Three companies close this week.

- STARTUPS ON WEFUNDER -

Valet Anywhere has raised $852K this round and will close on Sunday. Valet Anywhere is the first monthly parking spot that comes to you - they pick up your car, park it, and return it to you wherever you are. It’s automated long term parking for urban car owners. Their two biggest competitors have downsized because of poor strategy. Robert (CEO) shares why he pivoted from on-demand in this article on Medium. 10x number of subscribers on Valet Anywhere in January 2016 vs. January 2015. See their profile: Wefunder.com/valetanywhere

Lawn Love has raised $1.28M this round and will close on Sunday. Lawn Love is a network of the best lawn care companies consolidated under one consumer facing brand. $2.3M ARR when they listed on Wefunder. Added 9 new markets in January. Plan to hit 60 by year's end. Investors include: Launch Capital, Alexis Ohanian (Founder of Reddit), Jared Friedman (Scribd Founder). See their profile: Wefunder.com/lawnlove

Real estate giant Trulia (Zillow) signed Parknav to provide online parking analytics for their 10M+ properties. Parknav turns location data from tens of millions of cellphones into actionable insights about how people move through cities. Their first product is an app that predicts which streets have parking available with up to 95% accuracy. BMW was their first big customer. BMW plans to supply Parknav's real-time street parking insights to all 1.5 million BMWs sold worldwide each year. They've kept an open round on Wefunder for several months but will likely be closing soon. Microsoft Ventures is a key investor. See their profile: Wefunder.com/parknav

Chronos has raised $843K this round and will close on Friday. Chronos turns any watch - Timex or Rolex - into a smartwatch. No need to buy a fitness tracker or oversized Apple Watch, just attach the quarter-size Chronos to the back of the watch you already love. See their profile: Wefunder.com/chronos

View 4 other companies and Orange Fund open on Wefunder.

- WEFUNDER PORTFOLIO UPDATES -

Ownlocal's revenue grew by 100% in 2015. They also increased the number of publications they work with from 1,600 to 2,400+. International expansion also continued as they launched their software in Europe, Canada and Mexico. Ownlocal acquired website builder Sidengo and added a CTO, CRO and CFO to its team.

Orange Fund company Eden passed $1 million in run-rate sales 4 months after starting B2B services. Eden provides on-demand IT service for businesses. The company offers on-demand tech pros that will come to you, based on a specified time and location, and solve your tech problems. - INDUSTRY NEWS AND THOUGHTS - Wefunder Feature: Top Chef Melissa King started Co+Lab to connect diners with the people behind their food. "Chefs have a duty to take that vegetable from the farmer, put it on the plate in a sustainable way, and really bridge the gap between the farmer and the customer." Ten ways to spot a truly exceptional employee. A recent international study surveyed more than 500 business leaders and asked them what sets great employees apart. The researchers wanted to know why some people are more successful than others at work, and the answers were surprising; leaders chose “personality” as the leading reason. Notably, 78% of leaders said personality sets great employees apart, more than cultural fit (53%) and even an employee’s skills (39%). NY Times Article: Women in Company Leadership Tied to Stronger Profits. Having women in the highest corporate offices is correlated with increased profitability, according to a new study of nearly 22,000 publicly traded companies in 91 countries. [T]he data was clear about women in top management positions. An increase in the share of women from zero to 30 percent would be associated with a 15 percent rise in profitability, Mr. Noland said. US says Google computers can qualify as drivers. U.S. vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward ultimately winning approval for autonomous vehicles on the roads. "We agree with Google its (self-driving car) will not have a 'driver' in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years." - Thoughts of the Day - "Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda, Legendary Jedi Master "The only way around is through." - Robert Frost, American Poet

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