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Venture Capital News
Medium
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Harvard in Tech AI Edition: Brandon Farwell, GP at Xfund, and Vincent Zhang, co-founder of…
- Brandon Farwell, GP at Xfund, and Vincent Zhang, co-founder of Thinkverse, discuss their successes, challenges, and learnings in the field of AI.
- Brandon’s journey in tech is rooted in his deep connection to Silicon Valley. He was born in the Bay and attended Stanford University graduating in 2008.
- Brandon completed his MBA at Harvard Business School in 2014, and helped build the portfolio at a seed firm called RV that backed many seed stage startups.
- Xfund was founded to identify and support founders at the earliest stages, including many Harvard students. Xfund is now on its 3rd fund and focused on enterprise, consumer, and digital health investments.
- On assessing founders and companies at the earliest stages, Brandon emphasizes the importance of underwriting to the individual.
- Thinkverse is Vincent’s 3rd company over the last 12 years. Thinkverse was born from Vincent’s own struggles with math.
- Vincent saw the generative AI boom in late 2022 and was excited about the impact that technology could have.
- On staying up to date with AI developments, Vincent says he spends time speaking to engineers who are at the forefront of the technology and can often draw signal from the noise.
- On advice he would give his younger Harvard self, Vincent jokingly says “take more naps!”
- Brandon notes some of the changes he has seen. This current generation of entrepreneurs cares deeply about the ethical and long-term impacts of their businesses.
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Medium
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Avinya Ventures: Catalyzing Innovation in India’s Construction Tech Sector
- Startups focusing on sustainable materials are well-positioned to tap into India's push for eco-friendly real estate and infrastructure projects.
- Digital transformation in construction is driving the adoption of automation, real-time data access, AI, and IoT tools.
- 3D printing technology is reducing costs and expediting project completion in the construction sector.
- Government support and collaboration are crucial for startups to drive adoption of construction technologies and gain a foothold in the industry.
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Saastr
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Where To Draw the Line When Companies Ask for a Custom Feature
- When companies ask for customization for a SaaS product, it is important to draw the line and not offer one-off customization.
- However, if a BigCo is willing to pay a large sum for a standard contract that includes a required feature on your roadmap for the next 12-36 months, it could be beneficial to build it.
- This is especially true if there is potential for other big customers to want the feature as well.
- Ignoring such requests could result in missed opportunities and potential failure.
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Saastr
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Dear SaaStr: What Should a Bootstrapped Startup Focus on during the Initial Stages of Growth, Get More Customers or Make a Few Customers Really Happy?
- During the initial stages of growth, a bootstrapped startup should focus on both getting more customers and making a few customers really happy.
- Closing every customer and providing them with utmost attention is crucial, regardless of their size.
- Having happy customers, even if they generate less revenue initially, helps pave the path to acquiring more customers and stimulates word-of-mouth marketing.
- HubSpot's success demonstrates the significance of word-of-mouth, as 33% of their customers came through this channel.
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Siliconangle
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Snowflake, Databricks back $20M round for AI data management startup Voyage AI
- AI data management startup Voyage AI has raised $20 million in funding in a Series A round led by CRV.
- Other participants in the funding round include Snowflake, Databricks, Wing VC, Conviction, Pear VC, Tectonic Capital, Mayfield Fund, and Fusion Fund.
- Voyage AI specializes in creating embeddings, specialized files that represent data in a form that neural networks can understand, improving retrieval quality and reducing storage costs.
- The company also debuted two new AI models, voyage-3 and voyage-3-lite, which provide better retrieval quality and cost efficiency compared to OpenAI's offering.
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Insider
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VC power player Ben Horowitz says he'll donate to Kamala Harris. Read the memo.
- Ben Horowitz, co-founder of venture capital firm A16z, plans to donate to Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign.
- In an email to A16z employees, Horowitz mentioned his friendship with Harris and stated that he and his wife will be making a significant donation to support her campaign.
- Although he had previously donated to support former President Donald Trump, Horowitz expressed his belief in Harris but noted that he has yet to hear about her tech policies.
- The firm will not be updating its position in regard to tech policy until Harris's intentions are stated.
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Medium
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We have a FOAK Problem. Can data be part of the solution?
- Venture dollars continue to flow into first-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects while infrastructure investors remain cautious.
- The divide between venture and infrastructure investors is not sustainable and cannot be solved by increased development and concessionary dollars alone.
- To accurately assess and underwrite risk, stakeholders need real-world data and insights to quantify scale-up risks in FOAK projects.
- Partnerships and collaboration are needed to unlock data and build tools for effective scale-up risk management and analytics in climate tech projects.
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Medium
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Navigating the VC Investor Landscape: Choosing the Right Partner for Your Startup
- Selecting the right investor is crucial for founders looking to fundraise.
- Consider factors beyond capital, such as the investor's fit with your vision and growth.
- Assess the investor's expertise, network, and ability to support growth challenges.
- Evaluate if the investor aligns with your long-term goals and values.
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Geek Wire
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How venture capital could ‘fundamentally change’ over the next decade
- Venture capital firms are evolving beyond providing just capital and advice to startups.
- The proliferation of generative AI is expected to accelerate this trend.
- AI enables startups to do more with less capital and resources.
- The investor pool for startup founders is broadening, allowing for more specialized backers.
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Medium
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The Art of the Forwardable Email + a Template
- A forwardable email is a critical, yet small and non-intuitive, piece of the puzzle.
- A good forwardable email is the easiest way for your mutual contact to get a double opt-in before making a warm introduction.
- A great forwardable email is succinct and to the point, making it easy for the receiver to understand why you want to connect with them.
- The template provided includes key components for a forwardable email, which can be forwarded by your mutual contact with a personal note to vouch for you.
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Eu-Startups
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Small investors, big impact: The power of syndicates in early-stage fundraising
- Small investors, often called business angels, can be a game-changer in fundraising, however, they need to diversify their portfolios to mitigate the high risks associated with startup investing.
- Syndicates allow small investors to pool their resources and appear as a single name on your cap table, making it easier for them to join your journey.
- Different syndication platforms offer various templates and options for legal structure of syndicate such as agreement between investors, trustee or fiduciary and special purpose vehicle (SPV).
- A syndicate typically involves four key roles - the platform or vehicle, syndicate manager, investor representative and syndicate members.
- Establishing the syndicate is only the first step, managing it throughout the lifecycle of the investment is also essential.
- Syndicates come with ongoing costs, from legal fees to compensation for the time of the syndicate manager. Aligning expectations around these costs with the investors upfront is important and can prevent surprises later.
- Syndicates can be a win-win for both entrepreneurs and investors.
- While setting up and managing a syndicate requires attention and has costs, the benefits outweigh the complexities.
- Success hinges on choosing the right type of syndicate, having clear roles, well-documented and simple processes and goodwill from all parties involved.
- Syndicates can help entrepreneurs raise more capital, build stronger relationships, and keep their businesses poised for growth.
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Alleywatch
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Prepared Secures $27M to Advance AI-Powered Emergency Response Technology
- Prepared, an AI and cloud-based platform for optimizing emergency response systems, has raised $27m in a Series B funding round.
- Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from First Round Capital, M13 and NewView Capital.
- Prepared's flagship product, the Prepared Assist, provides 911 centers with translation services and accurate location data with real-time transcriptions of calls in 33 different languages.
- The platform also offers live translation of operator responses for Spanish-speaking callers, streamlining communication and ensuring language barriers do not impede emergency services.
- Prepared partners with more than 1,000 different agencies across 49 states and currently serves a population of 97m people.
- Prepared CEO and Cofounder Michael Chime was motivated to start the emergency response platform after growing up in an area that suffered a school shooting.
- The Prepared platform includes assistive AI, which allows call-takers to see live transcripts of calls and pull out key information such as location and suspect descriptions highlighted and easily accessible.
- Prepared aims to incorporate previously inaccessible data into emergency response services, including footage and other life-saving data.
- Prepared is call volume-based and attracted investment from a16z, First Round Capital and M13 due to its transformative technology and ability to execute and save lives at scale.
- Michae Chime's favorite fall destination is spending time in Central Park as the leaves change color.
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Saastr
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13
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How to Build a Product Customers Love and Drive Nearly $1B in Revenue Along the Way with Klaviyo CEO Andrew Bialecki
- Klaviyo CEO and co-founder Andrew Bialecki shares his insights and lessons on how to build a product that customers adore.
- Andrew and his co-founder solved automating marketing issues, thus turning customers into both happy customers and raving fans.
- Building an ecosystem and finding superfans early on helped Klaviyo to increase distribution and customer loyalty.
- Klaviyo has 10x features; their ability to solve painful problems quickly and make software fun with gamification set them apart.
- To achieve the second act and go international or go multi-product, product sequencing, GTM motions and timing are important.
- A durable, sustainable business with a positive free cash flow is the key to going public.
- Being a public company isn’t much different than being private. A team can benefit from having goals, being rigorous and meeting them.
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Guardian
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Barratt’s £2.5bn takeover of Redrow given go-ahead by UK regulator
- The £2.5bn acquisition of Redrow by Barratt, the UK's biggest housebuilder, has been approved by the competition watchdog.
- The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided not to refer the deal to a phase 2 investigation after both companies addressed concerns over local competition.
- The CMA was worried about a potential competition issue between a Barratt development in Whitchurch and Redrow's development in Nantwich.
- As part of the agreement, third-party agent Savills will manage the sales process of unsold houses at Redrow's Nantwich site.
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Medium
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338
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Investors need a history lesson.
- Venture Capital needs to also be about the losses, which are often overlooked.
- The 80s demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of what drives outsized returns in venture capital.
- Investors hadn’t yet understood what drives truly outsized returns in venture.
- VCs were trying to predict the future instead of backing founders who could create it.
- Overfunding is not only poisonous to individual companies but warps entire markets.
- In the ’80s and early ’80s, the value of tech came from building better machines while by the mid-’80s, it shifted to software and networks.
- The real opportunity lies in funding novel approaches to unsolved problems by funding not just what’s next, but what’s after what’s next.
- This fixation on “de-risking” investments is setting us up for mediocre returns. The best returns come from taking the right risks.
- The next watershed company won’t be a “proven model”. It’ll be something we can’t even imagine yet.
- The VCs who win big in the next decade are the ones who can imagine entirely new patterns.
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