Spin.AI Secures K1 Investment, Accelerating Growth
Congrats to Dmitry Dontov , Helen Yevtushenko , and the Spin.AI team for their recent investment by K1 Investment Management . Best of luck as you kick off the next stage in your journey. Glad we could help. Check out the press release here: https://lnkd.in/ganuA2vh #founders #software #saas #mergersandacquisitions #investmentbanking #ai
Deep Tech Expertise Was Wise Before It Became a Meme
Backing deep tech was smart 5 years ago when it wasn't the meme, you say? It's important to have deep tech expertise, you say? Key is to have built an edge in deep tech, you say?
Sara’s List Returns: Targeting 5‑Year 5x Winners
sara’s list is back the rules are simple, the company must.. - have product market fit - be funded, be growing (and probably has oat milk in the company fridge) - be able to 5x in 5 years, i.e $200k in stock can become...
DLP Reinvented: Jazz Uses NLP to Guard GenAI Data
Traditional DLP was built for email attachments and USB drives. That world is gone. Jazz raised $61M to rebuild DLP from scratch: natural language policies instead of regex. Every time someone pastes data into a GenAI tool, they create flows your DLP...
Replit Secures $400M to Power AI‑Driven Creativity
We’ve raised $400M at a $9B valuation. Investors include Georgian, G Squared, Prysm, 1789, YC, Coatue, a16z, Craft, and QIA, with strategic investments from Accenture, Databricks, Okta, and Tether. We’re also lucky to have incredible individuals backing us, including Shaq and...
Accredited Investors Get Limited Access to AI & Biotech Gems
SoFi and Templum Open Limited Window to Invest in OpenAI, Perplexity, and Colossal via Cosmos Fund March 5-30 window for accredited investors. Choose individual assets or all three: OpenAI (AI infrastructure), Perplexity (AI search, 22M MAUs), Colossal (decacorn biotech). Private market...
Media VC Deals Plunge 70% While AI Soars
.@thewrap looks at M&A so far this year: media VC deals are falling – 70% year over year – compared to AI which is soaring. Here’s the story in charts, in partnership with @PitchBook : https://t.co/dQDSQqFM6m
Test Investor Commitment Now, Not Just Bank Diversification
Founders: the real lesson from the SVB collapse three years ago wasn’t “diversify your bank.” It was this: find out now -- in good times -- whether your investor will wire money with no strings when everything breaks. Most won’t....
Crisis Exposes VCs: Sympathy Tweets, Few Cash, Many Vultures
Crisis removes marketing. In March 2023, "value-add" VCs sent sympathy tweets while founders begged for payroll. A few wired cash, no terms, no leverage. The rest were vultures in venture clothing. https://t.co/OxfY9VN3wI https://t.co/EYgVVU38We
Vima Raises $100M to Develop Oral Movement Disorder Drug
With $100M, Vima pursues an oral drug for movement disorders https://t.co/gLrhlYDMSy by @gwendolynawu #biotech #startups
Biotech Winter: Funding Freeze, IPO Surge, Path to Thaw
Biotech Science at Less Than Zero | Ep. 955 https://t.co/4DXKsaKXdO [00:49] Biotech capital winter deep dive [01:17] Scientific leaps vs frozen markets [02:31] The 2020–2021 biotech bubble [03:42] Crossover funds fuel IPO surge [04:56] Interest rates freeze biotech funding [07:58] Negative enterprise value phenomenon [10:37] Why Big Pharma...
What to Call Tr
I never liked the name Unicorn but if: $1 Billion = Unicorn $10 Billion = Decacorn What is $1 Trillion? $10 Trillion?
Europe Pumps $4B+ Into AI to Power GDPR Compliance
European AI raised $4B+ in one weekend. AMI Labs: $1.03B seed (Europe's largest ever) Nscale: $2B Legora: tripled to $5.55B Nexthop: $500M Eridu: $200M The continent that gave us GDPR is now building the AI infrastructure to comply with it. https://t.co/jGHmurETEC
European AI Startups See Soaring Investor Funding
Investor appetite for European AI startups keeps accelerating. Swedish legaltech Legora just raised $550 million at a $5.5 billion valuation, its third funding round in a year. Europe’s AI ecosystem is attracting serious capital as the global race intensifies. https://t.co/cdx0XcraQe @cnbc
SVB Revealed only a Few VCs Gave Unconditional Cash
Three years ago, SVB exposed who VCs really are. Not the ones who tweeted sympathy. The ones who wired money -- no docs, no terms, no theater -- before the government stepped in. Very few did. That's the test most...
Fast Loans and Direct Payroll Integration Ensure Employee Pay
At @fiftyyears we gave fast loans and even connected our personal bank accounts to portfolio companies' payroll systems to ensure they could pay their employees.
Bankers Claim $100M ARR Now Enough for IPO
"I'm hearing bankers say things like, '$100 million ARR, we could probably take that public.' I haven’t heard that in a while."
Small Funds Still Thrive Despite Big‑fund Warnings
Funny thing when an LP calls you to ask: “Hey, there are some big funds going around telling LPs that small funds are going to die. What do you think?” I ask them: “Just go look at large fund returns vs...
Big Tech's Compute Fuels Inflated AI Startup Valuations
Public market investors: "Show me the revenue" Private market investors: "Here's $100M at a $1B valuation" The difference? Big Tech built the compute layer Private startups just need the idea layer now Barrier to entry collapsed Valuations inflated Welcome to the AI gold rush where Big Tech...
LinkedIn Message Sparked $270M Exit Journey
I just published Gleamer’s $270M Acquisition, Investing as a Radiologist, and My First Exit — It All Started with a LinkedIn message ... https://t.co/uwm9lCUsdm
Top VCs Grab Half of Shrinking $68B Market
“In recent months, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners raised $34 billion, half of the money all U.S. VC funds raised last year. Overall venture fundraising sank 34% to just under $68 billion last year, according to PitchBook.”
Evervault Secures $25M to Scale Secure Payment Encryption
ICYMI - .@Evervault raises $25M to scale its ‘secure-by-default’ approach to payment data encryption https://t.co/69Ndf6v1yM @SiliconANGLE @Mike_Wheatley “Quite simply, dealing with this is not their core business, it’s just a distraction from the real business…” - #NextGenApps https://t.co/b0LbyzoIoh
LPs Crave a Vehicle to Scale Small Direct Investments
Somebody asked me what may be a “product” that LPs want right now and isn’t easily available. My quick thought: “Do you have access to hot companies so you can put $1-5m yourself (really any valuation) but then present $10-50m to...
YC's Two Smart Solutions Streamline Series A Fundraising
I love how two great optimizations for navigating the Series A process came out of YC. One is the data-driven "capital as a service" approach via Standard Capital. The other is "we will help you navigate the byzantine nuances of...
Emerging Manager Explores Industrial Tech Trends in New Fund
Watch @MichelleVolz and I talk about her new fund @pax_ventures. We discuss big themes in industrial tech + raising a fund as an emerging manager https://t.co/qy84WOhSde
Advisory Equity Can Yield Tiny Slice of Billion-Dollar Exit
I did some startup advisory in exchange for shares like 5 years ago. The company got acquired and now the new company is refactoring my cut. I'm getting a total of 11 shares which means if they exit for $1B...
Live Substack Chat on Defense Tech & Fundraising
going to go live on Substack with @MichelleVolz in 13 minutes at 2p ET. we'll talk big themes in defense / industrial tech, emerging vs megafunds, and her lessons from raising a new fund in this environment. @NewcomerMedia subscribers will...
Michelle Volz Launches Pax Ventures with $50M Fund
EXCLUSIVE: Ex-a16z Partner Michelle Volz Launches Pax Ventures with $50 Million First Fund to Bet on 'Industrial-Scale Markets' https://t.co/qADKBFz8lm
NVIDIA Leverages Cash to Dominate Entire AI Ecosystem
.@nvidia participated in @nscale_cloud 's $2B Series C at a $14.6B valuation, led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries. @DellTech, @Lenovo, Nokia, Citadel, Jane Street, and Point72 also came in. That is a significant number for a company founded in...
VC Success Demands EQ: Human‑Centric Investing Over Pure IQ
Venture capital is ultimately a people business. A conversation with @katelin_cruse of Seven Seven Six on bringing a human capital lens to investing: how Pixar and Reddit shaped her philosophy, and why sourcing and supporting founders takes as much EQ...
Pac O'Shea & Hayyaan Ahmad Drive Round Treasury Conviction
Truth: Pac O'Shea and Hayyaan Ahmad were (and still are) the investment thesis behind our conviction in Round Treasury 🙌
Hard Capital? Secondary Market Deals Thrive Amid Recession
Entrepreneurs: It's getting f*cking bad out here. Recession type bad. BlackRock just limited withdrawals from their private credit fund and their stock dropped 7% yesterday. If you're not generating revenue right now YOU are in trouble. Raising capital just got significantly harder...
VC Money Shifts From Crypto to Faster‑Revenue AI
🚨 AI IS OVERTAKING CRYPTO VC FUNDING VC’s say investors are moving money toward AI startups with “faster revenue visibility.” Crypto startups raised just $135M in the first week of March, a slowdown after stronger funding earlier this year. https://t.co/qdcmjHWrgD
Value Shift: From Public IPO Gains to Private Pre‑IPO Stakes
2000-2015: most of the value in startups is captured by public investors post-IPO 2015-2025: most of the value in startups is captured by private investors pre-IPO 2026-…: public investors recapture value by investing in public VC firms holding private shares?
Sell During Strong Growth, Not Market Uncertainty
We spend a lot of time at Vista Point walking founders through the considerations around WHEN to pursue a liquidity event. While external factors like the state of your vertical market are certainly important to consider, the first and foremost...
Science Secures $230M Series C for Longevity Tech
Exciting news in the world of longevity via deep technology. Congratulations to @khoslaventures and @lightspeedvp on this historic investment. IMHO, Science may be bigger than OpenAI
NFL Veteran Nets 10x Return on Oura Exit
NFL veteran @thejaylonsmith recently exited his investment in Oura, making a 10x return, his best ever.https://t.co/xHbeBAUc4s
Incumbents Must Pursue Big AI Acquisitions to Stay Competitive
New @ThePeelPod with @chetanp We talk Manus, the history + future of software, why incumbents should make big AI acquisitions, why investors are begging for AI companies to go public, and inside @Benchmark’s latest investing strategy. Thanks @Numeral and @FlexSuperApp for sponsoring...
From Zero to $1B in 3.5 Years: Lux‑Backed Success
From ZERO to $1B in 3.5 years. We wrote their first check at Lux… Here’s how they did it.
Learning Co‑Investing Secrets by Watching Benchmark’s Five Partners
In 1999-2000 Craig McCaw asked me to spend a lot of time working in the Benchmark offices on Sand Hill Road to find areas where co-investment was possible. I never learned so much, as Yogi Berra famously said, "just by...
Turn a $500K Ask Into Realistic Growth Strategies
If an investor wrote you a $500K check right now and needed a 3X return in 1 year, what would you do?
NY's Top Venture Capital Firms Ranked by Crain’s
The Largest VC Firms in the New York Area according to Crain’s New York Business (2/23/26) https://t.co/lbkNXcwzE2
Find Straightforward Banks for Efficient Fund Management
Which banks don’t suck for Fund managers Need to be able to txt a person and get stuff done without nonsense
Pitch, Learn, Then Build Without Waiting for VCs
I’m hearing a theme lately from the tech startup crowd. They're doing lots of pitching, lots of applause and interest… that leads no where. VC firms either being super risk averse or using potential investment as a carrot to get...
10 Venture Capital Firms Hiring Investors Now
10 venture capital firms HIRING investors right now 👇 ♻️ Repost to make VC more accessible.
PLD Space Secures $209M, Targets 2024 Guiana Launch
Launcher startup @PLD_Space, fresh from its $209M equity round led by @ME_JP_official and including Spanish govt, on the road to planned inaugural flight this yr from @esa @CNES Guiana Space Center. Transport vessel already booked. @defis_eu.https://t.co/rpPd1GDsBX https://t.co/n23Zg1E14q
Trust, Transparency, and Structure Outshine Flashy Returns
Bridger Pennington isn’t just talking capital. He’s built credibility where it counts, showing investors that trust, structure, and operational rigor matter more than flashy returns. In this power-packed episode, we cover: - Why trust and transparency beat pitch decks every time. - The...
Great Journalism Turns Into VC Investment, Wired Missed
Trae Stephens Wants to Buy Wired. He’s Right. A 2011 article about male birth control became a Founders Fund investment. That’s what great journalism does. Wired forgot. https://t.co/nJv3I8Tg81
Selling Your Business Can Accelerate Its Growth
Selling your business may be the best way to help it grow. Hear what Smita Bakshi, co-founder of zyBooks, has to say on the matter: https://lnkd.in/efcrW6dN #mergersandacquisitions #startupexits #investmentbanking #saasfounders #software #saas #tech #founders #pathtoexit
Escaped Social Capital Politics, Now Investing My Own Capital
What happened at Social Capital was several things: 1) Personally, I was going through a divorce. It was a very hard time. 2) My ostensible “cofounders” spent more time jostling for board seats and credit for deals with outsiders vs doing...