VB WEBINAR:

Q1 research from VentureBeat Insight shows that the venture capital landscape for martech shows no sign of slowing down. Join Ravi Belani, partner at Alchemist Accelerator, Adam J. Plotkin, partner at ff Venture Capital, and VB analyst Jon Cifuentes to learn about the current martech landscape and what’s getting analysts excited.

Register here for free.

Alchemist Accelerator, a platinum-rated accelerator by the MIT Seed Accelerator Rankings, has seen over 60 percent of the companies they work with go on to close an institutional round within 12 months of graduating. So Ravi Belani, managing partner of Alchemist Accelerator, dismisses concerns about the martech startup market being saturated.

“The beautiful thing about tech is that you’re creating value,” says Belani. “It’s not a zero sum game.”

The reality is that the best companies actually create the market, especially as marketing shifts from a cost function to a revenue function, absorbing functionalities that used to be covered by sales. CMOs are seeing ROI on their marketing dollars and actually driving demand and driving real revenue for companies. It’s why CMO budgets are now larger than CTO budgets.

More importantly, Belani emphasizes, is how martech is evolving to meet new demands.

“I think some of the most exciting marketing tech startups are actually transforming how these companies are making money,” he says. “I wouldn’t worry about the discourse about whether we have too many marketing companies. The bigger question is whether you’re working on something that is driving fundamental, disruptive value.”

Companies that are pursuing aggressive, ambitious ways of transforming industries, Belani says, is what gets them really excited at Alchemist. “I’m looking for companies that aren’t constrained by traditional silos of marketing and are trying to take over whole industries,” he adds.

In other words, businesses that are expanding their view beyond an individual company’s tech to start thinking about making a play toward dominating an industry category as a whole.

“The beautiful thing about the marketing function is that you own a lot of the critical data,” Belani says. “And if you can own that data layer across the entire value chain, then there are new businesses and industries that can be created in a standalone way that weren’t created before.”

In the end, Belani says, “I would not worry too much about the competition. I would just focus really heavily on what you’re uniquely suited to do and if you’re doing something that’s disruptive and driving significant value.”

The beautiful thing about fundraising, Belani says, is that it doesn’t matter what the average investor thinks of you. All that matters is finding those one or two investors that believe in what you’re doing. Your job is not to convince somebody why your idea is great. Your job is to find the investor that’s looking for you, and doesn’t know you exist.

The most successful founders are not successful because of some brilliant insight or raw intelligence, he maintains. Rather, persistence is the key.

“Literally just knocking on everybody’s door until you find the one that’s looking for you,” Belani says. “That’s your job. Your job is to just drive a process and not get knocked down.”

For more insight into industry disruption, owning your category, finding your VC match and more, make sure you make room for this 30-minute webinar.

Don’t miss out!

Register here for free.

During this webinar, you’ll learn:

• How to get noticed by top VCs, straight from investors
• Which types of companies are gaining funding
• Where we’re seeing the biggest areas of consolidation
• Who the most involved and most active VCs are
• The implications for investors, vendors, and most importantly marketing technology buyers and users

Speakers:

• Jon Cifuentes, analyst, VentureBeat
• Ravi Belani, managing partner, Alchemist Accelerator
• Adam J. Plotkin, partner, ff Venture Capital

Moderator:

• Wendy Schuchart, analyst, VentureBeat

VentureBeat