S3 Ventures Co-Leads Saranas’ $12M Series B

Saranas is a Houston-based, FDA-approved medical device company, focused on early detection and monitoring of internal bleeding complications. We are excited to partner on this game-changing technology with the company’s CEO/President, James Reinstein; Founder, Dr. Mehdi Razavi; and lead investor, Baird Capital.

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Buildforce Closes $4M Seed Round

We are thrilled to welcome Buildforce to our portfolio! Buildforce is a career life cycle platform for construction tradespeople, enabling them to leverage their skills to maintain consistent work at fair pay and with the benefits of a W-2 employee. We look forward to working with CEO/Co-Founder, Moody Heard, and our co-investors, TDF Ventures and Mercury Fund.

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Recognition of Outstanding Leadership!

Congratulations to Atmosphere CFO, Mike Grisko, on being awarded Best CFO by Austin Business Journal in the Small Company category. He is truly a financial force having completed six financing deals in the last year or so!

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Also, congrats are in order for Levelset CEO, Scott Wolfe, Jr., for being recognized by Comparably as one of the best CEOs for women. We could not be more proud of Scott’s leadership in developing a truly special and inclusive company culture.

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Get to Know Doug Donovan

We are so excited to launch our new Get to Know Q&A series that spotlights our portfolio Founders and CEOs, giving readers an inside look into the unique people leading our outstanding companies. Our first spotlight features Interplay Learning CEO/Co-Founder, Doug Donovan.

Read about his driving inspiration, his advice for other entrepreneurs, and more.

Webinar — Acquisitions & IPOs: What to Expect & How to Prepare

In this one-hour webinar, Bryan Hill – current CFO of Alkami (ALKT) and former CFO of RealPage – will share lessons and insights from his experience executing two IPOs and 40+ acquisitions. Bryan will describe what is really involved in taking a company public, as well as how to be best prepared for an M&A transaction. J.P. Morgan’s Alice Takhtajan will review the latest capital markets data, and S3 Ventures’ Brian Smith – who has taken companies public as both a Founder/CEO and as a VC – will host the discussion.

Webinar: Choosing the Right Kind of Capital Growth for Your Tech Startup

S3 Ventures hosted a one-hour webinar in June to help founders of tech startups navigate the different types of funding options and gain an understanding of which are appropriate for different milestones in the company’s life cycle. Panelists included Charlie Plauche, S3 Ventures; Chris Pacitti, Elsewhere Partners; Vik Thapar, Cypress Growth Capital; Robert Sureck, Silicon Valley Bank; and Matt Lyons, Wilson Sonsini.

Introducing our newest startup company resource…the Unit Economics Workbook! Leverage this full-featured spreadsheet to calculate key metrics like retention rates, payback periods, and LTV:CAC ratios by customer cohort.

What are unit economics? Unit economics are metrics that reveal the profitability of an average customer over its lifetime – inclusive of all costs to acquire and deliver your service to that customer. Strong unit economics give investors the confidence that your go-to-market strategy is sound and budgets are well spent.