TechCrunch+ roundup: YC Demo Day faves, thrift shop VCs, cybersecurity product challenges

You don’t need to move to San Francisco to launch a startup, but working here does have some advantages: moderate weather, natural beauty, great food, and sure, the world’s largest concentration of venture capital.

Y Combinator’s Demo Day took place this week, and although the event itself was virtual-only, 86% of the founders in YC’s winter 2023 batch lived in SF while participating.

The ongoing AI boom is a contributing factor: 54 of the 282 companies in this cohort “are specifically building generative AI startups,” reported Natasha Mascarenhas.

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In keeping with tradition, TechCrunch staffers selected their favorites from the latest batch.

Please note that these are for entertainment purposes only, as “we’re not offering investing advice or recommending anyone join or back a startup.”

Thanks very much for reading. Have a great weekend!

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

VCs to recommerce startups: Let’s pop some tags

Thanks in large part to Gen Z’s interest in sustainable shopping, recommerce is soaring to new heights, and VCs are looking for the come up.

Since Etsy went public in 2015, companies like Poshmark, The RealReal and thredUP followed suit, attracting even more investors to the sector. Last year, VCs flowed approximately $6 billion to resale platforms, according to Brian Schwarzbach, an investor with Cathay Innovation.

In a post for TC+, he explores three recommerce areas that are attracting VC interest and shares “some food for thought for founders building startups in this (re)emerging space.”

Funds offering ‘friends and family’ checks could bring the change underrepresented founders need

America’s long-standing wealth gap between white and Black households contributes to the lack of diversity among startup founders.

Median liquid wealth for a Black family in the U.S. is $3,630, but that figure soars to $79,000 for a white family. As a result, “the average Black founder raises less than around $1,000 from family and friends,” reports Dominic-Madori Davis.

Since the average friends and family round is $23,000, “they’d need to secure the entire liquid wealth of six Black families” for parity, according to a white paper by venture fund Fifth Star.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Smalls’ $19M Series B deck

Subscription cat food startup Smalls has raised $34 million since launching in 2017.

Now, the company has 50 employees, plans to open a cat café and is eyeing an expansion into retail. Its founders shared their Series B deck with TC+, minus “specific details to the company’s valuation and current revenue.”

Cover slide
Market slide
Problem slide
Mission slide (“We are here to make 9 lives 10”)
Competition slide
Product slide
How it works slide
Why Now interstitial slide
Business metrics slide
Milestones slide
Team slide
Use of Funds slide
Performance interstitial slide
CAC slide
Go to market/growth channels slide
Value Prop slide
Churn analysis slide
LTV slide
Future Plans interstitial slide
Market extension slide part 1
Market extension slide part 2
LTV extension slide
The Ask and target milestones slide
Thank you slide

As YC launches a new batch, here’s how the early-stage venture market is faring today

Drawing on data from Carta’s “First Cut – State of Private Markets: Q1 2023” report, Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm crunched the numbers