The Weekly Rundown

4/22: Celebrating creativity with 6,354,110 designs

A B2B Proposal c/o PandaDoc

Step back to basics for a sec with a (far from basic) guide to B2B sales proposals from PandaDoc, an in depth look at navigating it all from interactive pricing tables to action plans, social proof, and usability & accessibility. 

Avocode Assesses 2018 with 6M+ Designs

Avocode, alongside fourteen experienced designers, reflects on 2018 with its annual Design Report, celebrating creativity with a look into the state of design tools and trends, driven by 6,354,110 designs worth of data.

AppSignal Makes Magical Improvements

Big improvements from AppSignal: their email notification preferences allow more personalization than ever before, plus with the introduction of Magic Dashboards, you can view all kinds of metrics in the blink of an eye.

CloudBees Acquires Electric Cloud, a CICD Storm Is Brewing

A couple of clouds are coming together as continuous integration software CloudBees acquires Electric Cloud, best known for their continuous delivery prowess. A match made in heaven.

4/23: Personalized product tours, are you onboard?

Suite Intros by FMG

First impressions count. You know the drill. FMG Suite has tips on making an outstanding intro video, and although their target audience is primarily financial advisers, there’s good advice in there for all (because you know we're all about video as the only way of the future). 

Security Boosts c/o of CodeShip x CloudBees

More buzz for CloudBees: Ever since CodeShip joined the crew, they’ve doubled down on security and improved upon the existing system, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to do the same. Support engineer Ethan Jones shares the ways in which they’ve tightened things up.

Instapage's Design Times

Text-only emails are so 1999. Instapage has the top five email design trends of 2019, some more surprising — like defamiliarizing the email personality — and others exciting, like 3D images and custom illustrations. 

Fully Onboard with Intercom Product Tours

We are 100% on board with the freshest from Intercom: Product Tours. Now, you can relay your product’s value with interactive, personalized, and relevant onboarding easier than ever before.

Doing the Netflix Shuffle

Do you spend more time scrolling through a series on Netflix looking for what to watch than, you know, actually watching an episode? Turns out you’re not alone because Netflix is testing a shuffle feature (on select series) for the indecisive.

4/24: Could one comment be the downfall of Luminary?

Boosting Love for Your Local Pages with Yext

People search online with intent — and search engines are evolving to keep up with demand. If you want to keep up too, Yext hosts a webinar tomorrow, April 25th, featuring Yext Product Marketing Manager and TimeTrade’s SVP of Business Development — so you can explore the search experience and capture more value from your local pages.

WordStream's Top Google Ad Do-Nots

There’s too often misunderstanding between the “aha moment” and user activation. And since Userpilot knows user activation is one of the most important KPIs in SaaS, they have your "in" to making it happen.

TrackVia on Track for Major Growth

The folks over at TrackVia are riding high after a growth investment from Primus Capital to advance its low-code platform strategy.

Clash of the Podcasts: Spotify Snubs Luminary on Launch

Freshly launched podcast app Luminary is already turning heads as they declared podcasts shouldn’t have ads, although later declaring the statement a mistake. Now competitors, namely Spotify and the New York Times, are fighting back by pulling their shows, creating quite the testy start for the free app and network of exclusive content. Here’s to hoping for harmony.

4/25: Is growth better in the Bay?

Is the West Coast Really the Best Coast (for Tech)? 

The fourth season of the ProfitWell Report wraps up with West Coast flair, as we address: how do Bay Area companies compare to those outside it? Nobody doubts Silicon Valley as a tech monster, but do companies there actually grow faster, or have greater retention rates? We’ll let you know (backed by data, as always).

A Blueshift $15M Series B

Cross-channel marketing manager Blueshift booms with $15 million in Series B, so you can color us impressed.

An Astounding Investment for Help Desk Solutions

And the investment hits just keep coming. Astound, a company that sells automated help desk solutions, sees $15.5 million, with L.A. based Vertex Ventures leading the pack.

$60M in Funding for Harness to Help Engineers Crank Code

Harness aims to help engineers crank out quality code faster than ever (without breaking any brains). With $60 million in funding, they’re backed by the tools to make it happen.

Beyond Meat Serves Protein + $183M

And to round out our cash filled flow, we have Beyond Meat, the animal protein substitute that’s shooting for Nasdaq. They’re looking at a goal of over $183 million via IPO, serving meat alternatives to everyone’s table.

4/26: The freshest "thank you" notes in the league

Thank You, Freshdesk

We must thank Freshdesk for sharing the seven types of “thank you” emails you should be sending to customers. An attitude of gratitude can be expressed in many ways, and they’re pulling out all the stops, so you can too. 

Zeplin? Sign Us Up.

Zeplin is the ultimate bridge-builder for your product teams. Update 2.4 has arrived and now supports Google sign-in so you can stay connected in a single click. 

Squarespace Acquires Acuity

Squarespace expands beyond website building with its acquisition of Acuity Scheduling, bringing appointment management right to your dashboard, continuing their effort to provide all the tools you might need to build an online presence.

MongoDB Goes Mobile with Realm

Database builder MongoDB acquires Realm, an open-source database centered around mobile apps, bringing cloud capabilities to the literal palm of your hand.