Gregory Gittrich

“The funding landscape has changed during the time we have been involved in it, and continues to evolve,” “And we’re evolving with it, to ensure that there is even more flexibility for companies to access the specific capital they need for a given scenario. We’ve funded well over 180 technology companies across multiple industries and verticals, and we’re not slowing down any time soon.” Regarding the total addressable market for Tractor to operate in, Imam explains that the one-funding-product-fits-all approach has required tweaking, simply due to the totally different needs expressed by the financial decision-makers, related to time, total access to the capital itself, and looming milestones that require a more strategic approach to accessing capital. “If you’re a SaaS company, or an ecommerce company, or a hardware company, or operating in a particular niche or vertical like marketing tech for example, you will have a different set of needs for funding based on your revenue,” explains Imam. “We’ve moved to a scenario-based funding model, based on the most common queries we receive at this point in time. B2B Enterprise SaaS we will always be able to fund in an instant. Other scenarios arise when the financials require a bit more flexible and bespoke assessment.” “In particular, our Inventory product points to our capability to fund in some very very specific and founder-focussed ways, and that flexibility really excites us, now and for the future.” Thank you for this write up SmartCompany!

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INTERVIEWS OF 2024 SXSW PITCH WINNERS: Dhavel Patel of Lotus Every March in Austin, 50 of the world's most impactful startups showcase their talents at SXSW Pitch. Today we begin a series of short interviews with some of the category winners from the 2024 event. Founder and CEO Dhaval Patel has been growing Lotus for three years. At this year's SXSW Pitch, his San Jose based startup emerged as the winner of the "Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability" category. Patel's short answers to our questions are below. SXSW: What is Lotus?  Patel: A wearable ring that controls objects at home by pointing. See https://www.getlotus.com/ SXSW: What community does Lotus serve? Patel: Folks with limited mobility -- older adults, veteran soldiers, people with disabilities.  SXSW: Who is your all-time favorite entrepreneur? Patel: Warren Buffett. SXSW: Best startup-related advice you have received? Patel: Don't start building first, find the need first. SXSW: Current entrepreneurial trend that excites you the most? Patel: Desire for tech that is intuitive and simple. SXSW: Fail fast or perseverance? Patel: Persevere in failing fast repeatedly. SXSW: Favorite VC? Patel: Andreessen Horowitz. SXSW: Favorite gadget or device? Patel: Apple AirPods. SXSW: Government can best support startups by Patel: Moving faster. SXSW: Most over-hyped technology at present? Patel: AI. SXSW: Most under-hyped technology at present? Patel: Consumer hardware. SXSW: What did you enjoy most about your experience at SXSW? Patel: The people -- each person wanting to make the world a better place. SXSW: What is your best trait as an entrepreneur? Patel: Simplifying complex problems. SXSW: What is your best advice for other startups? Patel: Focus (say "no" to more). Learn more about Dhaval Patel of Lotus plus other 2024 SXSW Pitch winners by listening to the audio of their session at this year's event. See https://lnkd.in/gHtwQB8n Applications for SXSW Pitch 2025 will open in late summer. See https://lnkd.in/gE2hcVPK #sxsw, #sxsw2024, #startups, #founders, Chris Valentine, Dhaval Patel, SXSW, #venturecapital, #entrepreneur, #entrepreneurs, #startup, #founderstories, #sxswpitch, Lotus (Techstars'23), #techstars, #Austin, #ATX, #creativity, #innovation, #hardware, #consumerhardware, #pitch, #accessibility,

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🚨 The former CFO of Dropbox, Sujay Jaswa oversees the investment and operating activities as a founding partner at WndrCo, alongside media vet Jeffrey Katzenberg. He joins us for VC Wednesdays.🚨 🖋️  You recently closed a $460 million VC fund. Where are you looking to deploy that? Everything we do is around the idea of the future of work and helping people optimize how they get work done. That’s why we're investors in companies like Airtable, Figma, Databricks, Deel, 1Password and others. That won’t change, but now, you'll see us really focus on the applications of AI that will meaningfully disrupt how work gets done, like in finance, HR and customer support. 🖋️  Why should founders work with WndrCo? One thing that we do that's different is starting one to two companies a year in areas that we think have the potential to yield big returns. So, when we talk to entrepreneurs, our operating experience stays current, and that angle on venture is fairly unique. The second is that each partner at WndrCo has built something, so we have the empathy that comes from that experience. Third, we do only five to seven deals a year, versus bigger firms that do hundreds. Because we have a smaller portfolio, entrepreneurs can get a hold of literally every partner within a couple of hours, 365 days a year. 🖋️ Which startup pitch sticks out the most in your memory over others and why? My favorite is one that’s not a household name yet, even though the business is absolutely on fire. It’s Aura, an all-in-one product to protect you and your family online. The idea is that unlike the physical world, you have no idea what your kids are doing on their phones and devices. Aura gives parents the tools to navigate raising a kid in our mobile-first and digital-first world. When the founder, Hari Ravichandran, walked me through how he would take it to market, it was love at first sight. He's an extraordinary entrepreneur and the best go-to-market person I've ever met when it comes to consumer products. 🖋️ What’s one investment you regret passing on and why? At the end of the day, this whole business is built on being part of monster companies as early as possible. One of the best enterprise companies of the last decade is Databricks. The founder and CEO, Ali Ghodsi, is a very good friend of mine, and for whatever reason, it never occurred to me in the early years to twist his arm to try and let him take our money. We invested in Databricks later than I’d have liked to. 🖋️  What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned working with Jeffrey Katzenberg? The biggest thing I've learned is that you can't be him, and it’s impossible to keep up with him. He's relentless, and I have never met someone who works harder than him. If he says he's going to do something, no matter how hard, if it's within his capabilities, he'll do it. He's a doer, and he just gets stuff done. I admire that so tremendously. #VCWednesdays #vc #venturecapital #startups #TechonLinkedIn

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SCOOP: Jay-Z’s venture capital firm, Marcy Venture Partners, has merged with another Black-owned investment firm, Pendulum Holdings’ investment arm Pendulum Opportunities, to form MarcyPen Capital Partners, a MarcyPen spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. The newly formed MarcyPen Capital Partners has $900 million in assets under management, according to PitchBook. Read the rest of the scoop below 👇🏿 https://lnkd.in/eUHE73GP

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Got to chat with Reddit's new Chief Revenue Officer Mike Romoff about the company's redditsance, its deal with Google, and grappling with the threat and opp of AI search https://lnkd.in/edrGsbVS

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Back in 1997, The New York Times highlighted a “Roundtable in Multimedia” attended by senior media executives. They lamented that apart from a few exceptions like pornography websites and Amazon, no one had cracked the code for a viable 'interactive' media business model. Fast forward to 2024, and Fable has launched Showrunner, a revolutionary platform known as the “Netflix of AI" , which allows users to create their own TV shows with just a few prompts. 📺✨ The way we create and consume content has evolved dramatically. But what does "interactive media" really mean today? We break it down, exploring how it intersects with massive shifts in technology, culture, and new media. And how with a growing "Swipe before Type" generation, there is now an ingrained expectation of interactivity in all digital experiences. We dive into the future of interactive media and gaming and see where we're headed next! Link in comments. #InteractiveMedia #Gaming #AI #TechRevolution #ContentCreation #NewMedia

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Wonderful article about Emily Knight and the whole The Engine Accelerator team on the amazing work their doing changing the world with #ToughTech!

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One Way Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital firm that only backs companies with at least one immigrant founder, is now raising a $60 million third fund. The planned third fund is roughly the same size of its $57.5 million predecessor, which closed in 2021. #Boston #tech #news #massachusetts #venturecapital #venturefund #startups #fundingalert #immigration #fundingnews

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If Ilya Sutskever suggests that LLM scaling has kind of plateaued, it's a perspective worth taking seriously. Many entrepreneurs will waste years by overestimating the capabilities of LLMs without truly understanding their current limitations.

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Beyond all the “thought leadership,” “conversions,” and other serious objectives that come with writing for business, sometimes the projects that stick in the memory do so for the smallest, most unserious reasons. Before I started at Tech in Asia, everything I’d put out was predominantly text-based. Sure, there were pictures, but it never went very far beyond stock images or pictures I (amateurishly) took myself. But we also do infographics. This sounded daunting at first, especially since I don’t have any design skills of my own. Thankfully, I quickly learned that for such projects, I’d be working with a graphic designer colleague. One of the first infographic assignments I received was for a client that fights online fraud, so I thought it’d be fun to pitch a short timeline on the history of fraud. Apparently, the first recorded case of fraud took place in 300 BC. A Greek merchant named Hegestratos took out a loan on his ship and cargo and was required to repay the money - with interest - after selling his cargo, which was made up of corn. If he failed to repay the loan, the lender would gain possession of the ship and its cargo. To get out of the agreement, Hegestratos planned to sink the (empty) boat, keep the loaned money, and sell the corn. But he was caught in the act and drowned while trying to escape. My graphic designer colleague - Susi Susanti Wu - and I decided to depict Hegestratos going down with his ship, and her first draft showed him fighting the waves along his leaking boat, grasping an ear of corn in his hand. I was laughing as I typed to her on Slack, “more corn on the boat pls lol 🌽” It still remains one of the sillier pieces of feedback I’ve ever given anyone, and I still remember it, over five years after the fact. Sometimes, the reason why you like a thing you created doesn’t have to be sophisticated or because it Drove Business Results™. #writing #infographics #fun #corn

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The prompt is pivotal for powering GenAI solutions, acting as the foundational blueprint that determines the quality & relevance of the AI's output (AI can't think on its own). But the critical question is: how does a Prompt Engineer craft the most intelligent prompt? The answer lies in leveraging the most robust data source - and in the realm of marketing that is VidMob. Yes, Vidmob holds the richest cross-channel Creative Data asset in the world. If you want to learn more about how Vidmob can empower your brand please reach out. The Prompt is the Creative. #CreativeData #CreativeTechnology #DataDrivenMarketing #CreativeExcellence #DigitalTransformation The Wall Street Journal

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Proliferation of machine learning capabilities means “it’s become harder to justify licensing software any more [because] it’s getting better at what it does every time it’s used, which requires a different way to engage with it,” says Genoa Ventures partner Landon Merrill. “Numerous companies are thinking through the implications of that for their business models.” You can read the full story at https://lnkd.in/ewUVy3nB 

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What does it take for a startup to succeed in music-tech? More than Product-Market fit -- you also need Industry Market fit and Investor Market fit. I wrote about these patterns https://lnkd.in/gF4wBSfX

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We’re joining NY Tech Week for a second year, this June. It’s a panel discussion with Q+A. Bring your questions and insights. If you are experienced in BD / Corp Dev / M&A / Distressed Assets / PE: What are you seeing in the market in 2024 and how will this change in 2025? What are common mistakes that founders and investors make, and how to avoid them? If you are a founder: How do you plan for selling your startup at a successful exit or at a distressed price? If you are an investor as an angel / emerging manager / VC / PE / secondaries: What do you do to best support your founders? Last year, we had 50 seats and 500 people sign up. We are very grateful to have your interest in joining our conversation this year. https://lu.ma/4950c6z2

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We are expanding the nature of digital assets with FAIM.AI, Selfie.Live, LLC and our other partnerships. This post on influence as a digital assets starts to explore the essence of our digital selves in a Web3 space. https://lnkd.in/ef4zHduD

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Ticketing fees were in the spotlight once again, and not in a good way: “junk fees.” It’s a powerful reminder of how fee transparency and value can restore creator revenue and fan spending power. Here’s how: https://bit.ly/46IjnV9 #ticketing #junkfees

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Last night, while in town for GAI Insights #GenerativeAIWorld, I co-hosted a dinner with long time friend Dave Balter and True Ventures, gathering top minds in AI, VC, and entrepreneurship in Boston. BrandRank.AI CTO Matt Cox (based in Boston w/our tech team) and investor Bill Hildebolt of gen.video joined us. We dove into how AI is revolutionizing productivity across industries. The consensus? AI literacy is becoming as crucial as digital literacy was a decade ago. Our discussion centered around four key themes: - AI'S IMPACT ON BUSINESS: From automating tasks to enhancing decision-making, AI is transforming how companies operate and compete. - HUMAN-AI COLLABORATION: We explored the potential of AI as a creative partner and decision-making tool, and the implications for various industries. (Perfect timing for CincyAI for Humans (CincyAI) one-year anniversary celebration today.) - THE FUTURE OF WORK: We debated which jobs might be displaced, which new roles will emerge, and how to prepare for an AI-driven workforce. - ETHICAL AI AND BRAND PERCEPTION: Our work at BrandRank.AI is showing how AI can reveal uncomfortable truths about brands, raising questions about transparency and authenticity. (Are LLMs are too smart for BS!) What jumped out in the conversation is that AI isn't just a tool – it's becoming a collaborator, creator, and potential competitor. Are we ready for AI in boardrooms, creative processes, and as the primary interface for brand interactions? The entrepreneurial energy was palpable as we explored opportunities in AI-driven health monitoring and human-AI creative collaboration -- this balanced with ethical considerations and the responsibility we bear as leaders in this space. The future of business is AI-collaborative. Are we prepared to be good partners? This discussion echoed the conference's sentiment, bolstered by outstanding presentation by MIT and HBS faculty: we're in an unprecedented moment of disruption. It's not just a technological shift, but a fundamental reimagining of work, creativity, and interaction. (Amazing conference so far Paul Baier, John Sviokla Liz Vanzura) Great time to be an entrepreneur! And the ultimate test for leadership! Thanks Dave, Gus Coldebella and True team for great and timely conversation. Kelly Cohen Hank Hudepohl Carl Fraik Aftab Pureval Kendra Ramirez Christopher Brock Jon Salisbury Helen Todd (Human) Jon Salisbury Jack Wyant MJ Price 🌱Lauren Morgenstein Schiavone Judy Zitnik Christopher Morse Christy Page Jocile Ehrlich Lee Beech Tracey Cooke Sherrie Kinderdine Adriana Altuve Chetan Parekh Diana Takach Jonathan Carson

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Mastodon CEO Criticizes Meta's Moderation Changes, Cautions Threads Users on Cross-Posting Eugen Rochko, the CEO of Mastodon, has raised concerns about Meta’s recent decision to shift its moderation approach. Meta announced that it would replace fact-checking across its platforms with a crowdsourced Community Notes system, similar to what’s used on X (formerly Twitter). Rochko described this change as “deeply troubling” and warned that it could have serious implications, particularly for marginalized communities. He also addressed how this impacts users who cross-post from Threads—a Meta platform—onto Mastodon using the fediverse-sharing feature. Rochko made it clear that Mastodon will enforce its existing policies, including taking action against hate speech and other violations, even for content originating from Threads. The fediverse-sharing feature, introduced by Meta last year, allows Threads users to share posts directly on Mastodon, expanding their audience. While Rochko initially saw this as a step forward for decentralized social media, not everyone in the Mastodon community feels the same. Some smaller Mastodon servers have blocked Threads entirely, citing concerns over moderation and privacy. Similarly, Meta has blocked certain Mastodon servers for similar reasons. This latest moderation shift from Meta has created uncertainty about how large Mastodon instances, are like Mastodon. social, will handle Threads accounts moving forward. Rochko assured Mastodon users that the platform is prepared to address any challenges that arise. For those uncomfortable with Meta’s new direction, Rochko suggested moving to Mastodon as an alternative. However, he acknowledged that transitioning from Threads to Mastodon isn’t as straightforward as moving between Mastodon servers, due to Threads’ current limitations in fully integrating with the fediverse. By reinforcing its commitment to protecting its community, Mastodon aims to maintain a space that prioritizes thoughtful moderation and user trust. https://lnkd.in/dG6hDTT8? Platform: TechCrunch Author: Sarah Perez #mastodon #meta #metasocial #moderation #threads #socialmedia #socialmediaplatforms #bigtech #technews #socialmedianews #technology #crossposting

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