Trends

When Frank Catalano’s doctor handed him a terrifying diagnosis — prostate cancer, 5 years to live — he did not expect to be handed his next multi-million dollar business idea as well.

(Lindsay Kaplan & Carolyn Childers are printing Benjamins with their modern, women-centric executive peer group, Chief)

The Trends SMB Database offers a snapshot of the financials, insights, and lessons learned by 200+ founders across a range of industries. We ask business owners and operators a number of questions, including:

Even with the growing importance of technology, people play a pivotal role in the success of any organization. A recent study by the consulting firm Korn Ferry, along with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, put the global economic value of human capital at $1.2 quadrillion, more than 2x the value of physical capital like technology. That figure is expected to grow in the coming years.

Julian Shapiro is the founder of Demand Curve, a Y Combinator-funded training program that teaches companies and individuals to become expert marketers. You can follow him on Twitter and read his writing here.

His Trends lecture highlights the best growth marketing tactics for 2020.

The Signal: Since the start of the pandemic outbreak in the US, we have been tracking startup funding data. Based on Dan Primack’s indispensable Pro Rata newsletter, our latest analysis looks at 288 venture deals closed in June 2020.Over the month, the industries that have received the most funding were Health Tech (15%), Fintech (9%), Data (9%), Biotech (9%), Enterprise SaaS (6%), Cybersecurity (6%), HR (5%), and Real Estate (4%).

Think about the biggest sports fan you know. Has that person ever bought a different brand of dish soap because it was on sale? Probably.

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We recently published a deep dive on the newsletter industry. The feedback was very positive, so we decided to highlight more practical tips for growing a newsletter business.