Jens Karstoft

Have to share some excitement on what is going on right now. 🔥 The startup landscape is transforming, and we’re seeing this shift clearly in the Nordics, driven by a new wave of technically strong founders and the AI-platform shift. These founders are capitalizing on lower costs, rapid product development, and faster iteration cycles — fundamentally reshaping how startups are built. Here’s what I’m observing: 🔸 Getting off the ground has never been cheaper. What once required millions of $’s and a large team now takes a small group of brilliant founders and some token cost (which is plummeting). The barriers to entry have fallen dramatically, empowering ambitious founders to bring their ideas to life with unprecedented efficiency. 🔸 Faster than ever. Gone are the days of lengthy development. Today’s founders are embracing “build-test-iterate-repeat” cycles at breathtaking speeds. New versions are being shipped several times per day (!), not per quarter. Micro-pivoting has become the norm, enabling startups to adapt quickly and refine their products in real time. 🔸 Next level teams. We are seeing a wave of technically strong founders, many of them at young age, who have grown up in the AI-era. More PhD's in the pitch decks on my desk than ever before. Many founders who have experience from earlier journeys with Nordics start- & scale-ups making them know what good looks like and where the bar is. What this leads to? 🔹 Great and truly disruptive solutions 🔹 Increased competition 🔹 Higher failure rates as a lower barrier to entry and the opportunity in the platform shift makes more take a shot (which I welcome!) 🔹 A big threat to incumbents (My tip to incumbents: Don't build. Buy or collaborate with the new-comers. You won't be able to keep up.) 🔹 Fundraising is becoming very polarised. Either you are in the bucket I'm describing above or you are not. And if you are not, it's not a fun time right now. But if you are, it's a very fun time. 🔹 Unprecedented return potential The startups that do succeed are achieving spectacular results in record time. These outliers that used to yield 100x returns is now potentially delivering 1,000x — and in half the time. The game is faster, the stakes are higher, and the opportunities — particularly in the Nordics — have never been more exciting.

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Emerging vs Established Managers? A lot of discussions by institutional LPs about whether to invest in emerging GPs will end just there. There are exemptions such us AlphaQ Venture Capital Fund of Funds, which actively invests in emerging GPs. Hear what Stephan Heller had to say on the topic on the EUVC 's podcast with Andreas Munk Holm ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #fund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #venturecapital #vcfundraising #lp #gp #familyoffice #fundoffunds #investors #alternatives #secondaries

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That damn product-market-fit - and what we do about it at KRING 👊 Building a startup is hard. Period. And the reasons for that are not sensational. We all know that getting product-market fit, go-to-market and the team right requires a lot of work. The top 4 reasons for startup failure are: 🧩 Poor Product-Market Fit (34%): This figure highlights the significant impact of misalignment between a startup's offering and the needs of its target audience. Without a deep understanding of your market and a product that resonates with customers, success becomes elusive.    🚀 Wrong Go-To-Market Strategy (22%): Even if you have a great product, how you bring it to market matters. A misstep in your go-to-market strategy can lead to missed opportunities, wasted resources, and ultimately, failure to capture market share effectively. 🦸🏽‍♀️Team Issues (18%): Building a successful startup requires a cohesive and talented team. Team dynamics, leadership challenges, and skill gaps can all hinder progress and contribute to startup failure.    💸 Fundraising and Cash Flow Problems (16%): Running out of funds is a common reason startups fail. Whether due to inadequate fundraising efforts, mismanagement of cash flow, or unforeseen financial challenges, a lack of capital can quickly derail even the most promising ventures. These typical reasons for startup failure is exactly why we have built our venture studio model and value proposition around: ✅ To navigate the product–market fit, we have developed our structured Speedbooting methodology with pretotyping (and created the company pree.to) to enable a proper validation of the market fit     ✅ To get the go-to-market right, we also use our Speedbooting methodology (https://lnkd.in/egm6im2s) to validate the strategy and benefit from our network of corporates and advisors to test the business model from different angles ✅ To address team issues we offer specialised recruitment support from a pool of talented individuals ✅ To take focus away from fundraising, we provide multi-round financing and can also support building external fundraising strategy if needed and connect with relevant investors Are you curious and what to learn more about building a venture with KRING? Reach out to our Head of Talent, Agnes A. 👈 Do you have any reflections to share on how to mitigate the typical reasons for startup failure? We would love to hear from you! #venturestudio #startupstudio #productmarketfit Source: Exploding topics, Startup Failure Statistics 2023. Marina Miteva, Jacob Madsen, Jesper Kring, Thomas Krogh Jensen, Tommy Ahlers, Christoph Brandin, Thomas Hofman-Bang, Ulla Sommerfelt, Jacob Dahl, Kurt Bligaard Pedersen, Peter Mægbæk, Martin Bøge Mikkelsen, Betina Nygaard, Ole Herstal, Søren Thorsen, Jakob Bjerre Kistorp, Anders Colding Friis, Flemming Breinholt, Claus Rehfeld, Peter Midtgaard, Lars Thomassen, Lars Monrad-Gylling, Claus Omann Jensen, Erik Holm, Joergen Raguse, David Heinemeier Hansson

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Don't validate your product. Invalidate it. As a partner at Antler I'm surrounded by founders trying to figure out if their business is going to work. It's often 10x faster to figure out if your business is NOT going to work. Everyone is so focused on finding product market fit (PMF) and validating their product. It can take *years* to do this. And when working in an early stage startup environment, I'd rather know something is not going to work early than know it is working really late. There's a huge cost to wasting time and building in the wrong direction and practically no founder has a map to reference. So I say figure out what will KILL your business. Figure out what you can ask that, if you get a specific answer, means it's NOT working. By the time you've played this process of elimination enough times (and often very quickly) you'll be left with something that probably is. #startups #founders #products

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Bankrupt. Small. 6 hours away. These are a few of the characteristics of the business that today's guest Jens Grudno bought. Those were the bad. But there were also the good: * 117 years old * Strong brand * Differentiated, high-quality product * And cheap — Jens didn't pay much for the business This is the story of how Jens worked his way through finance and startups, and arrived as the owner of DOVO, an old business manufacturing an old product: straight razors. This is a turnaround story, and Jens acknowledges that he chose for himself a very difficult task for someone who'd never bought a business before. But as you'll hear, he is drawn to outsized challenges, to proving the haters wrong. But it wasn't just an emotional decision. This is a guy who read Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor as a teenager, so he thinks like an investor, always seeking value, risk-reward asymmetries. And he thought the downside here was limited, while the potential to restore this centenarian to its former glory represented big upside. Now of course, there's theory... then there's reality. This has ended up being extremely difficult, and everything has taken longer than predicted. But Jens has survived and stabilized DOVO, and he's gearing up for the launch of a new product that he's optimistic will dominate its category and catapult its revenue. Enjoy this rollercoaster ride with Jens Grudno, owner of DOVO. ( 👉 link to interview in comments below)

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🌶 Our portfolio company Niimblr is fundraising! 🌶 In case you have not yet gotten the memo, then Niimblr is fundraising and they've announced it on their LinkedIn's 👩‍🚀 (so sharing it here as well ;) The facts; Niimblr — B2B SaaS based in Denmark 🏝 They help media production companies manage all media feedback and approval processes in one place — and have been rocking it since their first campaign launched in December 2023! 📈 800+ active users from 40+ countries and growing by the day 🔄 Their viral loop is more fruitful than they dared to dream of 💰 Their ask? $1.2 Million - with 60% already committed!🔥 And closing as soon as they find a relevant investor for the 40% ⏰ Want to buy into a founder team with 45 years of combined tech success and industry experience? CEO / CTO; Per Lohmann Poulsen CMO; Celine Fosse CPO; Mads Lyngvig Jespersen Reach out to [email protected] (or me) if you'd like more information! Let's go 🌶🌶 #PreSeed #Investors #SaaS #B2BSaaS #Fundraising #ReviewPlatform #ContentCreation #CreatorEconomy #DigitalFeedback #Founder

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This spring we had almost 8,000 Founders apply to come and work with us at Antler in the US. Of that, we had 300 Founders come and work with us in person in our offices, and we ended up invested in 32 of those teams that we were absolutely blown away by. I can't go into specifics quite yet as these companies are still in stealth but a small sample of what these teams are working on: (Comment below what you think are most interesting and I can help you meet the teams) 1. A team with experience at Boeing, SpaceX, Relativity Space, Hermeus and General Atomics are building full commercial scale wing-bodied aircraft. 2. Team of former Starlink and Raytheon engineers building edge computing software for space and satellite interoperability. 3. One of the biggest contributors to the Ape Coin DAU and his co-founder from Performance-IQ working on tokenizing and democratizing public advertising inventory (think billboards in timesquare) 4. Former leader of one of the most successful WoW clans and Founder of one of the highest traffic gaming sites in the world building the consumer metasearch for weightloss with her CTO who led engineering at Esper. 5. Founder who sold his previous company to Nexa3D building the supply chain needed to 3D print footwear right here in the United States. 6. Founder from C2i Genomics building early disease profiling and detection with novel multiomic sequencing (when they succeed will help solve cancer.) 10. Former researcher at Fermilab, Mercury Data Science and the Smithsonian automating the peer review and analysis of scientific documents to build a new SoR for global scientific progress. Couldn't be more excited to be working with Founders who are truly pursuing their life's work. If you’re an active investor who’d like to meet these founders directly, or a founder interested in becoming a part of this elite group, sign up in comments below ⬇️

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How a simple idea led to a $55mn fundraise Simple but brilliantly executed Originally Sana AI, a Swedish startup, wanted to help large corporates to get some "order" in their complex and messy internal database/data, acting like an AI-powered learning and knowledge platform. Earlier this year the reality was that it had big clients indeed but was struggling to respond to calls and meetings with these large corporate firms like Electrolux...making it harder to prospect new ones or scale. So its founder simply flipped the business He decided to create a free version of the AI agent that could draft emails, take meeting minutes and complete simple forms that it was selling to enterprise clients, now guess what? 6 months after launching this trial version around 100,000 new workplaces had signed up and teams with more than five members now pay $30 per user per month. And today Sana AI raised $55mn at a $500 million valuation to scale its research lab and help its commercial expansion in the US. It's also now one of the best funded AI startup in Europe (its Series B was done last year) Its founder, Joel Hellermark, built Sana AI 8 years ago and wanted to use AI to create personalised workplace training plans, that, before AI even became "trendy". Not bad huh? https://lnkd.in/eeP4n_fZ

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Exceptional entrepreneurs come in many shapes and sizes - show us who you are and what you can do! 🛠️💡🚀 Since we at KRING mainly develop our venture concepts in-house, we care less about your idea, and more about YOU as a potential co-founder. Ideas change, people remain. The mindset and values we are looking for in individuals are (among others): 🤘🏼Proactiveness, hands-on, structured thinking, skin in the game, empathy, and kindness. Our experience has taught us that while the mindset and drive is alike, the educational, professional, and personal experiences across the best entrepreneurs differ a whole lot - and thank god for that! We don’t like to put people in a box - but nevertheless we have tried to provide a framework for our typical #cofounder profiles: 💚 Health and Energy industry experts 🦸🏽‍♀️ Second-time entrepreneurs (successful or failed) 📊 Management consultants 🛠️ Operators in high-growth startups / scale-ups 🌈 ...Surprise us and show us what you got! We are constantly looking for great people to join us on our mission to make the world a better place - one #impact venture at a time. Are you curious and what to learn more about building a venture with KRING? 👉Reach out to our Head of Talent & Culture, Agnes A.. Have we forgotten an ideal co-founder above or do you have any reflections to share! We would love to hear from you! #venturestudio #teamiskey #peoplegame

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💶 💶 I am looking for beta testers for The Art of Fundraising 2.0 💶 💶 💸💸 Two years ago I ran a course on how to raise venture capital - The Art of Fundraising. The course was oversubscribed and received great feedback from the likes of Johannes Berger Erik Wikander Wilhelm Lundborg and many more... 🚀🚀 This fall I am launching a new and improved version of the course. But before I launch, I need beta testers... 😎😎 As a beta tester you will get FREE access to the course. All I want in return is a 15 min feedback call. 💰💰 The Art of Fundraising is aimed at early stage founders who are looking to raise their first round of venture capital from top tier investors. The six module course includes lessons on how to build relationships with VCs, how to build the perfect pitch, how to take advantage of VC psychology and much much more... Over five hours of video, loads of useful take home material, secret tips and tricks... 👨🏻‍🎓 👨🏻‍🎓 As a former venture capital investor at EQT Ventures, active angel investor and a fundraising founder I have seen all sides of venture capital and have built a unique approach to fundraising, which I am applying to the course... 🤟🏻 🤟🏻 Does this sound like something for you or someone you know? Hit me up in the comments, the first ten will get FREE access to The Art of Fundraising.

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"A good COO runs just behind a CEO with urgency and picks up all the pieces that fall behind on the journey." This is Kjartan Slette's (COO & Co-Founder Unacast) description of why he and Thomas Walle (CEO & Co-Founder Unacast) have such a well-functioning partnership after over 10 years. Thanks for a great summary of the COO Summit Autumn 2024 (link to article in the comments), Joakim Birkeli Jacobsen & Shifter.no. Agnes Dyvik Clark shares some great takeaways from her fireside chat with Jon Kåre Stene and other relevant insights into the COO's role in a venture-backed scaleup. Curious to hear how Jon Kåre and Karl would agree with the Batman & Robin comparison! 😅 Great to witness another "Tandberg Mafia" story with Michel Sagen and his learnings from building Videxio and Pexip. Spoiler alert -> One common thread all the speakers come back to is the importance of culture. Something that is hard to copy or replicate but authentically crafted by the founders from early on. "Progress over perfection" - was Videxio's cultural mantra in the early days and I believe a lot of companies, both big and small could learn a lot by following that mindset. 💪🏻🔥🚀

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Join us for a new, inspiring conversation on angel investing. We are joined by Mikko Silventola, the first investor in Bolt and hugo. Tune in on EUVC 💙 And your favorite streaming platforms. 🎧 #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

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Exciting news! Balnord - our new VC fund for tech founders from Poland & Baltics, is live! We know that building a technology company is a unique task and we want to be the ones who will help you achieve the remarkable. We want to be the partner who will help us in good times and difficult moments. We think, act and invest long term. And we're here to help you from pre-seed to exit. #startups #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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Over the past three years, we've been doing an increasing amount of work within the angel investor space. - Building angel network in the Middle East - Training impact angels in East Africa - Growing angel network in the Nordics - and much, much more. These programs are often a combination of in-person Business Angel Masterclasses, digital academy, long-term training & development - all powered by our work at Strategy Tools. Working closely with the angel mastermind Rick Rasmussen, we've been able to develop a vast range of tools, concepts and canvases to help angel investors grow and angel networks thrive. - Angel Group Canvas - My Angel Strategy - Business Angel Strategy Map has been particularly well received around the world. Now, for the first-time ever, my good friend Rick Rasmussen and I will host a webinar to share our insights from working with global angel investors and global angel network. Sign up and join us on July 8th. P.s. Did you know, all participants in our Angel Masterclasses recieve a ultra-packed toolkit - just for angel investors? P.s. II Did you know we are working on an upcoming report on angel investors, Flight? You'll hear lots more in the webinar.... See you there. https://lnkd.in/d7xTUxKD #Angel #Investor #Ecosystem Adelina Manolache, Jolene Foo-Hodne,Kyrre Lemvik, Scott Newton, Henrik Amstutz, Nir Melamud, Ljubisa Petrovic

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Properly the 5 best startups in the universe! I have received millions of requests from startups to be on the Højer List (aka Magic Rectangle). Here are the 5 startups I believe will all become unicorns in 2025: 1. ReefCircular ApS - “We're turning shell waste into sea life with 3D-printed reefs!” Showing up (early) is 80% of success, and this company was the first to apply. Not only that, but they are also doing something with sea reefs and have "circular" in their name. No governmental agency or middle-aged business angel will EVER deny them money. It's a well-deserved spot on the magic list. 2. Complir - "Lets retailers sell any physical product in any market". I don’t like this startup at all. They declined my offer to invest in the company a few weeks ago. How dare they say no to me! They seem very arrogant! But the FOMO is real, and by putting them on the list, I hope they will reconsider. Call me! 3. Kripthonite Therapeutics - “Solves a decades-old challenge in cancer treatment.” Let’s be honest: Most investors in biotech (including myself) don’t have the scientific skills to evaluate a startup’s claims. So, how do we perform due diligence? Simple - we invest in the biotech startups with the coolest names! Here, you have a startup referencing Superman in its name. I foresee a 300 MUSD Series A round coming up soon! 4. Nume (from Scaleup Finance) - "The one and only kickass AI CFO." Seriously, “CFO” sounds so dull, so I had already rejected them. But here is a team that understood the assignment and knows that I am the next Gartner of startup research. I really appreciate the 6 bottles of Dom Pérignon they sent. Of course, they need to be on the list – and, of course, also in the Magic Rectangle. 5. Remote.io - “Rocket fuel loaded, AI product incoming, unstoppable momentum! 🚀” Have you ever seen so many buzzwords so close together? Neither have I - and they even put in a rocket emoji! This team is on fire! Honorable Mention: Sikr - "Helps SMEs get started in cybersecurity with easy onboarding." These guys don’t listen to instructions. I asked for a maximum of 10 words - they came back with a 1,500-word description. So, either they are very smart or very dumb. So, check them out- but at your own risk! -------------- How to get one of the 5 remaining spots? Just write – in less than 10 words – why your startup is better than the rest! -------------  

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The Nordic startup ecosystem is brimming with potential, and one standout company leading the charge is Leya from Sweden. Their innovative AI tool aims to revolutionize legal operations by integrating data across international legal databases, positioning Leya as the next Swedish unicorn. The recent $10.5 million seed round, led by Benchmark after graduating from Y Combinator, speaks volumes about their trajectory. To consistently nurture unicorns in the Nordics, there must be a greater emphasis on fostering incubators and supporting early-stage startups. SSE Business Labs' success showcases what can be achieved with a laser-focused strategy and a dedicated team, proving that even a small group can help build successful startups. Looking ahead, it's crucial for the Nordic region to invest in and develop better incubators that provide essential resources and mentorship for startups to thrive. By doing so, we can ensure a steady stream of innovative companies like Leya, propelling the Nordics to new heights in the global startup arena. Read more on Nordic startups handpicked to be the next big thing: https://lnkd.in/dsNQyXxt #NordicStartups #SwedishUnicorn #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Incubators #StartupGrowth #SSEBusinessLabs #Leya #VentureCapital

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Exciting news! Vestd is proud to introduce InVestd: Connect, Pitch, Grow – a unique pitch event designed for founders, by founders. Everything we do at Vestd centres around transparency, purpose, and trust. After listening closely to our founder and investor communities, we’ve developed a pitch experience that prioritises real value over profit. There are no pay-to-play fees here – just an opportunity for founders to gain lasting skills, valuable insights, and actionable feedback to drive success well beyond the pitch. Our first event of the series spotlights underrepresented founders and connects them with a handpicked network of relevant and active investors. Know a founder or startup that should be involved? Tag them in the comments. To be in with a chance, register here - https://lnkd.in/epHQsH-N

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👩‍💻 Calling for all women founders out there! 👩‍💻 Come build your next company with Antler in Denmark 🇩🇰/ New Nordics Here’s why: Studies consistently show that women entrepreneurs struggle raising capital, receive lower valuations, and lack access to key networks that unlock growth 🚀 We at Antler want to change this. We believe that diverse teams are inherently superior and take pride in being very very meritocratic. This means: 👉 Same investment (up to 300ke pre-seed 💰) 👉 Same terms (founder friendly ❤️) 👉 Same support (from our Nordic team 🤝) 👉 Same network (Antler is global 🌎) 👉 Same excitement (awesome group of like-minded people 🚀) …no matter which gender you identify with. Also, you're not alone: In our Nordic portfolio 40% of companies have at least one female co-founder (vs. ~23% industry average). And we’re working hard to get this number further up. In our latest Danish residencies 30% of participants were women. Lack of diversity is not just an ESG concern - it's a missed opportunity. Diverse teams better represent real customers and are better positioned to understand and cater to their needs. Diversity also mitigates groupthink and conforming to a prevalent mindset. Lastly, diverse teams tend to function better and have healthier dynamics. Something that is key in a high pressure start-up environment. Application period for our next residence in Denmark starting Aug 19th is still open and final spots are up for grabs. Now's the time to apply (link in comments)! Or if you know someone who has what it takes and needs to see this, feel free to tag them in this post. Thanks! 🙏 And let's also celebrated some of the women who have already Denmark 🙌 Anna Riis Hedegaard ▶ The 0-Mission Anne Marie Mondrup / Marie Engberg ▶ BetterChoice Celine Fosse ▶ Niimblr Dr. Anna Liebhoff ▶ aParent.ly Josefine Louise Schwarz Bonde ▶ Insutex Katja Thrane ▶ Stealth Startup Katja Grothe-Eberhardt ▶ Klimate.co Mercedesz Dani ✨ ▶ Partnerful Paula Petcu / Line Clemmensen ▶ Interhuman AI Ranveig Virtuoso Haraldsen ▶ Puzzle Sedef Hansen-Guvenc ▶ Stealth AI Startup Let's go 🌶🌶 #vc #diversity #startup #womenfounders

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Got a killer idea or early case within digital health or energy? Read on to see if you are a match and get in touch ⚡️ At KRING, we have two tracks for investments; we invest in our developed ventures in our #venturestudio, BUT we also invest in early-stage external cases, when there is a match 🎯 First of all, there needs to be a match between you as co-founder(s) and KRING's values. Naturally, we have some key criteria for our external investment strategy. We could be a good match if your startup is: 1) 🧬 Within digital health, focused on early diagnostics and early intervention, chronic disease prevention, management and reversal, functional medicine, or behavioural-based health interventions. 2) 🌏 Within energy, focused on energy renovation, optimization, grid flexibility, EV infrastructure or the built environment. 3) 👶🏽 Early in the journey with ongoing development needed for product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, team capabilities or other strategic work. 4) 💻 Has a digital business model that is asset-light with low fixed costs and high scalability. 5) 💸 With early focus on profitability - we build ‘Zebras’ rather than ‘Unicorns’ and aim to make our companies sustainable with early profitability. Classic “VC journeys” are the exception. 6) 🤓 Has a B2B2C or B2C focus. We focus on solving real end-user problems with a demonstrated high level of value-add and consumer demand, either directly or via corporate partnerships. In the case your startup does not fall within each category above, there may still be a relevant match between your case and KRING. If you are interested in learning more, please get in touch with me or fill out the assessment on our website: https://lnkd.in/dvNGP_iW 📩 Don’t hesitate to get in touch - we would love to hear from you! 🤘 #venturestudio #startupstudio #impactstartups

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