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Bloomberg Beta Operating Manual Contents. Our investor, Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg L.P. Is our sole investor.
We appreciate many things about our investor: Bloomberg is a different kind of company. Bloomberg is a pioneer - it created one of the original SaaS businesses, the first professional social network, and invented many practices that are now widely adopted by startups. We hope startups will be inspired by Bloomberg’s example, as we are. Bloomberg knows and respects technology and technology companies, is set up to be independent-minded, and builds toward long-term value. Bloomberg was created three decades ago on a then-controversial idea — that information in financial markets should be more widely available.
Bloomberg has reached global scale and influence, with more than 15,000 employees in almost 200 locations — and yet it is still a private company, held by its founders. Why did Bloomberg L.P. Create Bloomberg Beta? Bloomberg wants a window into the world of startups to understand meaningful trends early, and know founders and companies long before it becomes obvious that they will be significant. To do this, Bloomberg wants a way to support founders and collaborate with them that doesn’t involve an ordinary commercial relationship. (Many startups are not ready to partner with Bloomberg — or any established, larger company — until they’ve grown, settled on a direction, and decided to make a partnership a priority. That can take as long as a few years after the company is founded.) Bloomberg L.P.
Invested in Bloomberg Beta to open that window to startups, and set up a structure that is rare for a corporate-sponsored firm — a true fund that invests for financial return, not an “operating division.” Bloomberg knows that great founders want investors whose interests are fully aligned with their own. So Bloomberg Beta is set up to choose its own investments, and back companies solely on their merits and financial potential, regardless of whether they have (or intend to have) a business relationship with Bloomberg. We do focus exclusively on areas that are of relevance to Bloomberg - we wouldn’t invest in a videogame, or a consumer e-commerce site for example. One way to think of our focus: we look at the future of work. If you’re focused on making leisure or family life better, we’re probably not your people.
We believe we can take the Bloomberg ethos and apply it to how we work with founders: putting our customers (founders!) first, developing deep expertise in our domain (the future of work), and convening different spheres (from every walk of life) to bring new experiences to our customers. Ultimately, Bloomberg L.P.’s founders have succeeded at doing what we hope to help other companies do — create something extraordinary. What We Believe About the Future of Work To know how our fund works, it helps to know the views we bring into every meeting, every email we send, every thought about a startup. We've worked to articulate some of these beliefs - both those writ large about the economy as a whole and the nature of how business will operate in the future.
Work as the Soil of New Technology Our personal lives are now guided by technology - voice-recognizing kitchen assistants, cloud-based email, self-parking cars, instant delivery of goods and services - more advanced than what we use at work. In the last 20 years, unlike much of modern economic history, technology often arrived in peoples' personal lives before it reached industry.
We believe that work will catch up, and we'll return to the historical norm, where technology arrives at work before it arrives at home. Harrier 2015 manual. Work - especially knowledge work - will be the soil in which many of the most exciting new technologies, especially, will find their most interesting applications.
Think about all the industries waiting for a modern approach. Accelerating Pace of Technological Change We believe technology's pace, while accelerating, will affect us in a more profound way: changes, when they happen, will be far more sudden and jarring. The transition from a human society of hunters and gatherers to an agrarian one took about 3,000 years; the transition from agriculture to industry took roughly 300; industry to services took about 30. Whatever comes next will happen during the span of the careers of people working today. Now, an entire industry or category-leading company can fall off a cliff.
In 1958, if a company cracked the S&P 500, it could expect to stay for 61 years - today, the expectation is. The Barbell Effect We believe some startups (and some established companies, mostly the ones with respect for technology as a first-class citizen) will harness the chaos. They will replace entire ways of doing business - mission-critical, business models, leadership, and many long-treasured assumptions. To other companies, while some will enter the fray as themselves, built differently from the ground up. As the dust settles, industry winners will eat more of their industry's total pie, and the middle will wink out of existence. Big companies will get even bigger, and small companies will be able to make a good living for themselves, their owners, and their employees at ever-smaller sizes. Working Like Developers The human impact of these changes will be enormous.
For people working, we believe more of their work will look like that of software developers (automating away tasks and harnessing the of computers to get done), and of securities traders (acting on all day long). We believe much individual work will be done in collaboration with software that makes its own choices. As a result, many people will suffer the dilemma that today afflicts mostly software engineers. These talents will (more than just their devices) to work, insisting on the and that make them most productive. The New Company Wo/man Careers will look less like a straight line, and more like a of, with people judged on their work and their as opposed to their past institutional affiliations (whether educational or professional). In some cases, people will decouple income from work, and integrate their lives and their work in ways considered career limiting today. Their personal, economic, social, geographic, and demographic backgrounds will also be much more diverse than the most recognized talents of today.
The Importance of the Individual Those changes in how people work mean the era of the individual talent is only beginning. An individual person at work will become even more, and soon we will see a company.
Those individuals will be the ones to create new industries and topple old ones. They will need relatively little capital (financial or otherwise) to reach new heights. They are the ones we want to, support with trust as well as dollars, and cheer as they hit escape velocities. What we look for in a startup We recognize that seeing early signs of an outlier is hard, and nobody’s cracked how to do it reliably.
What we want is a reason to tell ourselves that a startup has a chance to be extraordinary. There are a few areas where we search for signs: certain qualities of a founding team, an early product, areas where we think we can be helpful, and the right moment in a company’s life. Here is a of the questions we ask ourselves when evaluating startups. Founders We look for a reason to believe a founding team is extraordinary. Not that they have the perfect skills or experiences to match the business they want to build (which is where the “team” slide in the deck tends to focus), but that they have the capacity for greatness. What gives us a sense the founders could be extraordinary?
Often times, they just have an unusual psychology - they think they are exceptional, see grand patterns others don’t, are indifferent to norms, and may have an exceptionally high pain threshold. We are inspired by Michael Dearing’s description of the cognitive distortions of founders (, ). We have passed on companies because we didn’t think the founders were crazy enough - they seemed too textbook.
(And we don't mean their appearance or background, we mean their level of extraordinary determination, willingness to try, or insight.) We believe the founders destined for greatness will be magnetic to the best available talent and capital for their companies, and we find ourselves thinking we'd want to work for them (because, if we invest, we will be working for them). They see raising venture capital as a sometimes-necessary aspect of creating a certain kind of business, as opposed to a box to be checked or a badge to be won. They'd continue attacking the problem they've chosen, in some form, whether or not they raise venture capital.
They hold as articles of faith that a great company will have a strong culture, and unusual practices that make it an outlier - and begin to integrate that way of thinking sooner than strictly necessary to continue growing their business. Doing so often means concentrating their teams in one (or at most two) locations, recognizing that the known ceiling for distributed teams is still quite low and that face-to-face conversation is a surprisingly resilient mode. Great teams have a plan to win when - surprise, surprise - they learn that a dozen other teams are pursuing their previously-thought-to-be-unique idea. They persevere when others (including us) tell them that ideas are cheap until they are brought to life. They both see themselves as unique and list many companies as their competitors. So much of backing founders is about - many of the companies we’ve backed are led by people who we’ve known for years, and grown to trust. If we don’t know you ourselves, we prefer if someone we trust knows you.
Otherwise we find it hard to trust our impressions of you after a meeting or two; first impressions are so unreliable. That said, we’ve backed founders who we only just met - sometimes you “just know.” We also do background checks on founders where we search public records. Almost everyone has something turn up, and that's fine. People get sued, things happen.
Some of history's best founders had complicated pasts. The issues arise when we're surprised by something important that we learn - trust, again - and we resolve those issues in conversation with founders. Inclusion and diversity We are committed to making the startup world welcoming to people of all backgrounds - from our own team, to the founding teams we serve and the companies they build. Startups start with seeing the world anew, and people with different backgrounds see the world differently – so if we want to remake things, we need to enlist people with as wide a range of backgrounds as possible.
We focus our proactive sourcing outreach on seeking out founders from underrepresented communities. We define diversity broadly, including inherent and acquired forms of diversity like gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic class, geography, nationality, education, and others. We are proud of the diversity of our team (e.g., our partnership is 50-50 female-male, we only have one white male team member, and our team is more than half women). We believe groupthink is dangerous in venture capital, and that different perspectives demand different backgrounds.
A diverse and inclusive team also just makes for a better experience for us. That said, we are disappointed in our performance backing enough founders from underrepresented backgrounds. For example, only 9% of the CEOs we have backed are women and only 17% of founding teams we have backed include a female founder. We would like to accurately track other forms of diversity, though we avoid asking our founders to submit any mandatory data to us, so this is difficult. (We struggled with whether to set a goal for future portfolio composition: on the one hand, we want the goal to be something we can control and achieve, and on the other hand, any goal less than 50% feels inadequate and the only goal that matters is the end of our pipeline, backed companies.) We believe progress requires an accumulation of many small decisions over years –.
That said, we commit to act now. Specifically:. Our most significant effort to reach new founders is our Future Founders community, where we use data to predict who will start a company. Than the current population of venture-backed founders (the group is, for example, 28% female, though of course we want to get it to 50%). As part of our formal criteria for picking investments we want to make, If a startup we back fails to create a diverse and inclusive culture, we would feel regret regardless of how well the company performed financially. We host open office hours - only for founders who come from an underrepresented background.
Any Friday from 1-2pm PT, you can DM on Twitter and we’ll happily talk with you. We commit to double, by July 2018, the number of woman-led companies we actively consider for investment each month to 10. (By “active consideration” we mean the stage in our pipeline just before we make an offer - where we meet, usually more than once, and begin to do some diligence work.). When invited to speak at an industry event, we ask whether there is someone from an underrepresented community speaking alongside us (e.g., on a panel). When we host our own events, we examine our invitation lists for diversity.
(See, for example, our.). We are hosting an annual ' (our roughly-monthly founder-to-founder tactical learning events for our portfolio) on the subject of building a diverse and inclusive team. We were inaugural members of, which helps companies find female board members. We will update the performance metrics we’ve published here (e.g., on the gender composition of our portfolio CEOs) at least annually. We believe we need to hold ourselves accountable. As one measure, if a founder ever has an issue with our fund or our team, the founder can make a report to a Bloomberg representative, Kate Wheatley - - who happens to be the lead HR partner for all Bloomberg business leaders. We are accountable to our source of capital, and we follow - which cover our interactions with customers (i.e., founders).
We believe a community of companies is stronger the more different viewpoints come to the table, and intend to actively participate in creating a more inclusive and diverse technology industry. Product and market We prefer to see products that are intensely successful in some initial market, over products that grow to large numbers but don’t play an important role in the lives of their users. Bloomberg itself started out as a bond price list for U.S. Government bonds only.
We like for a product to be the most important service to at least some of its users. We like products we ourselves would use and understand. We’ve been technology buyers, software developers, founders, entry-level employees, and of course consumers of many media - so the range of products we might use and understand is broad. These products often start with a specific application of a well-understood technology, not a multi-industry 'black box' looking for a use case.
We believe startups destined for greatness, in their earliest days, choose.
Use this new hire training checklist as part of your onboarding process to help new employees transition smoothly into their roles. Why you should invest in new hire training Training helps new hires:. Understand how their department and your company operates.
Learn what guidelines you use and policies you enforce. Set up workstations with necessary tools and technology. Familiarize themselves with their position’s requirements Some trainings are common for all employees (e.g.
Company overview and policies.) Others are more role-specific. For example:. New are trained on product architecture, servers and coding languages. New are trained on product features, pricing and competition. Here are a series of new hire training checklists to help you create a successful onboarding experience, starting from before your new hire’s first day to three months after they start. Before your new hire’s first day Send some useful resources in advance to save you time on training and help new hires come to their new job prepared. Here are some things to get done before your new hires start:.
Send an agenda for the first day, so they know what to expect (include any 1:1s, demos or trainings relevant to your new hire’s role.). Send manuals and instructions on how to set up corporate accounts (e.g. Company email.).
Send a digital or print copy of your, so new hires can take a look and prepare any questions they may have. On your new employee’s first day Company overview training Use this overview to explain how your departments are structured. You can present this overview to groups, if there are multiple new employees starting on the same day. To facilitate discussion, make sure each group is small (no more than three or four employees.) Here’s what to include in a company overview training:. Present your company history and mission statement. Display your company timeline with key achievements. Provide a copy of your organizational chart and indicate where the new hire sits within the chart.
Offer detailed explanations of department structures and roles. Provide any product demos the new employee might need. Set aside time for the new hire to ask questions. Share relevant files, either in digital or print format at the end of each presentation, so that new employees can read them later, if they want to. Company policies training During your company policies presentation, highlight the most important things new employees need to know and address their questions.
Here’s what to include in a training on company policies:. Describe your workplace rules (e.g. Hours, breaks, use of lockers and key fob.). Describe the types of leave the new hire is eligible for (sick, vacation, etc) and when the new hire can begin going on leave. Explain your requirements for remote work, if relevant.
Explain your performance review process. Ask new hires to review and sign any non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements. Provide an FAQ document on the most popular company policies. Benefits package training Insurance and stock option plans can be difficult to understand. During this training, explain your benefits in simple terms. Clarify any actions employees need to take to use their benefits packages.
Answer questions they have. If necessary, get signed copies of contracts. Here’s how to conduct a training on employee benefits:. Present all options for life and health insurance plans and make sure new hires acknowledge the terms. Explain stock options and provide documents that describe the terms in detail. Explain flexible hours options and requirements (e.g.
How to request approval for remote work.). Describe how to use all available training and development benefits, like education budgets. Describe any mobile plan and/or company car reimbursement benefits you offer. Present the details of your wellness programs or health perks (e.g. Discount gym membership.) Role-specific training In this training, hiring managers explain team structure and roles, establish expectations for success and set new hires up with useful tools and resources. Here’s what hiring managers should include in role-specific trainings:. Describe the new hire’s tasks (e.g.
A typical day at work.). Present job-specific tools that the new hire will use. Provide a list of helpful resources to find answers to frequently asked questions. Display and explain reports that track the team’s KPIs.
Present business objectives related to the new hire’s position and team. Explain the roles of different members on the team and how the new hire will work with them. Schedule regular one-on-ones with the new hire. Schedule introductory one-on-ones between the new hire and team members. IT setup and training IT staff should help new employees set up their computer stations and ensure all systems are up and running.
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They should also guide new hires on data privacy, system security and proper use of software and hardware. Here’s what to include in an IT setup training:. Make sure new hires have access to necessary tools and manuals to use hardware and software. Check whether new hires have set up company accounts (e.g. Email) and provide assistance as needed. Ensure all new hires understand and sign data privacy agreements.
Help new hires configure WLAN connection settings (computer and mobile.). Help employees install anti-virus software. Set new hires up with password security accounts (e.g. LastPass.). Describe visitors policy. Train new hires on how to secure their workstations. A month after your new hire starts Security training During this training, a member of your IT or Security team should describe employees’ data privacy and system security obligations.
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For roles where employees handle confidential employee or customer data, prioritize security training earlier than one month. Otherwise, schedule this training to be completed during the new hire’s first month at work. Here’s what to include in a security training for new hires:. Present security training videos and test employees’ knowledge of security protocols (e.g quizzes, role-playing.).
Enable features that let employees remotely access corporate software. Go over out-of-office best practices (e.g. How to securely connect to local networks and how to join video calls.). Review workstation security measures. Invite employees to join a security forum on your company intranet so they can ask questions (e.g.
Slack #security channel, BambooHR.) Three months after your new hire starts Safety training Your office manager or an HR team member should design workplace safety training sessions and ensure all employees attend within their first three months. It’s best to conduct these trainings in groups. When necessary, collaborate with professionals on relevant topics (e.g.
Inviting First Aid Trainers as instructors.) Here’s how to train new hires on safety practices:. Organize an emergency evacuation drill. Schedule a First Aid presentation. Provide guidelines on proper use of hazardous material and equipment. Run a fire drill and describe precautionary actions to avoid fire risks.
Explain all measures the company enforces to protect employees’ well-being (e.g. Non-smoking policies.). Provide office ergonomics tips, including:. Good desk posture. Proper chair height. Adjusting monitor brightness.