Benjamin Dunphy

Some things that could be done in Singapore: 1. Curated dinners with startups and VC Folks 2 Singapore Tech and Startups Week - Host various side events 3. Walk and Talks 4. Conferences, 1 Day events 5. A space for builders to co work out of or a hacker house here on the weekends Who’s building or trying in any of these areas? Feel free to DM me if you are building in any of the above areas Or comment on this post

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Insightful breakdown from my great Partner Omri Amirav-Drory on the simple factors that really separate the top 1% of investors from the rest, and how more operators should become investors! https://lnkd.in/gEiZdT2h

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The Council's first SPV of 2024 is down in the books and oversubscribed. Running SPVs where we have pro rata or extra allocation in fund deals is a muscle we are building pretty late in the game as a firm. As a solo GP with a tiny team, it's crippling to think of the extra work required and risk of not meeting platform minimums to run an SPV. But 7 of our port co's have recently raised follow on funding where we had pro rata. These are awesome deals for our LPs, angel members, and syndicate community. We simply can't afford to let them slip through the cracks. These allocations are only becoming more valuable as our firm grows, so we must start NOW! Proud to say this one went off without a hitch and our syndicate community is small but THRIVING. Wish us luck as we keep building. Note our SPVs are now on Sydecar. The best way to get access is to know someone on The Council Fund team and be on our SPV email list. **What's an SPV?** An SPV is a Special Purpose Vehicle. It allows multiple angel investors to pool together into one larger investment into a company. This helps the founder keep paperwork and investor relations to a minimum (less names on the cap table = simplicity!). When people say they're investing with a "syndicate" or they are "syndicating a deal," SPV is the entity and process by which they do that. A "syndicate" is like a community of people that invest via SPVs together.

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💡 SaaStock Reflections: 5 Fundraising Insights for Early-Stage Founders. Last week at SaaStock, I found myself bouncing between two extremes—presenting to early-stage founders navigating their first fundraise on Monday and tee-d up to discuss the high-stakes challenges of CEOs with >£1bn valuations on Wednesday. The contrast reminded me of one thing: the learning curve never stops, whether you're just getting started or leading a unicorn. For founders getting started, the world of fundraising can be one of the biggest learning curves. So, I’ve pulled together the top takeaways from Monday’s session to help demystify the process for those thinking about raising for the first time. Here’s what I’ll break down this week: ❓What’s happening in VC fundraising? ❓The ‘Power Law’ and why VC isn’t right for 99% of businesses. ❓Alternatives to VC and when they make more sense. ❓How to choose the right VC for you. ❓How much to raise and when is the best time to do it. 1️⃣ So, what’s happening in VC fundraising?? 😕 Still stress in the system. It is hard to speak with conviction (markets hot, markets not, valuations back up, valuations down, down rounds over…a lot of pain still to come etc). The reality is 2020/21 were anomalies (unfair yardsticks to measure against) BUT covid, gov stimulus, inflation, monetary policy, political uncertainty and war have and still massively impact fundraising. 🪟 IPO window closed and M&A activity weak. Public SaaS multiples are way down relative to a couple years ago - 80% of SaaS companies that went public in 2020/1 are trading below their issue price. The IPO window has been closed and M&A activity weak. ⌛Liquidity for VCs has stretched to longer time horizons. According to Carta only 9% of 2021 funds have seen any return vs 25% for the 2017 vintage at the same checkpoint. 3 years in is early for a fund, but it is an important mark as it is when GPs start looking to raise their next funds. 🫰So, LPs are more selective. Whilst returns are stretching out to longer time horizons, the NASDAQ is on a rip and interest rates are high, so alternatives to VC have become relatively more attractive to LPs. So, LP capital is being more selective. Less money is going to fewer VCs compared to a couple of years ago (“flight to quality” for LPs). ✈️ What does this mean for founders? It is relatively harder to raise now than a few years ago. Seed to A conversion had dropped to 15% from 30%+. Ultimately, VCs have refocussed on finding companies best suited to “traditional VC return profiles” (“flight to quality” for VCs, too). Founders raising VC are held to an incredibly high bar. Tomorrow I will cover the mathematical reality of the ‘Power Law’ and why VC isn’t right for 99% of businesses. #VC #fundraising #saastock #albionVC

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Last Call! Financing the Venture Series – over Zoom, with class-room option for last module - Starting this Thursday, October 3rd at 1pm PST Getting founders and their startups ready to attract capital and deal with all the complications of various finance forms, due diligence and ensuring enough capital is available for their venture.   All modules will be online (Zoom), option to attend Module 6 in-person class format in Victoria and Vancouver, all classes are from 1-3pm.   ✔ Oct. 3 - Intro to Financing ✔ Oct. 17 - Engaging Investors from Intro to DD  ✔ Nov. 7 - Term Sheets and Deal Structure  ✔ Dec. 12 - Valuation ✔Jan. 17 - Journey to Success ✔ Feb. 6 Victoria, Feb. 7 Vancouver - Deep Dive Cap Table, executive summary and pitch deck Info and registration here: https://lnkd.in/gvhFFCg5 New ventures and startups require capital to grow and scale up. Founders not only struggle to find the capital they require; they might lack the background to successfully engage and negotiate with investors.   The program helps you to be ready for pitching and engaging with the right investors, engaging in due diligence and using data rooms, discussing sources and funding and term sheets, understanding and negotiating valuation and managing post-investment relationships. Pieter Dorsman VIATEC New Ventures BC

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David Yi (Ethos VC) a.k.a "The VC who hates most VCs" on his Personal Journey and Perspective on Growth:  "As an eight-time founder with two exits, I've seen the landscape from multiple angles. It's not about being a hero but about building a team, learning, and evolving. Whether it's in education or tech, the journey is about adapting and finding your path, not just in Korea but globally." https://lnkd.in/gVduV3MQ #startupswithseoul Chang (CK) Kim

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Most discussion sessions intended for founders suck because the content is not practical/operational enough, there’s too many people in the room, or worse, someone’s trying to sell you something. Next Friday, I am hosting the inaugural Founder Salon in Singapore at the Lightspeed Southeast Asia office for 10 founder/CEOs or CHROs that is definitely none of that. Sunil Setlur (former Gojek CHRO) and I will be jamming on topics like: 🏗 Tradeoffs between functional and business unit-oriented organization structures 💵 How to design compensation strategies for teams 🌵 Several more thorny subjects on organization building These were all informed by the debates we’ve had at Gojek and learnings from the multitude of painful mistakes we’ve made - I'm creating a forum that I wish I had back when I was building. If you are a founder/CEO or CHRO, please apply here:

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To the founders that I didn't invest in: For most of you, it was the right call. You were too early. You were missing something. You were too good and/or past the stage where it makes sense to join our program. For some of you I missed a great opportunity. If that's the case, I'm sure you did just fine. The good ones always find a way. I'm sorry I missed riding alongside you. For those of you that I didn't invest in and it was the right decision, I hope you'll apply again on your next go around. Some of our best investments applied 2 or 3 times before they got it. Often I have to invest at a higher valuation because you deserve it and I wish I'd seen your potential earlier. Early stage startup investing is at least as much art (and luck) as science. Keep on building, keep on learning. Hope to see your application for cohort 10: https://lnkd.in/gv6n_k8E

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👼 Super honest panel with my good pal Monik Pham (Pact) and Roxane Sanguinetti (Alma Angels) and Eda Leka moderated by Matthew Ford (Sidekick) about angel investing. Hosted by Sidekick at sequel lovely offices 👉 Some key takeaways for aspiring angels and founders: - There is no one path into angel investing - VC, Operator, Fintech/Financial services... - Diversification is key; angel investing allows flexibility from public markets but also for VC's from their fund strategies. - You should develop a cadence of investing that works for you, and joining communities like Alma Angels helps new investors get started. - Your investment strategy can evolve over time Trends: - Angels are increasingly investing in funds and working alongside VCs, bringing valuable deals. - They are also focusing on underrepresented founders and teams with diversity. - Not all angels will decide to follow on when a VC invests - there is an opportunity cost to following your money versus investing into more companies which impact angels more due to the dilutive effect. Social and Impact Investing: - There's an emphasis on supporting diverse teams, not just flashy deals. - Angels contribute more than money, offering mentorship and expertise. - Alma Angels look at companies with female and male founding teams but the female founder must have double digit equity 🚨 As an investor some of the best deals I have done have been introduced to me by an angel or have great angels on the captable.

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It can be said louder but not clearer: this is why SEA is a more attractive market in theory than in practice 🎯 Refining the strategies for specific personas and segments is the key Thanks, Arun Poojari for sharing

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It's interesting that Tech in Asia released an article today on VC secondaries (which was republished with permission from The Realistic Optimist) talking about the emergence of VC secondaries as a crucial yet underused mechanism for the Tech ecosystem. Given my fond memories of my Private Equity days, let's talk a bit about Secondaries. 🔍 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? In simple terms, it's when shareholders of a company sell their stock to another investor, or a fund investor sells their LP ownership stake to another fund investor. 🔄 𝐓𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 1. LP Secondaries: Most common type of Secondaries, where an existing LP's ownership in a PE/VC fund is bought by another LP. 2. GP Secondaries: A fund sponsor sells one or more assets from a fund it manages to a new fund, often managed by the same sponsor and capitalized by secondary buyers. 💡 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬? 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥? If they could sell, they would (𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴). In this current market where liquidity is scarce, exiting at a marked-up MOIC/IRR (𝘪.𝘦. 2021-22 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯) is challenging. In a LP Secondary scenario, a LP may decide to reduce their exposure to a certain geography due to a variety of reasons (𝘦.𝘨. 𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭, 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨). In a GP Secondary scenario, more often than not, the fund projects that the portfolio companies require a bit more time (𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦) to realize the potential returns. 💰 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐁𝐮𝐲 𝐚 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲? Similar to other asset classes investment rationale, a Secondary investor may be able to acquire a good asset (𝘪.𝘦. 𝘢 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘰 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴) at a deeply discounted price, resulting in a respectable return in a much shorter timespan (𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 1.5-2𝘹 𝘔𝘖𝘐𝘊 𝘢𝘯𝘥 16-25% 𝘐𝘙𝘙 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 2-3 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴), relative to a typical 10-year fund life. In our inherently inefficient market, Secondaries can provide a crucial capital bridge to support the tech ecosystem and capital markets. Unfortunately, these transactions are still rare in Southeast Asia. #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #Secondaries #Startups #TechEcosystem #SouthEastAsia

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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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第3弾は、Y CombinatorのWebサイトで「Healthcare」で分類されている、メンタルヘルス×モニタリング（1社）、企業の医療費削減（1社）、在宅介護支援（1社）、カップル向けAI恋愛アプリ（1社）について、スタートアップについてそれぞれまとめました。ぜひnoteをご覧ください。 ブログ記事はこちら（Here is the blog post）↓ https://lnkd.in/gT-RcVVJ *Although the articles are in Japanese, please feel free to contact me in English if you are interested in the content. I would like to introduce companies from the Y Combinator Winter 2024 Batch. Part 3 summarizes each of the startups categorized under "Healthcare": One in Mental health x monitoring, One in Reducing corporate healthcare costs, one in Home care support, and one in AI relationship app for couples.

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the biggest difference between San Francisco & Singapore for me is this. whether it's the population of experienced, ambitious series A-B founders that's low (they leave to SF/London for better network effects once they reach this level) or if they exist but the chance of meeting them is low because they're too busy to spend time with people outside of their team/customers/family (or they rather meet up other founders at their level or higher in private dinners) is worth being looked into. but regardless, this takes a massive toll on knowledge/wisdom transfer in an ecosystem. that's bad because startups are peak knowledge economy and insights and short cuts make all the difference in both life and death of startups, as well as in the rate at which they can grow and generate and capture value. singapore is way ahead of most countries. most countries don't even have that critical mass of early stage startups, or a critical mass of exited tech builders/investors. but this curve will create negative network affects, if not dealt with. not just singapore, any country that wants a healthy ecosystem for startups or any other important thing (scientific research etc.) needs a healthy knowledge/wisdom transfer pipeline. can't miss a few layers in between and expect the system to produce great output. Btw I think San Francisco is absolutely lucky to have the knowledge transfer pipeline that it has. It's not necessarily designed or intentionally set up. and I don't think it's sustainable either (smart people leaving their countries to go 1 place can be exciting for a few decades but then causes their home countries to get worse and worse, which makes the world worse and worse. no city can become/stay great if the world around it is burning). but this problem wont get solved by itself because humans have a natural tendency to hang out with people at their level of competence/consciousness or higher. elitism reinforces elitism. LearningLoop.com's global mission since day 1 has been, not to disrupt elitism, but to capture the wisdom of the elite, present it at different levels of abstraction to people who seek it but can't get it; because of their location, wealth, level competence, etc. make 1 billion elites we've started with 1 knowledge space that is startups. so at this scale, we define success as making sure San Francisco's startup network and knowledge/wisdom pipeline and discourse not just available but accessible globally. availability = being able to see/read/hear about it vs accessibility = being able to participate in it and get value from it. P.S: we're hosting an event in singapore this wednesday, if you're a founder you should drop by. the RSVP list looks amazing and you'll love the people and conversation. link in comments

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PE - PE Acceleration Toolkit (i.e. not Playbook) What commercial, GTM and growth areas do you cover in your "PE Portfolio Company Toolkit" (i.e. some funds like Vista Equity Partners call it a Playbook but I refer to it as toolkit with the aim of it being a participatory, not a prescriptive playbook)? Some ideas* come to mind - what else? (* i.e. Commercial/GTM/Revenue Growth - not including Product, Engineering, R&D and other functions) 1. Sales Optimization   - Sales Org Structure   - Sales Management Process   - Sales Prospecting & Outbound   - Sales Process Engineering - Pipeline Management - Forecasting & Commit Process - Forecasting Rollups - CEO & Board   - Sales performance metrics and KPIs   - Channel Sales, Partner and alliance programs   - Rev Ops & Sales Enablement   - Sales Quota, Compensation & Incentives   - Sales Tech & Automation 2. Marketing Optimization   - B2B Demand Generation strategy   - Marketing Management - Marketing Process Engineering - Defining Lead Nomenclature - Campaign Management - Strategic Messaging Architecture   - PLG - Product Led Growth   - Digital & Inbound marketing    - Account-based marketing (ABM) - Customer Marketing - Product Marketing - Marketing/Sales Alignment & SLAs   - Marketing Metrics / KPIs   - Marketing Tech & Automation 3. Customer Management, Success and Retention   - Customer onboarding processes   - VOC - collecting and analyzing customer feedback   - Customer Segmentation   - Customer Management Processes   - Proactive customer Engagement   - AM & Expansion Sales   - Renewal strategies   - Customer loyalty strategies   - Customer support optimization   - Customer metrics and KPIs 4. Pricing and Packaging   - Pricing strategies   - Value-based pricing   - Discounting strategies & pricing transparency   - Subscription and usage-based models   - Pricing experimentation and A/B testing   - Competitive pricing analysis 5. Operational Efficiency   - SaaS metrics (CAC, LTV, churn rate, etc.)   - Process automation and workflow optimization 6. Talent & Culture   - Leadership & Management    - Attracting and retaining top talent   - Building a high-performance culture   - Performance Management   - Remote work best practices   - Continuous learning and development 7. Community Building   - Community creation & engagement   - Building an ecosystem around the product   - Customer Advocacy Programs 8. Data and Analytics   - Data-driven decision-making   - Business intelligence (BI) tools and dashboards   - Data governance, security and privacy   - AI applications Other: 9. Product (& GTM Alignment) 10. M&A (Commercial/GTM integration) 11. Finance (Supporting the GTM org) 12. GTM Board Updates & KPIs 13. Etc. ------------------ #pe #privateequity #business

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Congratulations to Surojit Chatterjee, Souvik Sen and Ema Unlimited team on a successful fundraising! SCB 10X is thrilled to announce our investment in Ema as part of the $36M Series A extension funding round, which brings their total raise since inception to $61M. This round, led by Accel and S32, included participation from other notable investors such as Prosus Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Wipro Ventures, COLLE CAPITAL and Frontier Ventures B.V. Ema's innovative approach to enterprise workflow automation through Generative AI strongly aligns with our investment thesis in the Deep Tech space. Their platform, which combines a proprietary Generative Workflow Engine™, Knowledge Graph, and EmaFusion™ Model, addresses critical challenges in enterprise AI adoption while ensuring the highest levels of security and compliance. Founded in 2023, EMA has shown impressive rapid tractions within their first year. Their ability to create customizable "AI employees" or "Personas" for specific business functions promises to revolutionize enterprise productivity across multiple industries. The founding team's exceptional track record in scaling products and technologies at companies like Google, Flipkart, Coinbase and Okta, gives us confidence in Ema's ability to capitalize on the fast-growing autonomous AI and agents market, projected to reach $41 billion by 2029. As SCBX Group aims to increase our AI-enabled revenue to 75% by 2028, we believe this partnership will provide valuable insights into deploying efficient, reliable, and compliant AI solutions. We're excited to support Ema's vision of transforming the future of work with Universal AI Employees and look forward to the innovations that lie ahead. Press release of Ema’s fundraising: https://lnkd.in/gpe-FV26 #artificialintelligence #generativeai #ai #startups #venturecapital

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I just returned from a dinner with many founders in Singapore, and everyone asked me what they should do, as most VCs in this region seem to be hibernating. Our Partner, Jamie Lin, shared his view on DSA just at the right time. (Can DM me if you wanna read the article.) Yes, it is very tough now. Don't lose hope. We've seen many founders in our community who successfully shifted their company towards healthy growth (= maintaining both top and bottom line) and still luckily moved on to the next fundraising. Yes, all returned to the business fundamental: Build a strong PMF and pave it with a strong moat. Survive, survive, survive. Make your customer pay, be creative with capital. Until you find an investor with the same conviction. (I told my founder husband every day.) It's not impossible. But it's not easy. And we at AppWorks are always very proud of all founders who are still fighting! 💪

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What do you do when you find founders who have deep experience in a traditional domain like construction tech and have spent years honing their insights in the domain. Combine that with Co-founders experience being founding engineers of giants like Rippling and spent time on building banking and fintech infrastructure at companies like Niyo. We at Neon love working with such domain experts who come together to startup. Construction tech is a domain that deserves founders like Merlin to disrupt it. As I say it can’t get better that this founding team. Read more about Neon’s portfolio Merlin and our founders Sneha, Siddhartha and Ayantika here: https://lnkd.in/g4m9su-e

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