I am a chaplain trying to understand the tech world, and to me, that means I need to understand people like Justin Kan.Who, after all, most “represents tech?” There are the obvious answers: secular deities like Bill Gates, Elon Musk or the late Steve Jobs.

But you can’t understand what has come to be the power and mystique of tech without also understanding the minds of its enigmatic founders.

Justin Kan is a serial entrepreneur and founder who, whether you appreciate his public voice or not, certainly stands out as one of the most interesting examples of that classic Silicon Valley archetype: a tech entrepreneur ostensibly doing much more than just selling technology.

Kan famously started his business career not long after he graduated from Yale in 2005 by creating Justin.tv, a tech platform from which he broadcast his own life 24/7.

Fifteen years later, Kan’s original idea seems quaint, given the level of self-promotion and oversharing that’s become commonplace. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580589013.1769361/Justin-Kan-opens-up-(Part-1)-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

One might think it looks like a tech-enabled unicorn, that doesn’t generate the recurring revenue and margins of a true tech-powered business.

It had raised $532.1 million during its time as a private company, with a fairly recent valuation of $1.71 billion.

With its closing value of $19.50 per share today, One Medical is now worth $2.38 billion.

“I cannot see what makes the company — an unprofitable, only moderately growing upstart with non-recurring revenue — worth a SaaS multiple.

But it’s just hoping to not take too big of a haircut on its last private valuation, Alex separately noted on EC. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580587212.34864/Startups-Weekly:-One-Medical-IPO-raises-unicorn-hopes-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

TECHSPO New York 2020 is a technology expo specifically created to bring industry leaders and innovators to showcase next-generation tech and emerging products.

If you are a small business owner looking to get that competitive edge, this expo will have Internet, Mobile, AdTech, MarTech & SaaS Technology exhibitors.

Leading brands in finance, food and beverage, insurance, retail, technology, and other industries have participated in previous TECHSPO New York.

Register NowFeatured Events, Contests and AwardsMore EventsMore ContestsThis weekly listing of small business events, contests and awards is provided as a community service by Small Business Trends.

You can see a full list of events, contest and award listings or post your own events by visiting the Small Business Events Calendar. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580585408.3655388/New-York-Tech-Event-Introduces-Emerging-Products-to-Business-Leaders?ref=audio_experience

Upgrade Pack, a London, UK-based provider of a travel upgrade platform, raised £1.75m in new funding.

The funding increased Upgrade Pack’s market cap to £23m 18 months after being established.

Led by CEO Craig Unsworth, Upgrade Pack provides an app that offers exclusive flight and hotel upgrades as part of a loyalty-based membership.

Upgrade Pack is exclusively distributed through banks and credit card issuers as a premium customer reward, and through corporations as an innovative employee benefit.

The company will launch its platform this year after onboarding its first banking client, which will roll out the app to its high-net-worth (HNW) customers. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580583610.0477626/Upgrade-Pack-Raises-£1.75M-in-New-Funding-Round?ref=audio_experience

AutoFlightX, a Munich, Germany-based electric air mobility company, received an investment from TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) subsidiary TDK Ventures.

Led by CEO and founder Tian Yu, AutoFlightX is an electric vertical take-off and landing company with R&D centers in Shanghai and Shenzhen, China.

Founded in 2018, AutoFlightX has created a new eVTOL concept which combines the benefits of multicopters with those of conventional fixed-wing aircraft.

The vehicles can be used as regularly piloted sports aircraft, unmanned highly automated cargo drones, and as unpiloted highly automated air taxis.

AutoFlightX’s 50 kg platform can carry payloads of up to 20 kg and has a flight time of two to five hours continuous cruise. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580581806.9780338/AutoFlightX-Receives-Investment-from-TDK-Ventures?ref=audio_experience

Kelly FordIn January 2020, Edison Partners, a Princeton, NJ-based growth equity investment firm, promoted Kelly Ford to General Partner.

In 2014, Ford joined Edison after spending 20 years working inside high-growth B2B software companies.

As Partner, she launched the Edison Edge operating platform.

Ford is currently on the board of directors for Blue Medora, ExecVision, Kinetiq and Suuchi.

With her promotion, the firm now has six General Partners, including Sugden, Michael Kopelman, Lenard Marcus, Tom Vander Schaaff, and Ryan Ziegler. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580580007.3686953/Edison-Partners-Promotes-Kelly-Ford-to-General-Partner?ref=audio_experience

Union Budget 2020 left no stone unturned when the government said that infrastructure development is the way forward.

The government announced that Rs 100 lakh crore would be invested in infrastructure development, over the next five years.

The National Infrastructure Pipeline envisions improving the ease of living for each citizen of the country.

Here are some of the key highlights:The Finance Minister proposed to provide about Rs 1.70 lakh crore for transport infrastructure in 2020-21.in 2020-21.

FASTag mechanism encourages India towards greater commercialisation of our highways so that, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) can raise more resources. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580578206.363791/Budget-2020:-FM-announces-Rs-100-lakh-Cr-funding-in-infra-development?ref=audio_experience

Today, we have Mr Raghav Gautam as our interviewee.

Raghav Gautam is the founder of a unique startup called Frame Raid.

You will learn a lot from this story of Raghav Gautam in his own words.

I am Raghav Gautam and I am the founder of Frame Raid.

Saw the same style of pictures, videos, and graphics everywhere, and decided to try to do slightly better myself. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580576407.5542607/Interviewing-Raghav-Gautam?ref=audio_experience

But the most significant change that the SaaS model brought — the one at the root of all the other changes — was the SaaS revenue model.

The software as a service (SaaS) revenue model is associated with regular, ongoing payments over a defined time period, in exchange for the use of a software application or other tool.

The Three Phases of the SaaS Revenue ModelBefore SaaS, the software revenue model was transactional and all that mattered was the initial sale of the software product.

SaaS Revenue Model Phase 3: Expansion RevenueOften overlooked, always important — this is where the true secret to SaaS growth lies.

Operational implications of the SaaS/subscription revenue model: Companies employing the SaaS/subscription revenue model should focus primarily on delivering cost-effective customer value. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580574607.5738533/Software-as-a-Service-(SaaS)-Revenue-Model?ref=audio_experience

Armed with some data from our friends at CrunchBase, I broke down the largest NYC Startup funding rounds in New York during the month of January 2020.

I have included some additional information such as industry, description, round type, total equity funding raised to further the analysis for the state of venture capital in NYC. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1580572811.4389174/The-13-Largest-NYC-Tech-Startup-Funding-Rounds-of-January-2020?ref=audio_experience