新兴借贷平台Insikt向企业引入“贷款即服务”业务
借贷市场最近十分之热门，随着 Lending Club 准备进行首次公开募股，这个领域每天都有新进入者。
在新的竞争对手中有一个刚刚募集了1600万美元的公司，它的目的是让企业成为未来的贷款人并提供一个名为“贷款即服务”（LAAS）的平台。它就是Insikt。
这家总部位于旧金山的借贷公司提供的软件可以让企业为他们的消费者提供小额贷款，企业可以信任 Insikt 让它处理实际提供贷款的细节。这些企业覆盖了从零售商和商家到实体银行的不同类型，而他们往往受限于融资的狭小渠道。
最初几个月所有贷款都会存在于Insikt的资产负债表上，资金支持由 Capital One 和 Atalaya Capital Management 等来提供。在每个企业都有了自己的投资组合之后，该企业的投资将全部汇集到一起，作为债券发行给投资者。
这使企业能够将他们的投资多样化，同时让FICO信用分数较低（或是根本没有FICO评分）的消费者可以在企业销售点申请分期付款。
换句话说，Insikt是在打两边牌。该平台让投资者有机会为企业的贷款提供资金，而这又反过来提供了让消费者在销售点可以选择贷款的技术。
Revolution Ventures是 Insikt 1600万美元融资轮里的投资者，资金主要用于该公司的成长壮大，不过一些大型金融公司也向该公司提供了多达7000万美元的负债，为其贷款业务注入活力。
Insikt Introduces Lending As A Service For Brands
The lending space couldn’t be hotter, with folks like Lending Club set to IPO, and new entrants launching every day.
One of these new competitors just raised $16 million to let brands become the lenders of the future, offering a “Lending as a Service” (LaaS) platform. Meet Insikt.
The San Franciscobased lender will provide software that allows brands to offer small loans to their consumers, trusting Insikt to handle the meticulous details of actually providing the loans. These brands can range from retailers and merchants to actual banks, who are often limited to a small window of financing.
All loans are put on Insikt’s balance sheet for the first few months of their existence, powered by capital from Capital One and Atalaya Capital Management, among others. After each brand has its own portfolio, the entirety of that brand’s investments will be pooled together and issued as bonds to investors.
This allows them to diversify where their money is going, while allowing consumers with low FICO scores (or no FICO score at all) to get an installment plan application at the PoS.
In other words, Insikt is playing on both sides. The platform offers investors the opportunity to power loans for brands, which will in turn have technology that provides customers a lending option at PoS.
Revolution Ventures provided the capital for Insikt’s $16 million round of funding, dedicated to power growth for the company, but big financial firms have also provided upwards of $70 million in debt into the company to juice its lending business.
来源：techcrunch.cn
硅谷
2014年12月12日
硅谷
HaaS云服务提供商Altiscale完成B轮3000万美元融资
一提到Hadoop，大家可能就会想到数据中心复杂的内部设置，但Altiscale希望通过将全部服务转向云端，并提供Hadoop即服务（Hadoop-as-a-Service，简称“HaaS”），减少这种工作的复杂性。今天，Altiscale宣布完成B轮3000万美元融资，用以继续推进这一目标。
此轮融资由Northgate领投，红杉资本和General Catalyst Partners等现有投资方跟投，Altiscale的融资总额也由此达到4200万美元。
Hadoop是一个旨在帮助企业处理大数据的开源项目。
Altiscale同时还宣布，麦克·马希亚戈（Mike Maciag）加盟该公司担任首席运营官。马希亚戈具有丰富的从业经验，在加盟AltiScale以前已经在5家创业公司工作过。在这5家公司中，已有两家上市，有两家被收购，还有一家至今仍在运营。
马希亚戈曾见证了Hadoop开源平台的发展历程。他表示，自己之所以最终加盟AltiScale，是因为该公司已经打下了在这一领域获得成功的基础。正如他所说，AltiScale已经开发了相关产品，并证明该产品可以投入规模运营。现在，AltiScale需要更多的资金将这项工作推向深入，同时进军更广阔的市场。
此轮融资还表明投资方对AltiScale的产品创意非常有信心。之前1200万美元的融资令AltiScale有了今天这种成绩，现在他们需要更多的投资，创建一个组织来发现和支持更多的客户。
AltiScale在众多Hadoop厂商中之所以能脱颖而出，是因为该公司诞生于云时代，具有处理Hadoop工作负荷的明确目标。正如AltiScale创始人兼首席执行官雷米·斯塔塔（Raymie Stata）告诉我，运营Hadoop并不是一件轻松的事情，仍然需要付出大量艰辛。斯塔塔在雅虎开始了自己的职业生涯，雅虎旗下有一个庞大的组织来支持Hadoop相关项目，但大多数采用Hadoop平台的公司并没有这种资源。
斯塔塔表示，这也是他创建Altiscale的主要原因之一。通过将服务放入云端，Altiscale可以将Hadoop推向更广阔的受众，在客户遭遇一些不可避免的问题时，他们完全可以信赖Altiscale的服务。有时，Altiscale会在处理阶段发现问题，有时则是客户主动上报问题，因此客户不是被迫自己去追踪问题，然后留给Altiscale来解决。
斯塔塔称，解决问题的时间可以从几天缩短至几小时，因为他的公司完全专注于Hadoop。相反，对于大多数IT部门来说，这是另一个他们需要解决的问题。
值得一提的是，Hadoop近来已成为一个热门领域。另一家Hadoop厂商Hortworks最近宣布，该公司将提交S-1文件，迈出公开上市的第一步。去年3月份，Cloudera宣布该公司的估值超过了40亿美元。
Altiscale Lands $30M To Continue Building Hadoop Cloud Service
When you think of Hadoop, you probably think of a complex on-premises set up in your data center, but Altiscale wants to reduce some of that complexity by moving the whole thing to the cloud and offering Hadoop as a service. Today it got $30M in Series B funding to continue that quest.
The round is led by Northgate, with participation from previous investors Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst Partners. Today’s funding brings Altiscale’s total raised to $42M.
Hadoop is an open source project designed to help companies process big data.
The company also announced it brought Mike Maciag on board to be its Chief Operating officer. Maciag is a seasoned industry veteran with experience at five startups before joining AltiScale. He indicated two had gone public, two were sold and one was still operating.
Maciag, who has seen this process before, says what attracted him to Altiscale was that they have the pieces in place to succeed. As he explained, the company has created the product and proven it works at scale. Now, they need more money to bring that to the next level and take it to a broader market.
And presumably, it shows investor confidence in the idea. The first $12M got them to this point, but they needed a significant investment to build out an organization to find and support more clients.
What makes Altiscale unusual among Hadoop vendors, is that it was born in the cloud with the express purpose of processing Hadoop workloads. As company founder and CEO Raymie Stata told me, running Hadoop is not a simple matter and it’s still a bit rough around the edges. He got his start at Yahoo! which has a huge organization supporting its Hadoop efforts, but most companies trying to work with Hadoop don’t have that luxury.
He says that’s one of the main reasons he created Altiscale. By putting the service in the cloud, it brings Hadoop to a much wider audience and customers can lean on his company when they hit those inevitable issues. Sometimes the company picks them up in the processing stage and sometimes it’s in the form of a help ticket from the customer, but instead of being forced to track down the problem themselves, customers can leave it to Altiscale to do that.
And he says, that process of solving the problem can be reduced from days to hours because his company is entirely focused on Hadoop. Whereas for most IT departments it’s just another problem among many to track down.
It’s worth noting that Hadoop has been a hot commodity lately. Just recently Hortworks, another Hadoop vendor announced it was going public by filing an S-1. Last March Cloudera announced a valuation of more than $4B.
来源：TC
实习与求职平台LookSharp收购Readyforce
LookSharp现已收购了Readyforce，这笔交易的财务条款目前不详。LookSharp是一家提供求职信息的创业公司，旗下运作有InternMatch平台；Readyforce则是一个针对大学生和应届毕业生的专业网络。
自2010年创立以来，Readyforce已经筹集到超过1200万美元的资金，投资方包括Menlo Ventures、First Round Capital和U.S. Ventures。LookSharp的公司名称之前就是InternMatch，后来才开始为雇主和学生推出更多的服务。到目前为止，该公司的融资总额为780万美元，投资方包括ARTIS Ventures、Rudy Gadre、500 Startups、Kapor Capital、Subtraction Capital和Vishal Makhijani等公司。
LookSharp表示，这次收购将会用来充实它的实习、初级职位和内容数据库，以便更好地帮助学生们找到第一份工作。
两家公司合并后还将有利于双方在一个碎片化市场更好地竞争。LookSharp面临着众多竞争者，比如CareerBuilder、Monster、Dice和Indeed，该公司的差异化经营方式就是：让雇主在工作、福利和公司文化方面提供更多的信息，以便找到最好的潜在求职者，而不是被数以百计的工作申请所淹没。与LookSharp合作的企业既有众多创业公司，也有Facebook、亚马逊、嘉信理财（Charles Schwab）、迪斯尼和波音这样的知名企业集团。
另一方面，Readyforce主要针对计算机科学和工程专业的学生提供服务。今年9月份，该公司推出了一个称为“探寻你的选择”（Explore Your Options）的工具，有了这个工具，已有录用通知的学生们在接受这份工作之前，还有机会看一看其他的工作机会。
LookSharp表示，自2011年创立以来，该公司每年用户增长速度都超过500%，现在其平台上有3万个雇主和1000万名学生。
LookSharp, An Internship And Job Listings Platform, Acquires Readyforce
LookSharp, a startup that offers job listings and operates InternMatch, has acquired Readyforce, a professional network for college students and new graduates. The deal’s financial terms were undisclosed.
Since launching in 2010, Readyforce has raised more than $12 million in funding from investors including Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital and U.S. Ventures. LookSharp, which was formerly known as just InternMatch before it began to roll out more services for employers and students, has raised a total of $7.8 million from ARTIS Ventures, Rudy Gadre, 500 Startups, Kapor Capital, Subtraction Capital and Vishal Makhijani.
LookSharp says the acquisition will allow it to grow its database of internships, entry-level positions, and content geared toward helping students looking for their first jobs.
Combining forces will also help the two companies better compete in a fragmented marketplace. LookSharp seeks to differentiate from rivals like CareerBuilder, Monster, Dice and Indeed by allowing employers to offer more information about their jobs, benefits and company culture, in hopes of finding the best prospective candidates instead of getting flooded with hundreds of applications. Companies that list on LookSharp include startups, as well as corporations including Facebook, Amazon, Charles Schwab, Disney and Boeing.
Readyforce, on the other hand, focuses mainly on computer science and engineering students. In September, the company launched a tool called “Explore Your Options,” which lets students who have already received offers see what other opportunities are out there before accepting a job.
Since launching in 2011, LookSharp says it has grown more than 500 percent year-over-year and now has 30,000 employers and 10 million students on its platform.
来源：techcrunch
硅谷
2014年12月09日
硅谷
培训即服务创业公司Lesson.ly融资110万美元，2014年营收增长850%
提供上岗培训管理和培训工具的创业公司 Lesson.ly 在今天早晨宣布，已获得 110 万美元投资。此轮融资由 Allos Ventures 领投，数位天使投资人参投。Lesson.ly 是首个接受“ExactTarget 三位联合创始人作为投资人”的公司。ExactTarget 是一家与 Lesson.ly 类似的美国中西部公司，于 2013 年被 Salesforce 收购。
Lesson.ly 在 2013 年获得过一小笔种子融资。该公司拒绝透露先前一笔融资的具体金额。不过却表示最近一笔融资获得了超额认购，其最初计划融资 100 万美元，最终却多获得了 10% 的资金。
Lesson.ly 计划利用这笔资金来增加营销开支，扩展产品和扩充团队人数到正常水平。
TechCrunch 上一次报道 Lesson.ly 还是在 2013 年底，当时 Lesson.ly 只有三名员工，每月的营收增速达 245% 。考虑到当时这家公司成立还不久，相对比例没什么意义。现在 Lesson.ly 拥有 10 名员工，预计到年底员工数将达 12 名，并计划在 2015 年让员工数翻番。
Lesson.ly 的创始人兼首席执行官马克思·尤德(Max Yoder)表示，Lesson.ly 今年的营收增长了 850% 。他预计 Lesson.ly 2015 年的营收将增长 300% 。
尤德向 TechCrunch 表示，Stripe 和 Lyft 都是 Lesson.ly 的客户。我问尤德，Lesson.ly 是不是严重依赖于某一个客户，得到的答复是没有一个客户对营收的贡献超过 10% 。
作为一家热切希望向硅谷客户销售的非硅谷公司，Lesson.ly 很出众。我问尤德，中西部创业环境近况如何。他提到了不少退出案，并表示“天使投资要比以往任何时候都强，芝加哥和俄亥俄州风投对中西部创业公司的兴趣在这些年也大幅增加。”我曾经也是芝加哥科技圈的参与者，这话我爱听。
培训并不是最性感的行业，但增长是一家年轻公司能展示的最具吸引力的东西。Lesson.ly 是否能实现其 2015 年的增长预期令人期待，祝他们好运。
Training-As-A-Service Startup Lesson.ly Picks Up $1.1M After Growing Its Revenue 850% In 2014
Lesson.ly, a startup that provides onboarding and training tools, announced this morning that it has raised a $1.1 million round led by Allos Ventures, and participated in by several angels. The firm claims to be the first company to “count all three ExactTarget co-founders as investors.” ExactTarget, a Midwest company like Lesson.ly, was acquired by Salesforce in 2013.
The $1.1 million follows a smaller seed round in 2013. The company declined to detail the amount of its former fundraising. It did note that its most recent capital event was oversubscribed — the company had initially planned to raise a flat $1 million, but accepted 10 percent more cash.
The company intends to use its new capital, it informed TechCrunch, to grow its marketing spend, and build out its product, normal enough stuff.
TechCrunch last discussed Lesson.ly in late 2013, when the company had three employees, and revenue growth in the hundreds of percent per month. Given its youth at that stage, however, the relative percentages weren’t too meaningful — the law of large numbers does work to the inverse, in reverse. Today, Lesson.ly has 10 employees, expects to make it to 12 by the end of the year, and plans to nearly double its staff in 2015.
According to the company’s founder and CEO Max Yoder, Lesson.ly’s revenue has grown 850 percent this year. He expects the company’s top line to grow 300 percent in 2015.
Lesson.ly counts companies like Stripe and Lyft among its customer base, Yoder told TechCrunch. I asked if the company was heavily dependent on any single customer, but was told that no single account constitutes more than 10 percent of its revenue.
As a company, Lesson.ly stands out somewhat for being a staunchly non-Valley play, but one that is more than willing to sell to Valley-centric customers. I asked Yoder how the Midwest startup scene was growing. He cited several exits as important moments, and stated that “angel funding is stronger than ever, and interest from Chicago and Ohio VCs has grown significantly over the years.” I was once a participant in the Chicago technology scene, making that somewhat edifying to hear.
Training is not the sexiest technology, but growth is the most attractive thing a young company can post. It will be interesting to see if Lesson.ly can not only meet its 2015 growth expectations, but best them.
来源：techcrunch
硅谷
2014年12月09日
硅谷
硅谷最火的创业公司Airbnb和Pinterest怎么招人？史丹佛大学最热门的一堂课就是教导学生如何创造一个网路帝国，硅谷投资人 Sam Altman 每周会带来硅谷最火红的名人来跟学生分享他们的创业秘笈。最近他们开设了一门为期两周的课程，教导学生如何建立良好的企业文化。Airbnb 的 CEO Brian Chesky 和 Pinterest 的 CEO Ben Silbermann 就是其中两位讲师。以下是两场演讲的精华节录，文末附有Youtube完整影片。
「Don’t fuck up the culture.(别搞砸了公司文化)」
这是 Chesky 向 PayPal 的创办人 Peter Thiel 寻求意见时，所得到的答案。比较好的说法是，要在组织中建立「热情」且「忠诚」的文化并不容易。技术人员往往把重心放在产品和行销上面，而低估了建立团队文化的重要性。
企业想要长久经营就必须要有一个清楚的使命，明确的价值观和做事方法，才能让这间公司和员工变得独一无二。
Chesky 强调公司想要长久经营，需要有一个明确的使命，这个使命要渗透公司里大大小小的事情。以苹果来说，他们所有的东西都经过精美的设计，无论是产品或是发表会。Airbnb 的宗旨就是让人们聚在一起，所以当他们搬到旧金山的新办公室时，他们自然而然地在这个两倍大的空间里举办种活动(我个人也去过两次，那里非常友善)。反观苹果，他们从不办任何鸡尾酒派对，那不是他们的核心价值。
「每个人都必须雇用更好的人，公司的水平才会提升。」
Chesky 表示，公司在快速成长的时候，品质很容易被稀释掉，只有在每次征才时都设定更高的标准，才能保有公司原有的水平，而这不单单只是在技术层面，对于新进员工是否符合公司文化也是一样的，这样才能找到稳定度较高的员工。
「我习惯问那些重量级的人物：你们在找什么样的人才?」
Silbermann 说，多数经营者只有在招募的过程之中，才开始明白他们要找的是什么样的人，但是他在招募之前，透过与那些成功人士的对话中，找到最好的答案，然后持续向他们学习。
「我们在找的是那些有创意且充满好奇心的人，他们需要有一些特定的兴趣。我们要找的是那些可以把事情做得很好，但是不自满的人。他们喜欢承担风险，勇于挑战自己。」
用兴趣来区分人才是一个很好的方法，最有名的例子，就是GOOGLE 在广告看板上写了一个数学题目，邀请大家来解谜，然而这个测验的重点并不是找到数学天才，而是找到充满好奇心的人。
「我并不会忽略人的特质。他们心愿是什么?做事风格?他们有多想被记住?如果你知道这些东西，代表你很关心他们本人，总的来说，这也就是你的目标」
花时间去了解员工，可以让他们更融入团队，让他们觉得自己是团队的一份子。很多员工整天只是坐在电脑前面，除非有人打破僵局，主动了解大家，不然很多能力和特质都会被埋没掉。
「传统的观念里，你只会雇用那些长期使用公司产品的人，但对我们来说，我喜欢那些有理想，喜欢上网的人。」
Pinterest 的 CEO Silbermann 不希望整个团队都是产品狂热份子，他喜欢雇用那些没有很喜欢 Pinterest 的使用者，他们才可能创造出让「非 Pinterest 使用者」满意的产品。
YouTube视频地址：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfWgVWGEuGE；https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Dl8rZ6qwE
复制去Google翻译翻译结果
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