African Investor Survey, Biz Model Basics, Video Marketing Techniques • TechCrunch

If your marketing plan doesn’t include TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, can you really call it a marketing plan?

Video content is critical to driving early engagement, which growth expert Jonathan Martinez (formerly of Postmates, Uber, and Chime) shares four strategies for getting started:

• Use creative marketplaces.
• Make short videos.
• Build lasting creative relationships.
• Improve your videos.

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“If you’re entering 2023 without a video content plan for your startup, you’re missing out on a significant resource to build brand awareness and reach more consumers,” Martinez wrote.

Check out our latest five-part series for more growth marketing strategies and tactics you can implement yourself:

Thanks so much for reading TC+ this week,

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@your main actor

How to manage third-party cyber security risks that are too expensive to ignore

Every early-stage startup relies on third-party vendors to handle some aspect of their operations: No one wants to build a shopping cart, credit card processing, or ID verification app from scratch.

But now that third-party data breaches are a regular occurrence, teams must make managing that risk part of their daily routine, writes John Sigler, Logitech co-founder and chief product officer.

“No matter how well you clean things up, your company’s reputation will cost you in lost business down the road,” he wrote.

8 investors explain why 2022 is ‘still 1 day’ for Africa’s startup ecosystem

Africa had a record year in 2022, though: 1,100 investors invested $6.5 billion in startups in the region, Tage Kene-Okafor reports.

“What is causing such a rate increase when the rest of the world ends its collective enthusiasm for 2021?” To find out more, he interviewed eight investors:

• Cola Aina, General Partner, Ventures Platform
• Zacharias George, Managing Partner, Launch Africa Ventures
• Olumide Soyombo, Co-Founder, Voltron Capital
• Stephen Deng, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, DFS Lab
• Karima El Hakim, Head of State, Plug and Play Egypt
• Einoluwa Aboyeji, Founding Partner, Future Africa
• Maya Horgan Famodu, Founder and Partner, Aggressive Capital
• Kyane Kassiri, Partner, RaliCap

Dear Sophie: Will published articles increase my chances of getting an O-1A or H-1B visa?

Dear Sophie,

I’m a startup and CEO in Istanbul, and I’ve heard articles about an entrepreneur or startup can be a huge plus when applying for an O-1A or H-1B visa.

is true? Which publications are valid? Should they be level-1 or in English? Thanks for your help!

– Strong in Turkey

Pitch Deck Teardown: Spinach.io’s $6M seed deck

Before an outbreak occurs, engineering team members start their day with face-to-face meetings so they can coordinate efforts and monitor each other’s progress.

Once those sessions are remote, Spinach.io created a service that integrates with project management tools like Jira and Slack, as well as online meeting tools like Google Meet and Zoom.

“What we’re trying to do here is solve a very specific use case for engineering teams following the Scrum Agile development process,” said co-founder and CEO Matan Talmi.

Last August, Spinach.io raised around $6 million in seed; Here is the pitch deck they used:

• Cover slide
• Group slide
• Problem slide
• mission slide
• Product slide
• Drag slide
• Clients slip
• Investors slipped
• 18 month plan slide
• Thanks Slide

Think of your business model as part of the VC pitch

Nobody needs an MBA to come up with a credible business plan, but if you want the attention of an investor, you need to understand the basics.

Haje Jan Kamps shares a framework for developing a plan slide that focuses on five aspects:

• Cost of goods sold
• Customer acquisition cost
• Lifetime value
• R&D expenditure
• Pricing model

“Breaking down those numbers and presenting them in the right way can greatly benefit how you tell your startup’s story to investors,” he writes.