Introducing 1st Team

When I was in VC, one of the resources that we built for our portfolio was a list of agencies & service providers that came highly recommended from other operators & investors. The intention was to have a list of providers that our portfolio founders could leverage as they built and scaled their companies.

A few months back, I asked our subscribers who the top vendors are that they have worked with, receiving close to 50 responses from founders and VCs. The result is an incredible list of providers from across the globe ranging in offerings from SEO, PR, and growth to recruiting, development, and more. In the coming months, we’ll be highlighting many of these providers and sharing insights they’ve learned working with early-stage companies.

We’re kicking off this new 1st Team series today with Tintash. Led by a team of Stanford, Apple, and Paypal alumni, Tintash is a software development firm that offers managed remote engineering teams from around the globe. They design and build digital products from scratch and can also augment existing engineering teams.

We dove in with Tintash on best practices for finding and vetting an overseas dev partner, how to structure contracts to align incentives, and the best ways to manage these engagements to get the results startups need. Check it out here:

The Tactical Guide on Finding & Working with
Development Partners Overseas →

If you have an agency or service provider that you have personally worked with and would highly recommend, please let us know (team@sandhill.io)

Investment Themes, Theses, & Outlooks

• Investing in Climate Adaptation (USV Team)

• Delivering the Goods: Opportunities in Vertical Supply Chain (Feyza Haskaraman, Principal @ Menlo VC)

• Field Study: Construction Material Procurement & Logistics (Daniel Fetner & Rhea Advani, Alpaca VC)

• Opportunities in the data stack (Sivesh Sukumar, VC @ Balderton)

• Field Notes: The FinTech Promise of Latin America (Battery Ventures Team)

Industry Developments & Analyses

• Is AI generation the next platform shift? (Bessemer Ventures Team)

• Reflections on the Consumer Correction: June Gloom (Meera Clark, Principal @ Redpoint)

• Investing in the Next Wave of Fintech: Making Sense of Fintech in a Down Market (Jillian Williams, Principal @ Cowboy)

• Fixing the Fickle Finances of Healthcare (Kahini Shah, Principal @ Obvious)

• Is it a good or bad time for a health-tech company to raise? (Christina Farr, Principal @ OMERS)

• Minions and Gen Z Characteristics (Rex Woodbury, Partner @ Index)

Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating

• Investment Bank Overview: Working with an Advisor (Sam Johnson & Vinnie McSweeney, OpenView)

• CMO Playbook for Economic Headwinds: Make Your Move Before It’s Too Late (Insight Team)

• When Cash Becomes a Moat (Kevin Stevens, Partner @ Energize)

Additional Reads

• What May Be Coming To Startups, 2022 Edition (Elad Gil, Angel Investor)

• Progress vs. Categories (Albert Wenger, GP @ USV)

• Hold On! (David Beisel, GP @ NextView)

• Cloudflare and the Edge-First Web (Dan Cahana, VC @ GGV)

• Tailwinds: What's in a Thesis? (Kyle Harrison, GP @ Contrary)

Did we miss something?

We’re now pulling posts from over 650 Medium writers, Substack newsletters, and blogs (full list here). Let us know if you notice someone we’re missing and we'll include their content starting with our next digest! Just respond to this email with their URL if that’s the case.

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