Beefing things up.
Hello, folks! We’re super close to the 10th issue of this newsletter, so we’ve decided to beef up our job board. We’ve categorized it into 4 sections - startup internships, startup full-times, VC (& related) internships, and VC (& related) full-times. The job board is catered towards any young, scrappy individual to find an opportunity best suited for them. If you or someone you know would want to feature a job listing to recruit incredible talent, don’t hesitate to reach out (email below)!
On news: we’ve got some good ones. USC expands its engineering offerings, Morpheus launches its $200M Fund II, and advents on the crypto IRA front. The James Webb telescope also becomes a step closer to capturing its first real image. Many exciting things happening, so let’s dig right in.
As always, if you have any ideas about how we could improve this newsletter, please email us at ops@crescentfund.vc – and if you like what you see, we’d love it if you could share this with others.
Sincerely,
The Crescent Team
*If you’re a student building something cool, want to join Crescent, or just want to chat, reach out to us at ops@crescentfund.vc.
Crescent Partner Highlights.
*ICYMI, here's what we talked about last week.
On Web3.
It’s a massive week in Web3 fundraising!
With over tens of billions of dollars invested in Crypto and Blockchain startups in 2021, there was certainly no shortage of funds allocated towards the space. While Crypto markets turned south for the month of January, private markets rolled into February steaming hot with Polygon raising a massive $450M round and Dune Analytics closing their $69.42M Series B round.
We’re paying close attention to the ripple effects of these massive fundraising rounds and what they might signal for continued fundraising momentum in the Web3 space for the first half of this year. This week, Crescent Partner Cam Glynn wrote a brief overview of these fundraising rounds and key takeaways for the Web3 space at large.
Our mission has always been to empower SoCal’s best and brightest student founders. We wholeheartedly serve SoCal, and it’s no different for Web3—we’re looking for talented SoCal student founders who can tackle the Web3 space head-on. If you’re building for the future of the Internet or you know somebody who is, please reach out to us at ops@crescentfund.vc.
Career Opportunities.
*If you want a job or listing featured in this newsletter, please reach out to us at ops@crescentfund.vc.
- Featured This Week: 222 -
222 is hiring! 222 was founded with the goal of fostering genuine human connections. In a world where the zeitgeist hurries towards the possibility of virtual worlds and metaverses, 222 is building a product that “swings the pendulum in the other direction” by facilitating serendipitous, IRL human interactions. Crazy thing is, you can create your own role in building the future of social if you tell the team what exactly you’d be interested in working on!
More Opportunities.
Check out the other we've found over this week.
Startup Internships.
Creative - Collab
Growth - Media.Monks
Content Marketing - Slickdeals
Autonomous Vehicle Research & ML - Motional
Data Analytics - MPulse Mobile
Startup Full-Times.
Sales Development Representative - Promenade
Business Development Manager - CyberCoders
VP of Operations - Portal Warehousing
Product Manager - Cloudbeds
VC & Similar Internships.
Venture Capital - JUMP Investors
Technology Analyst - Starburst Aerospace
Disney Accelerator - Disney
Investment Associate - Hewlett Packard Enterprise
VC & Similar Full-Times.
Venture Capital Investment Associate - OneWire
Analyst/Associate - Archer Venture Capital
Assistant, Venture Investing - Creative Artists Agency
VC & Investment - Scouted
Venture Analyst - Wavemaker Labs
*See last week’s shortlist.
The Southern Californian Tech Landscape.
Here’s some stories on SoCal Tech we’ve been closely following.
*ICYMI, here's what happened last week.
The demand for USC’s Applied Analytics minor has skyrocketed from 20 to 500 students in a span of 5 years, and USC Viterbi Dean Yannis Yortos believes that the school’s focus on “AI-related disciplines has grown in conjunction with the tech industry’s demand for engineers.”
Morpheus Ventures launches its $200M Fund II, directed at investing in PropTech, InsurTech, FinTech, and Robotics startups. The firm states on its website that its value add is helping its portfolio companies navigate “through potentially crippling events and complex scenarios.” To date, Morpheus claims it has secured up to $300M in total.
With local cryptocurrency firms tackling the new self-directed IRA market, Los Angeles has quickly established itself as an epicenter of the crypto IRA industry. Firms that are spearheading this nascent market includes Long Beach-based iTrustCapital and Sherman Oaks-based Bitcoin IRA. Still, due to the speculative nature of crypto assets, there are those still skeptical about crypto-focused retirement funds.
The Broader Tech Landscape.
Here's what's happening in the broader tech landscape.
*ICYMI, here's what happened last week.
Yesterday, the James Webb telescope takes a selfie after it spots its first star 18 times over - a milestone that takes it closer to its first ‘real’ image. It will take some time before a proper, more comprehensive image can be taken, but this milestone “shows that the IR camera and primary mirrors are working as planned — though not at full capacity just yet.”
Flexport, a freight forwarding, raises $935M in a Series E round, boosting its valuation to $8B. Founder & CEO Ryan Petersen believes that admist the ailing supply chain ecoystem,”this investment signals that the market recognizes the need for a tech-enabled logistics ecosystem that has the visibility and resilience to handle unexpected challenges of any scale”.
Sequoia invests $450M into into Polygon, a blockchain network that sits atop the Ethereum blockchain and serves as a support layer. As the Ethereum blockchain becomes increasingly congested, Polygon aims to be the decentralized counterpart of Amazon Web Services.
*If you’re interested in helping out Southern California student founders through advising or becoming an LP feel free to reach out to ops@crescentfund.vc.
That’s it from us this week, folks! Thank you for reading, and see you next time.
Signing off,
Crescent Fund