Jason Yeh

Dan Primack had some pointed criticism for #VC yesterday in his Axios Pro Rata newsletter (a daily must read IMO 😤). In short, the model doesn't work if it can't produce exits for LPs. Don't blame public markets (which are at all-time highs) for the lack of liquidity either. 📈 💸 Instead, this is a "liquidity drought of your making" where "...swinging for the fences on every pitch, rather than taking the single or double that's available" is the only way out when you invest at "sky high valuations." 😰 "A whopping 37% of "unicorns" are being held for at least nine years by VC funds, including 13% that are past the 12-year mark." 😳 ⌛ Is he right? Is VC at a dire inflection point? Or is Primack prematurely hitting the panic button? 🚨 https://lnkd.in/dts92pXr

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Understanding AppLovin In the latest episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast, I present a long-form analysis of AppLovin's business and its significant recent growth. But understanding AppLovin the company is fundamentally predicated on understanding the market in which it operates, mobile games advertising, and the direct response digital advertising landscape more broadly. And so the podcast is structured in three parts: - Understanding direct response advertising - Understanding mobile gaming advertising - Understanding AppLovin’s growth Link below.

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A few thoughts from the Ironbird Studio team on how to do right by founders & downstream capital. This one is in the weeds unless you spend a lot of time thinking about venture studio economics, but critical if you're a founder or investor thinking about partnering with a studio. https://lnkd.in/eaej7XtM

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Congrats to Baller League on raising $25m Series A led by EQT Ventures and $8m Seed co-led by Dreamcraft Ventures. 💥 ⚽️ 🙌 Felix Starck founded Baller League in 2023 with an aspiration to lead a new era of #football with a fast-paced, six-a-side and 30 minute format. After two amazing seasons in Germany during 2024, the league is launching in UK and US during 2025, featuring hungry up-coming players in tandem with megastars like Ronaldinho, Usain Bolt, Luis Figo, John Terry, IShowSpeed and KSI. ✨ 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇺🇸 The #Dreamcrafters are proud to have co-led Baller League's Seed round in July 2024 with our friends from Oakvale Ventures, and we're excited to see the Baller Team secure a massive Series A led by our friends from EQT Ventures only six months later 🔥 📈 "Baller League’s rapid graduation from Seed to Series A is nothing short of remarkable. Raising their Seed round in July and securing their Series A in December highlights the team’s exceptional drive and focus. It’s great to be part of supporting an exceptional team and company that hits the sweet spot in our investment strategy with its #DigitalEntertainment focus and founded in #Germany. We’re especially proud to have brought in value-adding co-investors for their Series A round, ensuring the team is supported as they continue their great momentum." - Carsten Gjoertler Salling 🤗 Read more about Baller League and round in Financial Times and EU-Startups - find the links in the comments 👇 #Startups #VentureCapital

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Hey folks, I think you might be aware that what we're building at DeepCast includes a podcast discovery and exploration platform for listeners at www.deepcast.fm. We also recently unveiled www.deepcast.pro -- a promotions, marketing, and monetization platform for podcasters (and folks like networks and agencies who support them). "You make the shows, let us help you with what comes after." Shows claimed and processed via DeepCast Pro are also published for listener consumption on DeepCast. High value all around! If you're a podcaster, claim your show at www.deepcast.pro to get started. Free speaker-labeled transcripts for all your episodes as well as generated insights for each (key takeaways, quotes, topic & keyword sets, summaries, and more) plus many more features—and growing daily! We're shipping fast over here! (Thanks to Rachel Perez Hosna Qasmei Kim Burgaard Benjamin Moon Rachel Magana Hari Ramachandran!)

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I spend a lot of time discussing #VentureStudios — often these are #investors (#angels, #LP's, #VC's, and #FamilyOffices), current and aspiring studio operators, and #startup #founders curious about how being part of a studio might benefit them. This is a relatively new asset class, so many of the questions I get come down to understanding the studio model itself (e.g., what exactly is—and isn’t—a studio). For me, the simplest way to explain it is this: a venture studio is a company that builds companies. They typically serve as founding or cofounding entities. While #incubators and #accelerators can offer similar support, they tend to work with businesses that are already up and running. What sets studios apart is their involvement from the very start.

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AppLovin, Snap, and the new Walled Garden pathway A notable reversal took place in Q2 of this year: the market capitalization of AppLovin, the mobile gaming ad network, overtook that of Snap on a sustained basis. As of this writing, Snap’s market cap is $13.91BN to AppLovin’s $28.88BN. In looking at the divergent outcomes across AppLovin, Snap, and other advertising platforms, more important to consider than specific feature implementations is the imperative of expanded access to data that doesn’t adhere to the canonical conversion feedback loop. And in AppLovin’s case, this acquisition of data calls into question the popular definition of a Walled Garden.

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Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

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We recently led a $9.5M seed round in Zeno, our very first energy transition company in Africa. Michael Spencer and the team are now officially out of stealth sprinting towards their first products - a swappable battery compatible with an electric motorbike of their own design. Their opening market is Kenya, where 3M+ boda boda taxi drivers are eager to find ways to shave costs down. With Zeno's battery subscription model, they'll make 50% in savings compared to owning a petrol counterpart! Going electric will soon become the obvious choice. Kenya is just the start. Over the next quarter century, Africa will be home to the largest share of young people in the world, and is set to double its population to 2.5 billion. Talk about a growth market. Zeno has a particularly special place in our hearts because Harsh Dubey, who hustled his way into Lowercarbon Capital right out of college and became an institution around here, built up so much conviction in this company that he's moved abroad to work on this rocketship full-time. That should tell you something. Congrats again to the team, read more here for the deep dive. #tech #climatetech #energy #mobility #battery #electric #africa #emergingmarkets

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It was a privilege to speak at Money20/20 about a subject that’s reshaping the creator economy: fintech’s role in empowering artists. Here are three key takeaways from the conversation: 1️⃣ The music industry has undergone a dramatic shift with streaming, changing the roles of major players and shifting the balance of power. 2️⃣ Streaming data and income models now enable artists’ earnings to be forecasted in ways that were impossible before, opening new doors for financial innovation. 3️⃣ This shift has allowed beatBread to build a financing model outside of the major labels – offering artists a much more creator-friendly and sustainable way to fund their work. As fintech advances, there’s immense potential for tools that allow creators to take ownership of their revenue streams. Huge thanks to Peter Sinclair of beatBread for the insightful discussion and to everyone who attended! Excited to see how this space continues to evolve.

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Big Week for Our Portfolio: New Heart Failure Candidate & “Synthetic Workers” Launch I’m excited to share two key updates from our Vibe Capital Fund I portfolio, each representing major steps forward in biotech and AI-driven automation: 1. Fauna Bio: First Development Candidate for Heart Failure Big News: Fauna Bio just announced Faun1083, a potential first-in-class therapy for Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF)—a significant and often underserved area. Learn More: Press Release: https://lnkd.in/gvxhUp7W Fauna’s LinkedIn Post: https://lnkd.in/g8mEDzWa Why It Matters: HFpEF makes up roughly half of all heart failure cases, impacting millions worldwide with few effective treatments. This announcement underscores how Fauna’s unique comparative genomics approach is yielding tangible breakthroughs. 2. Mission Control AI: “Synthetic Worker” Cohort Opening What’s New: Mission Control is inviting applications for Cohort 2 of its Design Partners Program, where enterprises can explore fully autonomous AI colleagues (a.k.a. “Synthetic Workers”) over 12–15 weeks. Learn More: Ramsay Brown’s LinkedIn Post: https://lnkd.in/g6TrwF97 Whitepaper: Available at https://lnkd.in/gczus98C Why It Matters: As AI usage explodes, Mission Control is helping organizations adopt and govern autonomous workflows in a responsible, real-world way. What This Means for Us At Vibe Capital, we prioritize startups tackling pressing challenges—whether it’s novel treatments for hard-to-treat conditions or AI infrastructure that redefines how we work. These milestones exemplify that ethos and highlight the incredible teams we back. If you’re a Founder: We’re always open to connecting with bold entrepreneurs in biotech, deep tech, AI, and more. Let’s chat. If you’re an Investor/LP: We welcome discussions about how we source and support companies pushing boundaries in healthcare, automation, manufacturing, and beyond. Congrats to both Fauna Bio and Mission Control on these big steps. We're proud to be part of their journey and can’t wait to see what’s next. #VentureCapital #Biotech #AI #HealthcareInnovation #Startup #SyntheticWorkers #FutureOfWork #HFpEF #DeepTech #Innovation #vibecapital #vibecap

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An INTJ Fund conversation with Sofie Marien (Co-Founder + CTO of NoMi). NoMi aims to be the Duolingo for self-help. NoMi was in A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN's recent cohort and backed by Jorge Mazel (previously Chief Product Officer at Duolingo). Sofie is an award-winning mobile developer and marketer with over eleven years experience in games at PlayStation and Hasbro.  She's worked on multiple top-charting games including Horizon Zero Dawn and Monopoly. She's now taking her experience to turn relatable Gen-Z experiences into playable games. I think a lot of people simply need more repetitions in order to learn how to deal with social situations. In the future, I can see people simulating everything from tough conversations to dates in game like experiences. What's a social situation you wished you could have simulated in a game as practice? Want to make friends with people like Sofie? Apply to join the INTJ Fund community - https://lnkd.in/g9tcUZVg #selfhelp #mentalhealth #gaming #INTJFund #INTJ #A16Z #INTJwomen #womeninstem

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A bit of a tribute to founders / humbling reminder for investors at the start of '25: I've looked at thousands of early-stage fundraising decks over the past two years. In stereotypical fashion, I can typically tell within 30 seconds (2-3 seconds per slide) if I'm going to dig in, and if it's a company I'd be interested in investing in. Over the last two months I have been working on a project with a really cool company who is raising a Series A. I've been supporting on building the deck, data room, etc. So I've been fully back in the early-stage operator seat. And let me tell you. It is SO MUCH HARDER than investing. I sent the deck to some investor friends for feedback. I really value their opinion. Their feedback was stuff that I tell founders all the time about their decks. But I flat out missed it when putting this deck together. Startups are so much easier said than done. It's really hard being in the arena. Founders live there every day. Cheers to you.

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I recently saw this metric from Carta’s 1Q24 VC Fund Report, which is very concerning. DPI... is nowhere to be found in earlier vintages that probably should start showing DPI. Funding early-stage projects is great, but ultimately, these venture dollars need to exit their investments and pay back their limited partners. That’s where the metric Distributed to Paid-In Capital (DPI) comes in. While managing a fund, we get interim measures during the life of the fund (e.g. IRR, MOIC), but ultimately, “you can’t eat IRR.” If you want to build a lasting venture capital organization, you need to start showing DPI for your fund. Keep in mind that this is traditional VC data from Carta, and is not strictly crypto venture. Crypto venture tends to get liquidity earlier (tokens) and things tend to go parabolic sooner (faster, more unicorns) - but I’d wager that the data here is somewhat similar for Crypto VCs… Not as much DPI as there should be from these earlier vintages. Read the full article, as well as a recap of all the crypto fundraising rounds for August, here: https://lnkd.in/g3eVJ-iF

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I'm excited to announce that Canapi Ventures has led OpenYield's seed round. OpenYield is redefining how bonds are traded and who gets to trade them. Despite being one of the largest global asset classes, fixed income has long lagged behind equities in terms of innovation. Outdated systems, fragmented liquidity, and barriers to access have made bond trading inefficient, opaque, and inaccessible to many, particularly retail investors.   OpenYield is changing that. By delivering an equity-like trading experience for bonds, the platform transforms the fixed income market into a space defined by transparency, efficiency, and access. With real-time pricing, seamless execution, and intuitive workflows, OpenYield is making bond trading easier and more effective for institutional players, market makers, and retail investors alike. This progress wouldn’t be possible without the exceptional leadership of Jonathan Birnbaum and Hilton Lipschitz, whose decades of experience in capital markets and fintech have earned them the right to build a category leader in this market. Also hard to believe that meeting Jonathan over 20 years ago led to this partnership today!   For Canapi’s network of financial institution LPs, OpenYield represents an exciting opportunity to enhance wealth platforms, attract new client assets, and deepen advisor relationships. As the competition for wealth clients intensifies, access to efficient fixed income trading will be a critical differentiator, delivering real value for customers and strengthening client loyalty. Thrilled to be partnering with Ben Savage and Ned Daoro at Clocktower Ventures. Shoutout to Harrison Kioko. More thoughts on our investment thesis here:

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