TechCrunch+ roundup: South Korea investor survey, 1-hour board meetings, venture leasing basics

After sales software startup TigerEye closed its Series A and established a board of directors, its co-founders put them on notice:

One thing we’d like to never do is the three-hour, too-in-the-weeds, non-strategic board meeting.

“Every board deck I’ve made and seen is more than 80 pages long,” says Tracy Young, co-founder and CEO of TigerEye. “I am not exaggerating.”

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In this TC+ article, she explains how to structure a one-hour board meeting that creates real value for founders and investors. Step one: Replace your enormous deck with a three-page memo.

We’re taking Monday, May 29 off to celebrate Memorial Day, so I’ll be back with another TC+ roundup a week from today.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

Why aren’t venture capitalists flocking to fund cybersecurity startups?

The accelerated shift to digital has been great for mature cybersecurity companies: Palo Alto Networks, Scaler and CrowdStrike are showing strong revenue multiples, reports Alex Wilhelm.

But there doesn’t appear to be a halo effect for venture-backed cybersecurity startups. According to Crunchbase, funding for companies in this sector fell 58% in Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2022.

“Given that valuations are down across the board, today’s cybersecurity equity prices have been dramatically depressed, even if they remain more expensive than other tech subcategories,” writes Alex.

Profitability over growth: 5 investors explain their mantra for South Korean startups

South Korea saw a unicorn boom in recent years, but like the rest of the world, it’s feeling the impacts of a global market correction.

“Venture funding in Asia in the first quarter of 2023 declined 33% from Q4 2023 and 57% from Q1 2022,” reports Kate Park, who surveyed five investors to get their predictions for 2023 and find out how they’re advising their portfolio companies:

• Han Kim, general partner, Altos Ventures
• Tim Chae, managing partner, 500 Global
• JP Lee, CEO and managing partner, SoftBank Ventures Asia
• Yeemin Chung, managing director, BRV Capital Management
• Eunse Lee, founder and managing partner, 541 Ventures

Ask Sophie: What are my options if a company rescinds my OPT job offer?

Dear Sophie,

I’m an international student graduating this month, but the company I was supposed to start working for on OPT has rescinded my job offer.

What are my options?

— Grappling Grad

3 things businesses must do to secure their applications in the AI era

Companies with AI-enabled applications give bad actors a broader attack surface when it comes to phishing, bots and other attempts to access customer accounts.

“We’re already seeing examples of reverse engineering AI-powered sites to get free AI computing,” says Reed McGinley-Stempel, co-founder and CEO of Stych, a customer identification and access management (CIAM) platform.

Venture leasing: The unsung hero for hardware startups struggling to raise capital

Hardware startups have always been challenged when it comes to high initial capital expenditures and open-ended R&D timelines.

Fortunately, venture leasing creates “a happy medium between costly debt loans and VC funding that works particularly well,” says Felipe Chávez Cortés, CEO and co-founder of robotic food delivery firm Kiwibot.

To bring products to market faster while avoiding dilution, his company closed a $10 million venture leasing deal.

“Hardware companies shouldn’t feel limited to VC funds to finance their high-risk, high-growth operations,” according to Cortés.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Faye’s $10M Series A deck

Insurtech startup Faye shared a redacted version of the 19-slide deck its founders used to land a $10 million Series A round.

“Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat,” says Haje Jan Kamps. “This is a truly excellent pitch deck.”

• Cover slide
• Summary slide
• Team slide
• Problem slide
• Market-size slide
• Insurance market overview slide
• Product overview slide
• Product features slide 1
• Product features slide 2
• Product features slide 3
• Product features slide 4
• Go-to-market slide
• Financial growth metrics slide
• Customer growth metrics slide
• Customer validation slide 1
• Competitive landscape slide
• The Ask slide
• Customer validation slide 2
• Closing slide with mission statement