Kevin Song

In 2013, Lori Torres felt an undeniable spark when she conceived the idea for Parcel Pending, a smart locker solution designed to tackle the package crisis in apartment buildings. Despite being the primary breadwinner in her family with a thriving real estate career, she took a monumental risk. She left her secure job, sold the family’s cherished home, and even persuaded her mother to risk her property for a loan. Within a year of these sacrifices, Lori had developed her first smart lockers. Her innovation soon caught on, with her lockers becoming a key solution for property management companies and residents. By the end of 2014, Lori’s commitment had not only secured her first major order but also attracted investors, setting the stage for tremendous growth. Within six years, Parcel Pending was sold for $100 million, turning her mother’s loan into a $1 million return and ensuring her family's future. Lori’s story highlights a key lesson for anyone seeking investors: truly committing to your vision can make a world of difference. By investing your own resources and security, you show investors just how dedicated you are to your idea. When you put everything on the line, it not only proves your commitment but also makes a strong case to potential backers. If you’re all in, it’s far easier to convince others to believe in your dream, and it could be the turning point in making it a reality. Are you prepared to go all in on your entrepreneurial dreams? Grab a copy of my book, “Thinking Bigger”, at the link below to read my personal experience chasing my dream and the advice I would share to anyone starting today. https://lnkd.in/dZpQYX6D #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness #Startups #Investment #ThinkBigger

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Do you want your startup to scale overnight? Not possible! Scaling is about strategy and sequencing. Think of it as climbing a mountain; it’s not a one-day job! For example, DoorDash didn’t just aim to deliver food. They wanted to connect every local business with every local consumer. To do that, they focused on building a top-notch last-mile logistics network that was both efficient and cost-effective. And that meant achieving order density. But how? By covering tons of stores and driving up the frequency of orders. It took them nine years to get there. But once they did, they could work backward, finding ways to improve and keep leveling up. Scaling takes patience and strategy! It’s about knowing your long-term goal and taking one step at a time. What do you think? Let’s go! --- ♻ Repost to help your network reach its full potential. And follow Peter Korbel for more content!

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The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick

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Kettleborough VC has been active for ~6 years, invested in ~30 companies, gone through ~80 funding rounds, witnessed ~12 exits including ~4 instances of partial principal erosion, seen ~4 seed to $100M journeys, tracking ~29% XIRR across the portfolio. A couple of IPOs from the portfolio surely seem very much in line ahead.

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If you ask a PropTech founder what they most need help with today, introductions to qualified investors with capital would be No. 1, 2 and 3 on their list. With that in mind, I’m excited to share the news that Venture Connect from CRETI · Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation officially launched this week to help better connect PropTech founders with investors focused on the space. Props to CRETI managing director Ashkán Z. for spearheading this initiative and getting it live for the betterment of the entire PropTech landscape. With the platform live, founders can get matched with more than 200 venture capital investors (angel to Series A) based on their investment profile and thesis, including Alpaca VC, Era Ventures, Fifth Wall, JLL Spark, Navitas Capital, Nuveen Green Capital and many more. As I told Philip Russo of the Commercial Observer, I believe the CRETI platform will be a game-changer for the industry, which sorely needs new avenues helping founders succeed in bringing new ideas to market faster and more efficiently capitalized. Thanks to Philip for including my comments in the story. Details on Venture Connect below. https://lnkd.in/efpxDQkR #proptech #venturecapital

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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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It's a fascinating look into the common pitfalls that entrepreneurs face when building their startups. The article dives deep into the importance of focus, perseverance, and the ability to pivot when necessary. It's a reminder that success doesn't come overnight and that resilience is key in the face of challenges. Have you faced similar challenges in your entrepreneurial journey? What lessons have you learned along the way? #Entrepreneurship #Startup #FounderAdvice

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As someone who is in the middle of two early stage startups, I found this to be a good article framing the importance of Product-Market Fit (PMF). "Hair on Fire", "Hard Fact" and "Future Vision" are the three different archetypes noted and, for a startup, important to figure out up front (along with founder-market fit). However, chances are somewhere else in the world someone is or wants to launch something similar as your startup so ruthless execution is paramount in order to generate the velocity needed to stay ahead of everyone else. #productmarketfit

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“On The Edge” #4 Coming Next Week! For our most recent installment of “On The Edge”, we are honored to have Leonardo Simpser, Founder and Managing Director from LLJ VENTURES, LLC to discuss LLJ’s very unique investment platform. I’ve worked with LLJ to bring them into opportunities as a Co-GP Partner, as an LP, a Pref Equity Provider or as a direct client on their own assets. As an example of their uniqueness, they will invest with developers in the pre-development phase, provide their balance sheet support for construction financing and/or can help unlock capital stacks by providing a super Pref position above a traditional mezzanine loan. On a personal note, a decade ago, I worked with LLJ to help them seed the initial projects of what have now become two of the largest and prominent Southern California Developers, one in LA and one in San Diego. This is a great listen and watch! LLJ Ventures: The underpinning investment philosophy in all of LLJ Ventures’ investments is providing investors with attractive risk-adjusted returns. Out of that core philosophy stems the fact that LLJ is asset class and market agnostic. As a result, LLJ is flexible, nimble, and can invest directly or partner with operating parties. Specifically, LLJ will look for partners when it does not have the expertise or knowledge to achieve extraordinary results. Being that LLJ is not structured as a fund, we have the flexibility to enter both short or long term investment opportunities. These characteristics have allowed LLJ to quickly adapt to changing market dynamics such as being one of the first real estate companies to transact through an opportunity zone fund. LLJ principals always invest alongside their clients. If a deal is not good enough for an LLJ principal, it is not good enough for any client. Please sign up for “On The Edge” here!! Youtube - https://lnkd.in/dJZK2nt6   Linktree - https://lnkd.in/gTSDUD-p #thisistheway

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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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GTM in Multifamily is hard. Really hard. Risk tolerance is low Stakes are high Fixed expenses have soared Budgets are tight Innovation is accelerating There is very little room for a bad purchasing decision. BUT - there is still so much that we can improve in Multifamily. Resident experience, back office, role specialization. So how do innovators break through? How do they instill trust? IMO - the best investment that PropTech vendors can make right now is content. Not AI created generic content. Deep, thought provoking, insightful, thought leadership content, video content, key employee led content. Put your flag in the ground on exactly what problem you solve for - and own your category. Be there when your buyer searches with super strong buyer enablement. 76% of software purchases in Multifamily are made outside of the IT department. Buyers are craving information - they are craving transparency. Bold - but in Multifamily over the next few years I think that GTM will be the deciding factor on whether the start up survives or thrives. . . Doesn’t matter how good the product is.

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💰 Founders, are you wasting time and resources pitching to the wrong investors? 💰 In this podcast excerpt, David Forsberg, CFA from Ascent Energy Ventures shares a crucial piece of advice: Make sure your startup is truly venture-backable before you start seeking funding. 🎯 I've advised hundreds of startups that have raised billions in VC and venture debt funding, and I've seen firsthand the pressures founders face when growing their companies. 🌱 Listen to the full podcast for more game-changing insights. Link in the original Kruze Consulting post. 🎧 #startups #venturecapital #funding #entrepreneurship

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Valuations are starting to (only slightly) be in check. Investors looking for revenue, quality of revenue, margins, and repeatable GTM. This has the best founders focused on what matters, and reaching out to their Boards and advisors for real advice and guidance. Good stuff.

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As a VC, there are times when you have to choose between prioritizing returns and supporting the founders you work with. It’s not easy because we have a fiduciary duty to our LPs, which, in our case, are primarily non-profits, to maximize returns. At Eniac, we play the long game: if we do what’s best for our founders, it will ultimately benefit our brand, reputation, and relationships, which will be best for our LPs in the long run.

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I enjoyed going on Nick Telson-Sillett’s podcast, Pitch Deck by Forward Pursuit. Nick is a serial founder and investor (founded and exited DesignMyNight) so knows both sides of the table which always makes for an enriching chat. Some things we discussed: - The perceived power dynamic between VCs and founders can hinder productive conversations. - A compelling product demo can significantly influence investor interest. - Founders must focus on solving real customer problems to succeed. - Hiring standards are crucial for building a successful startup team. - Behavioural roadblocks can prevent the adoption of new solutions. - Validation from potential customers is key for pre-revenue startups. - The early-stage funding landscape has become more efficient and selective. - Pace of execution is a critical factor in attracting investment.

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Occupier - We ❤️ Leases! is building software to help commercial tenants make better real estate decisions to drive the operational needs and growth of their businesses. It's W7 / Q2 / 2024 & this week in our MGMT Boston startup series we’ve got Occupier, a growth stage startup building a platform where all commercial real estate decisions are made, facilitating access to data and collaboration required by all the stakeholders who require it. Andrew Flint & Matt Giffune teamed up with technical co-founder 🏔 Erik Pearson on nights & weekends to work on their project before signing their first customer: DraftKings. Occupier was born in 2018 to solve tenant real estate portfolio management administration. The commercial real estate market in the U.S. is a $25T market. With a T! Real estate is typically the second largest company expense (historically) after payroll and there are more than 20,000 employers with 500+ employees. These companies have sprawling office & retail footprints to go along with their large employee bases and customer responsibilities. Let’s say you’re a large restaurant chain with 500 global retail locations. If you don’t have a sound system to track certain dates throughout your lease portfolio, you might miss a renewal option. Occupier is still growing through the post COVID commercial real estate contraction because they help customers more rapidly abstract data out of their lease documents. As employers have needed to get a tighter grasp on their real estate expenses (and strategies), they’ve helped customers centralize their data & workflows to make better decisions. Occupier is in a fortunate spot to not need to raise capital right now and can patiently grow in 2024. Like many startups that raised in 2021, they had an ambitious operating plan and have responded to market changes by continuing to grow as efficiently as possible in this new environment. They still grew revenue over 100% in 2023 relative to 2022 and hope to double again in 2024. One third of their employee base sits in Boston, one third of the team sits in New York, and they have the remaining third remote. Occupier is backed by Stage 2 Capital, OMERS Ventures, MetaProp, Alate Partners, & Second Century Ventures Operators to Know: -Mia Arrieta, Account Executive  -Jerry Aviles, Software Engineer -Lauren Bahr, CPA, VP Finance -Morgan Beard, Director of Marketing -Noah Cate, Account Executive -Krishan Taylor, Principal Software Engineer -Clement Titsworth, Senior Account Executive -Lisa Gaffney, Senior Product Manager -Jessica Kurz, VP Customer Success -Vrajesh Patel, Senior Solutions Consultant -Amber Perez, Senior Customer Success Manager -Leah Prescott, Head of Design If you're interested in learning more, the full post is linked in the comments! And sign up for the newsletter to see who we bring you next week, will you?? #bostontech #startups #proptech

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A new era of deep tech has emerged. First time funds will raise “unheard of” amounts of capital to fuel next gen deep tech startups - producing outsized, superior returns for LP’s compared to the rest. Prudent investors will act on this data and shift investment strategy as LP’s or risk being left behind savvy wealth managers and CIO’s / FO’s who saw this trend begin 4 years ago.

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Fin Capital’s Fintech CEO Pulse Report is out! We surveyed over 50 CEOs and C-suite leaders of private companies from our portfolio and the broader fintech industry during June and July 2024 to get a quick pulse on what’s top of mind for fintech’s leaders. Here are some key takeaways: Optimism in the Air: More than 60% of CEOs reported being bullish or highly bullish on the fintech industry for the second half of 2024. Regulatory Changes on the Horizon: CEOs identified Cryptocurrency, Open Banking, and Buy Now Pay Later as the top three sectors likely to see increased regulation by the end of 2024. CEOs Want Business Development Support: Beyond capital and fundraising, business development support emerged as the top area where CEOs seek investor assistance.For more insights, including comments from my colleagues Ren Riley, Logan Allin, Matthew D. Mann, CFA, and Stephanie Perez, check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/euHK8-9B

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