“Because they are the job creators and innovators of the future.” is why Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, invests in startup businesses. Learning about investment trends and the economic and financial climate is a good stepping stone towards making a good investment. And what makes a startup development business a worthwhile investment are the passion, determination, and drive for excellence in their founders and employees. The unrelenting pursuit of their vision propels startup companies forward and, in the process, gaining trust from investors and employees alike. These qualities and a concrete vision for the future are essential when looking to invest in startup businesses.
Q2 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc
Why Invest in Startups?
However, the determination and vision of the leader are just one of the reasons to support startup businesses. Before learning how to invest in startup companies, we should first identify the benefits of investing in the first place.
Investment diversification
For investors, startup business provides an opportunity to diversify their portfolios. More often than not, startup businesses offer business solutions that are unique and/or adapted from current technology or practice. Aside from this, startups also offer improvements on current products. A diversified portfolio adds value to the investment and speaks of the personality of the investor.
Potential for high returns
Investing in startup companies can provide investors with the potential for great returns. Because of their newness to the market, a startup business is easy and manageable to invest in. When the company and its product deliver on their promise, the company and its investors gain so much financially and reputation-wise. This gain adds value to the investment and provides a high return to the investors.
Providing for the future
As Richard Branson said, startup companies look to the future. They improve on current technology and how this can benefit their customers in the years ahead. Investing in startup companies fuel these companies to think and develop even more products that will eventually be of great value to the community, or to the world, in the years to follow.
Startup Businesses To Watch in 2018
Below are the top startup companies to invest in this 2018. Company data was extracted from CrunchBase to add context on their growth and their top startup business ideas.
The developer of the software Docker, Docker Inc., aims to streamline the process of running applications across various platforms. With Docker, users can run a full application using the containerization system within the software. From backend to frontend, containers have all the necessary tools to run applications anywhere.
Comprised of 100% remote team, Zapier provides streamlining of business processes, communication, and workflows by integrating applications and tools. With the more tedious processes automated, customers are able to focus on their core work and be more productive. Having raised 1.3 million USD in funding, the company believes that with the right tools, individuals and organizations can be a lot more impactful but with less work.
From merchant to customer delivery, DoorDash facilitates door-to-door delivery services. Not only does the company provide services to merchant and customers, but the business is also an avenue for Dashers to work and earn a living. The company also contributes to improving the community and food sustainability, through their project focused on reducing food waste and hunger, Project DASH.
Currently, Slack is one of the fast-growing work and messaging apps on the market. Founded by Stewart Butterfield and his team, Slack is an enterprise software developed for effective communication among teams and businesses or various sizes. To date, Slack has raised over 1 billion USD in funding and has employed over 1000 employees.
Streamlining online meetings, video conferences, and messaging, Zoom provides a platform that facilitates all these. Having been named 2018 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Meeting Solutions, Zoom Video Communications, aims to ease and simplify communication through a consistent and optimized business solution.
Founded in 2002 by Ryan Smith, Qualtrics is a private company with the aim of collation and analysis data for market research, customer loyalty and satisfaction analysis, product evaluation, and community feedback. Having raised funding of 400 million USD to date, the company aims to bridge businesses -both private and public- and their consumer markets, and improving consumer experience.
Led by Bob Muglia, Snowflake Computing offers cloud-based data warehousing services. Snowflake Computing services aim to better integrate and streamline data collation, storage, and analysis, enabling users to extract relevant and quality information for their business needs.
“Skills, meet opportunity.”, as the tilr slogan says. tilr provides its clients with automated recruitment services, matching job seeker skills with job recruitments. With globalization, diversification of workforce, and increased numbers of employable individuals, recruitment has become a drawn-out process. tilr supports companies and provides them with the tools to ease and automate recruitment, according to their company needs.
ctrlio
Ctrlio provides their clients with the best deals tailored to their purchasing history and preferences. This tailored shopping assistance aims to provide customers with better and more personalized shopping options, enhancing the customer shopping experience.
Rigetti Computing
Taking on quantum computing, a technology not many companies have taken on, Rigetti Computing is focused on developing hardware and software components capable of handling such a difficult tech. Based in California, US, the full-stack quantum computing company is led by Chad Rigetti, and has raised over 100 million USD in funding to support its goals.
Investing In The Future
Startup companies learn from the technology of the past and today, and from the knowledge they gain, they build the future. As a result, investing in startup companies can bring great returns to investors, as well as diversifying their investment portfolios. Having an idea on what the company stands for and how much funding were they able to raise in support of their goals help in understanding how to value a startup and identify the best startup stocks in the market today.
Investors fuel the passion that shapes the future. Startups businesses are the new blood that enriches the market and instigates change, challenging companies to grow and develop. And investing in startup companies provides investors a say in where the future of the market goes.
