Giovanni Casinelli

Most Pioneer Fund companies send monthly updates (some quarterly), and we read every update across the portfolio of 500+ companies. I actually still personally read every update. Most startups send updates with these sections, and it works well: - High level metrics (revenue, maybe another key metric or two like GMV or MAU, growth since last month, cash in bank, burn rate, runway). Many of the most consistently-growing or fastest-growing companies also include a revenue graph. - Highlights - Lowlights - Investor asks - Maybe a couple investor shoutouts from last month - Some short commentary on what the current priorities are, what's coming next, etc. Some founders like to include a special section or two. A few of my favorites: - Photos or videos of technical progress for hardware companies - One of our founders sends a self rating on a scale of 0-10 for the month, along with detailed explanation. Pretty impressive. - A zoomed out view of how the mission/vision/strategy is specifically evolving - Some have very detailed additional sections that are specific to their business. E.g. manufacturing updates, distribution updates, regulatory updates, etc. Each investor update may only take a few minutes to read, but they are the summary of the hard work of an entire team for an entire month, often fighting uphill or sprinting downhill or exploring the idea maze. We're always grateful reading them.

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Pitching to investors? Here’s what your deck should cover : Introduction- Bold statement/your personal story The Problem Your solution Your product The Market The Team Your Ask Key is to keep every slide simple, with key information. No information overload. Glad I attended the workshop on how to build your pitchdeck by Peter Thomsen The guy’s a legend. Did I miss anything?

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Who are the startup fintech leaders I should follow? Here’re folks I currently read for industry insights. ➡️ Timothy Li – Shares solid contents on Finance tech stack and APIs. A serial startup founder, hands-on practitioner.  ➡️ Rutger van Faassen - Consumer finance and Banking tech. I just started checking out his newsletter. ➡️ Igor Pejic - For Blockchain, Digital currencies and Web3 tech. ➡️ Nik Milanović – Authors newsletter ‘This Week in Fintech’. Covers latest happenings in the industry. ➡️ Hugo Finkelstein - for latest scoop on Payments and Cryptocurrency. His team is building some cutting edge tech in payroll. ➡️ Ryan Lazanis, CPA and Chase Birky, CPA – for Tax and Accounting industry updates. They as well cover some good stuff on small business finances. ➡️ O'Brien, CPA, Henry Huie, CPA, Greg - for CPA firm owners. And startup financials and bookkeeping. ➡️ Sasha Pilch – She's co-founder of Fintech Women NYC. Advises many startups in Fintech. ➡️  Sheela Ursal – For Venture Capital news in Fin-tech. Checkout her newsletter. She’s as well local to San Francisco Bay Area. Here's new addition following community feedback (comments) Julie VerHage-Greenberg Maia Bittner Sophia Goldberg Nicky Goulimis Saira Rahman Seema Amble Jillian Williams Angela Strange Jason Mikula -- Banking, Industry strategy. Runs newsletter: Fintech Biz Weekly Alex Johnson William Paton Jeff White Arcady Lapiro -- BaaS & Processor Knowledge Lex Sokolin -- Blend of AI and Fintech Insights Rishi Khosla -- Scaling Fintech companies globally (Europe +) Bryan Clagett Rex Salisbury Jareau Wadé Ayokunle Omojola Simon Taylor Frank Rotman Aaron Frank Matthew Janiga Miguel Armaza Wade Arnold I’d love to hear your recommendations! Comment or DM me folks you think are worth following for #buildinfintech Why it matters to us? Our new #AIagents is going deep into fintech support workflows. We’re looking for experts to critique our approach and inspire new use cases. Let’s connect and build the future!

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Founders, if you are having trouble selling your product, you don't need to immediately pivot your product. Instead, I recommend pivoting your goto market first. Check out the video below to find out how.

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Great that Pentimenti.AI is recognised in the press. And good to see my friend and CO-Finder in the spotlight 💪🏻 Johan brings a wealth of experience and brainpower to our company. One example of how we better demonstrate the benefits of our application to customers is his conceptualization of how it can significantly reduce the time spent in the No-bid/Bid decision-making process. #AI #SaaS #proposalwriting #tender #AIinsales #bidmanagement

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How my VC background has helped me build Aquaria in 3 powerful ways: 1) Manage capital better — Raising capital is just the start, then we have to execute in the right direction. I understand which parts of our business we need to de-risk at each stage, and what milestones we are working towards. 2) Manage human capital — getting other people excited to work with us is a long-term strategy for Aquaria. Fast and nimble teams that are 120% dedicated moves mountains. 3) Prioritize — it's clear to me what order I need to prioritize things like marketing, sales, R&D, etc. My own ability to create massive output in the beginning is crucial to success. Most would say my background is unique. And they’d be right. Aquaria’s mission is unique. And appropriate leadership is needed to make it a reality. — If you’re a DeepTech investor looking to support a company working on one of the most overlooked climate issues (water), send me a DM on LinkedIn. Happy to have a chat.

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I’m going to invest $9M into early-stage startups in the next 6 months. 15 companies. $600k per investment. 🚨 Big problem statements 🚨 Sector agnostic  🚨 Building from Singapore  🚨 Pre-launch, pre-seed, and seed funding 🚨 Open to individuals who are still ideating, as well as, companies with co-founders that are already building - - - If you’re still ideating, comment "STEALTH" below and I'll message you. If you’re already building, comment "BUILD". If you know people building the most defining technology companies, tag them below or share this with your network. - - - Antler is a global early-stage VC investing in the world’s most driven founders across 30 cities including Singapore and across Southeast Asia. By investing from day zero, we are the earliest backer for startups as well as a long-term capital partner that provides follow-on funding of up to $10M for growth-stage startups at Series A and beyond. Want to reach us sooner? In addition to the above, connect with us at antler.co/singapore

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Linden Lab & Second Life continue to be stripmined by investors. What is Second Life? It is a venerable online world that always avoided being a competent game or having good tech but found a small but fervent and viable community interetsed in an open online world that wasn't really fun but is creative and expressive (if a bit janky). It is now struggling to continue to exist. Second Life was founded in 2003. Second Life has had more than 70 million unique accounts created in its lifetime. It has about 750k MAUs. It is not a web game. It is not really a game. It is like an MMO without the G. Second life has a small but dedicated fanbase. It is often associated with the first (early 2000s) wave of Web 3.0. It is a PC application (Windows & Mac). It does not allow cryptocurrency or blockchain. The Linden dollar is fixed and not speculative. It is not a scam. It is very Uncanny Valley, almost intentionally so. Second Life never went to console oro mobile. It never really grew and took off. Its always been this small, curious "also-ran". When Second Life, Sandbox, Decentraland and other tiny spaces tried to compare to Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft? They don't. They're not in the same league or the same reality. Second Life still exists. The zombie 'w3bsites? By definition of active users? They don't. Second Life survived the pandemic, barely. It didn't grow the way online games did, but then it didn't die when 'web3' did. It still exist, kind of. Linden Labs is selling off its payment processing, and is doing this just as mobile starts to open up. Brilliant. Linden Labs is always 10 years behind. That's being maintained under investor ownership. ----- Second Life: https://secondlife.com/ Wikipedia: https://lnkd.in/efHfv5rD Mar 25, 2020 "'Second Life' creator sells its ambitious social VR platform Linden Lab is offloading Sansar to narrow its focus." Engadget: https://lnkd.in/euhuK7xa Jan 06, 2021 NWN: "Second Life Officially Acquired By Holding Company, Ending Era As Aspirational Startup" NewWorldNotes: https://lnkd.in/exGCgBXg Aug 4, 2021 "Second Life to ban gacha mechanics. From August 31, selling content via gacha machines will no longer be permitted in the title" GamesIndustryBiz https://lnkd.in/e6XzbQxG Mar 10, 2023 Second Life Mobile - First Look YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eDqYn2Bp Mar 16, 2023: 20 years later, Second Life is launching on mobile The so-called proto-metaverse will leap from desktops for the first time. ArsTechnica: https://lnkd.in/ewENT5iN ---- April 24, 2024 "Second Life developer sells off payments business Tilia. The deal with Thunes will include a five-year partnership for payment processing and payouts to Linden Lab" "Linden Lab, the developer of Second Life, has sold its payments business, Tilia, to Thunes. The news comes a month after Linden announced that Second Life is in development for mobile devices." GamesIndustryBiz: https://lnkd.in/eyRvecQM #gameindustry #secondlife #lindenlabs

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Founders: Can I interest you in lunch on us? Yes, we’re back with another ecosystem initiative from Tin Men Capital Namely: TINFLUN (There is no free lunch until now) It’ll be held in a unique format: 🔸5-6 VC funds across investment stages will be in attendance. 🔸Fundraising founders get to seat with a GP/VC investing in their stage/sector. 🔸Only 6-8 founders per table. 🔸Conversations will be had, deals could be made. The best of all? Lunch is free for founders! All thanks to our amazing sponsors. For those fundraising from Seed to Growth (Series A/B) stage, It’s a nice opportunity to meet VCs in a casual setting. Especially in the current fundraising climate where interest is tougher to find. As with any of our events typically (and even more so for this), This event on the 30th of August will likely be oversubscribed very quickly. 🥲 Bring an empty stomach and your fundraising-hat. Murli Ravi , myself and our other participating VCs Hsu Ken Ooi , Arshad Chowdhury , Tanuja Rajah , Karan Mohla look very much forward to see you there. P.S. Will leave the link in the comments - more info there. Credits to John T. for the funky name.

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Startup decks vs Business plans. It's accepted that a startup needs a deck. Dax Dasilva of Lightspeed Commerce made an important point on 20VC. Writing a business plan - including financial projections - is an important step. It requires discipline. It provides a rigorous framework for thinking deeply about the problem you're trying to solve. Harry Stebbings countered that he doesn't even want to see a deck since it's all dreams. We spent a lot of time and energy on our business plan with the expectation that we would show it to no one ever. The business plan was part of our roadmap for the company. We researched customers - including having 50+ conversations. We wanted to understand them: their background, their interests, their presence on social media. We also wanted to understand how they were evaluated by leadership and how integrated they were with the business of the company they were protecting. We researched pricing both with potential customers and other products in our industry to find out if OpEx or CapEx was a better fit. How did they buy today? How would they like to buy? We did market research to understand the verticals and map the right entry point - we were wrong but that doesn't reduce the value of the research. We looked at competitors in depth to understand what they were seeing that we weren't. Dax is right. This is an invaluable document that should be updated every year - the company is changing, the market is changing, there's more feedback about price and ICP. It's not for sharing with the outside world. It's a map for driving forward. Decks won't get you investment - VCs invest in people. We make decks but we know they don't tell our story. The deck is a calling card. Dax and Harry are both right. https://lnkd.in/e25M82xY

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Some great details from the inside on what to include in your investor updates 👇 Great content, thanks for sharing this Tim Suzman! p.s. thanks Tech Philomaths for guiding towards such insightful content 🙌

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I’m often asked why I left VC to start Mimo. Honestly, I sometimes ask myself the same question… In case you hadn’t heard, startups are hard 🥲 But my answer is always the same: The opportunity to simplify how SMEs manage payments and cash flow with two awesome friends was just too significant.. No founder starts a business to spend their days working in spreadsheets. They want to spend them working towards their vision. Talking to customers. Building products. Solving problems. Making memories. Having fun. But so much of their time goes towards manually processing payments, bookkeeping and managing cash flow. It still blows my mind how time-consuming these tasks are. Do I miss VC? Yes (especially those NYC helicopter rides during portfolio days 🙃). But has the first 18 months of Mimo been the most fulfilling of my career? Also yes (even on the hard days).

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Fundraising strategies that work: 1. Finesse 2. Brute Force 3. Just be a 2nd-time exited founder 4. Just be an early employee at Ramp, Stripe, Open AI (any of the 3-5 hottest companies in tech will do) 5. Just have a trust fund Idk why more people don't do number 3-5. In all seriousness, if you're a 1st-time founder you won't be able to raise like a second time founder so just accept that and focus on what you can do.

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𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 ? I have read a lot of pitch decks in my life, especially recently while helping many startups in Sydney. I noticed that one chapter most startups fail in their pitch deck is actually one of the most important in the eyes of investors: our target market size. Now look, I’m not trying to portray myself as someone who always gets it right. When it comes to my own startups’ market size, I also make mistakes and try to look like a superhero. But the fact is that defining the market size properly is crucial for our scale-up focus. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 Our SaaS market is not the industry we are targeting, but the entities in that industry who can become potential clients. There is a critical difference between the two. I will give a simple but unrealistic example: if my product is a productivity tool for Sydney startups' chief marketing officers (CMOs), my market is not the overall Sydney Startups group or even the Sydney Startups CMOs. Instead, it is the group of CMOs in Sydney startups that actually use productivity tools. Any CMOs that, in principle, do not use productivity tools are not part of my market. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗶𝘇𝗲” ? Once you identify your market, you can then try to identify your market size. The market size is not the total budget of that market but the amount of money spent by your market on products and services similar to what you offer—the disruptive part of that market. Is your head spinning? Let me return to my example and give more examples below. For my CMO productivity tool, the market size is the average amount of money spent by CMOs on a productivity tool, multiplied by the number of Sydney Startups CMOs that use productivity tools. 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙞𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩. 𝙐𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠! Confused? Here an example with more examples on my blog: Example: 𝗔𝗻 𝗔𝗜-𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗰𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁: Coffee shops that grind coffee. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝘇𝗲: The total amount of money spent by coffee shops on coffee grinding machines, multiplied by the number of coffee shops in my market. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁: The international coffee industry, and the market size is not the total revenue of coffee shops around the world. https://lnkd.in/dGiB_gP5 #saas #startups #sydney #startupnation #advisory #cto #cpo #cmo

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As a VC, embedded finance excites me a lot. The term 'fintech' often conjures images of disruptive mobile banking apps. But, I strongly believe, integrating financial services seamlessly into non-financial platforms can remarkably expand access and foster a new generation of empowered investors. . Why This Matters? -> Traditional financial institutions struggle to reach underserved populations, leading to generational cycles of reliance on predatory lenders or exclusion from wealth-building altogether -> Embedding financial services into existing trusted platforms (think: payroll apps offering micro-investing, ride-share dashboards with built-in savings tools) removes the need for conscious opt-in, a huge barrier for newcomers -> By leveraging user behaviour already tracked within these non-financial apps, embedded finance can offer tailored solutions without lengthy onboarding. This combats the 'one-size-fits-none' approach that alienates potential customers . I believe this trend is about more than just convenience. It seeds fertile ground to nurture financial literacy through democratized access to investment tools. We're looking for founders who see the intersection of: -> Gamified Investing for Beginners: Fractional shares and recurring micro-investments are already gaining traction. The startups that make this genuinely engaging while teaching core concepts are poised to shape positive behaviour change -> Ethical AI for Accessible Advice: Algorithmic recommendations have the potential to perpetuate bias. The tools overcoming this will make investing safer for those without traditional financial support networks These are just examples. The list is much longer. But, you get the gist. . My experience building a tech-enabled language learning platform (Multibhashi) taught me that meeting learners where they are is key. Same way, finance needs to go where people already are, and not the other way around. That’s what embedded finance is all about. . We're eager to back founders transforming 'banking' from something intimidating into an integral part of platforms serving those neglected by the traditional system. If you are one such founder, I/team at Dexter Ventures would love to learn more. Do reach out at [email protected] and keep anuradha@dexter[dot]ventures in cc :) Anuradha #Dexter #DexterCapital #DexterVentures #Startups #IndianStartups #VC #Entrepreneurs #Entrepreneurship #AngelInvesting #InvestmentBanking | Devendra, Devendra, Jayant, Dexter Capital Advisors

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If you are or know of any pre-seed or seed startups (from any country) that match these criteria: - Under $20m Val - Have esop available for staff and key supporters - Have a unique valuable proposition for your market - Team has deep experience in the sector - Raising a round within the next 3-6mths And you’d like to get your/their deck reviewed for feedback (direct transcription from the conversations reviewing your deck) from either 30 angels or 300 experts (or both) get me your deck before 7am this Friday. Use this link to send through your deck: https://lnkd.in/gU5YCbQm #angelinvesting #community #startups

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𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 ? I have read a lot of pitch decks in my life, especially recently while helping many startups in Sydney. I noticed that one chapter most startups fail in their pitch deck is actually one of the most important in the eyes of investors: our target market size. Now look, I’m not trying to portray myself as someone who always gets it right. When it comes to my own startups’ market size, I also make mistakes and try to look like a superhero. But the fact is that defining the market size properly is crucial for our scale-up focus. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 Our SaaS market is not the industry we are targeting, but the entities in that industry who can become potential clients. There is a critical difference between the two. I will give a simple but unrealistic example: if my product is a productivity tool for Sydney startups' chief marketing officers (CMOs), my market is not the overall Sydney Startups group or even the Sydney Startups CMOs. Instead, it is the group of CMOs in Sydney startups that actually use productivity tools. Any CMOs that, in principle, do not use productivity tools are not part of my market. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗶𝘇𝗲” ? Once you identify your market, you can then try to identify your market size. The market size is not the total budget of that market but the amount of money spent by your market on products and services similar to what you offer—the disruptive part of that market. Is your head spinning? Let me return to my example and give more examples below. For my CMO productivity tool, the market size is the average amount of money spent by CMOs on a productivity tool, multiplied by the number of Sydney Startups CMOs that use productivity tools. 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙞𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩. 𝙐𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠! Confused? Here an example with more examples on my blog: Example: 𝗔𝗻 𝗔𝗜-𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗰𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁: Coffee shops that grind coffee. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝘇𝗲: The total amount of money spent by coffee shops on coffee grinding machines, multiplied by the number of coffee shops in my market. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁: The international coffee industry, and the market size is not the total revenue of coffee shops around the world.

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Truly inspiring to listen to Dax Dasilva tell the story of Lightspeed Commerce on 20VC. With $900M in ARR I was thrilled to learn that Dax bootstrapped the company for 7 years to get to $10M in ARR. I hope it doesn't take us 7 years to get Liquid360 there but it makes me feel better about the 3.5 years we've put in to date. For me these stories are deeply encouraging. When you're building something very big it can take time to get to launch. A couple of weeks ago we met with a global player in the VC world. They were looking to invest $5M - $10M and we said we weren't there yet. We'll get there but it wouldn't be the right move today. They then jumped to another conclusion. The wrong one. I get it. They have a multi-billion dollar fund and capital to deploy. We have a company to grow and too much cash will not help us do it right. We've made good decisions being lean. Our customers are starting at $500K. This is an enterprise/gov't product. We have to satisfy a very discerning customer. No bugs, no glitches. A dependable and reliable product. We are excited by the feedback. We are making the world safer. Harry Stebbings suggested that Lightspeed is one of the most misunderstood companies. It's market cap is $2.6B which seems really low relative to the ARR. Very interesting episode.

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