I actually like the news summary aspect of this; if you combine quant news about financings with a few more sections (people moving jobs, maybe major startup news headlines), it would be a great way to stay on top of the market with minimal time.
Agreed. I think it would be nice to see company logos too, so that I can start remembering their brand, and generally just to mix up the heavy amount of text.
I think of myself as fairly plugged in to the startup scene. One data point that Mattermark is indeed doing what it claims—"to uncover the most promising private companies in the world"—is the fact that I haven't heard of most of these companies. I'm looking forward to future issues.