Weekend Fund IV Democratizes Venture Investing for All
Announcing Weekend Fund IV, backed by operators and founders (and maybe you). When we raised Weekend Fund III, we did something different. Toward the end of our raise, we announced the fund in public and accepted applications from LPs. Our goal was to make early-stage venture more accessible and align ourselves with an army of operators and founders to help us and the startups we back. Over 1,000 people expressed interest to join and hundreds did, but there was a problem. Legally, only accredited investors could participate as an LP. Accreditation laws are well-meaning but limit access to the majority of consumers. With WF IV, @vedikaja_in and I are doing something different. Like before, we’re onboarding engineers, designers, researchers, data scientists, salespeople, and other domain experts as LPs in the fund. But this time at a larger scale with USVC. AngelList recently announced USVC, a new kind of fund that’s accessible to everyone, including the non-accredited. It holds positions in private late-stage companies like xAI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Sierra, and Vercel. I personally invested. Today, they just announced their investment in Weekend Fund IV, one of the first early-stage funds added to their portfolio. If you’re interested in being a part of Weekend Fund and getting exposure to generational startups mentioned above, visit usvc [dot] com. Of course, don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose. Investing in startups is risky and you may lose all your money. USVC shares are illiquid with no guarantee of repurchase. Consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. Read the prospectus: usvc [dot] com/prospectus. Also, USVC is currently limited to US citizens. They’re working to open the fund to other geographies. Lastly, my DMs are open. :)
Weekend Fund III Fully Deployed, Moving to Next Phase
We just wrote our last check (excluding reserves) out of Weekend Fund III. Onto the next scoreboard. :)
Weekend Fund I Achieves 5x DPI, 14x TVPI
We just sent our largest distribution to Weekend Fund LPs to date. Fund I is now 5x DPI and 14x TVPI. Credit to the founders and team that made it possible (cue @VCBrags).
Farza's FOMO Magnet Drives Repeat Investment
“Farza drives a type of FOMO that makes you feel like he’s going to be successful with or without you, so you might as well join him for the ride.” That’s why we backed him again. https://t.co/7mQVdPEQ6X
Inbound Leads Up 5x, Cold Pitching Obsolete
RIP cold pitching. I’ve received 5x more inbound this year. It will 5x again by EOY. May build solution for this.
Late to Fred Again X Bangalter Set, Pure Amazement
I'm late to the Fred Again x Thomas Bangalter set. It's incredible. This guy's expression is perfect. https://t.co/AvYV62lIhn
Open-Ended Prompts Unleash AI’s Unexpected Solutions
When I was a junior product manager, I made the mistake of narrowly prescribing solutions to engineering. Similar dynamics exist working with AI. The smarter it gets, the more AI can fill in gaps and surface solutions you didn't think of. Specific prompts...
Hire an Advisor to Cold‑email VCs for Funding
The best way to raise a round is to hire an advisor to cold email VCs
AI Agents Redefine Human Roles Into Four Key Positions
It's wild how quickly company org structures are changing. Per @joannezchen, as AI/agents take on more of the work, humans will bucket into these four roles: 1. Chief accountability officers 2. Systems architects 3. Relationship experts 4. Validators https://t.co/4sAfyKadZS
Ibogaine Could Save Veterans, Despite U.S. Ban
Teared up watching In Waves and War last night. Every day ~20 vets commit suic*de. Heartbreaking. The doc showcases ibogaine’s massively positive benefits for three troubled navy seals. Unfortunately it’s illegal in the US but ketamine isn’t and has had similar...
Value‑add LP Era Emerging, but GPs Still Struggle Raising
New guest post on Signature Block this morning by @pavelprata. I want to believe we're entering the "the value-add LP era" but I'm skeptical when most GPs struggle to raise. Curious to hear more thoughts on this. Link to the piece below. https://t.co/TsXFYDrtqd
Daily Portfolio Monitoring Integrates Seamlessly with Existing CRM
Big update from @paradigmai. Here's a screenshot of it doing daily monitoring of new portfolio updates. You can connect it to your existing CRM (e.g. Airtable) so you don't need to replace your entire stack. https://t.co/0oLMHdOjDj
Spotting Winners: Hacker Mindset Meets Wall‑Running
Sometimes you meet a founder and instantly know they'll be successful. A pattern I look for: a hacker mindset + ability to run through walls. Thanks for including us (x3), @mohaknahta.
Early Bets Pay Off: Intercom Hits $400M ARR
Intercom was in a bad spot a few years ago. We invested well before that and didn't think we'd see a meaningful return. Now they're doing $400M ARR. @eoghan's message to SaaS incumbents: "I know how scary this time is. I want you...
Seed Pursues the New, Avoids Over‑Specializing in Trends
"Seed is not small venture. Its sole purpose is to navigate the new." This is one of the reasons why we've never over-indexed into any single category or trend. Our goal is to catch the "new".