Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript from the Norwest Nowcast above where Norwest Partner Stew Campbell explains why consumer spending on home improvement will accelerate despite uncertainty about the economy. Hi! This is Stew Campbell with a Norwest Nowcast about why I expect consumers to actually spend more money on home improvement and services […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript from the Norwest Nowcast above where Norwest General Partner Dave Zilberman talks about the evolution of software development with the advent of AI and large learning models. Dave Zilberman here with a Norwest Nowcast. I’ve spoken in the past about the transformative era of software development that is upon […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript from the Norwest Nowcast above where Norwest CMO Lisa Ames shares the one question she asks to find out how attuned a marketing leader is to three core aspects of their role. Hi, I’m Lisa Ames with a Norwest Nowcast about the one question every marketer should be […]

I had one of those moments of deep existential introspection the other morning. I was spinning on the Peloton, half-watching a Netflix documentary, reading the NYTimes headlines, listening to Spotify (through headphones that I had delivered same-day the day before) while feeding treats to the pup, all in the hopes of getting in a solid […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript from the Norwest Nowcast above where the Principal of Norwest’s People Advisory shares four guiding principles for conducting a reduction in force (RIF) with compassion. Hi, I’m Laurie Tennant. I’m a Principal with Norwest Venture Partners and I advise our portfolio companies on all things HR. I’m here […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript from the Norwest Nowcast above where Norwest Partner Scott Beechuk explains how SaaS product managers should refocus their attention when an economic downturn dries up the sales pipeline.  Hey, this is Scott Beechuk with a Norwest Nowcast. Today, I want to talk about SaaS product managers and what […]

Here’s the good news: data released in early 2022 reveals that there are now 627 venture capital and private equity firms that are majority-owned by women. This is an impressive 25 percent jump from the previous year, and positive news for women in private equity. But here’s the bad news: McKinsey reports that women still […]

Global M&A activity in the first half of 2022 returned to near pre-pandemic levels – despite a slowdown in dealmaking due to inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war, and increased tension between US and China. Given M&A performance throughout the first five months’ of 2022, Bain predicts M&A transactions will breach $4.7 trillion by the end of […]

To see a real-world example of a young company balancing growth and profitability, look at YipitData, a New York-based company founded in 2013 that specializes in analyzing billions of data points every day to provide reliable insights to investment funds and corporations so they can make better decisions. YipitData has more than 400 investment funds […]

Businesses today are experiencing a period of turbulence and uncertainty in the broader macroeconomic environment. Equity markets flirt with a bear market; U.S. inflation has been at the highest level in decades; individual and institutional investors are pulling back; supply-chain disruptions continue in several industries; and shockwaves from geopolitical instability is felt globally. In this […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript from the Norwest Nowcast above where Operating Executive Renée Cohen shares the three most impactful tips she has been sharing with marketing leaders in the Norwest portfolio. After three months in the marketing operating executive role at Norwest, here are three tips I found myself sharing more than […]

Most founders know what working toward PMF (product-market fit) at a startup looks like—it takes hard work and months (or sometimes years) to achieve. As investors, we sometimes are lucky enough to come across the elusive “FMF” (founder-market fit) even prior to the PMF stage. FMF is when the founders have an innate understanding of […]

In 2019, Norwest entered the home services market by backing Mike Andreacchi and his junk removal franchisor Junk King. In the two years since, Mike and COO Lisa Merry have built a thriving platform with more than 125 franchisees and $100 million in system-wide revenue, growing despite a challenging market for many brands. Today, we […]

Kubernetes, the de facto standard for running cloud native applications, has made software development more flexible and agile, but has also created new problems. One of the biggest issues is that of microservice connectivity. Companies can have hundreds of microservices that need to reliably communicate with each other and with the underlying infrastructure. Creating this […]

Let’s get vulnerable, CEOs. Hiring your marketing leader can be scary. Marketing budgets often represent the largest non-headcount discretionary spend in your company. You’re placing deep trust in your marketing team to perform, so you need confidence in your leader’s sound judgment, expertise, and raw talent. It’s also an exciting decision! Selecting the right marketing […]

We’re all familiar with spending days in stacked video calls, watching Slack notifications tick up and emails flood our inboxes resulting in a cluttered, compounding list of to-dos. The constant context switching and message overload often leads to countless hours of administrative work—taking notes from that call, scheduling those meeting invites, finding the rightSlack channel […]

Growing a young company is tough in the best of times but doing so during an economic slowdown is fraught with even more challenges. One of the biggest is maintaining sales momentum. With every expense under scrutiny, what’s the best use of marketing dollars; what’s the most desirable mix of prospecting for new customers and […]

Harsh Jawharkar is a growth leader and executive advisor who partners with investors, founders, and CXOs to shape and accelerate growth across all stages. In this article, he offers entrepreneurs a guide to product-led growth. In the first article on this topic, “Product-led Growth: What Startup Founders Need to Know,” I discussed what PLG is […]

We recently welcomed Dr. Zack Scott as a general partner to our growing healthcare team. Zack is an ambitious investor with decades of experience in the healthcare industry. Most recently, he was a managing partner and co-founder of Revelation Partners, a healthcare focused investment firm that specializes in secondary transactions. Drawing from his days in […]

Chances are you or someone you know has brought home a new pet in the past few years. Pet ownership has been on the rise; according to the 2021-2022 APPA National Pet Owners Survey, 70 percent of U.S. households owned a pet in 2021, up from 67 percent in the previous survey. With the increase […]

Around 80 percent of people will experience acne at some point in their lives. In the US, acne is the most common skin condition, affecting up to 50 million Americans annually. It can occur at any stage of life, most often during teenage years and in many cases, continuing throughout adulthood. Despite how pervasive it […]

I recently moderated a virtual roundtable on the topic of managing finances in a time of economic uncertainty – a pressing issue these days. The theme of the discussion was that while tough decisions need to be made, CEOs and senior finance executives shouldn’t panic. The economic recalibration we’re going through is not unprecedented; these […]

SmartSign, one of our growth equity portfolio companies, has been acquired by Sentinel Capital Partners, an exciting development for founder Blair Brewster, CEO Max Smith, and the entire team. We celebrate this milestone today and will continue to support the SmartSign team in their next phase of growth. A B2B e-commerce player with a focus […]

With companies of all types and stages facing economic headwinds, the need to grow revenues efficiently is top of mind for everyone. Marketing and sales organizations share responsibility for leading the effort, but how can they best work together to achieve their shared goal when they often operate in silos? This question was the focus […]

Matt Hensler is an executive consultant with an extensive background in branding, marketing, and customer experience. In this article, he offers marketing leaders three strategies for optimizing their programs to support business resilience in tough financial times. “If the board gave you an extra $1 million today, how would you spend it?” This is a […]

Harsh Jawharkar is a growth leader and executive advisor who partners with investors, founders, and CXOs to shape and accelerate growth across all stages. In this article, he offers entrepreneurs a guide to product-led growth. Every week I speak with founders and CEOs who are building exciting new B2B SaaS companies. They’ve established product-market fit, […]

  Teri McFadden is a Principal for Talent & Retention in Norwest’s Portfolio Services team. She has more than 20 years’ experience in leadership recruiting and human resources development. She offers her observations about why, when, and how startups can use retention equity as a compensation tool. Retaining top talent is an escalating priority for […]

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the world knows how PCR diagnostics work. Anyone who has had to take a COVID-19 PCR test to travel, for work, or other reasons is familiar with both the promises and drawbacks of the testing technology. Namely, the long wait times for results and small number of […]

During a long period of economic growth, huge influxes of capital, and a vibrant IPO market in the 2010s, entrepreneurs became accustomed to a stable and generally favorable environment. That has all changed now, starting with the pandemic, and extending into geopolitical upheaval, falling equity markets, supply chain disruptions, and spiraling inflation. Today’s volatile economic […]

Here at Norwest, we’ve been laser-focused on businesses that improve the developer experience. Prior investments in companies like Harness and Amplication follow a theme of identifying toolmakers that make developers more productive, which is why we are so eager to announce our investment in ChiselStrike today. The pain of building a backend Two of the […]

You’re looking for some advice on selling your company. Why read an article by me on the topic? Because I was fortunate enough to sell my business, Infutor Data Solutions, not once but twice. The first was a leveraged buyout from Norwest Venture Partners in 2016; the second was an acquisition by Verisk in February […]

Today, we are excited to announce our investment in Provus and their much-needed solution for optimizing services quoting. As we studied how businesses today manage services quoting, we were surprised to learn how manual the process is – especially given the importance of speed in quoting customers as well as the revenue and margin impact […]

DEI – diversity, equity, and inclusion – is widely discussed today in executive suites, boardrooms, and investment firms. And it’s not an issue for only large enterprises. Start-ups and rapidly scaling companies are also trying to figure out how they can adopt DEI best practices. But how do they go about it? Can they learn […]

A backyard pool is one of the most complex and technical parts of a home, and the maintenance and service it requires are often overwhelming to a homeowner. A backlog of pool construction during COVID-19 has only increased the demand for professional services. According to the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance (PHTA), sales of new […]

Startups have always been environments of intense pressure. This became even more true during the pandemic. Dealing with the resulting stress and burnout is (or should be) a high priority for leadership in rapidly scaling companies. To get a perspective on stress, burnout, and other mental health issues, I held a virtual fireside chat with […]

When we invested in Mindful Health Solutions (MHS) one year ago, COVID-19 was raging in the United States. While most of us were nearing the end of a very long and isolating initial lockdown, a second, related crisis had emerged: a spike in mental health issues. At the time, the CDC reported a nearly four-fold […]

Our journey began two years ago with a pledge. It was the summer of 2020 and Norwest was compelled to do our part to confront racism in the United States. We pledged to take action, committing to educate ourselves, to have the hard conversations, and to increase diversity and inclusion within our firm, our portfolio, […]

So far, 2022 has been a dismal year for IPOs, especially compared to last year’s record-setting activity. According to PwC and Dealogic, only 8 traditional IPOs (as distinct from SPACs) were filed in the first quarter of this year, raising $2 billion. That was an 88 percent decrease in volume and a 94 percent drop […]

Besides the number of times you’ve been on the Midas List, the real mark of honor for any venture investor is what’s in your “anti-portfolio”, i.e., the investments you should have invested in but for some reason decided to pass. And while everyone’s ringing the bell at the NYSE, you’re stuck at home wondering where […]

We are thrilled to announce our investment in Velocity Global, a market leader in workforce solutions, offering a single platform to hire, manage, and pay global teams. Norwest is co-leading the company’s $400M Series B alongside Eldridge. Velocity Global is the biggest employer you’ve never heard of. Companies like Shopify and Snowflake partner with Velocity […]

Today, we’re excited to announce our investment in Chingona Ventures and their $52M Fund II – the largest-ever fundraise by a sole Latina general partner. Since launch, Chingona Ventures has been committed to fighting bias in the venture industry. The firm backs amazing entrepreneurs who better represent the wide range of backgrounds in the entrepreneur […]

If there’s one thing we understand well at Norwest it’s value creation. Case in point: Lisa Ames was delivering so much value to our portfolio companies as a marketing advisor and operating executive that we tapped her to become our very first CMO. The good news is she accepted. The better news is she’s continuing […]

Today Norwest is thrilled to announce our investment in Veza, a next-generation data security company built for the multi-cloud era. Veza empowers security, IT, and data teams to secure their organizations by answering a simple, but critical question: who can and should take what action, on what data? Category Creation Here at Norwest, we love […]

The way we work has rapidly evolved during the pandemic. Employees are spending significantly less time in physical offices and a large and growing number of organizations are embracing remote and hybrid work models. In many instances, employees have traded long commutes and rush hour traffic for work from home (or work anywhere) flexibility. As […]

Today, we’re excited to announce that Norwest is leading tvScientific’s Series A raise of $20M, with participation from NBCU and Hearst Ventures. We are thrilled to join forces with tvScientific co-founders Jason Fairchild and David Koye as they spearhead the frontier of CTV advertising. Here’s why. Ask any DTC brand executive what keeps them up […]

Today, Norwest is thrilled to announce that we are doubling down on our investment in Obsidian Security, a next-generation SaaS Security and Posture Management (SSPM) company. Obsidian helps security and IT operations teams bridge the security and compliance gaps created when lines of business adopt SaaS applications. After leading the Series B-1 in June 2021, […]

Consumers in affluent societies are accustomed to buying on Amazon and receiving their orders the next day. But that type of frictionless e-commerce is nowhere near the standard in most parts of the globe. And the reason for that isn’t just a matter of internet access. Many communities haven’t been exposed to e-commerce as avid […]

We are thrilled to announce our investment in Serena Ventures Fund I. The firm, whose inaugural fund raised $111 million, is a leader in backing diverse founders who are solving problems for diverse communities. Partnering with Serena Ventures aligns with our broader commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The firm is led by tennis […]

As a partner at Norwest, I understand the powerful role investments can play in shaping industries as well as the greater society. That’s why we invest in values-driven founders who view their companies not only as opportunities for financial success but also as conduits of positive change. By partnering with those types of business leaders, […]

The development of cloud infrastructure during the past decade has transformed the enterprise software market, allowing the emergence of high-performance services and business models embedded in all new SaaS offerings. Almost all Norwest’s software portfolio companies, including Gong, Workato, Simpplr, InfluxData, Exabeam, and many others, were built with a cloud-first architecture, leveraging the availability, accessibility, […]

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve all heard about the macro supply chain issues that have broken the news and impacted our day-to-day lives. As a result, there have been shortages and delays in a multitude of items and materials, ranging from COVID testing kits, baby products, to even champagne. Several shortages stemmed […]

Developers run the enterprise… sort of, but they undeniably are among the most valuable talent resources in an enterprise. With PLG the current model for GTM success, developers are under ever greater pressure to build “more, better, faster”. With this heightened pressure – and organizations striving for developer happiness – developers in droves have turned […]

Customer acquisition costs (CAC) – the amount of money a company spends on marketing, advertising, and sales initiatives to gain new customers – are top of mind for most marketers. According to a study by martech firm Iterable – 2021 Marketing Trends: Dissecting the Unexpected – increased customer acquisition is the top priority for 65% […]

Norwest recently welcomed Tiba Aynechi, Ph.D. as a general partner on the healthcare team. Tiba brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, having spent 11 years at Novo Holdings A/S, most recently as senior partner focusing on early- and mid-stage biotechnology, medtech and healthcare IT. Some of her top investments included Nkarta Therapeutics, Mirum Pharmaceuticals and […]

It seems you can’t view a LinkedIn post or listen to a podcast these days without some reference to buyer-centric or customer-centric marketing. It’s the catchphrase of the moment; indeed, of the past several years. As marketers, we all strive to give our target audience what they want, right? Yet why do I so often […]

2021 began as a year of fresh starts. Although we faced ongoing challenges, we teamed with our founders and CEOs to offer guidance and help them grow their businesses. We made 110 new and follow-on investments in a wide range of incredible companies across the consumer, enterprise, and healthcare sectors. Catch the highlights of 2021, […]

Investing in Great Leaders, Great Ideas, and Great Businesses—Welcome NVP XVI! Today marks a major milestone for us as we announce the closing of NVP XVI, a $3B venture and growth equity fund, which brings our total capital under management to $12.5B. With this new fund we will continue to invest in innovative companies with […]

“The only constant in life is change.” – Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, people all over the world have been forced to embrace change like never before. Companies large and small have felt the weight of uncertainty as they attempt to navigate a new office normal, including a tectonic shift […]

Do you remember in 1999 when everyone was freaked out about the turn of the century? Some folks thought that the Y2K date change would crash computer systems worldwide. Others were all about the whole “end of days” apocalypse thing associated with the year 2000. That feels like a long time ago now, doesn’t it? […]

At Norwest, we believe that some of the biggest disruptions of the next generation will occur within our food systems – both in terms of what we eat and how it gets to the plate. Many of these changes have massive potential to expand food access and drive sustainability within this massive industry. Our teams […]

At Norwest, we believe that some of the biggest disruptions of the next generation will occur within our food systems – both in terms of what we eat and how it gets to the plate. Many of these changes have massive potential to expand food access and drive sustainability within this massive industry. Our teams […]

At Norwest, we believe that some of the biggest disruptions of the next generation will occur within our food systems – both in terms of what we eat and how it gets to the plate. Many of these changes have massive potential to expand food access and drive sustainability within this massive industry. Our teams […]

Today, we’re excited to talk about our recent funding announcement with Habu. Data privacy laws have been in place for several years, and most companies now understand GDPR and CCPA type privacy regulations. But operating competitively within the confines of data privacy regulations hasn’t been easy or without risk.   What’s a data clean room? […]

  We recently invested in a vertical marketplace and e-commerce company, Babylist, after following the company for multiple years. We often identify great entrepreneurs early and find some that bootstrap and have little need for outside capital. Babylist was one of those companies whose products and offerings speak to their customer base filling a whitespace, […]

A recent report from LinkedIn revealed that 75% of B2B brands’ advertising efforts are ineffective. Instead of producing results, these efforts fail to contribute to long-term market share growth. Gong, the leading revenue intelligence platform for B2B sales teams and one of our companies in the Norwest portfolio, is part of the 25%. I sat […]

Before venture, I spent five years at LinkedIn leading product for the recruiting business. We were the company’s revenue engine, so we closely monitored our performance with a set of dashboards that refreshed nightly. And so, every morning, the first thing I did after waking up was open the dashboard email with a knot in […]

We’ve gotten in the habit of leaving home without our physical wallets these days. From our daily morning coffee to paying for our kids’ soccer dues, the digital wallets on our phones have become the default payment vehicle for most transactions. COVID-19 only accelerated this behavioral change as both convenience and sanitary concerns came to […]

We are thrilled to announce our investment in Praxis Labs, where we are co-leading their $15.5M Series A round. Our relationship with Praxis Labs’ CEO and co-founder Elise Smith stems back to the company’s Seed days. Even then, it was clear that Elise had tapped into a burning market need for immersive training around justice, […]

Companies go to a lot of trouble to create attractive benefits packages to appeal to good employees and retain them. The trouble is that a lot of employees don’t know what they’re getting. A recent survey found that more than a third of employees don’t understand what benefits they sign up for during open enrollment. […]

When I first heard the term Imposter Syndrome, I was relieved—relieved that someone had put a name to something that I had experienced for decades. For so long, I thought it was just me. I remember the first time I felt like a fraud: freshman year of college. As I looked around and compared my […]

Here at Norwest, we are committed to providing our portfolio companies with the tools to grow and succeed. True to that commitment, we are always willing to share advice, lessons, and insights from our own experiences. Many of our founders have also become great resources. As a general partner here at Norwest, I can say […]

ICON Creates a New Paradigm for Homebuilding There’s a housing crisis in the U.S. Our country needs 3.3 million homes built per year, but due to multiple factors, including the shortage of skilled labor, we’re building just over a third of that number. The persistent imbalance of supply and demand for homes has contributed to […]

Today, Norwest is thrilled to announce our Series B investment in Enable. Enable has built a next-generation channel incentive management platform that automatically helps distributors, manufacturers, and retailers track, calculate, accrue, and allocate B2B rebates.   Strong Team When we met the founder and CEO Andrew Butt, we were impressed with his clarity of thought, […]

Recently we announced our strategic investment in supplier.io, the leading SaaS provider of supplier diversity management.  This adds to a long list of Norwest’s Growth Equity investments into social impact-focused businesses.  The company has profitably sustained 40%+ annual growth rates, and we are very excited to help them build upon that momentum. Many of us […]

Robots have long been seen as a pinnacle of tech innovation. Unfortunately, they’ve also been seen as a malign force. In Hollywood and other circles, robots have been cast as evil machines that outwit us, replace us, and even threaten the human race. They have a long way to go to get to that point. […]

Treeverse announced today the completion of a $23M round to continue building lakeFS – an innovative open source project bringing manageability to large-scale data lakes.  Why Now? Data lakes across all sizes and for multiple purposes are gaining popularity among enterprises for their unprecedented large and accelerating data storage needs. To illustrate this trend, according […]

Ever since account-based marketing (ABM) became a shiny object, everyone wants in on the action. For good reason; 76% of companies see higher ROI with ABM than with other types of marketing. Yet only 13% have reached maturity with ABM, according to ITSMA. Regardless of where you are in your ABM journey, you’ve probably come […]

Homeowners looking to expand their livable space – to accommodate aging parents or drive income through rentals – can find themselves with limited options. Buying a bigger home can be cost-prohibitive or (at the very least) painstaking and inconvenient. Renovations, on the other hand, require an expert’s grasp on local zoning and permitting laws and […]

In our time at Norwest, we have invested a lot of our focus in vertical SaaS. This software has pertained to a range of industries, from construction/real estate to education, and public safety. However, for a long time, we have wanted to get behind a platform company that benefits nonprofit and social impact goals. A […]

One of the things I enjoy most about my role as an operating exec is the broad access I have to so many companies and the accelerated pattern recognition that comes from those interactions. Every day presents an opportunity to learn new strategies. So many times I’ve found myself picking up a trick from one […]

It’s an obvious statement, but the Amazon marketplace is massive. 200 million Prime customers happily browse millions of listings, spending more than $300 billion annually. E-commerce is growing at a torrid clip (40% in 2020), and most product searches now start on Amazon. The stats below are eye-opening: Source: State of the Amazon Seller 2021, […]

Wi-Fi has become the wireless network access method on which we depend to run almost every business and consumer application imaginable. Its success has been legendary. It’s also been a bit of a surprise to those of us who remember Wi-Fi’s humble beginnings within the consumer market and as a secondary network used primarily by […]

Marriage counseling can be good for a relationship, but it can often yield positive effects that extend beyond intimate connections. In the case of Oren and Roni Frank, marriage counseling is what helped to spawn the initial idea for Talkspace. When the dynamic husband-wife duo was in the process of receiving mental health services personally, […]

Change is happening. Our commitment has not changed. Last spring, our firm entered a period of deep inquiry that resulted in the formation of three DEI working groups across the firm: Investing, Hiring & Retention, and Portfolio Services. Where we started: We focused intently on moving the needle for DEI within our firm and the […]

Buying a home is one of the most important milestones and largest financial investment in your life. And yet for most people, the process is complicated, it’s time consuming and it’s stressful. It requires searching and selecting a buyer’s agent and then finding a small army of ancillary support – ranging from mortgage loan officers, […]

With historically low housing inventory and outsized demand for homes, today’s homebuyers need help overcoming the financial limitations of the traditional real estate transaction. We are excited to announce our Series B investment in Homeward, a new kind of home financing company. Homeward partners with real estate agents to make every homebuyer a cash buyer. […]

Six months after leaving Comcast Ventures and resigning from the Uptycs Board of Directors (as per my transition), I’m very excited to now be reunited with the amazing Uptycs team and investors. The legendary words of Peaches & Herb reverberating… “Reunited, and it feels so good.” Venture investors often lament that they have imperfect information […]

Throughout my career as a B2B marketer, I relished interacting with the board of directors. Whether it was at a quarterly meeting, a holiday dinner, or in passing at the office, I always got a sense of exhilaration over the opportunity to put my best foot forward. But I’ll confess something to you today: there […]

I’m extremely excited to announce our Series A investment in Swimply, a fast-growing peer-to-peer pool-sharing marketplace founded by Bunim Laskin and Asher Weinberger. If you’ve ever experienced a summer in the suburbs, you’ve probably had the experience of peering over your neighbor’s fence and coveting their pool. Swimply makes this dream a reality, connecting consumers […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has reawakened the world to the unique and ever-present dangers of novel viruses and the pandemics they cause. Novel viral pandemics have the potential not only to kill millions, but also to paralyze society and the normal social interactions we take for granted. Forty years ago, in 1981, a novel viral illness […]

It’s safe to say that most people are ready for things to get back to their own pre-pandemic version of normal, but if trends continue, some things may never be the same. First, will we ever look at personal health the same way ever again? The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way that we […]

Founded a company and thinking about raising a Series A? Matt Howard has led 22 Series A investments over the past 20+ years as a VC through five recessions. Most of these investments occurred well before the product launched and were largely based on one or two founders with 15+ PowerPoint slides!  We take pride […]

It feels like yesterday when Norwest led Productiv’s Series B funding round back in 2019. Now, only 16 months later, I’m proud to share that Productiv has raised a $45M Series C round led by our friends at IVP with participation from Atlassian Ventures and existing investors Norwest, Accel, and Okta Ventures. This round further […]

Gateway Learning Group has announced its rebrand to Kyo (“kai-oh”). In many ways, Kyo picks up exactly where the Gateway brand left off: the company’s founders, Colin Davitian and Melissa Willa, continue to execute upon their long-held mission to deliver top-notch services to children with autism. However, the Kyo rebrand also expands upon this vision […]

Here are a few reasons: We don’t have your phone number. We have your phone number, but you’re not replying to our texts or voicemails. You’re also not replying to our LinkedIn messages, Venmo payments, or even our handwritten letters. We don’t know where you go for your morning jog, so we can’t stage a […]

“Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads is a work of genius. I’m not the kind of person that often ruminates on the choices that have gotten me to where I am today, but this song always puts me in an introspective mood. While I will use any excuse no matter how flimsy to bring […]

This past year has been anything but static. Folks on the front lines are expected to react in real-time, often amid changing circumstances. For many, the stakes are high. In these moments, it can be difficult to recall what was written in a training manual or scribbled on a whiteboard. That’s why we are so […]

When your company has grown significantly and reached a certain stage, it’s natural to consider your exit strategy. Today, there are more options available than ever before for private companies to tap into liquidity options, ranging from public markets to strategic outcomes. Despite the uncertainty and economic turbulence of 2020, last year saw unprecedented activity […]

Today, Norwest is thrilled to announce our Series C investment in Harness. Harness is the leading intelligent continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD) and software delivery platform that empowers software engineering teams to develop applications more quickly and securely. We’re excited to partner with co-founders Jyoti Bansal (CEO) and Rishi Singh (CTO) on their journey to […]

This year we interviewed portfolio founders across a wide range of industries, analyzed emerging trends, and offered guidelines and advice to help entrepreneurs and companies face the challenges of 2020.  From how to build a COVID-19 operating plan to what you need to know about the Gen Z market, our investors and founders shared some […]

Today only 1% of venture-backed startups have a Black founder and less than 3% of venture investors are Black, with even fewer controlling the $100B+ invested annually in the US. The challenge remains clear. Over the past several years, many venture firms have doubled down on diversity efforts, but progress can be slow without the […]

It’s been a difficult year. But if there’s one thing that marks a successful entrepreneur, it’s the ability to weather any storm. Whatever societal disruption or economic turbulence arrives, successful business leaders have the power to adapt. At Norwest, we’ve seen our founders and portfolio companies show incredible resilience and agility over the past year. […]

At the start of 2020, we were optimistic that we would see a new wave of startups and emerging technologies that would solve problems for consumers and enterprises. Little did we know that a global pandemic would turn the world upside down, disrupting many industries while accelerating others. Despite a curveball of a year, the […]

I first met Opendoor co-founder and CEO Eric Wu in 2016 when he called me for a reference check on an executive he was considering hiring. In the course of our conversation, I asked Eric about his company. Eric proceeded to tell me about his vision for Opendoor, and I was hooked. He had me […]

Back in May, when the pandemic was at its height, we published a blog that offered a bit of optimism. We described why —despite the volatile market —growth equity was still open for business. Six months in, it feels like a good time to offer an update. And though the overall economic outlook is still […]

Norwest partner, Priti Youssef Choksi recently did a Q&A with the team behind the Future Food-Tech Summit where she shared her advice for aspiring food tech start-ups and discussed her most exciting investment of 2020. See below for the interview and if you’d like to hear Priti discuss the topic in further detail, she will […]

For SaaS businesses, customer retention is priority one, two, and three – even in normal times. During a global pandemic and a historic economic downturn, it is a challenge that takes on all new proportions. 2020 has taken the things we thought we knew about customer retention and scrambled them. The basic business goal is […]

2020 has been a forcing function for every company and every investor on the planet to rethink recruiting practices. The traditional model of recruitment involved travel, in-person interviews, handshakes, on-sites, and so on. Now that these practices have changed and continue to evolve, we spoke with founders from the Norwest portfolio to find out what […]

Norwest is thrilled to announce our Series B investment in ZineOne, a leading predictive customer engagement platform. ZineOne’s Intelligent Customer Engagement platform uses its patent-pending Customer DNA technology to uncover the precise moment when brands should interact with their visitors across digital channels with relevant, real-time 1:1 engagements. We’re excited to have the opportunity to […]

Faire – Reshaping Local Retail Initially, it seemed like 2020 would be a challenging year for Faire. The company helps connect local, independent businesses with brands and artisans to stock their shelves with the best goods. Many of these local retailers were experiencing a slow-down in foot traffic or mandatorily closed across the country as […]

COVID-19 has disrupted many industries this year – from travel to food to healthcare. 2020 has exposed deep vulnerabilities in these sectors and presented opportunities for innovation. Health care is undergoing a rapid transformation to meet the challenges of COVID-19 and we believe there has never been a better time to reimagine the system. One […]

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters ravaging many parts of the country, and one of the most polemical political years in U.S. history, 2020 feels like the plot of a Michael Bay film.  There couldn’t be a more dramatic backdrop for our portfolio founders and companies.  Even in the best of years, […]

The moment at which a small business starts to scale is both daunting and exciting. The leadership team might have spent years planning to be a $20M or $100M+ business. Once that future is on the horizon and the company’s steady trajectory begins to accelerate, leaders are faced with a number of questions such as: […]

VCs love SaaS. We love SaaS so much that we plowed $48.9B into the category in 2019 and $31.7B so far this year! The SaaS funding boom has fueled software revolutions in sales & marketing (Salesforce, Hubspot), video conferencing (heard of Zoom anyone?), HR (Workday, Gusto), collaboration (Slack, Teams), productivity (Office365, Asana) and even developer […]

We are thrilled to announce our Series B investment in VanMoof, a category-defining leader in the fast-growing e-bike market. The company’s vision is to put one billion customers on VanMoof bikes, and we are thrilled to partner with the team on this journey.  The E-Bike Moment is Here  2020, despite all of its attendant challenges, […]

Building and sustaining brand loyalty in a post-COVID-19 world will require a strategy based on digital transformation and creativity Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, brands faced numerous disruptions, including the rise of robust e-commerce platforms and tools, omnichannel marketing tactics, the use of analytics for data-driven decision making, automation, social media advertising and influencers, and […]

I realized something recently when I was picking my friend’s brain about writing this particular post. I shared what I thought was a compelling outline for the basis of the piece, hitting upon the rationale for why I led the Series A investment in Replicant, a company that has developed a product and technology that […]

Most companies that are starting out rightfully focus on building great products and expanding their market share. Yet at a certain stage, it becomes critical to build out the internal operational infrastructure to ensure scalable growth.  A key component of this infrastructure is finance. A mature CFO and finance team provide valuable levers for a […]

As a twenty-something-year-old, I hover on the border between being a millennial and a Gen Z. I’m old enough to still remember dial-up internet when you couldn’t use the computer and the phone at the same time. How CD players gave way to MP3 players to iPods to iPhones. But I’m young enough that I’d […]

I love investing in great entrepreneurs and products, and Qualified checks both boxes. I have known the founders, Kraig Swensrud and Sean Whiteley, for a decade, working together during some of the highest growth years at Salesforce. Having built multiple companies in the CRM, marketing and VoC spaces, the founders saw a unique opportunity to […]

“Uh, hold on a sec. Let me change accounts so you don’t mess up my rankings on the leaderboard.” I was 20 squats into a high-intensity full-body workout on the new Tempo machine and could already feel the burn in my quads. I was focused on my form while controlling my breathing (so everyone in […]

If nothing else, 2020 has been a year of accelerated change (and, shockingly, it’s only July). In many ways, it is the year of 2020 hindsight – in which subtle, yet existing trends are thrown into stark relief as a pressing reality accelerates long-term, profound change. Nowhere is this more true than in the global […]

We recently hosted a webinar on a topic all B2B business leaders seem to be discussing these days: how to keep sales and marketing afloat in a COVID-19 world. So much has changed in the B2B industry since this pandemic took hold. Companies have been required to scramble and recalibrate substantial aspects of their tactics […]

Automating Relief from an Error-Prone Process  Today, Norwest is thrilled to announce our Series A investment in Spiff, a leading sales compensation automation platform. Spiff simplifies sales commission calculations and enables companies to easily build and maintain compensation plans. Founder and CEO Jeron Paul felt the burden of manually calculating commissions firsthand and set out […]

“Should a small business have a board of directors?” Short answer: Usually, yes. Longer answer: Only if that board is built and optimized well. When we first meet founders, we sometimes find that either they do not have a board, or they have an informal or advisory group composed of co-founders and personal advisors. While […]

The following message was shared with our employees:  As part of our commitment to combat racism and increase diversity and inclusion at Norwest, within our portfolio, and in our industry, we wanted to share some of the latest actions we are taking and observing on Juneteenth. As a firm, we will continue to prioritize diversity and […]

It’s safe to say that none of us expected the year 2020 to roll out the way that it has. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered life as we know it not only in the U.S., but across the world. Like most things in life, the pandemic’s effects are multifaceted and intersectional. How much of it […]

The following message was shared with our employees and portfolio companies: We are writing to you today in the spirit of compassion and solidarity during this national time of reflection and uprising against racism. Our goal is to connect with you directly and share how we plan to help. This weekend, we connected to determine […]

Eleven years ago, I was walking my labradoodles at my neighborhood dog park and bumped into a past colleague, Krish Ramakrishnan, who was there with his dogs. It’s amazing how you can have such unexpectedly deep conversations when the common denominator is a dog. I knew Krish from my time at Cisco, where my business unit […]

I know. The overall economic outlook isn’t exactly rosy right now. The market shocks are very real, and companies and management teams are working through a lot of disruption. Companies with liquidity issues are just trying to make payroll and anyone tied into global supply chains is scrambling; it’s a good time to be working […]

What to Look for in a Private Equity Partner and When to Bring Them On For established and profitable companies, partnering with a private equity firm is more often than not a prudent move IF you can find the right partner.  Bringing on a private equity partner can provide substantial advantages including wealth diversification to […]

5 Ways Portfolio Companies Can Build Business Resilience As the impact of COVID-19 grows each day, companies not only have to ensure their employees are safe, informed and prepared, but must also plan for the turbulent road ahead in order to protect their businesses. Norwest leaders have been collaborating for the past several weeks to […]

In business, it’s generally most fun to talk about marketing campaigns, product launches, and expanding into new markets. But if you aren’t having the “money conversation” with your management team on a regular basis, you may be setting your business up for potential challenges that could otherwise be avoided. Over the years, we’ve found that […]

Sergio Monsalve first met Udemy in 2014 and led Norwest’s investment shortly thereafter. Since then, he has been a board member for nearly five years. Over the years, Sergio and the team at Norwest have been impressed by the company’s growth as well as its impact on the lives of many instructors and students around the world. Today, […]

Even the most successful startup founders had to start somewhere—and that first step is overcoming the fear of failure. But it’s not just would-be founders who have to fight the fear—our CEO Journey Survey found 90 percent of CEOs and founders admit the fear of failure keeps them up at night more than any other concern. That’s […]

Founders don’t build a startup because they crave routine and job security. They understand their path will be carved out from every decision made along the way, and will often involve challenging twists and turns they couldn’t have anticipated.  To help future founders get a birds-eye-view of just what those twists and turns can look […]

Norwest recently hosted an event with theBoardlist in our San Francisco office. We had the opportunity to share our space with some amazing female founders and executives for a day of informative and interactive working sessions to help women prepare for board service. We covered topics including the board search process, interviewing, compensation and negotiating, […]

“We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” – Winston Churchill, 1931 We are thrilled to announce our Series B investment in Memphis Meats, a pioneer in the cell-based meat industry. The company’s vision is to […]

Closing the books. It’s a process well known to every CFO, controller, and accountant across corporate America. It’s painstakingly manual, time-consuming and fragmented but it is critical to ensuring a solid set of books and measuring financial health. The rapid rise of cloud computing at companies has led to improved efficiency across critical enterprise business […]

As we look ahead to 2020, we’re keeping our eyes on innovative consumer enthusiast brands, as well as tech companies bringing the right skills and technology to enterprise, cloud, and IT infrastructure. In healthcare, we’ll continue to track new technologies that improve health outcomes and make care more personalized, efficient, and cost-effective. We are optimistic […]

As we enter a new decade, it’s fun to reminisce about all of the incredible technological advancements that have been made over the last 10 years. It seems that one way or another, everyone is “disrupting” something (cue: eye roll). One of the core values for the NVP growth equity team is to not take […]

HubSpot* found that 74% of companies that weren’t exceeding revenue goals did not know their number of visitors, leads, MQLs, or sales opportunities. Further, the survey found that 79% of all marketing leads never convert into sales and a lack of lead nurturing is the common cause. The good news is, having a documented integrated […]

Today, nearly every U.S. citizen has had their personal information stolen or known someone who has been a victim of a data breach. Cyber criminals use these stolen credentials to imitate real people online using bots. In 2011, Derek Smith, Sumit Agarwal and Justin Call founded Shape Security (Shape) and invented the world’s first botwall […]

Happy Holidays! This season, we’re celebrating a tremendously successful year for our portfolio companies, coupled with the massive growth in the direct-to-consumer space over the past few years.  To commemorate, we’ve developed this holiday gift guide – inspired by our portfolio brands and the many wonderful products and services they offer. From activewear to smart […]

At Norwest, we’ve been watching and investing in innovative security startups for several decades. In that time, we’ve witnessed security technologies like the firewall, malware detection/prevention, endpoint security solutions, and behavioral-based technologies fundamentally alter the cybersecurity landscape. As new threats arrive with lightning speed, companies are struggling to maintain security in the best of corporate […]

Over the past few years, the term “Rule of 40” has been popularized within the SaaS and subscription industries to describe a business where revenue growth + EBITDA profitability exceeds 40%. Companies achieving “Rule of 40” or above are typically viewed as strong businesses deserving of high valuations. This simple formula weighs growth and profitability […]

We’re thrilled to announce the closing of NVP XV, a $2B fund and our largest to date. The new fund brings the firm’s total capital commitments to more than $9.5B and will help us support disruptive and market-leading companies from seed to late-stage across consumer, enterprise technology, and healthcare sectors. Today we’re not only celebrating […]

As companies undergo digital transformations, they are increasingly embracing new applications and business processes. Today’s typical enterprise runs more than 1,000 applications, and business users are left to hack together workflows to integrate them. With the proliferation of SaaS offerings, companies’ IT teams are increasingly backlogged and unable to handle all the workflow integration needs […]

I’m thrilled to announce that Norwest is leading a $20M Series B financing round in Productiv, a company that is defining a new category known as Application Engagement Analytics. More on that in a bit! I first met Productiv’s CEO and co-founder, Jody Shapiro, at the Wharton School where we were classmates back in 2009. We […]

Back in 2014, Kyle Beilman and I were both working at Centerview Partners, a boutique investment bank based in New York City. We had our fair share of late nights at the office and “pls fix, thx” emails before Kyle went on to become CFO of Dave, a relatively under-the-radar startup at the time, and […]

Go to any café and open up your laptop to connect to Wi-Fi, and you’ll find yourself scrolling down a sea of options before you find the right network. Similarly, in enterprises and venues around the world, growth in wireless and mobile data usage is outpacing existing infrastructure’s capacity and coverage. And with the advent […]

Today, 6 River Systems announced that they are teaming up with Shopify to build the next-generation fulfillment network powered by robotics and AI. This represents a major milestone for the robotics industry that has seen few exits of this magnitude outside of Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012. 6 River Systems (6 River) is […]

We are beyond thrilled to congratulate Health Catalyst on its debut as a publicly-traded company and want to honor their tremendous success to date. Health Catalyst started in 2008 with the vision to transform all healthcare decisions with data. Over the years, Health Catalyst has become a leader in healthcare data and analytics technology and […]

Having previously worked with Clarus Commerce (“Clarus”), we are thrilled to announce our new investment in the company and to partner once again with Tom Caporaso and the entire Clarus team. Clarus is a leading provider of premium loyalty programs for retailers and has continued to rapidly grow its customer base and partner network since […]

What are the top emerging tech trends that have the potential for explosive growth in the next five years? This question was the center of debate at the Churchill Club’s 21st annual “Top Ten Tech Trends” event last month in Santa Clara, California. A panel of five notable Silicon Valley investors each presented two key […]

Today, Mist Systems announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Juniper Networks. These two companies will be teaming up to transform how enterprises operate IT infrastructures and deliver business-critical networking services to employees, customers and users. Over the past decade, wireless networks have become a mandatory and mission critical element […]

“The days are long but the years are short.” Sage advice for a parent managing life with young kids. I recently showed my daughter a time lapse photo, and she was captivated. It got me thinking, what is it about time lapse photos that makes them so mesmerizing? Well, they tell a story and take […]

Cyberattacks, automation, and blockchain are just a few of the key areas that will continue to be top of mind for business leaders in 2019. Over the past year, we saw an unprecedented number of sophisticated security events and data breaches. We also saw innovation in AI and robotics continue to accelerate while people remained […]

I bought my first pair of Birdies in December 2016 and was immediately hooked. The distinctive pony hair black flat with faux shearling lining quickly became my go-to shoe at home and for running errands. They were comfortable and stylish – a rare combination for women’s shoes.   I also believe in co-founder Bianca Gates, […]

Paying back a friend on Venmo. Buying stocks on Robinhood. Checking your bitcoin balance on Coinbase. A lot of your financial life is quietly powered by Plaid, a platform that provides the infrastructure to seamlessly and securely connect financial apps with consumer bank and credit card accounts. We are excited to announce that Norwest is […]

Today, we are proud to announce Norwest is leading Propel’s $18 million Series B funding round. The investment builds on the company’s previous $10 million Series A fundraise and brings Propel’s total capital raised to $28 million. Other investors, including Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Signalfire, also participated in this round of funding. […]

Yesterday Glint announced that it has signed an agreement to be acquired by LinkedIn. These two companies are joining forces to achieve the shared vision of creating a world where people are happier and more successful at work. We couldn’t be prouder of Glint founders Jim Barnett and Goutham Kurra, who built an exceptional company […]

As a kid, Jeetu Patel dreamed of traveling the world as a Pan Am employee. His career took a different flight path, however, when he moved to the U.S. from India to attend college at the University of Illinois at Chicago. While in school, he joined a research and advisory firm Doculabs, and after 12 […]

With back-to-school in the works for many families, we’d like to share some key learnings from our time working with one of our favorite schools, The Learning Experience (TLE). Earlier this summer, Golden Gate Capital acquired TLE. We’re thrilled for their team and celebrate their success with them. TLE operates and franchises early childhood academies. […]

Indra Nooyi, the current CEO of PepsiCo, doesn’t take her position as the world’s second largest food and beverage corporation lightly. “Just because you are CEO, don’t think you have landed,” she once said. “You must continually increase your learning, the way you think and the way you approach the organization. I’ve never forgotten that.” […]

A bet on people This morning, Workday (WDAY) announced plans to acquire Adaptive Insights for more than $1.5 billion. This is Workday’s largest-ever acquisition. At first glance, this would seem like just another big SaaS deal. However, this acquisition is fundamentally different and transformational. Why? Because it unites two great companies that are defining the […]

Many founders struggle with prioritizing building their brand with dozens of other concerns on their plate. You’ve built a strong product — but that will only get you so far. What keeps customers coming back is a strong consumer brand. It’s hard to build that in the early days because it’s tough to tell what will resonate […]

Over the years, our growth equity team has had the opportunity to work with numerous companies in “tipping-point” sectors to help them grow and build significant value for all shareholders. Some of our most successful exits to date include 1010data, Clarus Commerce, Kendra Scott, PCA Skin and The Rainmaker Group. Today, we’re proud to add […]

Today, the cloud is a primary driver of the digital economy, shaping the way that businesses produce, market and monetize their products and services. It’s quite a change from 10 years ago. Back then, most Fortune 500 companies would have balked at the notion of placing their most valuable information assets on a public cloud […]

Today, we announced a historic milestone in our firm’s history — the closing of Norwest Venture Partners XIV, a $1.5 billion fund and our largest to date. For more than five decades, we’ve invested in legendary disruptors that have defined and shaped many industries. We’re proud to have worked alongside such talented individuals and helped […]

During the last decade, the explosion in enterprise data growth created a clear need for businesses to transition from Excel tables for data gathering, manipulation, and visualization to modern business intelligence (BI) systems. These systems fall under a category which we call “Visualization BI” or “VBI.” VBI systems are mostly focused on the same attributes […]

Sanish Mondkar realized something wasn’t right when his data points didn’t line up. He was looking at workforce engagement data and noticed that more and more people were looking for flexible hourly jobs at the same time that many employers were seeking hourly workers. What was the disconnect? The data paradox became Sanish’s obsession for […]

Community, convenience and flexibility have never been so important in today’s market. No matter what industry you’re in, these three factors are driving new business models and delighting consumers in new ways. From subscription services to flexible workplaces, every day we’re seeing more consumers and businesses alike adopt the “as-a-service” approach to living and working. […]

I am pleased to announce our investment in Visitpay, a patient financial health platform that improves the consumer experience in managing healthcare expenses and improves the health system’s ability to engage patients in meeting their financial obligations. Building Visitpay The story of Visitpay is one of a massive market need being created through the dual forces of […]

In today’s economy, one in three employees plan to leave their current role within the next 12 months. Needless to say, recruiting and holding onto talent is far easier said than done for HR professionals who are taxed with the talent shortage problem, and get little relief from current software tools in this highly competitive […]

Elizabeth Iorns founded Science Exchange to address the challenges she encountered as a cancer researcher. She needed to conduct immunology experiments while studying mechanisms of breast cancer development and progression at the University of Miami, but had difficulty finding collaborators and providers. She realized that the cumbersome process of outsourcing R&D, a $140 billion market that […]

The world of work is rapidly changing. In only a few years, the emergence of new cloud, mobile and AI-based technologies have transformed workplaces and entire industries by increasing efficiency and boosting productivity. But not all businesses have kept pace with the latest modern technology. Most of the innovation in workforce tech has focused on […]

For decades, programmable robots have served us in industrial manufacturing and car assembly. Bulky, stationary and limited in capabilities, the robotics sector lacked real robotic brain power. Fast forward to today, and we see a huge shift in robot sophistication. Today’s robots are smaller, faster, and less expensive. Developments in battery power, compute, and connectivity […]

Solving a Real Problem Josh Reeves likes to solve problems. So much so that he decided to build a startup that tackles some of the biggest problems in the world of HR such as payroll management and benefits. “We built a business to solve problems, not for our own sake,” said Josh, the CEO and […]

We’re excited to announce that Scott Beechuk has joined the Norwest team, bringing deep experience in the increasingly vital field of cloud computing. The cloud touches virtually every enterprise these days. It’s not a stretch to say that companies that do not do business in the cloud soon will not do business at all. Scott […]

Four Diverse and Dynamic Entrepreneurs Our most recent Norwest Founders Series event featured four entrepreneurial women founders who are deeply focused on meeting customer needs while running and scaling their businesses. Our moderator was Fortune Magazine senior writer, Michal Lev-Ram. The companies and their founders represent a range of industries, approaches and wildly diverse concepts. […]

Mudit Garg is the co-founder and CEO of Qventus, a leading company that is using AI to transform hospital operations. He has witnessed the biggest challenges at the center of today’s conflicted healthcare system. Hospitals cost the U.S. nearly $1 trillion annually and face rising pressure to balance costs while trying to provide patients with […]

The history of M&A is filled with stories of young entrepreneurs with great intelligence—and great timing. These stories always start with an ambitious new player who aligned their strengths and exploited the new gap left in the market by the acquisition to grow and gain competitive advantage. Timing is always critical, especially in the current […]

Edtech is one of the fastest-growing segments in the education market. But why? In today’s fast-paced world, the skills we obtain from degrees or vocational training aren’t quite enough — there’s always something new to learn to improve performance, and employers are expecting you to take the initiative. As more people are seeing the importance […]

Sean Duffy admits he’s been a health geek since he was a teenager. His obsession drew him to study neuroscience at Columbia University and it continued to pull at him even after he went to work at Google. In 2009, he decided to pursue a joint MD/MBA degree at Harvard. Between his first and second […]

A few years ago, we began exploring the inter-connectivity of the mobile economy. At the time, “deep linking”一the use of a link to connect a user with a specific piece or page of content within an application, rather than to the desired content’s app homepage一was all the rage. The main reason this trend exploded was […]

5 Lessons from Two Cloud Leaders: Aaron Levie and Jeetu Patel “Every company is now a software company.” That observation, popular in recent years, captured the essence of a recent panel discussion I moderated at the Cloud Leaders Forum between Box cofounder and CEO Aaron Levie and Jeetu Patel, senior VP of platform and chief […]

Sales Compensation Leading Practices: Tips for Entrepreneurs Building Recurring Revenue Businesses We’ve come a long way from magazine subscriptions. Recurring revenue is now the gold standard for businesses of all types. Many of the fastest growing companies in the world—SaaS and otherwise—employ a recurring revenue model, including Salesforce, Amazon, Netflix and Uber. Harvard Business Review calls […]

Today, I would like to announce our investment in analyticsMD, a company that is transforming hospital efficiency, safety, and patient outcomes through the use of sophisticated machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, delivered in real time at the point of care. analyticsMD was founded by three amazing innovators with prior on-the-ground experience solving some […]

Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit 2016: The Maturation of a Space The Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit 2016 is tomorrow, November 2nd, at the Mandarin Hotel in Boston. Our complete agenda and (sold-out) registered attendee group promises to make this a great event for all involved. As in past years, all content from the conference is digitized […]

Creating Brand Cheerleaders through Loyalty Hacking Norwest hosts brand leaders in San Francisco for an evening with loyalty architect and author Craig Wilson Did you know that it costs about 500% more to acquire new customers than it does to keep current ones? Nevertheless, as companies shift attention from rapid acquisition to customer retention, many […]

Getting from Seed to Series A Our dedicated seed program is a channel for reaching early-stage entrepreneurs. Our goal is to work closely with the founding team and provide as much value as possible as they build their companies, products and business models. Today, the Norwest Seed Program ensures we get the opportunity to deepen […]

3 Proven Strategies Startups Can Use to Achieve and Maintain Product/Market Fit According to a recent CB Insights report, the number one cause of startup failure is a lack of product/market fit. As the report further explains, “Tackling problems that are interesting to solve rather than those that serve a market need was cited as […]

The Jet Journey: Why Norwest Got on Board Venture capital is all about calculated risks, and Jet is no exception to this rule. I first met Marc Lore in 2007. I watched him scale Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com, into a $550 million winner that was acquired by Amazon in 2010. When he left […]

New York’s Top Consumer Startups Share Insights Into Building an Enduring Brand Online Online shopping is growing at an explosive pace. To better understand how companies can stand out from the competition in this large and exciting category, Norwest invited entrepreneurs building consumer brands to join in the latest installment of our Norwest Founder Series. […]

Why Every Company Needs An Independent Board Member, and Where to Find Them It can be lonely at the top, especially for new CEOs building and growing a business. This is why I have always been a strong proponent of appointing experienced independent members to the boards I advise and companies I invest in. Outside […]

Achieving and Maintaining Product/Market Fit We recently hosted more than 130 product, marketing and sales executives at our Norwest Product Summit to discuss achieving and maintaining product/market fit in today’s fast-growing, ever-changing technology sector. It’s a critical topic: 42 percent of start-ups fail because of a lack of product/market fit, according to CBInsights data. Through […]

We tend not to think too much about mobile services indoors. We walk in, we log on and, usually, the services work fine. But can they work better? The answer is yes, they can. They can work with Mist. Mist helps businesses deliver amazing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth experiences via smartphones, tablets and laptops to customers […]

Although my evidence is largely anecdotal, I believe seeking help for mental wellness has become increasingly more acceptable, open, and available.  My peer group is both supportive of, and eager to learn more about ways to improve their and their loved ones’ mental health. Just the other day, a friend explained the new techniques she […]

Five Ways to Build Your Team for Sustained Success Startup-tested practices that apply to every growing business Getting the right team in place has never been more critical. At a time when the economic environment is uncertain and the capital markets are volatile, building the right team and establishing an organizational culture that fosters innovation […]

You’ve got mail. It’s an urgent message from your CEO asking to you to pay a vendor ASAP. You never drag your feet when she asks for something, so you quickly initiate the wire process, and run off to your lunch meeting. BUT… unbeknownst to you, you’ve just been hacked by an imposter using a […]

In the last decade, Norwest has made major investments in the security industry and continues to follow the sector with new investments in companies built to address emerging IT security needs with modern technologies. In this blog post, we will discuss web isolation, a new technology we think can create a paradigm shift in endpoint […]

Established retailers spent the last decade investing in their online presence. More recently, retail brands hatched online have started to open brick-and-mortar stores. The reason: Retailers and brands of all kinds want to strengthen their relationships with their customers. And no matter how great a website they have, they can’t connect emotionally with people the […]

We recently held our fourth annual Norwest Investor Summit, where we brought together investment bankers, portfolio managers and analysts to hear from a hand-picked group of our consumer Internet portfolio companies. The event featured keynotes from Minted, Udemy, Casper and Jet as well as a lightning round of presentations from innovative early-stage companies HoneyBook, Glint […]

This is a guest post from Vincent Villano, Founder of Clarus Commerce. Here we are, the transaction has closed and the proverbial keys have been given to the new owners. What an amazing journey it has been. More than 15 years ago I started Clarus Marketing Group (now known as Clarus Commerce) without a clue […]

At Norwest, one of our key investment areas has been security and our portfolio includes security leaders such as FireEye, MobileIron, Exabeam, Shape Security, Fireglass, Bitglass, Bracket Computing, Dtex Systems, Palerra, Pertino, Seculert, TrustID, Morta Security (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), and 41st Parameter (acquired by Experian). With more than 20 years of security investing […]

Today, it is our honor to congratulate Promod Haque on his 25th anniversary at Norwest. We’d like to celebrate this career milestone by taking a brief look back on his greatest achievements and share a Q&A that highlights his favorite moments and lessons learned. Looking Back Promod joined Norwest in 1990 while still living in […]

Recruiting has fundamentally changed over the last decade thanks to the rise of social media sites that offer unprecedented capabilities for networking and finding jobs through friends and colleagues. In a world increasingly dominated by computer interaction and data analytics, it seems like everyone is trying to figure out the easy way to identify and […]

We constantly keep an ear to the ground to identify top trends, best practices, and solutions that are relevant for our portfolio companies and the general entrepreneur community. Norwest recently hosted an event that addressed the biggest challenges in Demand Generation, bringing together top industry pros who shared their hard-earned knowledge of how to build […]

Once your startup’s first product starts to resonate in the market and sales pick up some steam, you need to leverage every bit of that momentum to propel your company to the next level. At this point, some simple realignment to your compensation structure and sales cycle can reap huge dividends—the right timing and delivery […]

Today marks a very exciting milestone in Norwest’s history. We are pleased to announce that we have raised Norwest Venture Partners XIII, our new $1.2 billion fund. NVP XIII will enable us to continue our mission of helping incredible founders and entrepreneurs and their companies thrive. Our success is their success and we could not […]

Employer Branding to Candidate Engagement: What’s Your Killer App for Recruiting? We recently brought together 30+ human resources and talent management professionals from Silicon Valley for a candid conversation regarding how to create an authentic employer brand and candidate experience without burning through the HR budget. Kicking off the event was Stacy Zapar, founder of […]

I have always been a big believer in brand: having one, building one and the value of one. Over the years, I have heard many different theories, best practices and strategies for growing a brand, but one in particular has fascinated me in terms of how quickly a household name can be born. Franchise concepts […]

TigerText Promises to Transform the Workflow of Healthcare Today, I am announcing our investment in TigerText, a company that is at the leading edge of providing next generation secure communications and workflow solutions to the enterprise; with a focus on healthcare and other highly regulated verticals that value team-based secure communications and workflows. Major shifts […]

The Positive Disruption Happening in Today’s Healthcare World After billions of investment in the space, we now have seen several bona-fide IPOs, multiple commercial-stage companies acquired, and evidence of digital healthcare companies positively impacting scores of patients. Even with all of this exuberance, most of us believe that the field of digital healthcare is still […]

Women earn about 60 percent of undergraduate and master’s degrees in the United States but hold just 12.3 percent of corporate board seats. This stark fact set the tone for the third Norwest Venture Partners Female Founders event, which focused on how women can build strong boards—and how they may position themselves to change the […]

Harnessing the Power of Demand Generation Earlier this month, we hosted the Norwest Demand Generation Summit at the Four Seasons Silicon Valley, where more than 120 sales, marketing, and demand generation executives gathered to learn about current trends and best practices in demand gen and customer acquisition through a mix of inspiring keynotes and panel […]

Omada Health: Leading the Digital Therapeutics Revolution Today, we’re proud to announce a new investment in the ground-breaking digital health company, Omada Health. The $48 million in Series C funding will be used to meet market demand for the company’s innovative online Prevent program—a program that effectively reduces the risk for obesity-released diseases such as […]

Data + Data = Insights In data analytics, the combining of disparate data sets can often yield unique and valuable insights.  Today we announce Appriss’ acquisition of our portfolio company The Retail Equation; bringing together Appriss’ crime, drug, and automotive data assets with TRE’s comprehensive SKU-level, retail transaction database.  What new insights can be found […]

When we started the Norwest Venture Partners growth equity practice back in 2009, our mission was to find private, rapidly growing, profitable, founder-owned companies in which to invest across multiple industry sectors. Through deep thematic research, in highly strategic industries, we would proactively create investment opportunities, leverage Norwest’s long track record of success, and add […]

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch. The school year has come to an end. For newly minted college graduates it can be a tumultuous time filled with anticipation, anxiety, happiness and disappointment. Although some college graduates will find their first, degree-related job right out of college, it’s not the case for most. The prospect for adequate employment […]

Udemy announces $65M financing led by Stripes Group with participation from Norwest Venture Partners and other investors.   Today Udemy, the leading online education marketplace offering 30,000 full-length courses by over 17,000 instructors in over 80 different countries, announced a $65M financing round. Udemy has over 7 million consumers and hundreds of corporations using Udemy […]

The barriers between the physical and digital world are dissolving more rapidly now than ever, and few of the companies I’ve worked with epitomize this more than Apigee. The company’s IPO this week is a testament to a leadership team that was willing to take risks in a new market when it became evident how […]

Today we announce our Series B investment in HoneyBook, a San Francisco-based event planning platform developed to address the needs of the many event professionals who want to dramatically improve their business processes and grow their overall businesses. The core idea is to free event pros from cumbersome administrative tasks such as tracking communications and […]

I’m often asked for input on how to best build and grow an online marketplace. If you look at the ones that have hit their stride and are growing like Lending Club, which had the second-biggest IPO of 2014, and others like Udemy, Minted, Etsy, and Airbnb, they all have one thing in common: a […]

Jet is a member-based e-commerce marketplace that is reinventing the concept of wholesale online. Costco reshaped essentials shopping through the membership model. Amazon changed e-commerce with a marketplace approach. Jet takes the best elements from each of these approaches to give customers a vast platform of retailers, the best prices, and the exclusivity and privilege […]

For many of us, a simple medical appointment is anything but. Cumbersome scheduling processes, insurance hassles, and harried doctors have become the norm. To make matters worse, healthcare premiums and out of pocket expenditures have drastically increased over the last decade. This ailing model is not only failing our health, but also our economy as […]

Rough patches early on can help young startups build toughness for the long fight ahead. It is easy to overlook in light of today’s IPO, but Lending Club almost joined the legion of early stage companies that get off to a promising start, but run into insurmountable roadblocks and fail. In Lending Club’s case, the […]

Today Norwest announced its Series B investment in Qubole, a leading provider of big data in the cloud. We are very excited to be supporting Qubole’s mission to help every company use the cloud to turn data into business growth. Qubole is changing the big data conversation by tapping the power of the public cloud. […]

Earlier this month we announced our investment in Minted, an online crowdsourcing marketplace that connects consumers with the world’s best independent fine artists and designers. On the heels of that news, I’d like to share some thoughts I’ve put together on marketplace development and best practices.  I hope these articles are useful to you. Below […]

Today we are excited to share with you that we are leading a $38 million investment in Minted, an online crowdsourcing marketplace that connects consumers with the world’s best independent fine artists and designers. Minted was originally launched in 2008 as an online marketplace for high-end, custom holiday cards and wedding invitations with a unique […]

  We recently hosted the Fall edition of our Female Founders Series: “Building a Women-Focused Brand Online” at NeueHouse in New York City. Our panel of dynamic, visionary female entrepreneurs (Kendra Scott, Founder & CEO of Kendra Scott Design; Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, CEO & Co-Founder of GLAMSQUAD and Co-Founder of Gilt Groupe; and Amy Errett, […]

Today we are recognizing those individuals who have made significant contributions to the firm’s growth and reputation, and have added strategic value to our portfolio companies. We’re pleased to announce the promotions of Dr. Robert Mittendorff to Principal, Sumer Juneja to Principal, and Lisa Wu to Vice President. These promotions reflect our ongoing investment in these talented individuals across multiple stages […]

The Educational Technology (EdTech) industry is enjoying a period of unprecedented innovation and investment, driven by many factors, including market demand, shifts in classroom and home technology adoption, and the level playing field that new standards have helped to create. EdTech is becoming increasingly relevant to all students, by delivering improved learning outcomes and by […]

Today, wearing a seat belt is second nature, but not too long ago there was a time when many cars didn’t have seatbelts and if they did, wearing them was viewed as optional. It took a generation — and lots of education — to convince car owners that the seatbelt is a vital component of […]

While several notable ecommerce companies are making forays into the physical world – Bonobos, Warby Parker, and BaubleBar to name a few – there’s a lot of buzz around a new and exciting trend: the rise of the omni-channel retailer. So what’s omni-channel retailing? Today’s connected consumers will shop when and where it is most convenient for them — whether […]

It’s not often that a room full of startup CEOs and founders is 90% women. But that’s what happened on Tuesday night at The Battery in San Francisco. The theme of the night was building a women-focused brand online. But more so, it was an opportunity for approximately 100 women CEOs and executives (as well […]

MobileIron’s IPO brings light to the enormous transformation we’ve seen, and continued opportunity ahead in enterprise mobility. Since the company was founded, the adoption of mobile technology has become a disruption of historic proportions. Mobile has outpaced earlier transitions we’ve witnessed such as mainframe to PCs and client/server to the Internet. I remember the day […]

We are delighted to share the news of NVP XII, our new $1.2B fund. NVP XII provides fresh fuel for us to continue making early to late stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors. We want to express our gratitude to all of the incredible entrepreneurs with whom we work […]

Norwest Venture Partners is an active investor within consumer Internet, particularly in ecommerce. Through our experience partnering with entrepreneurs to build companies, we have found that the most successful ecommerce companies reflect a few shared characteristics. Successful ecommerce companies are those that own their merchant category and have founding teams that understand their particular customer […]

This  post originally appeared on Entrepreneur. The boom and bust nature of Silicon Valley startups often results in entrepreneurs being viewed simplistically as “successes” or “failures” based on the outcome of their startups.  However, the real key to success is ones mindset, which allows entrepreneurship to be viewed as a journey rather than a distinct outcome. As Stanford […]

While the most publicized SaaS stories of the last 18 months have predominantly been about horizontal solutions such as WorkDay and ServiceNow (both whom sell extended product suites into a variety of industries), a second layer of innovation is occurring in many verticals that require more specialized solutions. In the public markets, Textura (TXTR) is […]