geworden. Die Preisstabilität – wir erinnern uns: das vorrangige Ziel – wird zur Manövriermasse erklärt nach dem Motto: Drücken wir mal ein Auge zu, „Preisstabilität“ ist relativ. Honi soit qui mal y pense. Aber vielleicht täusche ich mich ja. Vielleicht bin ich als Banker voreingenommen in meiner Sorge um die Stabilität des Finanzsystems und die Altersvorsorge von Millionen von Sparern als Folge dieser experimentellen Zinspolitik. BörsenAltmeister André Kostolany pflegte in diesem Zusammenhang auf die Regel der Wiener Kaffeehausgeiger zu verweisen: „Ka Göd – ka Musi.“ Ja, wenn doch das billige Geld von den Regierungen als Investitionschance einerseits und als ideale Gelegenheit für Strukturreformen andererseits genutzt würde ... So oder so, wir müssen mit den Konsequenzen leben, die die Eingriffe der Notenbank mit sich bringen, nämlich der weitgehenden Abwesenheit von Zinsen für gute Schuldner und einem extrem niedrigen Zinsniveau für nicht so gute Schuldner. Man kann sich nur wundern ... Doch wie geht das weiter? Was ist in zwei, drei Jahren? Das Marktgeschehen rund um die wohl kommende Zinswende in den U.S.A. ist keine Blaupause für Europa, denn die U.S.A. sind zwar stark verschuldet, aber angesichts niedriger Steuersätze mit Handlungsmöglichkeiten ausgestattet, von denen die Krisenmanager Europas nur träumen können. Was macht die EZB denn, falls sie Erfolg hat und die Inflationsrate steigt? Wird sie drei oder vier Prozent Inflation tolerieren und damit zugeben, dass es ihr um Staatsfinanzierung ging? Oder wird sie ihrem Mandat folgen und riskieren, dass die Zinslast für einige Staaten untragbar wird? Kaum anzunehmen, dass die Ausschläge an den europäischen Märkten nicht heftiger ausfallen als in den U.S.A.. Dennoch: Der langfristige Zinspfad wird letztlich ein flacher sein. Eine der ökonomischen Theorien, die sich in der Praxis über Jahrzehnte bestätigt haben, ist die, dass der Realzins langfristig überwiegend vom Wachstum bestimmt wird. Da sich trotz der vielen
Neuerungen in der Informationstechnik nichts an dem Trend von Dekade zu Dekade rückläufigen Wachstumsraten in den Industrieländern geändert hat, spricht viel für nachhaltig sehr niedrige Zinsen – zumindest in unserem Teil der Welt. Global agierende Unternehmen, die von den Wachstumszentren der Weltwirtschaft profitieren, werden ihre Gewinne aber deutlich mehr steigern können als das inländische Wachstum. Und Aktien weisen anders als Anleihen keine Anzeichen nennenswerter Verzerrung durch die Notenbank auf, ihr KursGewinn-Verhältnis rangiert als einziges aller Anlageklassen ziemlich genau auf dem gleichen, mittleren Niveau, auf dem es vor der Finanzkrise war. Sie lesen von mir ein Plädoyer für die Aktie; die Höchststände der amerikanischen Börsen bestätigen die alte Weisheit „Don’t fight the Fed!“ – ist nicht Gleiches für Europa vorstellbar?
Ihr Klaus Siegers Vorsitzender des Vorstandes der Weberbank Die Privatbank aus der Hauptstadt
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<Optimism, pessimism, f*** that. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to make it happen./> â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Elon Musk, Digital Pioneer
Das Fachmagazin der Digitalwirtschaft Jetzt Pionier werden: t3n.de/the-hundert
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VIA SMARTER SHARED RIDES
Via is re-engineering public transit from a regulated system of rigid routes and schedules to a fully dynamic, on-demand network. Via’s mobile app connects multiple passengers who are headed the same way, allowing riders to seamlessly share a premium vehicle. Targeting the gap between outdated public transit and expensive luxury car services, the Via platform currently operates in New York City, Chicago, and Washington DC, has provided more than seven million rides, and is growing rapidly. Founded in 2012 by Daniel Ramot and Oren Shoval, who have previously led engineering projects for the Israeli Air Force and have PhDs in neuroscience and systems biology from Stanford University and the Weizmann Institute of Science, respectively, Via began with an idea inspired by transportation in Israel – where many people rely on shared vehicles called ‘sheruts’ to travel quickly, cheaply, and easily along major streets. // ridewithvia.com Image: Daniel Ramot (Co-Founder, CEO)
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Once a center for the textile industry, SoHo was in such a poor state by the 1950s that it was dubbed ‘Hell’s Hundred Acres’. But then artists flocked in, attracted by large and bright lofts in the cast iron factory buildings. Gentrification followed, making it the hip, buzzy district it is today.
TRANSPORTATION FOUNDED IN 2012 135 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $137M / 3 ROUNDS
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GOTENNA THE FIRST OFF-GRID COMMUNICATION DEVICE
Based in Brooklyn, goTenna is the first and only company to enable anyone to use their phones to text and share GPS location regardless of cell service, Wi-Fi, or even satellites. In 2014, goTenna launched its award-winning flagship device that quickly became synonymous with next-generation off-grid communications. Now, goTenna is the first to commercialize a 100% off-grid, mobile, long-range consumer-ready mesh network with the release of goTenna Mesh, a smaller, internationally-available device that allows users to connect over greater distances by automatically and privately relaying messages through one another. goTenna was co-founded by siblings Daniela and Jorge Perdomo, whose vision to create resilient, people-powered connectivity ignited during Hurricane Sandy, when up to a third of cell towers and power stations were knocked out. // gotenna.com Image: Jorge Perdomo (Co-Founder, VP Institutional Business) and Daniela Perdomo (Co-Founder, CEO)
COMMUNICATIONS FOUNDED IN 2013 20 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $9.3M / 2 ROUNDS
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New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s city subway system has more stations than any other in the world. Opened in 1904, it has 469 stations, operates 24/7, and has 5.7 million riders every day. If they were laid end to end, the subway systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tracks would stretch from New York to Chicago.
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REAL ESTATE FOUNDED IN 2012 40 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $6.4M / 2 ROUNDS
FLOORED 3D VISUALIZATION PLATFORM FOR COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
Floored is the leading commercial real estate technology company for interactive 3D visualization and space planning software. Founded in 2012 by David Eisenberg, Dustin Byrne, and Judy He, with a focus on capturing the world in 3D, it has grown into a profitable company of 40 people, with cutting-edge technology in the field of computer graphics and virtual reality. Floored counts some of the largest commercial real estate companies in the world as its customers, and is excited to continue working on moving real estate away from 2D data for communications and toward 3D data to tell rich, interactive stories about space. // floored.com Image: David Eisenberg (Co-Founder, CEO)
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Chalait is a teahouse on a mission: to bring the taste of Japanese matcha to a wider Western audience. Matcha is a high quality powdered green tea, high in antioxidants. Chalait gets its supply straight from Uji, the tea growing region where matcha originated in the 18th Century. // chalait.com
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BLUECORE POWERING INDIVIDUALIZED INTERACTIONS BY UNIFYING CUSTOMER AND CATALOG DATA
MARKETING FOUNDED IN 2013 100 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $27M / 2 ROUNDS
Founded in 2013 by Fayez Mohamood, Mahmoud Arram, and Max Bennett, Bluecore (originally TriggerMail) empowers marketers to take meaningful, immediate action on behavioral and product data with speed and simplicity. Bluecore’s customer experience platform is designed to simplify the process of ingesting and analyzing terabytes of behavioral data to create precise audiences and experiences across channels. Backed by FirstMark Capital and Georgian Partners, Bluecore is one of New York City’s fastest growing SaaS startups and works with more than 200 customers representing more than 325 high-end apparel, electronics, automotive, and other consumer brands. // bluecore.com Image: Max Bennet (Co-Founder, VP of Product), Mahmoud Arram (Co-Founder, CTO) and Fayez Mohamood (Co-Founder, CEO)
Gemütlichkeit is a state of warmth, friendliness, and cosiness. It is the guiding principle behind Edi & the Wolf, a relaxed Austrian eatery in the East Village. Everything here is about comfort, from the rustic decor to the cheese raviolis. // ediandthewolf.com
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HOME SERVICES FOUNDED IN 2012 50 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $20 M / 1 ROUND
HOMEPOLISH CUSTOM INTERIOR DESIGN AT AN HOURLY RATE
Homepolish delivers personal and flexible interior design, by the hour, nationally. Whether you’re looking to make an old space feel new again, gut renovate, or tackle a problem area, we bring the country’s most talented designers and fanatical customer support to your project, without the egos, commissions, and expensive headaches of going at it alone. Since its launch in late 2012, Homepolish has grown to over 500 interior designers, and collectively designed over 10,000 homes and offices nationwide, ranging from accessorizing small studio apartments for renters to renovating $15 million penthouses for homeowners. With over 1 million followers on Instagram and a digital magazine featuring wholly original content, Homepolish has established itself as the go-to brand for daily inspiration and creative design ideas for today’s savvy consumer. // homepolish.com Image: Noa Santos (Co-Founder, CEO)
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MEDIACHAIN LABS CONNECTING MEDIA TO ITS CREATOR AND ONLINE HISTORY
Imagine if you could know everything about an image in your feed, just by virtue of seeing it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; who made it, its story, origin, and everything said about it online. Mediachain Labs wants to connect creators and audiences directly through media. Founded by Denis Nazarov and Jesse Walden, the team is leading the open source development of a universal media library that automatically connects media to information about it using content recognition technology. Mediachain raised seed funding by Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz to build an open platform that empowers developers to innovate the way we share, discover, and even monetize media online. The first prototype automates attribution for creators and organizations participating in Creative Commons publishing, including partners such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Getty Images, and the Digital Public Library of America. // mediachain.io Image: Jesse Walden (Co-Founder), Arkadiy Kukarkin (CTO) and Denis Nazarov (Co-Founder)
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2015 6 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $1.5M / 1 ROUND
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East Williamsburg has traditionally been an industrial neighborhood, but more and more empty factories and warehouses have been converted into loft housing. Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of young creatives have moved into the area, attracting hip new coffee shops, bars, and restaurants.
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOUNDED IN 2013 5 EMPLOYEES SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
DIGITALUNDIVIDED FINDING UNTAPPED OPPORTUNITIES IN INNOVATION digitalundivided is shattering the myth that diverse founders can’t be successful. Since 2013, DID has impacted over 2,000 people and helped raise $15 million in investments. In 2016 its groundbreaking research, #ProjectDiane, drew widespread buzz for disrupting the dialogue around women of color and tech entrepreneurship. The report was widely shared and received national media attention for quantifying the often overlooked state of black women in the tech entrepreneurship space. The findings put a unique spotlight on the problem of inclusion in the innovation space, leading DID to develop a “first of its kind” solution. DID’s BIG Innovation Center and its resident BIG Accelerator is the only space and program dedicated to the growth of high-growth tech businesses founded by Black and Latina women. Located in Atlanta, the first cohort started in Fall 2016. // digitalundivided.com Image: Danielle Robinson Bell (Director of Marketing & Corporate Partnerships) and Kathryn Finney (Founder, Managing Director)
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Harlem locals flock to Corner Social on Lenox Avenue. It has a twenty foot long reclaimed wood bar, eighteen craft beers on tap, and a menu that reflects its local roots while also venturing into Latin American favorites. On a summer day, the patio is a great spot to catch the sun. // cornersocialnyc.com
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COMPASS GUIDING YOU HOME
REAL ESTATE FOUNDED IN 2013 309 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $210M / 4 ROUNDS
Compass is a technology-driven real estate platform dedicated to creating a seamless and intelligent home buying, selling, and renting experience. Combining the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top agents, proprietary market insights, and integrated mobile and web technologies, the company is developing the future of real estate decision-making. With real estate being one of the last sectors of the American economy that hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been transformed by data and technology yet, founders Ori Allon and Robert Reffkin aim to change this with their platform, as well as through locations in New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, the Hamptons, and Aspen. // compass.com Image: Robert Reffkin (Founder, CEO)
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INVISION Twitter and Apple use it, Forbes and Fast Company recommend it, and it powers digital product design at 70% of Fortune 100 companies: InVision is an endto-end design platform that provides over two million people with the power to prototype, review, refine, manage, and user test web and mobile products. It simplifies virtually every aspect of the product design workflow and makes collaboration a core part of the process, for everyone from project managers to designers to developers and writers. Rather than spending tons of money and hours coding a concept so developers can test it, users can create a high-fidelity prototype in seconds. Founded in 2011 by Ben Nadel and Clark Valberg, the company today drives the product design process at leading companies including Disney, IBM, Walmart, Verizon, and General Motors. Backed by Accel, ICONIQ Capital, FirstMark Capital, Tiger Global, and others. InVision is headquartered in New York City with a remote workforce of over 230 employees worldwide. // invisionapp.com Image: Ben Nadel (Co-Founder, Lead Engineer) and Clark Valberg (Co-Founder, CEO)
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POWERING THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL PRODUCT DESIGN PRODUCTIVITY FOUNDED IN 2011 230 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $135M / 6 ROUNDS
Its official name hasn’t always been Sixth Avenue: Mayor LaGuardia renamed it the ‘Avenue of the Americas’ in 1945 to try to curry favour with Latin American states. The new and long name was never really adopted by busy New Yorkers, and ‘Sixth Avenue’ was back on signs by the 80s.
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HUNGRYROOT FRESH, FEEL GOOD FOODS READY TO EAT IN UNDER 7 MINUTES
Hungryroot is a brand of fresh, healthy, indulgent foods using vegetables and other wholesome ingredients to recreate the comfort foods that people know and love. The company offers a line of over 30 products spanning carrot noodle pad thai to chickpea cookie dough, all packed with protein, fiber, and nutrients, and ready-to-eat in under 7 minutes. Customers can order directly from its website, where they have the option to subscribe to a weekly or bi-weekly product bundle. Hungryroot products are also sold in select Whole Foods, FreshDirect, and on Amazon Fresh. Only 6% of Americans eat the recommended amount of vegetables while 74% are overweight. Hungryroot was founded by Ben McKean, former Groupon Exec, and Franklin Becker, a Top Chef Masters alumnus, to help solve this problem. // hungryroot.com Image: Franklin Becker (Chief Culinary Officer)
FOOD FOUNDED IN 2014 15 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $5.7M / 2 ROUNDS
Much of Manhattan goes in and out of fashion, but Fifth Avenue has always been en vogue. It may be most famous for glitzy shopping, but a walk along its 10 kilometers also reveals beautiful apartment blocks, Central Park, and some of the finest museums and galleries in the city.
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HUMAN RESOURCES FOUNDED IN 2014 300 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $41M / 3 ROUNDS
ANDELA
AFRICAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FIRST ELITE ENGINEERING ORGANIZATION Andela extends engineering teams with world-class software developers. Based in Lagos, Nairobi, and NYC, Andela recruits the most talented developers on the African continent, shapes them into technical leaders, and places them as full-time distributed team members with companies that range from Microsoft and IBM to dozens of high-growth startups. Founded by Christina Sass, Ian Carnevale, Jeremy Johnson, and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, and backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV, and Spark Capital, Andela is building the next generation of global technology leaders. There are five job openings for every software developer looking for a job in the United States. Africa, meanwhile, has the youngest, fastest-growing population on Earth, with more people joining the labor force over the next 20 years than the rest of the world combined. By connecting top employers to the brightest individuals on the African continent, Andela provides a bridge to close the talent gap while investing in the smartest, most creative minds in software development. // andela.com Image: Christina Sass (Co-Founder, COO), Jeremy Johnson (Co-Founder, CEO) and Ian Carnevale (Co-Founder, Brand Director)
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DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2015 14 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2M / 1 ROUND
FATHERLY HOW TO WIN AT PARENTING
Fatherly is the fastest-growing parenting site on the web, targeting millennial parents who are entering the most inquisitive and acquisitive phase of their lives. By focusing on dads as well as young moms, Fatherly is able to capture both sides of the parenting market, provide a differentiated content offering in a space oversaturated with ‘mom’ content, and hone in on a key insight that millennial parents increasingly share parenting responsibilities and purchasing decisions. Fatherly has been nominated twice by The Webby Awards as ‘Best Parenting Site on the Internet’ in just its first year in existence. // fatherly.com Image: Mike Rothman (Co-Founder, CEO) and Simon Isaacs (Co-Founder, Chief Content Officer)
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Elizabeth Street Garden was just an abandoned space before imaginative locals cultivated it as a green oasis in the early 1990s. The garden is filled with an eclectic collection of sculptures, giving it a unique feel. Frequently under threat of development, it is protected by a local residents association. // elizabethstreetgarden.org
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TRIPLEMINT THE SIMPLEST WAY TO FIND YOUR HOME
REAL ESTATE FOUNDED IN 2011 60 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $7M / 3 ROUNDS
Tucked away in a tiny park near the Rockefeller Plaza lies a mini-urban oasis: a waterfall with a transparent tunnel you can walk through. Strolling by provides a relaxing moment as the sound of water gently drums the glass above you.
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TripleMint is the refreshingly simple way to buy, sell, or rent a home. TripleMint combines technology, data, and a select group of real estate experts to help buyers view more apartment options and to help sellers better price their homes. Former Yale classmates David Walker and Phil Lang founded TripleMint in 2011 after having poor experiences finding apartments in NYC themselves. David and Phil believe that people should love the process of buying, selling, and renting homes, and that mission drives the culture at TripleMint. Clients have embraced TripleMintâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique approach and the company has grown more than 100% every year. TripleMint was founded in New York City, which is the largest real estate market in the U.S. It plans on expanding to every major U.S. city and eventually internationally to transform the homebuying process. // triplemint.com Image: Philip Lang (Co-Founder, COO) and David Walker (Co-Founder, CEO)
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CAMPUS
C O N S U LT I N G
Be a Force of Change Get the skills and confidence to lead the future As a platform and community builder the WIRED Campus program boosts your skills and knowledge to be a leader in the change processes of your company. With WIRED Consulting we offer you a tailored solution to transform your business to face the digital challenges of tomorrow.
Classes
Skill Training Sessions
• Digitalisation: How to transform and innovate your business
• Data & Consumer Insights
Workshops • Design Thinking • How to use virtual & augmented reality for your business
• Innovation Capacity • Visual Thinking & Storytelling • Tools & Principles of Agile Working • Mapping the consumer journey
Please check out our website for the latest dates: wired.de/campus For a customized consultancy offer please visit us at: wired.de/consulting
BERLIN PARTNERS
These popular startup spots in Germany’s capital make sure that you’ll always be able to find a copy of the magazine across the city! co.up is a coworking space in the heart of Berlin‘s Kreuzberg, dedicated to building community rather than generating profit, providing activists & self-organised learning groups with a place to gather, & diversifying the IT scene. co-up.de Agora Collective is a project space founded in June of 2011 in Berlin Neukölln with the mission to create a prototype of a community that reflects on alternative models for cultural, social and economical production today. Agora hosts people and projects, creating formats of interactions and methodologies of work based on a philosophy that reflects the values of our community: diversity, self-organisation and social ties. agoracollective.org
Since its inception in 2011, Ahoy! Berlin has become one of the most popular coworking spaces in Berlin while recently also opening a space in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After moving to a new location in Mitte in 2015, Ahoy offers coworking desks, team offices, an event space, conference rooms, a cafeteria and more spread out over three floors with a total surface area of around 5000 m2. ahoyberlin.com
Launched in 2013, the Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator is an early-stage startup accelerator based in Berlin. It is a joint venture between Axel Springer SE and the Plug and Play Tech Center from Silicon Valley. Three times a year, Axel Springer Plug and Play runs a 100-day program to provide startups with coaching, workshops, networking, 25,000 euros in funding and office space. axelspringerplugandplay.com
Our comfortable and light coworking space provides enough space and a sense of calm to allow our users to let their thoughts wander. BPlus is situated in central Berlin and has a great connection to public transportation. You can choose between day, 5-day or 12-day tickets, or flexible monthly rates that suit your needs are also available. bplusoffice.de
betahaus is for people who want to work on their own projects while exchanging knowledge, ideas, and inspiration with others. betahaus is there to foster entrepreneurship, creativity, rapid prototyping and innovative product development. The community consists of entrepreneurs, startups, corporate teams, freelancers, and creatives, who to various degrees collaborate and cooperate. betahaus.com/berlin
Blue Factory Berlin is the one-stop shop for entrepreneurship support at ESCP Europe Business School Berlin. It is part of Blue Factory Europe, with co-working & incubation offices at several different campuses of ESCP Europe. Students, alumni & friends are supported with office space, network & mentoring by experienced entrepreneurs. blue-factory.eu
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At Enklave you‘ll find a community of people that will share both their ideas and their beer with you. At our space in the beautiful Schillerkiez near the Tempelhofer Freiheit, we offer flexible pricing options (such as a €0.99/hour rate) and an environment conducive to both work and play. Located in a former factory, seven rooms with different sizes and unique designs are ready to boost your creativity. enklave.de
House of Clouds: One of the biggest co-working spaces in Berlin. Benefits: inexpensive, short contract periods, an easy and friendly atmosphere -located in the green heart of Moabit. All desks are fixed, we have a fair-use printer flatrate and 24/7 access is available. No deposit for desk or room, own parking spaces. houseofclouds.de
Hub:raum provides seed funding for startups that have the potential to fundamentally transform important markets for the Deutsche Telekom. Startups receive capital to establish market traction as well as added benefits like co-working space, mentoring and introductions to the Deutsche Telekom. hubraum.com
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During the 4-month program of the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator, you will have access to mentorship, technical training and support as well as the opportunity to network with angels, VC’s, Microsoft executives and media and industry influentials. microsoftaccelerator.com/locations/berlin
Located at the heart of Berlin and Hamburg, Mindspace provides the most inspiring shared and private offices for you and your company to grow and succeed, with high speed internet, 24/7 access, furnished meeting rooms, a magnificent team of community managers and IT support. Hurry up and join our community, because life is too short for a boring office. mindspace.me
Noize Fabrik is Berlins first co-working space especially tailored - but not exclusive - to audio industry professionals. Besides a co-working area, Noize Fabrik is home to a production and recordings studios, a multipurpose stage and events area for workshops, meet-up, community evens as well as concerts & showcases. noizefabrik.com
Give your business a home. Office Club provides you and your projects with shared and fixed desks, office space, business services as well as room for conferences and all kind of events in a great Berlin location. Simple, flexible, at any time. Welcome to the Club! officeclub.com/berlin-prenzlauer-berg
At Co-Office we understand the word to mean a place of work but also of innovation for companies that want to open up and test new working environments in a separate space. Opportunities for interaction with other users can occur in the coworking space next door. However, the co-office offers enough space to be able to work undisturbed in one‘s own team. offx.net
St. Oberholz is a bar, coworking space, apartment rental and publishing house. Seen as the point of origin in the coordinate system of startups, it started out at the Rosenthaler Platz in 2005 and now boasts two other locations, as well as the best coffee in Berlin. sanktoberholz.de
Project A is a Berlin-based early-stage investor and operational VC in the digital technology space. With financial support and operational expertise, Project A helps startups to build up competences in key areas such as IT, Performance Marketing, Business Intelligence and Organization Building, and thus contributes to their sustainable success. project-a.com
Unicorn.Berlin is high-end coworking, café and event space in one. In short: WORK EAT MEET. Sophisticated and minimalistic interior meets healthy, green, freshly-prepared food and delicious coffee. We offer workspaces with great atmosphere, meeting rooms and an event space for up to 200 people. unicorn.berlin
Rainmaking Loft Berlin is home to more than 35 high-tech startups and individual entrepreneurs that aspire to stir up the startup scene in Berlin and Europe. As Berlin’s hub for high-tech startups, entrepreneurs surround themselves with a synergy of the like-minded. It has become the regular location partner for the Tech Open Air, Fuck Up Nights and the European Digital Health Day. rainmakingloft.de
Co-work, Co-Create, Collaborate. Weserland was started 5 years ago to create a cosy and creative place to get shit done - in an efficient and beautiful way. Located in the heart of Neukölln Weserland is base and home to an international and heterogen crowd. Programmers, writers, artists, photographers and more professions inspire each other, share lunches and stories. coworking.weser.land
Your business is an adventure. We want you to keep this feeling. Space Shack provides a workspace and business shortcuts for business adventurers to focus on their priority No. 1 tasks. space-shack.com
WeWork is the platform for creators. We are helping to create a world where people work to make a life, not just a living. There has been a macro shift towards a new way of work—one focused on a movement towards meaning. WeWork is accelerating this movement. wework.com
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contact us for your non-binding packaging licensing offer!
We can’t help you With this type of packaging …
… but with taking back and recycling your sales and transport packaging. With almost 15 years of experience the Reclay Group is your expert service provider for packaging licensing as well as all topics concerning sustainable improvements of your recycling structures. Our comprehensive services are available in Germany as well as internationally. This way, you can focus on your core business. Challenge us!
Reclay Group Im Zollhafen 2 - 4 50678 Cologne, Germany Phone: +49 221 580098-2888 Fax: +49 221 580098-777 your-solution@reclay-group.com www.reclay-group.com
(C) WavebreakMediaMicro / Fotolia
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INTERNATIONAL PROPTECH INNOVATION AWARD LAUNCHED
Union Investment and GTEC to recognise the best startup ideas for the real estate world of tomorrow
Digital technologies are set to boost innovation in the real estate industry, from enabling customer-oriented solutions to new products and more efficient processes. The PropTech Innovation Award, initiated by Union Investment and the Berlin-based German Tech Entrepreneurship Center (GTEC), is aimed at supporting these exciting developments. As the first-ever proptech competition, it will focus on the best startup ideas for the real estate world of tomorrow. The PropTech Innovation Award offers prize money of EUR 35,000 and will recognise highly innovative strategies, prototypes and business models which demonstrate the wide-ranging opportunities opened up by digital transformation of the real estate industry. Alongside financial support, the award winners will have the chance to receive access to the GTEC Lab in Berlin. The 12-month support programme includes access to GTEC’s
Dr. Reinhard Kutscher, Chairman of the Management Board at Union Investment Real Estate GmbH
international investor and advisor network, as well as legal, tax and business advice. The awards ceremony in Berlin, Germany’s startup capital, also provides the shortlisted nominees with a public platform for presenting their applications and developments. The submission stage of the PropTech Award runs from 1. November 2016 to 15. March 2017. The winners will be chosen by a jury of experts in a multi-phase process. For more information and to apply go to gtec.berlin/proptech2017.
Benjamin Rohé, GTEC’s Managing Director
“New technologies provide huge scope for creating more efficient business processes and successful new business models. We want the PropTech Innovation Award to raise awareness in the real estate industry of the innovation potential of digitisation and to build bridges between today’s reality and the new real estate economy of the future.”
“The PropTech Innovation Award marks the start of an exciting collaboration between GTEC and Union Investment and we are looking forward to working together to shape the future of the digitizing world.”
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METRO ACCELERATOR
DIGITAL SOLUTIONS FOR ALL SCALES OF RETAIL We support startups with digital solutions to help retailers perform better every day.
! w o n y l p Ap lerator.com oacce
www.metr
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CLASSPASS ACCESS THE WORLD’S LARGEST NETWORK OF FITNESS STUDIOS
Founded in 2013, ClassPass is a monthly subscription service providing access to the world’s largest network of boutique fitness studios and gyms. With tens of thousands of classes available at over 8,500 locations worldwide, ClassPass makes working out more engaging, accessible, and affordable. This gives members unprecedented choice and flexibility by offering a diversity of options, including cycling, Pilates, yoga, boot camp, strength training, dance, and more. // classpass.com Image: Payal Kadakia (Co-Founder, CEO)
FITNESS FOUNDED IN 2013 180 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $84M / 5 ROUNDS
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DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2012 59 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $7.5M / 2 ROUNDS
GIMLET MEDIA Gimlet is a media company focused on high-quality narrative storytelling, with a passion for accuracy and journalistic integrity across a range of programming. Gimlet‘s well-honed editorial process combines intelligence, candor, and playfulness in order to create compelling stories that keep listeners engaged from beginning to end. The company believes that listening creates empathy and that its purpose is to help people better understand the world and each other. Founded in 2012 by Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, it is built on a team of ex-
HIGH QUALITY NARRATIVE STORYTELLING perienced managers and award-winning journalists, hosts, and producers. Gimlet content has been featured extensively in the press, and in 2015, it was one of Fast Company’s ‘Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Media’. Current shows include StartUp, Reply All, Science VS, Surprisingly Awesome, and Sampler. // gimletmedia.com Image: Alex Blumberg (Co-Founder, CEO) and Matthew Lieber (Co-Founder, President)
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HUMAN RESOURCES FOUNDED IN 2012 160 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $53M / 4 ROUNDS
JUSTWORKS FREEING ENTREPRENEURS TO FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS
Growing a business can be both immensely rewarding and incredibly complex. Justworks saw the opportunity to help growing businesses by giving entrepreneurs resources to make their company a better place to work. Founded in 2012, Justworksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; simple, all-in-one platform takes care of a businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foundational needs by automating payments, HR, benefits, and government paperwork. The company believes that, big or small, all teams deserve the best. It levels the playing field with seamless payroll, great and affordable benefits, and comprehensive compliance coverage, so businesses can work fearlessly. // justworks.com Image: Isaac Oates (Founder, CEO)
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Perhaps the best thing about the High Line is simply the unique perspective it offers from 30 feet up on the city around you. It now attracts more visitors than the Statue of Liberty, and its success has prompted cities from Seoul to Rotterdam to build their own high rise parks. See also page 37. // thehighline.org
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One of the most pleasant spots in Central Park is Hernshead. A rocky promontory jutting out onto the park’s lake, it is so called because it resembles a Heron’s head. It has a woodland feel with trees and seasonal flowers. As well as admiring the view, one can spot turtles from its rocks.
NANIT
THE TESLA OF BABY MONITORS
INTERNET OF THINGS FOUNDED IN 2013 17 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $6.6M / 1 ROUND
Nanit is the first baby-safe smart monitor for the modern family that utilizes the most advanced and secure camera ever introduced to the home. Co-founded by Dr. Assaf Glazer, Tor Ivry, and Andrew Berman, Nanit was made by parents for parents who are curious about their child’s sleep habits and overall wellness. Nanit’s machine learning technology and advanced camera sensors measure a baby’s sleep cycle and provide actionable insights that lead to better sleep for the baby – and the entire family. Nanit is the only monitor on the market that provides sleep insights, behavioral analysis, parenting tips, social sharing capabilities, and nightly video summaries – all without attaching a wearable device to the baby. All of these features help to achieve Nanit’s primary mission: to help babies, parents, and families sleep better. // nanit.com Image: Andrew Berman (Co-Founder, COO), Dr. Assaf Glazer (Co-Founder, CEO) and Tor Ivry (Co-Founder, CTO)
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OSCAR
HEALTH INSURANCE IS BROKEN. THEY’RE HERE TO FIX IT. HEALTHCARE FOUNDED IN 2012 400 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $727.5M IN 6 ROUNDS
Healthcare is hard to navigate. Health insurance shouldn’t add to the problem, but it often does. To address this, Oscar has completely reimagined the role of a health insurer: it won’t just sign you up and ditch you until it’s time to pay a bill. Instead, Oscar makes your healthcare smart, simple, and painless. To do this, Oscar offers plans and benefits that people can understand, online tools that make accessing healthcare easy and intuitive, and tailored service for each of its members. Members can log in on their computer or via the Oscar app to search for a doctor, easily compare their options for care, and even schedule appointments. Or they can call their personal concierge team to help them manage their care needs, whether they’re dealing with a chronic condition or need to find urgent care near them. Oscar marries advanced technology and data analysis with meticulous and personal service, all to inform and empower each member to fully manage their health. // hioscar.com Image: Sara Rowghani (VP of Marketing), Joel Klein (Chief Policy and Strategy Officer), Joshua Kushner (Co-Founder), Mario Schlosser (Co-Founder, CEO) and Charlotte Elkin (Behavioral Health Specialist)
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Doughnut Plant’s all natural and all fresh confections have been popular since it started baking in 1994. Its ‘Tres Leches’ is a particular favourite: a fabulously indulgent creation infused with a triple mix of condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream. // doughnutplant.com
EDUCATION FOUNDED IN 2011 35 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $42.5M / 3 ROUNDS
CODECADEMY TEACHING 25 MILLION PEOPLE THE SKILLS THEY NEED TO FIND JOBS
Codecademy, founded in 2011 by Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski, teaches more than 25 million people around the world the skills they need to find jobs. The company’s focus on creating an interactive, engaging learning experience paired with practical courses has helped students in nearly every country in the world become more employable. Codecademy works with governments around the world, including The White House, as well as companies like Bloomberg. Codecademy has raised more than $40m from top tier investors, including Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Naspers. // codecademy.com Image: Zach Sims (Co-Founder, CEO)
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DISCOVER GREAT ART ON DIGITAL DISPLAYS
ELECTRIC OBJECTS ELECTRONICS FOUNDED IN 2014 14 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $8M / 2 ROUNDS
Electric Objects was founded in 2014 in NYC by founder and CEO Jake Levine, with the belief that discovering, connecting with, and bringing home art should be as easy as finding that great song or watching that favorite movie. Electric Objects is on a mission to make that a reality. EO2, the second generation product, which launched in October 2016, is a digital display designed from the ground up to showcase art. It pairs with a mobile app to showcase a diverse collection of art in your home, so you can choose to display whatever you feel: a waterfall GIF or a classic Van Gogh. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the next great movement in art. To date, the company has raised $8 million in seed and series A funding, with participation from First Round Capital, RRE, Bessemer Venture Partners, betaworks, and notable NYC entrepreneurs like Dennis Crowley, David Karp, Matt Mullenweg, and others. // electricobjects.com Image: Jake Levine (Founder, CEO)
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Manhattan’s East Village has always had a reputation as a bohemian, independent neighborhood. It may have changed a little since the artistic glory days of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but it is still a center of counter-culture as well as a top spot for vintage shops, cool clubs, and eccentric bars.
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DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2013 13 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
PONCHO WEATHER WITH PERSONALITY
Weather forecasts are a total snooze — unless your chief meowterologist is a cat who tells you the weather with a pop-culture twist. Poncho’s forecasts warn you about rain as well as bad hair days. His forecasts are powered by custom-built analytics and content management tools, and the only thing sharper than Poncho’s cutting-edge tech is his wit. A fast-paced writers’ room is constantly updating the Poncho bot on Facebook Messenger so people can chat with him about everything from the election to guacamole recipes. Since debuting as one of Messenger’s launch partners, the company has also launched rain alerts, severe weather alerts, and even outdoor activity forecasts. With new content offerings such as bite-sized weekly horoscopes and life advice, it’s no wonder Poncho is the most popular conversational bot today. The core team at Poncho consists of Greg Leuch (Product, R&D), Kuan Huang (Founder), Sam Mandel (CEO), and Stephanie Chan (Head of Operations, Editorial) and is currently available on iOS, Android, and Facebook Messenger, but coming soon to many more chat platforms. // poncho.is Image: Kuan Huang (Founder), Sam Mandel (CEO) and Stephanie Chan (Head of Operations, Editorial)
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Revel Restaurant draws in crowds with its Italian-American cooking and huge outdoor space. A retractable roof allows it to make use of its patio garden all year round. Winter or summer, the space is full of people enjoying rustic pasta dinners or boozy weekend brunches. // revelnyc.com
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CrowdTangle is one of the leading social analytics tools in the world. The founders, Brandon Silverman and Matt Garmur, are long-time friends who met in college and both worked in the non-profit sector before starting CrowdTangle. The platform makes it easy for publishers to discover and track content, measure social success, and identify influencers; clients include everyone from the New York Times to BuzzFeed to Real Madrid and Facebook. Over the coming years, the CrowdTangle team will be focused on building solutions that not only help publishers continue to grow their social audience but also start to monetize that reach as well. // crowdtangle.com Image: Brandon Silverman (Co-Founder, CEO)
SOCIAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2013 17 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $2.2M / 1 ROUND
SOCIAL ANALYTICS MADE SIMPLE
CROWDTANGLE
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St Patrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cathedral opened its doors to the Catholics of Manhattan in 1879. Its design of twin spires rising 100 meters tall was partly based on Cologne cathedral, and mixes German and French Gothic styles. It is the seat of the Archbishop of New York. // saintpatrickscathedral.org
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UPWORTHY
A MISSION-DRIVEN, VIDEO-FIRST MEDIA COMPANY
Lots of media companies have a mission. But Upworthy is on a mission to change what the world pays attention to. They believe that stories about important issues can and should be great stories â&#x20AC;&#x201D; stories for everyone, stories that connect us and sometimes even change the world. Founded in 2012 by Eli Pariser and Peter Koechley, Upworthy has since become the fastest-growing media company in the United States. This year it has pivoted toward creating purposeful video stories that create empathy, change the way people see the world, and inspire them to share meaningful content. According to NewsWhip, people share Upworthy stories more often than those from the top 25 publishers. Upworthy works with brand partners to create and distribute content, and in July 2016 these videos received more than 330 million monthly views. // upworthy.com Image: Eli Pariser (Co-Founder, Co-CEO) and Peter Koechley (Co-Founder, Co-CEO)
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2012 100 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSE
ilili offers a creative and fresh take on the flavors of Lebanon. Order street food classics like falafel and shawarma, or try something a bit different: the atayef (Arabic pancakes) with veal bacon are cooked to perfection. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all served up in a space as buzzy as Beirut itself. // ililinyc.com
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CANARY MEANINGFUL INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR HOME
INTERNET OF THINGS FOUNDED IN 2012 130 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $41M / 3 ROUNDS Canary empowers people to live fearless lives. It seamlessly integrates state-of-the-art hardware with sophisticated software to create simple, effective products that solve real problems and make life easier. By harnessing powerful computer vision and machine learning algorithms to interpret an extensive array of sensor data, it identifies meaningful information about what happens at home â&#x20AC;&#x201C; creating a richer and more immediate connection to the people and places that matter most. A daily habit for customers (who check into the app more than three times a day), Canary launched in 15 countries in just 15 months and is available in retail stores across North America and Europe. Smarter Technology. Superior Design. Real Security. // canary.is Image: Chris Rill (Co-Founder, CTO), Jon Troutman (Co-Founder, CCO) and Adam Sager (Co-Founder, CEO)
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The Rubin Museum hosts one of the Western worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest collections of Himalayan art. It immerses visitors in the culture and art of Tibet and its neighbors. Housed in what was the original Barneys store in Chelsea, the museum is built around the emporiumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s famous Art Deco staircase. // rubinmuseum.org
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VROOM
MASTERFULLY REFURBISHED CARS AT NO-HAGGLE PRICE
E-COMMERCE FOUNDED IN 2013 550 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $218.25M / 5 ROUNDS
Vroom allows you to buy a pre-owned car online from anywhere in the U.S. with an exact, no-haggle price, free shipping nationwide, and a riskfree 7-day money back guarantee. Vroom’s methodology for sourcing inventory is so advanced that it is able to offer better prices and quality on a wider breadth of makes and models than elsewhere in the traditional industry because it is based on decades of auto industry experience and leveraging huge amounts of data. Vroom offers only extremely high quality, pre-owned vehicles that have never been in an accident – extensively inspected and refurbished by the auto experts at Vroom’s Dallas and Houston facilities. Offering financing from more than 30 different lenders, Vroom is bringing competition into the process for the first time and maximizing affordability. The company is based in New York, Dallas, and Houston, and also operates the Texas Direct Auto brand. // vroom.com Image: Paul Hennessy (CEO)
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PLAYBUZZ
REINVENTING DIGITAL STORYTELLING Playbuzz is a digital platform that empowers authors worldwide to create engaging content via a suite of interactive content formats. The company enables publishers, brands and agencies to elevate their storytelling capabilities, maximize user engagement, and utilize cutting-edge analytics tools to uncover content preferences of their users. Founded in 2012 by Shaul Olmert and Tom Pachys, Playbuzz has become one of Tel Avivâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most well-known startups. After earning the title of #1 most shared site on Facebook, the company prioritized building a portfolio of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s most notable publishers and brands. Today, partners include Unilever, The Huffington Post, MTV, Ford, The Telegraph, American Express, and more. With four rounds of funding (the latest being led by Disney), over 10 formats and seven offices across the globe, the company is now focused on expansion into APAC and its sponsored content offering which delivers custom, interactive native advertising at scale. // publishers.playbuzz.com Image: Shaul Olmert (Co-Founder, CEO) and Tom Pachys (Co-Founder, CPO)
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2012 122 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $31M / 4 ROUNDS
East River State Park occupies seven acres on the Williamsburg waterfront. Once the site of a 19th century shipping dock, it retains historical features like cobblestones and the remains of railroad tracks. Today it offers fine views, a great play area, meadow plantings, and barbecues.
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WHEN LOOKING FOR U.S. INVESTORS By Christopher Austin and Dr. Sven Greulich LL.M. EMBA (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, New York and Duesseldorf)
With our global platform across many of the world’s tech hubs, we regularly work with German entrepreneurs and startups looking to raise funding from U.S.-based venture capital and corporate venture capital investors. Although it is certainly still a steep up-hill climb for non-U.S. startups to raise funding from most U.S. investors when coming for the first time to the U.S. market, we have seen over the last years increasing investment activity in European and particularly German startups. There are a number of trends leading us to believe that U.S. investments in German companies will continue to gain momentum, including: • the maturing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Germany, • the lower price tags for German startups and top-notch developer teams outside the U.S., and • the expected re-allocation of investment dollars earmarked for European startups to Germany following the Brexit. With financing rounds by European investors still remaining smaller than U.S. financing rounds for comparably mature emerging companies, it remains a very attractive (and sometimes the only) option for a German startup to build its business in Germany, raise some money (often a super seed round or a (pre-) series A round) in Germany, use the proceeds to build up some traction in the U.S. and then go after a much larger later stage round in the U.S. With their extensive operational experience, financial firepower, roll-out and support capabilities to assist their portfolio companies, such smart money from U.S. investors can be very attractive. Based on our experiences, we have summarized a few tips for German startups to increase their chances of landing a U.S.backed financing. Find Your Access Point German startups should be aware that they are facing stiff competition. With their networks in Silicon Valley and other major tech hubs such as New York and Boston, U.S. investors are sitting at the epicentre of the world’s biggest entrepreneurial ecosystem. This system is self-sustaining due to, amongst others,
positive selection patterns as the best founders and companies tend to gravitate to them. Add the natural bias for home markets and it becomes clear how hard it is for an outsider to stand out. Any U.S. investor will ask herself why is a German startup coming to me and not seeking to raise funding in its home market. Especially early stage investments in a startup that is not already on the ground in the U.S. are difficult to pull off. U.S. investors will often request a minimum of U.S. traction. One also needs to build up trust right from the start, especially when there is little geographical proximity between investor and startup (remember that many angel investors from Silicon Valley invest only in companies they can reach in sixty minutes or less). To overcome these barriers and get in front of U.S. investors, the founders need to be on the ground and find their way into the investors’ networks. Here, we recommend concentrating on investors that already have a proven track record of investing in European startups, better German startups, as for some U.S. investors the step from investing in a UK or Irish startup into one from Continental Europe still seems to big one. Sending out a blast email with a pitch deck to a bunch of investors is not a particularly promising strategy in Germany and it certainly does less so in the U.S. Most unsolicited pitches sent to an investor are deleted unread (there are simply too many) and especially in early stages, engaging paid financial intermediaries (placement agents or “finders”) to help generate leads is considered a waste of (investors’) money. Better to spend time and energy to develop and maintain relationships to important players early on and seeking a solid referral to an investor by someone from the investor’s trusted network. For many investors, the first screening criterion is the effectiveness and creativity of the prospect getting an intro. Ultimately, one of the key jobs of the CEO of a startup is getting to know and persuading investors that he or she is worth backing. Because venture capitalists are busy with ever-changing schedules, this can be a frustrating exercise for one not resident in the U.S. Come Prepared When pitching to U.S. investors – that holds true both for venture capital and corporate venture capital investors
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– preparation tops zeal. Bear in mind that the renowned investors have to screen at least hundreds and often thousands of ideas every year. With time at a premium, it is imperative for each German startup to come prepared and make it as easy as possible for a potential investor to check the boxes. We are often asked if this means that a German startup has to swap into a U.S. legal form. Well, it depends. While some U.S. investors still only do investments in U.S. companies or at least have a strong preference for U.S. companies, over the last years we noted a change in attitude. Many U.S. investors today are not “afraid” of investing into a GmbH anymore. That being said, startups with international ambitions or which – following proof of technology or concept in Germany – primarily target the U.S. market, it is worth to spend some time on making sure they have the right corporate set-up early on (e.g., a U.S. HoldCo with a German subsidiary for R&D and another U.S. subsidiary for marketing to U.S. customers) as changes down the road often become more complex and (tax-) costly. By the same token, the startup should have a clear long-term strategy as moving out of the U.S. at a later stage often comes with immense tax disadvantages. But even with their startup organized as a GmbH, German founders can make life easier for their prospective U.S. investors. If attracting U.S. investors is a serious prospect, founders should ensure that the shareholders’ and other agreements they enter into with their early stage investors and co-founders do meet what a later stage U.S. investor would expect in a typical U.S. deal, e.g., typical preference rights and the flexibility to pursue further financing rounds and exit options. When trying to entice U.S. investors with the potential of the U.S. market for the German startups product, it is also crucial that the startup has conducted at least a basic compliance check of its product with U.S. regulations and that with the help of a qualified U.S. counsel a comprehensive IP strategy has been developed to ensure that the company has and retains essential IP rights.
CYBERSECURITY AND DATA PRIVACY U.S. INVESTORS AND STARTUPS BE PREPARED
Why Care About Data Privacy? From our experience, compliance with data privacy and cybersecurity laws were rarely on the radar of startups, for obvious reasons: They often impede the deployment of new technologies and can easily become a serious cost-factor. Considering, however, that data privacy and cybersecurity is nowadays omnipresent in the news and, starting from May 2018, new EU data privacy laws will be implemented and enforced with draconian fines (up to 4% of global turnover), compliance with these laws can no longer be ignored. Nota bene, the new requirements also apply to non-EU companies who render services to EU companies or target EU residents. Investor Perspective Investors will look at whether startups have been innovative by offering sought-after products that comply with data privacy laws. It is thus key to understand the main regulatory requirements from early-on. Key Requirements For example, new applications that process personal data must be designed to incorporate the requirements of Privacy by Design and Privacy by Default which essentially means that applications should not use more personal data than needed and any features that go beyond what is required for a specific data processing purpose must be by default deactivated. In addition, applications must in general ensure that personal data will be physically deleted once the purpose for which they have been collected no longer exists. This all may sound doable. However, currently only a fraction of applications comply with these requirements. This creates an interesting market demand for compliant technology/services. Given the heightened level of regulatory requirements and associated penalties, companies developing a new product must incorporate compliance into their business operations and developments at early stage.
There is More Than Your Pitch When speaking at conferences or working with German entrepreneurs, it is surprising how often we hear that German entrepreneurs are believed to face a disadvantage because they can’t pitch like their U.S. peers. Sure, American entrepreneurs don’t have to overcome the language barrier. And it certainly helps any entrepreneur to take a leaf out of Y-Combinator’s play book when preparing their startups for demo day. But, pitching is not a theatre play. Some excitement can be contagious, but don’t force it. What U.S. investors are looking for is evidence of a real customer need and market opportunity with growth potential, a strong team that can execute, an exit strategy and, as should have become clear from the above, a good reason why the German startup seeks U.S. investors. Keep in mind that many U.S. investors need to deploy funds much larger than their European peers, so prepare for the question “how big can this be” and understand fund economics.
Take Proactive Approach In our experience, companies that proactively approach these issues and communicate this proactivity to their customers gain more trust and thus a competitive advantage. Startups should adjust their strategy and turn the new laws into a key success factor.
Contact the Authors Christopher Austin – caustin@orrick.com Sven Greulich – sgreulich@orrick.com
Contact the Author Dr. Christian Schröder - cschroeder@orrick.com
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NETWORK PARTNERS
These associations and companies constitute a diverse network that supports the magazine throughout.
11 Prozent Communication is part of the European mobile industry. Founded in 2003, they have counted the conceptualisation and realisation of communication platforms (such as trade fairs, congresses, workshops, seminars, communications in all media and their own publications) as one of their main competencies for more than 10 years. 11prozent.de
We are almost exclusively active in the B-to-B market and support your company in developing a marketing and sales strategy, campaign planning and implementation. We also organise the IT&MEDIA FUTUREcongress in Frankfurt and Bielefeld, run a publishing house and the search engine Dicoo. amc-media-network.de
BAND is the association of business angels and their networks, and acts as the voice of the business angel market in relation to politics and the public. BAND represents the interests of young innovative companies as well as the concerns of the angel investors. BAND is committed to the expansion of the informal equity market and connecting it to the entire ecosystem of startup financing. business-angels.de
As representative and voice of startups, the Federal Association of German Startups is very committed towards a â&#x20AC;&#x17E;founder-friendlyâ&#x20AC;&#x153; Germany. In dialogue with decision makers in politics, they develop proposals which encourage a culture of self-employment and minimize the obstacles of business formation. As a network, they connect founders, startups and their friends with each other. deutschestartups.org
The German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (Bundesverband Deutscher Kapitalbeteiligungsgesellschaften BVK) is the representative of the German private equity industry covering private equity firms, from venture capital through growth capital to buyouts, as well as institutional investors. BVK has almost 190 full and more than 100 associated members. bvkap.de
TU Berlin combines expertise from research, education and startup support. A one-stop shop for startups has resulted from it: the Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE). The CfE provides access to the huge potential of seven faculties to develop and form startup mentality, ideas and teams based on technology and knowledge. Since 2012, more than 29 startups from TU Berlin received funding, among these Panono and TestObject. entrepreneurship.tu-berlin.de
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dfv Conference Group, the event arm of dfv Media Group, develops, organizes and produces executive-level conferences and conventions. It turns media and information into a hands-on experience fostering professional exchange and networking throughout the business community. The majority of the delegates attending its events come from senior management and other top-ranking corporate positions. dfv.de
DLD (Digital-Life-Design) is a network on innovation, digitization, science and culture. Our conferences connect business, creative and social leaders, opinion-formers, and influencers for crossover conversation and inspiration. dld-conference.com
As an independent organizer, Euroforum is committed to bringing together experts from the worlds of business, science and politics, as well as creating the space for interaction, knowledge transfer and an exchange of opinions. At our high-quality conferences, seminars and anniversaries the latest trends are highlighted and upto-date information is provided for practical management. euroforum.de
THE HUNDERT // PARTNERS
EYIF is the leading foundation for youth innovation in Europe. We are an independent, non-profit, pan-European, bottom-up association reaching over 500,000 young people across Europe. EU Startup Services is a new venture from EYIF, the leading Foundation for Youth Innovation in Europe. EU Startup Services is a consulting services company specifically aimed at supporting and guiding startups and innovative SMEs in securing EU funding for their projects, in particular Horizon 2020 Programme. eyif.eu
FinTech Headquarter is the central community network for the FinTech and Financial industry. It offers the FinTech community different online and offline services like networking events, co-working, hangouts and meetups, a digital job portal, a Blockchain-LAB and the online network my.fintechheadquarter. The network is for „members only“. Parts of the community are FinTechs, Corporates, Investors and Legal. my.fintechheadquarter.de
Get Started is the startup initiative within Bitkom aiming at connecting startups with established companies in the digital sector and at representing startups’ interests in politics. Overall, Bitkom represents more than 1,500 companies including 300 startups which can join the association at special startup terms. getstarted.de
The Humboldt University Research Service Centre and Humboldt-Innovation are jointly responsible for HU Venture Service, which supports students and researchers to establish their own company. The Venture Service assists with applying for funding and provides office space as well as networking and training opportunities. It also supports alumni startups. gruendung.hu-berlin.de
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Berlin is an advocate for companies, actively promoting Berlin as a place to do business. As a critical partner of political institutions, it acts as a market promoter. As a service provider, the CCI Berlin supports its 274,300 members through its services and activities. Some 3,500 voluntarily active businessmen and women assist the CCI‘s 250 employees. ihk-berlin.de
Management Forum der Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH is one of the leading providers of congresses and trade fairs in the consumer goods industry and retail area. The mission of Management Forum is “Excellence in Business Information” and represents our claim for top information, excellent expertise, and networking opportunity for our participants. managementforum.com
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For almost 15 years, media.net berlinbrandenburg ranks among the biggest and most successful regional networks of the creative and digital industries in Germany. Cross-border and cross-sectoral, it represents more than 400 members including established companies but also more than 140 startups. The aim of the association is the cross-linking and representation of member interests at state and federal level. medianet-bb.de
The Medienboard is the first stop agency for creative professionals active in the film and media industries in Berlin and Brandenburg. Medienboard’s funding program for interactive and innovative content funds the development and production of games, apps, transmedia, virtual reality, and other innovative projects with an annual budget of €1 million. medienboard.de
Neue Mediengesellschaft Ulm is a leading media company for tech and retail. More than 30 journalists cover the following industries: IT, telecommunications, digital business, and software development. The media company also organizes conferences, webinars, and Europe’s leading e-commerce trade fair Internet World. nmg.de
THE HUNDERT // PARTNERS
project networks GmbH is an independent event service provider offering companies, ranging from medium-sized enterprises up to large corporations, an exclusive platform for efficient networking and exchanging ideas and innovations. project networks‘ Strategy Summits are designed in close consultation with the business world. They offer opportunities to generate interesting business contacts. project-networks.com
Software and Support Media is an international publishing house focused on the IT sector. The company’s information and service offer is tailored to IT- professionals of all important technology markets. The portfolio covers conferences, trainings, specialist magazines, online services and books. In Europe, it ranks as one of the most comprehensive portfolios of its kind. sandsmedia.com
The digital economy, technology and creativity are the engines empowering Berlin‘s growth. In collaboration with other partners, the Senate Chancellery paved the way for the Berlin Startup Unit in 2014, in order to create even better conditions for tech entrepreneurs in the startup capital. The cooperation with the Hundert, as well as the new platform www.techberlin.com are fine examples of what has emerged since then. berlin.de
Since 2007 NYCBNG has hosted nearly 400 events. We have built a strong business and entrepreneur community in NYC. We host monthly live networking opportunities for professionals and executives, small and medium sized business, investors, lenders, entrepreneurs & startups. NYCBNG won the ‚Top 100 Small Business Influencers Award in Leadership‘. We help you create new business relationships. We guarantee it. NYCBNG.com
The business associations Berlin-Brandenburg (UVB) are the leading associations in economics and socio-politics in the capital region. As a parent organization of about 60 trade and employers‘ associations, the UVB is an ideal platform for the contact between established companies and startups from the B2B sector. uvb-online.de
Founded in 1879, the VBKI is the oldest and one of the most distinguished business associations in Germany. Thanks to the expert knowledge and varied backgrounds of its more than 1,800 members, the VBKI serves as an important crossroad between key stakeholders from Berlin and beyond. As a business network and debate platform, the VBKI connects everybody, thus shaping the bright future of Berlin. vbki.de
SUCCUS | Economic forums organises first-rate B2B events in Germany and Austria. The focus is always on innovation and feasibility, as with every conference we want to be a leader in that respective market. succus.at
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VentureOut supports top technology companies from around the world on their mission to access new markets, raise capital, and scale. We do this via invite-only programs organized monthly in New York City and San Francisco. Our programs are focused on providing founders with the knowledge, connections and opportunities they need to succeed in the world‘s top tech communities. ventureoutny.com
The vitamin ‚relationships‘ builds networks in a new way. „We aren‘t looking for a business card, but rather for someone with visions and dreams“ - according to this principle we are creating a new class of people in business who want to get to know one another first before offering mutual support, instead of hoarding the business cards of people they will never contact. vitaminbnetzwerk.com
The we.CONECT Group is one of the leading business information companies, developing and providing B2B Digital Media, Business Information, Business Events & Business Communities. Our customers are all Fortune Top 100 global market leaders in Europe and in the US. we-conect.com
Komm doch mit auf ’n Zuckerberg. HORIZONT auf Facebook: das gefällt mir.
Auf unserer Facebook-Seite erwartet Sie ein Dialog auf Augenhöhe mit dem HORIZONT-Team und unseren Fans. Versehen Sie unsere Facebook-Seite mit einem Like und Sie erhalten stets die aktuellsten News, qualitativ hochwertige Inhalte und unterhaltsame Bilder und Videos aus Marketing, Werbung und Medien.
www.facebook.de/horizont
DIGITAL HEALTH FOUNDED IN 2012 15 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $16.5 M / 3 ROUNDS
New York has long been at the heart of the graffiti and street art movement. It may often be illegal but it is now part of the fabric of the city. A recent boom in mural painting has explored contemporary social themes, as well as simply adding some welcome color to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s walls.
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HAPPIFY
EVIDENCE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR BETTER EMOTIONAL HEALTH Happify delivers evidence-based interventions for emotional, behavioral and mental health and wellbeing in highly engaging digital formats. Co-founded by Tomer Ben-Kiki and Ofer Leidner, Happify delivers programs, activities, and exercises based on decades of scientific research in the fields of positive psychology, CBT, and mindfulness. Happify offers free and premium memberships to more than three million users worldwide. Since launching in 2012, Happify quickly learned that its platform can improve access to readily available emotional health and wellbeing solutions for health plan members and employees
of major corporations. Through Happify Health, the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new enterprise offering, Happify provides close to 60 programs created by leading experts through its online platform and app. With high engagement outcomes and solutions for population health, Happify Health addresses resilience, mindfulness, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and mood disorders on-demand at any time of the day. // happify.com Image: Tomer Ben-Kiki (Co-Founder, CEO) and Ofer Leidner (Co-Founder, President)
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E-COMMERCE FOUNDED IN 2014 30 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
THINX PERIOD-PROOF UNDERWEAR
THINX makes period-proof underwear for everyone, using innovation to change the culture, and the conversation, around menstruation. Women find it uncomfortable to talk about it; it’s a huge taboo – and THINX is committed to breaking it. THINX wants people to come in contact with the brand and immediately know that it’s okay to be open and inquisitive, and to challenge the norms surrounding women‘s periods. And the company is really doing it, too. THINX has never seen so many women openly discuss their hygiene regimens as they are now – on their own social media accounts, articles, and advertisements. It’s both powerful and motivating to witness. // shethinx.com Image: Miki Agrawal (Co-Founder, CEO)
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Home to more than 100 different social entrepreneurs and non-profit startups, the Centre for Social Innovation aims to be more than just a coworking space. Its quirky shared spaces are designed to help spark interaction and inspiration amongst its users and help amplify their social impact. // nyc.socialinnovation.org
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The Knickerbocker Hotel first opened on Times Square in 1906. Its bar was a hit with the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s glitterati, and some claim that the Martini was invented here in 1912. After prohibition caused a blow to profits, it was turned into offices. Now it is a hotel once again, with a magnificent rooftop bar. // theknickerbocker.com
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WHEELS UP
THE MOST INTELLIGENT PRIVATE AVIATION SOLUTION Kenny Dichter’s vision for Wheels Up was to democratize the industry and expand the addressable market. In three years, Dichter took Wheels Up from disruptive startup to category leader, offering a total private aviation solution to its more than 3,000 members. His mission is to continuously introduce innovative enhancements, providing members with the best and safest experience and positioning Wheels Up to be the largest private aviation company. For a modest initiation fee, Wheels Up offers both family and corporate memberships with guaranteed hourly pricing on a ‘pay-as-you-fly’ basis, with no hidden charges. Members have access to a private fleet of new Beechcraft King Air 350i and Citation Excel/XLS aircraft, all equipped with Wi-Fi and Gogo Text and Talk technology. Wheels Up has created a niche in the marketplace with its unique offerings including Wheels Down – the ultimate lifestyle, events, and concierge program – the Wheels Up App, Flight Desk, Shared Flights, Shuttles, Hot Flights, and the WHEELS UP CARES charitable initiative. // wheelsup.com Image: Kenny Dichter (Founder, CEO)
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PRIVATE AVIATION FOUNDED IN 2013 156 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $170M / 2 ROUNDS
The Elevated Acre is a high rise park overlooking the East River. With great views of the Brooklyn Bridge, it is the perfect spot to go for a lunch break or to take in a sunset. A tiered ampitheater area hosts concerts and movie screenings.
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WIBBITZ A VIDEO FOR EVERY STORY
Wibbitz is the leading automated video creation platform built for publishers. The platform uses advanced text-to-video technology to automatically produce premium branded videos from text articles in seconds. Wibbitzâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s platform enables publishers to minimize production time and create videos more efficiently, providing intuitive editing tools and licensed media from sources including Reuters and Getty Images. The company supports the production of thousands of videos each day, allowing partners like AOL, Time Inc., Bonnier, and CBS to meet growing consumer demands for engaging videos on desktop, mobile, and social media. Founded in 2011, Wibbitz has offices in New York City and Tel Aviv and is backed by Horizon Ventures, NantMobile, Initial Capital, lool Ventures, and Kima Ventures, among others. It has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, TechCrunch, and Mashable. // wibbitz.com Image: Zohar Dayan (Co-Founder, CEO) and Yotam Cohen (Co-Founder, COO)
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DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2011 45 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $10.8M / 3 ROUNDS
HOME SERVICES FOUNDED IN 2012 120 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $110M / 4 ROUNDS
Celebrated in literature, song, and film, when it opened in 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge was the first roadway to connect Manhattan with Brooklyn. Tourists now flock to this NYC landmark in droves to admire its gothic towers, criss-crossing steel, and most of all the magnificent views from its walkways.
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HANDY
THE PLATFORM FOR ON-DEMAND HOME SERVICES
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, Handy is changing the way people receive and provide home services, a $800 billion market. Co-founders Oisin Hanrahan and Umang Dua have guided the company through exceptional growth, and in the process, fostered a better home service experience by building a technology-enabled platform connecting customers to independent professionals. In just four years, Handy has expanded to 28 cities across 15 states and three countries. The company has facilitated over 2.5 million bookings, served over 500,000 customers and activated over 75,000 independent professionals. Handy brings to customers convenience, exceptional ease-of-use, and world-class customer service â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all with the click of a button. For professionals, the Handy platform makes it possible to build their own small businesses, have flexible schedules that they can control, and gain meaningful income opportunities. // handy.com Image: Oisin Hanrahan (Co-Founder, CEO) and Umang Dua (Co-Founder)
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Madison Square Garden opened in 1968 in its current venue and has been hosting packed audiences ever since. As one of the busiest entertainment arenas in the world everything from basketball to ice hockey, dog shows to circuses, and ultimate fighting to Elton John can be seen here. // thegarden.com
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CYBER SECURITY FOUNDED IN 2012 60 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $33M / 2 ROUNDS
WHITE OPS VALIANTLY COMBATING CYBERCRIMINALS IN THE DARK CORNERS OF THE ONLINE ADVERTISING ECOSYSTEM
An underground world of organized cybercrime drives vast robot armies that elevate advertising fraud to billions of U.S. dollars every year. These hidden robots reside secretly on ordinary people’s home and work computers. They command and control web browsers to fraudulently ‘view’ online advertisements, unbeknownst to the computer’s owner. The masters of these evil bots use ‘cash out’ websites to pocket the illicit revenue from these ill-gotten gains from advertisers. Launched in 2013, White Ops has built a talented team of white hat hackers to combat the cybercriminals and prevent fraud. White Ops innovative technology verifies human interaction with Internet browsers and determines whether costly digital ads are viewed by people or by remote controlled robots. Billions of dollars are at stake, and both consumers and businesses are being hurt. White Ops is working hard to make the internet safer and better for everyone. // whiteops.com Image: Michael Tiffany (Co-Founder, CEO), Eddie Schwartz (President, COO) and Tamer Hassan (Co-Founder, CTO)
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FUNDERA
THE EASIEST WAY TO SHOP AND SAVE ON A SMALL BUSINESS LOAN
FINTECH FOUNDED IN 2014 50 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $14.9M / 2 ROUNDS Fundera is the most trusted online marketplace for small business loans. With one simple application, small business owners can apply to all of the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top lenders, find out what they qualify for, and compare rates to find the right deal. The platform aims to make finding a loan as simple as possible by providing the resources borrowers need to make real comparisons between loan offers. Funderaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Customer Success team educates business owners about their options and helps them navigate the process, with the goal of making lenders compete for their business instead of the other way around. Founded in 2014 by former GroupMe co-founder Jared Hecht and former Gilt software engineer Rohan Deshpande, Fundera has helped over 4,000 small businesses secure over $250 million in financing to date. The marketplace also provides free tools like credit monitoring for small business owners, and has built the most-trafficked blog on small business finance in the country. // fundera.com Image: Rohan Deshpande (Co-Founder, CTO) and Jared Hecht (Co-Founder, CEO)
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New York Central No. 31 was a Brooklyn built tugboat that for fifty years guided cargo barges between the rail terminals of New Jersey, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. Now the boatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pilot house sits on Pier 16 at South Street Seaport, part of the seaportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fine collection of maritime history.
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COMMON CO-LIVING IN A NETWORK OF FURNISHED, COMMUNITY-MINDED RESIDENCES
Co-living, co-eating, co-playing, co-creating. This is what it means to live life in common, as it is a leading co-living company with a network of community-focused shared housing. Common offers renters a safe and comfortable alternative to the risky rental market where dealing with expensive brokers and finding roommates on Craigslist have previously been the best options for those new to a city. Headquartered in New York, Common launched in 2015 and now operates properties in New York, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. // common.com Image: Brad Hargreaves (Founder, CEO)
REAL ESTATE FOUNDED IN 2015 30 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $23.35M / 2 ROUNDS
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Williamsburg is a mishmash of styles and cultures. Long-term communities of Hasidic Jews, Puerto Ricans, and hipster incomers live in a mix; high-end restaurants vie for space with old school dive bars and clubs. Its creative and international buzz has led some to label the area â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Little Berlinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.
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HYPERSCIENCE
AUTOMATING LOW-, MEDIUM- AND HIGH-SKILLED LABOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOUNDED IN 2014 26 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $18M / 3 ROUNDS
HyperScience is an artificial i ntelligence c ompany specializing in back-office automation for Fortune 500 and government organizations. Their machine learning software takes over work that people are doing today by learning how they’ve done it in the past. Individual human capital is then free to focus on more complex tasks. With offices in New York and Sofia, Bulgaria, is partial to a game of tennis, chess or Catan. // hyperscience.com Image: Krasimir Marinov (Co-Founder) and Peter Brodsky (Co-Founder)
Live Bait brings a taste of the south to New York. Shuck some oysters to start and then chow down on New Orleans style favourites: gumbo, shrimp po’boys, catfish and chips and fried pickles on the side. A great beer list and casual styling completes the bait shack feel. // livebaitnyc.com
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DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2012 125 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
NOWTHIS STORIES THAT MOVE
NowThis is a world leader in mobile video content creation with over 2.4 billion monthly views across multiple digital platforms. The company operates over 30 content verticals on various social channels, delivering over 60 unique visual stories per day. NowThis produces on demand video news, live broadcasts, and original scripted programming customized for specific platforms and audiences. As well as being one of the most-watched video news publishers across the social web, NowThis has built a unique distribution model that provides news and current affairs coverage by millennials for millennials. 74% of its audience is under 34 years old, while 68% are between 18-34 years old, with the latter being a demographic that is eagerly consuming the kind of content that NowThis is creating. The company was founded by digital media veterans Kenneth Lerer and Eric Hippeau. // nowth.is Image: Tina Exarhos (CMO) and Athan Stephanopoulos (President)
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Freemans can be tricky to find: thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no street address, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tucked away at the end of a little alley. Once inside you will enjoy the curious, colonial tavern decor and cosy atmosphere. Regulars say the hot artichoke dip and baked skillet eggs are to die for! // freemansrestaurant.com
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INTERNET OF THINGS FOUNDED IN 2014 9 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $5.5M / 2 ROUNDS
TWIST HOME
THE SIMPLEST WAY TO A BRIGHTER HOME
Twist Home was started with one goal in mind: to make the smart home simple. Founded in 2014 by Shaun Springer, a former engineer of Crestron Electronics, Twist is a smart LED light bulb with an AirPlay speaker built in. The bulbs save space as well as energy, promote a healthy sleep cycle with time-sensitive adaptive lighting, and offer easy and seamless user installation. Twist has been named one of Interbrand’s ‘Breakthrough Brands of 2016’ and is progressing towards a full production launch. While this is Twist’s first product, the team plans to launch a full line of innovative devices that leverage the light socket’s power, creating the world’s simplest smart home platform. // hellotwist.com Image: Shaun Springer (Founder, CEO)
The Whitney Museum houses a fine collection of 20th century American art in a dramatically modern building by Renzo Piano. Located in the Meatpacking District and facing the Hudson River, the museum’s architecture reflects its industrial surroundings while creating a modern gallery and public space. // whitney.org
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ABACUS INTELLIGENT EXPENSE REPORTING
Founded in 2013 by Omar Qari, Ted Power, and Joshua Halickman, Abacus set out to reinvent the way companies reimburse their employees. Abacus helps businesses intelligently manage their employee expenses using data and behavior analysis to make recommendations, as well as automate expense creation and approval. Using heuristics, expenses are curated to help administrators focus on anomalies and high priority items, while processing next-day reimbursements, enforcing company expense policy, reconciling corporate cards, and syncing with accounting software. Abacus is partnering with companies like Salesforce, Slack, and Lever so that busy finance teams have a smarter way to manage business expenses. // abacus.com Image: Omar Qari (Co-Founder, CEO), Joshua Halickman (Co-Founder, CTO) and Ted Power (Co-Founder, CPO)
FINTECH FOUNDED IN 2013 20 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $3.5M / 3 ROUNDS
New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s myriad of rooftops offer something for everyone â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from quiet spaces for reflection to achingly hip bars. Whether for thinking or drinking, the roofs across town bring a view and a sense of wonder that no ground floor spot can compete with.
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THE CLOSING 7 These startups complete our list.
BLUE APRON
SMART CITY FOUNDED IN 2015 EMPLOYEES UNDISCLOSED FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
Blue Apron makes cooking fun and easy. The company is changing the way people cook at home. With a weekly subscription service, it delivers all the ingredients in exactly the right proportions, along with beautifully printed recipe cards. // blueapron.com
ACCELERATING INNOVATION IN CITIES WORLDWIDE
LIKE HAVING YOUR OWN PRIVATE CHEF
FOOD FOUNDED IN 2012 4,000 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $193.8M / 5 ROUNDS
SIDEWALK LABS Sidewalk Labs is an Alphabet company that embraces the power of ubiquitous connectivity to improve urban life. Its team of urbanists and technologists work with cities to develop products and services that address big urban problems across transportation, housing, community services, data-driven management, and other areas. // sidewalklabs.com
ORCHARD PLATFORM
TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDER FOR MARKETPLACE LENDING
The Orchard Platform provides products and services to investors that enable them to understand, access, and execute marketplace lending investments, including Market Data & Research, a powerful Order Management System, and detailed Reporting & Analytics. Orchardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission is to build the systems and standardize the data that will allow marketplace lending to efficiently grow into a global financial market. // orchardplatform.com
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FINTECH FOUNDED IN 2013 11 - 50 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $44.7 M / 3 ROUNDS
JUNO
THE FRESH APPROACH TO RIDE SHARING By putting drivers first and taking a smaller share of the profit (leaving more for drivers), Juno wants to pave the way for better rider experiences. Launched in New York City in the spring of 2016, it is currently running a beta program. // gojuno.com
Some data is based on estimated values. Other sources: crunchbase.com.
TRANSPORTATION FOUNDED IN 2015 200 EMPLOYEES FUNDING UNDISCLOSED
ELECTRONICS FOUNDED IN 2011 101+ EMPLOYEES $62.34M / 5 ROUNDS
LITTLEBITS
CELEBRATING THE MOMENT OF INVENTION littleBits™ is empowering kids everywhere to create inventions, large and small, with its platform of easy-to-use electronic building blocks. Bits™ snap together with magnets to allow anyone to learn, build, and invent with electronics — no soldering, wiring, or programming required. The library includes 9 kits and 69 Bits, with products sold in over 60 countries around the world and used by over 14,000 educators as an engaging tool for making STEM/STEAM more accessible to all students. // littleBits.cc
CHEDDAR
GIPHY
The Cheddar video news network covers the most innovative products, technologies, and services transforming our lives through the lens of the companies driving these changes. Cheddar focuses on business content for the market aged 18-34 and broadcasts live daily from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, with exclusive CEO and founder interviews and the best of technology and media coverage. // cheddar.com
GIPHY is GIFs. It is the first and largest GIF search engine, where thousands of artists, brands, and pop culture moments make today’s expression, entertainment, and info a little more moving. Whether it’s a new internet meme, last weekend’s episode of SNL or even the coverage of the 2016 Election, GIPHY powers the world’s ability to search, share and communicate in GIFs. Additionally, GIPHY supports the growing GIF artist community, while also providing creation tools for the casual fan. // giphy.com
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2016 1-10 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $13M / 2 ROUNDS
DIGITAL MEDIA FOUNDED IN 2013 56 EMPLOYEES FUNDING $150.95M / 4 ROUNDS
A GIF IS WORTH A THOUSAND FEELS
BUSINESS NEWS FOR MILLENIALS
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THE HUNDERT // INFOGRAPHICS
THE HUNDERT NEW YORK IN NUMBERS 1OO
35
startups
136.5 employees on
13,654
average
employees
total number of
MOST POPULAR INDUSTRIES Media
727,500,000 $
Health
17%
HIGHEST TOTAL FUNDING
Fintech
7%
47,502,250 $
6%
E-commerce
AVERAGE FUNDING AMOUNT
6% Real estate
6%
C=10%
5%
MOST POPULAR STARTING LETTER
MOST POPULAR BOROUGHS
IoT
SEX OF FOUNDERS
13%
Brooklyn
87%
Manhattan
14 % 86 %
YEAR OF FOUNDING IN % 2011
11%
2012
30%
2013
28%
2014
22%
2015 2016
8% 1%
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The data is based solely on content from the startups included in this edition of the magazine. Some data is based on estimated values. Other sources: crunchbase.com, angel.co, cbinsights.com
}
industries
EVENT PARTNERS
The Hundert will be available at select conferences and events in NYC and Europe.
The need for exchange on the subjects of design, content and development is great, so on the 16th of February 2017, the 11th App Days – the meeting place for app developers and app searchers – will take place. The event is a platform for getting to know new trends and insights in these areas, as well as allowing developers, manufacturers, the media and brands to get to know one other and exchange ideas. app-days.com
With the theme “Coming of age”, Online Handel 2017 will inspire you with the latest trends, tools, methods and innovations, as well as exciting best case scenarios of the industry, for the transformation of your online channel. We are looking forward to two interesting networking days with you on 7th and 8th February at nhow in Berlin. managementforum.com/online-handel
“Shaping the future” is the theme of this year’s Deut-scher Business Angels Tages 2016. With more than 500 participants and 150 exhibitors the congress is the biggest of its kind in Europe for angels, startups and the accompanying ecosystem. Participants can expect workshops, round tables and discussions on current themes as well as a startup exhibt and pitches from selected startups. businessangelstag.de
To make a difference, companies need creative minds and fresh ideas. Creative minds need platforms on which to introduce their innovative products and business ideas. MCBW START UP comprises diverse formats that support targeted dialog among new and experienced designers, design-oriented startups, experts from the corporate sector, and the public to facilitate successful professional careers. mcbw.de
Internet World Fair is a pure B-2-B event aimed at all enterprises using the Internet for commercial purposes and investing in products, services and solutions. Visitors to the fair are large- and medium-sized ecommerce companies from all branches. The fair takes place in Munich on March 7th - 8th 2017. internetworld-messe.de
D3CON – EXPERIENCE THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL ADVERTISING! d3con is the world’s biggest event on the topic of Programmatic Advertising. More than 1,500 top-level participants, from leading advertisers, agencies, publishers and service providers, meet every year in Hamburg to discuss, to network and to learn. d3con.org
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The M2M / IoT Forum CEE is the largest forum on this topic in the CEE region. More than 450 participants from over 20 countries participated in the Vienna City Hall. The participants will experience first hand how IoT is now used in almost every branch of industry. m2m-forum.eu
Hardly any topic electrifies the professional world like Blockchain. The main questions of this event are: What does blockchain mean for my industry? Where are the potentials? How can I create new business models in the context of Blockchain? The Best of Blockchain offers focussed specialist forums in combination with interdisciplinary subjects. Become part of the big technology trend! euroforum.de/best-of-blockchain
future!publish is the new meeting place for the publishing industry. The second future!publish will take place on 26. and 27. January 2017 at Urania in Berlin. The congress provides new ideas and offers exchange son nes strategies for publishing and sales. The main focus is on electronic publishing, as well as on innovative marketing and sales strategies. futurepublish.berlin
THE HUNDERT // PARTNERS
The Internet of Things is one of the most important technological advances that drives innovation. The Internet of Things Conference (IoTCon) links the leading minds on this topic, providing first-class technical and innovative knowledge. The conference provides a unique mix of topics related to design expertise, product development and IoT-based business models. iotcon.de
Our smart robot tells us that you will be immersed in a tech, business and innovative event all in one, bringing together unconventional young entrepreneurs and top speakers to think, do and change the way we understand innovation and entrepreneurship. Dive into the 4th Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, Drones, Robots, Smart Cities and Autonomous Machines. Join us! unconvention.eu
The Customer Experience Forum has been a fixed point in the German-speaking CX scene for years and has established itself as a community meeting place. Here, experts from all industries exchange experiences and strategies on customer experience and provide deep insight into the daily work, where the aim is customer enthusiasm. cx-forum.eu
The German CRM Forum has been the largest CRM conference in the German-speaking world for years and is therefore the most relevant meeting place for CRM managers. Last year 250+ CRM-experts joined us, including brands such as Zalando, Hapag-Lloyd, BMW, Volvo, tesa, REWE, EDEKA, METRO, Marc Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Polo, Henkel, and Deutsche Bahn. germancrmforum.de
The Online Marketing Rockstars Festival is a two day event. It starts with the expo where we present the 200 leading companies in digital marketing and expect 20.000 visitors. Our Rockstars conference on March 3 features international experts that have rarely been seen on stage before in Germany. Our line-up includes Gary Vaynerchuk, Andrew Bosworth (Facebook) or Tamara Lohan (Mr & Mrs Smith). onlinemarketingrockstars.de
Digitization 4.0: Current topics such as Big Data, Cloud, Internet of Things, Mobile, Security, Social Business or Industry 4.0 are equally represented as telecommunications or simply experienced IT service providers, who can take on a migration or the continued smooth operation of the infrastructure. itandmedia.de
DLD (Digital-Life-Design) is a network on innovation, digitization, science and culture. Our conferences connect business, creative and social leaders, opinion-formers, and influencers for crossover conversation and inspiration. dld-conference.com
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The DialogSummit, the European conference for e-mail and data-driven marketing, is all about Multichannel Integration and Marketing Automation. As part of the summit, the European eMail & Data Driven Marketing Awards will be presented. 300 marketing experts were present in 2016. dialogsummit.de
Expo is the biggest e-commerce event organized in Berlin. In 2017, it will take place on February 2 in Station Berlin. The second edition will host 90 exhibitors and 3,000 visitors. Industry experts who will share their knowledge on stage include: Erik Meierhoff (Rakuten Europe), Malte Will (Google), Karsten KĂśhler (HubSpot), Zoltan Maklary (Notebooksbilliger.de) and Karl Wehner (Alibaba Group). ecommerceberlin.com
PPC Masters - A day for everyone who deals in clicks! Why should you go? The conference is the ideal meeting place for hungry PPC specialists as well as newcomers who are looking for new tactics and strategies, but at the same time also want to discuss the present and future of PPC advertising. The PPC Masters is bringing all the expertise you need in this field to Berlin! ppcmasters.de
THE HUNDERT // EDITORIAL
SASKIA UPPENKAMP
Saskia is a Berlin-based professional photographer specialized in portraiture. After working in the movie industry for over ten years as a focus puller and camera operator, she switched to a career in photography in 2011. Portraits of musicians and artists as well as reportages or business photography are part of her portfolio. saskia-uppenkamp.com photo@saskia-uppenkamp.com
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DIE 18 BESTEN RADIOSENDER IN EINER APP. ! NEUE APP VON FLUXFM HOLT EUCH JETZT DIE OID UND iOS. KOSTENLOS FÃ&#x153;R ANDR
THE HUNDERT // EDITORIAL
CHRISTOPH LANGE
German photographer Christoph Lange began his career assisting some of the biggest names in fashion photography. Christoph then spent several years as the first assistant for Ellen von Unwerth, eventually progressing to become the DOP for von Unwerthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fashion film. He has also built up a solid client base in the U.S. and Europe. Currently Christoph splits his time between homes in New York and Los Angeles. christophlange.com christophlange@mac.com +1 646 554 8564
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Your company writes the story, we have the stage. Meet your partners for successful events in Berlin. The mixture of different historical strands, cumulated at a location in the heart of Berlin, is unique in its form. Ewerk is an inspiring venue for events, accomodating for both functional and esthetic requirements. The available event areas provide space for up to 2000 people and offer the perfect scene for exclusive dinners and receptions, meetings and conferences, road and award shows as well as parties and concerts. Together with our preferred partners, we manage your event. From conception, through planning, up to organisation and realization - we make sure that your event achieves the maximum success.
.berlin furniture rentals production design
www.ewerk.net
www.berlin-cuisine.com
www.phoenix.berlin
.berlin furniture rentals production design
www.spice-event.com
NKF MEDIA TEAM NKF Media is characterised by a boundless enthusiasm for innovative projects. We began this adventure with the first edition of the Hundert, which was soon followed by the launch of our German publication Berlin Valley. The latter has become Berlin’s leading startup magazine, both in print and through its online platform, and its launch is accompanied by a series of events covering every current edition’s topic. In line with always being on the lookout for what is exciting and avant-garde, the Nonkonformist (NKF) family has evolved beyond publishing our two magazines to also include the Startup Calendar, with the best events from all across Europe, and our job portal Startup Jobs, as well as a daily Startup Newsletter currently being in the works. For us thinking big comes naturally and there are not limitations on turning our visions into concrete realities. All of this, however, would never have been possible without the effort and commitment of our dedicated team, who go above and beyond for us. This one is for you! From left to right: Johannes Richter, Florian Stein, Antonio Maiocchi, Stefanie Berger, Sebastian Schäfer, Kata Oldziejewska, Corinna Visser, Kate Grin, Jan Thomas, Sebastian Rehbein, Lena Kuhlmann, David Raabe, Kristin Moellering, Pavel Romanenko, Eva Weller, Lars Hügemeier, Anna-Lena Kümpel and Sabine Petzsch. Daniela Rattunde and Bilgen Yaylali were somewhere warm when this freezing photograph was taken. // nkf.media
An open-minded, lively company culture that encourages the team to take initiative in developing their skill set while learning from and promoting the startup spirit. We are currently looking to grow and expand our team. If you are thinking of working in a media house or in the startup scene, simply choose the best of both worlds and get in touch with us at jobs@nkf.media.
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borborygmi ( n.) the roumbling sounds your stomach makes
FOOD SERVICE CREATIVE AGENCY converting people into guests & food into revenue BRAND LAUNCH | BRAND RELAUNCH | BRAND EXPANSION BERLIN | FRANKFURT | MILAN
www.brandingcuisine.com
THANK YOU! Every issue of the Hundert is the result of a collective commitment to this passion project. Our tiny core team couldn’t accomplish such an enormous undertaking without the collaboration and support of our partners, freelancers and friends. Guys, we appreciate all you do for us, the long hours and weekends that you put in, and your dedication to constantly making the Hundert better. Our genuine thanks goes to Natascha Ungereit and the team at Operation Butterfly for the brilliant design and art direction. Thank you for realizing our concept and taking care of every detail. Also a big thanks to Balázs Tarsoly, as well as Bianka Schurina and Jana Scheler for stepping in when we were not waving but drowning. We know it was hard work, but we hope that ultimately you are as happy and proud of this issue as we are. To Saskia, our photographer: thank you for being willing to go above and beyond the normal conditions of a job, thank you for your professionalism, and thank you for becoming part of our team. It is only through your photographs that the character of this magazine could be moulded into such a beautiful outcome. We’d further like to mention Julia Neuman for her proofreading skills and Malcolm Sullivan for helping us out with researching and formulating the location texts, thank you for that! The Hundert is a beautiful and quality print magazine because of Steffen Setzer and Manuela Wachs at our printing partner, Laserline. Thank you for the reliable cooperation, flexibility, understanding and support. This is the first time that the Hundert has dared to leave the comfort of Europe, which was only possible because of those that introduced us to their network of contacts, especially Jens Müffelmann, Claudius Senst, and Uli Schmitz. We would also sincerely like to thank Kevin P. Ryan for his foreword and our 40 experts for taking the time to choose the final one hundred: Joshua Cohen, Ben Lerer, Ellie Wheeler, Christian Busch, Matt Turck, Sunny Bates, Dawn Barber, Jeanne Sullivan, David Aronoff, Brian Cohen, Peter Crysdale, Scott Galloway, Brian Morrissey, Philippe von Borries, Anand Sanwal, Henry Blodget, Nicholas Thompson, Charles Duhigg, Joanne Wilson, Stefan Heilmann, Urs Cete, Rameet Chawla, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Jeff Jarvis, Ned Desmond, Arianna Huffington, Matthew Hartman, Adam Carver, Alex Iskold, Karin Klein, Spencer B. Lazar, Tony Haile, Brad Steele, John Frankel, Kelly Hoey, Sascha van Holt, Jeremy Caplan, David Kirkpatrick, and Jonathan Jaglom.
Most notably we would like to thank our sponsors and advertising partners, without whom we would not have been able to realize the Hundert. For this issue, we would like to particularly thank Axel Springer, KPMG, Weberbank, Berlin Partner, and SevenVentures. Furthermore, we’d like to thank our media partners in helping to spread the word about the magazine. We also want to thank the following people that have supported the project in various ways: Bernhard Mehl, Constantin Eis, Neil Parikh, Bradley Tusk, Dorothea Schneider, Annika Schoen, Steve Zehden, Susanne Gellert, Mark Lemke, Oliver Kray, Stephanie Eschen, Tim Dümichen, Marius Sternberg, Klaus Siegers, Luzi Teber, Maike Valentin, Henning Ravn, Uwe Gralapp, Christian Herzog, Oliver Heimes, Christoph Lange, and Julia Meusel and Christoph Strobel at Solokarpfen. Our thanks has to go to the startups of New York that opened their calendars and their offices to an unknown magazine from Berlin. This has allowed us to portray an important slice of the entire ecosystem, and also pay homage to the city that they call home. Additionally, without the famous sights and the secret hideaways shown in this edition the true sense of The Hundert would have been lost. We’d therefore like to thank all the restaurants, cafés, museums, and hidden gems for hosting us and for helping us in creating a varied sense of this city. Thank you to New Yorkers and their hometown for being a conundrum of experiences, and to all those that we might have forgotten in the whirlwind that the production of this magazine has been - we know you were there. Of course, to the complete NKF team for their sustained cooperation and support, and Jan Thomas for giving us so much freedom and trusting us with the production of this magazine. It is a pleasure and an honour to continue working on the project you brought to life. The rest of the team: Bilgen, thank you for being our secret weapon and for putting out the inevitable fires; to Stefanie, Lars, and Sebastian we owe a round of applause for representing the magazine’s mission to our sales clients; to Chris and Sven for helping us during the summer; to Corinna and her brother Matthias for connecting us to Annika Pergament and Neimat Kerdany at NY1, whom we’d also like to thank for making an appearance on the show possible; to Marja for co-developing the initial creative concept for the magazine; and to Sabine for her spontaneity, dedication and etymological eloquence. We’ll see you in the next edition! Kata, Lena and Daniela
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MEET CREATIVE PEOPLE
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Startup
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STARTUPS AND THE CITY
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IMPRINT EDITOR IN CHIEF (ACCOUNTABLE)
Jan Thomas, jt@the-hundert.com
HEAD OF THE HUNDERT
Kata Oล dziejewska, ko@the-hundert.com
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Daniela Rattunde, dr@the-hundert.com Lena Kuhlmann, lk@the-hundert.com Sabine Petzsch, sp@the-hundert.com Chris Lennartz, christina.lennartz@googlemail.com Sven Bensemann, svenmikebensemann@gmail.com
CREATIVE SUPERVISON
Balรกzs Tarsoly, balazs.tarsoly@operationbutterfly.com
CREATIVE DIRECTION
Natascha Ungereit, natascha.ungereit@operationbutterfly.com
PHOTOGRAPHY
Saskia Uppenkamp, photo@saskia-uppenkamp.com Christoph Lange, christophlange@mac.com
COVER PHOTO
Anthony Delanoix, unsplash.com/@anthonydelanoix
PROOFREADING
Julia Neuman, julia@siliconallee.com
LOCATION TEXTS
Malcolm Sullivan, malcolmsullivan@gmail.com
FOREWORD
Kevin P. Ryan
SOURCED CONTENT
Pixabay, pixabay.com Unsplash, unsplash.com Open Vector Maps, openvectormaps.com
FONT
Charming Typeface by Manh Nguyen
EDITORIAL OFFICE
the Hundert / NKF Media GmbH Gustav-Meyer-Allee 25, 13355 Berlin Tel. +49 30 46 777 252 info@the-hundert.com the-hundert.com
BANKING INFORMATION
NKF Media GmbH / Konto 181008400 / BLZ 12040000 /Commerzbank Berlin
PRINTING
LASERLINE Druckzentrum Berlin KG All articles were created by the featured startups themselves.
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NO DOUBTS