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Altitude Edition 014 is hot off the press from Cirrus Capital Partners 📰

Note: First, we want to address our tardiness—We needed an extra week to get our 🤩 together, sorry! We aim to deliver quality content, which is sometimes easier said than done amidst our client schedule. Hope you enjoy this edition. Without further ado...

The bird's eye 🦅 view of the most exciting news and insights around...

• Successful Companies and Founding Teams
• VC, PE, M&A, and Credit Transactions
• Growth Metrics, Benchmarks, Charts & Data
• New and Emergent Technologies
• Productivity Hacks

Created for founders, bootstrappers, VCs, angel investors, marketers, technologists, executives, and operators—everywhere.

Let’s get into it:

Changes brewing at Cirrus Capital Partners ☕

We have a few announcements on our end...

First, we would like to welcome Rodolfo Bez as our new Senior Associate. He will help our clients navigate the debt capital markets and advise them toward a financial solution ideal for their business. Read a little bit about his (rather impressive, I might add!) background. Rodolfo, if you're reading this, we're fortunate to have you on the team! 🎉
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Second, we've been experimenting behind the scenes with a revision of our branding and logo, which we will more formally announce later this week! In the meantime, here's a quick teaser (🤫). At Cirrus, we focus on making the complex more simple, and we feel our new logo is an embodiment of that philosophy.

What's shaping the business world today?

We got rid of noncompetes...almost. Noncompetes bind 30 million Americans. When the FTC voted to ban noncompete agreements altogether for all US workers, their momentum was thwarted by a federal court in Texas. Ryan LLC, a tax services firm, sued to halt the rule. Judge Ada Brown postponed the implementation of the ban for the plaintiffs, citing the likelihood of their success in challenging the rule and its public interest. The FTC vote to ban cited the downsides of noncompetes as the stifling of job mobility and economic growth. However, businesses, including Ryan LLC and major trade groups, claim the FTC overstepped its authority. The decision highlights ongoing legal battles and differing perspectives on noncompete agreements' role in the U.S. labor market. ​ Read article

Nintendo pledges its games will be made by humans. Nintendo has committed to ensuring its games are made by humans, not AI. Shigeru Miyamoto, a key figure at Nintendo, emphasized the importance of human creativity and emotional connection in game development. This pledge comes amid growing concerns about the role of AI in creative industries. Miyamoto believes that while AI can assist in the process, the unique touch of human creators is irreplaceable for the company's innovative and engaging game experiences. ​ This is one of the first large entertainment companies to come forward and ensure that human creativity remains a cornerstone of content creation, not to be displaced by AI tools but augmented. ​ Read article

Stay hungry, stay profitable.

Are you solving the right problem? In his Substack article, JD Schramm discusses the importance of solving the right problem, emphasizing that many individuals and organizations focus on symptoms rather than root causes. He outlines strategies for identifying the problem, including questioning assumptions, seeking diverse perspectives, and using tools like the "5 Whys" technique. Schramm argues that addressing the core issue leads to more effective and lasting solutions, ultimately improving outcomes in both personal and professional contexts. ​ Favorite quotable tidbit: "They were doing things right, but they weren't doing the right thing." Time is valuable; you can spend little time getting a lot done—too much time moving the needle 2 millimeters. ​ Read article

The toilet paper rule The more attractive the product, the more complex the strategy. The more boring the product, the more straightforward it needs to be. Neal exemplifies this with unsexy and sexy products and their respective selling strategies. Try to sell your toilet paper brand with posts and campaigns about "brand values," and people will give you a side-eye. Tell them they'll get toilet paper as soft as a baby's bottom—and you'll see toilet paper flying off shelves. That's why Tesla spends millions on rich brand awareness campaigns, and Liquid Death uses simplicity to sell water, an otherwise dull product. I know it's meta to send a newsletter in a newsletter, but I love seeing Demand Curve in my inbox. I have always learned a lot and highly recommend that people subscribe to it. ​ Read the full newsletter

How did Olipop go from selling nothing to $500M in gross annual sales? It's incredible what a simple rebrand can do. If you didn't before, Olipop looked pretty different than what we now see on the shelves. The language was clinical, and the aesthetic was chunky and not reflective of the flavor. The benefits were abstract and gave little glimpse of what was inside the can. Look at what a simple change in language can do! The flavor is front, center, and primary. The health benefit is more precise and secondary to the flavor. Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, does a quick LinkedIn post about the need to "speak their language, not yours" to sell products. ​ Read the full post

Apple vs. Adobe (in emails) If there's any type of "tea-spilling" I enjoy, it's old emails from the world's most prominent tech founders. I came across this Substack (and X account) called Internal Tech Emails and had to pass it along. This edition is an old exchange between Steve Jobs and Adobe's CEO in a téte-â-téte about poaching employees from their respective companies. It starts with a standoff and ends with a peace treaty. However, any historian knows how Adobe Flash ended... ​ Read the exchange

A much-needed mid-year reminder.

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A visit to the market

The brass tacks of what's happening in the economy:

• ​The U.S. Treasury markets are reacting to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. The incident has caused significant volatility, with some investors seeking safer assets amid the uncertainty, while many others investors raised their wagers that Trump will win the November election against President Joe Biden, which could be an indicator toward stronger economic growth.
• ​A recent article by MarketWatch states that the U.S. jobs report has been overestimating employment gains, which could lead to misjudgments about the economy’s health. The government’s initial estimates of new job gains have been consistently overstated. For instance, the May report initially showed a 272,000 increase in jobs, which was later revised to 218,000. Similarly, the January estimate of 353,000 new jobs was revised to 256,000.
  • The root cause of these inaccuracies is low response rates to the government survey used to determine job creation. The initial response rate dropped to 64.5% in 2023, the lowest in 21 years, and has been only 61% through the first six months of 2024. These exaggerated initial estimates can mislead Wall Street and the Federal Reserve, potentially affecting decisions on interest rates. The Fed has noted the overestimation and is cautious about relying too heavily on these preliminary figures.
• Consumers are not spending enough. May retail sales rose .1%, which is weaker than expected. This shows that high interest rates and inflation are inhibiting consumer spending.
• ​According to the University of Michigan index, consumer sentiment lags, the lowest in 8 months. American's financial decisions continue to be affected by inflation, which raises questions about whether spending, which accounts for 70% of U.S. GDPR, will rebound. According to the Commerce Department, U.S. retail sales barely rose in May, suggesting price growth weighed on shoppers.

Here is an interesting chart worth sharing to give you a perspective on why inflation today is dire.

For the first few years of the 2020s, the CPI was up 21.1% compared to the 2010s, staying steady throughout the decade.

Lance Lambert @NewsLambert We've already seen more inflation in just 53 months of the 2020s decade than in the entire decade of the 2010s +33.1% - ‘90s decade +28.8% - ‘00s decade +19.0% - ‘10s decade +21.1% - ‘20s decade https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1802340580132790326 10:0 AM • Jun 16, 2024 71 Retweets 325 Likes Read 19 replies

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Fresh fundings 🥧

Equity Rounds from big to small

​Harvey, a two-year-old startup based in San Francisco that offers AI-powered legal software to help lawyers and legal professionals handle complex legal tasks, is reportedly aiming to secure $100 million in new funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. GV is expected to lead the funding round. Previously, the company had sought to raise $600 million at a $2 billion valuation to acquire vLex, a legal research firm.

​Nala, a remittance startup based in San Francisco, has raised $40 million in an oversubscribed Series A round led by Acrew Capital. Other participants include DST Global, Norrsken22, HOF Capital, and existing investors like Amplo and NYCA Partners. The funding will support Nala's expansion plans, including scaling its remittance services to Asia and Latin America and enhancing its new B2B payments platform, Rafiki, which serves global businesses making payments to and from Africa. Nala, which allows users in the E.U., U.K., and the U.S. to send money to 11 African markets, aims to offer a comprehensive money management solution. Founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes noted that this funding will enable Nala to build a robust, low-cost payments ecosystem beyond remittances. The company's strategic moves align with the World Bank's prediction of solid growth in the remittance sector, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

​Pieces, a four-year-old startup from Cincinnati, OH, offers a productivity tool designed to help developers save, organize, and manage code snippets, links, text, images, and other resources. The company recently secured a $13.5 million Series A funding round led by Drive Capital, with participation from Cintrifuse Capital and Redhawk Ventures.

Notable Credit Transactions from big to small

$33MM credit for Colorado-based metals manufacturer to enable the company to refinance its existing debt and to position itself for a significant capital equipment project.

CytoSorbents Corporation has secured a $20 million credit facility from Avenue Capital Group. The facility, structured as a term loan, includes an initial tranche of $15 million, with $10 million available immediately and an additional $5 million upon FDA acceptance of the company's De Novo application for DrugSorb-ATR. A $5 million tranche will be available in the second half of 2025 following FDA marketing clearance for DrugSorb-ATM to support its U.S. launch.

CIBC Innovation Banking has provided $10 million in growth capital financing to Clariti, a cloud-based government software provider. This funding will support Clariti's continued expansion and innovation in delivering software solutions that help government agencies improve efficiency and service delivery.

Until our next flight,

Ryan, Sutheshna & your friends at Cirrus​

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