Emile Sayegh

ISP Strategic Leadership, Engineering, and Operations As an organization scales, there is often a need to separate strategic technology leadership under the CTO from internal execution under engineering and operations management. This allows the CTO to focus on outward-facing duties while enabling streamlined operational efficiency. However, it's crucial to recognize the differing motivations and needs of these distinct technical roles. On one hand, engineers thrive on tackling interesting, challenging projects that push their abilities and knowledge. They value working alongside capable peers, genuine recognition of technical accomplishments, and contributing to products/services that reach the market. In contrast, operations teams should strive for repeatable processes, continual improvement, and driving efficiency at scale. Their priorities revolve around standardizing workflows, minimizing disruptions, and incrementally optimizing existing systems and procedures to maintain consistent service delivery as the company grows. An effective organizational structure acknowledges this dichotomy, fostering an environment that fuels engineering innovation while providing operations with the stability and process-orientation they require. Striking this balance enables the company to stay agile and innovative through its engineering efforts, while simultaneously scaling operational execution in a reliable and repeatable manner. Competitive compensation remains an important motivator across both domains. By properly aligning structural elements, motivational factors, and leadership priorities, a rapidly growing ISP can position itself to attract and retain top talent across engineering and operations, driving sustainable growth and success in the dynamic technology landscape.

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A blistering funding run has me revisiting a question I posed after Q3's VC funding data came out. Was Austin's modest $1.6B in H1 2024 signaling a slowdown or was Q3's $1B surge the real indicator? November's explosive activity gives us our answer: 💥Tricentis: $1.33B raise ($4.5B valuation) New 🦄 💥FireFly Aerospace: $175M ($2B valuation) 💥Ladder: $105M 💥Halcyon AI: $100M ($1B valuation) New 🦄 With these mega-rounds, Q4 is already approaching $2B with several weeks remaining. I am hearing about more significant rounds in the pipeline, though I don’t know whether they will announce in Dec or early '25. What a difference a quarter makes! Austin sits at ~$4B YTD, knocking at the door of 2023's $4.2B. The first half numbers now look more like timing quirks than a true slowdown. Our sector diversity (seen here in AI, Space, Bio & Health and Cybersecurity) reinforces what Peter Walker's analysis shows below; Austin's strength comes from our broad foundation & tech convergence. As Peter notes in his original post, "Austin is good in many areas, great in few." I see this as a strength, not a weakness (not implying that he was making this implication either). With ATX consistently ranking somewhere between 5th-7th in funding, and having strong momentum metrics, we have a bright future ahead. What's Next?

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🌟 Join Crane’s Exclusive CXO Advisory Board! 🌟 What Scott doesn’t mention below is that the “Fill in the Blank” survey is the path for enterprise tech executives to apply for a spot on Crane’s CXO Advisory Board, where your expertise will directly influence and shape the future of technology startups. To be considered, simply complete our “Fill in the Blank” survey. #CXOAdvisory #EnterpriseTech #TechLeadership #Innovation #CraneVenturePartners #FillInTheBlank #TechFounders

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I'm no fan of Industry Conferences - the full effort required to make the juice worth the squeeze rarely occurs...TechCrunch Disrupt is an exception to my rule. I shared the staged with 3 absolute professionals within the Space Industry discussing insights related to early-stage companies supporting the dual markets of Government and Commercial. Here are a few takeaways: 1) We have an obligation to engage government at the policy level 2) Market focus is critical to our growth and to returning value to our investors 3) Tech innovation is assumed while GTM talent is required Aria Alamalhodaei expertly moderated our panel which along wth me, included Debra Emmons (The Aerospace Corporation) and True Anomaly CEO, Even Rogers. We missed having Space Workforce For Tomorrow chief (and Slingshot Aerospace co-founder) Melanie Stricklan on the stage to share in the discussion. Watch the full panel here https://lnkd.in/gZTg-Jem #TechCrunchDisrupt #Space #Defense #CommercialSpace #VC

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Over the last two decades SaaS has dominated and reshaped industries. And I believe we are on the verge of a significant shift in 2025, with autonomy taking center stage in industries like aerospace, defense, manufacturing, and robotics. Industries such as oil & gas, HVAC, and water treatment are grappling with massive retirements, creating critical labor gaps. It’s clear that the next generation of engineers must be equipped to handle autonomous systems, analyze sensor data, and manage advanced control systems. Industries are increasingly adopting AI-powered autonomous systems, the integration of physical hardware with intelligent software has become not just important but essential. Fields like robotic teleoperation and AI-driven industrial automation are unlocking exciting opportunities that demand specialized technical skills. There is an absolute need for engineers with expertise in mechanical, electrical, and control engineering. To meet the rising demand for “full-stack hardware engineers,” these disciplines must not only grow but evolve to equip professionals with the skills to seamlessly integrate hardware and software, driving the future of innovation and automation. For this, I believe the education industry must step up and lead the way: K12 schools should introduce students to robotics, coding, and hands-on design projects early on. By doing so, they can inspire students to explore diverse career paths, ranging from high-tech trades to advanced engineering role. Universities should offer interdisciplinary programs that integrate hardware and software disciplines. They should also partner with companies to create apprenticeship opportunities, providing students with invaluable, real-world, hands-on experience. EdTech companies have a vital role to play. They should develop tools like virtual labs for robotics, sensor integration, and PCB design, giving students opportunities to learn by doing. Additionally, I encourage them to create short courses and certifications to help professionals transition into these high-demand roles. We also need to invest in workforce development programs to reskill mid-career professional and tap into the strengths of community colleges to train technicians and skilled workers. Supporting apprenticeship models is critical for hands-on approach that makes on-the-job training accessible and effective for building technical expertise.

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𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫 $𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈: “𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥” 🚀🚀🚀 | Via VentureBeat | April 18, 2024 | @VINCI_Digital 🔹Honeywell, a company that builds automation technology for buildings and aircraft, has a plan to create more than $100 million in value from using generative AI, a leading company executive said. 🔹Sheila Jordan, the company’s chief digital technology officer, who helps lead the company’s AI activities, revealed that number during a conversation moderated by VentureBeat at an event in Atlanta last week focused on how generative AI is impacting security. 🔹In follow-up, clarifying remarks, Jordan told VentureBeat that generative AI is already delivering “𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒔” of net value, meaning the benefit created minus the costs. 🔹 She said this is the net benefit already impacting the company on an annual basis, and that “𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 $100 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏” is in “𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕.” Source: https://bit.ly/3WorJOX Book an appointment with🔹Fabio Bottacci, founder and CEO @VINCI Digital | IIoT + GenAI Strategic Advisory 🚀>>> https://lnkd.in/drDAMwaX ---------------------------------------------- #iot #ai #genai #automation #buidings #aircrafts #value

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Peak into the future: new data center development including high investment in grid and generation assets. It’s now about “bring your own power” but more about “build the grid and power system to meet your needs” Question for me is how will such investments affect the overall utilities business model, tariff structures, and the rest of rate payers, including competing DC operators flocking in the territory after these massive investments create opportunities for more capacity. How can we learn from this in Europe??

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Altman’s OpenAI Windfall May Reach $10 Billion If He Gets Stake OpenAI Discusses Giving Altman 7% Stake in For-Profit Shift CEO Sam Altman could get equity in the artificial intelligence startup for the first time. : Altman’s already worth $2 billion, Bloomberg calculations show$10 billion estimated value of Altman’s potential 7% stake assumes that OpenAI’s $150 billion valuation — if the round closes — represents only the total worth of its shares and doesn’t include any debt the company may have : His wealth will balloon if he receives OpenAI equity stake--- generative artificial intelligence ---

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🗞️ Breaking News: Red Ventures Selling CNET at a huge Loss❗️ Context: Red Ventures, the privately held digital media and marketing juggernaut based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is selling CNET, one of the largest tech publishers on the web, to Ziff Davis for just $100 million. For context: Red Ventures bought CNET for approximately $500 million. Reason for the Sale: Total traffic to CNET has dropped by a staggering 50% over the last three years. The main driver behind this decline is a 68% drop in organic traffic (loss off Google rankings and traffic). Tables turned: This sale is a stunning turn of events for CNET, which once bought Ziff Davis (then a tech magazine firm) in a deal worth roughly $1.6 billion - more than two decades ago. Catch Up: - Ziff Davis trades publicly with a market value of $1.94 billion. The company lost about half of its marketcap over the course of the last 48 months. Strategic rationale: If Ziff Davis is able to ink a content licencing deal with Google, Bing/Microsoft or ChatGPT (or else e.g. X.AI) - like Reddit did - it might turn out to be a very smart deal …

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Why Buying Your First Business is the hardest & Financing The Fear is Being seen as too risky by lenders and investors. The Solution: Prepare a solid business plan with detailed financial projections. Work with a financial advisor to enhance your credibility. Consider alternative financing options like SBA loans or seller financing.

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What an electrifying afternoon at the Houston Dealmakers Conference! 🚀🌟💡 The team at Curate Capital including myself took the stage for a fast-paced panel discussion that we hope completely transformed how attendees view social media's role in the venture capital landscape. M&A executives learned how to craft a captivating online brand that not only attracts investors but also builds a community of thriving future deal flow! ✨ The insights shared on leveraging social media for gaining invaluable customer insights were simply game-changing. A few highlights included: - I revealed the secrets behind Curate's concept of using influencers to skyrocket investment value, particularly for CPG brands with a direct opportunity to connect influencers with their products. - Darek of ROI Ventures shared his wife Hollie's journey from brand collaborations to true partnerships with equity in the contract, a model we're taking to scale with Curate Capital's second fund. - Aquila Mendez-Valdez of Haute in Texas shared actionable tips for even the most camera-shy brands to build an online community they can leverage for fundraising and relationship building in a genuine, authentic way. We hope the conversation left everyone feeling inspired and ready to transform their approach! 🎉 It's clear that with social media rapidly evolving within the financial sector, this is one trend everyone should be paying attention to. Thanks to all who participated, and a huge shoutout to the team at Dealmakers for the opportunity! Let's keep the conversation going and unlock endless possibilities together! 🙌💖 #CurateCapital #VentureCapital #SocialMediaMagic

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Our discussion with the visionary Arpi Mardirossian delved deeply into the critical gaps in AI governance across various levels, including organizational, national, and international … gaps that impact small businesses and require novel strategies to bridge them.

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Really appreciate the perspective from Anissa G.'s piece in The Information this morning based on her conversation with Bill Braun, Chief Information Officer at Chevron. Like other enterprises, Chevron has pursued two core areas that I believe are low-hanging fruit for AI adoption — they’ve built an internal chatbot with OpenAI’s API to help their HR and legal teams more easily query Chevron-specific company information and are testing out Copilot for Microsoft Office. What’s fascinating is Chevron, 15 on the 2024 Fortune 500 list, established an Enterprise AI team last summer to see what tools in the market they should be adopting, but haven’t yet found anything they believe will have a significant impact on the business — whether by boosting revenue or saving time and money. It’s easy to forget but helpful to keep in mind that, like many of their peers, Chevron began their cloud journey in 2017 and is still in the process of moving workloads there. While I believe it’s absolutely the right thing for management teams, boards and technology leaders to be actively seeking answers to the question of how they should leverage AI, there’s still a lack of clarity on where the rubber will meet the road to deliver transformative business outcomes. In many cases, continued cloud adoption is both a more immediate priority and a necessary intermediate step to being opportunistic with AI. Highly suggest reading the full article here — https://lnkd.in/em8s7J_2

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Congratulations to Abnormal Security on raising a $250M Series D financing at a $5.1B valuation, led by Wellington Management. We at Greylock are proud to be investing in Abnormal for the fifth time since Evan Reiser, Sanjay Jeyakumar and team started Abnormal in Greylock's offices. Abnormal's built the world's first AI-native cybersecurity platform that leverages AI to protect organizations most important vulnerability: humans and human behavior. Abnormal is also announcing today that they have crossed $200M ARR with 100% YoY revenue growth and is now used to secure nearly 20% of the Fortune 500. An important milestone as Abnormal advances its mission to protect humans using AI. CC: Asheem Chandna, Venky Ganesan, Stephen Ward, Rob Mazzoni https://lnkd.in/g4G4PRf9

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The NTIA/Verisign Cooperative Agreement for .Com impacts the fundamental workings of the Internet infrastructure and US digital sovereignty. This article in Circle ID from last week sums up the problems of the Internet Plumbing Monopolies. Is Verisign a Monopoly? Does It Matter? https://lnkd.in/eQ2UrGu4 Here is my response to the article: Your arguments regarding the price of .com are logical; however, the issue of Verisign’s monopoly extends beyond just .com pricing. It also concerns the monopoly power that Verisign holds within the DNS ecosystem, a power given it through the NTIA Cooperative Agreement and Amendment 35 without any US public or Congressional input or oversight. This monopoly power has significant implications for undermining ICANN’s “multi-stakeholder” process. We have seen this in several instances, such as Verisign’s failure to implement a “Thick WHOIS,” despite being an agreed-upon consensus “multi-stakeholder” policy of ICANN back in 2016 (and now required as part of NIS2). Furthermore, Verisign has collaborated with other “contracted parties” to narrow the definition of DNS Abuse by excluding CSAM and IP violations even though the US and EU DNS Abuse definitions include both. Even more troubling is that Verisign has been colluding with ICANN to secure its policy objectives that are counter to the protection of US cybersecurity and consumer/child protection. This has occurred through bilateral contract negotiations - such as those involving .com price increases, DNS Abuse definition, and blocking efforts to ensure an open, accurate, and accessible WHOIS - and ICANN policies involving NIS2 and the US cybersecurity reporting law (CISA). #versign #icann #whois #darkwhois #internetplumbingmonopolies #nationalsecurity #cybersecurity  

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The webinar today overviewing Previ was a success! So, we are doing another one on Tuesday, May 28th from 12-12:30pm MT! Register below if... - you are an HR leader who prioritizes benefits that don't cost money to launch - you are an HR leader who wants to help your employees save money - you feel your employees spend too much money on their cell phone bill - you'd like to offer something that doesn't require HRIS or payroll integrations, contracts, or data sharing Previ saves employees over $100/month on their cell phone bill through enterprise-level partnerships with AT&T and T-Mobile. Join us for the webinar to learn more and see why companies like Hanes, Shutterstock, Welch's, Qualtrics, and Sunrun choose to partner with us! Register here 👉 https://lu.ma/zf8dy4on

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john waller Jeff Bocan - this might be a new podcast y'all might really enjoy! Summary coverage from the most recent 3 shows: In recent episodes of the BG2Pod podcast, hosts Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner explore the evolving landscape of tech investments and innovation. They discuss the changing dynamics of the pre-IPO market, with larger funds and increased capital affecting company behavior and IPO timelines. The hosts analyze the impact of AI advancements, including OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 and Google's Astra, on various industries and debate the potential for AI to disrupt or enhance existing software companies. They also examine the challenges faced by private unicorn companies in achieving liquidity events and the factors contributing to the current dearth of IPOs. Additionally, the podcast touches on broader themes such as the role of capitalism and immigration in driving innovation, the debate around AI regulation, and the implications of recent tech earnings and market conditions. CC Kim Burgaard #podcasts #ai #investing #vc

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Having a Cars and Capital event tomorrow in Southern California with Oren Klaff. If you want to join message me. https://lnkd.in/gDQ4D39u Oren Klaff Bridger Pennington #InvestorEvent #FamilyOffice #InvestmentOpportunity #CarlsbadEvent #PrivateEquity #WealthManagement #InvestmentConference #CapitalRaising #NetworkingEvent #IndustryLeaders #FinancialGrowth #InvestorsMeetup #WealthBuilding #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentForum

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