Specter Monitor is a data-driven newsletter for investors interested in learning about the latest market trends, signals, and opportunities. Our audience includes some of the most legendary VC investors in the world. We’ll work hard to bring you actionable insights into what’s happening in today’s markets while celebrating data-driven wins and predictions. ✨
New from Specter: The Hottest Startups of July 🔥
Each month, we use the 'Hot Signals' feature within Specter, to highlight the companies and talent attracting the most interest from VC firms.
🔮 Talents of the Week
Specter tracks real-time top talents movements across the world to detect actionable investment opportunities before anyone else.
🪄 Predicted:
Pramod Sharma (US, 2021): Founder & CEO at Napkin AI.
Featured by Specter on: 2023 - Week 31.
Advantage on Latest Funding Round: 376 Days.
Description: Napkin leverages AI to transform your text into visuals for presentations, blogs, and more.
Previous Experience: Founder & CEO @ Osmo (Acquired), President, Products @ BYJU'S, Group Product Manager @ Google, Staff Software Engineer @ Google, Senior Software Engineer @ NVIDIA, Software Engineer @ Gentech Corp.
Total Funding: $10M / $10M Latest Seed on 08-2024.
Notable Investors: Accel, CRV.
👻 Opportunity:
Sam Franklin (EU, 2024): Founder at Stealth Startup.
Featured by Specter on: 2024 - Week 26.
Previous Experience: Co-Founder @ Otta.com (Acquired), Co-Founder & CEO @ Otta.com, Business Operations @ Nested, Consultant @ McKinsey & Company, Investment Banking Summer Analyst @ Morgan Stanley, European Student Ambassador @ Google, Private Equity Summer Analyst @ ECI Partners.
Total Funding: N/A.
Notable Investors: N/A.
*Please note: To preserve the exclusivity of our premium solutions, Talent Signals in this public newsletter are delayed by at least 1 month. Specter clients enjoy a six-month lead over any other database, gaining early access to thousands of new talent signals each week. Reach out today to secure your competitive advantage! ⚡
🎱 Strategic Signals
Inspired by Michael Lewis’ Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game - Strategic Intelligence is a stealth engine that tracks online and social behaviour of corporate insiders and leading investors.
🪄 Predicted:
DevRev (US, 2020) - Featured by Specter on: 2022 - Week 40.
Advantage on Latest Funding Round: 376 Days.
Description: DevRev offers a cloud-based solution for both customer support and software development.
Total Funding: $150.8M / $100.8M Latest Series A on 08-2024.
Notable Investors: Khosla Ventures, Mayfield Fund, Firebolt Ventures, Dheeraj Pandey, Bradley Horowitz, Alumni Ventures, Param Hansa Values, Ballistic Ventures, 2 | Twelve, Cloud Capital, m]x[v Capital, Audeo Ventures, Vijay Shankar.
👻 Opportunity:
Superwhisper (US, 2023) - Featured by Specter on: 2024 - Week 18.
Description: Superwhisper offers an offline and local AI-powered voice-to-text for Mac OS and iOS.
Total Funding: N/A.
Notable Investors: N/A.
Signal: Increased VC Interest in 08-2024.
🍒 Cherry-Picked Companies
Specter tracks the alternative data performance of millions of companies and, on a monthly basis, flags the ones who are likely to increase in valuation.
🪄 Predicted:
Neon (US, 2021) - Specter Rank: 271 📈
Description: Neon is a cloud-native, fully managed Postgres as a service.
Total Funding: $104M / $46M Latest Series B on 08-2024.
Notable Investors: Trajectory Ventures, Elad Gil, Founders Fund, Nat Friedman, Ajeet Singh, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Notable Capital, Guillermo Rauch, Wes McKinney, Soren Bramer Schmidt, Ryan Noon, Flucas Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Databricks Ventures.
6 Months Growth: Web: 128.54%; Team: 48.98%; Social: 29.7%.
👻 Opportunity:
Speakeasy (US, 2022) - Specter Rank: 2910 📈
Description: Speakeasy offers self-serve API tooling to power REST development at scale.
Total Funding: $10.9M / $7.6M Latest Seed on 06-2023.
Notable Investors: Quiet Capital, StoryHouse Ventures, Roopak Venkatakrishnan, Flex Capital, Amit Agarwal, Firestreak Ventures, Google Ventures, Todd Berman, Clint Sharp, Jordan Segall, Bucky Moore, HMC INQ.
6 Months Growth: Web: 20.4%; Team: 31.25%; Social: 25.2%.
