Hot takes feel lukewarm these days. I鈥檇 wager that if we spent less time arguing about cold brew versus iced coffee, that same energy could be pivoted to shed light on more pressing topics.

Complacency about caffeine is not a sin, people.

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For example, we wrote about how聽Webflow raised a $72 million Series A this week. A debate followed on whether it was fair to compare Webflow to other companies that have raised outsized Series As. In this case, it felt helpful to use a take to clarify how聽听迟丑颈苍办蝉听about the ever-changing definition of this round.

Plus, it sets the scene for the next section I want to get into: the funding rounds we covered this week.

Starting big, Ibotta, an in-app coupon company,听raised a nine-figure Series D. It鈥檚 the only tech unicorn in Colorado right now. Another company worth around $1 billion dollars, Cybereason,听raised $200 million led by Softbank聽(We covered SoftBank’s earnings as well, so聽head here to learn about how the Vision Fund is doing).

While SoftBank鈥檚 name pops up in some of the biggest deals we see, reporting on smaller news gives us the best ins for big trends. For example, when Airbnb acquired another company,听we looked at the broader travel startup market. Or as聽Lyft聽and Uber reported their Q2 performance,听we asked what it meant for other ride-hailing companies. We also got into the cannabis market with聽LeafLink鈥檚 $35 million raise, and how Smart News is joining聽a friend group of Chinese-news focused unicorns. For quirkier hits, check out聽Last Week In Venture.

Beyond breaking news,听聽took us through a聽growing trend of hypergiant rounds, which are private financing totals of $250 million or more. We also took a look at two different geographic regions:聽鈥檚 look at a聽lukewarm Texas VC scene, and聽聽inaugural column on Boston,听which had its slowest July in VC funding since 2014.

Finally, to better learn about the people behind the constant deals we read about,听听颈苍迟别谤惫颈别飞别诲听NFX鈥檚 co-founder James Currier, and I chatted with聽Alex Marshall from First Round Capital. Learn about why one thinks Buzzfeed is dead, and why the other can鈥檛 handle hearing about crypto.

Until next week,

滨濒濒耻蝉迟谤补迟颈辞苍:听.

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Boston-based , , ,听, and several angel investors also participated in the round. Accel鈥檚 will join the company鈥檚 board as part of the financing.

The San Francisco-based company says it 鈥済ives more people the ability to create powerful websites and applications without having to write code.鈥� With over 45,000 customers, including and , Webflow says it is profitable and, according to , has been for two years with annualized revenue of over $20 million. It plans to use the new capital to build out its executive team and hire in general. (The company currently has over 120 employees, up from about 70 a year ago, according to CEO and co-founder ).

Webflow also wants to continue growing its customer base, and plans to invest in 鈥渆xtensibility, accessibility, performance, security, and data privacy” to do so. Current customers range from individual freelancers to Fortune 500 companies. They include Johnson & Johnson, Yelp, and Adobe, among others.

A $72 million round for a company of 120 people is quite outsized; presumably the firm will hire rapidly to scale its workforce to match its capital base. Or in more crass terms, the company will quickly expand its spend. (This is a standard move post-financing for nearly any startups, we鈥檙e merely reacting to the scale of new funds that Webflow now has at its disposal compared to its new capital base.)

In a , detailed the company鈥檚 early struggles, noting the company launched almost six years ago. Several months later, the company was accepted into . But the company鈥檚 trio of co-founders were struggling. All had left their previous jobs, according to Magdalin, 鈥渁nd had no meaningful income.鈥� Magdalin had cashed out his 401-K to pay for surgery for one of his daughters, and he and his wife 鈥渉ad racked up over $50K in credit card debt.鈥�

Webflow eventually landed $2.9M from several seed funds and angels, with contributing more than half its seed round.

Not Alone

While Webflow鈥檚 Series A is certainly outsized compared to historical norms, the company is in raising such a huge sum for what should be its first institutional round (the real definition of a Series A). Indeed, some other entrants for large nine-figure Series A financings in 2019 include for biotech company , for London-based fintech startup , and for South Korean cryptocurrency exchange platform .

The list continues. Turning to China, for example, raised a , for supply chain focused business and more.

In short, yes, Webflow鈥檚 Series A round is abnormal historically. It is also perfectly normal when it comes to 2019.

Illustration: .