Raine Maida

Anthropic, one of the fastest-growing artificial intelligence companies in the world, launched on Wednesday a $100 million startup fund in partnership with investor Menlo Ventures to "fuel the next generation of AI startups." Startups can now apply to the fund, which will dole out investments of at least $100,000. #funding #startups #business #tech #entrepreneurship #finance #vc #venturecapital

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I really enjoyed recording this episode of The Digital Industrial Podcast with Ty Findley. We talked about common misconceptions for deep tech, the "Why Now" for the category, and differences between investor diligence for deep tech and traditional tech. https://lnkd.in/eKtwjauu

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Over the years, we at GFR Fund have solidified our investment thesis, which is that we invest in "emerging digitally native communities." These communities can be built around games, social media, and any consumer applications. Now, founders have many easy-to-use tools to build user communities, such as Discord, X/twitter, Instagram, etc, and we believe the founders should start building communities even before they launch a product. The communities can help founders: - reach PMF faster - acquire users cheaper - retain and engage users longer - build better UX/UI, and - hire early employees Below, you can see how RTFKT and Omeda Studios built the community and then worked with them to create a product the users really wanted. We would love to talk to the founders who think the community is essential in building a product!

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ATTN SF STARTUP and VC FRIENDS -- we have your hookup for a great networking event TOMORROW, Wednesday April 17 at Nixon Peabody's (amazing) offices in 1 Embarcadero Center. Hosted by Lior Zorea of Nixon Peabody, the panel includes Roger Lang of Smart Society Ventures, Clayton Bryan of 500 Global, Gady Nemirovsky of Inspiration Ventures, Peter Walker of Carta, and Chris Abato of Woodside Capital. Thanks Tord Olav Dønnum for the connect. Peter Walker from Carta will provide a “State of the Union” and then topics will include: +Startup formation trends +What key factors and metrics are investors looking at in 2024? +What tech verticals are “hot” (other than AI)? +What is the funding and M&A outlook for 2024? Registration link in the first comment 👇 See you there! #startups #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #siliconvalley

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Check out the latest issue of my investor-focused newsletter Not From Concentrate!

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This week OpenAI and Google presented their latest on GPT-4o, Gemini, Astra, Multi Modal, Voice as the new GUI, and a lot more ... BUT what does it all mean and lead towards? No one better to discuss, explain and put ALL this into context than Brad Gerstner, CEO at GERSTNER CAPITAL, LLC and Bill Gurley - Pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee, get comfortable, take A Listen and in less than 60 minutes you will have a much better understanding of it all ... Enjoy (00:00) Intro (00:40) Open AI Launches GPT-4 Omni (10:29) Chat GPT-4o Benchmarks (14:11) Voice as the New GUI (20:01) Breakout Power of ChatGPT (22:09) Consumer AI vs Enterprise AI Landscape (27:51) AI Disruption (35:45) Regulation & Industrial Policy (43:47) China Tariffs (53:15) Tech Market Check

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🚀DEMO DAY is coming soon! Want to come see what our founders are working on?🎉 Cohort 10 of the What If Fellowship is coming to an end May 17th! We will be showcasing 21 #digitalhealth startups at the earliest stages during demo day! We would love for you to attend. If you'd like to receive an invite, just fill out the typeform below. Who should attend❓ 1) Investors - those looking to invest in healthcare startups 2) Strategic partners / advisors - those who want to advise, help, or partner with digital health startups Demo Day will take place on May 17th at Noon ET remotely via Zoom webinar. We have limited spots, so please sign-up soon if you want to see what our #founders have been working on for the last 2 months! Attendees will see 21 healthcare #startups pitch for 3 minutes each and answer a few investor questions live in front of our audience. This is a great chance to find investment opportunities, and learn more about what the earliest of companies in our space are working on. This is about more than money - some of our founders need advice, advisors, Board members, co-founders and more. So come look for your opportunity to get plugged into the mental health hashtag #startup ecosystem with one of these early stage companies. One thing to point out - we highly encourage investors to attend, and pursue investing directly in these companies. We will NOT stand in the way nor require anyone to invest through What If Ventures to get access to any of these companies. So, please don't feel like we're trying to recruit you to give us money! Sign-up to attend demo day: https://lnkd.in/gEFt5YrY

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Join me as I share the secrets to gaining Angel Investment (being ESIC is one) and help you land your pitch and get your message across. I'm joined by experienced founders who can share their experiences and help you develop your own (survive the) Chasm Plan.

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🔢⛓️‍💥 Accessibility is driving token launches. As Solana saw record unique tokens created in May, nearing half a million and overtaking Base, an Ethereum based blockchain. Notably, token launches on Base subsided in May, as technical glitches slowed down activity. Overall, since 2017, over 7M tokens have been launched on six blockchain networks. Binance Smart Chain takes the lead with 3.7M tokens, followed by Solana with 1.4M tokens. Ethereum mainnet closely trails with nearly a million tokens. We monitor crypto communities through this metric of the unique number of newly created tokens. It reflects the innovations by blockchains that are cheaper, more accessible, and faster. It doesn't account for the value amassed for each token nor its utility. Most in fact, have little to no utility and are “fun” memecoins. Importantly, it indicates where adoption is taking place today and shifting towards tomorrow. #Blockchain #Cryptocurrency #BNBChain #Solana #Base

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#ObsessivelyEnthusiasticInvestor #UnreasonablyEnthusiasticInvestor #IrrationallyEnthusiasticInvestor at REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund. We look for the people we believe are doing the best work in Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Technology; Attempting the impossible. Then we go all-in on them. With obsessive and unreasonable enthusiasm. Join us. #IndustrialTransformation #SupplyChain #Innovation #Technology #Startups #VentureCapital #DemandTheImpossible #UnreasonableEnthusiasm #ObsessiveEnthusiasm #IrrationalEnthusiasm 

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Still feeling energized from last week's roundtable on building successful relationships with hospitals. We invited 7 portfolio companies and health system leaders from Mayo Clinic, Cedars-Sinai and UCLA Health. The founders shared their questions ranging from the strategic to the nuts and bolts of closing partnerships. For example, how do you determine what measures of effectiveness help drive alignment? And how do you get all the stakeholders together to actually drive a decision. Answer: put them all in a room for half a day! “I think we're in a pivotal moment regarding how we assess AI. There are numerous risks currently dominating AI discussions, particularly those concerning bias and other associated risks. However, there's a notable absence of focus on evaluating the proactive value of AI. We need to consider what AI actually offers and what we want it to offer. It's not solely about determining whether it will cause harm; people are apprehensive about how this technology will be implemented. One perspective gaining traction involves ensuring the product's validation process is robust enough to prevent risks to various populations.” -Vladimir Manuel, Medical Director at UCLA Health From Vlad's comments above to perspectives others shared, we heard a sense of excitement for the promise of #AI and other new technologies. But we're also in a unique moment where the risks are not well understood. Still much to do here.

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Web3 can enhance social communities, better aligning ownership and economic incentives. How big is this area today? "Decentralized Social" (DeSoc), includes 8.7m users and facilitated over 82m transactions across Ethereum, and other blockchains. As of April, the total monthly active users on DeSoc platforms totals ~550k users, a figure separate from web3 gaming apps and traditional messaging apps embedding crypto such as Line and Telegram. As today's investor enthusiasm resurfaces for web3 tokens, we're seeing new DeSoc applications layer in new forms of fun engagement, strengthened community relationships and high value transactions within their customer experiences. #web3 #DeSoc #tokens

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Coming soon on Aug 1: "Transformation to a Fresh Tomorrow." This is theme of our 3rd Annual Web3 Investor Day, as we welcome the innovators and investors convening in Chicago for these discussions around the next generation Internet. Our theme reflects the optimism, determination and commitment investors and innovators have solidified off the depths of the bear markets to drive success in the bull markets. Broader investor optimism suggests that fresh institutional funds into Web3 across both tokens and equity may endure.  Across adoption metrics, customer interest and developer activity, Web3 seems to have normalized. It’s refreshing to see the transformation and next evolution of Web3 and it’s refreshing to meet many of you on August 1.  And yet, even with the improved optimism from last year, there still remain open questions in the development and adoption of our next generation Internet:  1. the balance of speculative versus productive investor capital in this current cycle 2. the productive role of liquid trading capital in fostering Web3 innovation 3. the attractiveness of venture investments in follow on financings 4. the role of policy and regulation that may enhance innovation 5. the continued developer activity to improve the underlying infrastructure 6. other Web3 recovery characteristics in target customer use cases. We remain committed to navigating regulatory shifts, fostering investor optimism, and building the customer use cases for Web3.  Physical spaces enhance our innovation conversations.  In person relationships foster our collaboration.  Relationships drive breakthrough innovations.  Reach out to Rizza Torres at Decasonic if you would like to join us! #web3investorday #web3 #venturecapital

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All #entrepreneurs hit a fundraising plateau. It's the founders who push through that plateau that see fundraising spikes at the end of their #RegCF campaigns. Here are 3 tips to help you break through and keep the momentum going: 1. Engage Your Community: Keep your current and potential investors excited and informed. Regular updates, behind-the-scenes content, and interactive Q&A sessions can reignite interest and drive further investment. Authentic engagement builds trust and encourages your supporters to spread the word. 2. Leverage Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with influencers, industry experts, or complementary businesses to expand your reach. A strategic partner can introduce your campaign to a new, engaged audience, providing the boost you need to overcome a plateau. 3. Optimize Your Marketing Efforts: Reevaluate and refine your marketing strategy. Analyze what’s working and what’s not. Use targeted ads, compelling storytelling, and strong calls-to-action to attract new investors. Sometimes, a fresh approach can make all the difference. Breaking through a plateau requires persistence, so don't give up! Stay proactive and keep pushing forward!

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New pod! Recorded an awesome IRL session with Michael True, co-founder of Prescient AI on the latest Turning Pro Podcast. 🔥 In March, Prescient announced its $10M Series A — backed by an incredible investor roster, including Headline and CEAS Investments, plus support from previous backers Blumberg Capital and Focal VC. In this episode, Ben Sharf and I sat down with Mike to talk through: - Key takeaways from raising venture (and how to run a process) - Prioritizing customer obsession from day one at Prescient - The outsized ROI of persistence and long-term thinking - Key lessons learned from setbacks along the way Link in the comments! Big ups to ShipPlug for joining us this season.

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In the second quarter of 2024, global startup funding saw a significant increase to $79 billion, marking a 16% rise from the previous quarter and a 12% increase compared to Q2 2023. AI sector funding notably doubled to $24 billion, comprising 30% of total investments, the highest quarterly amount in recent years. The quarter also witnessed heightened M&A activity, particularly in large deals, which injected liquidity into the venture capital market. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/e-JYcy2g Crunchbase News Today Gené Teare #venturecapital #investments #AI Branded Hospitality Ventures Hospitality Headline Newsletter #MandA ChatGPT OpenAI Kunal Gandhi Jason Kwon Jonathan Lachman Varun Shetty Tadao Nagasaki Sterling Douglass Brizo FoodMetrics

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