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Hi folks, and the hundreds of AIs who are probably reading this too. May your day be full of joy. If you can’t feel joy today, be kind to yourself. Maybe tomorrow is the day of joy. That goes for both humans and AIs, now that I think about it. — Christine and hi

The australiabusinessblog.com Top 3

• Hope you have a great Meta day: That’s right, we had a team watching the comings and goings of today’s Meta Connect developer conference where we’re sure Mark Zuckerberg spoke passionately about how to make the metaverse “a real boy” and the next big bets. See the section Big Tech Inc. For more information.
• Help us help you: Human resources technology has seen a lot of action in recent years as companies moved into remote mode. Factorial is one of the companies that is reaping the benefits. Ingrid reports that the company has secured $120 million in new funding, doubling its valuation in unicorn territory as it builds enterprise-grade HR for small businesses.
• And in this corner…: NocoDB throws in its hat as a viable contender for Airtable, offering an open source, no-code platform that connects to production databases. Paul has more.

Startups and VC

NextView Ventures announced today that it has raised a $200 million venture capital fund, its largest to date, divided between an early stage vehicle for $135 million and an opportunity fund for $65 million. Natasha M reports. The fund also involves Stephanie Palmeri, a founder of All Raise and former partner at Uncork, as an equal partner.

Indian startups raised $3 billion in the quarter ended September, down 57% from the previous quarter and 80% year over year. The numbers are remarkable for many reasons, manish reports. Most obviously, startups are finding it difficult to raise capital at a time when most of the top funds in India have raised record amounts this year.

And we have a handful of stories. I know I usually only do five, but our little writer bees have been extremely busy for the past 24 hours, so here’s five plus a few bonuses.

• Wishful thinking at best: Blue-chip VC firm Matrix Partners has long been a software infrastructure investor Now, Connie reports, it has some questions about web3. She describes many of the projects as ‘wishful thinking’.
• Fitter, happier, more productive: Ron reports that Quantori is building an app development platform focused on life sciences.
• Money smart, gamified: This company wants to improve your credit by gamifying financial literacy, reports Christine.
• On the sunny side of the street (yeah): Solestial pledges solar panels in space for one-tenth the cost and secures $10 million seed funding, Devin reports.
• Moar data, moar funds: Nigerian data and intelligence firm Stears raises $3.3 million, reports Tage.
• Look, you just can’t do that: hi face-palms pretty hard at OG App, wondering what the fledgling startup’s endgame was.
• Last chance saloon: Are you coming to Disrupt? Well, Lauren S wants to remind you that it’s your last week to save on passes to australiabusinessblog.com Disrupt.

How do you go from popular to profitable during a recession?

Image Credits: Patrick Giardino (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Product-driven growth startups are like a car with a manual transmission that needs a push to get going: one driver just can’t do it all alone.

According to Nick Mills, whose sales experience also includes stints at Stripe, Facebook and CircleCI, “all businesses ultimately face a similar challenge: to keep growing, they need to hire sales teams and build a pipeline.”

After explaining how to calculate your actionable addressable market, aka “the piece of that pie you can win right now,” Mills shows you how to define product-qualified leads that power sales engines on all cylinders.

“Telling investors about your viral user growth is no longer enough,” says Mills. “They want to know how this translates into revenue, resiliency and runway.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

australiabusinessblog.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams stay ahead of the curve. You can register here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

We hope you’re having a Meta and Google day so far, but if not, we think the following stories will get you in the mood. These are just some of the gems you can find in our event hub:

Not to be outdone, Google announced a bunch of news that the team was here for as well:

For those of you ready for other company news, we’re here to deliver:

• And just like that…: General Motors has entered the energy business, Kirsten writes. The carmaker’s new business unit offers a range of energy products targeting residential, commercial and charging.
• Why take a taxi when you can take a helicopter?: Joby Aviation, an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft startup (whew!), has partnered with Delta Air Lines to offer airport-to-home transportation for airline customers, starting in New York and Los Angeles. Rebecca has more.
• I’m in a buying mood: Thoma Bravo remains in buying mood this year, and Ron has tracked all the action. This time, Thoma Bravo acquired its third identity company this year with a $2.3 billion ForgeRock deal.

We’re glad to meet you – have a Google day now.