We’re enjoying the first few weeks of Fall and before we know it, 2017 will be upon us. It has been a busy summer for our portfolio companies – here’s a quick recap of some of the highlights from Q3.

Portfolio companies in the news

 Several V1 portfolio companies were recognized for their growth. Top Hat was named the 12th fastest growing company in Canada by PROFIT 500, with a five-year revenue growth of 5,359%! Seattle-based sales tech company Outreach was named one of Forbes Cloud 100 Rising Stars. And, Headout was named one of the 10 most promising Bengaluru-based start-ups to watch by Business Insider.

Canadian retailer Frank + Oak launched its highly anticipated Women’s collection, which is based on its core principles: affordability, accessibility and simplicity. More styles will debut throughout October, and a holiday collection is set for early November.

Clio wrapped up its fourth annual Clio Cloud Conference last month. This conference has been called one of the best legal technology conferences ever, and Jack Newton and team do a phenomenal job blending the right mix of educational programming and a good time.

In funding announcements, Umi Kitchen (a home cooking delivery app) announced a $1.4m seed round led by Box Group’s David Tisch and Adam Rothenberg. Personal finance bot Trim announced the close of a $2.2 million seed round which we co-invested with Eniac Ventures. And, Shippo announced a $7 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures for its shipping for business platform.

Beauty brand Julep launched at Ulta, rolling out a lineup of color kits and all-in-one-place makeup boxes developed exclusively for Ulta.

And HandUp continues its very important mission to help San Francisco’s homeless population with its new Gift Card program. HandUp gift cards can be purchased on HandUp’s website and redeemed at Project Homeless Connect’s office in San Francisco for things like food, clothing, transportation, or pay bills. These cards are a great answer to the common question if it’s better to give money or food to someone in need.

Looking ahead: what we’re excited about

We still love network effects, and are always looking for awesome founders working on cool ideas that leverage network effects… whether that’s in marketplaces, social platforms, or AI/ML. Thematically, we’ve been spending time on Blockchain/Ethereum (Boris) and healthcare/genomics (Angela).

Marketplace Meetup in SF on October 20

Next week, we’re hosting a private marketplace-themed event on October 20 in SF: The Holy Grail of the Marketplace:  The Virtuous Cycle. We will have lightning talks given by Slava Rubin (Founder of Indiegogo), Mikhail Ledvich (Head of Marketing at Shippo),  and Anthony Marino (CMO of ThredUp). These will be followed by a fireside chat with Andrew Chen who runs growth at Uber.

There will be food and drinks, and the opportunity to connect and socialize with founders and leaders building marketplaces.

If you’re interested in joining us, please email us (angela@versionone.vc or boris@versionone.vc) for an invite code.

Read our blog

And lastly, in case you missed any of our posts this summer, here’s a quick recap of some of our posts:

• When you get a sense of inevitability from a founder’s pitch
• Three things I’ve learned in three years
• How to build the right management team
• The Version One website now has a bot, powered by Ada
• Is it time to rethink the healthcare marketplace model?
• Unlocking new value: adding the sixth factor in our marketplace criteria
• The multibillion-dollar China question:  should a mid-sized tech company tempt fate in China?
• Raising capital for marketplaces in 2016
• Is social dead?